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House Republican aims to put Democrats on the record over DSA with resolution condemning socialism

House Republican aims to put Democrats on the record over DSA with resolution condemning socialism

Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., introduced a measure Thursday condemning socialism in all its forms, telling Fox News Digital he wants to use the vote to force moderate House Democrats to take a more public stance against the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). “I keep hearing people like Hakeem Jeffries and others in the Congress saying that they oppose the DSA. Let’s see if they’re willing to vote for a resolution that would oppose them,” Crank told Fox News Digital in an interview Friday. Crank’s House resolution cites New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory as one of the clearest signposts of the DSA’s growing political momentum. A recent Brookings Institution analysis found that, as of Aug. 12, 123 candidates endorsed or recommended by national, state or local DSA chapters had won primaries this cycle. Most were running for local or state-level office. FAR-LEFT SURGE: MAMDANI-BACKED CANDIDATES OUST DEM ESTABLISHMENT INCUMBENTS Crank described the DSA movement as “anti-American” and “anti-Constitution,” arguing its members are often hostile to free speech, one of the core rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. He also accused DSA members of being antisemitic in their advocacy against Israel, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. “I would almost say the DSA in some ways is the marriage between socialism, the traditional socialism of Bernie Sanders, and the antisemitism of this sort of radical Arab movement,” Crank said. “If that’s a marriage, their child is violence, right? It’s violence and intimidation. It’s showing up at town hall meetings and trying to shout elected officials down, which, by the way, is completely anti-democratic.” MAMDANI FACES QUESTIONS OVER TIES TO OUTLET ACCUSED OF ANTISEMITIC TROPES One recent example of DSA members disrupting an elected official came in February, when the San Francisco DSA led a protest at a news conference held by Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is Jewish. Lurie was announcing a tax cut proposal when demonstrators repeatedly chanted “Tax the rich.” During the disruption, a woman also shouted, “Tax the Jews,” though DSA and other protesters said she was not affiliated with the group. Crank also took aim at several proposals contained in the DSA’s national program, arguing that they undermine “free and fair elections.” His House resolution calls for passage of the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, while also highlighting the DSA’s support for extending voting rights to “noncitizens.” According to the DSA’s program, all permanent U.S. residents should have the right to vote, as should incarcerated people and those with criminal convictions. CLINTON-APPOINTED JUDGE TRIGGERS APPEAL AFTER BLOCKING KEY VOTER CITIZENSHIP LAW The program also calls for abolishing the Senate and replacing the Supreme Court with “a judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” Crank also criticized the DSA’s explicit opposition to capitalism, arguing that socialism has repeatedly failed both in the United States and abroad. “I find it ironic that many of the people who are pushing socialism or who are involved in the DSA movement, they’re people who came here from a different country, and now they come here and want to impose … the socialism that they left, that didn’t work,” Crank said. He singled out Mamdani as “the first verified failure of socialism,” citing his pied-à-terre tax. DSA CO-CHAIR PUSHES BACK ON SOVIET UNION COMPARISONS, WANTS PRISONS TO BE ‘LESS NECESSARY’ “You’re seeing socialism at its worst in places like New York with Mamdani, who’s saying, ‘Well, I am just going to tax anybody who has a big house here,’” Crank said. “Well, people can choose to not have a house in New York. So they leave. It doesn’t work. “He’s the first one to sort of get elected, and now he’s trying to spread it and get other DSA members around the country elected.” Crank also mentioned Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old DSA member who won her Colorado primary in July after handily defeating Democratic incumbent Diana DeGette. “[Kiros] said America deserved 9/11. So, tell me why that’s different? When you have a bunch of terrorists on Sept. 11 killing Americans because of ideology, how is that different than what Mao did? It isn’t. This is the insidiousness of this movement,” Crank said. Crank’s resolution similarly draws a line between modern democratic socialists and past communist regimes under leaders such as Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin, asserting that socialism has led to famine, mass killings and more than 100 million deaths worldwide. Kiros’ comments on 9/11 stem from an interview she did June 22 with 9News journalist Kyle Clark, who asked her whether she believed the attacks were an “inevitable consequence” of American intervention. “Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And, again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros said. Crank’s resolution will be considered by the House Rules Committee on Monday, and there will be a vote likely sometime next week, the congressman told Fox News Digital.

Pennsylvania commissioner accuses Shapiro of ‘deceptive’ measles death framing as RFK Jr blasts Dem governor

Pennsylvania commissioner accuses Shapiro of ‘deceptive’ measles death framing as RFK Jr blasts Dem governor

A Pennsylvania county commissioner is challenging Gov. Josh Shapiro’s announcement of two measles-associated deaths, fueling a growing clash with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the state’s outbreak swells to 460 confirmed cases across 31 counties. Joshua Parsons, one of three Lancaster County commissioners, accused Shapiro of being intentionally “deceptive” during a news conference earlier this week, when the Democratic governor pointed to two “measles-related deaths” in the county. “Well, the governor, in the press conference, they said they were measles-associated deaths, but it was framed, and very much the underlying assertion to it, was that these were measles deaths,” Parsons told Fox News Digital. FORMER CDC ADVISER SAYS DECLINE IN KINDERGARTEN VACCINATIONS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT: ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’ During a news conference Tuesday alongside Dr. Debra Bogen at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Hospital, Shapiro announced the deaths of two people who were unvaccinated for measles. “Today, we see the consequences of a lack of immunizations in the first measles-associated deaths that our commonwealth has seen in 35 years,” Shapiro said. Shapiro strongly urged Pennsylvanians to get vaccinated for measles during the news conference. “I want to be clear: This illness and death from measles is completely preventable,” he said. Parsons said Shapiro cast the deaths as being the result of measles. MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS Parsons noted that national media outlets framed the deaths as being from measles. The New York Times, in a story Tuesday still posted to its website, added the headline, “Two Unvaccinated People Died From Measles in Pennsylvania, Officials Say.” MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS However, according to conversations he had with the Lancaster County Coroner, Parsons claimed nobody in the county has died from measles this year. “The coroner reported that they don’t have … they had zero measles deaths or measles-associated deaths reported. And in Pennsylvania, if you have someone who dies of a contagious disease, that does have to be reported to the county coroner,” Parsons told Fox News Digital. MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS The coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, has also publicly stated in interviews with local media that he had not been contacted by either Shapiro or the Pennsylvania Department of Health and was surprised to learn of the news conference. “The coroner had one case where there was an infant who died in a home birth, and he’s talked about this publicly. And that infant died with measles but not of measles. At the time of the press conference, the state did not indicate who these two cases were or anything about them. Subsequently, they came out and said that this infant is one of the ones they’re counting,” Parsons told Fox News Digital. MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in a statement to Fox News Digital, asserted that it consistently referred to the cases as “measles-associated.” “PA DOH did not describe the cause of death of either individual. As PA DOH has repeatedly made clear since Tuesday, the department consistently used the term ‘measles-associated’ in relation to these two deaths. That term means laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present — in both cases there was a positive measles test — but the disease may not be assessed by the medical certifier or coroner to be the immediate cause of death,” the statement said. MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS The coroner did acknowledge the presence of measles in the infant who died but said neither he nor the pathologist who examined the infant believed measles to be the cause of death. The coroner, according to Parsons, said the infant died of a lacerated spleen. He also said he has received no information about the second person mentioned by Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS Parsons said that suggested the deaths were not from measles. “The Health Department put out a statement in reply to some of these questions. And I think it just raised more questions, but one line they had in there was that not all deaths in Pennsylvania have to be reported to the county coroner, and that’s true. If you have, for example, an elderly person who dies of natural causes, that does not have to be investigated or reported to the coroner,” Parsons said. “But if you have someone who dies of an infectious disease, that does have to be reported. So, if there is a second death in Lancaster County, that should have been reported,” Parsons said. “Now, there’s an unlikely scenario that someone contracted measles here and then died outside the county, and that would be reported to another county coroner. And if that’s the case, which I think is highly unlikely, if it is the case, they should state that.” The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in response to Fox News Digital asking the department why it did not contact the coroner, said, “Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 (Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 P.S. Counties § 4236 | FindLaw) outlines when a coroner would be called in to investigate a death. While DOH collaborates with county coroners in various ways, including death reporting, DOH does not regulate or oversee coroner operations, nor are coroners involved in most deaths within their county. “ Kennedy was also critical of Shapiro’s comments. “Governor Shapiro’s unseemly rush to Lancaster County to convene a national press conference and his giddy delight in announcing two measles deaths was a morose commentary on the contemporary political dialogue,” Kennedy wrote in a post on X Wednesday. “The performance was a replay of the Democrats’ COVID playbook: fearmongering, misinformation, finger-pointing, and the weaponization of infectious disease fears for political gain. “The announcement appears to