Dozens of attendees reportedly stranded after vehicles towed during Trump rally in Charlotte
Dozens of Donald Trump supporters in North Carolina were startled to find their vehicles had been towed after they reportedly got permission to park in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot during a campaign rally Wednesday.
The Charlotte rally was the former president’s first public campaign event since President Biden’s exit from the 2024 race and since the assassination attempt on Trump.
The Secret Service has reportedly recommended no more outdoor rallies for the former president after the assassination attempt.
Once the rally ended, drivers were stunned to find their vehicles had been towed.
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Drivers told WBTV the manager of the Dunkin’ allowed them to leave their cars in the lot during the rally. However, when asked for comment, they said several people were told they could not park there and that signs on the property indicate no parking for non-customers.
Tow trucks reportedly showed up and began removing vehicles from the parking lot during the rally.
“The managers inside promised that they could park here,” Zander DeSoto, a Trump rally attendee, told WBTV. “Some of the people here even gave money to the people inside.”
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To make matters worse, people whose vehicles were towed from the Dunkin’ parking lot had to pay hundreds of dollars to a towing company to get their cars back.
“Something very fishy [is] going on here because I’ve never seen anything like this happen before,” one attendee told WBTV.
Another man said when he confronted the Dunkin’ manager, the shop’s employees locked the doors and refused to exit.
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“The whole parking lot is gone … everybody,” he explained. “They locked the doors. They won’t answer our calls, and they won’t even answer at the window.”
One family told WBTV they traveled over two hours to attend the rally. And when they walked back to their car afterward, it was gone.
Gotcha Towing & Recovery, the company tasked with towing vehicles from the parking lot, told WBTV there was a sign warning that illegally parked cars would be removed.
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The towing company added that the manager of the store contacted the business asking it to pull the vehicles off the property. The only way people could get their cars was to pay a $380 towing fee.
Fox News Digital reached out to Gotcha Towing & Recovery, which refused to comment.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Dunkin’ for comment.
Major poll shows how Biden’s exit has shaken up 2024 presidential race
Vice President Kamala Harris is edging former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical general election match-up, according to a new poll conducted after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
The New York Times/Siena College released a new survey that found that Trump leads Harris by only one percentage point among likely voters, 48% to 47%. Among registered voters, Trump led Harris by two percentage points.
The new results reveal a tightening of the race since Democrats changed their nominee when compared to a New York Times poll in July that found Trump was leading Biden by 6 points.
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Harris secured a 10-point lead over Trump among voters 45 and younger, a key demographic that the Republican nominee was previously leading in, according to NYT polling just three weeks earlier.
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According to the survey, about 79% of Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters want Harris to be the party nominee after Biden’s withdrawal from the race, while 27% think Democrats should have a competitive process to select a new nominee.
About 87% of respondents said they either somewhat or strongly approve of Biden’s decision to drop out of the race. Additionally, 45% of respondents say that they do not approve of the job Biden is currently doing as president.
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The New York Times/Siene College poll was conducted from July 22 to 24 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
Democratic governor claims Vance has ‘betrayed’ his values, he immediately responds
DURHAM, N.H. – Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan says that Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio is a changed man.
Former President Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, and his campaign are confident that thanks to Vance’s blue collar roots, the senator will help the Republican ticket in the crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which have long been part of the Democrats’ blue wall.
Asked by Fox News if she agreed with the Trump campaign’s argument regarding Vance, Whitmer answered “if it was the JD Vance who wrote Hillbilly Elegy maybe. But it’s a very different person. It’s a person who has absolutely betrayed those values and that book and has become something that is just a reflection of Donald Trump.”
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“Maybe even more concerning than a reflection of Donald Trump,” Whitmer added. ” I would say that that kind of leadership is not something that’s going to resonate and that’s why we’ve got to make sure people know who he is.”
Asked for a response, Vance in a statement to Fox News argued that “career politicians like Gretchen Whitmer can lie about me all they want, but I’m still always going to put American workers and families first and foremost because I’ll never forget where I came from.”
“It’s career politicians like her who support the radical Kamala-Biden agenda to leave our southern border wide open, strangle American energy, kill the automobile industry with their electric vehicle mandates, and drive up the cost of living through inflationary spending who clearly have forgotten about the people she’s supposed to be representing,” Vance charged.
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Vance grabbed national attention a couple of years ago after writing “Hillbilly Elegy,” which tells his story of growing up in a struggling steel mill city in southwest Ohio and his roots in Appalachian Kentucky. It became a New York Times bestseller and was made into a Netflix film. The story spotlighted the values of many working-class Americans who became supporters of Trump’s policies.
Vance’s working-class parents divorced when he was young, and his mother struggled for years with drug and alcohol abuse. Vance was raised in part by his maternal grandparents.
After high school graduation, Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Iraq War. He later graduated from Ohio State University, earned a law degree at Yale University, and later moved to San Francisco and worked as a principal in a venture capital firm before heading back home to Ohio where he ran for the Senate in 2022.
Vance was a vocal critic of Trump when the former president first ran for the White House in the 2016 cycle.
However, Vance eventually supported Trump, praising the former president’s tenure in the White House, and in a Fox News interview in 2021, he apologized for his earlier criticism of Trump.
Trump’s endorsement of Vance days before the 2022 GOP Senate primary boosted him to victory in a crowded, competitive and combustible nomination race. After winning election to the Senate, Vance quickly became a top supporter in the chamber of Trump’s America First agenda and a champion of the former president’s MAGA movement.
Whitmer, a two-term governor of a crucial midwestern battleground state and a leading figure in the Democratic Party, spoke with Fox News at a house party in Durham, New Hampshire. It was her third and final campaign stop on Thursday in the key New England swing state on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris, who this week replaced President Biden as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
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President Biden, in a blockbuster announcement Sunday, ended his 2024 re-election rematch with Trump and endorsed his vice president. Biden made his move amid mounting pressure from within the Democratic Party for him to drop out after a disastrous performance in last month’s first presidential debate with Trump.
The embattled president’s immediate backing of Harris ignited a surge of endorsements of Harris by Democratic governors, senators, House members and other party leaders. By Monday night, the vice president announced that she had locked up her party’s nomination by landing the backing of a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention. She has also hauled in a staggering $129 million since Biden’s announcement, her campaign touted on Thursday morning.
“I was grateful and honored to be a co-chair of the Biden campaign. I am similarly grateful and honored to be a co-chair of the Harris campaign,” Whitmer said to cheers from the couple of hundred people at the house party.
No Republican has carried New Hampshire in a presidential election in 24 years, but recent polling suggested a margin-of-error contest between Biden and Trump
But two new public opinion surveys in the state released on Thursday indicated Harris holding single-digit leads over Trump.
Peeved Biden campaign co-chair lashes out at rich donors: ‘You can’t win without money’
The co-chair of President Biden’s now-defunct campaign expressed anger at big donors who decided to withhold their contributions and suggested they had forced Biden to forego his re-election efforts.
Following Biden’s announcement that he would no longer run for a second term on Sunday, Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN that wealthy donors had “created a self-fulfilling prophecy” after Biden’s widely panned debate performance.
“You can’t win without money, and then they were going to point the finger at the candidate. They were going to blame it on Biden,” he said. “For a president that has accomplished so much, it was a no-win situation.”
Richmond also offered a clear message to those who turned away from Biden: “Now those donors need to step the f— up.”
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During a Thursday morning appearance on CNN, Richmond clarified his statements about the lack of significant contributions to the Biden campaign.
“Was I pissed off at big donors? Absolutely,” he said.
Top Democratic fundraiser Lindy Li expressed a similar sentiment before Biden’s announcement, telling Fox News Sunday that it was getting more and more difficult to bring in donations for Biden.
“Fundraising has – big money fundraising has slowed. People – major donors who have pledged massive amounts of checks, and I’m talking six, seven – 7-figure checks have suddenly disappeared, fallen off the face of the Earth, rescinded their pledges,” Li said.
Li also said that if Biden were to withdraw, it would be a “catastrophic mistake” and “political malpractice” to skip over Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Harris raised $100 million from Sunday afternoon – when Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president to succeed him as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee – through Monday night, her campaign announced on Tuesday morning.
The Harris campaign also touted that the fundraising in the wake of the president’s blockbuster news came from more than 1.1 million unique donors, with 62% of them first-time contributors.
The Harris campaign has been spotlighting the surge in fundraising and, in an email release on Monday afternoon, highlighted that the money raised was the “largest 24-hour raise in presidential history.”
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The 1-day haul easily topped the nearly $53 million former President Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced that they brought in nearly two months ago through their online digital fundraising platform in the first 24 hours after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in his criminal trial in New York City.
Harris has reportedly whittled down list of potential running mates to six candidates
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is reportedly working with a specific short list of candidates to choose her vice presidential pick in the next two weeks before the Democratic National Convention.
Harris’ list of potential running mates, according to NBC News, was whittled down to Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“You need someone who’s moderate, obviously, a white male, and I would say she needs someone from a border state,” Ashley Etienne, a former Harris communications director, told NBC News.
“I think her choosing a white male counterbalances her race and her gender in a way that could open her up to peeling off many of those Nikki Haley voters, those disaffected Republicans, independents. And I think it rounds off the ticket in a way that I think feels fresh, feels also forward, but also feels fully aware of where we are as a nation.”
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NBC reported the Harris campaign is hoping to find a candidate who will appeal to the demographics that President Biden was strongest with, including older white voters and suburban women. Additionally, the campaign reportedly wants a candidate who appeals to white men who aren’t fans of former President Trump but are skeptical about Harris.
If Harris ends up deciding against choosing a white male, NBC News reported Cedric Richmond, a former Biden adviser and Louisiana congressman, has also been floated as a possible running mate.
Many had speculated Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and California Gov. Gavin Newsom would also be considered, but both have withdrawn their names from consideration.
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“I think it’s Mark Kelly if I had to bet,” Etienne said.
Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is running for Senate in Arizona, said Wednesday Kelly would give Harris a “jolt” if she chose him for vice president.
Kelly’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate have spoken highly of him. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the party’s 2016 vice presidential nominee, told NBC News that Kelly would be a “superb” choice for Harris.
Hailing from the key battleground state of Arizona, Kelly could assist Harris in locking up Western states and provide credibility on the border, which he has said is in “crisis.” He has a compelling life story and career, being a former Navy pilot and astronaut. His parents were both police officers, which could help Democrats dodge GOP attacks for being too soft on crime.
Kelly is married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot during a campaign event with constituents in 2011. He cared for her throughout her recovery and continues to do so. Both are leading advocates of gun control reforms.
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A top Democratic Party donor told NBC News Biden is “happy as a clam” to have Harris at the top of the ticket.
“Vice President Harris has directed her team to begin the process of vetting potential running mates,” a Harris campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“That process has begun in earnest, and we do not expect to have additional updates until the vice president announces who will be serving as her running mate and as the next vice president of the United States.”
US agents arrest leader of major Mexican drug cartel after son of ‘El Chapo’ turns on him
The Mexican drug kingpin Ismael Zambada Garcia, also known as “El Mayo,” who co-founded the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel was taken into custody in El Paso, Texas on Thursday, according to the Department of Justice.
Also taken into custody was Juaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of the cartel’s other co-founder, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
“The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world,” U.S. Attorney General Merick B. Garland said. “Ismael Zambada Garcia, or ‘El Mayo,’ cofounder of the Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of its other cofounder, were arrested today in El Paso, Texas.”
Zambada Garcia and now-jailed drug lord “El Chapo” founded the Sinaloa Cartel.
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A federal law enforcement source told Fox News Joaquin Guzman Lopez surrendered to U.S. authorities, but El Mayo was captured. Guzman Lopez cut a deal with U.S. authorities, and turned on El Mayo, the source explained.
Guzman Lopez got on a private airplane with El Mayo and instead of heading south to Mexico like El Mayo thought, the plane went north to El Paso where the two were taken into custody.
“El Mayo,” who the Department of Justice was offering a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction, now faces a litany of indictments for crimes related to drug trafficking and organized crime in the United States.
“Today, the FBI and DEA arrested two alleged cartel leaders who have eluded law enforcement for decades,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said, adding that El Mayo and Guzman Lopez will now face justice.
“Garcia and Guzman have allegedly overseen the trafficking of tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the U.S. along with related violence. These arrests are an example of the FBI’s and our partners’ commitment to dismantling violent transnational criminal organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel.”
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In February, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Zambada Garcia with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, which U.S. officials say is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
The superseding indictment extended the dates of previous indictments from May 2014 to January 2024, and at the time it was filed, Zambada Garcia was at large.
Guzman was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn in February 2019 and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.
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Zambada Garcia continued to evade capture and allegedly continued to run the Sinaloa Cartel from Mexico, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in February.
According to the superseding indictment, Zambada Garcia, from 1999-2024, led a continuing enterprise responsible for the importation and distribution of massive quantities of narcotics, which generated billions of dollars in profits.
In his efforts to ensure the cartel remained successful, Zambada Garcia allegedly employed individuals to obtain transportation routes and warehouses to import and store narcotics and “sicarios,” or hit men, to carry out kidnappings and murders in Mexico to retaliate against rivals who threatened the Sinaloa Cartel.
The millions of dollars generated from the operation were then transported back to Mexico.
“El Mayo and Guzman Lopez join a growing list of Sinaloa Cartel leaders and associates who the Justice Department is holding accountable in the United States. That includes the Cartel’s other cofounder, Joaquin Guzman Loera, or ‘El Chapo’; another of El Chapo’s sons and an alleged Cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman Lopez; and the Cartel’s alleged lead sicario, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, or ‘El Nini.'” Garland said. “Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable.”
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In light of Guzman’s trial conviction, his name has been removed from the superseding indictment against Zambada Garcia.
Head coach removed from Paris Olympics over spying controversy
The Canadian Olympic Committee has removed women’s national soccer head coach Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris Games after staffers allegedly used a drone to spy on an opponent.
Two Canadian team staffers, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi, were “sent home immediately” for allegedly using a drone to spy on a New Zealand practice.
Canada beat New Zealand, 2-1, Thursday.
Priestman, who has denied involvement, initially volunteered to step away from the club prior to the committee’s decision.
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It isn’t just the New Zealand incident in question, however. Canada Soccer CEO and General Secretary Kevin Blue said in a COC release that “additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
Blue added that Priestman was suspended from her duties until the end of the tournament and the completion of the organization’s independent external review.
Lombardi, 43, was arrested for flying a drone over Auguste Dury Stadium Monday and filming two closed-door New Zealand training sessions. He then admitted to the charges and was sentenced to eight months in prison.
The COC identified Lombardi as “an unaccredited analyst with Canada Soccer.”
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“The Canadian Olympic Committee stands for fair play, and we are shocked and disappointed,” the COC said in a statement. We offer our heartfelt apologies to New Zealand Football, to all the players affected and to the New Zealand Olympic Committee.”
Priestman was hired in November 2020 to succeed Kenneth Heiner-Møller and had been working on a rolling contract. She led Canada to a gold medal at the 2021 Olympics, but the team was eliminated in the group stage of last year’s Women’s World Cup.
She said in her initial statement she was “ultimately responsible for conduct in our program.”
She’s coached the team to 28 wins, nine losses and 10 draws.
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Canada is in Group A along with host country France and Colombia.
Fans of boneless wings get wake-up call after state Supreme Court issues ruling
A divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that consumers should not expect boneless wings to be free of bones.
The 4-3 decision came after a guest of a restaurant filed legal action when he suffered serious medical complications because a bone from a boneless wing got stuck in his throat.
The Associated Press reported that Michael Berkheimer was dining with his wife and friends at a wing joint in Hamilton, Ohio, when he ordered his usual: boneless wings with Parmesan garlic sauce.
As Berkheimer was eating, he felt a bite-size piece of meat go down the wrong way.
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Three days later, Berkheimer was feverish and unable to keep food down, so he went to the emergency room. While there, a doctor discovered a long, thin bone that had torn his esophagus and caused an infection.
Berkheimer sued the restaurant, Wings on Brookwood, claiming the restaurant failed to warn him that “boneless wings” could contain bones, despite the understanding the items are nuggets of chicken meat free of bones, or “boneless.”
Berkheimer’s lawsuit named the wing supplier as well as the farm that produced the chicken, accusing them of being negligent.
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In the court’s decision on Thursday, it said that “boneless wings” refers to a cooking style, and Berkheimer should have been on guard against bones, since it is common knowledge that chickens have bones.
Lower courts had dismissed Berkheimer’s suit, and the latest decision from the high court sides with the previous decisions.
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“A diner reading ‘boneless wings’ on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating ‘chicken fingers’ would know that he had not been served fingers,” Justice Joseph T. Deters wrote for the majority.
The judges that sided with Berkheimer, though, called Deters’ reasoning “utter jabberwocky,” saying a jury should have been allowed to decide whether the restaurant was negligent.
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“The question must be asked: Does anyone really believe that the parents in this country who feed their young children boneless wings or chicken tenders, or chicken nuggets or chicken fingers expect bones to be in the chicken? Of course they don’t,” Justice Michael P. Donnelly wrote in dissent. “When they read the word ‘boneless,’ they think that it means ‘without bones,’ as do all sensible people.”