Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Independent News Drop. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST We're leading with what two world leaders said versus what officials say they actually said. Then we're on Trump's meme-coin dinner, campus sexual assault investigations that just went quiet, and gas prices on the campaign trail.

KELI From our Ground News desk: On June first and second, Trump posted on Truth Social that he'd had a very productive call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump wrote there would be no troops going to Beirut, and any troops already on the way had been turned back. Netanyahu, same night, posted that attacks on Beirut would continue as planned. The Israeli Defense Force would proceed. Two leaders, two contradicting public statements about the same conversation. Then Axios reported, citing U.S. officials who heard the call, that Trump actually told Netanyahu during that call — and we're quoting Axios's paraphrase here — you're fucking crazy, you'd be in prison if it weren't for me, I'm saving your ass, everybody hates you now, everybody hates Israel because of this. The officials were not on camera. They spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump's statement was published. Netanyahu's statement was published. The officials' account was reported by Axios as news analysis.

HAST So here's what's underneath. Usually when the press covers a presidential call, it runs the president's framing first and reports on the call's substance second. This time the press ran anonymous officials' alleged words as the headline and filed Trump's own published statement as a footnote. The question isn't whether Trump said those things to Netanyahu — the question is whether you're reading the public record or reading what unnamed officials told a reporter they heard. Trump's record is that call was productive and troops are going home. Netanyahu's record is the attacks continue. Those are contradictions you can see. The leak may be real. It's not what the two leaders chose to tell the public themselves. Watch for Trump to either walk back the productive call claim or clarify what he meant by turning troops back — Netanyahu's not walking anything back.

KELI On the money front now. Eight Senate Democrats, led by Senator Adam Schiff of California, sent a letter to the White House on Thursday demanding an unredacted log of attendees at an upcoming dinner. The dinner is scheduled for a Trump golf club in the DC area a few weeks after the midterm elections. Entry to the dinner requires holding Trump's meme coin — a cryptocurrency Trump launched to raise money. The Democrats' letter calls it the latest effort by the Trumps to enrich themselves through the crypto industry. The White House has not yet responded to the demand for the attendee list.

HAST Staying with oversight: ProPublica obtained records showing the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has cut the rate of sexual assault investigations on campuses dramatically since Trump's second term began. The office averaged about a hundred new investigations per month under the previous administration. ProPublica's analysis found it's now launching far fewer. Complaints from students and schools continue to come in. The office's mandate is civil rights enforcement. The slowdown is documented in newly obtained records.

KELI On the campaign trail in Iowa, NBC News anchor Tom Llamas pressed GOP Senate candidate Ashley Hinson about her request that supporters cover gas money for her campaign bus. Llamas noted that gas prices have risen roughly a dollar fifty a gallon since Trump took office in his second term, and diesel is up more than two fifty. Hinson is running against Democrat Josh Turek, who serves in the Iowa House. The question Llamas posed to her was direct: how do you convince Iowans to trust Republicans when gas costs are this high?

HAST Before we close, a history note. On this day in nineteen ninety-nine, Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy government during World War II, was jailed for crimes against humanity. He was eighty-seven years old.

KELI That's the Independent News Drop. For ground reporting and full context, visit inkwell.wiki slash cards. Lawz bodycam explainers and archive video on the channel. Racer dot wiki for track setup and data. Bible-shirts and art-shirts at inkwell dot wiki slash bible-shirts and slash art-shirts. Full script at inkwell dot wiki slash news. From Inkwell.

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. A principle from Gil's Intelligent Version worth borrowing: where a source genuinely leaves a question open, an honest translation preserves the ambiguity instead of quietly deciding for you.

HAST They call it The Refused Verdict. At inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.