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.
President Joe Biden claimed during an appearance before 400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes that he was not allowed to attend the Olympics because it would create too much commotion, even though other presidents have attended.
“Because I’m president and I cause commotion when I go places, they wouldn’t let me go the Olympics. But I watched it all. Jill, my wife, went to the Olympics,” he told the athletes on the White House lawn.
The U.S. earned 126 medals in the Paris games in August, more than any other country including China (91), Britain (65) and France (64). It tied China for the most gold medals (40 each).
The Paris Games saw the U.S. become the first to reach 3,000 total Olympic medals.
While the U.S. did not dominate the Paralympics in the same way, it had the third-highest number of medals (105) after China and Britain.
The Paralympics is held about two weeks after the Olympics.
Later in the speech, Biden said "they" couldn't stop him from attending the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 because he won't be president then.
Biden often blames unspecified staffers for restricting him from doing things, from traveling to answering questions from certain reporters.
It makes thinking people wonder who is in control at the White House--it's obviously not Biden.
After the 2022 midterms, Biden said during a press conference: "Now, I've been given a list of ten people that I'm supposed to call on and you're all supposed to ask me one question, but I'm sure you'll ask me more. So let me start off with the list I've been given."
He didn't call on any conservative outlets at the time, sticking to The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Reuters, ABC News, Bloomberg, The Grio, NBC News and The New York Times.
Former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush all attended the Olympics while president.
In all likelihood, "they" banned Biden from the Olympics because he would have made a fool of the U.S. with his likely dementia and weird comments.
Biden has hardly been seen since stepping down from his re-election bid, even though he is still president and leader of the free world.
Republican nominee former President Donald Trump mocked Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at during remarks on Saturday in Wisconsin, saying that while President Joe Biden "became mentally impaired," the current Democrat nominee was "born that way."
“Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way,” Trump said. “And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country”
Trump calls Harris "mentally disabled": "Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way." pic.twitter.com/4DGGStj2W3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 28, 2024
Trump's remarks were made against a backdrop that said, "End Migrant Crime" and "Deport Illegals Now."
He blamed inflation, mass illegal immigration, and foreign policy blunders such as the deadly Afghan withdrawal and the Russian/Ukrainian war on Harris during the speech.
While Harris has tried to distance herself from Biden's record, Biden threw a monkey wrench into her attempts on Wednesday when he claimed to have delegated "everything" to Harris--both foreign and domestic policy as commander-in-chief.
“As Vice President, there wasn’t a single thing that I did that she couldn’t do and so I was able to delegate her responsibility on everything from foreign policy to domestic policy,” he said while campaigning for Harris on The View.
In contrast, this is what Harris told Brian Taff of Philadelphia’s Action News 6 ABC on September 13 about her part in the Biden administration:
My approach is about new ideas, new policies that are directed at the current moment. And also, to be very honest with you, my focus is very much in what we need to do over the next ten, twenty years to catch up to the twenty-first century. I’m obviously not Joe Biden, and you know, I offer a new generation of leadership.
Nearly half of voters in a recent Economist/YouGov poll (48%) said that Harris says what she thinks voters want to hear, while only 36% think she says what she really believes.
The media has been working overtime to turn unpopular Harris into a viable candidate who could actually win an election.
When Biden stepped aside in July, Harris's approval was only at 32%.
Now it's at 48% due to an avalanche of favorable media coverage and a completely biased debate.
As digital strategist Greg Price noted, “Nothing about Kamala Harris has changed. The media machine has kicked into over drive and too many people in America still think the news is real."
West Virginia State Senator Mike Maroney (R) is being asked to step down by the West Virginia GOP after being arrested on a drunk driving charge which is his second arrest in two months.
Maroney, who's been serving in West Virginia's Senate since 2016, has been on a spiral lately with multiple serious offenses.
Maroney was arrested on Monday and charged with Control of Vehicle Under the Influence, Expired Registration-1, and No Registration. The traffic stop was initiated due to “numerous traffic infractions,” by Maroney.
This comes after Maroney was arrested last month on a charge of indecent exposure which led to him being stripped of his position as chair of the state Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.
Maroney is already on his way out as he lost the Republican primary in May, and his term is set to expire in January but the West Virginia GOP wants him gone now.
Maroney's troubles began back in 2019 when he was arrested for soliciting prostitution but that charge was eventually dropped.
However, it seems that his solicitation charge was indicative of a pattern of bad behavior as he has now been charged with a DUI and indecent exposure.
His indecent exposure charges are related to an incident where Maroney allegedly engaged in an “overt act of sexual gratification” in a gambling parlor in Glen Dale. A gambling parlor doesn't make for the most dignified haunt for a state senator indecent exposure charges aside.
Ethan Moore, chairman of the Monongalia County Republican Executive Committee, issued a statement saying, "While the legal process must take its course, the perception of impropriety and the repeated legal entanglements surrounding Senator Maroney have brought discredit to the West Virginia Senate."
Moore continued saying, "We believe it is in the best interest of Senate District 2 and the state for Senator Maroney to resign, restoring public trust and the integrity of the Senate."
So far, there is little sign of Maroney resigning his position early which could set up a nasty fight between West Virginia's GOP and Maroney as he tries to hang onto the last few months of his term.
The Monongalia County Republican Executive Committee has passed a resolution calling on Maroney to resign and should he refuse, they are requesting Governor Jim Justice (R) intervene.
Justice is seeking a U.S. Senate seat and has the ability to empower the State Senate to expel or censure Maroney should he refuse to resign.
It's possible that Maroney believes that since he hasn't been convicted for his latest charges, there is no need to resign. It is also unlikely that he will be convicted anytime soon but the rest of West Virginia's GOP power players aren't content to let the legal process play out.
Dame Maggie Smith, one of the world’s most distinguished actresses and a legend of British cinema, passed away on Friday at the age of 89.
Smith's sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, confirmed her passing in a heartfelt statement saying, "It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith."
Their statement continued saying, "She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother."
Smith was an icon of cinema and snagged two Academy Awards for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite. Smith also won four Golden Globe Awards in a career that spanned seven decades.
She was also nominated for several Oscars and a litany of other awards between her debut in 1952 all the way to 2023 with The Miracle Club.
While many recognize Smith for her role as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series and Violet Crawley in the Downton Abbey series, Smith has been acting for decades and those roles were simply a resurgence of an already successful career.
Smith would make her stage debut in 1952, playing Viola in a stage production of Twelfth Night. That role would launch decades of roles in film, television, and theater.
Four years after her stage debut, Smith scored her first film credit in Child in the House in 1956. She would get a proper role in the 1959 crime drama Nowhere to Go.
Smith's early career would hit its prime when she won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1969 for her role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
She wasn't done with that as she would go on to win another Oscar for California Suite in 1979.
By the 1990's, Smith's profile had grown so significantly that she was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of her contributions to the performing arts.
News of Smith's passing has spread quickly and those who worked with her are coming forward with many stories about working with Dame Smith.
Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of Suddenly, Last Summer stated that Smith was, "intellectually the smartest actress I’ve ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith.”
Smith was a professional and took her work very seriously with director Peter Hall stating that Smith wasn't “remotely difficult unless she’s among idiots. She’s very hard on herself, and I don’t think she sees any reason why she shouldn’t be hard on other people, too."
Smith herself said, "It's true I don’t tolerate fools, but then they don’t tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that’s why I’m quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies."
While she may have been spiky and venomous in many of her on-screen roles, Smith was a beloved figure who left her mark and will be missed dearly by fans and family alike.
Former New York City Mayor and ally of former President Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in Washington, D.C. by a federal appeals court on Monday over his efforts to expose what he thought at the time was election fraud in the 2020 presidential race, and which Democrats have called "election subversion."
The action followed a recommendation in May from a disciplinary board linked to the D.C. Bar that Giuliani be disbarred.
The recommendation pointed to Giuliani's efforts to get a judge in Pennsylvania to overturn hundreds of thousands of votes in that state, citing fraud that he ultimately was not able to prove occurred.
“We conclude that disbarment is the only sanction that will protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession, and deter other lawyers from launching similarly baseless claims in the pursuit of such wide-ranging yet completely unjustified relief,” the board wrote in May.
Giuliani is facing indictment in Georgia and Arizona for similar election efforts. He reportedly made phone calls to state leaders about resisting the transfer of power from Trump to Biden.
None of Giuliani's efforts were successful, and power was successfully transferred to Biden, but that's not enough for the vultures surrounding him and other Trump allies who sensed something fishy in the election and were trying to figure it out.
Most Trump voters know that something wasn't right about the 2020 election--even if it was "only" big tech censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story that voters said afterward would have given them pause about voting for Joe Biden.
After Biden took power, it became about trying to punish Trump and others who asked valid questions about how everything went down.
The disbarment follows one in New York State earlier this year.
In addition, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy to avoid some of the multi-million dollar civil judgements against him, but the courts dismissed his filing and accused him of trying to get out of paying.
It is a huge fall for a man who was known as "America's Mayor" for how he handled the September 11, 2001 attacks in the city.
While some of Giuliani and other Trump allies' efforts may have been misguided, they do not appear to have been malicious.
Just because they couldn't prove enough voter fraud to keep Trump president doesn't mean voter fraud didn't occur at some level, or that the election was "free and fair" the way the founding fathers intended.
Republicans should not be intimidated by these tactics, but should be even more vigilant for anything fishy this year on November 5.
Vice President Kamala Harris made headlines following an eventful interview with MSNBC where she displayed a disturbing lack of knowledge and absurd reactions.
On Wednesday, a report published by the New York Times criticized the interview that Kamala Harris gave to Stephanie Ruhle, a host on MSNBC.
The report stated that the Democratic presidential candidate continued to adhere to her strategy of avoiding answering questions directly.
"Since Ms. Harris began granting more interviews in recent days, her media strategy has been to sit with friendly inquisitors who are not inclined to ask terribly thorny questions or press her when her responses are evasive," the New York Times' report on the "takeaways" from Harris' interview read.
Just days after Ruhle defended the vice president against accusations that she was avoiding questions and policy details during her interviews, Harris sat down for her first solo interview with a major network on Wednesday.
"Ms. Harris responded to the fairly basic and predictable questions with roundabout responses that did not provide a substantive answer," the report continued.
The report acknowledged Ruhle's justification and praise of Harris during her appearance on "Real Time With Bill Maher."
It also made note of a recent interview Ruhle did with President Biden in May 2023 and said, "Ruhle did not press him after his stumbling answers and praised him throughout the 14-minute discussion."
The Times further reported that before the June debate, which led to Biden's withdrawal, Ruhle neglected to ask Harris whether she had any knowledge about his health.
"Ms. Ruhle joined Ms. Harris in attacking Mr. Trump ('His plan is not serious, when you lay it out like that') and avoided posing tricky questions about positions Ms. Harris supported during her 2020 presidential campaign or what, if anything, she knew about Mr. Biden’s physical condition or mental acuity as his own campaign deteriorated," the report read.
The New York Times reported that this could be "perhaps why Ms. Harris agreed to the interview in the first place."
Ruhle challenged Harris during the interview about how she would "get the money" to pay for her expensive economic agenda if Republicans on Capitol Hill were to obstruct her attempts to increase the corporate tax rate.
"Do you still go forward with those plans and borrow?" Ruhle asked.
"But we're going to have to raise corporate taxes," Harris responded. "We’re going to have to make sure that the biggest corporations and billionaires pay their fair share. That’s just it. It’s about paying their fair share."
During the interview on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," Ruhle acknowledged that Harris "doesn't answer the question."