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WATCH: Tim Kaine rejects claims Karmelo Anthony verdict was racist

WATCH: Tim Kaine rejects claims Karmelo Anthony verdict was racist

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he has a “hard time understanding” claims that the guilty verdict in Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial was unfair or racially motivated, distancing himself from some Democrats and activists who have criticized the outcome of the case. “I have a hard time understanding why they would say that,” Kaine said when asked about claims from some Democrats that Anthony’s guilty verdict was unfair or racially charged. The Virginia Democrat’s comments come after protests and online criticism emerged following Tuesday’s verdict. Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being found guilty of intentionally stabbing and murdering Austin Metcalf. Kaine’s comments stand in contrast with remarks from Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who has publicly described Anthony as a “scared Black boy” and argued he was not shown enough “mercy” following the verdict. AUSTIN METCALF’S DAD EXPRESSES EMPATHY FOR KARMELO ANTHONY AS KILLER’S PARENTS SAY ‘THEY DID A NUMBER ON US’ Fox News Digital asked Kaine his thoughts on Democrats, like Crockett, claiming the trial was unfair because of the belief that the verdict was racially motivated or that Anthony was not given a fair trial because of his race. “I know what they’re saying, but I have a hard time understanding,” Kaine reiterated. KARMELO ANTHONY TRIAL BEGINS WITH NO BLACK JURORS IN RACIALLY-CHARGED CASE OVER TRACK MEET STABBING Crockett took to her podcast, “Clock it with Crockett,” 19 hours after Anthony was found guilty in court. During the episode, she criticized the racial makeup of the jury and claimed the knife that Anthony used to stab Metcalf to his death was “not a deadly weapon.” “I would argue the size of it alone, you wouldn’t even think it’s a deadly weapon,” Crockett said about the murder weapon that was discovered and confirmed to be the knife used to pierce Metcalf’s heart, leading to his death on the scene. She claimed the jurors were all “White folk,” and sources close to the trial told Fox News Digital that there were three jurors who were racial minorities. They said that of the 18 total jurors, including alternates, six were minorities. Crockett also said on her podcast that if she were in Anthony’s position, referencing the altercation that led to Metcalf’s death, she would have done the same thing in self-defense. KARMELO ANTHONY STAYS SILENT AS ANALYSTS WARN DEFENSE FACES UPHILL BATTLE IN TRACK MEET STABBING TRIAL She also claimed the victim’s family had never experienced living in the “fear and agony” that Black people live with every day. While Crockett is the only member of Congress to publicly make such claims since the guilty verdict was given, many activists agree with Crockett’s take, claiming Anthony’s actions were made in self-defense, often noting the 38-pound size difference between Anthony and Metcalf. Protests broke out outside the courthouse on Tuesday, and criticism of the verdict and claims that Anthony did not receive a fair trial continue to circulate online. Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.

Abbott turns up heat on Talarico, Soros-backed DAs over Texas crime

Abbott turns up heat on Talarico, Soros-backed DAs over Texas crime

As Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico works to brand himself as a “law and order Democrat,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is rolling out a sweeping public safety agenda that could force the left’s rising star to defend parts of his legislative record on crime, bail reform and policing. Abbott, who is pushing to remove so-called “rogue” prosecutors, create a statewide prosecutor and deny bail to illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes, told Fox News Digital the proposals are necessary. “Texas Democrats have consistently sided with criminals over the citizens they were elected to protect,” Abbott told Fox News Digital, adding, “Keeping dangerous offenders behind bars is one of the most important responsibilities of government.” While Abbott’s proposals still need approval from lawmakers, they are already shaping a broader debate over crime and public safety in Texas ahead of the midterm elections. TRAVIS COUNTY DA FACES RENEWED ‘SOFT ON CRIME’ CRITICISM AFTER CAREER CRIMINAL CHARGED WITH MURDER Talarico has highlighted endorsements from law enforcement figures, including former Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno, to bolster his public safety record, but Abbott’s allies argue his voting record and absences from key public safety votes tell a different story. Talarico was absent for a vote on a bill named after slain Houston preteen Jocelyn Nungaray that would have automatically denied bail to illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes. Talarico’s campaign defended the missed vote, telling Fox News Digital Talarico had an excused absence. The bill ultimately failed to pass, but Abbott is seeking to revive the measure. Among the public safety measures Talarico voted against were House Bill 1900, which prevented Texas cities from defunding their police departments; House Bill 20, which tightened bail restrictions for violent offenders; and Senate Bill 4, which established mandatory prison sentences for human smuggling and stash house operations. Abbott later signed all three measures into law. “James Talarico’s disastrous record on public safety is indistinguishable from the Texas Democrats who have repeatedly opposed common-sense measures to support law enforcement and keep violent criminals off the streets,” Eduardo Leal, press secretary for Abbott’s campaign, told Fox News Digital. “He’s led his Democrat colleagues to vote against legislation that prevented cities from defunding the police and twice failed to show up for votes to deny bail to illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes.” Talarico’s campaign has pushed back on Abbott’s characterization, pointing to Talarico previously voting in favor of Abbott’s sweeping bail reform measure passed last year and voting for billions of dollars in funding for Texas law enforcement. “This baseless attack is a flat-out lie. James opposes defunding the police, has voted to deny bail for violent criminals, supports prosecuting violent felons, and has a proven track record of sending billions of dollars to support law enforcement,” Talarico’s campaign spokesperson JT Ellis said in a statement. But as crime continues to dominate headlines nationwide, Texas has not been immune, with Abbott blaming what he describes as soft-on-crime district attorneys for failing to hold offenders accountable. Abbott’s campaign team pointed to the release of two murder suspects in Austin on reduced bonds after Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza’s office missed the 90-day deadline for securing indictments last year. Meanwhile, Garza’s office has secured the indictments of 21 police officers over allegations of misconduct in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON SUED OVER NEW RULE TO REIN IN ‘ROGUE’ DAS BY ALLOWING HIM ACCESS TO THEIR CASE RECORDS And in court Monday, a judge dismissed two motions targeting the Travis County District Attorney, first assistant and several prosecutors, meaning they are no longer facing allegations of criminal wrongdoing. Abbott’s office says concerns about district attorneys such as Garza are driving its push to create a Texas statewide prosecutor, a new office that would operate separately from the attorney general’s office and focus on prosecuting the state’s most serious crimes. The proposal to create a Texas statewide prosecutor would require approval from the Texas Legislature, which would need to establish and fund the new office through statute. Unlike some of Abbott’s other public safety initiatives, the measure would not require a constitutional amendment. An official from Abbott’s campaign team told Fox News Digital that creating this new office is necessary because current state statutes provide that the attorney general’s office has no general prosecutorial authority. Criminal prosecutions are generally handled by locally elected district and county attorneys, and the Attorney General may intervene only when authorized by statute, requested by local prosecutors, or otherwise permitted by law. Under the proposal, if a district attorney does not pursue an indictment within 90 days, the statewide prosecutor would be authorized to intervene and take over the prosecution. GOV ABBOTT UNVEILS NEW CAMPAIGN EXPOSING HORRIFIC DANGERS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION Police departments would be required to send reports involving certain serious crimes to both local district attorneys and the statewide prosecutor, enabling the office to track cases from the beginning. Garza dubbed Abbott’s sweeping criminal justice reform proposal to be a “distraction from the governor’s litany of failures.” “Under his leadership, Texans are paying more for groceries, public schools are losing funding, and too many Texans lack access to healthcare and mental healthcare,” Garza said. Abbott’s other two legislative requests — ending bail for illegal immigrants and making it possible to impeach district attorneys — would require a statewide vote by Texans. Last month, Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to expand the Texas Repeat Offender Task Force from the Houston area into the Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin regions, saying the effort will help target violent repeat offenders and improve public safety. Since launching in October, the task force has arrested 728 repeat offenders, including 455 high-threat suspects; seized large quantities of drugs and weapons; encountered 155 known gang members; and recovered 25 stolen vehicles. “The choice in this election is clear,” Abbott said. “Republicans will protect communities and prosecute criminals, while Democrats stand with the very people who threaten public safety.”

California accused of blocking federal voter roll audit as DOJ escalates probe of election fraud claims

California accused of blocking federal voter roll audit as DOJ escalates probe of election fraud claims

The Justice Department is escalating its clash with California over voter-roll access, accusing state officials of blocking a federal audit — though Golden State officials warn the demand threatens voter privacy and oversteps federal authority. The dispute centers on voter roll maintenance and access to registration records, not any publicly identified allegation of impropriety in a specific California race. “If California genuinely wants voters to trust its elections, it should open its records, not fight to keep them closed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said in a lengthy post on X that included a copy of a letter U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ office enforcing federal voting-rights laws, sent to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber last year demanding the state’s voter rolls for inspection.  “What are they afraid of?,” Essayli questioned. MORE THAN 500,000 CALIFORNIANS DEMAND VOTING OVERHAUL, BACK ‘STRAIGHTFORWARD’ ID LAW Dhillon’s letter followed an Aug. 8 response from Weber’s office raising concerns about privacy protections that could be implicated by the state voter-registration data sought by the federal government. A spokesperson from California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office told Fox News Digital that “every federal court to consider the issue has ruled U.S. DOJ’s demands violate federal law,” adding that “unlike this federal administration, we don’t do things that are illegal.” Weber’s office offered to let DOJ inspect a redacted voter-registration database by appointment in Sacramento, arguing that satisfied their legal obligations, but Dhillon rejected that proposal and demanded an electronic copy of the statewide voter list “with all fields,” according to legal filings from the ongoing dispute taking place in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. “We also have serious concerns about how California maintains its voter rolls,” Essayli wrote in his X post, calling out California Democrats for blocking the federal audit of their voter rolls. “There are open questions about whether the state is promptly removing deceased voters, people who have moved, and individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies.”  Essayli also highlighted how California’s rules allow certain first-time voters who do not provide a Social Security number or driver’s license when registering to verify their identity with documents including gym membership cards, employer IDs, credit or debit cards, prescription labels and insurance cards — a policy his office says warrants scrutiny. NONCITIZENS ON VOTER ROLLS IN DEMOCRAT-RUN STATE EXPOSED AS RNC CHAIR PLEDGES SECURE ELECTIONS “On top of that, California allows third parties to collect and turn in ballots on voters’ behalf (a practice known as ballot harvesting) with few restrictions,” Essayli added. “This makes it difficult to track who actually received, completed, and submitted each ballot.” The California Attorney General’s office pushed back on Essayli’s framing, noting that DOJ had already lost the case at the district court level and that the pending Ninth Circuit fight stems from the federal government’s appeal of that dismissal. A U.S. District Judge dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuit in January, with the presiding judge writing that the department was seeking “an unprecedented amount of personal information” from California’s unredacted voter rolls, including names, Social Security numbers, home addresses, voting history and other sensitive information from nearly 23 million Californians. The judge also wrote that DOJ could not use federal election laws in a way that “wholly disregards the separation of powers provided for in the Constitution.” FEDERAL JUDGE REJECTS TRUMP ADMIN LAWSUIT SEEKING MICHIGAN VOTER ROLLS A spokesperson for Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office highlighted in a statement to Fox News Digital that the DOJ has brought approximately 30 voter roll lawsuits nationwide and has lost all eight voter roll cases that have been decided to date. The fight for federal access to California’s voter rolls comes as voter roll maintenance has been a concern of President Donald Trump and Republicans nationally. “If fraudsters do it right, it can be many, many more votes like this,” Illinois GOP Chairman Bob Grogan told Fox News Digital two weeks ago after a Democratic city official in his state turned herself in for allegedly using her dead mother’s name to vote. Grogan expressed particular concern with mail-in balloting, even though he did recognize its necessity in some cases. TRUMP-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE TOSSES DOJ LAWSUIT SEEKING ARIZONA VOTER DATA “Mail ballots are especially vulnerable, which is why they should be secured, should never be mailed without a specific request from the voter, and should always be verified before they are tabulated. This case also shows how essential it is to maintain clean voter rolls,” Jason Snead, who runs the Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital about the Illinois case. “Had the list maintenance process been slower, it is possible this illegal vote would have been counted before the fraud was discovered. Unfortunately, too many states — particularly blue states — actively resist commonsense safeguards, which begs the question: how many other illegal votes have slipped through the system?” Dead registrants have also fueled broader scrutiny of voter roll maintenance nationally.  North Carolina election officials said in April they identified roughly 34,000 deceased people still listed on the state’s voter rolls after a federal database comparison, while other recent local controversies have included allegations or investigations involving deceased voters appearing on registration lists or absentee-ballot records. Republicans have argued cases such as these show why states should be more transparent about how they maintain voter lists. RNC Chairman Joe Gruters told Fox News Digital that the New Jersey records were “eye-opening” and said the party has sought voter roll maintenance information from nearly every state. DOJ has already pursued a similar records fight inside California, suing Orange County’s registrar last year for allegedly refusing to provide records to help remove noncitizens from its voter-registration list. At the time, Dhillon said removing noncitizens from California’s voter rolls was “critical” to ensuring the state’s rolls are accurate and that elections are conducted without fraudulent voting.