Popular hosts blast Harris’ complaint about ‘broken’ system she helped run for decades

Talk show hosts Charlamagne and Stephen A. Smith agreed on Monday that former Vice President Kamala Harris’ claim that America’s “system is broken” is comical given her decades-long career in public service.

After months of staying largely out of the public eye, Harris kicked over a beehive with last week’s appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” During the interview, Harris spoke about her choice not to run for the governorship of California, making broad generalizations about how, “Just for now, I don‘t want to go back in the system. I think it‘s broken.”

Many articles criticized the 2024 Democratic candidate for a lack of concrete ideas six months after losing to President Donald Trump.

Charlamagne was one such commentator who argued that she might better serve as a figurehead for the Democrats rather than a political leader. He spoke further about Harris’ recent public statements on Monday’s episode of Smith’s show.

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“I personally believe there’s no way in hell she’s going to win the presidency in 2028. I don’t think that she’s going to be the candidate. I think her time – she had a chance at that. It didn’t get done and that’s where I’m at with it,” Smith argued. “What about you?”

“Kamala is a friend, man. I’ve been supporting Kamala for a long time,” Charlamagne said. “But I can’t sit here and say I disagree with you. I think that she should do whatever it is that she wants to do, but when I heard her say that, you know, ‘The system is broken’ and she wants to take a step back from the system – her whole career has been the system.”

“It made no sense!” Smith replied.

“Yeah. Her whole career has been the system. I just don’t see how now, you know, she’s going to take a step back away from the system,” Charlamagne said.

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Smith brought up a series of Harris’ major strategic missteps, such as when she wouldn’t separate herself from President Joe Biden, arguing this latest interview was another mistake from a “career politician.”

“You’ve been there practically all your life,” he said. “You’ve been an attorney, a state attorney general. You’ve been a prosecutor. You’ve been a senator. You’ve been a vice president. My God, you’ve been a part of it. And now you’re saying it’s broken? That means you couldn’t do but so much to fix it when you was in it.”

“The system was broken long before Donald Trump, you know, got into office,” Charlamagne said. 

Netanyahu official drops bombshell: ‘Decision has been made’ on Gaza’s future

Israel’s Security Cabinet is set to meet on Tuesday to discuss next steps in the nearly two-year-old war with the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, including the possibility of taking full control of the Palestinian enclave and operating militarily in areas they have refrained from entering until now, the local media reported.

Israeli journalist Amit Segal, a commentator for Channel 12, the country’s highest-rated news broadcast, quoted a source from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that the “decision has been made… we are going to occupy the Gaza Strip.” 

“Hamas will not release hostages without total surrender, if we do not operate now the hostages will die of starvation and Gaza will stay under Hamas’ control,” Segal quoted the official as saying. 

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“Israel for months was at a crossroad and, let’s be honest, it was not achieving victory or the hostages. The mandate for a deal was broad, but we did not get agreement, so we will go for occupation,” he quoted.

The reports of deepening the military operation in Gaza come after months of mediated ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas appeared to have collapsed this week and despite assurances by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who visited Israel over the weekend, that he was working on a plan that would end the war. 

It also comes after Hamas, the designated terror group whose October 7, 2023, mass attack in Israel sparked the war, shocked the Israeli public with propaganda videos of emaciated hostages, including one who was forced to dig his own grave.

Additionally, international pressure on Israel to end the war has ramped up in recent weeks amid accusations that is aid policy is causing famine in Gaza and after images of severely malnourished children – some of whom were later proven to be children with pre-existing medical conditions – went viral. 

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Pressure in Israel to end the war and return home some 50 hostages, both dead and alive, who remain in Gaza has also been growing, with the country’s leadership divided over the best way to achieve this. 

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Some ministers in Netanyahu’s government, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have been pushing for Israel to re-occupy Gaza and rebuild Jewish settlements that were dismantled 20 years ago. 

The Israeli military, however, has argued against that plan and, according to media reports, is expected to present some alternatives at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. 

Former NFL running back found guilty of operating massive dog fighting operation

A former NFL running back was convicted on six felony counts for operating a large-scale dog-fighting trafficking venture following a multi-day trial in Oklahoma. 

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs announced the conviction of Leshon Johnson, 54, who was convicted of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act’s prohibitions against possessing, selling, transporting, and delivering animals to be used in fighting ventures.

The announcement stated that Johnson, who played five seasons in the NFL with three different teams, surrendered to the government the “190 dogs seized in this case.”

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“This criminal profited off of the misery of innocent animals and he will face severe consequences for his vile crimes,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “This case underscores the Department of Justice’s commitment to protecting animals from abuse — 190 dogs are now safe thanks to outstanding collaborative work by our attorneys and law enforcement components.”

FBI Director Kash Patel added: “The FBI will not stand for those who perpetuate the despicable crime of dogfighting. Thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement partners, those who continue to engage in organized animal fighting and cruelty will face justice.”

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The conviction came from an unsealed indictment in March, which went into detail about Johnson’s operation at “Mal Kant Kennels.” There was evidence delivered to the federal jury that showed Johnson bred and trafficked “champion” and “grand champion” fighting dogs. 

“Authorities seized the 190 dogs from his property, which is the largest number ever seized from a single individual in a federal dog fighting case,” the announcement read. 

Johnson had a prior dogfighting conviction from the state in 2004. He pleaded guilty to the crime in 2005, where he received a five-year deferred sentence. 

Two years later, the NFL was hit with another shocking dogfighting scandal, as Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to his involvement in a fighting ring and spent 21 months in prison. 

Johnson now faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each felony count. 

“Dog fighting is a vicious and cruel crime that has no place in a civilized society,” U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Wilson for the Eastern District of Oklahoma said in a statement. “I commend the hard work of our law enforcement partners in investigating this case and holding the defendant accountable for his crimes.”

Johnson, who became a star at Northern Illinois University, was a third-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 1994 NFL Draft. He didn’t serve a large role in Green Bay, who ended up moving on from him midway through the 1995 season. 

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Johnson joined the Arizona Cardinals, where he would see most of his career yardage on the NFL stage. He started eight of his 15 games in 1996, rushing for 634 yards with three touchdowns, while catching 15 passes for 176 yards and a score. 

Johnson spent one more season in Arizona before joining the New York Giants in 1999, where he played in a backup role. He also played in the XFL after his time in the NFL was over. 

CBS insider dishes about liberal star Gayle King’s future at the network

CBS staffers are speculating whether their longtime morning show star Gayle King will have a long future ahead of her as network bosses implement changes to her program. 

King, the liberal co-host of “CBS Mornings,” has struggled to give CBS a ratings lift despite having a roster of A-list pals like Oprah Winfrey and her mega salary ranging from $10-15 million per year, according to reports. During the month of July, CBS’ marquee morning program averaged 1.8 million total viewers, trailing behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” with 2.6 million and NBC’s “Today” with 2.4 million. 

“A lot of people like how she says off-the-wall things. But also there’s people that don’t like it,” one CBS staffer told Fox News Digital about how King’s colleagues feel about her. “Anytime you have a big name, they are going to be a target.” 

CBS HOST GAYLE KING INSISTS DEI MEANS ‘DEFINITELY EARNED IT’

King is “generally liked” within the network and “still has a lot of power in the morning when it comes to things she wants.”

“She is insulated by her team and [“CBS Mornings” executive producer Shawna Thomas] a good bit. But so are [co-hosts Nate Burleson and Tony Dokoupil] to an extent,” the staffer said. 

Perhaps puncturing a hole in King’s bubble is the “editorial shift” being pushed by CBS News president and executive editor Tom Cibrowski and his No. 2 Wendy Fisher, the network’s senior vice president of editorial.

“They’re changing story selection and tweaking the show some,” the CBS staffer said. “I know Tom has been involved in the show heavily though… He wants us to focus on stories outside of major cities and in the middle of the country. Stories that affect real people and that they’re talking about at home. Lots of economic stories.”

“You can see Tom’s work in the show- they’ve added [former “Good Morning America” meteorologist Rob Marciano] full-time, tweaked teases, and you even see more camera movement and dramatics similar to ‘GMA,'” they continued. “I don’t know that Shawna has pushed back on Tom, but I do know he has had his hand in tweaks on the show especially recently.”

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Cibrowski joined CBS News in March after a 30-year stint at ABC News, following in the footsteps of Fisher, who similarly joined the network in April 2024 after a three-decade stint at the Disney-owned rival. 

“Everyone I’ve talked to is super happy with him,” the CBS staffer said of Cibrowski. “He’s a steady hand and has a proven track record. He’s extremely respected internally. So is Wendy.” 

The staffer is convinced that the changes Cibrowski has implemented over the past couple of months are him “putting his mark on the division” and have nothing to do with the parent company Paramount’s settlement to President Donald Trump or the forthcoming Paramount-Skydance merger set to close Thursday. 

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“The editorial changes I’ve seen feel more focused on growing the shows and stories that resonate better than making changes based on pressure from up top,” they said. “He just got here in the spring so he’s just getting to a point now where he knows everyone and everything and is changing things based on his vision is the impression I get.”

Expect more editorial changes in the coming weeks, the staffer says, before “CBS Mornings” packs up and leaves its studio in Times Square and returns to CBS Broadcast Center on 57th Street in New York City in September. 

There has been a lot of chatter about Skydance CEO David Ellison and how he envisions the future of CBS News, including whether it includes King. 

The CBS staffer suggests the current network leadership has a contingency plan, as they “started to groom” Adrianna Diaz as the “heir” to the 70-year-old host when she was tapped to co-host the third hour of the program, dubbed “CBS Mornings Plus.”

“People are talking about it because Gayle is our biggest star, but also I don’t think anyone cares that much,” the staffer said. “I think everyone just wants stability, so from that standpoint, people want her to stay.”

CBS News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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Trump’s wildlife chief could slash ‘absurd’ rules strangling American landowners

Before the United States Senate broke for the summer and decamped from D.C., one nominee it did confirm was Brian Nesvik, who will lead the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS.”) The Senate voted last Friday by 54-43 to approve Nesvik, the onetime head of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

This is some great news for Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum who needed some of his top-tier appointees finally put into their jobs —more than six months into President Trump’s second term. Many other positions across the administration remain blockaded by a combination of obstructionist tactics by the Senate Democrats, as well as White House delay in nominations, paperwork filing by nominees, Senate committee hearings as well as votes, and a Senate work schedule which is leisurely as measured against the private sector even though this Senate has done more in the face of complete Democratic obstruction than recent iterations of the body. (Insiders among the Senate GOP promise they will change the Senate’s absurd confirmation rules when they return on September 3. That’s a great thing…if it happens. It should have happened immediately after the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” passed the Senate.)

Nesvik’s appointment is crucial because the USFWS long ago blew past the intent of the federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA.”) Congress has acquiesced in this bureaucratic mission creep for decades and decades as the agency grabbed more and more power over private landowners, but Burgum and Nesvik can take a sharp machete to the regulatory overgrowth.

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First, though, President Trump should use an executive order to delist all “species” and “subspecies” that landed on the ESA list by virtue of the criteria of “decline in the historic range of the species’ or subspecies’ habitat.” The USFWS uses this metric to list species and subspecies like the California gnatcatcher (a bird) or the San Diego fairy shrimp (a crustacean) or the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly (an insect) as “endangered” or “threatened.” This metric of “projected future habitat loss” is not “science.” It is politics and environmental extremism dressed up as “science.”

It works this way. First, the Service identifies a “species” or a “subspecies” which it wants to “study” (and the definition of subspecies is itself a dodgy process of questionable legitimacy in the original law.) Then the Service proclaims the “historic range” of that subspecies —let’s say 10,000 square miles. Then “scientists” at the USFWS calculate how much of that 10,000 square miles has been developed for buildings, homes, parks, roads and reservoirs as well as anything else man-made and subtracts that area from the original “historic range.” 

If we are dealing with Southern California’s coastal regions, or the Bay Area, or the area around Las Vegas or Denver for example, a great deal of development of all sorts has taken place in those regions in the past 200 years. The USFWS then subtracts the developed part of the historic range over the past 200 years from the original historic range and then projects the same pace of development out decades or centuries.

Thus, if the 10,000 square miles of original “historic habitat range” had seen 7,500 square miles developed in the past 200 years, the Service concludes that the pace of past development which saw 75% of the historic range of the subspecies used by humans is going to continue into the future. Thus, the bureaucrats conclude that the 2,500 square miles will be reduced by 75% in the next two hundred years leaving only 600 square miles of historic range. The same calculation is then applied to the 600 square miles over the next 200 years etc. The conclusion that the species or subspecies is “endangered” or “threatened” by habitat loss is baked into the process. The species or subspecies that is endangered by “habitat loss” is placed on the endangered species list, and all land which is occupied by that subspecies is off-limits to development without one of two federal permits —a Section 10(a) permit from the USFWS or a Section 7 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“USACOE”). Indeed, sometimes the career bureaucrats at the agency attempt to assert that if the habitat in question could potentially be occupied by the species or the subspecies, it too is off limits to development without a permit.

Most permits applied for by private landowners are never granted, and are usually abandoned or made so expensive in terms of mitigation demanded by the USFWS that they end up combined into one big permit application that creates a new regional bureaucracy, which adds another layer of red tape and extreme costs to the private landowners’ plans. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. I retired from this area of law in 2015 after practicing in it on behalf of landowners for nearly 3 decades. It’s only gotten worse since I left practice to teach law and broadcast.

The ESA isn’t the only reason we have a housing shortage in many parts of the country and that critical infrastructure rarely gets built and never on budget or on time. States have their own versions of the ESA as well and their own versions of the Clean Water Acts and a host of other hurdles to construction. But this maze of species and subspecies law and regulations is backed up by criminal penalties of fines and years in jail for every individual member of the subspecies disturbed —not killed, but even just disturbed (the technical legal term is “taken”)— by a landowner acting without a permit.

It’s an outrageous and idiotic system and much of it rests on three giant leaps of logic: That the ESA was intended to regulate “subspecies,” that the “science” behind declaring either a species or a “subspecies” is sound, and that “decline of historic range” is also a legitimate scientific metric.

Hopefully President Trump, Secretary Burgum and Director Nesvik take aim at all three absurdities and, via executive order or rule-making, clear away hundreds of the 1,300 species and subspecies from the list of endangered and threatened species maintained by the Service. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regulates the endangered or threatened species in the water though sometimes the USFWS and “NOAA” have overlapping jurisdiction.)

Two other moves would greatly assist the pressing need for more housing of all varieties and for major infrastructure projects and safe forests and wild-lands.

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First, the Supreme Court should be on the lookout for a case that allows it to make sense out of a tangle of cases having to do with “regulatory takings,” and fashion a new, coherent rule of black letter law to apply to such regulatory takings: If any level of government requires longer than 60 days to approve a landowner’s plans for their private property, the government owes that landowner rent on a monthly basis. No more uncompensated “temporary” takings by regulation. The framers of the Constitution would be mortified by the extent the federal, state and local governments trample property rights which were explicitly protected by the Fifth Amendment from uncompensated takings, a prohibition applied to state and local governments by the 14th Amendment. Once government had to pay for its delay, the pace would pick up at every level of bureaucracy.

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Second, Burgum and Nesvik should take the initiative and publish “nationwide Section 10(a) permits” that allow for all fire-prevention clearing, harbor dredging, and pier and pipeline construction and prospectively for “SMRs” —”small modular reactors” that are the future of carbon-free energy production— regardless of impacts to all species and subspecies. These are all projects of enormous public benefit and almost all of them are held-up if not blocked completely by environmental extremists using the ESA as a disguise for their no-growth, anti-human agendas.

President Trump, Secretary Burgum and Director Nesvik cannot make America great again if they can’t expedite big new infrastructure projects or prevent vast destruction by wildfires that use uncleared land for fuel or stop the quiet theft of private property by the leviathan of the giant combination of federal, state and local government regulations. 

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Northeast suburb beats out entire country for hottest housing market in 2025

Those looking for “a compelling mix of lifestyle appeal, relative affordability, and strong ties to nearby economic hubs” are choosing a Boston suburb to move to, according Realtor.com. 

Beverly, Massachusetts’ 01915 is No. 1 on the site’s 2025 Hottest Zips report. The city is about a 30-minute drive northeast of Boston, and its home listings got up to 4.6 times more views than the national average, spent a median number of 16 days on the market and had a median listing price of $746,000, Realtor.com said. 

“In a year when affordability challenges and limited inventory continue to weigh on buyers, the ZIP Codes rising to the top of our list stand out for offering both strong value and livability,” Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement. 

The top 10 hottest zip codes are found in the northeast and Midwest portions of the U.S., “driven by buyers from high-cost metros looking for relief without sacrificing access to jobs and amenities,” Hale said.

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“Many of these neighborhoods also offer newer homes than the surrounding areas, highlighting the critical role of new and infill construction in meeting today’s buyer demand—even in a tough market,” she added. 

TOP FIVE ZIP CODES 

• Beverly, Massachusetts: 01915
• Malton, New Jersey: 08053
• Leominster, Massachusetts: 01453
• Ballwin, Missouri: 63021
• Wayne, New Jersey: 07470

Rounding out the top five are Malton, New Jersey’s 08053; Leominster, Massachusetts’ 01453; Ballwin, Missouri’s 63021 and Wayne, New Jersey’s 07470. 

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Two of the top five — Leominster, Massachusetts, and Ballwin, Missouri — were in last year’s top 10, as well. Realtor.com says in zip codes 01915, 63021 and 07470 “local buyers outnumbered out-of-area interest.”

Across the 10 zip codes mentioned, the “typical buyer’s” median household income is $114,000. They have an average credit score of 759, and they typically make a down payment of $42,000 to $143,000. Realtor.com also found that the median age of the head of household in the 10 zip codes on this year’s list is 56 years old. 

The mayor of Beverly, Massachusetts, did not immediately respond to a FOX Business request for comment.

“I am thrilled that Beverly MA has been named the #1 hottest ZIP code in America by Realtor.com,” 2025 North Shore REALTORS President Adeline Matton of Aluxety Real Estate, said in a statement. 

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“Beverly residents have access to scenic coastline, local beaches, public parks and green space, along with a thriving arts community and dining scene,” she said.

Ramaswamy decries ‘anti-law enforcement culture’ after Cincinnati attack

EXCLUSIVE: CINCINNATI – A viral video showing several people being brutally beaten in downtown Cincinnati has Vivek Ramaswamy decrying a pervasive “anti-law enforcement culture” in American society.

The former 2024 presidential hopeful and Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate spoke with Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview on Monday evening ahead of a Cincinnati town hall event addressing combating violence, saying that he believes the Cincinnati beating “catalyzed a conversation in our state and frankly across the country about this issue of violent crime in the cities of the United States of America.”

He called the beating of Holly, a woman in the video who apparently was attempting to intervene to help another victim, “totally unconscionable.”

In the video, a group of people can be seen pummeling two victims, one of whom, a woman later identified as Holly, ended up with “very bad brain trauma.” The incident occurred in the early morning hours of July 26 on the corner of Fourth and Elm streets, outside a popular nightclub. 

Ramaswamy shared that he has been in contact with Holly after first reaching out to her to check in on her well-being after the beating. He previously revealed Holly told him that no local elected officials reached out to her after the incident.

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“One of the reasons I wanted to reach out was just to see if we could help… but also to hear her perspective on the front lines of what she wants to see come out of this,” he explained. “The fact of the matter is she, and victims like her, want to make sure that violent crime like this doesn’t spread, that we’re able to use what was a tragedy, and it was a travesty what happened in Cincinnati, to be able to adopt policies that actually stop this reckless crime in our cities, stop the wave of violent crime in cities.”

Another angle of the fight shows a victim being beaten in the middle of the street and yelling racial slurs. Some claim the male victim slapped one of the perpetrators before the fight, sparking the beatdown. 

Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said in a press conference that there are a total of six victims. Six people have been charged with crimes, and four have been arrested. The city’s fugitive task force is searching for the two suspects who are still at large. Theetge said that out of the approximately 100 people who witnessed the incident or were involved in the brawl, only one individual called law enforcement. 

Jermaine Matthews, 39, Dominique Kittle, 37, Montianez Merriweather, 34, and Dekyra Vernon, 24, were arrested for their alleged involvement in the fight. 

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He said the U.S. should be a place “where Americans can actually feel just safe to go into their cities, have a good night without fear of getting beaten up or assaulted.”

“I don’t think that’s too much to ask in the greatest nation known to the history of mankind. I don’t think it’s too much to ask in Cincinnati, Ohio,” he said.

Regarding the vast majority of bystanders not intervening during the beating, Ramaswamy commented, “It is sad to see the anti-law enforcement culture, the anti-rule of law culture spread across our country.”

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“I think there are deeper issues relating to just people being agnostic to the rule of the law, people being desensitized to this kind of violence,” he went on, adding, “At our best as human beings, that’s not who we are. We feel compassion when something like this happens. Ignoring it is not compassion. Ignoring is cruelty.”

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He called for more “open dialogue” rather than “sweeping these issues under the rug.”

He said that some have criticized him for calling attention to the beating, saying “some of them make it seem like the bigger crime than the assault was actually noticing it.”

“I don’t think that’s the case. I think that actually the way we’re going to bring people together is through what we’re doing tonight. Open dialogue, open discussion,” he explained.