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Trump, Kamala aiming for the middle with varying degrees of success

Trump, Kamala aiming for the middle with varying degrees of success

Everyone wants to be a centrist now. It’s all the rage. Now if an ordinary person, say a friend of yours, changed positions on major issues, they would probably offer you an explanation. But politicians play by a different set of rules.  After a primary season in which both Donald Trump and now Kamala Harris have been laser-focused on riling up their base, both are edging–in some cases sprinting–toward the center. VP HARRIS ACCUSED OF ‘ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING’ ILLEGAL MIGRATION — AND COORDINATING WITH MEXICO Political theft is not a crime, or the jails would be packed to capacity.  Harris, in Las Vegas, blatantly ripped off Trump’s proposal to bar taxes on tips to service workers. The focus has been on the vice president, not just because she’s new to the race but because she has studiously avoided the press until her sitdown with CNN’s Dana Bash. She does regularly come back on the plane for off-the-record sessions, with each reporter present getting a question. But obviously that’s of limited value to the rest of us. The larger problem for Harris is that she has a host of far-left positions she took in her 2020 presidential run that she had abandoned without explanation. These include the abolition of private health insurance (under Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All); her past opposition to fracking, and embrace of decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Her repeated refrain; “My values have not changed.” On fracking, Harris told CNN, “I made clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking as vice president.” That is not true. She said Joe Biden would not ban fracking.  The VP did offer something of an explanation, that the administration had created over 300,000 clean energy jobs and “that tells me…we can do it without banning fracking.” FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP RIPS ‘DISHONEST MEDIA’ OVER MISREPRESENTATION OF JOKES Bash cited another blast from the past: “There was a debate. You raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized. Do you still believe that?” Harris: “I believe there should be consequences. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally.” No mention of why she shifted her stance. What Kamala is doing is what most general-election candidates do: moving toward the center. Whatever she thought matched the mood of the country in 2019, including her earlier career as a prosecutor, is clearly untenable today. But on the Republican side, Trump is doing the same thing. It’s just getting less attention because he makes plenty of other news, from the Arlington Cemetery flap to personal attacks on Harris. This has been most visible on abortion, which has become a difficult subject for Republicans. On one level, Trump owns the issue, because it was his three Supreme Court justices who enabled the overturning of Roe after a half-century of precedent. But now he’s said that Florida’s 6-week ban on the procedure is too short, that he believes there need to be more weeks. There was some backtracking on whether he’d support a competing initiative in the state, but not on the comments about 6 weeks, when many women don’t know they’re pregnant. When I interviewed the former president at Mar-a-Lago, he indicated he would favor a 15- or 16-week abortion ban – but decided at the state level, under the SCOTUS ruling.  WHY KAMALA HARRIS AND DANA BASH GET A MIXED GRADE IN VP’S FIRST MEDIA SIT DOWN “He also declared that “my administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” This has triggered a backlash among some pro-life groups, who now deem Trump essentially pro-choice. Trump is basically sliding to the center, to make his position more palatable to a wider range of voters, especially women, even though he has boasted about the repeal of Roe.  (In that Mar-a-Lago interview, I asked Trump why he changed his mind on TikTok after trying to ban the Chinese-owned app as president. He said that would help Facebook, which he’s more concerned about, and of course TikTok has an enthusiastic base of younger users.) Over the weekend, Trump said he would back another Florida measure, to legalize recreational use of marijuana. He said the state should not “ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars” by prosecuting people who possess small amounts for personal use. Again, a move toward a more moderate position that has drawn flak from some conservatives.  Kamala accused him of, well, a flip-flop. She said that as president his Justice Department cracked down on pot smokers. Part of what’s going on is that both candidates ignore the timing of past stances for political benefit. A Trump ad has Harris saying “Everyday prices are too high. Food, rent, gas, back-to-school clothes,” edited into “Bidenomics is working.”  Harris was talking about high prices caused by the pandemic in a speech last month, and “Bidenomics” was from a speech last year when she was reacting to a monthly jobs report.  Kamala says Trump is pushing Project 2025, although he disavowed the Heritage project early on and repeatedly (though it’s staffed by many of his former White House aides). Moving to the center is an art form, and that’s what both candidates are attempting right now.

Videographer becomes GOP nominee for Massachusetts’ 8th congressional district

Videographer becomes GOP nominee for Massachusetts’ 8th congressional district

Robert Burke won the Republican nomination for Massachusetts’ eighth congressional district Tuesday night by a wide margin against two other GOP hopefuls. The videographer will face an uphill battle against incumbent Democrat Stephen Lynch, who ran unopposed in his Tuesday primary. Lynch, who is vying for his 12th full term, has been representing Massachusetts’ eighth congressional district since 2013. He currently has over $1 million cash-on-hand. MIGRANT CRISIS ROILS BOSTON AREA AS SCHOOL STANDS FIRM ON CONTENTIOUS RESIDENCY POLICY  Meanwhile, Burke has not indicated any money raised, according to the Federal Election Commission’s election finance database.    Burke previously challenged Lynch in the 2022 general election. He received just 30 percent of the vote that year, while Lynch garnered the remaining 70 percent. Burke is a sports videographer from Milton, Mass., who attended the College of the Holy Cross and spent time as a federal probation officer, according to his campaign website. Burke has also been an entrepreneur, starting a cleaning business before undertaking his current business venture as a videographer. ACCUSED MASSACHUSETTS COP KILLER KAREN READ COMPARES SUPPORTERS TO VIETNAM WAR PROTESTERS AFTER MISTRIAL Democrats have a strong hold on Massachusetts’ congressional delegation, with all nine House seats and both Senate seats currently under their control. Massachusetts’ eighth congressional district is located along the state’s eastern shore. Biden won this Boston-area district in 2020 with 67 percent of the vote.  Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is expected to win the state this year as well, and has been endorsed by both of the states’ Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.

House committee subpoenas Blinken over deadly Afghanistan withdrawal

House committee subpoenas Blinken over deadly Afghanistan withdrawal

House lawmakers subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday over his alleged refusal to testify about the Biden administration’s deadly 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The House Foreign Affairs Committee said Blinken must appear before the committee on Sept. 19 or face contempt charges, the committee said in a letter written by Republican Chairman Michael McCaul, of Texas.  “It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the Committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement, Reuters reported. HARRIS SLAMS TRUMP OVER ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY ALTERCATION, PROMPTING FIERY RESPONSE FROM JD VANCE Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department.  In May, McCaul asked Blinken to appear at a hearing in September on the committee‘s report on its investigation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The State Department failed on several occasions to provide a date for Blinken to appear before lawmakers, McCaul said.  Current and former State Department officials confirmed that Blinken was “the final decisionmaker” on the withdrawal and evacuation, McCaul said in his letter.  “The Committee is holding this hearing because the Department of State was central to the Afghanistan withdrawal and served as the senior authority during the August non-combatant evacuation operation,” he wrote.  TULSI GABBARD DEFENDS TRUMP CAMPAIGN, SAYS CAMERA AT ARLINGTON WAS ‘APPROVED’] “You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to the Department’s legislative authorization,” McCaul added.  The committee has been investigating the chaotic withdrawal, which ended with 13 U.S. military service members killed, for years. Former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery last month and took part in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 military members. Trump and Republicans have long criticized President Biden over the withdrawal, which saw the Taliban retake Afghanistan following 20-plus years of U.S. occupation.  The parents of the deceased service members “lost a child because of Biden and because of Kamala, just as though they had a gun in their head because it was so badly handled,” Trump told podcaster Lex Fridman on Tuesday, the New York Post reported. 

Republican Marine vet wins primary to take on Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts Senate race

Republican Marine vet wins primary to take on Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts Senate race

Republican attorney and Marine veteran John Deaton of Bolton won a US Senate primary in Massachusetts on Tuesday and will now face longtime Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November. Deaton, a personal injury attorney and crypto advocate, moved from Rhode Island to Massachusetts last year. He faced off in the primary against Ian Cain of Quincy, Massachusetts’ first black and openly gay city council member, and Bob Antonellis, an engineer and political newcomer from Medford. Deaton, 56, has refused to say whether he’ll vote for Donald Trump in the presidential race; Antonellis was the only candidate to pledge support for the top of the ticket in the historically blue state’s race.  NEW REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER TO ELIZABETH WARREN SAYS ‘NO ONE HAS DISAPPOINTED MASSACHUSETTS MORE’ Deaton was far better-funded than either of his competitors thanks in large part to a $1 million loan he made to his campaign. He more than doubled Cain’s spending and had $975,000 on hand at the end of June, according to FEC records. At the same time, Cain had about $22,000 left in his war chest. Deaton has often told the story of his low-income upbringing in a violent and impoverished Highland Park neighborhood of Detroit. He said he’d watched a thief stab his mother and, on his first day of high school, had a gun shoved in his mouth. He said he broke the cycle of poverty by working his way through college and law school before going on to join the Marine Corps and spending seven years as a special assistant to the U.S. attorney in Yuma, Arizona, fighting cartels in the 1990s.  Deaton said he’s spent the last 22 years representing injured workers in legal battles against “corporations and insurance companies.” ELIZABETH WARREN HEDGES ON SUPPORT FOR BIDEN STAYING IN THE RACE: HE HAS A ‘REALLY BIG DECISION TO MAKE’ Massachusetts has not elected a Republican to statewide office since moderate GOP Gov. Charlie Baker left the governor’s mansion in January 2023. Polling suggests Warren, a former Republican herself, is likely to hold her seat in November. The state Republican Party only fielded challengers to Warren and two other House incumbents: Democrat Reps. Stephen Lynch and Bill Keating. Seven other Massachusetts House Democrats, none of whom faced primary challenges, are expected to sail to victory in the general election. Warren faced a competitive race when she beat out Republican incumbent Scott Brown in 2012. She scored more than 60% of the vote in 2018 and President Biden carried the state with 66% of the vote in 2020.  Deaton has focused on the migrant crisis and on “retiring” Warren from office.  “Thanks to the failed policies of and partisanship of career politicians like Elizabeth Warren, every state is now a border state, and Massachusetts is sucking the consequences,” Deaton said in a campaign video.  ELIZABETH WARREN HAS FIERCE CLASH WITH CNBC HOST ON HARRIS’ PRICE CONTROL PLAN: ‘A FOOL’S ERRAND’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis famously flew migrants to the wealthy Massachusetts enclave Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.  Deaton wrote on X on Monday that Warren is “more focused on her national profile and special interest groups” than spending time in local communities. “It’s going to cost her on Nov. 5th.” All three candidates have made the border central to their campaign and bashed the state’s sanctuary policies.  Antonellis said he would push to end sanctuary state status in Massachusetts, which he said is “destroying whole regions of the country.” He had also pushed to ban offshore and onshore wind farms and came under fire for claiming the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job. “Washington is stealing our liberty and freedoms, systematically, even Demonically,” Antonellis wrote on his campaign website. “9/11 as an ‘inside job,’ we’ll be talking more about Harvard’s role in that, it was done, in part, to get American Patriots to support the Patriot Act, which forces Americans to nearly undress, just to get on a plane, and legalized spying on everyone.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.