Fox News Politics: Harris in the Hot Seat
Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. What’s happening… -This state may be the decider between Trump & Harris -GOP Senator slams Biden admin over missing migrant children -New Jersey faces doubled energy rates Former President Trump is weighing in – in advance – on 2024 election rival Vice President Kamala Harris’ first interview since replacing President Biden atop the Democrats’ national ticket. Trump, in a social media post on Thursday morning, called for CNN to conduct a “fair but tough interview” of Harris and if that occurs, the former president argued “it will expose her as being totally inept and ill-suited for the job of President.” Harris has been riding a wave of energy, enthusiasm and momentum in both polling and fundraising since succeeding her boss as their party’s presidential nominee nearly six weeks ago. But she’s refrained from holding a news conference or sitting for a major interview – until now. And that’s brought continuous incoming fire from Trump, GOP running mate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, their campaign, and allied Republicans. “She can’t answer questions,” Trump charged earlier this week as he took questions from reporters during a stop in northern Virginia.” Why doesn’t she do something like I’m doing right now?” And he claimed that the vice president “can’t talk. We can’t have another dummy as a president.”…Read more PARTISAN IMPACTS: GOP Rep subpoenas Biden officials over get-out-the-vote EO …Read more SWING STATE BATTLE: This state may decide whether Harris or Trump wins the 2024 presidential election …Read more ‘OFFENSIVE TO ALL WOMEN’: Top Republican joins chorus of backlash against key Kamala Harris interview decision …Read more ‘RECKLESS DISREGARD’: GOP sen slams Biden admin over missing migrant children …Read more ‘LOST CONTROL’: Incident took place as Harris was campaigning in key swing state …Read more T-MINUS 8: With 8 days until voting starts, ‘election season’ kicks off sooner than you think …Read more ‘RESPECTFULLY AND SOLEMNLY’: Veteran praises Trump after ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery amid altercation report …Read more CAMPAIGN CONFUSION: Harris team’s ‘internal worries about cohesiveness’ surface in new report …Read more NOT A WARM WELCOME: Vance booed during speech to firefighters union …Read more ‘DISASTER PLAN’ IN ACTION: NJ residents, lawmakers fume at double energy rates …Read more PIER PRESSURE: Gaza pier interfered with ability to open ‘more efficient’ humanitarian aid corridors: inspector general …Read more ‘SPREADING THE WORD’: Montana college athlete recalls ‘frustration’ after being offered thousands of dollars to make endorsement videos for Jon Tester …Read more ARMY WEIGHS IN: Military says Arlington National Cemetery employee who was ‘abruptly pushed aside’ during Trump visit won’t press charges …Read more REAL ESTATE REPARATIONS?: Controversial new program designed to correct alleged systemic injustice …Read more ‘MS-13 ON STEROIDS’: El Paso on high alert with deadly migrant gang surges into US …Read more DAM BURSTING?: More problems for Dolton ‘supermayor’ as former assistant turns whistleblower …Read more FREE AGENT: Trump shooting victims’ attorney response to Secret Service agents on leave …Read more HELPING ILLEGALS: California Republican lawmaker reacts to ‘crazy’ bill that would give undocumented first-time homebuyers money …Read more ‘INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE’: Vermont officials suggest removing terms ‘son’ and ‘daughter’ from the classroom …Read more Subscribe now to get the Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.
Biden admin restarts controversial migrant flight program with additional vetting after fraud revelations
The Biden administration on Thursday announced that it is restarting a controversial parole policy that allows tens of thousands of migrants into the United States each month – after it was put on hold last month after revelations about significant amounts of fraud within part of the program. The Department of Homeland Security said it is resuming the parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) after it “incorporated additional vetting of U.S.-based supporters to strengthen the integrity of the processes.” “With these updated procedures in place, DHS is resuming the issuance of new Advance Travel Authorizations and will closely monitor how this new process is operating moving forward,” a spokesperson said. TOP HOUSE COMMITTEE DEMANDS MAYORKAS FORK OVER DOCS AFTER BIDEN ADMIN FREEZES MIGRANT FLIGHT PROGRAM Fox News Digital first reported this month that the administration paused the issuing of advance travel authorizations in July for the program, which allows 30,000 nationals from those countries to travel into the U.S. each month and enter legally under the administration’s use of parole since early 2023. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to Fox News Digital at the time that “out of an abundance of caution” it has stopped issuing the authorizations and that it takes abuse of processes very seriously. The pause came after an internal report, parts of which have been made public by the Federation of American Immigration Reform, found that 100,948 forms were filled out by 3,218 serial sponsors – those whose number appears on 20 or more forms. It also found that 24 of the 1,000 most used numbers belonged to a dead person. Meanwhile, 100 physical addresses were used between 124 and 739 times on over 19,000 forms. Those addresses included storage units. The focus is on issues with supporter filings, and not with the filings from the beneficiaries of the program themselves. ‘SHUT IT DOWN’: BIDEN MIGRANT FLIGHT PROGRAM UNDER INTENSE PRESSURE TO DISBAND AFTER FRAUD REVELATIONS On Thursday, DHS said the new vetting measures include “further scrutiny of supporters’ financial records and criminal background, additional vetting to identify fraudulent supporter profiles, and bolstered review methods to identify serial filing trends.” DHS will also require fingerprints from supporters. “Together with our existing rigorous vetting of potential beneficiaries seeking to travel to the United States, these new procedures for supporters have strengthened the integrity of these processes and will help protect against exploitation of beneficiaries,” the statement said. The Biden administration has claimed the expanded use of parole processes has led to a drop in illegal border crossings, including a 98% decrease from CHNV nationals compared to December 2022. DHS DOCS REVEAL WHERE PAROLED MIGRANTS UNDER CONTROVERSIAL BIDEN FLIGHT PROGRAM ARE LANDING But Republicans have slammed the administration’s use of parole, arguing that it represents an abuse of the parole process – which is authorized to be used on a case by case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefits. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said the resumption was no surprise, despite the fraud revelations. “The CHNV program, along with the use of the CBP One app at the Southwest border, has helped the president and his border czar play a massive shell game, encouraging otherwise-inadmissible aliens to simply cross at ports of entry instead of between them,” he said in a statement. “My Committee has engaged with the department since this pause was announced, and the results were sobering. Instead of scrapping the clearly flawed program, the department is allowing it to continue without rooting out the fraud or putting adequate safeguards in place to prevent exploitation by sponsors here in the United States.” “But fundamentally, there would be no fraud to prevent if DHS simply stopped importing 30,000 inadmissible aliens every month in the first place,” he added.
Harris defends policy flip-flops in preview of first interview since ascending ticket
Vice President Kamala Harris defended flip-flopping on key policies such as energy in a preview clip of her first sit-down interview with the media since ascending the Democratic presidential ticket. “Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made?” CNN host Dana Bash asked Harris in the preview clip released late Thursday afternoon. “… Is it because you have more experience now, and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary? And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you’re saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?” Harris responded that her “values have not changed” throughout her political career. “I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act,” Harris responded. TRUMP, VANCE CONTINUE TO HAMMER HARRIS FOR ‘COPYING’ THEIR POLICIES Harris has been accused by voters, political pundits and the Trump campaign of flip-flopping on key policies since emerging as the Democratic Party’s nominee since President Biden dropped out of the race last month. On fracking, for example, Harris’ campaign announced last month that the vice president did not support a ban on the oil extraction technique that enjoys broad support in battleground states like Pennsylvania. 39 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS YET TO DO FORMAL PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE That position, however, is the opposite of her remarks as a primary candidate during a 2019 CNN town hall event, when Harris said there is “no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” Harris has also distanced herself from “Medicare for All” and semiautomatic rifle buyback programs, after publicly touting both programs during her failed primary campaign during the 2020 cycle. BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN REFUSES TO REVEAL NATIONALITIES OF TERROR WATCH LIST MIGRANTS NABBED AT BORDER “We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” Harris continued in her comments to CNN on Thursday. “As an example, that value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the Attorney General of California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage, of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed,” she said. The network will release the full interview with Harris at 9 p.m. Thursday evening, with Bash telling her audience Thursday afternoon that the interview will dive into Harris’ policies on handling the economy, inflation, the environment and immigration. The interview was conducted in the battleground state of Georgia at Kim’s Cafe, a Black-owned restaurant in Savannah. Harris was joined by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the interview. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. Fox News Digital’s Mike Lee contributed to this report.
Biden continues vacation for second straight week despite saying he will ‘work like hell’ until end of term
President Biden began his second straight week of vacation Monday, providing more fodder for critics who insist he is not finishing out his term with very much vigor. Biden arrived at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, beach house Sunday, where he will remain until at least Saturday, according to The New York Post. The president arrived following a six-night vacation stay with his family the following week at Democratic Party donor Joe Kiani’s California ranch estate. Biden’s also reportedly has no public events scheduled while he is at the beach this week. The lame duck president has been criticized for overusing vacation time when he is supposed to be the leader of the free world. During the third anniversary of the Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 American soldiers on Monday, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby was pressed by a reporter on whether Biden is simply a “ceremonial figure” at this point. ‘ACCESS GRANTED’: BIDEN’S FREE VACATION AT FRIEND’S CALIFORNIA MANSION DRAWS IRE OF CRITICS “My goodness, he talked to Prime Minister Modi today. He had calls with leaders in the region and in Europe, President Zelenskyy, last week. He monitored in real time what was going on over the weekend. I mean, come on,” Kirby said of Biden. “The president is on vacation, but you can never unplug from a job like that, nor does he try to… He’s very much in command of making sure we can continue to protect our national security interests here at home and certainly overseas.” BIDEN IS IN CHARGE OF COUNTRY ON SECOND STRAIGHT VACATION, WHITE HOUSE INSISTS Meanwhile, shortly after bowing out of the race to win re-election in July, Biden told reporters he is “not going anywhere” and intended to “work like hell” until the end of his term in January 2025. “Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president,” Biden added during a July 24 Oval Office address, which was only the third speech he had given from the Resolute desk since becoming commander in chief. Sources differ on the exact number of days that Biden has spent on vacation during his presidency. Data from the Republican National Committee claims that after serving roughly two years and seven months as president, Biden spent about 40% of his time on vacation. BIDEN FLIES FROM ONE VACATION TO ANOTHER AFTER VOWING TO END GAZA WAR, WITH MIDDLE EAST ON THE BRINK House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., alongside other congressional Republicans, have called on Biden’s Cabinet to consider invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows for the vice president to take over the president’s duties if he is unable to fulfill the responsibilities necessary to run the White House. Democrats similarly sought to invoke the 25th Amendment during the final days of former President Trump’s time in office. “Who is running the country?” several social media users asked Thursday, including Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas. “An Armed Illegal Alien Street Gang from Venezuela Seizes an Apartment Complex in Aurora, Colorado—Residents Terrified! Meanwhile, Joe Biden is on his second vacation in two weeks and Kamala Harris is preparing for her first interview in 40 days.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.
Expert blasts Biden admin for reviving immigration program shut down for ‘mass fraud’: All about ‘optics’
The Biden administration’s decision to restart a controversial immigration program is being made only with “political optics” in mind, according to one expert. “That is all they care about is optics, get more people in, getting them through the ports, not between the ports, so they can say, ‘Look, our numbers at the southwest border are down. We’re doing great,’” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital. The comment comes as the Biden administration reportedly looks to revive a program that has allowed tens of thousands of migrants from four nations to fly directly into the U.S. despite the program being paused last month for what NBC News reported as “mass fraud.” The program allowed migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply for entry and temporary work authorization with the support of a sponsor who pledged to financially back the migrants once they arrived in the United States. BIDEN ADMIN LOOKS TO REVIVE ASYLUM PROGRAM DESPITE FINDINGS OF ‘MASS FRAUD’: REPORT But the program was “temporarily paused” last month to allow the Department of Homeland Security to conduct “a review of supporter applications” of “sponsors,” with an initial review finding that 3,218 of the roughly 101,000 applications were filed by “serial sponsors” who raise suspicion by sponsoring several migrants from the same street addresses, IP addresses or phone numbers. In one example uncovered by the review, officials found that nearly 600 applications were flagged because they appeared to use the same commercial warehouse address in Orlando, Florida. In another case, the review found a “concerning trend” from nine IP addresses that were potentially sponsoring many more women than men. In one of those cases, one IP address was linked to applications to sponsor females as young as 14, with 14 in total being under the age of 18. The decision to restart the program comes despite 30,000 applications left for officials to review, though the NBC News report noted the administration was eager to get the program running again because it is believed to help deter migrants from instead making the journey to the southern border. While the strategy to jumpstart the program may work to temporarily alleviate illegal border crossings, Ries acknowledged, the rationale for using the program for that purpose is purely political. BIDEN ADMIN REFUSES TO REVEAL TERROR WATCHLIST NATIONALITIES AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION EXPLODES ON HIS WATCH The move comes at a critical juncture of this year’s presidential election, with Vice President Kamala Harris attempting to carve out a tougher image on the border as voter frustrations with the Biden administration’s handling of its security mount. Worse yet, Ries argued, the administration’s vow to more thoroughly vet sponsors is unlikely to lead to any meaningful change. “No one should believe them,” Ries said, pointing to the continued controversy over the vetting of refugees after the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan. “This administration is not interested in thorough vetting. They just give it lip service because they have to when their inevitable problems emerge and they are called out on it.” That lack of thorough vetting, including sponsors, could lead to dangerous outcomes, Ries warned. “You’re going to have more trafficked people, more trafficked children, more abuse, more crime and more illegal immigration,” Ries said. “Americans suffer for that, whether it’s from crime or the taxes that have to be spent or are being spent to pay for these people’s shelter, education, health care and housing.” The White House and Harris campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment by publication time. Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
Harris maintains lead nationwide, slim margins in battleground states, according to multiple polls
A flurry of recent polls seem to indicate Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is maintaining its post-Democratic National Convention momentum. In the past two days, Fox News, Reuters and USA Today have published poll results indicating Harris is holding on to her lead against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The Reuters/Ipsos Poll released Thursday reported Harris leading Trump 45% to 41% among registered voters. FOX NEWS POLL: HARRIS CLOSES GAP WITH TRUMP IN SUN BELT STATES The poll, conducted over eight days concluding Wednesday, reported that the source of this boost in support came from Hispanic and women voters. The Reuters/Ipsos poll maintained a plus or minus 2% margin of error. A USA Today/Suffolk University Poll released Wednesday found Harris surging ahead of Trump by several points. HOW WILL RFK JR.’S ENDORSEMENT OF TRUMP IMPACT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE? The poll, which surveyed 1,000 likely voters via landline phones and cellphones from Aug. 25-28, found Harris was leading with 48% against Trump’s 43% nationwide. The USA Today poll reports a plus or minus 3.1% margin of error. A Fox News Poll released Wednesday found Harris has improved on President Biden’s 2024 election numbers in four battleground states, driven by strong support among women, Black voters and young voters. In addition, while Trump leads on top issues, more voters see Harris as the candidate who can unite the country and who will “fight for people like you.” That’s according to new Fox News statewide surveys in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Each survey includes about 1,000 registered voters and was conducted Aug. 23-26, after the Democratic National Convention and just after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped out and endorsed Trump. The surveys, released Wednesday, find a close, two-way Harris-Trump race. Harris is up by 1 percentage point in Arizona and by 2 points in Georgia and Nevada, while Trump is ahead by 1 point in North Carolina. All are within the margin of sampling error. Fox News Digital’s Dana Blanton and Victoria Balara contributed to this report.
Harris shifts key positions on border, illegal immigration as campaign promises ‘pragmatic’ approach
The Harris campaign on Thursday confirmed to Fox News that Vice President Kamala Harris has changed her positions on a number of immigration and border-security policies, including decriminalizing illegal crossings and closing immigration detention centers. “While Donald Trump is wedded to the extreme ideas in his Project 2025 agenda, Vice President Harris believes real leadership means bringing all sides together to build consensus,” spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement. “It is that approach that made it possible for the Biden-Harris administration to achieve bipartisan breakthroughs on everything from infrastructure to gun violence prevention. As President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.” Harris has faced scrutiny for her past positions on border security as a California senator and a 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate. A Harris campaign advisor told Fox that her positions have been “shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.” ‘TOTAL BULLS—’: TRUMP CAMPAIGN RIPS ‘PREPOSTEROUS’ HARRIS PRO-BORDER WALL NARRATIVE AFTER MEDIA REPORT Harris previously expressed support for decriminalizing illegal crossings at the border during the 2020 presidential primaries, arguing they should be a civil offense instead. “An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal,” she said in 2017. This week a campaign spokesman told Fox that “the Vice President’s position is the same as the administration’s — unauthorized border crossings are illegal.” On Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, she had previously promised as a presidential candidate in 2019 to shut down immigration detention centers on “day one.” FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS BIDEN ADMIN MOVE TO GIVE LEGAL STATUS TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SPOUSES OF US CITIZENS On Thursday, the campaign said her position is the same as the administration’s, which is “continuing to ensure sufficient resources to enforce our laws and prioritize detention and removal for individuals who pose threats to public safety and national security, as well as ensure compliance with immigration proceedings and decisions, including removal.” More broadly, Harris has repeatedly backed the bipartisan Senate package that emerged from negotiations in the chamber earlier this year, which increases funding for the border, including ICE bed space, and a mechanism to limit asylum entries into the U.S. In June, President Biden signed an executive order that limited asylum at the border, and has led to a sharp decrease in crossings after three years of a historic crisis. The administration has said the low numbers come directly because of that order, and has renewed calls for the package to be passed by the Senate — blaming former President Trump for its failure to pass. “The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention. He tanked the bipartisan border security deal because for Donald Trump, this has never been about solutions just running on a problem,” spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS “Like everything with Donald Trump, it’s never been about helping the country, it’s only about helping himself. There’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security, and that’s Vice President Harris,” he said. The Trump campaign has pushed back against narratives in the media suggesting that Harris has turned into a moderate on the issue, attacking her positions this week. In response to Fox’s reporting, the Trump campaign said that Harris is “ON TAPE spanning a decade spewing her dangerously liberal positions on every one of these issues.” “She’s not changing, she’s just lying,” the campaign said.
Firefighting congressman hopes IAFF shuns Harris after Biden nod: ‘Arsonist telling you how to put out fires’
Congress’ only career firefighter will introduce Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) conference in Boston Thursday in an effort to urge members to support the Trump-Vance ticket, after they were the first labor union to endorse President Biden in 2020. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., became a City of Miami firefighter in 1975 and rose to the rank of chief by the end of his career. He said Thursday that, like his fellow first responders, former President Trump has shown he is always ready to “answer the call.” The IAFF has not thrown their support to either current presidential candidate yet. Gimenez said while his main role is to introduce Trump’s running mate, he will make brief remarks on why his fellow firefighters should endorse the Republican nominee this time around. TOP REPUBLICAN CALLS USSS DIRECTOR’S ‘SLOPED ROOF’ DEFENSE ‘FINAL STRAW’: I’M 70 AND ‘COULD RUN AROUND IT ALL DAY’ “I felt it was important enough to get up at 3 a.m. to go to Boston and introduce Sen. Vance and talk to them about why I think President Trump and JD Vance are right for not just firefighters but for America.” Gimenez discussed Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent policy proposals in a general sense, and suggested she has been pushing fixes to problems the Biden-Harris administration themselves exacerbated. “My pitch is going to be, you know, where firefighters are always willing to answer the call or they answer the bell – Right now America is, is asking for help, and we should respond,” Gimenez said. “And America is asking for help because of the disaster that’s been the Biden-Harris administration and… some of the things that have happened over the last three and a half years… that Kamala Harris in particular wants us to forget that they were in charge of.” “Somehow they’re now going to fix it or she’s going to fix it… It’s like having the arsonist tell you how to put out the fire.” Gimenez said that while he has held other roles throughout his life – commissioner, mayor of Miami-Dade County, congressman – when he is asked what his job was, he routinely replies, “firefighter.” CUBA’S MEDDLING IN US ELECTIONS A ‘BADGE OF HONOR’ TO SOME TARGETED CRITICS “I was the youngest one and the first Hispanic chief – I was very fortunate to be a firefighter and it’s also shaped the way I see things and how I deal with things.” Gimenez said that when “firefighters do well, America does well,” and that as a “first responder,” they understand urgency in key situations. As for whether the IAFF may be primed to make a 180 and endorse Trump, Gimenez said the union tends to follow its affiliate in the AFL-CIO, which typically endorses Democrats. “Ever since I’ve been a firefighter, they tend to go Democrat. Hopefully, we can break the trend today.” Gimenez expressed hope in that regard, given they did not swiftly endorse Harris as they had for Biden in 2020. “It’s not a slam dunk for Democrats this time around,” Gimenez said of some union endorsements, despite Biden self-identifying as the most “pro-union” president in history. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Notably, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien became the first such official to speak at the Republican National Convention, but was reportedly not invited to speak to the Democratic National Convention this year. Unions aside, Gimenez said firefighters don’t care about political affiliation while on-the-job. “Every time the bell rings, we get on the truck or we get on the rescue [vehicle] and we answer the call. We’re going to help – that’s what’s great about [firefighters].” Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign and IAFF for comment.
‘Sickening’: VP Harris slammed by school shooting victims’ families over recently unearthed comments
Loved ones of students killed in school shootings slammed Vice President Kamala Harris after unearthed comments from 2019 surfaced this week, detailing that Harris supports removing police officers from schools. “My brother was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting because of liberal policies like the one Kamala is pushing here… I wish there had been a police officer there to protect him. Students need more protection, not less!,” school safety advocate JT Lewis posted to X. Lewis’ younger brother, six-year-old Jesse Lewis, was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut that left 26 children and staffers dead. Lewis was reacting to unearthed footage of Harris in 2019, when she was a California senator, declaring her support of removing police officers from schools in an effort to “demilitarize” campuses. “What we need to do about … demilitarizing our schools and taking police officers out of schools. We need to deal with the reality and speak the truth about the inequities around school discipline. Where in particular, Black and Brown boys are being expelled and or suspended as young as, I’ve seen, as young as in elementary school,” Harris said in 2019 in South Carolina, when she served as a California senator running for president during the 2020 cycle. KAMALA HARRIS CALLED FOR REMOVING COPS FROM SCHOOLS TO FIGHT RACIAL ‘INEQUITIES’ IN 2019 INTERVIEW Harris joined the 2019 Presidential Justice Forum at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, in October of that year before she dropped out of the 2020 race and was announced as President Biden’s running mate. A college student asked Harris how she would go about expunging the records of juveniles to allow them to attend college, including expunging “a criminal offense,” not “just a marijuana expungement.” CRIME SPIKES FORCE SCHOOLS TO REINSTATE RESOURCE OFFICERS AS DEFUND MOVEMENT COLLAPSES “That’s a great question and a great point, because when we talk about reform of the criminal justice system, we’ve got to understand that the juvenile justice system is in dire need of reform, and I know that. And I’ve seen it,” Harris responded, touting her 2020 campaign’s “plan of action” on criminal justice reform. ALEXANDRIA CITY COUNCIL REINSTATES SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS AFTER TEACHER, PARENT PLEAS OVER VIOLENCE “I will end solitary confinement of juveniles, which includes what we need to do to talk about and have a commitment for less incarceration of juveniles. And have guidelines in terms of exactly what those, those numbers should be, because right now, in so many states, children are being incarcerated for … a child being incarcerated for a couple of days is traumatic, much less the weeks, months and years that we’re seeing that happen,” she explained. Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris presidential campaign earlier this week inquiring whether she still supports removing police officers from schools, but did not receive a reply. PARKLAND VICTIM’S DAD SLAMS VP KAMALA HARRIS’ ‘PHOTO OP’ VISIT TO ‘PUSH AN AGENDA’: ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’ Other family members of school-shooting victims joined Lewis in their condemnation of Harris’ 2019 comments, including Ryan Petty and Andrew Pollack, two dads who lost their respective teenage daughters in the tragic Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018. “Wreckless. Radical. Kamala wants to make schools less safe. Your kids aren’t safe with Kamala Harris in office,” Petty, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Alaina Petty in the 2018 shooting, tweeted in response to the Trump War Room posting footage of Harris’ comments. “This is sickening. My daughter was killed because Parkland didn’t have enough security. We need more school resource officers — not fewer!” Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow Pollack was killed in the same shooting, posted on X. Harris’ comments declaring support for the removal of officers from schools were made ahead of 2020’s summer of protests and riots in response to the killing of George Floyd during a police interaction on Memorial Day of that year. Floyd’s death reignited calls from activists to defund the police, which had a cascading effect across the country as liberal cities moved to slash police budgets, and school boards also voted to sever ties with police departments. FATHER OF PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM SPEAKS OUT ON TRAGIC ANNIVERSARY: ‘CRIMINALS DON’T OBEY GUN LAWS’ Researchers with the outlet Education Week found in 2022 that at least 50 school districts between May 2020 through June 2022 had removed officers from school campuses or slashed budgets for school officers. The plans to remove officers from schools, however, were short-lived in many jurisdictions, as violence broke out on campuses when students returned to the classrooms following the pandemic and its lockdowns. In the face of violence, such as a shooting at a Denver high school, or repeated fights within the Alexandria, Virginia, school district, education officials from coast to coast backtracked on removing officers, welcoming them back to campuses in an effort to curb crime. Harris officially accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in Chicago last week. She rose to the top of the ticket after President Biden dropped out of the race last month amid mounting concerns over his mental acuity.
Harris camp hires activist reverend who claims Christianity has been ‘hijacked’ by White supremacy
The Harris-Walz campaign has hired liberal activist the Rev. Jennifer Butler to be its new head of faith outreach, with Butler confirming the appointment on social media and in an interview with Religion News Service. Butler is a longtime liberal activist who argued in 2022 that White supremacists have “hijacked” the Christian faith, and has said that faith calls us to “resist.” She is the founder of the nonprofit Faith in Public Life, which claims to advance the “moral imperative for a just, inclusive and equitable country.” She now runs a campaign seeking to root out White nationalism within the Christian faith. “I bring a broad set of relationships that I think can help, very quickly, pull a broad coalition together,” Butler told Religion News Service (RNS) on Wednesday. “I also recognize that we’re at a pivotal moment in American democracy where faith voices for justice are needed now more than ever… The Harris-Walz campaign is a really unique opportunity to shift the debate, to engage all of those who are concerned about what a Trump presidency would mean, the work of this campaign and what it can do to transform America.” ‘EVANGELICALS FOR HARRIS’ HOST HAS SAID ‘WHITENESS IS WICKED,’ POLICE NEED TO BE ‘DESTROYED AND REBUILT’ Butler’s official title will be national faith engagement director, according to RNS. Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for more details on what Butler’s new role will specifically entail but did not receive a response. Additionally, no announcement appears on the campaign’s website, or its official X account, as of Thursday morning. In 2022, Butler wrote an editorial posted to the website of a progressive, non-denominational Christian movement. “More Christians must step up,” she wrote at the time. “We must do more than just watch the January 6th hearings aghast. We cannot allow our faith to continue to be hijacked by white supremacists covered in religious language. For the sake of our faith and our democracy, we must denounce Christian nationalism and reclaim a faith that values and affirms the human dignity of all people. Including our own.” ‘EVANGELICALS FOR HARRIS’ COURTS ‘POLITICALLY HOMELESS’ CHRISTIANS TO BACK DEMOCRAT IN NOVEMBER Meanwhile, the following month, she reiterated her comments during an interview on MSNBC. During the interview, Butler proclaimed that Christianity “has long been used to justify the oppression of others” and she insisted it was happening again amid the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “That is not my faith,” Butler continued. “As Christians, particularly as White Christians in this country… we need as Christians to speak more loudly about what our faith – that our faith calls us to resist the pharaohs, the Egyptian kings, the Roman Caesars of our day.” Butler added that she is working to “reclaim [Christianity] for justice and for compassion,” and also charged Republicans with using religious liberty as a “weapon” to pass discriminatory bills against people who identify as LGBTQ. The activist reverend was arrested in 2017 for nonviolently protesting Republican efforts to repeal provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including attempts to override abortion regulations on grounds that it violated religious liberty. Fox News Digital reached out to Butler for comment but did not receive a response.