Democrat vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was quiet on Thursday about whether he still thinks the Electoral College should be replaced with a "national popular vote" after the head of the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris, said the campaign did not back that position.
"I think all of us know, the Electoral College needs to go. We need a national popular vote," Walz said Tuesday at a fundraiser at California Governor Gavin Newsom's (D) home.
It's not the first time Walz made such comments; he did so at a Seattle fundraiser as well.
But campaign officials for Harris and Walz said abolishing the Electoral College is not an official position of the campaign.
Fox News could not get a response from Walz Thursday about whether he stands by his remarks, but some other news outlets did get a statement from the campaign that Walz was actually trying to support the Electoral College in the remarks.
"Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket," a Harris campaign spokesperson said to CNN and USA Today, among other select media outlets. "He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts."
The calls for an end to the Electoral College started with Hillary Clinton in 2016 after she won the popular vote by more than 2 million but still lost the Electoral College.
"I think it needs to be eliminated," Clinton told CNN at the time. "I’d like to see us move beyond it, yes."
Other Democrats who have spoken out against the Electoral College process include Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD), who called it a "convoluted, antique, obsolete system from the 18th century, which these days can get you killed as nearly it did on Jan. 6, 2021."
So now the Electoral College can get you killed!
In reality, the Electoral College was instituted so that overly large states like California and Texas don't get to overrule smaller states like Rhode Island and Montana.
It only looks like Democrats are way more popular than Republicans because California and New York vote Democrat by a huge margin.
Using electoral votes evens the playing field so that rural areas have an equal say with cities in elections.
It would not be fair for cities with higher populations to get all the power in choosing national candidates, and that's why our very wise founding fathers put the Electoral College in place in the first place.
The final debate proposal from Fox News featuring former president Donald Trump and vice president Kamala Harris has been declined.
The debates could have taken place in Pennsylvania on October 24th or 27th, according to Fox News's Martha MacCallum, who made the announcement on October 9th, claiming that the network had made its "final pitch" to the campaigns of Trump and Harris on a possible debate, as Newsmax reported.
She said Fox was “offering a chance for them to make their closing argument.”
In a second debate, MacCallum said, the network saw "a great opportunity to give the people one more chance to see them both onstage, and to make up their minds" by allowing Trump and Harris to face off again.
“THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH!” Trump wrote in response on Truth Social, putting to rest any questions about where his campaign stands on the issue of a possible debate.
Thanks to the contentious nature of the upcoming election, questions have arisen about the reaction from the Democrat candidate, but Harris' campaign has not responded to requests for comment.
For his part, the Republican nominee said “there is nothing to debate” due to Harris appearance on ABC-TV’s “The View."
During the appearance, she said she couldn’t think of a single presidential policy or action she would have handled differently if she had been president instead of President Joe Biden.
“It is very late in the process” prior to the Nov. 5 election, Trump said, noting, “voting has already begun.”
Nearly three million Americans have already cast their ballots as of October 9th, according to statistics from the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
On June 27, CNN held a debate in Atlanta where Trump and Biden, his initial Democratic challenger, squared off, causing mixed reactions, with both candidates seeming to think they won the match.
Biden endorsed Harris and withdrew from the presidential race less than 30 days after taking heat for his performance in the debates. She was nominated for president by the Democratic Party not long after.
In a September 10 ABC News debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Trump and Harris went head to head. Subsequently, her campaign suggested holding an additional debate but the president has turned down the offer.
One of the suggested Fox dates was already booked for the former president. The famous Madison Square Garden in New York City was reserved for Trump's speech on October 27.
Melania Trump has asserted that her son Barron was denied a bank account after the Trump family departed the White House due to "cancel culture."
In her memoir Melania, which was released on Tuesday, the former first lady laments that she and Barron experienced the "venom of cancel culture" in the weeks following the Capitol disturbance on January 6, as The Independent reported.
“I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my long-time bank decided to terminate my account and deny my son the opportunity to open a new one,” she continued.
“This decision appeared to be rooted in political discrimination, raising serious concerns about civil rights violations.”
She added: “It is troubling to see financial services withheld based on political affiliation.”
In another instance, she stated, "I had an experience in the media sector that highlights the venom of cancel culture."
Melania wrote about the period of time "after leaving the White House," although she did not explicitly reference the January 6 riot.
She also stated that she was unable to participate in a media initiative because the private equity firm that was supporting it "chose not to honor our agreement due to personal animosity toward my husband."
Melania also discusses the effects of her troubled Fostering the Future scholarship program in the chapter.
Melania initiated the initiative following her departure from the White House, stating that she “pursued partnerships to channel donations for scholarships benefiting foster care children.”
However, she asserts that the “leading tech-education company” withdrew from the partnership after her involvement was disclosed and its board resolved to avoid "any public affiliation" with her.
“Despite my efforts to focus solely on children’s education and my willingness to avoid any public association with the program, the school remained firm and terminated the agreement,” she wrote.
The New York Times stated in 2022 that the Melania's Fostering the Future initiative was under investigation by the Florida Consumer Services Division because it had not been registered with them.
In response, the ex-first lady said that the press was out to "cancel" her and her philanthropic work.
It would appear that Barron is unfazed by his failure at the bank; Melania has detailed his success at a New York City university.
“He is doing great,” Melania said during an appearance on Fox News’s The Five on Tuesday. “He loves his classes and professors. He is doing well. He is striving and enjoying to be in New York City again.”
Barron, who is 18 years old, commenced his academic course of study at the Stern School of Business at New York University in September.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has pursued Republican nominee former President Donald Trump with crazy-eyed abandon for the better part of the last two years, but a legal expert suggested in a Monday op-ed in The Hill that Smith has actually "botched" the indictments to the point where Trump will never be convicted.
Smith "has pursued Trump with the zeal of Inspector Javert, but has thus far come up empty handed," James Zirin said in the piece.
One of Smith's cases against Trump involving mishandling of classified documents was dismissed because the judge ruled that as a private citizen not confirmed as special prosecutor by Congress, Smith didn't have standing to bring it.
The other has been hacked to pieces by the Supreme Court's immunity ruling, which also delayed its timeline until after the 2024 presidential election.
Zirin argues that Smith's latest motion amounts to election interference. He said,
Straining to right a listing ship, Smith has filed a 165-page, procedurally irregular dump of his grand jury materials, containing evidence that Trump cannot refute. The filing obviously flouts the internal Justice Department rule that “Federal prosecutors … may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election.”
He referenced Elie Honig, a legal expert from CNN, who called the brief “Smith’s October Cheap Shot” in another op-ed piece, agreeing that it is a "late hit" intended to hurt Trump with voters.
It's nice to see even some liberals wringing their hands about how President Joe Biden's Justice Department has been trying to put their finger (or in this case, maybe something much heavier) on the scale in order to help Democrats and hurt Trump in the 2024 election.
The Trump campaign probably doesn't need to worry too much about Smith's brief because the kind of Americans who haven't made up their mind yet who to vote for are not politically engaged enough to be swayed by it. As least not in any significant numbers.
Any voter who would be swayed by the brief not to vote for Trump has had plenty of ammunition already for that position.
On the other hand, the brief could very well make some undecided voters angry enough about yet another blatant attempt by Democrats to smear their opponents that they decide to vote for Trump.
"The reasons for the rule not to mix politics with law enforcement are obvious," Zirin said. "Smith could have waited a month. There was no hurry."
But Zirin pointed out other Smith blunders in addition to the brief.
Waiting 2 1/2 years to indict Trump was no doubt intended to coincide with Trump's candidacy in 2024, but Smith underestimated Trump's ability to delay proceedings (as anyone able to afford a passel of expensive lawyers can do easily, Zirin argued).
Bringing the classified documents case in Florida instead of Washington D.C. was another blunder, in Zirin's opinion. A D.C. jury would have ripped Trump to shreds whether the case had any merit or not.
Smith's incompetence has been Trump's gain, and he's laughing all the way to the ballot box.
A court in Ohio rejected a request from a Haitian group to issue arrest warrants for Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (OH) over comments they made about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
A panel of judges referred the request from the Haitian Bridge Alliance to county prosecutors for further investigation but found no probable cause for any charges at this time.
The group claimed threats were made against migrants after Trump and Vance made comments about migrants in Springfield eating dogs and cats of residents as well as other "pets" in response to allegations on Facebook that migrants were decapitating and eating ducks from a pond in the area.
Another resident said he saw a cat hanging at the home of a migrant neighbor, carved up in preparation to be eaten, after his friend's cat went missing.
Police in Springfield said they had heard the rumors but that no formal complaints had been made to them about migrants eating ducks or people's pets.
Around 20,000 migrants have been transported to Springfield, which has a population of about 60,000, during President Joe Biden's tenure after being processed at the U.S. border.
Residents have complained that city resources have been stressed by the influx.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance wants charges of felony inducing panic, disrupting public services, making false alarms, two counts of complicity, two counts of telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing.
Charges could still be filed against Trump and Vance if investigators find any cause to do so.
The judges said that “particular consideration should be given to ‘the strong constitutional protections afforded to speech, and political speech in particular,'” adding that due to the presidential election being “less than 35 days away,” the topic of immigration was “contentious.”
“Due to the proximity of the election, and the contentiousness concerning the immigration policies of both candidates, the Court cannot presume the good faith nature of the affidavits,” the judges wrote.
While Trump still faces dozens of criminal charges, it would be the first time Vance was charged with a crime since he became a candidate for office.
No charges were recommended against the Biden administration or any of its members for violating border laws in allowing such a large number of migrants to enter the country and remain in the U.S.
Such is the state of justice in the country that people who are actually violating laws are getting away with it, while those that merely comment on the situation could end up in court over their words.
Former President Donald Trump has publically contradicted the Biden administration by calling on Israel to target Iranian nuclear facilities following Iran's missile attack on Israel.
President Joe Biden has been demanding that Israel restrain from targeting Iranian oil facilities or nuclear facilities after a massive missile attack. Iran launched thousands of ballistic missiles at Israel following Israel's decapitation of the terrorist group Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran.
Israel is justified in retaliating against Iran but President Biden is trying to keep them on a leash and protect Iran which has become the de facto U.S. policy towards Iran under President Biden's leadership.
This stands in stark contrast to Trump's treatment of Iran which was aggressive and debilitating. Trump bankrupted Iran in order to prevent them from funding terrorist groups around the Middle East and that was a key to keeping the peace.
Biden has catered to Iran and released billions in frozen funds and the result of that has been chaos and war around the Middle East.
During an appearance in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Friday, Trump took questions during a town hall to address voters. North Carolina is in play for Trump in November and should he win it, it would likely propel him to victory.
During the session, Trump took a shot at Biden saying, "I listened to Biden yesterday, you know, since I went under the wing, you know, I used to go under the wing of the aircraft. Nobody ever did that before. I did all of a sudden, Biden started — but he only takes like a half a question, usually can’t answer it."
Biden has spent most of his time in the White House avoiding the media and not taking questions. Even when he does take questions, his answers are typically curt and his aides tend to hustle him off quickly before he can say something damaging.
Trump continued saying, "But they asked him, what do you think about, what do you think about Iran? Would you hit Iran? And he goes, “A long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.” That’s the thing you want to hit, right? I said, I think he’s got that one wrong. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit? I mean, it’s the most, it’s the biggest risk."
Trump's common sense shines through as he understands that crippling Iran's nuclear capabilities is crucial to neutering Iran's ability to project power in the Middle East.
The path to ending the war doesn't lie in placating Iran but rather in crippling Iran and rendering them incapable of terrorizing the Middle East. Trump's assertion that Israel should hit Iran's nuclear facilities gives voters a glimpse of how Trump will behave in the White House.
Foreign policy and ending the multiple serious conflicts around the world are going to play a large role in who wins the election in November. Trump is promising to end the wars in the Middle East like he did during his first term.
Furthermore, Trump is confident in his ability to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine quickly should he win.
On the other hand, Vice President Kamala Harris has made promises but so far in three years of Biden-Harris rule, there has been no progress made in Ukraine and the Middle East only gets more violent and dangerous.
Harris has tried to claim that she will run things differently than her boss but just this week Biden came out to say that Harris and him have always been on the same page when it comes to policy. That statement could very well have doomed any chance Harris had of separating herself from Biden's horrific record.
Democrats are reportedly getting flashbacks to Hillary Clinton's loss in Michigan as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump remain neck-and-neck in the polls and Harris continues to flounder.
Michigan Democratic strategist Adrian Hemond told the Associated Press that, "Smart Democrats have a healthy sense of paranoia. If polling is as far off as it was in 2016, we’re cooked."
Going into November 2016, Democrats were certain that the election was a slam dunk and that Clinton was going to win by such a large margin that it would end the GOP.
However, the polls were inaccurate and Democrats had been blind to the signs that Clinton was actually going to lose in historic fashion. Now Democrats seem to have PTSD especially as polls are showing Trump and Harris within the margin of error from each other.
Michigan in particular is an X-factor thanks to a large population of Arab voters who could end up staying home in November due to Harris's support of Israel. Should that happen, Trump will likely win Michigan handily virtually ensuring victory in November.
In some ways, Harris is shaping up to be Clinton 2.0 with her many mistakes and personal failings that are dragging her campaign down despite the efforts of the media machine.
A new poll from the New York Times and Siena College found Harris is leading with 48% support in Michigan and Trump is right behind her at 47%. Considering that polls have failed to accurately chart Trump's support, this is a major cause of worry for Democrats.
A 1% difference is effectively a tie and in Trump's case, it could mean he's actually leading Harris. These polls also fail to account for the possibility that the Arab vote, which traditionally supports Democrats, could abstain from this election.
Michigan and Minnesota have large concentrations of Arab voters who wield enough electoral power to swing the state one way or another and without those voters, Harris should expect to lose Michigan with Minnesota being contested but likely still safe.
Talks of staying home in November have been circulating among Arab communities in response to Joe Biden's support of Israel and Harris has done little to indicate she will do things differently.
Things have gotten so bad that elements within the Arab community are actually swinging towards Trump in hopes that he will do more to achieve peace in the Middle East.
Trump recently met with the mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, which is the only Muslim-majority city in America, and got his endorsement and by extension the support of the Muslim community in Hamtramck which could be a game-changer in Michigan.
Currently, Trump holds the support of 18% of Michigan's Muslim voters which is a significant jump over Harris who can only boast 12% support. Green Party candidate Jill Stein has swooped in to score the most support among Michigan's Muslim voters with 40% support thanks to her attacks on Israel.
Trump could shock Democrats in Michigan again only this time coasting to victory with the support of Muslims who want Trump to bring an end to the war between Israel and Gaza.
A federal judge in Missouri granted a temporary pause on Thursday of yet another plan by President Joe Biden to redistribute the student loan debt of 30 million borrowers after a judge in Georgia let the previous injunction expire.
Six conservative states got Georgia to pause the plan initially, but the judge there who originally granted the injunction decided that it didn't have standing to pursue the case there.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall agreed that Missouri does have standing, however, and U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp quickly stepped in to pause the plan before it could begin being implemented on Monday.
“This is yet another win for the American people,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “The Court rightfully recognized Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cannot saddle working Americans with Ivy League debt.”
The other states that joined the suit were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio.
Biden latched onto student loan forgiveness as a way to get younger voters to vote for him, a moot point now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the candidate.
Of course, she will claim that she was every bit as involved as he was in the plan, but it hasn't achieved universal popularity given that many young people are deciding not to go to college due to inflation and better opportunities in the trades.
For someone who has $30 to $40,000 in student loan debt, the idea of loan forgiveness sounds really great, but nobody who goes straight to work after high school will be thrilled with the idea of paying off other people's college loans.
The courts have consistently pushed back on Biden's numerous student loan forgiveness programs, saving taxpayers billions of dollars while I'm sure some borrowers are disappointed to have to pay off their own loans.
The courts still have to make a final decision on this one, but for now, the status quo will continue.
A crucial document from special counsel Jack Smith, which includes information gathered in his investigation into the alleged actions of former president Donald Trump to question the validity of presidential authority after the 2020 election, has been made public by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
After the Supreme Court's ruling in July that Trump is entitled to some kind of protection from federal charges, the 165-page brief gives the most complete look at the material that federal prosecutors have accumulated in their case, as Breitbart News reported.
A fresh brief from the prosecution argues that Trump's actions did not qualify for immunity since they were personal and not subject to public scrutiny.
They restated the charges against Trump and provided fresh details about the copious amounts of material they have gathered so far.
Ahead of Election Day, Trump and his associates allegedly prepared to contest the results and pushed Vice President Mike Pence to disregard Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021, according to the document.
"When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office," Smith and his team wrote.
Smith has broken down his filing into four sections. Part one details the accusations leveled against Trump, including details from the indictment.
Next, we have a section that "establishes that nothing the Government intends to present to the jury is protected by presidential immunity." This part lays out the legal concerns surrounding presidential immunity. The last section explains the government's request to the court, which is to determine that Trump is required to appear in court for trial.
Three types of presidential acts were defined by the high court, each with its own degree of immunity: Absolute immunity is granted to actions that are performed within the exclusive constitutional authority of a president, while the presumption of immunity is granted to official acts. Unofficial acts are not entitled to immunity.
Smith's brief contends that Trump's attempt to secure a second term in office was a "private criminal endeavor," rather than one that involved official conduct. Additionally, Smith contends that Trump attempted to overturn the election in his capacity as a candidate, rather than as president.
"The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct. Not so," prosecutors wrote.
"Although the defendant was the incumbent president during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was a fundamentally private one."
A spokesman for Trump's campaign, Steven Cheung, vilified the release of the filing, saying it was a "falsehood-ridden" statement and "unconstitutional."
"This entire case is a partisan, unconstitutional witch hunt that should be dismissed entirely, together with all of the remaining Democrat hoaxes," he said.
Smith's office has declined journalists' requests for comment.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz of Minnesota made a false claim about being in Hong Kong during the tense events preceding the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, according to multiple news sources.
Republicans have raised concerns about a potential vice president's record of inaccurate statements, of which these remarks are a part, as The Independent reported.
When confronted about misleading people during Tuesday night's vice presidential debate, Walz finally admitted that he "misspoke."
But Walz admitted that he can "get caught up in rhetoric" and admitted that he hasn't always been flawless, even though he has tried his best. On sometimes, I act like a complete moron.
He continued by saying that Trump, should have accompanied the group on one of their visits to China. According to Walz, if he did, the Republican contender would have known better than to praise Xi Jinping's response to the 2020 pandemic.
Despite evidence to the contrary, CNN published a radio interview from 2019 in which Walz claimed to have been in Hong Kong on the day of the slaughter on Tuesday.
The event, which took place on June 4, 1989, is remembered as one of the most bloody onslaughts against a people by their own government.
The killings followed a seven-week pro-democracy student rally in Beijing, prompting the Chinese military to open fire, killing at least 500 people.
Publicly available stories contradict a statement made by Walz, who was then a member of the U.S. House, during a hearing that commemorated the 25th anniversary of the massacre in 2014, according to Minnesota Public Radio's Monday report.
Despite Walz's claims to the contrary, it seems he was in Nebraska in May 1989, not the then-British province of Hong Kong.
It appears from public documents that he departed for China and Hong Kong in August of that year.
In a 2009 congressional transcript regarding Tiananmen Square, which was discovered by the Associated Press, Walz appeared to imply that he was in Hong Kong on the day of the killing.
There have been conflicting accounts of the vice presidential candidate's 1995 drunk driving incident and false information regarding his rank in the National Guard.
Additionally, he has made claims that misrepresented the type of infertility therapy that his family received. Additionally, Walz and his campaign have offered conflicting accounts of his drunk driving arrest in 1995.