(clapping) always there in crunch time. all right. this morning s edition of swamp watch focusing on the state department today. top officials there under fire after a new report from the department s inspector general. they find officials, quote, engaged in disrespectful and months file treatment over suspicions they are disloyal on their perceived political reviews. it looks into allegations that president trump s political appointees retaliated against career employees. the second report has not yet been completed. i am joined now by former deputy assistant secretary of state and co-host of the unredacted podcast. once again, former state department senior adviser is back with us. philippe, i want to read you a little bit of this. i will outline some of the main findings from the report. it includes they found that the
has been expanding their military footprint because of what the u.s. has said is iran s destabilizing activity. so all of this within the hours of this meeting here at the state department today, trace. trying to combat this very issue now with the shipping companies saying this u.k. tanker heading north towards iran. trace: we ll get back to you with breaking news. thanks, rich. i want to put the map back up on the strait of hormuz. we re talking about this. as we set the table, it s important to know that is a very narrow strait and 60% of the world s oil comes through that strait. that s why it is such a critical waterway. to set you back up to what we know today, the breaking news is that a short time ago, a couple hours, we know the iranian revolutionary guard has admitted that they seized a british tanker with 23 crew aboard. the british government has not
nicholas maduro to leave power in venezuela. the treasury department says they re sanctioning several members of the military and security force there s because of their role in blocking international aid from coming in the country. this is only a few days after the administration did so for the same reason for four venezuelan governors. here s a the state department today, the state department s special envoy for venezuela, elliot abrams announced visa restrictions for those close to the maduro regime. dozens of people and their families, restricting them from entering the united states. in an interview with fox news, abrams says that the effect of u.s. sanctions and these measures will only intensify. the full effects of the sanctions has not been felt. the initial effect though is strong. you can see this in the inability or difficulty of the regime in selling oil or getting cash. the united states is the main source of cash. so we ve cut that off. yesterday at the united
to be ignoring that settlement and targeting hispanics in texas along the u.s., mexico border. so what, if anything, can you do to fix this, and if the administration goes ahead and starts denying passport renewals to u.s. citizens, people who were born here in the united states, have birth certificates to confirm that, what, if anything, can you do about that? well, we reached out, many of us reached out to the state department to get an understanding of the scope of this, how many people are effected. my office and other office had a call with the state department today, they couldn t give us an exact number, but said they would get us this information. this has to be investigated by the foreign affairs committee who has jurisdiction or the reform committee. it has to be investigated in the u.s. congress. if this is egregious and widespread, which we believe it may be at this point, then we need to do everything possible to stop it. member of the foreign affairs committee. cong
united states from the united nations human rights council. administration officials say they tried to reform the council for more than a year, failed in that effort and now they are leaving it. secretary of state mike pompeo and nikki haley announced the decision from the state department today. pompeo said some of the worst countries are sitting on the council like china, cuba and venezuela. and that passes more resolutions against israel than against north korea, iran and syria combined. if the human rights council is going to attack countries that uphold human rights and a shield countries that abuse human rights, then america should not provided with any credibility. democratic senator chris, member of the foreign relations committee said we need to show up, be constructive and work with our allies to isolate bad actors. this could weaken the united states influence on the council and makes it harder for us to advance our other foreign