Top five clashes of the Harris-Trump presidential debate: ‘I’m talking now’
The presidential debate on Tuesday between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump saw a number of testy moments between the two candidates. The debate, which was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the first and possibly only debate between Harris and Trump. The Harris campaign quickly said “Harris is ready for a second debate,” but Trump said on Wednesday morning during a “Fox and Friends” interview that he “won the debate” and is “less inclined to” do another debate with Harris. Here are some of the top clashes of the night: HUGE MAJORITY OF DEBATE WATCHERS SAY HARRIS TOOK HOME THE VICTORY, CNN POLL FINDS One of the early clashes between the two was over abortion. Harris accused Trump of opening the door to “Trump abortion bans” due to his nomination of justices who eventually overturned Roe v Wade. “If Donald Trump were to be re-elected, he will sign a national abortion ban,” she said. Trump responded by calling that a “lie.” The two would eventually challenge each other on the topic, with Trump asking if Harris would support late-term abortions, and Harris challenging Trump to say if he would veto a federal abortion ban. “Will she allow abortion in the eighth month? Ninth month? Seventh month?” Trump asked. “Come on,” Harris said. “OK, would you do that?” he responded. “Why don’t you ask her that question?” Trump appealed to the moderators. “Why don’t you answer the question, would you veto?” Harris asked Trump. TRUMP SAYS PROJECT 2025 ‘GOES WAY TOO FAR’ WITH ABORTION RESTRICTIONS Harris upset former Trump when she accused him of holding boring rallies and accused him of talking about “windmills causing cancer.” “What you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you, the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.” Trump soon shot back: “People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go. And the people that do go, she’s busing them in and paying them to be there. And then showing them in a different light. So she can’t talk about that. People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” Trump used a quip on Tuesday evening similar to one made famous in 2020 by Harris during the vice presidential debate, in which she repeatedly told then-Vice President Mike Pence, “I’m speaking.” “Wait a minute, I’m talking now if you don’t mind. Please,” Trump said. “Does that sound familiar?” Harris smiled as she clearly got the reference. “Remember this, she is Biden. You know, she’s trying to get away from Biden. ‘I don’t know the gentleman,’ she says. She is Biden. The worst inflation we’ve ever had. A horrible economy because inflation has made it so bad and she can’t get away with it,” he said. Harris shot back: “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country.” Harris and Trump attacked one another over Russian President Vladimir Putin. “It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself. It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine. It is well known that he said when Russia went into the Ukraine, it was brilliant,” she said. Trump pushed back, accusing Harris of being “weak on national security” and said she had the endorsement of Putin. “Putin endorsed her last week, said, ‘I hope she wins,’ and I think he meant it because what he’s gotten away with is absolutely incredible. It wouldn’t have happened with me,” he said. Fox News’ Matteo Cina contributed to this report.
Kamala Harris decries ‘tragic’ killing of US citizen by Israeli forces
The US vice president and Democratic nominee has failed to back Aysenur Eygi’s family’s call for an independent investigation. Washington, DC – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has decried the killing of American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces, but the United States vice president stopped short of endorsing requests for an independent investigation into the incident. In a statement on Wednesday, Harris called the fatal shooting of Eygi in the occupied West Bank last week “tragic” and “unacceptable”. She also urged “full accountability” for the killing. “Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again,” Harris said. “Israel’s preliminary investigation indicated it was the result of a tragic error for which the [Israeli military] is responsible. We will continue to press the government of Israel for answers and for continued access to the findings of the investigation so we can have confidence in the results.” Israeli forces shot Eygi in the head on September 6 while she was protesting against an illegal Israeli outpost in the Palestinian territory. On Tuesday, the Israeli military acknowledged that it “probably” killed Eygi, but said she was shot “indirectly and unintentionally”. Eygi, 26, lived in Washington State and has been described by friends as a joyous person who was passionate about social justice. Rights advocates have long argued that Israel should not be allowed to investigate its own abuses, noting that the country’s authorities rarely prosecute its own soldiers for rampant rights violations against Palestinians. That is why Eygi’s family had called on the US to conduct its own probe into the killing. But Washington has all but ruled out the request, saying that it is awaiting the results of the Israeli investigation. On Tuesday, both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin described the killing of Eygi as “unprovoked and unjustified”. But their boss, President Joe Biden, was quick to suggest that he accepts the Israeli explanation for the shooting. “Apparently, it was an accident. It ricocheted off the ground and it — [she] got hit by accident,” he told reporters outside the White House. He later issued a statement on Wednesday saying the US expects to have “full access” to Israel’s preliminary investigation. “There must be full accountability. And Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again,” Biden wrote in the statement. None of the US officials — including Harris — has backed an independent probe or committed to seeking consequences for Eygi’s killing. Eygi is one of several Americans killed by Israel in recent years. Victims include 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq, who was shot in January, and veteran Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin in 2022. The US has verbally demanded accountability in these cases but has not applied any penalties to Israel for refusing to open criminal investigations into the incidents. Israel receives billions of dollars in US military aid annually, as well as diplomatic support from Washington at international forums. Biden and Harris have faced criticism this week for failing to call Eygi’s family to express condolences or condemn Israel for killing her. Critics have also drawn a contrast between the administration’s response to Eygi’s death and the killing of US citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken captive during the October 7 attack by Hamas and found dead in a tunnel in Gaza late in August. After Goldberg-Polin’s death, top Biden administration officials unequivocally condemned his killing, and the US Department of Justice announced new “terrorism” charges against Hamas leaders. Advocates say this strong reaction only highlights the tepid nature of the US response to Eygi’s killing. “Aysenur and her family deserve justice. As her family continues to mourn, President Biden and Vice President Harris have chosen to defend the foreign military that killed her instead of calling the family to express their condolences,” Juliette Majid, a friend of Eygi, told Al Jazeera in a statement. “How long must the family wait before the US conducts an independent investigation into the deliberate killing of an American citizen?” Adblock test (Why?)
Video shows destruction from Israeli strike on UNRWA school-turned-shelter
NewsFeed An Israeli strike on an UNRWA school-turned-shelter has killed at least 18 people and injured over a dozen others in Nuseirat, Gaza. Video from the scene shows bags of food with the UNRWA logo amid the rubble from which rescuers were removing bodies. Published On 11 Sep 202411 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
At least 14 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school
A separate Israeli strike in Khan Younis killed 11 as the United Nations polio vaccination drive continues in the north. At least 14 people, including two children and a woman, have been killed in an Israeli air attack on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence agency and hospital officials. Witnesses told Al Jazeera that people were waiting for food when Israeli jets struck jets struck the United Nations-run al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Wednesday. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who visited the site, said he saw a “tremendous amount of destruction” with “piles of rubble scattered around the area” and a missile stuck in the ground. He said emergency workers had “been digging the rubble with their bare hands due to the lack of basic equipment”. Fourteen people killed in the attack were brought to al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospitals nearby, officials from the facilities said. At least 18 people were wounded in the strike, they said. The Israeli army said in a statement that the air force targeted a Hamas command and control centre. Without providing evidence, it said the compound was used to plan and carry out attacks against Israeli forces in Gaza and against Israel. The school is at least the sixth to be targeted by Israeli shelling or air raids since August 1. Tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders are sheltering in Gaza’s schools. Khan Younis attack Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli attack hit a home near the southern city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters from the same family who ranged in age from 21 months to 21 years old, according to the European Hospital, which received the casualties. Israeli jets also struck a group of people waiting to buy bread outside a bakery west of Gaza City, according to the Civil Defence. A spokesperson for the agency said at least three people were killed and seven wounded in the Israeli air raid on the Nassr neighbourhood. An Israeli strike late Tuesday on a home in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Civil Defence. The Civil Defence said the home belonged to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at the al-Quds Open University, who survived the strike. Israel’s 11-month-old assault on Gaza has killed at least 41,084 people and wounded another 95,029, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. People use a blanket to transport a victim after an Israeli air strike hit a school in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on September 11, 2024 [Eyad Baba/AFP] Polio vaccinations continue A campaign to vaccinate Gaza’s children against the polio virus continues in the north “against all odds”, including Israeli attacks on UN health workers and their vehicles, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). It said that nearly 530,000 children have received the vaccine across the Gaza Strip. UNRWA also said its staff are working “around the clock to reach all children under 10”. A campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza, the part of the enclave hardest hit by Israel’s 11-month war, began on Tuesday. It follows the vaccination of more than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza earlier this month. (Al Jazeera) Adblock test (Why?)
Rogers addresses abortion amid Slotkin attacks: ‘Michigan voters have already decided’
FIRST ON FOX: The Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers, addressed what promises to be a top concern of many voters in November in a new campaign ad, making his position clear. “I know that a decision about a pregnancy is one of the most difficult and personal decisions a woman will make,” Rogers said in a new ad, appearing seated alongside his wife, Kristi Rogers, who held his hand. “Michigan voters have already decided the issue, and I respect that decision,” he explained, referencing the 2022 election, in which Michigan voters chose to enact Proposal 3, an abortion rights amendment that enshrined the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” into law. GOP SENATOR PUSHES FOR GOOGLE SUBPOENAS OVER TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT SEARCH RESULTS The amendment also protected rights to contraception and treatments for infertility. “In the Senate, I won’t do anything to change it,” he promised in the 15-second digital campaign ad. TOP 5 MOMENTS DURING TRUMP-HARRIS PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ‘I’M TALKING NOW’ A source familiar told Fox News Digital the ad is meant to combat purported misinformation from the campaign of Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., on Rogers’ stance. They will continue to address this as necessary with campaign expenditures, the source added. The video comes the same day as Slotkin rolled out two abortion-related ads against Rogers as part of a multimillion-dollar buy running on broadcast, cable and digital platforms. NRA BETS BIG ON MONTANA IN GUN RIGHTS PUSH AS TESTER TEETERS IN SENATE RACE One ad slams Rogers for his espoused support for restrictions on abortion in 1994. At the time, he told the Lansing State Journal, “I support all restrictions on abortions, since I consider it intentional taking of life. I would further support legislation restricting abortions done for choosing the sex of a baby.” She also took aim at the Republican for reportedly expressing support in a questionnaire supposedly two decades ago for policy such as a “human life amendment,” establishing that babies are considered a life once they are conceived. Slotkin’s second ad features a woman named Sarah, describing having several miscarriages and an issue with her fifth pregnancy that she said required an abortion. “I’m scared that Mike Rogers will continue to take away my rights,” she said. DEMS FACE TIGHT TIMELINE TO CONFIRM BIDEN-HARRIS JUDGES, SURPASS TRUMP LEGACY However, Rogers has pushed back at suggestions that these instances would define his actions in the Senate, doing so once again in the Wednesday video. In fact, Rogers has committed consistently since launching his Senate campaign last year to abiding by the Michigan abortion law and not supporting federal legislation that would contradict it. He has further gotten behind former President Trump’s stance that abortion should be left to the states. In Michigan, abortion was the third most cited as a top issue for voters in a July Fox News Poll. The top issue for the most voters by far was the economy, with 35% saying so. This was followed by immigration at 17% and abortion at 16%. According to a CNN poll released this month, Slotkin leads Rogers 47% to 41%. A previous AARP-commissioned poll of the race last month showed Rogers tied with her among the key demographic of voters over 50 years old, with each posting 46%. Among all voters, Slotkin slightly led her opponent, 47% to 44%. A top political handicapper, the Cook Political Report, rated the Michigan Senate race a “toss up,” despite the seat’s lengthy history of going Democrat. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Victim of violent crime committed by illegal immigrant slams ‘soft on crime’ policies: ‘One too many’
Testimony provided to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday highlighted the impact that some “soft on crime” policies have had on everyday Americans, from vicious attacks on the street to an enduring fentanyl epidemic. “Journalists and politicians like to repeat the statistic that immigrants commit less crime than Americans,” Amanda Kiefer, victim of an attack by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, told the assembled congressional members. “Even if not manipulated, I think I find that kind of irrelevant,” Kiefer said. “If we’re letting in any more criminals, that’s one too many. We already have enough criminals in this country, and we really do little to keep them from committing more crimes.” Kiefer in 2008 was with a group of friends when 20-year-old Alexander Izaguirre stole her purse and then attempted to run her down in a waiting SUV, fracturing her skull. TRUMP SPARS WITH HARRIS, MODERATORS DURING HEATED PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE Izaguirre was in the country illegally and had been arrested a few months prior to the attack on drug charges. But he was free due to a program launched by then-District Attorney Kamala Harris that allowed nonviolent offenders to avoid jail by entering job training and having their records expunged. Kiefer’s testimony on Wednesday at the “The Consequences of Soft-On-Crime Policies” hearing hit hard on the programs that put someone like Izaguirre back on the streets, accusing the politicians responsible of holding a “commitment to that Marxist principle that criminals are just victims of capitalism, that somehow a job or handout will eliminate their tendency toward violent crime.” “No-bail laws, later sentencing and identity politics-driven leniency put violent people on the streets again to harm others,” Kiefer said. “There’s no fear of being caught or any reason to stop committing crimes.” TRUMP SPARS WITH HARRIS, MODERATORS DURING HEATED PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE “Our vice president encouraged defunding the police in the summer of 2020 and supporting a bail fund to let violent repeat offenders out of jail: Many of them went on to commit horrible crimes.” Kiefer insisted that many of the victims of violent crimes could have been spared, citing concerns of “the backlog of sexual assault kits” and “our porous border.” “It’s a gut punch,” Kiefer said. “It’s unfair. It’s heartbreaking, and Americans need to stop putting up with it. No one’s taking accountability for failing to keep the American people safe.” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the committee’s ranking member, argued that “it is important to hear from crime victims and other impacted people,” but alleged that the hearing on Wednesday had “no intent whatsoever to disguise the purpose of this hearing… to attack the surging popularity of Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz.” RACE TO REPLACE GOP GOVERNOR IN SWING STATE ON TAP AS PRIMARY SEASON COMES TO A CLOSE ON TUESDAY Nadler tried to distance Kiefer’s suffering from a wider indictment of similar policies and programs. “Of course, no crime prevention or reform strategy is perfect, and there will always be individuals who slip through the cracks and continue to break the law,” Nadler said. “That is what happened with the individual who snatched Ms. Kiefer’s purse in 2008, when he was in the ‘Back on Track’ program in San Francisco.” “When then-District Attorney Harris discovered that the program had mistakenly admitted undocumented immigrants who were not eligible for jobs in the United States, she quickly closed that loophole,” Nadler said. Nadler also came under fire after he appeared to close his eyes and lower his head during congressional testimony on the impacts of migrant crime on victims’ families Tuesday – prompting criticism that leading Democrats are not taking the issue seriously and have disrespected those in mourning. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., however, said that “if Democrats are successful in their policy goals, the left-leaning criminal justice policies of Manhattan, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, California, Minnesota will become common throughout the country and will actually have impact on federal imposition of criminal codes.” “I hope these hearings serve as a wake-up call to Americans to demand that the leadership abandon these policies that have made their communities less safe, and I hope it also reminds Congress of our requirement regarding federal law. Violent crime in Minnesota remains significantly elevated due to the lingering effects of the summer 2020 riots, in addition to the prosecution’s refusal to hold criminals accountable,” Biggs said. Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report.
Ohio governor to answer Haitian migrant surge with additional law enforcement, $2.5M health spending
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced he’ll be funneling resources to help ease the influx of some 20,000 Haitian migrants that have arrived in the city of Springfield legally under the Biden-Harris administration in the last several years. “As these numbers dramatically pick up, there’s some obligation for the federal government to help local communities who had nothing to do with the decision about people coming in, but now find themselves with a massive number of people,” DeWine said Tuesday before the presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The city only had 59,000 residents as of the 2020 census count, and city officials have pointed to the migrant surge as the reason for a housing crisis and unsafe roads after a Haitian immigrant ran into a school bus, killing an 11-year-old child. OHIO RESIDENTS IN SMALL TOWN ERUPT OVER HAVOC CAUSED BY MASSIVE INFLUX OF 20,000 OF HAITIANS The Haitians arrived under a Biden-Harris administration program that helps certain migrants flee their violent, unstable countries. Despite the problems the program has brought to the community, causing local residents to speak out against it, DeWine supports it. “I want to be very clear, totally very clear, I’m not against this program,” DeWine – whose family runs a charity in Haiti – said. “I’m not against this program.” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also directed his office this week to investigate legal routes that could put a stop to the federal government “from sending an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities.” FOCUS GROUP REACTS TO TRUMP CLAIM THAT MIGRANTS ARE ‘EATING THE DOGS’ IN OHIO TOWN “This is absurd – Springfield has swollen by more than a third due to migrants,” Yost said in a statement. “How many people can they be expected to take? What are the limits to the federal government’s power? Could the federal government simply funnel into Ohio all the millions of migrants flooding in under the current administration’s watch? “There’s got to be a limiting principle. We’re going to find a way to get this disaster in front of a federal judge,” Yost said. He added that it’s not the migrants themselves that are the issue, but the sheer number of them “in a short period of time.” FOCUS GROUP REACTS TO TRUMP SAYING HE WANTED TO SEND A ‘MAGA HAT’ FOR COPYING HIS POLICIES DeWine promised a total of $2.5 million over the course of two years for the county health department and other health care centers that have been overwhelmed by the immigrant uptick as well as more resources for law enforcement. Springfield has become the center of the contentious 2024 presidential battle for the White House, as Trump brought up resident reports that Haitian migrants are abducting residents’ pets and stealing geese out of lakes. City officials have denied the reports. The immigrants have also drawn the ire of local residents, who have been urging city officials to take action. “I see what’s going on in the streets. And I see you guys sitting up there and, comfy chairs and suits… I really challenge you guys to get out here and do something,” said Anthony Harris, 28, during a recent city council meeting. “These Haitians are running into trash cans. They’re running into buildings. They’re flipping cars in the middle of the street, and I don’t know how like, y’all can be comfortable with this.”
Harris promoted bail fund during height of defund-the-police push, contrary to saying ‘not true’ in debate
Vice President Kamala Harris was seen shaking her head and denying that she supported the defund the police movement during the 2020 George Floyd riots, despite her promoting a bail fund that helped free protesters demanding police be defunded and lauding the movement in a radio interview. “Defund the police. She’s been against that forever. She gave all that stuff up, very wrongly, very horribly. And everybody’s laughing at it, OK? They’re all laughing at it. She gave up at least 12 and probably 14 or 15 different policies. Like, she was big on defund the police,” Trump said from the debate stage in Philadelphia Tuesday evening. Harris’ mic was muted, but was seen shaking her head no and saying, “That’s not true.” “In Minnesota, she went out – wait a minute. I’m talking now. If you don’t mind. Please. Does that sound familiar?” Trump shot back at Harris as she attempted to speak while her mic was muted. KAMALA HARRIS-BACKED ‘FREEDOM FUND’ THAT PUT MURDERERS, RAPISTS BACK ON STREETS STILL UP AND RUNNING “Don’t lie,” Harris was seen saying, though the audio was more muted than Trump. “She went out in Minnesota and wanted to let criminals that killed people, that burned down Minneapolis, she went out and raised money to get them out of jail. She did things that nobody would ever think of. Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical left liberal that would do this,” Trump continued. Tuesday evening’s event marked the first time Trump and Harris shared a debate stage, following Trump squaring off against President Biden in a debate in June. Biden dropped out of the race not long after amid heightened concerns over his mental acuity and age. Harris infamously declared her support of the activists calling to defund the police when she posted a message to X, then Twitter, promoting a bail fund for the protesters arrested during the riots. MINNESOTA MURDER STATS ROSE UNDER WALZ’S LEADERSHIP AS HE TRIES TO TIE VIOLENT CRIME TREND TO TRUMP: DATA “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” Harris posted on June 1, 2020. The tweet is still live as of Wednesday. BAIL FUND BACKED BY KAMALA HARRIS FREED SAME RIOTER TWICE – NOW HE’S BEEN CHARGED AGAIN The bail fund was intended to help bail Black Lives Matter rioters out of jail, but only a fraction of the more than $41 million actually went to freeing rioters, reports later found. Minnesota-based Fox 9 reported that the fund spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to free an alleged knife murderer and a convicted rapist who was facing charges of sexual assault and kidnapping, among others. The fund also bailed out a man in a road rage incident after he fatally shot another driver. According to the Minnesota Freedom Fund website, their mission is to “pay cash bail and immigration bonds for those who can’t afford it, because wealth should never decide who is kept in detention and who goes free.” MINNESOTA MAN FREED BY KAMALA HARRIS-SUPPORTED BAIL FUND NOW CHARGED WITH MURDER Riots and protests swept the nation in 2020 following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day of that year during an interaction with Minneapolis police. Floyd’s killing reignited nationwide calls from protesters, activists and Democratic politicians to defund police departments in favor of community services such as housing and educational programs. The protests and riots came during an election year, and when the coronavirus pandemic and its government shutdowns and social distancing orders upended day-to-day life. Harris ran for president during the 2020 election cycle, but dropped out before becoming Biden’s running mate. Harris doubled down on her support of defund protesters following the tweet in a radio interview on June 9, 2020, arguing the defund movement was “rightly” working to reallocate police funding. “For too long, the status quo thinking has been, you get more safety by putting more cops on the street. Well, that’s wrong. Because by the way, if you want to look at upper middle-class suburban neighborhoods, they don’t have that patrol car. They don’t have those police walking those streets. But what they do have? They have well-funded schools. What they do have is homeownership, high homeownership rates. What they do have are thriving small businesses. What they do have is access to public health and mental health services,” Harris said on June 9, 2020, on radio show “Ebro in the Morning!” “So, this whole movement is about rightly saying we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities. When, today in America, two-thirds of our public school teachers are coming out of their own back pocket to help pay for school supplies when we have, for generations now, been defunding public schools but yet militarizing police departments, we need to have this conversation. And critically examine and understand that this is not working. It’s not working,” she continued. The protests and riots of 2020 were expected to cost insurance companies between $1 billion to $2 billion in paid insurance claims, making it the most costly violent protest in U.S. history, Axios previously reported. The protests and riots were followed by a violent national crime spike that saw murders increase by nearly 30% compared to the year prior, according to FBI data. It marked the largest single-year increase in killings since the agency began tracking the crimes. KAMALA HARRIS SUPPORTED ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ IN 2020 RADIO INTERVIEW, BEFORE BIDEN CAMPAIGN SAID OTHERWISE The increase in violence, combined with the national calls to defund the police, opened the floodgates, as police officers in jurisdictions across the nation quit, retired or transferred to departments located in states more favorable toward cops. Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on her denying support for defund the police during the debate
Chinese military machinery claimed to be in use at nation’s top secret research lab
The House Oversight Committee says it is aware of a machine operated by a Chinese military company that is in use at the nation’s most secretive government laboratories. “We are aware that there is a BGI machine at Los Alamos,” a committee spokeswoman told Fox News Digital. Situated in rural New Mexico, Los Alamos is one of the most top-secret labs in the country where the atomic bomb was produced through the Manhattan Project in 1943. The spokeswoman noted the Biosecure Act, which passed the House Monday, would ban the machinery at Los Alamos by prohibiting U.S. taxpayer dollars from flowing to biotech companies that are owned, operated or controlled by China or other foreign adversaries. CHINA TO END FOREIGN ADOPTION PLAN, LEAVING HUNDREDS OF US FAMILIES IN LIMBO The bill was referred to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and it’s not clear if and when the Senate plans to take it up. The Oversight Committee did not say whether it would conduct an investigation into the BGI-linked machinery. The CCP-linked Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) is a leading biotech and genomics company in China and has been defined by the Pentagon as a “Chinese military company” and “China’s Biotech National Champion.” BGI Group, which runs a massive gene databank in China and has DNA sequencing contracts with health firms and universities worldwide, has received substantial investment from China’s biggest state investment vehicle, the State Development and Investment Corp. The National Security Commission on AI stated that BGI “may be serving, wittingly or unwittingly, as a global collection mechanism for Chinese government gene databases, providing China with greater raw numbers and diversity of human genome samples as well as access to sensitive personal information about key individuals around the world.” BGI has created a number of new subsidiaries in the U.S. over the past two years to further evade scrutiny. HOUSE TEES UP ‘CHINA WEEK’ WITH FLOOR VOTES AIMED AT COMBATTING CCP ESPIONAGE AND ECONOMIC ADVANCES The Pentagon listed BGI as a “Chinese Military Company” operating in the U.S. and added two of its subsidiaries to a trade blacklist over allegations they conducted genetic analysis and surveillance activities for Beijing. The Department of Commerce said that information “has been utilized in the repression of ethnic minorities in China.” In 2021, BGI created a neonatal genetic test with the CCP that allowed it to collect information from millions of women for research on traits of populations, according to a Reuters report. In 2022, information security firm Strider Technologies found China had engaged in a decades-long campaign to insert and recruit allied researchers from Los Alamos. The report asserted that, between 1987 and 2021, at least 162 scientists who passed through the nuclear research lab returned and worked with the Chinese government. Of these, 15 were permanent staff members, many carrying high levels of security clearances. In 2022, BGI acquired Complete Genomics, a U.S. genomic sequencing firm, and in 2022, BGI spun off MGI, which went public on the Shanghai stock market and housed Complete Genomics as a subsidiary of MGI. MGI is still majority owned by BGI and entities with ties to the CCP.
Jewish Democrat suing Harvard over antisemitism chastises his party for inaction, endorses Trump
A Jewish Democrat who is suing Harvard over antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel explained to Fox News Digital his decision to endorse former President Donald Trump. Shabbos Kestenbaum, who’s testified before Congress and addressed the Republican National Convention in recent months about antisemitic threats on American college campuses, waited until Sept. 5 to announce that he was endorsing Trump during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit. In an interview with Fox News Digital this week, Kestenbaum, who registered as a Democrat when he turned 18 and has voted for Democratic candidates, including President Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and former Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said he could not support Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. “To sort of paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I don’t feel that I’ve abandoned the Democratic Party. I do feel that the Democratic Party abandoned me,” Kestenbaum said, explaining that he still supports progressive polices, including a $15 minimum wage, “reproductive choices for women,” and “progressive taxation.” “But at the end of the day, when American Jewry is facing an existential crisis, we are faced with a binary choice. And I think in the electoral zero-sum game, the binary choice would be President Trump. I think he would just be better for the core issues that are affecting me, that are affecting the American Jewish community.” FEDERAL JUDGE RULES HARVARD UNIVERSITY MUST FACE ANTISEMITISM LAWSUIT FROM JEWISH STUDENTS After many months of trying to work with the Harris campaign, the White House and Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate, Kestenbaum said he came to the conclusion that even though he did not vote for Trump in the 2016 or 2020 elections – or even five months ago – he would support him in 2024 because Trump is the “only realistic and viable option for American Jewry.” Kestenbaum argued Trump has outlined specific, “practical policy solutions,” including withholding federal funds to universities that violate the civil rights of Jewish students and “giving Israel whatever tools they need to dismantle Hamas and release the hostages,” while the Biden-Harris administration and Harris’ presidential campaign “have done nothing.” “They haven’t earned our vote. They’ve ignored our questions or they’ve given us plainly contradictory answers. And they’re taking our votes for granted,” he said of the Harris campaign. “So American Jewry, listen up. We will be the deciding factor in this election. There are enough of us in Michigan, in Arizona, in Georgia, in Nevada to really sway this election.” Because Biden won states like Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by small margins of between 13,000 to 30,000 votes in the 2020 election, and Jewish Americans make up anywhere from 1 to 3% of the population in those states, Kestenbaum said Jewish voters “will be the crucial deciding factor” in 2024. According to Kestenbaum, Trump is on track to receive the most Jewish votes for any Republican presidential nominee since President Dwight Eisenhower, which he credits to the Trump campaign as having “really been courting the Jewish vote in a way that the Harris campaign just never has.” JEWISH COLLEGE STUDENT: TOO OFTEN STUDENTS AT HARVARD ARE TAUGHT NOT HOW TO THINK, BUT WHAT TO THINK “Jewish Americans will be pivotal in this election,” Kestenbaum said. “What I would urge the Jewish communities across the country, what I would urge my community, is we know what our issues are.” “And I urge you, if you care about those policy prescriptions, if you care about the releasing of the hostages, you care about the strengthening of the U.S.-Israel relationship, you care about combating antisemitism on our college campuses, just look at the facts. Look at the data,” he said. “Harris has not outlined anything she would do specifically to alleviate those concerns. President Trump has. I get we don’t like his persona. I get we don’t like many of his policies. But at the end of the day, we are facing an existential issue. And I think there’s only one viable choice, and that’s President Trump.” Kestenbaum said when he spoke to the RNC in July, he ad-libbed significant portions of his speech from the teleprompter to omit the parts explicitly endorsing Trump because he wanted to show he was “bipartisan” and keep an open mind before attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago the next month. It took him two hours to get back to his seat after addressing the RNC because so many people came up to him with messages of support and prayers for the hostages who remained held in Gaza, he said. Kestenbaum said he told DNC leadership that if they didn’t want to amplify him at the convention, then at least consider amplifying other Jewish students “who are fighting for their civil rights on college campuses, who are experiencing unprecedented antisemitism, and we never got a response.” When he first testified before the House Education and the Workforce Committee about his experiences of antisemitism on Harvard’s campus after Oct. 7, Kestenbaum said “it was pretty remarkable that the majority of the Democratic leadership didn’t even show up, and then the ranking Democratic member, Bobby Scott, he used his opening remarks to criticize Republicans for focusing on antisemitism. ‘We need to be combating Islamophobia. We need to be combatting sexism,’ which is true in theory, but had nothing to do with the reality on the ground and what we were there to testify on.” “And I didn’t want to say anything. I want it to be bipartisan or even nonpartisan. But these incidents just kept on happening. And whether it was the House Judiciary Committee ranking member, Democrat Jerry Nadler, falling asleep when I was giving testimony, it was deeply hurtful and offensive,” Kestenbaum said. “And again, I didn’t want to say these things because I’m a Democrat and I went to the Democratic convention with an open mind and also with a mission to sort of change my party, to steer them