Despite the aggressively progressive tone that Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has taken, even the left-wing take has left something to be desired among anti-Israel protesters.
Harris campaign learned this lesson the hard way when pro-Palestinian demonstrators engaged in violent confrontations with law officers and invaded an afterparty that was held in New York City to commemorate the Harris rally, as Fox News reported.
In the aftermath of a Harris rally that was held in Harlem and attended by Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, people were observed following the event and lined the street.
"You set Palestine on fire," one of the protesters was heard yelling.
Protesters who were opposed to Israel were seen in the camera clip making a commotion and putting off smoke bombs: "How dare you," shouted another person.
At prior campaign appearances, Harris has been confronted by protesters, and he has yelled at them to remove them after they disrupted the event.
"You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking," Harris said at a Michigan campaign event, eliciting static cheers from the audience.
A glaring weakness of the Biden administration, in the minds of many progressives, has been its backing of Israel's war against the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
This comes just about a week after the Democrat nominee attempted to shout down protesters during a campaign speech in Michigan.
Around the middle of Harris's speech, the demonstrators, who were opposed to Israel's involvement in the conflict with Hamas, interfered, causing a pause in Harris' speech.
At first, Harris spoke to protesters by saying she was, "here because I believe in democracy and everybody's voice matters, but I am speaking now."
Harris became more combative as the protesters continued to shout her down.
"You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking," Harris said, attracting cheers from the audience.
All of those who were participating in the demonstration were eventually removed, but not before a heated altercation broke out between supporters of Harris and protesters who yelled at one another.
The conversation took place during a trip that Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, were taking to the states of Wisconsin and Michigan.
The goal of the trip was to garner support from voters who were younger, more diverse, and more committed to labor, in the way that Walz and Harris see the future.
While the Biden administration might be staring down the barrel of the end of it's term, students with loans on their degrees can take hope that President Joe Biden is still pushing for at least one of his campaign promises to be solidified.
To have the president's most recent plan to alleviate student loan debt reinstated, the Biden administration rushed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, attempting to keep the campaign promise made four years ago, as The Hill reported.
President Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan would reduce student loan payments for millions of students, but it is now blocked by a lower court judgment because of concerns about the legality of the program.
“The rule is a straightforward exercise of the Department’s express statutory authority to set the parameters of income-contingent repayment plans — just as it has done for three decades,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote to the justices.
In the event that the Supreme Court is hesitant to step in on their emergency docket, Prelogar has asked the justices to instead assess the plan's legality on its own merits and move quickly to schedule oral arguments for this coming fall.
Those who are challenging the SAVE Plan were given a Monday afternoon deadline by the court to react.
This stance is reminiscent of the way the Biden administration dealt with opposition to its previous promise to reduce student loans by $10,000 for each borrower.
After agreeing to consider the case fully upon receiving a request for urgent action from the Justice Department, the Supreme Court last year rejected that plan in a 6-3 ideologically-based vote.
Following the ruling by the Supreme Court, the SAVE plan was initially proposed, pushing forward the president's plan to do away with repayment of many loans.
Phase one, which began last fall, increased the income threshold for income protection from 150 percent to 225 percent over the federal poverty criteria and waived interest that had accrued but was not factored into the calculated payments.
Reducing undergraduate loan payments from 10% of discretionary income to 5% and expanding loan forgiveness possibilities for specific groups were to be implemented in the second phase beginning in July.
Over a decade, the SAVE plan is projected to cost $475 billion, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
Two groups of Republican state attorneys general have challenged it in court, arguing that Congress has to provide clearer permission due to the high cost.
In the first action, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction against the SAVE Plan until it settles the matter. The seven states involved are Oklahoma, North Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, and Georgia.
As the case continues, an emergency appeal was filed with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, requesting that they vacate that order. Midway through the second case, the challengers filed an emergency appeal, which the Biden administration encouraged the justices to reject.
The New York Fire Department has found a replacement for its first female fire chief, Laura Kavanagh after she resigned due to a series of scandals.
Robert Tucker, CEO of T&M USA, was named as Kavanagh's replacement by Mayor Eric Adams on Monday and has already been sworn in.
Robert S. Tucker's very first job as a young man was working at the @FDNY communications office.
Today, he becomes the 35th commissioner of New York's Bravest — a real full-circle moment!
Commissioner Tucker brings decades of experience in protecting public safety to this role,… pic.twitter.com/5TTZQrySCJ
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) August 12, 2024
Adams' announcement on X noted that Tucker's first job was in the FDNY's communication office.
A key part of Kavanagh's downfall was her investigation of some of her subordinates for heckling New York Attorney General Letitia James over her prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens later emailed department leaders that those who heckled her would be found out.
“BITS is investigating this, so they will figure out who the members are,” Hodges wrote.
“I recommend they come forward. I have been told by the commissioner it will be better for them if they come forward and we don’t have to hunt them down,” he warned.
A retired firefighter told the New York Post that the firefighters did not appreciate being "hunted down."
“It was a political stunt for the city to have the AG there. When it backfired, they sent their fascist pit bulls after guys for exercising their First Amendment rights,” he said. “Most were off-duty and not in FDNY uniform.”
But FDNY backed down after hearing that the rank and file felt like they were being hunted down.
Spokesman Jim Long later told Fox News that “nobody is hunting anyone down.”
“We’re looking into those who clearly broke department regulations. It has nothing to do with politics. It’s about professionalism at an official event held in a house of worship,” he said.
She was replaced soon after.
A CDC policy of deleting former employees' emails after 90 days is "probably illegal" according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras on Friday.
A Trump-aligned legal group, America First Legal (AFL), had requested emails from former CDC employees and was told they were deleted 90 days after they stopped being employees, which prompted them to sue the CDC.
The CDC claimed that it uses the National Archives and Records Association’s (NARA) Capstone policy for emails since it falls under the Health and Human Services (HHS) department, which does the same thing.
The CDC also claimed that the deleted records were "adequately preserved elsewhere."
The NARA policy was adopted in 2016 after the CDC said it petitioned NARA to do so, but there is no record NARA ever granted the permission.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s politicization of records management must end, and we look forward to holding them accountable for their illegal actions in all such circumstances,” AFL’s Executive Director Gene Hamilton said in a press release.
The AFL wanted the records due to the agency's support for teaching gender ideology in the classroom.
After obtaining the CDC document “LGBTQ Inclusivity in Schools: A Self-Assessment Tool,” the AFL sued HHS and NARA in April.
Contreras has now ordered the CDC to stop deleting employees' emails until the previous deadline under GRS 6.1 had passed or until the court ordered that they could do so.
“This is another historic courtroom victory for America First Legal against widespread government corruption,” AFL President Stephen Miller and former advisor to President Trump stated.
/1🚨BREAKING🚨
We just secured a preliminary injunction in our lawsuit against the Biden-Harris CDC for illegally deleting employees’ emails.
The National Archives and Attorney General Garland must now work to recover illegally deleted records and make CDC comply with the law: pic.twitter.com/OsYByavu06
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) August 9, 2024
AFL said it would continue to hold agencies accountable and pursue justice through the courts.
It probably won't stop the CDC from continuing to encourage the teaching of gender ideology in classrooms.
But it may at least make them be up front about it.
Former commander retired Army Command Sergeant Major Doug Julin has come forward to confirm that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz knew about an upcoming deployment to Iraq months in advance of retiring.
Walz has been in the national spotlight since being selected as Kamala Harris's running mate in November and the information that has come out about him has been damning.
Walz has previously claimed to carry weapons in combat and also boasted of retiring at the highest rank of Command Master Sergeant, both claims of which were false and constitute stolen valor which is a misdemeanor under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005.
Walz, who was the command sergeant major of his battalion at the time, directly assured Julin that he would go with the unit to Iraq. This was in the Fall of 2004 which contradicts Walz's claims that he retired before he knew about the deployment to Iraq.
Walz's unit would go to deploy to Iraq without him while he began an illustrious career in politics largely due to his record that he heavily embellished.
Julin told CNN that he and other senior leaders were informed about the upcoming deployment saying, "We were informed that we would be alerted to go to Iraq within the next upcoming year or time period out there, start preparing your team, get your team together and let’s get the process in play."
He then spoke to Walz who was serving as “commander sergeant major," which was a conditional rank that he wouldn't retain due to retiring before completing the academy.
That becomes an issue because Walz claims he retired as a command sergeant major when in fact he retired as a master sergeant.
Claiming a rank you didn't actually have is considered stolen valor and Walz claimed this rank throughout his political career.
Julin said Walz was conditionally serving in that rank when he spoke with him about the upcoming deployment. At this point, Walz had filed paperwork to run for Congress but Julin said that as Walz hadn't been nominated, he assured Julin that he would deploy.
However, at the next major meeting for the unit, Walz was gone. Julin told CNN, "The individual that approved this was two levels higher than myself in the enlisted corps, and should have had Tim Walz come back to me and discuss this as to why he was not going forward now, after he had already told me he was going forward."
The White House has already scrubbed Walz's biography of any claims of holding the rank of command sergeant major but there has been no apology or explanation from Walz which likely won't sit well with veterans.
There are more rumblings of trouble for Walz from the veteran community with former colleagues and subordinates coming forward to talk about Walz's sudden retirement and abandonment of his unit in 2005.
Senator JD Vance, who is himself a veteran who did a tour in Iraq as a combat correspondent in the Marines, has seized on the allegations of stolen valor and is shredding Walz.
One can only imagine how brutal the debate will be for Walz as Vance will force him to explain the stolen valor and dishonesty that he used to further his political goals.
CNN's Brianna Keilar has walked back her defamatory attacks on Senator JD Vance (R-OH) after claiming that he embellished his military service.
Leftists are attacking Vance over his service record after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate, was exposed for stolen valor and embellishing his service record with the National Guard.
Keilar implied that Vance had also lied about his record by calling him the “imperfect messenger” in his attacks on Walz.
During a segment of CNN’s “Inside Politics," Keilar argued that Vance was misleading Americans saying, "But when you dig a little deeper into that, he was a public affairs specialist, someone who did not see combat, which certainly the title ‘combat correspondent’ kind of gives you a different impression. So he may be the imperfect messenger on that."
This attack immediately incited massive backlash both from Vance's camp as well as the entire Combat correspondent community which has thousands of active and veteran members.
The accusations against Walz revolve around claims that he inflated his rank in retirement and claiming that he carried a weapon in war, implying that he saw combat.
Walz has advertised himself as a “retired command sergeant major” when in reality he only served as one and retired a master sergeant because he failed to complete the requirements to retire as a command sergeant major.
But he still claimed that rank until he was picked as Harris's Vice President and Republicans began to point out that he lied.
The Harris campaign has since scrubbed Walz's record while there has been no apology from Walz for claiming a rank he had no right to claim. He has used that claim for years to advance his political career and veterans can't even get an apology from Walz.
Furthermore, Walz did not carry a weapon in war as he never deployed into a combat zone. Vance blasted Walz saying, "He has not spent a day in a combat zone. I'd be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did."
Vance didn't hold back saying, "When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, do you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him — a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with."
Democrats could not have asked for a worse matchup between Vance and Walz. Vance is himself a veteran who did deploy to Iraq although he doesn't appear to have entered combat and more importantly hasn't claimed to carry a weapon in war like Walz has.
However, Vance did his deployment to Iraq and so far there is no information coming out about him serving in any way but an honorable way. Meanwhile, Walz is actively dodging allegations of stolen valor which is actually considered a crime.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 makes it a misdemeanor to falsely claim military service, rank, recognition, or even someone else's identity. Walz has falsely claimed rank and recognition in advancing his political career.
Both Trump's lawyers and prosecutor Jack Smith agreed on a request for a three-week delay in the 2020 election case in order to continue weighing the recent Supreme Court immunity ruling.
Trump's team would, of course, like to delay the case indefinitely if they can't get it dismissed, but Smith said it would be August 30 until the prosecution is ready to proceed on whatever part of the case is left.
“The Government continues to assess the new precedent set forth last month in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States … including through consultation with other Department of Justice components,” the joint status report filed to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said.
Trump responded to the request, saying, “It is clear that the Supreme Court’s historic decision on immunity demands and requires a complete and total dismissal of all the witch hunts.”
As it is, Trump won't be available for the first two weeks of September because of the sentencing phase of his New York trial on falsifying business records.
The trial has been on hold for eight months already, and there is little hope it can be concluded before the November election.
The other case brought by Smith for mishandling classified documents was dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon because she determined that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed.
Smith is appealing that ruling, though, so the case may not be over for sure.
Other than the sentencing in September on the New York case, prosecutors have so far not been able to make anything stick to Trump, and Judge Juan Merchan has said that even the sentencing of the New York case is uncertain.
While Trump was not charged for official acts in the New York case, some of the testimony given in the case pertained to official acts, which received broad immunity in the ruling.
Both Merchan and Smith had repeatedly denied that Trump has any immunity protection before the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, so it stands to reason that they would need some time to pick up the pieces of their now-dismantled cases before deciding whether they can still move forward on anything at all.
The Trump prosecutions that were supposed to convince the public that Trump could not be put in charge of the free world again have instead bolstered his support, along with the assassination attempt on his life.
The drama in the Democrat party over President Joe Biden stepping down and the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him have sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the Trump prosecutions lately.
If any of the cases turns out to be salvageable, it may rev up the base again and make Trump all but unbeatable in November.
An Ohio judge has made the decision to honor protection for children from preying medical professionals and uphold a gender-transition healthcare ban for those under 18.
The law, which echoes the sentiments of many on the right, and former President Donald Trump, cites potential harm to children if the ban is lifted, as The Washington Times reported.
This decision has sparked discussions about the rights of minors to access medical treatments without the consent of their parents or guardians.
However, while parental involvement in the health of their children is always important, it's especially so when faced with the possibility of permanently maiming the person of a child with gender transition treatments.
Critics who support the violation of children's bodies with expensive, dangerous, and optional treatments, contend that this decision violates the autonomy of " transgender adolescents" in determining their own healthcare and bodily functions.
They also express apprehensions regarding the mental health consequences of denying this type of medical care to young individuals who are vulnerable.
Advocates for LGBTQ+ rights are mobilizing to challenge this ruling, contending that it violates the principles of non-discrimination and equality. Their demand is for " increased inclusion" and support of transgender individuals, which includes access to healthcare services that are affirming.
The case in Ohio is part of a broader national conversation about transgender rights and healthcare access. Similar legislation and legal battles have emerged in other states, highlighting the ongoing struggle for equal treatment and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Additionally, an Ohio law limiting gender-transition health care for youths under 18 could go into effect, a county judge ruled Tuesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has announced that it will submit an appeal immediately.
Minors are prohibited from undergoing hormone therapies and transgender surgeries by law, unless a physician determines that it would be unsafe to discontinue the treatment. The law also imposes limitations on the types of mental health services that a minor may receive.
Moving forward, the debate about the legislation isn't likely to slow down. Critics of the decision assert that it will be important to continue to discuss the possible fallout and child welfare issues.
Former President Trump, however, has promised to ban gender-affirming care for minors if he is again elected to the Oval Office.
In January of this year, the former president said he would also move to prohibit any federal agency from working to “promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age," not just for minors.
Congress appears to mirror some of the aprehensions of the American people, and according to a recent announcement in The Hill, an investigation is under way with Vice President Kamala Harris at the center.
As Harris takes over the Democrat 2024 presidential nomination, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has decided to oversee and attempt to pull some accountability out of the White House by investigating Harris' actions regarding the border.
Earlier this week, the committee started asking an agency outside of the VP's portfolio to turn over the documents pertaining to her immigration work, launching what could be one of the more contentious investigations of the last few years.
In sending the request, committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) is seeking to elevate an issue Republicans hope will help them at the polls in November.
President Biden appointed Harris to oversee the administration's root causes strategy, which is designed to reduce immigration flows to the United States by investing significantly in democracy-building and development initiatives in Latin America.
As part of the investigation, Comer has requested requests that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provide any correspondence with Harris's office.
Because of their position in the administration, CBP is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the border, but it has limited influence in the pursuit of regional immigration objectives.
In addition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Trade Representative are among the agencies that are most actively involved in the fundamental causes strategy.
Unlike the State Department and USAID, which both have extensive online resources on the strategy, CBP's website does not mention the program at all.
In his letter to CBP, Comer said it’s “unclear what actions, if any, Vice President Harris has taken to fix the border crisis.”
The lawmaker has also asked for any and all documents and communication with Harris’s office “related to the southwest border or illegal immigration.”
While the congressional committee is required to go through their due diligence, there has been a strong theory going through Republicans that the vice president has been derelict in her duties regarding the border.
Even though the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plays a relatively minor role in the implementation of the root causes strategy, it does process migrants who present themselves at the border at ports of entry and vetts migrants from another initiative of the Biden administration.
This initiative allows citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to enter the United States temporarily if they have a sponsor based in the United States.
Voters in two different minority groups cannot combine efforts to claim a Texas political map stripped their voting power, according to a federal appeals court decision that could win congressional seats for Republicans in the South.
Conservatives had claimed that Democrats were misusing the Voting Rights Act to create voting districts favoring their party in Galveston, Texas, and the appeals court agreed.
The same thing was happening in other parts of Texas as well as Mississippi and Louisiana. Fixing the problem could turn a number of blue districts red again and potentially shift the balance of power in the House.
Section 2 of the law prohibits voting practices that discriminate based on race or color, but the appeals court decided it does not support coalition claims of multiple groups acting together.
In many of the affected districts, no single group comprises a majority, but several groups together do.
Until 2021, Galveston was a combined Black and Hispanic majority district. When redistricting eliminated that makeup, the the NAACP and the Justice Department sued Texas, but they have now lost.
They got their way with the lower court, but the appeals court reversed the decision.
Section 2’s language specifies protections for a “class” of citizens, not “classes,” the court discovered, which means that political alliances between different minority groups are not covered by the law.
Appeals court Judge Edith Jones wrote that the 5th Circuit refused to rubber stamp litigation “not compelled by law or the Supreme Court, whose principal effects are to (a) supplant legislative redistricting by elected representatives with judicial fiat; (b) encourage divisively counting citizens by race and ethnicity; and (c) displace the fundamental principle of democratic rule by the majority with balkanized interests.”
The ruling is a major one because it will prevent what turns out to be rule by the minority in many cases.
The deck has seemed unfairly stacked against Republicans for the past few decades, and now we know why.
The silver lining has been that it forced Republicans to make some inroads with Black and Hispanic voters, which means they could be stronger than ever in those areas.
The House is a toss-up in November with a very small Republican majority under threat by numerous retirements.
This ruling could be a big boost for them to try to hold on.