Multiple House Democrats vote with GOP to condemn Kamala Harris for ‘border czar’ role
The House of Representatives voted along bipartisan lines to condemn Vice President Kamala Harris’ handling of the U.S. southern border, the first piece of legislation targeting Harris since she became the Democrats’ presumptive 2024 nominee.
Six Democrats joined all Republicans in voting for the measure, which passed 220-196.
The House Democrats who voted for the resolution are Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Don Davis, D-N.C., and Yadira Caraveo, D-Colo.
Republicans have for years accused Harris of failing her job as “border czar” after President Biden handed her the task of mitigating the “root causes” of illegal immigration in 2021.
It’s quickly becoming the cornerstone of GOP-led attacks against Harris as she gears up for an expected head-to-head race with former President Trump. But the six moderate Democrats who voted to condemn Harris amount to a scathing rebuke of their party’s likely presidential candidate – despite dozens of left-wing lawmakers rushing to endorse her.
CREATOR OF IMMIGRATION CHART THAT ‘SAVED’ TRUMP’S LIFE FROM WOULD-BE ASSASSIN CREDITS ‘PROVIDENCE’
During debate on the bill, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who’s leading the effort, accused Harris of overseeing “failed and dangerous policies as Joe Biden’s border czar that caused the most catastrophic border crisis in this nation’s history.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., similarly opened debate with, “We’ve been told that Vice President Harris’ job was to find the root causes of the crisis. Turns out to do so she could have just looked in the mirror.”
Democrats, however, accused Republicans of being openly political in their motivations.
TRUMP EYES MULTIPLE BORDER VISITS AS HE DRAWS CONTRAST WITH ‘RADICAL LEFT’ HARRIS
“Testing new campaign messaging is not a good use of the House’s time,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee.
Thompson called the bill a “second-rate attempt at election interference,” adding, “Perhaps it’s also an ethics violation, since my Republican colleagues are blatantly using House resources for campaign purposes. And like so much other campaign literature, this political resolution is premised on falsehoods and supported by cherry-picked statistics.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital, “The mainstream media can try to rewrite history all they want, but the American people know the truth and our House Republican majority will remind them. Kamala Harris is Biden’s border czar, and the unprecedented invasion at our borders is hers to own.”
BIDEN ADDRESSES DECISION TO DROP OUT OF 2024 RACE, INTENDS TO COMPLETE TERM IN WHITE HOUSE
Left-wing lawmakers opposing the resolution also argued that Harris’ mission to tackle the root causes of migration was not a directive to oversee border security and operations.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of “making up” the border czar title in his weekly press conference on Thursday.
The resolution is the House’s last vote before Congress recesses for the month of August, to return after Labor Day.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Biden’s ‘overnight conversion’ to drop out of the 2024 race raises more questions, Hume says
President Biden addressed the nation Wednesday from the Oval Office for the first time since announcing over the weekend that he was withdrawing from the 2024 race and passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume reacted to the roughly 11-minute address, saying he doesn’t quite buy Biden’s reasoning for dropping out of the presidential race.
DEMOCRATS THROWN INTO CHAOS AS THEY FACE TIGHT DEADLINE TO REPLACE BIDEN
“To hear the president tell it, he was fine with running for re-election, thought he could win the race and serve for four more years until sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning, when it dawned on him, apparently, that it was time for a new generation of leaders,” Hume said.
Politico reported that Biden told his senior aides early Saturday his campaign was moving “full steam ahead” despite growing calls from members of his party to step aside after a disastrous performance at the CNN Presidential Debate in Atlanta.
However, later that evening, the president appeared to change his mind about the direction of his re-election bid after speaking with two of his closest aides.
KAMALA HARRIS DOESN’T ANSWER WHETHER BIDEN IS FIT FOR OFFICE
A letter was posted to Biden’s social media account on X, formerly Twitter, Sunday afternoon announcing his decision to “stand down” from the 2024 race.
In his fourth address to the nation, the 46th president said the only way to move forward is to “pass the torch to a new generation.”
Biden reflected on his administration’s successes throughout the past three years but argued he wouldn’t be seeking re-election because the “defense of democracy” is “more important than any title.”
“There was enough mention of democracy and the sacredness of it to suggest that it was more than a little political motivation in his speech, since democracy and the salvation of it has been such a theme of his and Kamala Harris’s election program,” Hume told Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. “But it was quite a conversion overnight, it seems, if you believe it. I’m not sure I do.”
“I think when we all look back on this in the fullness of time and perhaps with a better explanation of exactly the decision-making process the president went through, it will be seen as inevitable once that debate happened that he would have to step aside and that someone else would have to come forward,” he continued.
Former White House press secretary and “The Five” co-host Dana Perino said she wanted to “love” Biden’s speech and feel reassured that he has the capability to lead the nation through the remainder of his term, but ultimately felt like it was a “mini State of the Union.”
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“It was like something he could have given in January of 2025. It rang hollow for me,” she noted. “It did not answer any of those questions, and I do not think that it helps Kamala Harris as she tries to make some sort of a break with him as she tries to get this nomination and try to beat Donald Trump.”
Harris uses teachers’ union speech to slam Trump, ‘extreme allies’
Vice President Kamala Harris used her keynote appearance at the American Federation of Teachers convention to slam Republican presidential nominee former President Trump.
“Today we face a choice between two very different visions of our nation. One focused on the future, and the other focused on the past. And we are fighting for the future,” Harris said on Thursday as she campaigns for the 2024 Democratic nomination.
Harris also railed Project 2025, a group which Trump himself has said he isn’t closely affiliated with.
“So Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past. Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle down economic policies. Back to union busting. Back to tax breaks for billionaires. Donald Trump and his allies want to cut medicare and social security. To stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public,” Harris said, claiming Republicans “even want to eliminate the Department of Education.”
The vice president attempted to contrast her campaign and that of Trump and Republicans.
“We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books. Can you imagine,” Harris said.
“Bring it on,” Harris said in the closing of her address.
The House of Representatives voted along bipartisan lines to condemn Vice President Kamala Harris’ handling of the U.S. southern border, the first piece of legislation targeting Harris since she became Democrats’ presumptive 2024 nominee.
Six Democrats joined all Republicans in voting for the measure, which passed 220-196.
Republicans have for years accused Harris of failing her job as “border czar” after President Biden handed her the task of mitigating the “root causes” of illegal immigration in 2021.
It’s quickly becoming the cornerstone of GOP-led attacks against Harris as she gears up for an expected head-to-head race with former President Trump. But the six moderate Democrats who voted to condemn Harris amount to a scathing rebuke of their party’s likely presidential candidate – despite dozens of left-wing lawmakers rushing to endorse her.
Vice President Harris praised President Joe Biden’s recent Oval Office address during her keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers convention.
Biden addressed the nation from the White House on Wednesday night for the first time since ending his re-election bid.
“Last night our president addressed the nation. And he showed once again what true leadership looks like. He really did,” Harris said at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th national convention on Thursday in Houston, Texas.
“Joe has led with grace and strength and bold vision and deep compassion. And as he said, in the next 6 months he will continue to fight for the American people,” she added.
Harris also thanked AFT for being the first union to endorse her candidacy.
Vice President Kamala Harris released her first campaign advertisement since she was elevated to the top of the Democratic ticket, arguing in the ad that American “each face a question” in the upcoming election.
“What kind of country do we want to live in? There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate, but we choose something different, we choose freedom,” Harris says in the ad, which depicts her at campaign rallies.
“Freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Harris continues in the ad. “We choose a future where no child lives in poverty, where we can all afford health care, where no one is above the law.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity unpacks Vice President Kamala Harris’ voting record as she runs for the presidency on “Hannity.”
SEAN HANNITY: Joe Biden can barely talk, but Democrats, the state-run media mob, they now want you to believe that Joe Biden is too far gone for a political campaign but he can somehow still carry out his duties as president for another six months. He looked, as usual, weak, frail and a cognitive mess.
We told you this before the 2020 election
. Now, these are the same people, only a few weeks ago, that told you Biden was sharp as a tack and the videos we showed you, that were unedited of his decline, were cheap fake videos. The same people who now want you to believe that Kamala Harris is the second coming of Jesus. We’re now less than a week into Kamala’s ascension as her party’s presidential nominee.
Vice President Harris will deliver the keynote speech for a public union whose president has a history of far-left political rhetoric.
Harris will deliver the remarks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th national convention on Thursday in Houston, Texas, after receiving an endorsement from the union prior to the event.
The speech comes as Harris ramps up her 2024 presidential campaign to replace President Joe Biden on the top of the Democratic ticket.
AFT president Randi Weingarten spoke ahead of Harris, saying her rising as the likely Democratic nominee “electrified” the 2024 presidential race.
President Biden addressed the nation Wednesday from the Oval Office
for the first time since announcing over the weekend that he was withdrawing from the 2024 race and passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume reacted to the roughly 11-minute address, saying he doesn’t quite buy Biden’s reasoning for dropping out of the presidential race.
“To hear the president tell it, he was fine with running for re-election, thought he could win the race and serve for four more years until sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning, when it dawned on him, apparently, that it was time for a new generation of leaders,” Hume said.
Former President Donald Trump slammed President Biden’s
Oval Office address on his exit from the 2024 presidential race, calling it a “terrible” speech while accusing Democrats of staging a coup against the president.
Trump reacted to Biden’s remarks during “Fox & Friends” Thursday, arguing he left more questions than answers Wednesday night on the abrupt end of his presidential campaign.
“I think it was a coup. They didn’t want him running. He was way down in the polls, and they thought he was going to lose,” Trump said. “They went to him and they said, you can’t win the race, which I think is true, unless I did something very foolish, which I wasn’t going to do, and I think he was so far down and they said, ‘You’re not going to win, and you’re not in great shape, and you did poorly in the debate.’ I think the debate started everything.”
“I know a lot of people on the other side, too, that they went, and they forced him out between Pelosi and Obama and some others that you see on television. It was interesting,” he continued. “I’d watch them on television and they act so nice. ‘Oh, yes, we loved you. We loved you behind the scenes.’ I know for a fact they were brutal.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz
., who has been floated as a possible choice to become Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, told HuffPost on Wednesday that he would vote in favor of the pro-union legislation known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
Kelly’s lack of full commitment to the PRO Act, “has stood as a possible barrier to him becoming Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, since labor unions are a crucial part of the Democratic coalition,” the outlet reported.
Speaking to HuffPost on Wednesday, Kelly said, “Unions loom large in our life, and I’m supportive of the PRO Act.”
“I would have voted for it on Day 1,” he added of the bill. “I would vote for it today. I am, like a lot of legislation, working to make it better. But if it came to the floor today or any day going back to the day I was sworn in, I would vote for it.”
Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez declined to answer this week when asked about the job Vice President Kamala Harris did at the southern border after being tapped by President Biden to work on the issue.
FIRST ON FOX: Texas Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez declined to answer when asked this week whether Vice President Kamala Harris did a “good job” as the “border czar” overseeing President Biden’s immigration agenda.
“Do you think Kamala Harris did a good job as border czar?” Gonzalez, who represents Texas’ 34th Congressional District, was asked in a House office building on Tuesday.
“I don’t know that she was a border czar, was she a border czar?” Gonzalez asked, seemingly echoing media outlets attempting to walk back that job title description now that Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
“She was a border czar, a couple years ago, do you think she did a good job as the border czar?” Gonzalez was asked again.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller.
President Biden publicly addressed the nation on Wednesday night for the first time after announcing Sunday that he had withdrawn from his pending re-election.
He cited things he has done since being inaugurated — like battling COVID-19 and trying to help the country recover from what he called the “worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”
Biden also said the election is up to the “American people,” just a moment after he gave a slight endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
“In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice. I’ve made my views known,” Biden said from the White House. “I would like to thank our great vice president, Kamala Harris. She is experienced, she is tough, she is capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.
“Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office, alongside the busts of Dr. King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez.”
President Biden’s tenure in the White House expires in January, and political insiders from both sides of the aisle believe the remaining six months of his lame-duck presidency will consist largely of the same routine and “absolutely nothing.”
Former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in the House from 2013 to 2021, said she sees little change coming Americans’ way in the next six months, insisting Biden “hasn’t been the one making decisions” on key issues all along.
“Clearly, President Biden hasn’t been the one making decisions on our country’s domestic and foreign policy for the last three and a half years,” she said. “The same unelected people running the country with Biden as their figurehead will continue to do so for as long as he is in office and with Kamala Harris, if she’s elected.”
Julian Epstein, an attorney and former chief counsel to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital he believes there is “almost nothing” Biden will be able to accomplish in the months and days before the inauguration.
“There is almost nothing that Biden can achieve in the next six months, other than treading water and maintaining the status quo,” he said. “If the White House were smart, it would double down on its support for Israel and make clear that the Democrats understand moral clarity on fighting what is in effect the Ku Klux Klan on the banks of the Mediterranean.”
American Majority CEO and founder Ned Ryun echoed Epstein’s assessment, saying he believes there’s “absolutely nothing” Biden will be able to accomplish in the shadows of Harris’ presidential campaign.
“First, there’s no way anyone on either side of the aisle would want to push the envelope as they have their own re-elections to worry about,” Ryan said. “[Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer would never let anything overtly problematic come to the floor in the Senate because it’s a terrible map already; he doesn’t need to make it even harder for them to try and hold majority.”
“So Biden will achieve precisely nothing, except via executive orders, as he’s beyond a lame-duck president and shouldn’t even still be in office,” he added.
Fox News Digital’s Kyle Morris contributed to this update.
Law enforcement experts weigh in on the consequences for law enforcement if Kamala Harris is elected as the next president of the United States.
Vice President Harris’ record of backing a bail fund for Black Lives Matter convicted protesters is at the forefront of law enforcement minds as she attempts to paint herself as a law-and-order candidate.
“Let’s be clear about something: If Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the United States, she will be an unmitigated disaster for public safety in this country,” Joe Gamaldi, the national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police and an active Houston Police Department lieutenant, told Fox News Digital.
“She has loudly and proudly supported bail reform and has even donated and encouraged other people to donate to a fund that helped get murderers, rapists, people who were shooting people in the streets, out on bail,” he said. “We’re not talking about helping bail out the mom who stole a candy bar from the store to help feed her kids; we’re talking about violent criminals.”
Labor activist Dolores Huerta endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president Thursday, according to a report from Axios, giving the new presumptive Democratic nominee an influential boost in the early stages of the campaign.
Huerta is expected to campaign for Harris on Thursday at an even in Phoenix, Arizona with campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the report notes, with the duo heading to a predominately Hispanic region in the critical swing state.
“I’ve known Kamala Harris for a long time — and I’ve seen firsthand how she fights relentlessly for Latino communities, working families, and for every American,” Huerta said in a statement announcing the endorsement. “Today, I’m thrilled to endorse Vice President Harris to be our next president of the United States, because I know she’ll be our fierce champion in the White House.”
President Biden publicly addressed the nation on Wednesday night for the first time after announcing Sunday that he had withdrawn from his pending re-election.
He cited things he has done since being inaugurated — like battling COVID-19 and trying to help the country recover from what he called the “worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
“Biden also said the election is up to the “American people,” just a moment after he gave a slight endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
“In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice. I’ve made my views known,” Biden said from the White House. “I would like to thank our great vice president, Kamala Harris. She is experienced, she is tough, she is capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.”
Read the full story by Scott McDonald on Biden’s oval office address.
GovTrack removed a web page ranking Vice President Kamala Harris as “most liberal compared to all senators” in 2019 when she was still in Congress.
GovTrack, an organization that tracks congressional voting records, confirmed to Fox News Digital it had removed a 2019 web page that ranked Kamala Harris as that year’s “most liberal” U.S. senator sometime within the last two weeks.
The self-described “government transparency website” scored Harris as the “most liberal compared to all senators” in 2019, outranking Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren at the time. But the web page with the ranking, which was widely covered in news reports during the 2020 election, was recently deactivated.
The link now displays a “Page Not Found” message. The Internet Archive shows the page was deleted sometime between July 10 and July 23, with some on X claiming the page was still up on July 22.
President Biden announced his decision to suspend his campaign and endorse Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee on July 21. Harris announced in the early hours of July 23 that she had secured enough delegates to lock up the nomination at the DNC next month.
Former President Trump reacted to President Biden’s ‘terrible’ Oval Office address during ‘Fox & Friends,’ arguing the Democrats staged a ‘coup’ against his 2024 presidential campaign.
Former President Donald Trump slammed President Biden’s Oval Office address on his exit from the 2024 presidential race, calling it a “terrible” speech while accusing Democrats of staging a coup against the president.
Trump reacted to Biden’s remarks during “Fox & Friends” Thursday, arguing he left more questions than answers Wednesday night on the abrupt end of his presidential campaign.
“I think it was a coup. They didn’t want him running. He was way down in the polls, and they thought he was going to lose,” Trump said. “They went to him and they said, you can’t win the race, which I think is true, unless I did something very foolish, which I wasn’t going to do, and I think he was so far down and they said, ‘You’re not going to win and you’re not in great shape, and you did poorly in the debate.’ I think the debate started everything.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Bailee Hill.
House Republicans are questioning whether Vice President Kamala Harris was aware of any signs of cognitive decline in President Biden before his performance in last month’s presidential debate prompted similar concerns among the wider public.
“I don’t see how anybody in the president’s inner circle could not have known about his cognitive decline,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital when asked about Harris.
McCaul, who’s met with Biden twice since he took office in January 2021, said, during the second meeting earlier this year, the president “didn’t seem to quite comprehend things very well.”
“It was very noticeable to the members of the meeting. There was something — maybe he was just having a bad day,” McCaul said.
Other GOP lawmakers were more pointed in their criticism of Harris, pointing to reports she and Biden had been together in small group settings, including one-on-one lunches.
“If you look at video from six months ago, three months ago, when she continued to appear before large groups of people and say, ‘The president’s fine, he’s doing great,’ you know, they were all in on this,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., said. “As a result of that, you know, we find ourselves in the really strange position of not knowing whether or not he can fulfill his duties.”
Harris announced Sunday she would be running for president after the 81-year-old Biden dropped out of the race.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this update.
Former President Barack Obama privately supports Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy for president and will soon give her a public endorsement, NBC News reported Thursday.
A source familiar told the outlet Obama has been in “regular contact” with Harris and said he believes her campaign is “off to a great start.”
NBC News also reported that Obama and Harris wanted to wait to announce the endorsement so it would stand out and have more impact.
“President Obama looks forward to helping Democrats up and down the ballot make the case to voters this fall,” senior Obama adviser Eric Schultz told NBC News. “Our strategy will be based on driving impact, especially where and when his voice can move the needle.”
Though Democratic leaders such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., as well as the Clintons and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have offered Harris their endorsements, Obama has so far not done so.
Since leaving the Oval Office, Obama has typically held his endorsement card close to his chest. He endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in June 2016, while his endorsement of Biden in 2020 was only made days ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
Obama remained coy for a long while during the 2020 election about whom he would endorse, saying he would not back anyone during the primary. As Democratic contenders such as Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont dropped out of the primary race and cleared a path for Biden, however, Obama finally endorsed his former veep in August of that year.
Harris was also a contender in the 2020 race, and had long had a friendship with Obama prior to her 2020 run, sparking media speculation that the 44th president could throw his support behind Harris instead of his VP.
Harris was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
Harris was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this update.
Liberal media outlets
have begun pushing a new talking point as the Democratic presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris, marches toward Election Day: The vice president was never President Biden’s “border czar.”
Outlets, including Time Magazine, USA Today, The New York Times, New York Daily News, and Newsweek, all echoed similar sentiments, suggesting that the unofficial title was “misleading” and inaccurate.
However, their claims are, at best, puzzling, considering that some of those same publications referred to Harris as the “border czar” or something similar in reporting that dates back to early 2021.
Axios drew particular criticism over a piece that seemed to contradict its own previous reporting, and it even updated its own story Wednesday by saying it “incorrectly” called her a border czar in the past.
“The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the ‘border czar’ title — which she never actually had,” reporter Stef Kight wrote on Wednesday.
Critics pointed out Axios reported in 2021 that Harris was “appointed by Biden as border czar.” Another 2021 Axios report, by Kight herself, was headlined, “Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis.”
Left-leaning fact-checker PolitiFact also got in on the action, calling a Republican claim about her being the border czar “mostly false” and part of an effort to “link her” to her own administration’s immigration policy.
Past reporting from media outlets across the political spectrum and comments from Biden himself appear to link Harris to the administration’s immigration plans unambiguously.
Harris was tasked early on in the Biden administration with addressing the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. That part of her portfolio has emerged as a cornerstone of GOP-led attacks against the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, as states across the country continue to struggle with the migrant crisis.
In a March 24, 2021, video, Biden said that Harris was “leading the effort to coordinate with Mexico and other Northern Triangle nations to address issues such as the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Fox News Digital’s Nikolas Lanum contributed to this update.
Crowds descended on the nation’s capital Wednesday to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit, and many wanted to know where Vice President Kamala Harris stands on the conflict now that she is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“She’s no different from Biden on this issue, she’s no different from anybody else,” Nikolai from Ohio told Fox News Digital. “We’re going down to the lesser evil-ism. Trump will be 100%. She’ll be 99.9, you know what I mean?”
Thousands of protesters swarmed the National Mall ahead of Netanyahu’s address to Congress, calling for the foreign leader’s arrest and an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Harris skipped Netanyahu’s speech but is expected to meet privately with the Israeli leader at the White House.
Several people erected a large effigy of Netanyahu with devil horns, blood pouring from his mouth and a bomb clutched in his hand. Others chanted slogans like “Intifada revolution” and “from the river to the sea,” danced, burned flags and waved posters with mugshot-style images of Netanyahu’s face. U.S. Capitol Police made numerous arrests.
“I want Israel to be dismantled,” Christine from Virginia said earlier in the day when asked what outcome she hoped to see in the Middle East. “That’s about it.”
Other protesters hoped for a two-state solution.
Many attendees told Fox News Digital Netanyahu is a “war criminal” who “belongs in jail” and were skeptical that Harris would be harsher on Israel if elected president.
“I really hate her,” Elise from Virginia said. “I am both pro-life and pro-Palestine, and she is against both of those things. So to me, she’s just into a double genocide.”
Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays, Jeffrey Clark and Hannah Ray Lambert contributed to this update.
Sales of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2019 memoir have skyrocketed in recent days, following her ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket to take on former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
“The Truths We Hold: An American Journey” currently ranks at No. 1 among female biographies on Amazon. It’s No. 2 among all biographies, behind Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s 2016 personal memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“This book is not meant to be a policy platform, much less a 50-point plan,” Harris wrote in the preface.
“Instead, it is a collection of ideas and viewpoints and stories, from my life and from the lives of the many people I’ve met along the way.”
Harris was born in Oakland, California, in October 1964, to immigrant parents.
“My father, Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica in 1938,” Harris wrote. “He was a brilliant student who immigrated to the United States after being admitted to the University of California at Berkeley.”
Her dad is a professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University today.
“My mother’s life began thousands of miles to the east, in southern India,” wrote Harris. “Shyamala Gopalan was the oldest of four children … Like my father, she was a gifted student.”
The vice president’s mother also studied at Berkeley, and became a doctor of endocrinology and breast cancer researcher. She died in 2009.
In the book, Harris describes how her parents shaped her politics while participating in the civil rights movement.
“My parents often brought me in a stroller with them to civil rights marches … Social justice was a central part of our discussions,” she wrote.
Her father was part of a network of leftist activist friends in Berkeley and San Francisco political circles. Among them: Lateefah Simon, a Bay Area social justice warrior and 2024 congressional candidate.
“Lateefah was a genius,” Harris wrote. “In 2003, she became the youngest woman to ever win the prestigious MacArthur ‘Genius’ award.”
Simon today sits on the Bay Area Rapid Transport board of directors and has enjoyed leadership positions with far-left groups such as the Rosenberg Foundation and the Akonadi Foundation.
Fox News Digital’s Kerry J. Byrne contributed to this update.
Vice President Harris will not reveal when she first found out President Biden was ending his re-election bid.
Fox News Digital made several attempts to reach Harris’ office to ask when the vice president was first notified that Biden would no longer seek re-election but did not receive a response to the question.
Biden made a sudden withdrawal from the presidential race via a written statement on Sunday, despite his communication team spending the days leading up to the withdrawal being adamant that the president was staying in the race.
Harris was immediately propped up by Democrats as the candidate to replace Biden at the top of the 2024 ticket, but it is unknown exactly when she found out that he would not be running after weeks of concern over his fitness to serve.
After Biden dropped out, it was reported that only a handful of White House and campaign officials were notified of the president’s plan to forego his re-election, prompting questions about the administration’s communication over the situation.
Biden endorsed Harris shortly after the withdrawal announcement. The vice president did not waste any time before accepting Biden’s endorsement and stepping into his place on the ticket, visiting the revamped campaign headquarters just 24 hours after the president dropped out.
Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this update.
The first lady and members of President Biden’s family were with him in the White House as he delivered his Oval Office address on Wednesday evening.
Most of the Biden family sat off to the side as the president spoke from the resolute desk. Those in attendance included Hunter Biden, his daughter Finnegan Biden, Ashley Biden and her husband, Howard Krein, first lady Jill Biden, Naomi Biden Neal and her husband, Peter Neal and several of the president’s grandchildren.
There were about 40 people in the Oval Office for Biden’s address, including the president, his family and staff.
Family members were seen tearing up and hugging the president after he wrapped up his speech. They applauded him after his remarks concluded.
Once the cameras were off, Biden went to the dining room for a private moment with his family. He returned a few minutes later to address hundreds of staff awaiting him in the Rose Garden, who surprised him with loud and lengthy cheering.
In a roughly 11 minute Oval Office address, President Biden told the American people his plans for the remainder of his first and only term in the White House.
The president said he looks forward to the work before him in his final six months in office, including pushing for Supreme Court reforms.
“Over the next six months, I will be focused on doing my job as president. That means I will continue to lower costs for hard-working families, grow our economy. I will keep defending our personal freedoms and civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. I will keep calling out hate and extremism, making it clear there is no place, no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period. I’m going to keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence, our planet from climate crisis as an existential threat,” Biden said.
“I will keep fighting for my Cancer Moonshot, so we can end cancer as we know it because we can do it. I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy — Supreme Court reform. You know, I will keep working to ensure American remains strong, secure and the leader of the free world.”
Biden also said he will continue to support Ukraine in the eastern European nation’s war against Russia, continue to seek a peaceful resolution to the war in Gaza and bring home the Americans still held captive around the world.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this update.
President Biden publicly addressed the nation on Wednesday for the first time after announcing Sunday that he’d withdrawn from the 2024 campaign for a pending re-election.
He cited things he’s done since being inaugurated, but he also said the election is up to the ‘American people,’ just a moment after he gave his endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
“In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice. I’ve made my views known,” Biden said from the White House. “I would like to thank our great vice president, Kamala Harris. She is experienced, she is tough, she is capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.
“Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office, alongside the busts of Dr. King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez.”
Biden won the needed votes to clinch delegates for re-election. Now, it seems like Harris will be the presumed Democratic candidate to run against former President Donald Trump in the general election this fall.
Fox News drones provide new perspective on how Trump shooter was positioned
Fox News drones provided a new perspective on the sight lines between Thomas Matthew Crooks, former President Trump and the Secret Service counter sniper teams at the fateful rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Thursday.
Fox News correspondent CB Cotton also detailed the sight lines that Crooks had when firing on Trump. A drone recreation shows that Crooks was largely concealed from Secret Service counter snipers by a large tree, though he still had an angle on the former president.
The Secret Service agent who neutralized Crooks was stationed on a building behind Trump. The drone footage shows he would have only seen part of Crooks’ body at the time.
Bodycam footage from the day of the shooting shows confusion among the Secret Service agents and local police. Several officers can be seen standing around Crooks’ body on the roof discussing the incident.
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The officers found eight bullet casings around Crooks, a number that lines up with testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray.
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In addition to his rifle, Crooks brought two explosive devices to the rally. Both were capable of remote detonation, and the transmitter was found on Crooks’ body. The explosives were found in the suspect’s vehicle near the rally.
Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, updating lawmakers on the FBI’s investigation into the shooting. It was the third time in as many days that Congress held a hearing regarding the investigations into the attempted assassination of Trump.
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Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle delivered testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, and she resigned soon after. The House Homeland Security Committee heard testimony from Pennsylvania State Police on Tuesday, followed by Wray’s hearing on Wednesday.
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The House of Representatives voted unanimously on Wednesday to open a commission to investigate the shooting.
Black pastor’s warnings about identity politics as Trump tries to gain traction
Detroit-based Pastor Lorenzo Sewell said on Wednesday that “we need to stop” playing identity politics, reacting to Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“It would be amazing to have the first Black woman president, I think that would be cool,” Sewell, the pastor of 180 Church on Detroit’s west side, told ABC 7.
“But we need to stop playing identify politics as well,” he added.
The pastor, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last week, went on to say, “You don’t have anything more powerful in America than a Black woman, so I understand there are allegiances there, but sometimes that can be misguided. I’ve had people call me this afternoon and say ‘vote for Kamala Harris because she’s Black.’ That doesn’t resonate with me right?”
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ABC 7 reported further that Sewell said that he has not publicly endorsed any candidate for the 2024 presidential election and that he never intended being “front and center with the Trump campaign.”
Sewell hosted former President Trump at his church in June in addition to speaking at the RNC last week.
“If President Trump would’ve moved just a millimeter, we would not be hearing tonight how he is going to make America great again,” Sewell said at the GOP convention.
Sewell added that the Black community has been “hurting” under the Democratic leadership.
“When we look at our community, we see clearly that our community is hurting and it’s been under Democratic leadership,” Sewell said.
“I’m not saying for the last 60 years Democrats are doing the wrong thing. What I’m saying is that when you look at our community, specifically Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, and Saginaw, we’re hurting. And the Republican Party is saying ‘I want to have a conversation.'”
Furthermore, Sewell said that a growing number of Black men are shifting support toward the Republican Party.
The ABC local affiliate also interviewed Black voters about their thoughts on Trump.
Tayson Stewart, 27, said that “Trump looks like he’s trying to help us.”
“… he looks like he knows what he’s talking about,” Detroit-based Stewart said.
“The Black voters are asleep. They are going to vote for Kamala, because they following Biden, and don’t do it. Trump really trying to help us, that’s what I think.”
“I’m terrified if that man is in there,” Detroit-based Leon Crosby, 57, said about Trump.
“I’d be terrified as an African American,” Crosby added.
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Trump, who was formally nominated last week at the Republican National Convention as the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, stands at 46% support among registered voters in an NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll released on Tuesday.
Harris, who on Monday night announced that she’d locked up her party’s nomination by landing commitments of backing from a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention, stood at 45% support.
The poll was conducted on Monday, the day after President Biden‘s announcement that he was ending his 2024 re-election rematch with Trump.
Sewell’s comments came amid Harris facing scrutiny over her qualifications to be commander in chief.
Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett on Monday called Harris a “DEI hire” in an interview with CNN, suggesting that Harris was selected as vice president solely because she was a Black woman.
“One hundred percent she is a DEI hire,” Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju. He continued, “Her record is abysmal at best.”
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Although some in the GOP are urging the Trump campaign to stick to criticizing Harris over her policy positions.
After pro-Hamas mob torches American flags in DC, GOP lawmakers take action
House Republicans visited Union Station late Wednesday night and replaced the American flags anti-Israel protesters had burned and replaced with Palestinian flags earlier in the day.
House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with the press as the American flags were being put back up. The anti-Israel protesters descended on the nation’s capital as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an address before Congress.
At Union Station, protesters removed all three American flags flying outside the historic metro transit hub. They flew Palestinian flags in their place and burned at least one of the American flags that were taken down. Protesters also covered nearby monuments in grafitti.
“We recognize that they flew Palestinian flags on these polls. It is outrageous,” Johnson said. “They were pulled down thankfully.”
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Footage shows members of Congress running American flags back up all three polls with assistance from police.
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Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries also condemned the protests in a statement on Thursday.
“Defacing public property, desecrating the American flag, threatening Jews with violence and promoting terrorist groups like Hamas is not acceptable under any circumstance.There is a difference between lawful expression and disorderly conduct. Anyone who violates the law must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Jeffries wrote.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg echoed Jeffries in his own statement.
“Grave concern for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot justify defacing federal property with Hamas slogans. Passionate differences are grounds for fierce debate and meaningful protest, not intimidation and certainly not support for terrorism,” Buttigieg wrote.
A man who walked by the protest and remarked that he was Jewish and was offended by the language was then chased down the street, yelled at and called “Hitler” by agitators. He and a woman were later let inside a building to get away from the protesters. When a Fox News reporter asked why they followed the man, one said it was because he was White and Jewish.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of protesters had gathered on Pennsylvania Avenue and 3rd Street, outside the Gallery of Art. The protest organizers included Answer Coalition and Code Pink. There were numerous speakers from various organizations, including one from the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
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Johnson denounced the protesters as “terrorists” in a statement on social media.
U.S. Capitol Hill Police claimed the Union Station flags were out of their jurisdiction and were therefore unprotected.
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“No flags under our protection have been removed or vandalized. Our officers will enforce the law if anyone attempts to remove a flag in USCP jurisdiction. To clear up inaccurate reporting,” they said in a statement.
Clint Eastwood’s longtime girlfriend’s cause of death revealed
Clint Eastwood’s longtime partner, Christina Sandera, died on Thursday, July 18. She was 61.
Sandera’s cause of death was due to cardiac arrhythmia, the Monterey County Dept. of Health stated on a death certificate obtained by Fox News Digital.
“Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease” was listed as an underlying cause which contributed to her death.
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A heart arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Coroners performed an autopsy on Sandera before her body was cremated, according to the report.
Sandera, a philanthropist, died at 1:46 p.m. Her manner of death was listed as “natural” on the official report.
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Eastwood and Christina were relatively low-profile about their relationship, having met nearly a decade ago while she was employed at his Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea near Monterey, California.
“Christina was a lovely, caring woman, and I will miss her very much,” Eastwood told The Hollywood Reporter shortly after her death.
Clint’s daughter, Morgan Eastwood, mourned the loss of Sandera in an Instagram post shared Sunday.
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“A devastating loss for our whole family,” Morgan wrote. “Thank you Christina for being a good partner to my Dad. You will be missed.”
Prior to his relationship with Sandera, Eastwood was married twice. His first marriage was to model Maggie Johnson from 1953-64. The former couple didn’t finalize their divorce until 1984.
“A devastating loss for our whole family.”
Eastwood then married Dina Ruiz in 1966 and the couple divorced in 2014.
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The award-winning actor is a father of eight: Laurie Murray, Kimber Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood, Alison Eastwood, Scott Eastwood, Kathryn Eastwood, Francesca Eastwood and Morgan Eastwood.
Southwest announces major shift to its seating policy, breaks with 50-year tradition
For the first time in its history, Southwest Airlines is doing away with open seating.
The Texas-based carrier, which has used a unique open seating model for more than 50 years, announced Thursday that it will assign seats and offer premium seating options on all flights.
Southwest became known for having a single economy-class cabin with open seating assignments. Currently, passengers are assigned a boarding group but once they are onboard, they can choose any available seat. Customers can pay extra to board early to get their preferred seat.
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The recently announced changes will effectively allow the carrier to boost profits by charging a higher rate for its premium seats across all its flights.
Southwest said it plans to offer a premium, extended legroom portion of the cabin and expects roughly one-third of seats across the fleet to offer extended legroom. That’s in line with what industry peers offer on narrow-body aircraft.
Southwest said the decision came after research indicated that 80% of its customers and nearly 90% of potential customers prefer having an assigned seat.
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“When a customer elects to stop flying with Southwest and chooses a competitor, open seating is cited as the number one reason for the change,” Southwest said in its Thursday release. “By moving to an assigned seating model, Southwest expects to broaden its appeal and attract more flying from its current and future customers.”
In April, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan hinted that the carrier was considering changing the boarding and seating processes on its planes in order to improve its financial position.
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His comments came as Jordan warned that the carrier is contending with financial fallout from Boeing delays and announced it’s pulling out of multiple underperforming airports.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest said these changes won’t “compromise the airline’s operational efficiency.”
While the carrier didn’t disclose when these changes would officially occur, it said it would offer more details during its investor day in September.