Nancy Pelosi claims Dem primary process was ‘open’ and Kamala Harris ‘won it’
Former Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi insisted on Wednesday that her party’s presidential nominating process after President Biden dropped out was “open,” and Vice President Kamala Harris “won it,” despite the absence of any such contest. Prior to Biden stepping down as the Democratic Party’s nominee in mid-July, Pelosi reportedly said she favored a competitive open primary process to replace him if needed. On Wednesday, Semafor’s Kadia Goba asked Pelosi if she had changed her mind after seeing all the “excitement” Harris generated when she was tapped to replace Biden. “No, I didn’t change my mind. We had an open primary and [Kamala Harris] won it. Nobody else got in the race,” Pelosi said. “Yes people could have jumped in – there were some people who were sort of preparing, but she just took off with it, and actually it was a blessing because there was not that much time between then and the election and it sort of saved time.” “But it wasn’t that we didn’t have an open primary,” Pelosi added. “It’s just that nobody got in because she had a running start.” NANCY PELOSI GRILLED FOR TAKING SWIPE AT 30% OF REPUBLICANS: ‘NASTY, UNTRUE AND CRUEL’ Amid intra-party pressure, Biden dropped out of the race for president on July 21 and endorsed Harris as his successor the same day. Harris was the informal nominee from that point forward until the Democratic National Committee decided to implement an unprecedented virtual roll call ahead of its national nominating convention in August. The first-of-its-kind roll call vote ended with Harris getting 99% support from the party’s participating delegates. Harris was the only candidate who qualified for the virtual roll call vote, despite three challengers who wanted to run against her. The failed challengers were reportedly unable to collect the 300 delegate signatures necessary to gain access to the virtual ballot, according to Politico. Conservatives focusing on the election called Pelosi’s comments about Harris’ nominating process a “joke” and a “lie.” “The votes of 14 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden were thrown away as Harris was installed as the Democrats’ nominee for president – a job for which she has never received a single vote,” said Ryan Walker, executive director at Heritage Action For America, a conservative political advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., affiliated with the Heritage Foundation. “Saying she won an open primary is a joke.” ‘PAISANS FOR KAMALA’ EVENT FEATURES DE NIRO, PELOSI BLASTING TRUMP ON IMMIGRATION “Listening to Nancy Pelosi’s comments about Joe Biden, you could almost forget that she was one of many who lied to us about his condition, right up until the moment it was no longer to her political advantage to do so,” Jenny Beth Martin, president of Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, added. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that she’d now to try to lie about what she calls the ‘open nomination’ process that led to Kamala’s ascension.” Meanwhile, academic elections experts told Fox News Digital that nothing illegal or undemocratic took place because ultimately it is each party’s purview how they go about nominating their candidate. “You could probably sue the party for a civil tort and say, you know, ‘They did something wrong to me here.’ But it wouldn’t be a violation of election law,” said Jeremy Mayer, a professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Public Policy and Government. “It’s not a coup, as some would say.” American University professor Leonard Steinhorn, a political communications expert, questioned what other options the party had at that point with the election being less than four months away. “One has to ask themselves: What else would a party do?” he asked. Mayer and Steinhorn also argued that the Republican Party would likely have done something similar with Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, if the GOP nominee faced some sort of hurdle preventing him from running. PELOSI SUGGESTS ‘30%’ OF REPUBLICANS ARE RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC: THEY’D ‘NEVER’ VOTE DEMOCRAT “You can always talk in ideal circumstances about what’s best and what ought to be. But you know, as there’s that old 1980s expression, ‘Reality Bites,’ and you have to be able to adjust and adapt to the circumstances that you have,” Steinhorn said. “In an ideal world, you may want to have the candidates vetted by the public more, whether it’s an open primary – which might have been impossible to set up in any number of critical mass states – or forums that would allow people to sort of evaluate different candidates. But at that point, Vice President Harris moved quickly with Joe Biden’s support, to consolidate her support and get the majority of the delegates. In which case, why would anyone else run?” Mayer and Steinhorn also pointed out that, while the process did go against contemporary norms, it is not entirely unprecedented. “She was picked in the way that we picked our candidates from 1832 to 1968 – the convention – and that produced some pretty good presidents, but we expect today for a president to be picked by the people of the party in an open primary process. And that’s not what happened with Harris,” Mayer said. Meanwhile, Steinhorn pointed to former President Gerald Ford, who he said “did not once face any primaries or any national referendum at all.” Last week, Pelosi also responded to questions on the fairness of the Democratic Party’s nomination process during an episode of ABC’s “The View.” “It was an open [process],” Pelosi insisted. “Anybody could have gotten in. She got in, and she won, and a president of the United States had endorsed her who was very respected. So, that meant a lot, but people don’t understand, other people could have gotten in. She just locked it up. Politically astute, as I said to you before.” Fox News Digital reached out to Pelosi’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
India reacts to report on diversion of Indian defence exports to Ukraine, says, ‘it is…’
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday rejected Reuters reports claiming that Indian defence exports have been diverted to Ukraine, labelling them “speculative and misleading.”
Kolkata rape-murder case: Junior doctors to end protest, resume emergency services from…
Emergency services will resume but OPD services to remain suspended.
Democrats lash out at ‘misinformed’ Teamsters as union makes landmark non-endorsement
Several Democrats responded overnight to news that the Teamsters, under General President Sean O’Brien, decided against issuing a presidential endorsement. “Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before big business,” O’Brien said in a statement. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. who, like O’Brien, hails from the Boston area, called former President Donald Trump the “most anti-labor president we have ever had.” “It’s clear that these workers are misinformed or uninformed about Trump’s record on labor,” McGovern told the Washington Times. “His allegiance isn’t toward working people.” McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said it is obvious that Trump supports “rich people” over the working class. The Teamsters have not made a non-endorsement since the 1996 contest between former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan. Their last GOP endorsement went to former President George H.W. Bush over then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1988. Meanwhile, Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., tweeted that Harris had cast the tie-breaking Senate vote to “protect Teamsters pensions.” TEAMSTERS BOSS HAS NO REGRETS ON TIFF WITH SEN. MULLIN: ‘SOUNDED LIKE HE WANTED TO DATE ME, NOT FIGHT ME’ Horsford shared that Nevada’s Teamsters councils had bucked the national organization and independently endorsed Harris. “She’s fighting for us,” Horsford said. Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., echoed Horsford, saying the Silver State’s Teamsters “know that Kamala Harris is a fighter for our union workers.” “I learned it from my father who was a Teamster in Las Vegas: when we stand together, we win,” Cortez-Masto said. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker, meanwhile, called the Teamsters’ decision “disappointing.” “Donald Trump refused to support a pension bill for Teamsters. It was Biden-Harris and Democrats who saved Teamsters pensions in the Butch Lewis Act of our American Rescue Plan — without one Republican vote,” she said on X, formerly Twitter. Trump, however, called the non-endorsement of Harris a “great honor” for him. AUTO WORKERS FOR TRUMP LEADER SAYS THOUSANDS POISED TO BREAK FROM DEMS OVER GREEN POLICIES, JOB-KILLING REGS “They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing,” Trump said while campaigning in New York City. The GOP nominee added that the internal Teamsters vote showed about 60% of national membership support his bid. A leading progressive in Congress, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, called the non-endorsement “unfortunate” while adding that the Evergreen State’s sub-council still supports Harris. “I think you’re going to see more of that across the country,” she told the Times. In a more direct shot at O’Brien, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., claimed the national leader has been “boosting Republicans all year while supporting anti-worker, anti-choice Senate candidates.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP O’Brien has reportedly reached out to some Republican lawmakers, like Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. And JD Vance, R-Ohio, per the BBC, but it was the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail & Transportation union that recently gave Hawley their endorsement. Two U.S. Senate candidates whom the union did endorse, however, are Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. A spokesman for Harris’ campaign said in a statement reported by multiple outlets that Trump believes striking workers should be fired, while Harris “literally walked the picket line.” “The Vice President’s strong union record is why Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her — alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor,” Lauren Hitt said. In that regard, a council representing 35,000 Teamsters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania ignored O’Brien’s non-endorsement and threw their weight behind Harris. The board of Teamsters Joint Council 40, covering Pittsburgh, Erie, State College and Washington, held a separate vote, where they unanimously selected Harris. “She is the best for our locals and best for our unions,” council president Carl Bailey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. O’Brien has also not been afraid to tussle with Republicans, as he and Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., nearly came to blows during a 2023 hearing in which Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had to intervene as Mullin rose from his chair — after the men told each other to “stand your butt up.”
UN accuses Israel of ‘massive’ violation of child rights treaty in Gaza
UN committee says horrific impact on children from Israel’s war on Gaza will have an ‘extremely dark place in history’. A United Nations committee has accused Israel of severe breaches of a global treaty protecting children’s rights, saying its military actions in Gaza have had a catastrophic impact on children and are among the worst violations in recent history. More than 11,355 minors have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war triggered by Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7. More than 1,100 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed in the Hamas-led attacks and about 250 were taken captive. In response, Israel has waged a war in the besieged enclave, killing more than 41,000 people and reducing large swaths of the Palestinian territory to rubble. “The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history,” Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice chairperson of the committee, told reporters on Thursday. “I don’t think we have seen before a violation that is so massive as we’ve seen in Gaza. These are extremely grave violations that we do not often see,” he said. On top of the registered casualties by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, thousands of children are believed to be missing under the rubble, buried in unmarked graves or severely wounded by explosives, the British aid group Save the Children said in a report published in June. According to an Al Jazeera tally in January – when the number of children killed by Israel’s war in Gaza was about 10,000 – one Palestinian child was being killed there every 15 minutes. The 18-member UN committee monitors countries’ compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, a widely adopted treaty that seeks to protect children from violence and other abuses. Israel, which ratified the treaty in 1991, sent a large delegation to the UN hearings in Geneva on September 3-4. They argued that the treaty did not apply in Gaza or the occupied West Bank but said Israel was committed to respecting international humanitarian law. It says its military campaign in Gaza is aimed at eliminating Hamas and it does not target civilians but Palestinian fighters hide among them, which Hamas denies. Civilians and health workers on the ground have repeatedly told Al Jazeera that attacks against homes with no warnings and no ongoing fighting have taken place since October 7 with entire families being obliterated in Israeli air attacks. The committee praised Israel for attending the hearings but said it “deeply regrets the state party’s repeated denial of its legal obligations”. In its conclusions, the committee called on Israel to provide urgent assistance to thousands of children maimed or injured by the war, provide support for orphans and allow more medical evacuations from Gaza. The UN body has no means of enforcing its recommendations, although countries generally aim to comply. During the hearings, the UN experts also asked many questions about Israeli children, including details about those taken captive by Hamas, to which Israel’s delegation gave extensive responses. Sabine Tassa, the mother of a 17-year-old boy shot dead in the October 7 attacks, addressed the UN hearings and said child survivors were traumatised. “The children of Israel are in an appalling state,” she said. Adblock test (Why?)
Judge in Brazil orders Musk’s X to obey ban or face daily fine
The social network X faces hefty new fine after its appears to defy ban ordered by a judge. Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered the social media platform X to remove access to its website after service was restored despite a judge’s ban or face a daily fine of more than $900,000. The social network, formerly known as Twitter, was banned last month in Latin America’s largest nation as part of a crackdown on disinformation, but access to the phone app returned on Wednesday. X said the return of its service was “inadvertent and temporary”, but the government accused the company of deliberately violating the suspension order. Judge Alexandre de Moraes said X would face a daily fine of 5 million reais ($913,000) until it obeys the order to suspend its service. The social media platform has more than 22 million users in Brazil. Last month, the judge ordered the suspension of X after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading fake news. The suspension has fuelled a fierce debate on freedom of expression and the limits of social networks, both inside and outside the country. The judge also froze the assets of X and Musk’s satellite internet operator Starlink, which has been operating in Brazil since 2022, especially in remote communities in the Amazon. Internet providers explained that X had been accessible again after an automatic update to the phone application. New software allows the app to use constantly changing identifying IP addresses, which makes it much harder to block. The National Telecommunications Agency, also called Anatel, said Thursday that it had “identified a mechanism which we hope” will block the service again. De Moraes has also ruled that anyone using “technological subterfuges”, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), to access the blocked site could be fined up to $9,000. X owner Elon Musk has refused Brazilian court orders to block accounts accused of spreading election misinformation [File: Susan Walsh/AP] X’s history of problems This is not the first time X has been banned by a country. China was the first country to ban the platform in June 2009 when it was still called Twitter, two days before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Venezuela ordered a 10-day block of X last month over a disputed presidential vote in the country after election authorities declared incumbent Nicolas Maduro the winner. Political tensions escalated after the disputed election results. Why has Brazil banned X? In January 2023 after supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, spurred on by false claims of electoral fraud, stormed the National Congress, the Brazilian Supreme Court issued an order for X and other social media platforms to restrict accounts linked to fake news and hate speech. In April, de Moraes again asked X to block several accounts accused of spreading misinformation about Bolsonaro’s defeat in the 2022 general election. This time, Musk refused and removed X’s legal representative in Brazil in protest. According to Brazilian law, foreign companies that conduct business in Brazil are required to have a legal representative in the country who acts as a liaison between the firm and local authorities. Adblock test (Why?)
Hezbollah chief: Israel crossed “all red lines” with device explosions
NewsFeed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for sabotaging communication devices that exploded across Lebanon, vowing retaliation for the attack he says crossed “all laws and red lines.” Published On 19 Sep 202419 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
2nd assassination attempt against Trump sparks concerns 45 is still in danger: experts
Former President Donald Trump has faced two known assassination attempts against his life across a roughly two-month span, and he may still be in danger of others, experts warned Fox News Digital. “This is not the last attempt that there’ll be. They’re going to keep coming at him,” Gene Petrino, a retired SWAT commander for Florida’s Plantation Police Department for 26 years and an expert on active shooter incidents, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “Other people are gonna see it that way, and the only responsible thing to do is now increase, even more, his security footprint,” Petrino added. Trump was safely escorted from the green at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday after suspect Ryan Routh allegedly pointed a rifle towards the 45th president just outside the perimeter of the club. Routh fled the scene but was apprehended shortly thereafter on I-95. TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN-HARRIS ‘RHETORIC’ FOR LATEST ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, SAYS HE WILL ‘SAVE THE COUNTRY’ Authorities are investigating the incident as an apparent assassination attempt against Trump. On July 13, Trump held a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot in the ear by 20-year-old Matthew Crooks. Crooks opened fire on the president while perched on a nearby roof, injuring two others attending the rally, and killing local dad and volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore. The attack in July unfolded just two days ahead of the Republican National Convention kicking off in Milwaukee. Trump attended the convention despite the attack and was seen wearing a bandage over his ear when he accepted the GOP’s presidential nomination. “The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together,” Trump said at the RNC in his acceptance speech. “Bullets were flying over us, yet I felt serene. But now the Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril. They were in very dangerous territory,” Trump continued. “Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches. And then it all stopped. Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin’s life. Took him out.” The apparent failed attempted assassination in Sunday’s attack did not fire a shot off – unlike Crooks – as a Secret Service agent spotted him and shot at him first. RYAN ROUTH, ARMED MAN ARRESTED AT TRUMP GOLF COURSE, POSTED PROLIFICALLY ABOUT TRUMP, POLITICS Petrino lauded the actions of the Secret Service and other law enforcement on Sunday for protecting Trump before the unthinkable unfolded, but the attempt has sparked concern among security experts. “They did a great job this time. They seemed to be on the ball,” he said before adding he believes “there should have been more” effort on the part of Trump’s security detail to catch Routh before he was located just roughly 300 yards from the 45th president. Bill Stanton, a former NYPD officer and an executive protection expert, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he also fears bad actors will make another attempt on Trump’s life. “This is my fear. When it rains, it pours … I don’t think it stops at two,” Stanton said. Both Stanton and Petrino called for an increase in security surrounding Trump, which echoed calls from Capitol Hill that Trump be offered heightened protection following the second attempt. “It is imperative that the USSS detail assigned to President Trump be afforded additional protective resources, including greater staffing capabilities that would allow agents to secure a broader perimeter,” Sens. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote in a letter to acting Director Ronald Rowe on Tuesday. Marshall and Tuberville, joined by Sens. James Risch, R-Idaho; Mike Lee, R-Utah; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.,;Bill Cassidy, R-La.; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., requested that Rowe and the Secret Service “designate President Trump as a protectee with the same level of protective resources afforded to a sitting president.” TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT SUSPECT LAUGHS, SMILES DURING FIRST COURT APPEARANCE IN FLORIDA Trump, as well as Petrino and Stanton, pinned blame for the second attempt on inflammatory political rhetoric, with the former president specifically pointing to comments from the Biden-Harris administration. “[The suspect] believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Monday. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.” WHITE HOUSE CONTINUES TO CALL TRUMP ‘THREAT’ TO DEMOCRACY DESPITE MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON FORMER PRESIDENT’S LIFE In the interview, Trump pointed to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ past comments describing him as a “threat to democracy,” while telling Americans they are “unity” leaders. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat,” Trump said. During the White House press briefing on Tuesday, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked if the administration planned to drop using words such as “threat” to describe Trump, considering the second assassination attempt. Doocy noted in his question that Trump has lobbed similar attacks against Biden and Harris. HOUSE DEM LEADER RAILS ‘WE MUST STOP’ MAGA AMID NEWS OF 2ND TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the use of the word, citing Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol. Trump is back on the campaign trail this week, heading to Long Island for a campaign rally on Wednesday. False reports spread across social media ahead of the rally that explosives had been found in a car near where Trump was set to speak. The reports were quickly dismissed by local officials as false, but underscore ongoing concerns and potential threats against Trump. 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Trump has ‘presidential level’ Secret Service protection, lawmakers told
Former President Trump had presidential-level security in place when officers foiled an attempt on his life last weekend, the U.S. Secret Service told lawmakers on Wednesday. The House task force probing the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, received a briefing from USSS after the incident at the ex-president’s golf course on Sunday. During that briefing, officials told House lawmakers that Trump had nearly all of the same protections afforded to President Biden at the time of the second attempt. It had been put in place after the July 13 shooting, where Trump was injured and one attendee died. “He had the same coverage as sitting president as he had last Sunday. And we’re talking mainly today with Secret Service,” task force Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., told reporters after the briefing. ‘I’VE NEVER SEEN THIS’: TOP REPUBLICAN DETAILS LEVEL OF SECRET SERVICE ‘LACK OF COOPERATION’ “I came away today feeling that the Secret Service on this past Sunday was treating it the same way as when President Trump was a sitting president.” Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters, “It’s our understanding that after July 13 that President Biden ordered the Secret Service to provide the same level of security to both Vice President [Kamala] Harris and to former President Trump that would be a presidential level security, commensurate with what the president would receive, and that that security is being provided.” A spokesperson for the task force told Fox News Digital on Thursday that USSS told lawmakers Trump was getting protection “commensurate” with Biden’s. TRUMP MAKES A BOLD PREDICTION ABOUT THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION “There are a handful of specialized assets only the commander and chief gets, but the rest of his protection is at the same level,” the spokesperson explained. “They also told us that his level of protection on Sunday was essentially the same as it was when he was the sitting President, many of the assets he had when he was President were there in West Palm Beach.” Wednesday’s briefing was the first for the task force since USSS arrested 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh after spotting him with an AK-47 in the bushes near where Trump was golfing at his West Palm Beach course. The July 13 Trump rally shooting has already served to heighten scrutiny on USSS, and it is prompted conversations about whether elected officials are being sufficiently kept safe in today’s hyper-partisan environment. WATCH ON FOX NATION: THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIONS OF DONALD TRUMP The incident prompted condemnations of political violence on both the right and left. The bipartisan House task force, which was initially created to focus only on the July 13 shooting, is now examining both events. The task force is also seeking a briefing from the FBI on the Sunday arrest.
‘Towards reducing pollution..’: Delhi govt approves replacement, induction of electric vehicles in ‘Gramin Sewa’
The Delhi government has approved replacing the current Gramin Sewa vehicles with electric alternatives, aiming to promote cleaner transportation.