Biden administration’s DOJ puts American voters on notice with ‘warning’
The Justice Department is deploying district elections officers across the nation ahead of Election Day to ensure poll workers can “do their jobs free from threats and intimidation.”
The elections officers are expected to work in coordination with the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which was created in June 2021 by Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to address alleged violence against election workers.
The task force, since its inception, has been engaging with the election community and state and local law enforcement to assess allegations and reports of threats against election workers, according to the Justice Department. The task force also partners with FBI field offices and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the U.S.
This week, U.S. attorneys offices announced their district elections officers, which are selected each election cycle, to coordinate with the Elections Threats Task Force and federal, state and local law enforcement on Election Day. The coordination will ensure reports on the ground regarding any election-related complaints are coordinated with appropriate authorities, officials said.
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The district elections officers are also responsible for overseeing their district’s handling of Election Day complaints about voting rights concerns, threats of violence to election officials or staff, and election fraud, officials said.
“The Department will address these violations wherever they occur,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
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The DOJ added that its “longstanding Election Day Program furthers these goals and also seeks to ensure public confidence in the electoral process by providing local points of contact within the Department for the public to report possible federal election law violations.”
Just last month, Garland convened a public meeting of the task force, saying there has been an “unprecedented spike in threats against the public servants who do administer our elections” since 2020.
Since the task force was created, the DOJ has charged nearly two dozen individuals related to alleged threats to election workers.
“These cases are a warning: if you threaten to harm or kill an election worker or official or volunteer, the Justice Department will find you,” Garland said last month. “And we will hold you accountable.”
Just this year, the DOJ charged an individual for an alleged shooting spree targeting the homes of elected officials and a candidate for office; an individual for sending threatening communications to a Michigan election official; and more.
Garland said the Justice Department will continue to build on its work ahead of the Nov. 5 Election Day by holding on-the-ground meetings with election workers across the nation.
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Garland also announced that ahead of Election Day, in early November, the FBI will host federal partners at FBI headquarters to address events, issues and potential crimes related to the elections.
“Election officials and administrators do not need to navigate this threat environment alone,” Garland said. “We are here to support them and make sure they can safely carry out their critical work.”
Vance serves up dose of reality after media says McDonald’s visit is ‘stage-managed’ thing
Sen. JD Vance said Monday that VP Kamala Harris is not facing any mainstream media scrutiny over her previous claim that she worked at McDonald’s in college.
Vance called out the mainstream media for its coverage of former President Trump’s trip Sunday to a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, where he interacted with workers, served fries and greeted customers at the drive-thru.
“The fact that these people are accusing him of a ‘stage-managed’ thing… of course, the president has to have security because there have been two attempts on his life in the last eight weeks. He can’t just walk into a McDonald’s and sign a W-9 and actually go on the payroll. That’s just not how this works, especially given the security threats on his life,” he told “America’s Newsroom.”
“But look, he was interacting with people. He was talking to the employees. He was giving people food, and he was just [doing] I think what he does best, which is just being among the people, talking to them about what they care about. He showed genuine interest in the employees and their lives and where they came from and what they were actually doing in their job, and that’s something you can’t stage, and you can’t fake.”
He continued, “That is just a genuine person that Donald Trump is, and it’s why I think a lot of working people, even though, of course, he’s a successful real estate billionaire, have this emotional connection to Donald Trump, you can’t make up that kind of connection.”
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He took a swipe at Vice President Harris shortly after, telling Fox News’ Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that the Democratic nominee has “tried and failed,” to establish similar connections with voters.
“I think it’s why her campaign is flailing a little bit right now, because she goes into Sheetz and does four takes of her buying Doritos. Donald Trump just goes to McDonald’s and he is who he is and people love him,” he added.
Trump traded in his suit for an apron and worked the fry cooker at a Philadelphia-area McDonald’s location over the weekend.
Video of Trump holding the fry basket and shoveling fries into McDonald’s signature red cardboard cartons during the unusual campaign stop has since gone viral, garnering reaction from left-leaning outlets like Rolling Stone and The Washington Post that have labeled the gesture as “bizarre” and “stage-managed.”
Vance, meanwhile, mingled with voters as he served beer to sports fans at a bar near Lambeau Field before the Green Bay Packers game in Wisconsin on Sunday.
He said that he felt “upstaged” by his running mate as reactions poured in.
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“I felt pretty good about myself, then I saw all these news headlines about Donald Trump at McDonald’s, and I called him. I said, ‘Sir, you showed me up here because I was serving beers. You were serving fries,’ and I think that he really did win the news day.”
Trump said he planned the visit to troll Harris over her previous claims that she worked at a McDonald’s while in college, a claim he insists is false.
Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Joseph Costello released a statement following Trump’s fry cook shift claiming “Trump doesn’t understand what it’s like to work for living.”
“Today, Donald Trump showed exactly what we would see in a second Trump term: exploiting working people for his own personal gain. Trump doesn’t understand what it’s like to work for a living, no matter how many staged photo ops he does, and his entire second-term plan is to give himself, his wealthy buddies, and giant corporations another massive tax cut,” the statement read. “Vice President Harris on the other hand has a record of standing up for workers and taking on bad actors who rip people off, and she’ll do the same as President.”
Hemmer asked Vance what the Trump campaign’s position – or his own personal position – on Harris’ claims about working at McDonald’s in the past.
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“I don’t know if there a campaign position on it, but I have spoken to Donald Trump about this. What we find weird about this is that Kamala Harris has been able to produce no evidence that she worked at McDonald’s, and she didn’t even talk about it until 2019 during, I believe, her first run for the United States Senate, so I don’t know what’s ultimately true here, but it’s interesting where the media will try to nitpick and micromanage every single thing that me or Donald Trump has said,” he replied.
“And yet they just buy into this narrative from Kamala Harris that she invented five, six years ago. Why don’t they just do some journalism? Maybe it’s true. Maybe it isn’t, but I know I don’t trust the media’s lack of curiosity about this issue when they’re so curious and nitpicking everything else that the Republican candidates do.”
Clinton’s infamous ‘deplorables’ remark resurfaces and shakes up crucial toss-up state
FIRST ON FOX: Republican businessman Eric Hovde is using Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s previous comments on Trump supporters against her as he looks to unseat her in the critical swing state of Wisconsin.
In a new ad by the Hovde campaign, Baldwin says, “Donald Trump might be one of the most offensive, hateful and unacceptable presidential candidates we’ve ever had. So what does that say about the people who support him?”
The remark, which is from a 2016 speech, is cut next to former Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables” comment, which was credited by some with costing her the election to then-Republican nominee Donald Trump.
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The ad will run on television across Wisconsin starting Tuesday and is part of an ongoing multimillion dollar statewide ad campaign.
“Tammy Baldwin hates Trump and Trump voters, just listen to her own words when it comes to what she thinks about them. Much like Hillary Clinton, the disdain Baldwin has for Wisconsin’s Trump voters will haunt her on Election Day,” Hovde spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement.
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In response, a Baldwin spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Tammy Baldwin fights for all Wisconsinites no matter who they are, who they vote for or where they live. That stands in stark contrast to her opponent Eric Hovde who has literally called Wisconsinites deplorable, Democrats a ‘curse to society’ and insulted our farmers, seniors, young people, women, Black men, Native American communities and more.”
The Democrat senator’s campaign also pointed to an interview on “The Jerry Bader Show” in 2016, in which Hovde used the word “deplorable” to describe the level of civic knowledge among average Americans, with many not knowing the year of the country’s founding or who the vice president is.
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In a recent Quinnipiac University poll of the Senate race, Baldwin beat Hovde 50% to 46%. The small, single-digit lead marks a significant closure of the initial polling gap between the incumbent Democrat and her GOP challenger.
The survey was conducted between Oct. 3 and 7 and included 1,073 likely voters. It had a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
A top political handicapper, the Cook Political Report, recently shifted its Wisconsin Senate rating from “Lean Democrat” to a “Toss Up.”
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In the latest Fox News Power Rankings, Wisconsin’s Senate race was considered “Leans Democrat,” with Baldwin still having an advantage.
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Split-ticket voting across parties has become increasingly rare, and with the Senate race coinciding with a presidential election, the winner could very well rely on which party takes the White House.
With roughly two weeks until Election Day, many have already cast their ballots early and by mail.
Democrat scrambles to uncover fine print to block Elon Musk from handing $1M to voters
Elon Musk’s pledge on Saturday that his pro-Trump America PAC would award $1 million every day to someone who signs his petition until Election Day drew legal scrutiny from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who called the pledge “deeply disturbing.”
Shapiro made the comments during a Sunday morning appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” a day after Musk appeared at a pro-Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Asked if he thought the giveaway was legal, Shapiro, a former attorney general, said the real question is “with how [Musk] is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians.”
“That is deeply concerning. Look, Musk obviously has a right to be able to express his views. He’s made it very clear that he supports Donald Trump. I don’t – obviously, we have a difference of opinion,” Shapiro said. “I don’t deny him that right. But when you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at.”
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Shapiro would not say whether he thought the petition was legal, only that “it’s something that law enforcement could take a look at” and “it does raise some serious questions.”
The petition Musk announced at Harrisburg on Saturday reads: “The First and Second Amendment guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First And Second Amendments.”
The first million-dollar award was given to John Dreher, a self-described “big fan” of Musk.
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Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings show Musk was the sole donor of the America PAC, making around $75 million in contributions between July and September. In that time span, the PAC spent around $72 million, according to disclosures.
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The America PAC set a goal to get 1 million voters across Pennsylvania and the other swing states of Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina to sign a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments by Oct. 21.
First lady asked whether husband made the ‘right call’ dropping out of race
First Lady Jill Biden revealed on Monday that she thought her husband, President Biden, made the right call in deciding to drop out of the race.
“It’s time for something new,” Biden told ABC News’ Deborah Roberts. “It was the right call.”
The president announced in late July that he would be ending his re-election bid, following mounting pressure from Democrats and a rough debate performance against former President Trump in June.
“I’ve had such a great four years,” she said. “And Joe and I, I mean really it has been the honor of our lives. It’ll be tough to maybe step away from it, but we’re starting a new chapter of our lives. A new journey.”
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“We’ve been in politics 50 years. I think we’re ready for the new journey,” Jill Biden said.
Following the June debate between Biden and Trump, the first lady told her husband that he had done a “great job,” despite a performance that was widely criticized. She told the president on stage during an event that followed the debate, “Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts!”
The first lady told Vogue following the debate that they would not “let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president.”
“We will continue to fight,” she said, adding that her husband “will always do what’s best for the country.”
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The president’s performance during the June debate prompted several Democrats, liberal media figures and more to call on Biden to drop out of the race. President Biden strongly resisted the calls at first, insisting there was no way he would drop out unless he was commanded by the “Lord Almighty.”
But he finally succumbed on July 21 and threw his support behind Harris.
The first lady has campaigned for Harris this month in key swing states, including Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
She also expressed confidence during the “Good Morning America” interview in Harris’ chances against Trump in November.
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“There’s a lot of energy out there,” she said. “Kamala Harris is going to win this, and it’s going to be just another chapter for the White House.”
Harris campaign clarifies VP’s position on expanding fossil fuel drilling
Vice President Kamala Harris would not support an expansion of fossil fuel drilling despite her recent campaign boasts about domestic oil production under the Biden administration.
“Just to be clear, Vice President Harris hasn’t said anything that the administration hasn’t already said. She is not promoting expansion [of fossil fuel drilling]. She’s just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking,” Camila Thorndike, Harris’ climate engagement director, said in an interview with Politico.
The comments come as Harris has continued to face questions about her stance on energy production, going from supporting a ban on fracking just five years ago to touting the “largest increase in domestic oil production in history” during her time as vice president.
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“We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil,” Harris said during a debate with former President Trump in Pennsylvania, a state where the issue of fracking could be a pivotal issue for voters.
“I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels,” Harris said.
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Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz has struck a similar tone, arguing during a recent interview with WGAL 8 that the U.S. is “producing more natural gas and more oil than at any time in our history.”
But some critics have slammed the campaign’s recent production talking point, arguing that the energy industry was able to achieve record numbers despite Biden administration policies, not because of them.
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“In just four years, you and POTUS created the single worst regulatory and legislative environment in our industry’s 160-year history. You’ve put into place 250 separate actions designed to put us out of business. You wanted to put our CEOs in jail, confiscate our capital and prevent our investors from getting any return,” the U.S. Oil and Gas Association (OGA) said in a post on X last week. “And in spite of all that – we worked around you, over you and have beat your team. Now you want to take credit for what we did in spite of you. Not gonna let it happen.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Protesters contradict themselves as Marine vet who stopped madman fights case
Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of a Marine Corps veteran facing manslaughter charges after he appeared on cellphone video placing an erratic and aggressive subway passenger in a chokehold.
The passenger, Jordan Neely, 30, later died. He had a history of mental illness and a criminal record that included prior allegations of violence within the New York City subway system.
Daniel Penny, 25, faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
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“Our team looks forward to commencing the jury selection process, and selecting a fair and impartial jury that will ultimately clear Danny of any wrongdoing,” one of Penny’s defense lawyers, Thomas Kenniff, told Fox News Sunday before the proceeding.
Lawyers for the veteran previously told Fox News Digital there is “overwhelming evidence that Danny was justified in the actions he took to protect the commuters on that train.”
Attorneys for Neely’s family, however, see it differently.
“This case is simple. Someone got on a train and was screaming, so someone else choked them to death,” said lawyer Donte Mills. “Those two things do not and will never balance.”
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He argued that the outburst did not justify Penny’s intervention.
“Jordan had the right to take up his own space,” he continued. “He was allowed to be on that train and even to scream. He did not touch anyone. He was not a visitor on that train, in New York, or in this country. Jordan was allowed to exist and Penny ceased his existence solely because Penny believed he was more important than Jordan.”
Dozens of Neely supporters arrived before the start of the hearing wearing “Malcom X” hats outside the Manhattan courthouse, some carried signs calling on the city to “#AbolishPolice” and others blaming his death on “White supremacist violence.”
According to testimony from a motion hearing last month, Neely barged onto the train after the 10th Street Station, ripped his jacket off and threatened to “kill anybody” in May 2023.
“He was acting like a lunatic, like a crazy person,” Penny later told detectives. He said after Neely tossed his jacket, he shouted something along the lines of, “If I don’t get this, this and this, I’ll go to jail forever.”
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There were women and children on the train, and Penny said he perceived a threat. When Neely walked into him, he said, he put him in a chokehold.
“I’m not trying to kill the guy,” he told detectives. “I’m just trying to de-escalate the situation.”
He said that two other men on the train helped him hold Neely down as they waited for police to arrive. He was still breathing when they let go, and investigators testified they had not told Penny of the man’s death when they interviewed him at the precinct building later.