Task force on Trump assassination attempts to hold first House hearing Thursday
The House task force investigating the assassination attempts against former President Trump is holding its first hearing Thursday. “They’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes. They’ve interviewed dozens of witnesses. They gathered thousands of documents. They’ve been doing the work to lead up to the hearing, and I know there’ll be a lot of interest in that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday. “The American people desire and deserve answers, and the task force is working around the clock to deliver them.” TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT IN FLORIDA: SECRET SERVICE ‘REDLINES,’ PENNSYLVANIA TASK FORCE SAYS The task force was assembled after unanimous approval in the House, a rare feat in today’s partisan environment. Its scope was just expanded last week after a foiled second alleged attempt on Trump’s life, this time while the ex-president was golfing at his own course in West Palm Beach. Thursday’s hearing, however, will focus on the July 13 shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a rooftop just outside the rally perimeter, killing one attendee and injuring others. Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet and was quickly evacuated offstage by Secret Service agents. TRUMP HAS ‘PRESIDENTIAL LEVEL’ SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION, LAWMAKERS TOLD Witnesses will include Edward Lenz, commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit; Butler Township Police Patrolman Drew Blasko; Pennsylvania State Police Lt. John Herold; former Secret Service agent Patrick Sullivan; and the Allegheny County medical examiner, Dr. Ariel Goldschmidt. The task force, led by Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and ranking member Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., has already sent out a flurry of information and document requests to local, state and federal officials. Lawmakers hope to get to the bottom of how Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to position himself so close to the rally with his weapon despite being noticed by some attendees and even local officials long before he opened fire. “The communication failures on the day of the event were clearly catastrophic [and] led to what we saw happen that day. So, I anticipate we’re going to hear testimony from people who were there, who were part of that process, who can give us information about how those breakdowns occurred,” Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., a task force member, said on “Fox News Live” Sunday. The hearing comes a day after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a damning interim report detailing planning and security failures that occurred July 13. The report said the Secret Service did not have an adequate chain of command in place for approving security decisions ahead of the rally and failed to coordinate security specifically in relation to the building the shooter fired from. It accused the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team leader of not going inside or on top of the building and said a sniper team charged with monitoring the area had an obstructed view, among other issues.
Jharkhand: Two wagons of goods train carrying steel derail near Bokaro’s Tupkadih station; 15 trains diverted
The goods train was carrying a steel consignment from Bokaro Steel Plant and overturned on the main line between Tupkadih and Bokaro stations. The incident occurred near the northern cabin yard of Tupkadih station and affected train movement on the Bokaro-Gomo section.
JD Vance takes apparent jab at Kamala Harris saying she’s from a working class family
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance took an apparent jab at Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during an event in Michigan, when he echoed a talking point about her upbringing that she often repeats at her own events. When speaking to a group of supporters in Traverse City, Vance mentioned he also “grew up in a working class family” and knows what it takes to stand up for the middle class in an election year unsettled by high inflation and crippling costs. “Now, look, a lot of you know my story and a lot of you know where I came from. Look, I grew up in a working-class family. And so, when the Democrats — when Kamala Harris — talks about her middle class background, when the Democrats talk about how they stand for working people, they’re not telling the truth,” Vance said. He added: “They’re lying to you.” HARRIS-TRUMP SHOWDOWN: NEW POLL INDICATES WHO HAS EDGE IN MOST IMPORTANT BATTLEGROUND In his remarks, Vance said voters can look back to how many Democrats in positions of power during the COVID-19 pandemic sought to enforce lockdowns and to keep them in place while Americans were desperate to return to work. “Here’s how we know they’re lying to you,” he continued. “Remember back a few years ago when there were a lot of nurses, a lot of people in a lot of industries that were losing their jobs because they refused to take the COVID shot? Now, I believe if you want to take the Covid shot, take the shot. If you don’t want to take the COVID shot, don’t take the COVID shot. But listen, it is disgraceful for Kamala Harris to say that she stands for the American working man when she fired millions of American working men and women from their jobs for not doing what Kamala Harris would tell them to do.” Vance was visiting Michigan as the state represents an important background for former President Trump’s re-election chances and for down-ballot races like former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate. WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW After commending Rogers, Vance turned his attention to the current vice president. “I don’t know if you saw the news but Kamala Harris has decided to give her first solo national interview,” Vance said. “I’ve watched a couple of these interviews, local journalists with Kamala Harris, and I’ve realized why it is that Kamala Harris doesn’t give interviews. And the answer is that every time she answers a question, I think we gain about 100,000 votes, me and Donald Trump.” “They ask Kamala, of course, because she’s the vice president and she is the reason why we have sky-high inflation and a wide open border, what are you going to do? What is your specific plan to solve the inflation crisis that’s making it unaffordable to buy groceries and housing? And Kamala will say, well, did you know that I grew up in a middle-class family, I had a very nice lawn back there in Berkeley, California,” he continued. “It’s like, well, that might be true. What the hell does that have to do with lower inflation?” Vance added: “Or they’ll say, Kamala Harris, we’ve got a war in every new continent across the country. Kamala Harris, your administration has in some ways led to the policies that caused this conflict. How are you going to solve it as President of the United States? And Kamala Harris will say, well, did you know that I worked at McDonald’s for about three months when I was a teenager?” THIS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HAS THE UPPER HAND IN THE 2024 CASH DASH The Republican senator’s tirade against the Democratic nominee by arguing she fails to offer specifics in her answers. “I think my friends, all of us watching this interview are saying to ourselves, what is Kamala Harris? What is she actually planning to do for the American people? And the answer is we don’t know. [But] we don’t have to guess that much because she’s been the vice president for three and a half years and she hasn’t done a thing. So let’s dispense with this idea that Kamala Harris is going to fix the very problem she caused.” And, “Kamala Harris is why we have sky-high inflation. Kamala Harris is why you can’t afford groceries or housing. Kamala Harris is why the world is at war right now in nearly every single continent. Kamala Harris is why the border is wide open. And Kamala Harris, you want a promotion? The message from Michigan is you’re fired. Go back to San Francisco where you belong.” Michigan, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall,” which the party reliably won for a quarter-century in presidential elections. This stronghold completely crumbled during Trump’s successful 2016 presidential run, when he narrowly carried all three states. However, Biden narrowly won back all three states in 2020.
Mumbai rains: Schools, colleges in Mumbai to remain closed today due to heavy rains, IMD issues ‘red’ alert till…
Pune District Collector Dr Suhas Diwase announced public holiday for all schools and colleges in Pune city and Pimpri Chinchwad on Thursday in view of incessant rainfall as predicted by IMD.
‘She was under…’: Lucknow woman dies after falling off chair in office due to…
A Lucknow woman, working with HDFC Bank, has died after falling off a chair in her office. As per a media report, she was reportedly under work stress.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 944
As the war enters its 944th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, September 26, 2024. Fighting At least two people were killed and 19 injured in a Russian-guided bomb attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had captured the Ukrainian villages of Hostre and Hryhorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, not far from the town of Vuhledar, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold that had a population of 14,000 before the war. The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, in a late evening report, said there had been eight armed clashes in the Vuhledar area. Filashkin, the governor for the region, said Russian reconnaissance groups were in Vuhledar, but its forces had not captured the town. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 28 out of 32 Russian drones and four out of eight missiles during an overnight attack. Four of the missiles targeted the southern region of Odesa, its regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said. One hit an open area causing a fire, while two trucks were also damaged. No casualties were reported. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged world leaders at the UN General Assembly to stand with his country and back a “real, just peace” more than two and a half years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy singled out China and Brazil for promoting what he called “half-hearted settlement plans”, accusing them of playing to their own interests “at Ukraine’s expense”. Zelenskyy’s plans for peace require Russia to withdraw from the Ukrainian territory it has occupied and justice for war crimes. US President Joe Biden said the United States would announce initiatives to accelerate support for Ukraine and help the country rebuild from the damage of Russia’s invasion. Biden and Zelenskyy are due to meet at the White House later on Thursday. Making his first speech at the UNGA, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said 600,000 Russian soldiers had been “killed or wounded” in its invasion of Ukraine, and questioned how Russia could “show its face” at the UN after treating its own citizens “as bits of meat to fling into the grinder”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that “forcing” Russia into peace would be a “fatal mistake”. He was responding to Zelenskyy’s comments on Tuesday that Russia needed to be forced into a peace settlement. Peskov reiterated that Russia would only talk peace on the condition that its “stability is ensured and the objectives of the special military operation are fulfilled”, referring to the war using Moscow’s official language. Former US President Donald Trump, who is campaigning for another term in November, said Ukraine should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin instead of going to war when it was invaded by its neighbour. The Republican presidential candidate claimed at a rally in North Carolina that even “the worst deal would’ve been better than what we have now”. Weapons Putin lowered the threshold for a Russian nuclear response saying Moscow would consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack by both. Putin did not directly refer to Ukraine, which is urging its Western allies to allow it to use their conventional long-range weapons to attack military targets deep inside Russia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $375m in new military aid for Ukraine including HIMARS rocket launchers, Javelin missiles and light tactical vehicles. Blinken said the weapons would be deployed as quickly as possible. The Biden administration is also expected to notify Congress on Thursday of its intent to spend $5.5bn in additional military assistance to Ukraine in the coming months. IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited two sources from a European intelligence agency and project documents. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters it was not aware of such a project, adding that Beijing had strict control measures on the export of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian Defence Ministry did not respond to the news agency’s requests for comment. Adblock test (Why?)
New York Mayor Eric Adams indicted amid corruption probe
BREAKINGBREAKING, Retired police captain becomes first sitting mayor of New York to face federal charges. New York Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted following a federal corruption investigation, the New York Times has reported. The indictment against Adams, one of the most powerful city leaders on the planet, is sealed and it is unclear what charges he will face, the Times reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The investigation has focused in part on whether Adams, a retired police captain, and his campaign conspired with Turkey to receive illegal foreign donations, the Times said. In a statement, Adams denied wrongdoing. “I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target – and a target I became. If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel, Iran give different accounts of Lebanon conflict
NewsFeed Israel and Iran gave different accounts of the same conflict in Lebanon, using a UN Security Council meeting to shift blame. Published On 26 Sep 202426 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Does India have peace plan for ending Russia-Ukraine conflict? EAM S Jaishankar says…
Responding to a question on what is India going to do to help solve the conflict, Jaishankar said, “We think at some point there will be a negotiation, and such a negotiation has to obviously include the parties. It cannot be a one-sided negotiation.
Secret Service agent accused of sexually assaulting Harris campaign staffer: report
The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) is investigating an agent accused of sexually assaulting a staffer working on Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign. Real Clear Politics first reported the allegations Wednesday. According to four USSS sources, the incident took place last week in Wisconsin. According to the report, several USSS agents and Harris campaign staffers were in Green Bay to work on security measures for an upcoming rally. The campaign event in Green Bay ended up not taking place, and the campaign switched the rally location to Atlanta, Georgia, after holding a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday. The staffers and agents later drank at a local restaurant after finishing up their work for the day. They eventually moved over to the victim’s hotel room – where the alleged assault took place. CHUCK SCHUMER CALLS OUT REPUBLICANS FOR ‘WASTING TIME’ AS TENTATIVE FUNDING DEAL IS ANNOUNCED The suspect, who was intoxicated at the time, had forced himself on the victim and began groping her, the report claims. The incident was witnessed by other people. The suspect was reportedly so drunk that his coworkers kicked him out of their hotel room, and he fell asleep in the hallway. A Secret Service spokesperson confirmed an investigation to Fox News Digital, but did not disclose if it involved a Harris staffer. HARRIS-TRUMP SHOWDOWN: WHICH CANDIDATE HOLDS THE EDGE ON THIS CRUCIAL ISSUE “The U.S. Secret Service Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating a misconduct allegation involving an employee,” the spokesperson said. “The Secret Service holds its personnel to the highest standards.” “The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.” Harris’ office said in a statement that “we have zero tolerance for sexual misconduct,” and that the office takes “safety of staff seriously,” according to the Associated Press. Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.