Trump’s VP pick JD Vance defends spreading false story about migrants
Top US Republican politicians continue to repeat debunked rumours about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio town. Former President Donald Trump’s running mate in the US election, Republican Senator JD Vance, has defended amplifying false stories about migrants stealing and eating pets in the United States, saying in an interview that the political ends justify the means. During several television appearances on Sunday, Vance was questioned about the unfounded claims he and Trump have made about Haitian migrants in the city of Springfield, Ohio, as part of a wider attack on the immigration policies of the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump had touted the false story during his first – and likely only debate – with Harris last week, with 67 million viewers tuning in. Local officials have repeatedly said they have received no evidence to support the rumours. But Vance remained defiant on Sunday, saying in an interview with CBS News that he had received “verifiable and confirmable” accounts from residents of the Ohio community, without providing further evidence of the alleged incidents. “Everybody who has dealt with a large influx of migration knows that sometimes there are cultural practices that seem very far out there to a lot of Americans,” he said. “Are we not allowed to talk about this in the United States of America?” In another exchange on CNN, Vance was asked to “affirmatively say” that there is no evidence to support the stories about Haitian migrants eating pets. Vance again replied he was only responding to constituents’ concerns. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do … because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast,” Vance replied, before backpedaling. “I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” Vance said. For his part, Trump on Saturday again referenced Springfield, Ohio, during a speech near Los Angeles, vowing to deport Haitian immigrants from the community if elected in the November 5 vote. Trump and his Republican allies have also been sharing cat-themed memes to push the anti-immigrant narrative. Trump posts ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT’ For years, political violence experts have warned that the Trump campaign’s bellicose rhetoric and flippant approach to misinformation stoke social tensions and raise the spectre of violence. Just two days after the debate, hospitals, schools and government buildings in Springfield, Ohio were forced to close amid a series of bomb threats that referenced the influx of migrants in the community. On Friday, US President Joe Biden called the attacks “simply wrong”. “This has to stop, what [Trump’s] doing. It has to stop,” Biden said. Critics have also pointed to the Trump campaign’s approach as further evidence of US election seasons becoming increasingly dominated by ephemeral cultural spectacle meant to stoke partisan outrage, while sidelining meaningful policy discussion. In the latest example, Trump on Sunday responded to pop star Taylor Swift’s recent endorsement of Harris. The nod is considered a major political boon for the Democratic candidate, with Swift boasting hundreds of millions of ardent fans across the world. In a brief, all-caps post on his Truth Social account, Trump wrote: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.” Adblock test (Why?)
Democratic Rep. Ana-Maria Rodríguez Ramos joins crowded Texas House speaker race
Rodríguez Ramos faces an uphill battle, as Democrats are the minority party with 64 seats in the 150-member Texas House.
Ohio Senate candidate rips ‘depraved’ politicians for Springfield migrant crisis: Citizens ‘pay the price’
Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno is blasting “depraved” politicians for the migrant crisis in Springfield, Ohio, that he says shows elected Democrats have “forgotten” they “work for the American people.” “Let’s start with we don’t even know how many Haitian immigrants have been brought into Springfield, Ohio,” businessman Bernie Moreno, running as a Republican against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, told Fox News Digital. “That’s problem number one, and number two is why on earth are we bringing that number of people into a small community like Springfield, where they don’t have the infrastructure, they don’t have the health system, they don’t have the educational system and to get to the place where they do it would cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.” Moreno continued, “We have incredible priorities here in America. We have people in need, American citizens that need housing, American citizens that are struggling because of high inflation caused by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Why on earth are we taking precious resources from the American taxpayers and using it to benefit foreign nationals? That’s the real question to Springfield that’s not being answered.” SPRINGFIELD RESIDENT SAYS ROADS ARE LIKE ‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’ AFTER HAITIAN MIGRANTS OVERRUN RURAL TOWN Springfield, Ohio, has garnered national headlines in recent weeks over an influx of tens of thousands of Haitian migrants into the town of 60,000, where residents say the infrastructure doesn’t exist to care for them all and that crime has been an increasing issue. “It’s like living in a dystopian nightmare,” Springfield resident Diana Daniels told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday. “You hope you wake up and it’s 2019 again, and then you realize it’s 2024, and it’s the same thing over and over again, day after day. It’s hard sometimes to get up in the morning and hear residents that I’ve known for years struggle. This is a paycheck-to-paycheck… kind of town… working class. The citizens that depend on our social services like health care, the Rocking Horse [Community Health Center], going down to the Social Security office for benefits are waiting in line, and they’re not getting the services they need.” Moreno told Fox News Digital that Brown and Biden, who he called “two 50-year career politicians,” have “forgotten they work for the American people.” HAITIAN REFUGEES ‘DON’T UNDERSTAND THE LAWS,’ FORMER LAWMAKER SAYS AMID FATAL WRECK, CULTURAL CLASHES “Elections come down to whose side you’re on and are you on the side of Haiti and Haitians and people suffering all over the world, which clearly we all empathize with, or are you on the side of Americans, American workers, American families, who are seeing their costs of health care go up dramatically, who are seeing their taxes go up, who are seeing their insurance prices go up, who are seeing their grocery bills go up, and what are you doing about that?” Moreno added, “You’re certainly not helping by bringing 5% of the population of this poor country to America to clash two cultures together and land in a place like Springfield, Ohio, where the American citizens there are deprived of the very benefits that they’re supposed to get.” Moreno echoed Daniels’ concerns and explained that residents who are “entitled” to use the resources they have paid into are “standing in line behind Haitian immigrants.” SPRINGFIELD PASTORS SPEAK OUT ON HAITIAN REFUGEE CHALLENGES: ‘THE SUFFERING IS REAL’ “They shouldn’t even be in this country in the first place,” Moreno said. “That’s ultimately what is unfolding and why this story matters so much, because this is genuinely the story of America. Do we want leaders in elected office in Washington, D.C., like President Trump, like what I’ll do, like JD Vance, who put America first? Or do you want political leaders that have been there forever? These career serial politicians put the interests of foreign nationals first. That’s ultimately what this election comes down to.” Moreno, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia as a child, told Fox News Digital that his fellow legal immigrants are “sick and tired” of this “culture that rewards people for skipping the line” and getting “preferential treatment for whatever reason.” “For example, temporary protected status, operative word ‘temporary,’ is supposed to be given to people who are here who have an emergency in their home country and need to stay for a few months,” Moreno said. “Instead, we’re using that to make people stay here permanently. That skips the line from the millions of people who want to come to this country. Why are we giving preferential treatment to Haiti? There’s suffering all over the world: India, Africa, my home country of Colombia. There’s suffering everywhere. Why are we giving preferential treatment to certain countries and not others? And the answer is because you have special interest groups that pay off these politicians, that fund nonprofits, that pay huge salaries to the CEOs and it’s all about money and the people who pay the price and the citizens of the people in Springfield, Ohio.” Moreno also took issue with prominent Democrats and celebrities who he says have not taken the issue seriously. “Then you have depraved politicians like Sherrod Brown that hang out with their Hollywood celebrity buddies like John Legend, who from his multimillion-dollar mansion in a bathrobe, by the way, talks about how the people in Springfield, Ohio, should be welcoming,” Moreno said. “Why doesn’t he house them? Why don’t these migrants go to Beverly Hills and live there 16 or 18 per two-bedroom or three-bedroom-home? And why don’t his kids go to school with these migrants that don’t speak a word of English, that their culture is very different than ours because, of course, they’re the elites of this country that want the rest of us to have to live with the results of their ridiculous policies.” Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Brown and the White House but did not receive a response.
New poll shows Harris surging in state thought to be safe for Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris has made up significant ground on former President Trump in Iowa, a state previously thought to be safely in the former president’s column. Harris has narrowed Trump’s lead to four points, trailing the former president 47% to 43% in Iowa, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released Sunday. The poll represents a shocking reversal from where Trump stood in the state in spring, when the Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed Trump leading President Biden by 18 points in Iowa, 50% to 32%. “I wouldn’t say 4 points is comfortable” for Trump, pollster J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., told the Des Moines Register in reaction to the poll, the first Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll to be released since Harris became the Democratic nominee. “The race has tightened significantly.” ABC DEBATE MODERATORS SPARK FURY FOR AGGRESSIVE FACT-CHECKING OF TRUMP, EASY TREATMENT OF HARRIS Iowa has long been an afterthought in this year’s race, not typically included as a swing state along with the group of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, with most analysts believing the state to be safely red. Trump won the state by nearly 10 percentage points in 2016 and a similar margin in 2020, a margin that would be seemingly difficult to overcome for Harris in 2024. But Iowa has been a swing state in the past, going to Democratic Vice President Al Gore in 2000, Republican President George W. Bush in 2004, and former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. While one poll is unlikely to change the overall dynamic of the race, Harris’ ability to put former Midwestern swing states such as Iowa or Ohio in play could put her in a stronger position come November. WIFE OF HARRIS’ VP PICK SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ABLAZE WITH ‘BIZARRE’ ADMISSION ABOUT 2020 RIOTS The Harris surge in Iowa can largely be attributed to female voters, with the poll finding the vice president leads Trump among women 53% to 36%. Meanwhile, Trump leads among men in the state 59% to 32%. Women are also more likely to vote than they were in previous versions of the survey, with 8% more women indicating they will vote in this year’s election than in the June poll. Other groups that showed an uptick in plans to vote included those younger than 45 (10% increase), those from cities (6%), and those with a college degree (9%). “This poll may be catching newly energized voters who thought they would sit out the election at the time our June poll was taken,” Selzer said. The poll was conducted between Sept. 8 and 11, surveying 811 Iowa residents 18-years of age and older and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Vance slams Harris focus on calling Springfield, Ohio, residents ‘racist’ instead of ‘undoing her open border’
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said Vice President Harris is more focused on calling the residents of Springfield, Ohio, “racist” than “undoing her open border.” While making the rounds on CNN, NBC and CBS Sunday morning shows, Vance was confronted about recent controversy in Springfield, where residents have been pointing to an uptick in crime, mayhem and car crashes due to the massive influx of roughly 20,000 Haitian immigrants since the COVID-19 pandemic into a small town of approximately 58,000 people. Residents at city council meetings have alleged that Haitians are killing and eating ducks and geese in parks, as well as pet cats and dogs, unverified allegations that Vance has referenced on social media and former President Trump repeated during the Philadelphia presidential debate last week. “I trust my constituents more than I do the American media that has shown no interest in what’s happened in Springfield until we started sharing cat memes on the Internet, which is disgraceful that the American media ignored this town,” Vance told NBC “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker. “And that’s the most important part, Kamala Harris’ open border, Kristen, has led to skyrocketing housing costs in Springfield, rising rates of crime, rising rates of communicable diseases. They have dropped 20,000 immigrants into a town of 40,000, and it’s caused a host of social problems.” Welker cited officials in Springfield and Dayton, Ohio, as claiming there is “no evidence” of immigrants eating park animals or pets, and noted recent threats of violence forcing closures in Springfield. The NBC host also quoted Vance’s past comments from 2016 accusing Trump of making “people I care about” afraid. CRITICS DEMAND NYT APOLOGIZE FOR ‘VIOLENCE INCITING’ COLUMN ACCUSING JD VANCE OF ‘BLOOD-AND-SOIL NATIONALISM’ “This week in Springfield, buildings were closed because of bomb threats. Haitian immigrants say they are afraid for their lives. Are you not doing the very thing you once called reprehensible, Senator?” Welker asked. “First of all, Kristen, we condemn all acts of violence and all threats of violence. But, Kristen, the reason that I changed my mind on Donald Trump is actually perfectly highlighted by what’s going on in Springfield, because the media and the Kamala Harris campaign, they’ve been calling the residents of Springfield racist,” Vance said. “They’ve been lying about them. They’ve been saying that they make up these reports of migrants eating geese. And they completely ignored the public health disaster that is unfolding in Springfield at this very minute.” “Donald Trump is the only person who brought Springfield to national attention and is the only president who’s going to fight for the residents, not just their right to live safely in their communities, but for their right to complain about what’s going on in their own community,” Vance added. “I think it’s disgraceful that Kamala Harris has heard these complaints, has decided to call people racist instead of actually trying to make their lives better by undoing her open border.” “We don’t blame the Haitian migrants for coming to Springfield,” he said. “We blame Kamala Harris for opening the American southern border and inviting 20,000 people to get dropped in a small Ohio town.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not immediately hear back. During a heated exchange on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Vance said he would “fact check” host Dana Bash for failing to clarify how the Haitians were in the United States “legally.” TRUMP TALKS ABC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, IN FOX NEWS INTERVIEW “You said that all of these migrants are in the country legally. They are in the country through what’s called temporary protective status. That is when Kamala Harris waved a magic amnesty wand, taking people and giving them legal status,” Vance said. “That is not to say that they’re here legally. That is a terrible indictment of her amnesty policies that have further opened the border.” In June, the Biden-Harris administration announced that about 300,000 Haitians already in the United States will now be eligible for temporary legal status allowing them to remain in the U.S. and work because Homeland Security said conditions in the strife-torn Caribbean nation are considered unsafe for them to return. The decision marks a major expansion of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians who were in the United States on June 3 and will last until Feb. 3, 2026. Anyone arriving after June 3 would not qualify. DHS also extended the Temporary Protected Status of an estimated 200,000 Haitians who already had it. On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Vance also brought up the subject of temporary protected status when asked by host Margaret Brennan if he would work to get Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine federal assistance. “The most important thing that we can do to assist Gov. DeWine and the whole state of Ohio, and frankly, the whole country, Margaret, is to stop Kamala Harris’ open border. And for two years, I’ve been fighting for policies that do exactly that. You have to ask yourself, why have these 20,000 Haitian migrants been dropped into a small Ohio town in just a few years, Margaret?” Vance said. “And the answer is because Kamala Harris implemented what’s called temporary protective service for over 100,000 Haitian migrants. She basically, with a magic wand, granted amnesty to thousands of people who shouldn’t have been in this country, and now a small Ohio town is dealing with the consequences,” the senator continued. “And to anybody listening, Margaret, this is what Kamala Harris wants to do to every town in this country. Overwhelm them with migration, stress their municipal budgets, see communicable diseases on the rise. What is happening in Springfield is coming to every town and city in this country if Kamala Harris’s open border policies are allowed to continue. We’ve got to stop this. American citizens are suffering because of what she’s done.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Oregon DMV admits to wrongfully registering hundreds of non-citizens to vote
The Oregon DMV admitted on Friday to wrongfully registering at least 306 non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections. The DMV says the wrongful registrations have occurred since 2021 and were the result of a program that automatically registered anyone who obtained a driver’s license or state ID. State officials say they expect to find more wrongful registrations ahead of Election Day. Oregon has allowed non-citizens to obtain diver’s licenses since 2019. Of the 306 people identified, just two have cast ballots in an election since 2021. Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade says the 306 people “will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote.” HARRIS REPEATS DEBUNKED CLAIM TRUMP WANTS TO ‘BAN’ ABORTION Griffin-Valade defended the state’s automatic voter registration program despite the lapse. Gov. Tina Kotek also argued the discovery will “not impact” the 2024 election. “While this error is regrettable, the secretary and the Elections Division stand by automatic voter registration and its many benefits,” Griffin-Valade said. CNN COMMENTATOR SCORCHES DEMS BLAMING TRUMP AT DNC: ‘SHE’S IN THE WHITE HOUSE RIGHT NOW’ “The error in data entry which may have affected the voter eligibility of some Oregonian’s voter registration was discovered because the Oregon DMV and the secretary of state were doing their due diligence ahead of the 2024 election,” Kotek said in another statement. “My office will continue to closely monitor the situation. This situation will not impact the 2024 election in any way.” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who has led a purge of illegal voter registration in Ohio throughout the year, told Fox News Digital that so-called automatic voter registration is a problem across the country. “This is why we have resisted so-called automatic voter registration in Ohio. We have multiple really convenient ways to register in Ohio, but there are people who should not be registered, like non-citizens, and there are people who simply don’t want to be registered,” LaRose said. He also highlighted the obstacles state offices face when trying to verify voter rolls. LaRose says Ohio first checks against DMV data, but it often can’t determine a registrant’s status. The second check is the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, a list of non-citizen data maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. States have to pay $1.50 for each query of the database, however, and finding the information required to properly search the data is cumbersome, LaRose says. LaRose added that he and other election officials are seeking access to more DHS data that would allow for a more accurate audit of voter rolls, but his requests have so far been refused. “I don’t usually assume people’s intentions, but it would seem they don’t want us to use that information to identify non-citizens,” LaRose told Fox.
Andhra Pradesh govt suspends three senior IPS officers over…
The three officials were among those 16 IPS officers who were issued a memo directing them to mark their ‘attendance’ in DGP’s office twice a day, without any post.
‘Number one terrorist..’: Union Minister Ravneet Bittu hits at Rahul Gandhi over his remark on…
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit responded to Bittu’s remarks by criticizing him, pointing out that Bittu once praised Gandhi during his time in Congress.
Critics demand NYT apologize for ‘violence inciting’ column accusing JD Vance of ‘blood-and-soil nationalism’
Critics took to social media demanding that the New York Times apologize for an opinion piece accusing former President Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, of pushing “blood-and-soil nationalism.” The piece by New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie was initially published on Saturday with the headline: “JD Vance’s Blood-and-Soil Nationalism Finds Its Target.” After outcry on social media, however, the Times changed the headline to “Shouldn’t JD Vance Represent All of Ohio?” Bouie’s message, however, accusing Vance of espousing “blood-and-soil nationalism” and suggesting he would progress past simply a “rhetorical war” against immigrants if elected vice president, remained. Critics online accused the Times piece of inciting violence against Vance and essentially calling him a Nazi just two months after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Vance’s wife, Usha, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. Other X users and the Vance campaign pointed to how the couple share three biracial children. TRUMP TALKS ABC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, IN FOX NEWS INTERVIEW “‘Blood and soil’ The @nytimes has now stooped to essentially calling @JDVance a Nazi,” Republican strategist Andrew Surabian wrote, sharing a screenshot of the original headline. “Truly vile stuff from the supposed paper of record – If they had any ethics at all they would retract this and apologize.” “Just months after a psychopath tried to assassinate my father, the @nytimes is now openly trying to incite violence against @JDVance,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X. “PS: JD is the father of 3 biracial kids, which makes this smear even more disgusting!” the Republican presidential nominee’s eldest son added. “With an assassination attempt on President Trump’s life only two months ago, it’s abhorrent the New York Times would spew such disgusting bile – against a father of three biracial children nonetheless,” Vance’s national press secretary Taylor Van Kirk said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “With headlines like these, it’s no wonder why countless people are asking if the purpose was to incite violence against Senator Vance. We sincerely hope that isn’t the case and that the Times will come to their senses and retract this disgusting headline.” “So now the Times is directly calling JD Vance a Nazi,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk wrote to his 3.4 million followers. “This is the kind of regime propaganda that nearly got President Trump assassinated.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Times for comment, but they did not immediately respond. In the Times piece, the columnist took issue with Vance’s comments about Springfield, Ohio, where residents have been pointing to an uptick in crime, mayhem and car crashes due to the massive influx of roughly 20,000 Haitian immigrants into what was a small town of approximately 58,000 people since the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents at city council meetings have alleged that Haitians are killing and eating ducks in parks and pet cats and dogs, allegations which Vance and Trump repeated on social media and at the debate. Local officials said they had not received reports of such incidents. “What matters to Vance is who they are, where they come from and what they look like,” Bouie wrote of Haitian immigrants. “They don’t belong to this soil, he might say, and therefore they don’t belong. Right now, the most Vance can do to wage this war is use his words. I shudder to think what might be possible if he had the authority of the state to wield as well.” Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus slammed the Times’ piece for attacking Vance despite rising antisemitism under the Biden-Harris administration since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. SINGER JOHN LEGEND LECTURES HOMETOWN TO ‘EMBRACE’ HAITIAN MIGRANTS, DISMISSES PET-EATING CLAIMS IN OHIO CITY “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, Jewish Americans can’t safely wear religious symbols in many places in America; Jewish students are harassed, intimidated, and calls for their genocide, which are eerily reminiscent to the holocaust, [permeate] our educational Institutions. Israel faces existential threats while Harris ‘both-sides’ the argument everytime [sic] she speaks,” Ortagus wrote. “Our generation of Jews have known levels of antisemitism that we haven’t experienced since WW2. But the legacy media tries to somehow paint my friend @JDVance as the problem for American Jews. I can tell you from my public and private conversations with him, that he is ardently pro-Israel. Further, he refuses to tolerate the open season on Jewish Americans that has flourished under the Biden-Harris Administration.” “I look forward to the Oct 1st VP debate, where JD will absolutely expose Walz and Harris on these issues,” she added. “It’s disgusting that the media is now pushing these ridiculous, violence inciting claims about @JDVance just two months after @realDonaldTrump was nearly assassinated,” Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz wrote on X. “Also friendly reminder to the media & the left that JD is the father of 3 biracial kids. They should immediately retract and apologize to JD.”
J-K Assembly Polls: Engineer Rashid’s AIP, ex-Jamaat members form alliance
The Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) headed by Lok Sabha member Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer and former members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) have come together in a strategic alliance for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls.