2024 – Page 673 – Texas Weekly Online

Northern border sector gets slammed with more apprehensions than previous 13 years combined

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sector on the northern border has seen more apprehensions in the last fiscal year than the previous 13 years combined. The Swanton Sector Border sector has seen 15,000 apprehensions in the 10 months of fiscal year 2024, the largest volume ever recorded by the sector, over 14,000 more than was recorded in fiscal year 2021, according to a report on CBS 19. The sector, which spans 295 miles of the border with Canada and covers all of Vermont and parts of upstate New York and New Hampshire, has seen its numbers of apprehensions in just part of this fiscal year exceed the previous 13 combined, the report notes, adding that illegal migrants from 85 different countries have attempted to illegally cross in the area. WATCH: RESIDENTS ALONG THE BORDER TRUST TRUMP OVER HARRIS ON BORDER SECURITY The report comes as illegal immigration continues to be an issue at the top of voters’ minds ahead of November’s election, with many polls showing voters have been dissatisfied with the record amount of illegal crossings at the nation’s southern border between 2021 and 2023. While the southern border has received much of the attention, the report notes that the northern border has also reported a record number of illegal entries and apprehensions so far this fiscal year. In FY 2023, a record number of 190,000 migrants were apprehended at the U.S. border, while 162,865 have so far been apprehended at the border with Canada in the current fiscal year. TEXAS RESIDENTS AFFECTED BY BORDER SECURITY UNDER BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN EXPRESS FEAR OF FUTURE ATTACK The report also noted that close to 1,100 known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) have attempted to enter the U.S. from Canada between 2021 and 2023, making up a large percentage of the over 1,700 total KSTs that have been apprehended nationwide since FY 2021. CBP and the White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.

Trump and Harris on Keystone collision course as campaigns pick up the pace

Labor Day – which is traditionally the starting gun for the final stretch in a presidential election – is now in the rearview mirror. “Sixty-four days until the most important election of our lives, and probably one of the most important in the life of our nation,” Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized as she spoke to supporters at a union gathering in Pittsburgh on Monday. Tuesday marks nine weeks until Election Day 2024, when Harris and former President Donald Trump face off with the White House at stake. However, in reality, the election gets underway well before Nov. 5. ELECTION SEASON STARTS A LOT EARLIER THAN YOU THINK In a slew of states, the election actually kicks off this month. In swing state North Carolina, absentee ballots are mailed out starting on Friday. Early voting begins on Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania and Sept. 26 in Michigan, two other crucial electoral battlegrounds. Next Tuesday, Harris and Trump are scheduled to meet for their first and potentially only presidential debate, a primetime showdown taking place in Philadelphia. NEW FOX NEWS POLL NUMBERS IN 4 KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES Pennsylvania, the biggest of the seven crucial battlegrounds that decided the 2020 election between Trump and President Biden, is getting plenty of attention this week. Harris returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday, her second trip this week to western Pennsylvania’s largest city and union stronghold, and her 10th stop this year in the Keystone State. Trump, who has also made numerous trips to Pennsylvania this year, returns on Wednesday to headline a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity in Harrisburg. Most of the latest national surveys show Harris with a slight single-digit edge over Trump, but the presidential election is not a national popular vote contest. It is a battle for the individual states and their electoral votes. The latest surveys in the seven key swing states indicate a margin-of-error race. Among those polls are a batch from Fox News that made headlines last week. FOX NEWS’ HANNITY TO HOST TOWN HALL WITH TRUMP ON WEDNESDAY Trump argues he has the momentum. “We’re leading in the polls now,” the former president said in an interview Friday with Fox News’ Bryan Llenas. Minutes later, at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump touted that “our poll numbers are starting to skyrocket.” Harris is urging her supporters not to pay too much attention to the polls because, as she reiterated on Labor Day, “we are the underdog in this race.” Last week, at a rally in Savannah, Georgia, the vice president predicted that “this is going to be a tight race until the very end.” The current state of the race is a big change from earlier this summer when Biden was still running. Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump in their late June debate turned up the volume of existing doubts from Americans that the 81-year-old president would have the physical and mental stamina to handle another four years in the White House. It also sparked a rising chorus of calls from top Democratic Party allies and elected officials for Biden to drop out of the race. National and battleground state polls conducted in July indicated Trump had opened up a small but significant lead over Biden. The president dropped his re-election bid on July 21 and endorsed his vice president, and Democrats immediately coalesced around Harris, who quickly enjoyed a boost in her poll numbers and in fundraising. Still, pollsters and political analysts stress that the Harris-Trump contest remains a coin-flip at this point. However, Trump’s team likes the current poll position, as they point out that the former president has a history of outperforming public opinion surveys. “At this point in the race in 2016, Donald Trump was down to Hillary Clinton by an average of 5.9 points. At this point in the race in 2020, it was 6.9 to Joe Biden,” senior adviser Corey Lewandowski noted this weekend in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Blue state Republican touts his anti-Trump credentials in bid to flip senate seat red

A Republican candidate in a party dominated by former President Donald Trump is spotlighting how he “never caved” to Trump and is showcasing how he sent National Guard troops to help protect congressional lawmakers during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. However, as he aims to flip a long-held Democrat seat in the overwhelmingly blue state of Maryland in a key contest that may decide if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority, former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is highlighting his anti-Trump credentials. A new ad that showcases Hogan’s bipartisan chops during his eight years as Maryland governor also emphasizes that he was “an early critic of Donald Trump, one of the few Republicans who never caved.” NEW POLL IN DEEP BLUE STATE SUGGESTS KEY SENATE SEAT IN PERIL OF FLIPPING RED The spot, which the Hogan campaign says will run statewide as part of an existing $8 million ad buy through the November election, then shows news clips of the U.S. Capitol under attack on Jan. 6 by Trump supporters trying to upend congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory. SENATE DEMOCRATS CAMPAIGN CHAIR GOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH FOX NEWS “On Jan. 6 as we watched in horror, Hogan didn’t just talk about defending democracy, he did something, sending in the Maryland National Guard to protect the Capitol,” the narrator says in the ad. A recent poll commissioned by AARP indicated Hogan deadlocked at 46% support among likely voters with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee in the race. The poll was the first since the May primary in Maryland to indicate a tied race, with previous surveys suggesting Alsobrooks with the lead. The winner of the November election will succeed Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who is retiring this year after serving nearly two decades in the Senate and nearly six decades as a state and then federal lawmaker. Alsobrooks would make history, if elected in November, as the first Black senator in Maryland, a state where approximately 30% of the population is Black. TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN CRISS-CROSSES THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN ‘MAKE OR BREAK’ MOMENT TO WIN BACK MAJORITY While Hogan and Alsobrooks were tied, the poll indicated Vice President Kamala Harris far ahead of Trump in Maryland. According to the survey, Harris topped Trump by 30 points in a multi-candidate field and by 32 points in a head-to-head match-up. With Democrats outnumbering Republicans by a roughly two-to-one margin in the state, Hogan will need a good chunk of cross-over voters and has been highlighting his opposition to Trump and his independence from his party as he runs for the Senate. “Republicans can’t count on my vote,”Hogan said in an earlier campaign ad. Hogan, who flirted with a 2024 White House run before deciding against it, stood out from most other Republicans this spring for publicly calling for the guilty verdicts in Trump’s criminal trial to be respected. However, Alsobrooks and Democrats have repeatedly reminded voters that Hogan has described himself as a “lifelong Republican,” and that Trump, in a Fox News interview earlier this year, said he would like to see Hogan win. Hogan skipped July’s Republican National Convention, where Trump was formally nominated, and has said he would not be voting for the former president. Hogan’s campaign, after the former president’s comments, spotlighted in a statement that “Governor Hogan has been clear he is not supporting President Trump just as he didn’t in 2016 and 2020.” A recent strategy memo from Hogan adviser Russ Schriefer noted that “our research indicates that these voters will support the Governor when they are reminded about his commitments and track record of independent leadership.” Democrats control the Senate by a razor-thin 51-49 margin, and Republicans are looking at a favorable election map this year with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. One of those seats is in West Virginia, a deep red state that Trump carried by nearly 40 points in 2020. With moderate Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a former governor, not seeking re-election, flipping the seat is nearly a sure thing for the GOP. Republicans are also aiming to flip seats in Ohio and Montana, two states Trump comfortably carried four years ago. And five more Democratic-held seats up for grabs this year are in crucial presidential-election battleground states. With Democrats trying to protect their fragile Senate majority, Hogan’s late entry into the race in February gave them an unexpected headache in a state previously considered safe territory. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Republican aiming to flip key Senate seat in blue bastion spotlights anti-Trump credentials

Watch Wes Moore at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival

The Maryland governor will discuss his first two years leading the Old Line State and the sprint to Nov. 5.

Watch John Fetterman speak live at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival

The U.S. senator from Pennsylvania will speak at 11 a.m. Saturday from Austin.

Watch Liz Cheney live at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival

The former Wyoming congresswoman will speak at 1:15 p.m. Friday in Austin.

Watch a conversation about Latino influence on national politics at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro will speak with Maria Teresa Kumar, Mike Madrid and Luis Miranda Jr.

‘Especially heinous’: White House responds to NYC Labor Day protesters waving Hamas, Hezbollah flags

The White House strongly condemned pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah protesters who took to the streets in New York City on Labor Day with flags donning the terror groups’ insignia. “As President Biden and Vice President Harris have said, there is absolutely no place in America for the poison of Antisemitism – none. They and the entire Biden-Harris Administration condemn any individual associating with the repugnant terrorist organization Hamas,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement Monday evening. Bates added that the protest demonstration including the terror groups flag was “especially heinous” considering it landed on the same day as the funeral for Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was one of the six dead Hamas hostages found by Israeli forces over the weekend. “It is especially heinous to express support for Hamas on the same day as the funeral for an innocent American hostage who they brutally murdered. This is a moment for all Americans to come together and stand against Antisemitism and against the sickening hate and evil that Hamas represents,” said Bates. HAMAS TERRORISTS RELEASE FOOTAGE OF SIX SLAIN HOSTAGES, PROMISE TO SHARE ‘LAST MESSAGES’ The protest on Monday, dubbed, “Flood NYC for Gaza,” was organized by the group Within Our Lifetime. The group has led large protests in the Big Apple since Hamas’s massacre on Oct. 7, at times forcing roads, trains and even parts of the airport to shut down in response. Meanwhile, the group’s founder, Nerdeen Kiswani, has called for the expulsion of “Zionists” from the city. The group has been charged as being antisemitic by critics. Thousands of demonstrators gathered at Union Square in Manhattan on Monday, before beginning a march to Washington Square Park. Scenes from the rally showed rally goers waving the flags of various anti-Israel terror groups, including Hamas. COWARDLY AND UNACCEPTABLE’: PROGRESSIVE NYC DEM CONDEMNS VIOLENT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” the protesters could be heard chanting, according to The New York Post, which indicated four people were ultimately arrested. The Labor Day protest is not the first time Within Our Lifetime has organized protests where terror symbols have appeared. Back in June, the group held at least two anti-Israel protests in New York City that included protesters waving Hamas’ flag, carrying a Hezbollah flag and holding up a portrait of Hamas’s Gaza ruler and Oct. 7 massacre mastermind Yahya Sinwar, according to publicly available video from the protest shared on social media. At the time, following one of those protests that was held outside an exhibit commemorating those lost at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the symbolism that was present “pure antisemitism.” “Any New Yorker who stands for peace cannot stand next to those waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags, especially at an exhibit commemorating the victims of the Nova Music Festival massacre,” the mayor said. Fox News Digital reached out to Within our Lifetime for comment but did not receive a response.

Cuomo to testify on COVID orders, nursing home deaths as spox predicts a ‘master class in gaslighting’

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will sit for a hearing Sept. 10 before the congressional subcommittee tasked with probing the coronavirus pandemic, the panel announced Tuesday. Cuomo, one of the most visible governors during the height of the pandemic, was lambasted for implementing stringent social and economic restrictions throughout the Empire State. He also was blamed for thousands of COVID-related deaths that occurred in nursing homes, which a 2023 report from the NYS Department of Health calculated to be 826 in Suffolk County, 813 in Erie County – which includes Buffalo — and 623 in Queens County. “Mr. Cuomo will be questioned about his Administration’s issuance of unscientific guidance that forced New York nursing homes and long-term care facilities to admit COVID-19 positive patients,” an announcement for the hearing read. CUOMO ALLEGATIONS HAVE NEW YORK DEMOCRATS GOING AFTER EACH OTHER ‘MORE THAN THE ROYAL FAMILY’: GAETZ Cuomo, a Democrat, previously sat for a seven-hour transcribed interview with the subcommittee. The panel also interviewed Cuomo’s former secretary, Melissa DeRosa, and then-NYS Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., a Staten Island lawmaker who sits on the subcommittee, said in an interview Tuesday that Cuomo still refuses to take responsibility for his orders and their repercussions. She recounted how no one in Albany could point to exactly where the order partitioning nursing home patients came from. “We still don’t know who approved that directive because the governor saying he didn’t know about it, he’s claiming that [Zucker] knew about it before it went out. And yet somehow they’ve been unable to identify who the person was that approved it and issued it, which is so negligent for a directive like that to go out without the health commissioner approving it at minimum,” she said. The New York lawmaker also pointed to then-President Donald Trump dispatching a military medical ship to New York Harbor, the Jacob Javits Center, and the availability of a mental hospital in her district for the purposes of treating and partitioning serious COVID-19 patients. “They weren’t being used. So why you have that directive in place, forcing the nursing home to take the COVID positive patients, even when you had alternatives? That was a big failure because at that point he was very clear about this directive.” SUNUNU NAMES THE TWO GOVERNORS ALL THE OTHERS ‘HATE’ When asked how people in her district feel about the situation, Malliotakis said many had lost loved ones during the pandemic from “preventable deaths.” “They were a result of putting COVID-positive patients in nursing homes. And that was based on a directive and mandate by the Cuomo administration. And the buck stops with him, and he needs to be held accountable,” she said. “[He blamed] everybody but himself. No apology, no accountability. No remorse… the public deserves answers, and we’re going to push for them at this hearing.” However, a Cuomo spokesman told Fox News Digital, “the facts speak for themselves” when it comes to the former governor’s handling of COVID, calling congressional Republicans’ oversight a “master class in gaslighting.” “New York had a lower nursing home death pro-rata than all but 11 states,” said Rich Azzopardi. Azzopardi called the committee a “farce” and criticized it for being comprised of a “foot doctor” – referring to Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, — “Trump’s personal physician” – former White House doctor; current Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and “a representative with a Ph.D. in QAnon,” in regard to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., “[The committee] refuse[s] to look in the mirror at their own anti-science policies that caused hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths or call the one witness who is most relevant and was supposed to lead the entire effort: Donald Trump,” Azzopardi said. While in office, Cuomo was at times questioned by the press on the matter. In one notable exchange during a July 2020 press conference, the governor was asked about a state report on nursing homes and why an independent investigator was not appointed. “I don’t believe your characterization is correct – I believe it is a political issue,” Cuomo shot back at the reporter. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Cuomo then went on to blame the New York Post and Fox News, as well as political motivations, for the issue’s prominence. “People died in nursing homes. That’s very unfortunate. Just on the topline, we are number 35th in the nation in percentage of deaths in nursing homes. Go talk to 34 other states first.” Cuomo was also criticized for interviews during the pandemic with his brother, Chris, on CNN. In one exchange, the siblings shared a laugh after Chris brandished two comically-large nasal swabs to suggest Andrew has exceptionally large nostrils.

Year: 2024