FLASHBACK: Top Harris campaign aide was key voice in WH push to remove COVID info from tech platforms
FLASHBACK: A current top campaign adviser for VP Kamala Harris was deeply involved in pushing Facebook to suppress “misinformation” in an effort to control the political narrative on COVID and other issues. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter on Monday while expressing regret that his company, Facebook, was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor Americans, particularly regarding COVID-19 content, bringing to the forefront actions taken by Harris’ deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty as part of that pressure campaign. Flaherty, who previously served as the White House director of digital strategy, helped lead the campaign to target alleged “misinformation” relating to the COVID-19 virus and its vaccinations, FOX Business previously reported. Flaherty emailed Google team members in April 2021 to “connect […] about the work you’re doing to combat vaccine hesitancy, but also crack down on vaccine misinformation,” according to the documents. META CEO ZUCKERBERG ADMITS HE WAS PART OF THE BIDEN-HARRIS CENSORSHIP SCHEME. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED, AMERICA Flaherty continued asking for trends surrounding vaccine misinformation on the website, while offering government assistance in the form of COVID experts at the White House to partner in product work with YouTube. Google, in an internal email, noted that after a subsequent meeting with Flaherty, the White House staffer “particularly dug in on our decision making for borderline content” – which is content that doesn’t cross Community Guidelines but rather brushes up against it, according to YouTube. A week later, Google acknowledged that it sent the White House the total amount of videos removed for COVID vaccine misinformation, while discussing the government’s desire for even more data. “Really [Flaherty’s] interested in what we’re seeing that is NOT coming down,” read an internal Google email between employees, seemingly referring to videos that had not yet been removed. According to internal company communications viewed by FOX Business and reported on in 2023, Flaherty asked Facebook if they could provide government agencies with special access to tools to target users in 2021. “Since it’s a global pandemic, can we give agencies access to targeting parameters that they normally wouldn’t be able to?” Flaherty asked. TRUMP SAYS MARK ZUCKERBERG CALLED TO APOLOGIZE ABOUT PHOTO OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT The idea came up in a conversation about how to convince people worried about side effects around the COVID vaccine to take it. On an April 5 call, a Facebook employee mentioned how if someone was worried about nosebleeds as a side effect of the vaccine, in an ideal world, they would direct them to information addressing that concern. Flaherty asked the Facebook team, “Are you able to provide resources?” Another Facebook employee replied that doing something like showing them a targeted resource addressing their concern might trigger people. The Facebook employee said they “have to be careful in how we approach.” Flaherty asked, “If people are having the conversation, is the presumption that we let people have it. Direct them to CDC. What then?” A Facebook employee replied, “We all know people that have had the experience that think that FB is listening to them.” The Facebook employee told Flaherty that something like an immediate generated message about nosebleeds might give users “the Big Brother feel” but suggested they show the content on a delay to avoid setting off alarm bells among users. “We should pay attention to those conversations, make sure that people see information, even if it’s not right then,” the Facebook employee said. Flaherty was involved in a tense exchange with GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, during a hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this year when Flaherty claimed that Elon Musk did not face “any adverse government actions” in response to changing the outlet’s censorship policies. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the Harris-Walz campaign for comment but did not receive a response. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure,” Zuckerberg wrote in his letter to the House Judiciary Committee this week. “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. Fox News Digital’s Hillary Vaughn and Chase Williams contributed to this report
California candidates trade blows in key district, as Republican slams Dem over ‘MeToo’ court controversy
A California Republican congresswoman’s campaign is criticizing her Democratic attorney opponent of intentionally crafting a legal defense for a client that blamed victims for their alleged sexual harassment — and the challenger is hitting right back. Rep. Michelle Steel, whose Democratic-leaning Orange County seat is considered a crucial hold for Republicans in November, is facing off with Derek Tran. Tran is an attorney and military veteran who recently defended a former employee of a warehouse market chain who was rebuffing accusations from two women. In the case, plaintiff Luis Pacheco alleged he was wrongfully fired by a warehouse market in San Bernardino County after being accused of sexual harassment by two women with whom he had had “consensual relationships… and still on friendly terms,” according to court documents. ALASKA REPUBLICAN DROPS OUT OF THREE-WAY RACE, DEALING BLOW TO DEMOCRATS NATIONALLY Pacheco claimed the market and other defendants conducted a “sham investigation and automatically terminated [him] because he was male.” “Plaintiff Pacheco was discriminated against for his gender due to the political climate and ‘Me Too’ movement. Plaintiff Pacheco believes Defendants automatically chose the females’ side without considering his explanation of events because of his gender,” documents read. Lance Trover, a spokesperson for Steel, said Tran “based his campaign on protecting women, but chose the side of an alleged sexual abuser.” “Not as a defense attorney but in an effort to enrich his client and himself: Voters deserve an explanation from someone who wants to be their representative in Congress,” he said. In campaign advertisements and correspondence, the Steel campaign has used the “Me Too” references to criticize Tran’s legal defense formulation. VERMONT GOP SEES RECORD BALLOT BOOST AS BLUE STATE CITIZENS SEEK CHANGE However, Tran sold the firm partway through the litigation and the new leadership took over active cases, including Pacheco’s. In a statement to the Orange County Register, Tom Feher — the current attorney of record on the case — said the California Superior Court has ruled Pacheco’s case has merit and will go to trial. “[That is] despite the attempts of the corporation to deny our client access to justice. My job as workers’ rights attorney is to uphold the law and win justice for workers — it’s not about politics.” Tran’s camp, however, has responded by calling Steel the “last person” who should be criticizing others for treatment of victims — “like Derek Tran has spent his career fighting to do.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Michelle Steel puts corporations and political extremists ahead of women’s rights her entire career… Steel even voted against stronger protections for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault by opposing the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2021, and led efforts to ban abortion nationwide without exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the woman,” a spokesperson for Tran’s campaign said. In regard to the votes, Trover responded that Steel opposed a “partisan” Violence Against Women Act iteration, but supported ensuing compromise legislation. The Cook PVI ranks Steel’s district as D+2, meaning she is one of a handful of Republicans defending seats in Democrat-majority districts. The district’s lines changed slightly after the 2020 census. Recent polls depict the race as a dead heat.
Hindusthan National Glass Case: CCI files appeal in SC against NCLAT order
HNGIL episode witnessed cross-appeals in which various parties including CCI challenged the NCLAT order of 28th July 2023.
Texas announces over 1M ineligible voters removed from voting rolls since last presidential election
Texas has purged 1.1 million names from voting rolls since the 2020 presidential election after the state found them to be ineligible, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday. Abbott signed election integrity bill SB 1 into law in 2021 requiring the secretary of state to work with the Department of Public Safety to compare information on citizenship status in that agency’s database to the voter rolls. The checks are required to be “monthly.” “Election integrity is essential to our democracy,” said Abbott. “I have signed the strongest election laws in the nation to protect the right to vote and to crack down on illegal voting.” BIDEN ADMIN SUED BY 16 STATES OVER PAROLE PUSH FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH US SPOUSES “These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state.” The Texas government has referred cases of ineligible voters participating in an election to Attorney General Ken Praxton for prosecution. “The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution,” Abbott said. GOP LAWMAKERS WARN BIDEN PAROLE SCHEME COULD LEAD TO MASSIVE SPIKE IN MARRIAGE FRAUD He added, “Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.” The governor’s office offered a chart breaking down reasons for removal from the voting rolls and categorized estimates for individuals in each category. The largest group of Texas residents disqualified in the audit was “voters on the suspense list” – people who have failed to properly confirm their residential address in the state. Over 463,000 individuals were included in this category. The second most prominent category was “deceased people” still included on the voting rolls, which numbered over 457,000. The governor’s office said that approximately 6,500 noncitizens were purged from the rolls – almost 2,000 of those noncitizens are alleged to have cast votes in past elections.
Texas’ ballot harvesting ‘raids’ lead to outrage in Latino community, civil rights group
One of the nation’s oldest civil rights organizations plans to seek federal legal action after Texas officials executed searches and seizures relating to alleged illegal ballot harvesting ahead of the 2024 election. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, announced that his office’s Election Integrity unit had executed searches in three South Texas counties last week as part of his ongoing probe. Paxton said the unit had been working since 2022 to investigate fraud and ballot harvesting allegations, which led to enough evidence to obtain warrants. However, officials at LULAC – the League of United Latin American Citizens – alleged the warrant searches constituted “raids” and wrongly targeted elderly longtime volunteers who were engaged in lawful ballot collection. VERMONT GOP SEES RECORD BALLOT BOOST AS BLUE-STATE CITIZENS SEE NEED FOR CHANGE LULAC National President Roman Palomares said he is hoping to go to Washington to meet with Justice Department officials who handle civil rights cases. Palomares alleged that “100%” of those targeted were of Latino or minority ethnicity. “Two or three of our members were [subject to the searches], and they’re certified [voter] registrants,” he told Fox News Digital. “These are regular people, but for some reason they’re targeting [them].” “We think it’s unjustifiable. These are tactics that they use to suppress the vote,” Palomares said. “That’s what we feel that’s being done, and that’s why we’re here. I’m here to defend my members.” While Paxton’s office did not return a request for comment, the attorney general said in a statement that “secure elections are the cornerstone of our republic.” “We were glad to assist when the District Attorney referred this case to my office for investigation. We are completely committed to protecting the security of the ballot box and the integrity of every legal vote. This means ensuring accountability for anyone committing election crimes,” Paxton said. NEWLY REPORTED TRANSCRIPTS DEPICT COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN HINDERING LAW ENFORCEMENT AT TRUMP RALLY However, Palomares said there may be another political interest in the Uvalde-area counties where the operations took place: Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans see the 80th State House district as the Democrat seat most primed to flip red in November. Palomares argued that LULAC volunteers aren’t in Bexar County to help Democrats retain the seat, suggesting the organization is not allowed to do so. “There are folks that are working to help, not necessarily her, but to get voters registered so they can vote; we’re nonpartisan. We can’t tell them how to vote, but we want to register as many people so they can exercise their right,” he said. “And those are the folks that have been targeted. And it appears that it’s targeted around this district.” Abbott’s office did not return a request for comment on the allegation, but it did in January endorse former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, the Republican in the race. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Palomares added that one woman subject to the warrant searches was 80 years old and a former member of the LULAC board. He said law enforcement confiscated her electronics and that she told him she was embarrassed to be stuck outside her house in her nightgown around dawn. He called the way the searches were conducted “intimidation tactics.” “I don’t think it’s right. You know, she hasn’t committed a crime, hasn’t been convicted, hasn’t been hiding or anything,” Palomares said. “I mean, these are allegations that they hear from somewhere, and they come in and do things.” A spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed receipt of a letter from LULAC on Tuesday but declined to elaborate further.
Ex-Trump impeachment manager accuses House GOP of ‘fishing’ for Biden crimes after bombshell report
A House Democrat who played a major role in the first impeachment of former President Trump is criticizing Republicans’ own push against former President Biden. “I don’t see any evidence here. The problem is, is they wanted to try to create an impeachment, so they started with an impeachment and they went looking for evidence – fishing for it,” Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., told Fox News Digital last week. “There’s just nothing there. And it’s clear the report again confirms that. It’s too bad we wasted so much valuable time in Congress going through that process.” Crow was one of seven House Democrats chosen by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to make the case for impeaching Trump in 2020. He was one of just two first-term lawmakers on that team. HOUSE REPUBLICANS REFER HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES BIDEN FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY “Congress actually passed Ukraine funding. He withheld that funding, which is actually against the law – the president does not have the authority to withhold funding that’s dedicated by Congress for a specific purpose,” Crow said. “The job of the president is actually to make sure that funding is used appropriately and to implement it. So that happened, and then Congress investigated it, and then we went through an impeachment proceeding.” “Contrast that with the Republican approach, they just said they want to impeach Biden. And then they went looking for things to impeach him on – and, of course, didn’t come up with anything.” His comments come after House Republicans released a report accusing Biden of committing impeachable offenses relating to his family’s foreign business dealings. It’s the product of a years-long probe by the House committees on Oversight, the Judiciary and Ways & Means into whether Biden used his position as vice president to benefit himself or his family. HUNTER DEMANDED $10M FROM CHINESE ENERGY FIRM BECAUSE ‘BIDENS ARE THE BEST,’ HAVE ‘CONNECTIONS’ Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, pushed back on Crow’s comments via a spokesperson, telling Fox News Digital, “It comes as no surprise that a Democrat congressman who dismisses concerns about Joe Biden’s mental fitness to serve the remainder of his term also dismisses the clear evidence of Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s business schemes. “Bank records don’t lie and reveal the Bidens and their associates raked in nearly $30 million by selling the Biden brand. Multiple witnesses have confirmed Joe Biden was involved in his family’s business schemes as he dined, spoke, had coffee, and met with nearly all of his family’s foreign business associates. This is blatant corruption and abuse of public office.” The report said that “overwhelming evidence demonstrates that President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family.” FLASHBACK: HUNTER BIDEN IN 2017 SENT ‘BEST WISHES’ FROM ‘ENTIRE BIDEN FAMILY’ TO CHINA FIRM CHAIR, REQUESTED $10M WIRE “Among other aspects of this conspiracy, the Biden family and their business associates received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden,” the report said. The committees said the Biden family and its associates received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014. The White House said in response to the report last week, “This failed stunt will only be remembered for how it became an embarrassment that their own members distanced themselves from as they only managed to turn up evidence that refuted their false and baseless conspiracy theories. The American people deserve more from House Republicans, and perhaps now they will finally join President Biden in focusing on the real issues that American families actually care about.” Fox News Digital also reached out to the committees on the Judiciary and Ways & Means for comment on Crow’s remarks but did not hear back by press time.
COUNTDOWN: Harris has just 4 days left to make good on sit-down interview proclamation
The clock is ticking for Vice President Kamala Harris to schedule the formal interview she and her team promised would happen before the end of the month. After formally receiving the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Harris told reporters on the tarmac in Detroit earlier this month that she wanted to schedule her first formal interview as the party’s nominee before the end of August. Meanwhile, the exact date, time, place and media outlet that will be conducting the interview has remained a mystery, even as Harris’ self-imposed deadline quickly approaches. With only four days left this month, questions about the interview have been prevalent inside the beltway. Some of those questions include who on the Harris campaign is making the final interview decision, what kind of message Harris will try to send and who will be the figurehead posing the questions to her. SPECULATION GROWS AS KAMALA HARRIS’ FIRST INTERVIEW AS CANDIDATE STILL UNSCHEDULED WITH SEPTEMBER APPROACHING Harris campaign staffers have reportedly been asking journalists who they think the vice president should talk to, according to Politico. The outlet indicated CBS’ Norah O’Donnell and NBC’s Lester Holt were among the frontrunners. There has also reportedly been internal disagreements over how Harris should approach the interview. With less than a week remaining for Harris to get something on the calendar, some journalists have begun weighing in on the process. “I understood why Kamala Harris wasn’t doing interviews before – she was getting her policy proposals hammered out behind the scenes before the convention. But now there are no more excuses. She needs to do interviews, a lot of them. We’re picking a president here. It’s important,” said political commentator Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, which describes itself as “America’s largest online progressive news network.” “The fact that there is so much internal turmoil over doing A SINGLE INTERVIEW is itself deeply revealing,” conservative columnist Marc Thiessen wrote Tuesday morning on X, formerly Twitter. “This is not a ‘big decision.’ It exposes their lack of confidence in her and is making something that should be routine into a high stakes event.” ON DODGING THE MEDIA, KAMALA HARRIS ‘OWES RESPONSES’ TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, SAYS CAMPAIGN ADVISOR While the pressure on Harris to do an interview is getting greater by the day, some of her supporters have urged her to continue dodging the media. Rick Wilson, former GOP strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said last week that Harris “has no f—ing necessity to do interviews right now.” The same opinion was echoed by legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, who told talk show host Bill Maher last Sunday that “sometimes it’s just about f—ing winning.” “I’m going to vote for her f—ing anyway, no matter what she says in the stupid f—ing interview, so don’t f— s— up,” Tarantino added. QUENTIN TARANTINO TELLS KAMALA HARRIS TO CONTINUE DODGING INTERVIEWS UNTIL ELECTION: ‘DON’T F— S— UP’ Harris has been utilizing a lighter than normal schedule since the Democratic National Convention concluded last week, according to Politico, which reported Harris has been using the time to prepare for her upcoming Sept. 10 debate and map out her future media strategy. Fox News Digital reached out to both the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment. The Harris campaign did not provide a response, but the Trump campaign directed Fox News Digital to a Tuesday press release it put out, which called out Harris for going 37 days without an interview. “Kamala is dodging the press for a reason,” the press release stated. “She doesn’t want to talk about her radical agenda.”
Texas must build hundreds of thousands of homes to lower housing costs, says state comptroller
Texas needs hundreds of thousands more homes than it has, per one estimate. That shortage has driven up home prices and rents.
House Intel Chair Turner says Biden-Harris response on Iran threat to election is ‘dangerously insufficient’
FIRST ON FOX: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner is demanding President Biden take “immediate and forceful action” against Iran, calling his administration’s response “dangerously insufficient,” after the intelligence community determined the regime is “actively” attempting to influence the 2024 presidential election. Turner, R-Ohio, in a letter to President Biden, obtained by Fox News Digital, wrote about his “grave concern” about Iran’s activities. IRAN IS ‘INCREASINGLY AGGRESSIVE’ IN ITS OPERATIONS TO TARGET US PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: INTEL COMMUNITY “The FBI and U.S. intelligence community have unequivocally demonstrated that Iran is engaged in a systemic campaign to compromise the integrity of our democratic process,” Turner wrote. “Moreover, within the past few months, multiple individuals linked to the Iranian government have been implicated in plots to carry out political assassinations on former President Trump and members of his administration on American soil.” Turner said that despite the “severity of these threats,” the response from the Biden-Harris administration has been “dangerously insufficient.” “The failure to decisively confront Iran not only undermines the security of our electoral system but also emboldens other hostile actors who might seek to exploit this weakness,” Turner wrote, adding that allowing Iran to “persist in its misinformation and aggression not only empowers a rogue regime but also places American lives at unacceptable risk.” Turner is urging Biden to take “immediate and forceful action” to counter the threat from Iran. “Your administration must develop a comprehensive strategy to safeguard our elections and protect our citizens,” Turner wrote. “The security of our nation and the integrity of our democracy depends on a strong and proactive response.” Turner’s letter comes just days after the intelligence community said it had observed “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity” during the 2024 election cycle, involving influence operations targeting the American public and presidential campaigns. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said Monday that Iran “seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” “Iran has furthermore demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means, including through the use of cyber operations to attempt to gain access to sensitive information related to U.S. elections,” the agencies said in a joint-statement. “In addition to these sustained efforts to complicate the ability of any U.S. administration to pursue a foreign policy at odds with Iran’s interests, the IC has previously reported that Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome.” The intelligence community said it has observed “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity” during the 2024 election cycle, specifically involving “influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns.” “This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran,” they said. The FBI has been investigating Iranian cyber hacking attempts against Trump’s presidential campaign, after Politico began receiving internal Trump campaign documents. The Trump campaign said the documents were obtained “illegally from sources hostile to the United States,” who “intended to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.” FBI INVESTIGATING IRAN’S HACK OF TRUMP CAMPAIGN DOCUMENTS Iranian hackers broke into the account of a “high ranking official” on Trump’s campaign in June 2024. The hack by Iran came “after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy.” “The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.” But the intelligence community said it is “confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.” “Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process. It is important to note that this approach is not new,” they said. “Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world.” FBI INVESTIGATING IRAN’S HACK OF TRUMP CAMPAIGN DOCUMENTS The agencies stressed that “protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority.” “As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible,” they said. “We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns.” The intelligence community said it is working closely with its public and private sector partners to “share information, bolster security, and identify and disrupt any threats.” The 2024 presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris told Fox News it “vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems.” Iran has long been suspected of running hacking campaigns targeting its enemies in the Middle East and beyond. Tehran also has long threatened to retaliate against Trump over the 2020 drone strike he ordered that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani. In its report, Microsoft stated that “foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity.” The analysis continued: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran’s operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying
Arizona police org endorsing Trump crosses aisle to back progressive Dem in close Senate race
The Arizona Police Association (APA) turned heads recently by endorsing liberal Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, despite Gallego’s controversial history on law enforcement issues and the APA’s simultaneous support of former President Donald Trump. “Congressman Gallego has continually fought for robust, increased funding for America’s Law Enforcement, and specifically Arizona Law enforcement,” the APA said in a statement Monday, arguing that Gallego helped secure $168 billion in “direct support of police officers so that they have the personnel and equipment needed.” The move to back the Democrat over Republican Kari Lake comes despite the organization endorsing Lake’s bid for governor during the last election cycle and just days after it announced its endorsement of Trump in the presidential race. ‘NEVER TRUMPERS’ COALESCE BEHIND DEM TICKET IN REPUBLICANS FOR HARRIS CAMPAIGN “As a Marine combat veteran, we know Congressman Gallego understands the complexities of modern policing in American society today, while at the same time recognizing the public’s expectations,” APA President Justin Harris said in a statement posted to X. “I am proud to have the APA’s support and look forward to working with them in the Senate to ensure Arizona’s law enforcement officers have the resources necessary to combat fentanyl trafficking, train the next generation of officers, and, above all, keep Arizona families safe,” Gallego said in a statement attached to the APA release. The move also comes as Gallego’s record on police issues has come under increased scrutiny, including an Arizona Sun Times report last week that detailed the lawmaker’s record and statements on law enforcement. In one instance detailed by the report, Gallego argued for restrictions on police use of certain weapons because they “don’t know how to use” them in a “safe manner.” In another instance, he posted on social media about his effort to restrict police departments from being able to access military gear. KARI LAKE WINS GOP NOD, SETTING UP GENERAL ELECTION BATTLE WITH GALLEGO FOR SINEMA’S SEAT The report also detailed Gallego’s history of social media posts in support of Black Lives Matter in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020, including one post in which he argued that protesters “aren’t the bad guy” and that “the bad guys were the one behind the police line.” “Signing major reforms into law & transforming the culture of law enforcement remains a matter of life & death, especially for Black communities,” the Arizona lawmaker said in a separate post on the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death. “We cannot stop fighting for racial justice.” The APA’s decision was blasted by Lake’s campaign, which has made public safety a centerpiece of the race in Arizona. “Ruben Gallego supported defunding the police and vilified law enforcement while serving in Congress,” a Lake spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “He supports open borders and is weak on crime. Kari Lake will always back the blue and support law enforcement and safe communities.” Nevertheless, the APA opted to back Gallego, noting his support for legislation such as the Invest to Protect Act and Enhancing COPS Hiring Program Grants for Local Law Enforcement Act. “The APA does not take our endorsements lightly; we recognize the importance of having a U.S. senator that can bring people together to improve society for all,” he added. “We believe Congressman Gallego will be that U.S. Senator.” When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Gallego referred Fox News Digital to the lawmaker’s statement in the APA release. The APA did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.