This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump, at the Al Smith Charity Dinner in Manhattan, a tradition for presidential candidates, took a few moments of his speech to express his faith.

He's been derided by Democrats and other leftists for being crude at times, but he closed his speech with revelations about his own beliefs.

"You don't hear about the American Dream anymore. We're going to make it possible for them to have that dream again. This is a very religious evening for me. It really is. It represents so much. My sister was someone who loved the (Catholic) Church and gave to the Church. The cardinal knew that," he said.

"Having recently, myself, survived two assassination attempts—yes, I survived. I have a chart that went down to the right. Fortunately, I looked at it. It's my all-time favorite piece of paper. It went down, and I looked to the right, and I said, 'Was that luck? Was that God?' I think it was God that did that. I really do.

"But I have a very fresh appreciation for how blessed we are by God's providence and His divine mercy. I mean, that was something. I wasn't supposed to be here tonight, that I can tell you. With God's help, I know there is nothing we cannot achieve. We can achieve so much good for this country and get together and unify.

"I want to thank the Al Smith Foundation for its noble work, and I want to express my tremendous gratitude to the Catholic community. It's a great community, one I've gotten along with all my life":

Kamala Harris, invited, only sent a video statement to the event, which hadn't been skipped by a presidential candidate since Walter Mondale gave it the thumbs down, and subsequently lost the election.

The Gateway Pundit posted online a full transcript of Trump's address, which did document how he can turn snarky about his opposition in the 2024 presidential race.

The "top jabs," listed by the publication included, ""Well, I'd better wrap up because Mayor Adams told me earlier that I needed to make this one very quick, especially the city has reserved this room for a large group of illegal aliens coming in from Texas."

He took several opportunities to make fun of the pro-transgenderism agenda adopted by the Biden-Harris regime:

"Chuck Schumer is here looking very glum. He looks glum. He looks glum. But look on the bright side, Chuck, considering how woke your party has become. If Kamala loses, you still have a chance to become the first woman president."

And he joked about the Democrats' extensive lawfare campaign against him, in which they've weaponized the Department of Justice and multiple local prosecutors to bring various wild charges against him.

"These days, it's a pleasure to be anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance. Any time I don't get a subpoena, I'm very happy," he said.

And he ridiculed the media, with, "But I have to be careful, though, because this will be the first time in the history of this event where jokes will be fact-checked."

He cited Harris' absence: "It's been a long tradition for both Democratic and Republican candidates for president of the United States to attend this dinner. Always, it's a rule. You got to go to the dinner. You got to do it. Otherwise, bad things are going to happen to you from up there. You can't do what I just saw on that screen. But my opponent feels like she doesn't have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and, in particular, to our great Catholic community. Very disrespectful.

"The last Democrat not to attend this important event was Walter Mondale, and it did not go very well for him. He lost 49 states and only won one—Minnesota. So I said, 'There's no way I'm missing it.'"

He continued, "And we are doing well, by the way. The votes are starting to come in. You've got to get out and vote. Catholics, you've got to vote for me. Just remember, you better remember—I'm here, and she's not. I could have skipped this, but I didn't. You do something that's incredible—the Catholic Church—you're helping the poor, educating children, and supporting the vulnerable. But if you really wanted Vice President Harris to accept your invitation, I guess you should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis. Then she would have been here, guaranteed. She would have been here. Guaranteed."

He also addressed Harris' interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, in which she essentially refused to answer any of his questions, instead diverting to other topics.

Trump said, "And as you may have seen, Kamala did an interview on Fox News yesterday. It went so poorly for her that the Democrats have been forced to install another 100 drop boxes throughout the city. And the upside is, Kamala now sees the benefit of deportation. She wants to deport people—she's vicious! She wants to deport people, and she wants to start by deporting Bret Baier from Fox."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The terror mastermind of October 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel and terrorized innocent civilians, ultimately murdering or kidnapping some 1,500, apparently is dead, according to reports.

ZeroHedge notes that Israeli officials believe they struck Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during an army attack on a building in Rafah, in Gaza.

"The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) which were operating in south Gaza were not specifically seeking to target him, but a body recovered at the scene suggests he may have been killed. Israeli sources and media are saying there is a 'high likelihood' Sinwar has been killed," the report said.

It reported Israeli military officials released a statement that, "At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed."

It was the Washington Post that confirmed, "A body, believed to be Sinwar's, is being brought to Israel for DNA analysis, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly."

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, had explained weeks ago that Israel had Sinwar's DNA, "from when he was in jail," so a positive identification eventually should be possible.

According to Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal, "A reserve IDF force operating near Rafah spotted three armed men in a building, which was then hit by a drone/tank shell."

The report noted Eyal added, "A man resembling Sinwar and a Hamas regiment commander were found dead with a substantial amount of cash and weapons. This was part of the ongoing IDF operation, not a targeted assassination. No hostages are believed to have been present, but the ground is being inspected to confirm."

Sinwar has been Hamas' leader since 2017, but has not been seen in public since that October 7 terrorism, said the report, which added, "It would certainly mark the biggest development of the conflict since the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31st of this year."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

It was Barack Obama who, shortly after his party's convention, appeared in a television ad promoting President Donald Trump's candidacy.

He insisted that America doesn't need "another four years" of bumbling and bluster.

Then it was Bill Clinton who appeared, explaining that the victim of a murderous illegal alien probably would be alive had not Joe Biden and Kamala Harris allowed in unvetted illegals.

Now it's Harris herself with words in support of Trump's campaign.

Only, she likely didn't mean them the way they came out:

A commentary at the Twitchy site explained the answer came from Harris while on "The View" in what was "clearly" nothing but a "softball chat and fawn-fest."

"During what was supposed to be a cake walk of a friendly chat for Harris, 'The View' co-host Sunny Hostin performed an accidental act of journalism after asking the Democrat nominee what she would have done differently from Joe Biden over these last nearly four years."

Her "awkward answer' was, "There is not a thing that comes to mind."

The ad then, cites illegal aliens, skyrocketing prices and global chaos, all under the Biden-Harris administration.

"And Kamala wouldn't change a thing," a narrator explains, just before she confirms that.

Clinton's comments came earlier, a harsh verdict on the Biden-Harris open borders policy allowing millions of illegal aliens simply to walk into America.

And Obama's remarks? They were at the Democrats' convention.

"We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos," he shouted. "We have seen that movie before and we all know that the sequel us usually worse."

The irony, of course, is that while Obama undoubtedly was trying to denigrate Trump's first term as he seeks a second, the current administration is run by Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and Obama's description easily could apply to those two.

The ad ends, as per standards, with, "I'm Donald J. Trump and I approved this message."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

CBS has established such a reputation for dissing Republicans and promoting Democrats that there have been calls for the organization to report its air time as a donation to the political campaign of Kamala Harris, or even lose its broadcasting license.

The network staged a vice presidential debate with biased moderators, edited a Harris interview to actually insert an answer in place of her word salad, and now U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson "brings ALL the receipts" to show how CBS is continuing its political campaigning.

It was a commentary at the Twitchy website that monitors social media reports that explained under its headline, "Speaker Johnson reveals deceptive CBS interview manipulation and brings ALL the receipts," that not only does the legacy network edit interviews to "HELP Democrats" then "also edit interviews to try and make Republicans look dumb."

Johnson posted online the evidence and told viewers, "You can be the judge as to why."

He explained, "I recently traveled to NC and victims of Hurricane Helene told me nearly two weeks after landfall, the Biden-Harris Administration had STILL not provided them with all the resources they desperately needed. But CBS selectively edited OUT ENTIRELY this first-hand perspective."

Further, he said, "Apparently, CBS also doesn't want you to hear about Virginia Gov. Youngkin, who is trying to clean the state's voter rolls so non-American citizens can't vote there. We need more states doing this, but the Biden-Harris Administration is SUING VIRGINIA and trying to STOP it."

It gets worse, he confirms, "The Biden-Harris Admin let millions of illegal aliens in our country. So, the House passed the SAVE Act to ensure only American citizens vote in American elections. CBS edited that out and focused on 2020 instead of immediate threats to election integrity."

WND reported last week when the network confirmed its support for Harris, by inserting into an interview an answer that she had not delivered to that question.

See the video (Please be aware of one scatological reference to her comments in the video description):

The interview included Bill Whitaker asking: "But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?"

Harris' actual response: "Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region."

Then "60 Minutes" edited her response, apparently to make it better?

Bill Whitaker: "But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?"

Harris: "We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end."

Talk show host Glenn Beck also commented:

As WND reported, former President Trump hammered CBS News and "60 Minutes" on Sunday for its deceptive editing of its interview with Harris.

"Let's talk about the single greatest scandal, in my opinion, in broadcast history," Trump said.

"'60 Minutes' and CBS interviewed Kamala, and she's incompetent. She gave them the dumbest answer anyone's ever heard. So they took that answer out, the whole answer they threw out, and they took another answer that she gave to a totally different question and inserted it. And supposedly, they did this a number of times. And they got caught. '60 Minutes' and CBS should lose their license for that."

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It was during the JD Vance-Tim Walz vice presidential debate that CBS' bias was on show. WND reported then that there were accusations of "unethical journalistic malpractice" for a moderator.

While both moderators, Nora O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan, previously had expressed criticism of President Donald Trump, it was Brennan's behavior toward Vance that prompted an editorial in the Washington Examiner that described her behavior:

After Vance detailed how President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris "brought in millions of illegal immigrants," some of whom are overwhelming schools and hospitals and driving up housing prices, Brennan jumped in to editorialize, asserting, "Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status — temporary protected status."

Vance responded, "Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check, and since you're fact-checking me, I think it's important to say what's actually going on." He then gave a detailed and accurate explanation of how Biden and Harris created a smartphone app called the CBP One app that lets illegal immigrants fly into the United States and receive temporary "parole" status that expires in two years.

"That is the facilitation of illegal immigration, Margaret," Vance explained, "by our own leadership. And Kamala Harris opened up that pathway." Brennan then cut Vance's microphone.

The commentary noted it was "unethical journalistic malpractice. She falsely or misleadingly fact-checked the Republican's comments and then, instead of facilitating a proper airing of the issue, silenced the candidate who was making them and the Democrat look ignorant and dishonest."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Democrats long have claimed they are trying to "save democracy" in their attacks on President Donald Trump and his campaign to be returned to the Oval Office in this election.

They've made wild claims that he would never leave office, that he would become a dictator, that he would charge his political opponents with crimes, a practice they've actually used against him repeatedly. They all are allegations based on few facts other than the one that he likely would not do what they want him to do if he's in office.

But as the Kamala Harris campaign sinks lower as election day in November gets closer, they now have revealed how far they will go to "save" democracy. They would destroy it.

"With the end of the Biden administration in sight, liberal pundits seem to be striving to prove that the only difference between a lawbreaker and a law-abiding citizen is the ability to get away with the crime. Popular figures on the left from Michael Moore to Keith Olbermann are calling on President Joe Biden to commit overtly unlawful acts in his final 100 days in office, including targeting his political opponents. In one of the few statements of Moore with which I agree, he stated that this is 'no joke.' It certainly is not," explained constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, who not only has testified before Congress on the fine points of the Constitution but also has represented members in court in those disputes.

"In a posting on Substack, Moore told Biden that it was time to yield to temptation and check off a liberal 13-item 'bucket list' of demands, tossing aside questions of legality or constitutionality in the process," he explained.

Moore's demand to Biden was: "You're not done. You've still got 100 days left in office! And the Supreme Court has just granted you super powers — AND immunity! You don't answer to anyone. For the first time in over 50 years, you don't have to campaign for anything…'You have full immunity! No kidding! No joke! That's not hyperbole! You can get away with anything! And what if anything means everything to the people?'"

Turley explained, "The list includes emptying death row, canceling all student and medical debt, halting weapons shipments to Israel, ending the death penalty, declaring the Equal Rights Amendment a constitutional amendment, and granting clemency to nonviolent drug offenders. … Other pundits have pushed Biden and Democrats to take some of the actions on Moore's list before the end of the administration."

But he said such "constitutional looting would endanger not just the Constitution but the country as a whole if Biden were to heed this advice."

"Many of these items could only be fulfilled by knowingly gutting the Constitution and assuming the powers of a monarch. That includes just canceling all student and medical debt in defiance of both the courts and Congress," he noted.

Another leftist cited for his advocacy for illegality was Olbermann, who wants Biden to take into custody his political enemies and send them out of the country.

"If we can't do that by conventional means, President Biden, you have presidential immunity. Get Elon Musk the F out of our country and do it now," he said.

The leftists' claims that the president has "immunity" comes from the fact they lost a Supreme Court ruling in one of their lawfare cases against President Trump. The high court said a president does have some immunity, but not in every case, a middle-ground decision that provides protection for official acts, but not every act.

The "disregard" for the law previously was voiced by "liberal academics like Harvard Professor Lawrence Tribe. Indeed, his past 'just do it' approach was not dissimilar in advice to Biden. For example, the Biden administration was found to have violated the Constitution in its imposition of a nationwide eviction moratorium through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Biden admitted that his White House counsel and most legal experts told him the move was unconstitutional. But he ignored their advice and went with that of Harvard University Professor Laurence Tribe, the one person who would tell him what he wanted to hear," Turley's commentary noted.

Turley said the fact that that pundits and law professors are repeating the "clearly erroneous" claim about immunity "is a measure of the triumph of rage over reason today."

He cited the court's ruling on immunity, where it "found that there was absolute immunity for actions that fall within their 'exclusive sphere of constitutional authority' while they enjoy presumptive immunity for other official acts. They do not enjoy immunity for unofficial, or private, actions."

He noted that should a president like Biden actually deliberately violate the Constitution, courts would act quickly.

"Figures like Moore suggest that it would not matter. If so, Biden would not only flagrantly violate the Constitution, but then defy the authority of the federal courts. That includes unilaterally declaring an unratified amendment as ratified based on a meritless claim by the far left," he wrote.

He warned the situation "shows how the line between tyranny and democracy can be lost in an age of rage."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A new database has revealed the "Dirty Dozen," the 12 "worst-offending" hospitals in America for inflicting transgender agenda injuries on children.

And Mat Staver, the chief of Liberty Counsel, which has battled the leftist, and unscientific, ideology that males can be turned into females and vice versa, said, "Mutilating children for profit is criminal. It is biologically impossible to change one's gender.

"The insanity of gender ideology and greed has made a mockery of the medical profession's duty to 'do no harm.' There are only two genders, and the medical profession needs to return to sound science to treat mental health issues with proven psychiatric therapies to heal rather than harm."

Under the science, being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level, and it cannot change.

Not surprising, many of the offending hospitals are located in far-left states, where the social agenda has taken over.

So it would be expected that Children's Hospital Colorado, in the leftist Rocky Mountain state, and Children's Minnesota, in that state now run by leftist Gov. Tim Walz, and Seattle Children's, in the leftist Pacific region state, are included.

The full list of those hospitals:

  • The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Connecticut Children's Medical Center
  • Children's Minnesota
  • Seattle Children's
  • Children's Hospital Los Angeles
  • Boston Children's Hospital
  • Rady Children's Hospital
  • Children's National Medical Center
  • UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland
  • Children's Hospital Colorado
  • UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
  • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

The listing is from a database compiled by Stop the Harm.

The Liberty Counsel report on those issue explained, "The group determined these 12 hospitals were the worst offenders based on a variety of factors, such as their community and legislative activism in favor of gender interventions, the number of prescriptions for puberty blockers and hormones written for minors, the severity of the procedures performed on children, and the cumulative amount of insurance claims billed for these interventions.

"According to the database, the top billing hospitals were Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York billing more than $8.2 million and Boston Children's Hospital billing more than $6.5 million. The database also contains a detailed breakdown of each state and hospital where gender-related interventions were performed on children in the time period analyzed. The top states in both number of children mutilated and in total revenue for hospitals were California, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Specifically for California, with three hospitals on the 'dirty dozen'" list, the state recorded 1,359 mutilating surgeries and 725 minors prescribed puberty blockers and hormones – all at a cost of $28,877,427."

The report cited the nearly 14,000 "gender-confused children" "mutilated" by an industry that inflicts "harmful and irreversible genital surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormones" between 2019 and 2023.

The facilities were paid some $120 million for that, the report said.

Stop the Harm is a coalition of thousands of doctors, nurses, medical students and more "focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice."

Liberty Counsel revealed, "According to recent, peer-reviewed research published by the Heritage Foundation, U.S. states with easy access to puberty blockers and hormones for children actually have increased suicide rates. Additional data shows up to 88 percent of girls and up to 98 percent of boys with gender confusion 'will desist' from gender confusion with age, especially with counseling."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

COVID-19, that modified bat virus first spotted near a Chinese research institute that was toying around with those dangerous pathogens, undoubtedly was and remains a threat to many people.

But the shots that the world's pharmaceuticals created to battle it also have been found to be related to heart diseases and failures as well as a multitude of other health threats.

Now even the World Health Organization, that bureaucracy that worked with China first to conceal the threat, then demanded entire populations be forced to take the experimental COVID shots, has admitted that they are problematic.

To the point they now are being blamed for creating a side effect: "Monkeypox."

It is Slay News that revealed the admission by the WHO, a part of the United Nations.

The report confirmed the "admission" is buried deep on the WHO's Vigiaccess web page.

Among the "known" side effects of the use of Pfizer's BioNTech vaccine, WHO now lists "monkeypox," "smallpox," and "cow pox."

Along with a long list of additional threats.

"The website contains a database that lists all known side effects of all drugs and vaccines that have been approved for public use," the report said.

The report adds, "They are listed under 'infections and infestations' that emerge as 'side effects' of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine."

The report noted the website was working when the report was assembled, "However, a swift cover-up usually ensues when we draw attention to such things."

The site noted it earlier reported a renowned German physician confirmed at the time the monkeypox "outbreak" was a hoax and it was just side effects from the COVID mRNA treatments delivered to patients.

It was Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg who said reports of a monkeypox "global emergency" was just "fearmongering."

The report continued, "These bombshell developments emerged after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a shocking admission about the monkeypox "vaccines." As Slay News reported, the FDA quietly admitted that people who are unvaccinated for monkeypox could face "serious complications," including "death," if they come into "close contact" with those who have been vaccinated for the virus."

It said, "Alarmingly, those risks are not limited to those who receive the shots as the side effects can also be suffered by unvaccinated people who have "physical contact" with the vaccinated."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The famed Christian organization launched by evangelist Billy Graham is being forced to fight a leftist organization over its allegedly illegal use of Billy Graham's image.

It's in a political ad that a far-left organization calling itself Evangelicals for Harris has created, and is pushing to try to persuade voters to support Kamala Harris, with her pro-abortion, pro-transgender, anti-faith agenda.

It is a report from Religion News Servicea that outlines the fight:

The ad begins with a clip of renowned evangelist the Rev. Billy Graham, wearing glasses, a gray suit and tie, leaning in toward a pulpit.

"But you must realize that in the last days, the times will be full of danger," Graham declares. "Men will become utterly self-centered and greedy for money."

Suddenly, a clip of former President Donald Trump is spliced in. Standing before a row of American flags at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump says: "My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy. I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy."

For the next few seconds, the ad, which has racked up over 30 million views, flips between Graham's 1988 sermon, contrasting his points with shots of Trump using violent language, claiming to be "the chosen one" and talking about kissing women without their consent.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, while explaining it normally does not comment on disputes like this, did confirm in the report that it has communicated with the leftists promoting Harris' campaign about the "unauthorized, political use of BGEA's copyrighted video."

The report said the Harris fans also confirmed they'd gotten multiple letters from lawyers for the association, including a "cease-and-desist" order.

"It may be worth noting that, in all of his years of ministry and across relationships with 11 U.S. presidents, Billy Graham sought only to encourage them and to offer them the counsel of Christ, as revealed through God's Word. He never criticized presidents publicly and would undoubtedly refuse to let his sermons be used to do so, regardless of who is involved," the BGEA statement explained.

The report pointed out that Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, now is head of the organization, and was on social media earlier explaining the apparent violations by the Harris group.

He pointed out, "The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris. They even developed a political ad trying to use my father @BillyGraham's image. They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don't know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father's views and opinions would not have changed."

The Harris organization said it was only holding "Trump's own words up to the light of Scripture, the necessity of repentance, and Biblical warnings against leaders exactly like Trump."

The Harris group lawyers also claim that they have a First Amendment right to the material as part of their public discussion of Trump.

Promoters of the video also are using the often-repeated Democrat trope that Trump is a threat to democracy, when in fact Joe Biden and Kamala Harris often have used their ability to rewrite federal rules and regulations to violate the Constitution, as evidenced by the many lawsuits over those disputes.

Further, Harris openly has bragged about her plans to walk into homes when she wants to determine whether people are storing their guns properly, and her vice presidential nominee has confirmed he does not believe the First Amendment protects all Americans' speech. He also wants to gut the Constitution's outline for the Electoral College in elections.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Kamala Harris can't think of anything she would have done differently than Joe Biden.

That, apparently, defines her plans for America for the next four years if she's elected.

In a sympathetic and supportive television interview, she was asked about that specific subject.

After all, she's been campaigning on how voters are ready to "turn the page" and to "move on" from the most recent administration, which would be Joe Biden and her.

"If anything, you would have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?"

"There is not a thing that comes to mind," she said.

JD Vance had an immediate comment ready for that.

"In her defense, I'm not sure she can think of ANYTHING off the top of her head."

One person on social media explained, "Maybe she was just trying to give her brain a warm-up lap before tackling that question. It's tough when your thoughts are on a coffee break!"

But the fact is she's been campaigning as if she is a new and promising candidate with new ideas. In fact, she's had nearly four years to implement her solutions for America, and has not brought any to fruition.

In fact, Biden has confirmed she was an integral part of his administration's decisions that left Americans with 21% inflation, massive costs for food and fuel, a deteriorating international reputation with multiple wars on the horizon and a catastrophe at the southern border, where millions of illegal aliens essentially have been invited in by Biden and Harris.

Trump pointed out the failing in Harris' argument during the presidential debate.

"Why hasn't she done it" already, he wondered about her plans. "She's been there for three and a half years."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A school principal in Washington state has been placed on leave after she made comments that the swastika, a Nazi symbol that in today's world is totally banned in Germany, actually sometimes is a symbol of "peace."

A report by the KIRO7 broadcast outlet explained the Bellevue school district also was apologizing for the comments.

The situation developed when one of the symbols was found on a wall of a playground.

The report explained that Principal Heather Skookal, of Phantom Lake Elementary, responded with several comments. One was that there were "multiple perspectives" about the image, and that it was a symbol of peace for some.

She's now on administrative leave pending an investigation.

The report said one parent defended the principal, explaining, "She is not erasing what happened to the Jewish community whatsoever. Because you know we all know about it. We all know what happened. But like she said, many symbols do mean different things for different cultures, so we cannot disassociate what one person did and forget what this symbol means to everyone else."

An official district statement charged, "Bellevue, like other districts, has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents, particularly this past year, and we are taking actions to address it. There is absolutely no place for hate in the Bellevue School District. In a time where words and symbols are used to divide us, we are working with administrators, staff and students to call our community in for courageous conversations to affirm each other's cultures, beliefs and identities."

A report at the Blaze said the principal's first comments were condemnation for the symbol of "hate."

Then she elaborated that it represents, to some, "peace."

She had said such "symbols of hate" have started appearing in her school, and they have been removed.

The report explained, "Hours later, parents shared with KOMO an email from the principal with the subject line: 'Follow-up on recent incident and cultural awareness.' The station said the principal in the email apologized for not acknowledging in her initial text alert that while a swastika is often associated with hate and intolerance, it's important to acknowledge the swastika also has deep historical and cultural significance in other parts of the world. She also thanked members of the community for bringing it to her attention, the station added."

The principal explained, "In Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and other ancient cultures, the swastika is a symbol of peace, prosperity, and good fortune. We recognize that for many of our families, this symbol has a positive and spiritual meaning, completely unrelated to the hateful associations it took on in more recent history."

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