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Fiery RFK flogs WHO for caving to China on COVID, celebrating pandemic ‘failures’ in stunning video to org

Fiery RFK flogs WHO for caving to China on COVID, celebrating pandemic ‘failures’ in stunning video to org

FIRST ON FOX: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a fiery prerecorded video to be broadcast before the World Health Assembly, which gathers member states of the World Health Organization, on Tuesday outlining why President Donald Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO.  “Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest and international power politics,” Kennedy said in a video exclusively shared with Fox News Digital.  “While the United States has provided the lion’s share of the organization’s funding historically, other countries such as China have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public.” Kennedy’s video, however, did not appear to air during the assembly’s gathering on Tuesday.  Video messages from foreign leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte were aired during a meeting Tuesday morning, as well as live remarks from Vice Premier of China Liu Guozhong, but Kennedy’s video did not appear to be shown, according to Fox News Digital’s review of the assembly’s livestream.  TRUMP ORDERS US WITHDRAWAL FROM WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION The World Health Assembly kicked off Monday in Geneva, where the WHO’s 194 member states convened its 78th annual meeting. Kennedy’s office sent the video to be featured during the assembly’s meeting Tuesday morning, alongside other videos of world and health leaders addressing the body.  Fox News Digital reached out to the WHO’s media team requesting details on why the video was not aired Tuesday and if the assembly planned to show it at a later time, but did not immediately receive a reply.  This year, the WHO member states are anticipated to sign a “pandemic agreement” that aims “to safeguard the world from a repeat of the suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the body.  Kennedy’s video addressed the pandemic specifically, saying the World Health Organization’s handling of COVID-19 was riddled with “failures” and exposed that the WHO “capitulated” to China. The WHO is a specialized agency focused on international health that is overseen by the United Nations.  “The WHO, under pressure from China, suppressed reports at critical junctures of human-to-human transmission and then worked with China to promote the fiction that COVID originated from bats or pangolins rather than from Chinese government-sponsored research at a biolab in Wuhan,” Kennedy said.  “Not only has the WHO capitulated to political pressure from China, it’s also failed to maintain an organization characterized by transparency and fair governance. … The WHO often acts like it has forgotten that its members must remain accountable to their own citizens and not to transnational or corporate interests,” he continued.  RFK JR’S HHS TO END ROUTINE COVID VACCINE GUIDANCE FOR CHILDREN, PREGNANT WOMEN: REPORT Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office this year announcing the U.S.’ intention to withdraw from the WHO due to its mishandling of the pandemic, as well as a host of other issues the president took issue with, such as “onerous payments” that didn’t match contributions from other member states.  “The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states. In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments,” Trump’s EO stated.  BEN & JERRY’S CO-FOUNDER ARRESTED PROTESTING SENATE HEARING: ‘RFK KILLS PEOPLE WITH HATE’ Kennedy continued in his video that “global cooperation on health is still critically important to President Trump and myself” while knocking the WHO for repeated “failures” during the pandemic that the body has since further embraced through its anticipated “pandemic agreement.”  “It isn’t working very well under the WHO. As the failures of the COVID era demonstrate, the WHO has not even come to terms with its failures during COVID, let alone made significant reforms. Instead, it has doubled down with the pandemic agreement, which will lock in all of the dysfunctions of the WHO pandemic response.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “We’re not going to participate in that,” Kennedy said. “We need to reboot the whole system, as we are doing in the United States. Here in the United States, we’re going to continue to focus on infectious disease and pandemic preparedness, but we’re also fundamentally shifting the priorities of our health agencies to focus on chronic diseases, which are prevalent in the United States.”

Soros-backed Philly DA could face uphill battle for re-election if GOP write-in scheme succeeds

Soros-backed Philly DA could face uphill battle for re-election if GOP write-in scheme succeeds

In the six-to-one Democrat stronghold of Philadelphia, winning a seat as a Republican is tough to say the least.  There hasn’t been a Republican mayor since Bernard Samuel in the 1950s, for example.  So it may not be that surprising that the local GOP has a plan it hopes will give a Democrat primary challenger to incumbent District Attorney Lawrence Krasner a crucial second round against the Soros-backed prosecutor should he get knocked out in Tuesday’s primary election. Krasner is facing fellow Democrat and former judge Pat Dugan, who also has the support of several Democrat ward committees and Philadelphia political stalwarts like state Sen. Tina Tartaglione, plus a slew of union groups like IAFF and the Teamsters. In his pitch to voters, Dugan drafted a “geographic prosecution plan” to crack down on crime in the city. 2024: THE YEAR LAW AND ORDER WAS RESTORED BY VOTERS “This plan is about more than just fighting crime—it’s about rebuilding communities. [It] will hold criminals accountable, provide second chances when appropriate, and ensure every neighborhood feels the impact of a fair and just system they can trust and believe in again,” Dugan said in a statement on his campaign site. Krasner, seeking a third term, has been lambasted for his progressive criminal justice policies and faced impeachment proceedings from Republicans in the now-Democrat-controlled State House of Representatives. In 2023, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled the GOP-controlled Senate cannot hold a trial because the House’s articles of impeachment didn’t meet the bench’s standards. One top Republican, 2022 gubernatorial nominee Sen. Doug Mastriano, notably opposed Krasner’s impeachment, quipping, “Philadelphia: They want Krasner – they like him. That’s a huge mandate.” While there was a drop in homicides year-over-year in 2023, Philadelphia saw a spike from 351 the year he took office in 2018 to 562 in 2021. Krasner also ceased charges for certain offenses like marijuana possession, eliminated cash bail for some offenders and has sought generally more lenient sentences than conservatives want. In the city where then-Mayor James Kenney did a dance on social media to celebrate its inception as a sanctuary city, Krasner has followed up by refusing to honor ICE detainer requests, saying that letting the feds tell him who to jail is unconstitutional. PHILADELPHIA DA KRASNER SLAMMED BY MURDER VICTIM’S SISTER: WE’RE FED UP Krasner’s backing from about $1.45 million in political action committee support tied to Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros has also led to criticism. Last week, Dugan told PhillyVoice the city is feeling “Krasner fatigue” after eight years. “Many people come up to me and tell stories about how upset they are with some of the policies with the DA’s office,” he said. Republicans, largely out of power in the city for decades outside of two at-large city council seats that they – or independents – must statutorily be elected to, see Dugan’s candidacy as an opportunity to oust Krasner and have a way to give him a second chance should he fail in Tuesday’s primary. The city’s Republican Party funded a website advising voters to write-in Dugan on the Republican line. By law, if Dugan receives 1,000 write-ins, he will be named the Republican general election nominee unless he declines the opportunity. That would give more city voters a chance to turn out Krasner in the November general election. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “This is about making crime in Philadelphia illegal,” PhillyGOP chair Vince Fenerty told the South Philly Review. Fox News Digital reached out to both Krasner and Dugan via their campaigns for comment but did not hear back by the publication deadline.

Flashback: Remember when Nikki Haley called for mental competency tests for all politicians 75 or older?

Flashback: Remember when Nikki Haley called for mental competency tests for all politicians 75 or older?

As she ran for the White House in the 2024 election cycle, Nikki Haley made her calls for “new generational leadership” a key component of her Republican presidential campaign. And front and center from day 1 of her campaign as the former South Carolina governor and former United Nations ambassador declared her candidacy in February 2023 was her call for “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.” As Haley challenged then-76-year-old former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination in hopes of eventually facing off in the general election against then-80-year-old President Joe Biden, the proposal became one of the most visible and at times controversial parts of her campaign stump speech. DEMOCRATS RUN THE GAUNTLET AS THEY FACE QUESTIONS OVER BIDEN’S COGNITIVE ACUITY Haley faced charges of ageism from a host of politicians opposed to the idea, including a now-83-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who at the time called her idea “absurd.” While Haley’s campaign took off, and she ended up being the last Republican candidate standing against Trump during last year’s primaries, she eventually bowed out of the race in March 2024 as Trump marched toward clinching the presidential nomination. BIDEN STRUGGLES WITH WORDS, KEY MEMORIES IN LEAKED AUDIO FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW Fast-forward to today, and long-standing questions about Biden’s physical and mental fitness – and whether Democrats should have more forcefully urged him to bow out of the 2024 race – haven’t gone away; they’re front and center. This as Biden’s condition is once again making headlines, courtesy of excerpts from a new book being released this week, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which offers claims of a White House cover-up of the then-president’s apparent cognitive decline. Additionally, last week’s leaked audio of Biden’s 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, in which the then-president appears to suffer memory lapses, is also fueling the conversation. Hur, who investigated whether Biden years earlier had improperly stored classified documents, made major headlines early last year when he decided not to charge Biden but described the then-president as an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Last week’s developments were followed by Sunday’s blockbuster announcement that Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. The news, while eliciting sympathy from both sides of the political aisle, is unlikely to sidetrack the current firestorm over the former president’s mental acuity. BIDEN’S DIAGNOSIS: CANCER DESCRIBED AS AGGRESSIVE “While the media may have been shocked by Nikki’s call for mental competency tests, Americans never were,” a source in Haley’s political orbit told Fox News. “It was common sense. Nikki always believed our leaders should be completely transparent and remember who they serve: the American people. After a yearslong cover-up, those who hid President Biden’s mental decline must finally acknowledge what Nikki and the American people always knew to be true.” Haley, who was 51 when she announced her candidacy in 2023, reupped her calls for a mental competency test throughout her campaign. In January last year, during the heat of the primary battle, Haley pointed to some verbal stumbles by Trump on the campaign trail. “He’s not what he was in 2016. He has declined. That’s a fact,” Haley said at the time. Trump repeatedly fired back as he touted acing a cognitive test he took five years earlier and said, “I think I’m a lot sharper than her.” A month later, after the release of Hur’s written report regarding Biden’s mental acuity, Haley said, “Joe Biden can’t remember major events in his life, like when he was vice president or when his son died.” “That is sad, but it will be even sadder if we have a person in the White House who is not mentally up to the most important job in the world,” she added as she reiterated her calls for Biden to take a mental competency test “immediately.” Haley, in a Fox News op-ed in May 2023, spelled out the specific test she recommended for politicians over age 75. “The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test is a widely used tool for detecting cognitive decline,” Haley wrote at the time. And she elaborated, “This is not a qualification for office. Failing a mental competency test would not result in removal. It is about transparency. Voters deserve to know whether those who are making major decisions about war and peace, taxation and budgets, schools and safety can pass a very basic mental exam.” Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, noting the current media spotlight on Biden, said it has “renewed concerns many Americans have about the age and ability of our elected officials. Public service demands clarity of thought, sound judgment, and the ability to manage complex issues.” And Lesperance, president of New England College, said “Americans must conclude that a fair and nonpartisan cognitive assessment, perhaps irrespective of age, is important to ensure all who seek to lead are equipped to serve with the sharpness and clarity the role requires.”

Pittsburgh’s progressive mayor faces stiff challenge from ‘old guard’ in primary

Pittsburgh’s progressive mayor faces stiff challenge from ‘old guard’ in primary

Pittsburgh’s mayoral race has not been competitive on a partisan level since the 1930s, but all eyes are on which way the Steel City goes in Tuesday’s primary election as the Democratic Party faces a crossroads. Incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey, seen as the more progressive choice in the race, is facing stiff competition from Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, himself the son of a Democratic mayor of Pennsylvania’s second-largest city. Gainey, the city’s first Black mayor, has at times cast himself on the national stage as a critic of President Donald Trump and his agenda, while also working to attract new business to Pittsburgh — including the 2026 NFL Draft. The draft is estimated to bring a $200 million economic boost to the area, according to a source familiar. He previously pledged not to cooperate with federal ICE operations and has also called Trump’s budget cuts a “direct attack on working families” and the economy of Western Pennsylvania. GOP WINS FIRST PHILADELPHIA STATE SENATE SEAT IN 28 YEARS, AS RED GAINS IN BLUE AREAS CONTINUE “ICE is not going to end the situation of a failed immigration policy. What it’s going to do is create more situations where people feel scared, where people don’t feel safe,” Gainey said in January – a sentiment which earned the rebuke of another Pittsburgh politician, U.S. Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa. “Gainey needs to follow the law and the lead of some other Democratic mayors working to keep our cities safe,” said McCormick, according to WTAE. Gainey’s campaign has highlighted the mayor’s efforts to increase community policing and mental health professionals to assist in police response, while O’Connor also claims the mantle of the pro-police candidate. Under Gainey, the city ranks first in state population growth and has increased its affordable housing by 1,600 units. Working with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Gainey secured $600 million for downtown revitalization and improvements to the city’s iconic Point State Park. “Thanks to our people-powered movement, our campaign has all of the momentum in this race. We’ve proven again and again since 2021 that when we come together — across race, across class, religion, age, across every line that’s ever been used to divide us — we are unstoppable,” Gainey said in a statement. On the other side, O’Connor has support from some Republican donors, as well as the “old guard” Democratic base, according to The New York Times. PA SEN MCCORMICK THANKS CASEY FAMILY FOR DECADES OF SERVICE AS DEMOCRAT DECLINES TO CONCEDE “This is an election about Pittsburgh, about how we get our city back on the right track. It’s laughable to make arguments about progressive/not progressive. The outside groups that are meddling, I guarantee you – they haven’t looked at the records of either one of us,” O’Connor told the paper. O’Connor’s campaign has also shown support for the resourcing of the police and his own plan to revitalize the downtown area. He has also received large outside contributions from groups like Common Sense Change Action and Democracy Wins, according to the Post-Gazette. On the Republican side, retired Police Det. Tony Moreno – who lost to Gainey last cycle – is running in the GOP primary against clothier Thomas West. The city has not had a Republican mayor since Mayor Charles Kline and Mayor John Herron in 1933. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP On the other side of Pennsylvania, the third-largest city – Allentown – visited multiple times by both Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 sweeps due to its “swing” congressional district — will also be holding a primary Tuesday.  Like Pittsburgh, Allentown was historically an industrial center and home to both progressives and “old guard” Democrats. Mayor Matt Tuerk, like Gainey, faces a challenge from a conservative Democrat – Councilman Ed Zucal — in another swing-state test of which wing of the Democratic Party is gaining prevalence. That city’s last Republican mayor, Bill Heydt, left office in 2002 and died in April at 86. Fox News Digital reached out to O’Connor via the controller’s office and a campaign email, but he could not be immediately reached for comment.