Dad of nine dies protecting family after minor collision turns violent
A 49-year-old father of nine was killed in an apparent road rage confrontation in California while his wife and young children were in the car, authorities and family members said.
The victim, identified by relatives as Jason Elola, had just left a birthday celebration for one of his sons when the deadly altercation occurred Saturday evening, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
Family members said Elola, his wife Gabrielle and their two youngest daughters were on their way home from an 18th birthday celebration for one of his sons when they decided to stop for ice cream at Loard’s Ice Cream in Castro Valley.
“On November 8th, our family experienced an unimaginable loss when our brother, husband, father, and friend Jason Elola passed away,” a family member wrote on social media.
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“Jason, Gabby and his two youngest girls were on their way back from his son’s 18th birthday party when they decided to stop for ice cream. When they got to Castro Valley there was a road rage incident that resulted in Jason’s death.”
Elola’s son, Angel Elola, told KTVU his father was not a confrontational man and was only trying to protect his family after a minor collision.
Angel said a vehicle struck the back of his father’s car as they exited the freeway.
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“My dad, the protector he is, wanted to make sure his wife, 5-month-old baby, and 5-year-old daughter were OK,” Angel said. “He got out and wanted to see what the issue was.”
Angel said his father was trying to de-escalate the situation when the confrontation turned violent.
“As he got out, it just happened really quick,” he said, adding that his father may have suffered a head injury, though the coroner will determine the official cause of death.
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Gabrielle Elola, Jason’s wife, said the suspect’s dark-colored SUV had swerved into their lane after they exited the freeway.
“When my husband went to get around him at the stoplight, he kept hitting the back of our car,” she said. “We were scared. My husband got out to protect us.”
Gabrielle said she didn’t see the actual fight but saw her husband lying on the ground moments later.
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“This person didn’t have to take my husband,” she said. “He could have driven away. He could have done anything else but this. … You can’t just take somebody away from their family. We’re never going to get him back.”
Authorities initially arrested 37-year-old Martin W. Davis Jr. on suspicion of murder after he reportedly fled, called the California Highway Patrol’s non-emergency line to report his involvement and then returned to cooperate with investigators.
However, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Davis was released Nov. 13 from the Santa Rita Jail pending further investigation.
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“This remains an active and ongoing investigation,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “We encourage anyone with information, including cellphone or dashcam footage, to contact the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 510-667-3622.”
Detectives are asking anyone who may have dashcam or cellphone video from the area around Wilbeam and Norbridge avenues, near the Castro Valley BART station, to come forward.
Elola, a pumpkin patch and Christmas tree lot operator, was described by family members as the heart of their large, close-knit household.
His son wrote in a Facebook post, “For those of you who are not aware, my father Jason Elola was tragically killed this past weekend. My father was the best man, best father, grandfather, friend and husband. He will be missed deeply by his nine kids, four grandkids and wife.
“My dad taught us all how to love, be compassionate, and selfless. His legacy will live on forever.”
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A verified GoFundMe page created by the family calls Elola “the heart of our family — a kind, generous, and loving man who brought laughter and warmth wherever he went.”
“Jason was the friend and brother you could always count on, always ready to help anyone in need and put others before himself,” the post said. “Jason was everything to everyone, and his absence is deeply felt by all who knew him.”
Trump lowers tariffs on key imported goods, citing reduced prices for families
President Donald Trump on Friday announced a move to lift tariffs on certain goods produced internationally through an executive order.
The rollback on tariffs will apply to a number of goods, including coffee, bananas and beef, among others.
“The millions of dollars the Federal government collected in additional tariffs on these products resulted in higher prices for businesses and families,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley. “The President’s actions will help reduce costs for Americans.”
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In May, the chamber sent the Trump administration a letter proposing tariff relief.
The new modification went into effect on Thursday.
The White House recently announced that several trade deals with South and Central American nations that could lead to reduced tariffs on certain goods. The countries involved in the agreements are Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador and Argentina.
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Reciprocal rates will remain in place, but certain items would have lower tariffs, such as things that cannot be produced in the U.S., including coffee, bananas and cocoa under the deals, according to senior administration officials.
However, most imports will not qualify under the deals and for those goods, Argentina, Guatemala and El Salvador will be subject to a 10% tariff, while Ecuador will have a 15% tariff, FOX Business previously reported.
The Trump administration said that El Salvador vowed to address non-tariff barriers, “including by streamlining regulatory requirements and approvals for U.S. exports.”
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In addition, Argentina has agreed to give “preferential market access” to U.S. goods, such as medication, chemicals, technology and more. Additionally, Guatemala has committed to refrain from “imposing digital services taxes or other measures that discriminate against U.S. digital services or U.S. products distributed digitally.”
Trump’s granddaughter bounces back after ‘nerves just got to me’ in pro golf debut
President Donald Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump improved on a rough first day of her LPGA debut.
In her encore at The Annika Friday, she improved by eight strokes compared to her performance Thursday.
After she was done playing Friday, Trump said she felt more “peaceful” compared to Thursday, which led to the improvement.
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“For the first day I was definitely really nervous. I think the nerves just got to me,” she said. “When I went out there today, I felt very calm and peaceful, to be honest with you. That’s why I played better.
“I did everything I could possibly have done for this tournament. So, I think if you prepare right, the nerves can … they’re always going to be there, right? They can be a little softened. So, I would just say that.”
Trump’s “peaceful” mindset may have paid off when she made a series of early blunders on the third, fourth and fifth holes but recovered to birdie three of her next six holes.
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“Things are going to happen. Once it happens, you can’t go back in time and fix it,” she said of the triple. “The best thing I could do is move on. Like I told my caddie, Allan, kind of just started laughing. It is what it is. We got that out of the way, so let’s just move on. It was pretty easy to move on after that.”
Still, she finished in last place in the 108-player field and will not make the cut to continue in the tournament over the weekend. She finished with a two-round total of 18-over 158, putting her 27 shots behind leader Grace Kim (65-66) and 17 away from the projected cut line at one over par.
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But Trump’s performance earned the praise of women’s golf star Charley Hull, a supporter of the president.
“That’s really good considering this is not just an easy LPGA event. This is probably one of the harder courses that we play on,” Hull said of Trump, per Golf Channel.
“So, for her to come out, she had to be so nervous. It was her first LPGA event. I remember my first event. I was really nervous, and she’s got a lot of pressure on her and a lot of eyes on her.”
Mystery over newlyweds’ roadside deaths ends as cops make somber announcement
Police in Illinois have ruled the death of a newlywed couple to be a murder-suicide after they were found dead in their car on Oct. 6.
Officials earlier said Rachel Dumovich, 29, and Brandon Dumovich, 30, were found when an officer on Oct. 6 saw a parked car with its hazard lights activated in Harvard, Illinois, along Route 14. When the police officer looked inside the car, both individuals were dead.
The Harvard Police Department on Thursday said their deaths were a murder-suicide, as their investigation found that Brandon killed Rachel before taking his own life.
A spokesman for the coroner’s office told Fox News Digital in October that both Rachel and Brandon died from gunshot wounds to the head.
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Police initially said both people had gunshot wounds, adding a gun was found inside the car. The McHenry County Major Investigative Assistance Team was activated for the incident.
While police told nearby residents to shelter in place after finding the dead couple, it was “later determined there was no ongoing threat to the community.”
A wedding page made by Rachel on The Knot described the pair as “middle school sweethearts.”
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Rachel described that she met Brandon in middle school when she was 12 years old and caught his attention by “stealing cologne from his locker and running away with it.”
The two stayed in “touch through many life stages and 15 years of friendship,” Rachel wrote, sharing that they began dating in 2022.
Brandon wound up proposing in the summer of 2023 at Big Cedar Lake near Slinger, Wisconsin, where the pair eventually got married on Oct. 12, 2024.
“We can’t wait to share the next chapter of our love story surrounded by our friends and family!” Rachel wrote when she announced the wedding.
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Just hours before the couple died, Rachel posted on Facebook: “Forever chasing sunsets. Wishing we were back in Greece.” The social media post appeared to reference the couple’s honeymoon.
“Our thoughts remain with the families and all those affected by this tragedy,” the Harvard Police Department wrote on Thursday.
Spike in deadly cancer before 50 linked to common convenience foods
Eating a certain type of food could increase the risk of getting a deadly cancer at a younger age, researchers say.
A new study at Mass General Brigham has linked higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods, which largely include ready-to-eat foods with high levels of sugar, salt, saturated fat and food additives, to higher rates of precursors of early-onset colorectal cancer.
The researchers analyzed more than two decades of data on the diets and endoscopy results of almost 30,000 women born between 1947 and 1964, according to a press release.
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All the women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study II underwent at least two lower endoscopies before they turned 50.
They completed dietary questionnaires every four years about their ultraprocessed food consumption.
Those who reported eating the most ultraprocessed foods (10 servings per day on average) were found to have a 45% higher risk of developing adenomas compared to those who ate the lowest amount (three servings a day).
Adenomas are growths in the lining of the colon or rectum. Although they are benign (non-cancerous), they are considered a precancerous type of polyp and could be an early warning sign of future colorectal cancer.
The study results were published in JAMA Oncology.
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“Our findings support the importance of reducing the intake of ultraprocessed foods as a strategy to mitigate the rising burden of early-onset colorectal cancer,” senior author Andrew Chan, chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit and a gastroenterologist in the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, said in a press release.
“The increased risk seems to be fairly linear, meaning that the more ultraprocessed foods you eat, the more potential that it could lead to colon polyps.”
While previous studies have linked ultraprocessed foods and overall colorectal cancer, this is the first study to link ultraprocessed foods with the early-onset form of the disease, according to the researchers.
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“One of the strengths of our study was that we had detailed information about other colorectal cancer risk factors in the participants, such as body mass index, Type 2 diabetes and low fiber intake,” said Chan. “Even after accounting for all these other risk factors, the association with ultraprocessed foods still held up.”
Other factors could contribute to the increase in early-onset colorectal cancer, the researchers noted, and some ultraprocessed foods are more harmful than others.
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“Diet isn’t a complete explanation for why we’re seeing this trend — we see many individuals in our clinic with early onset colon cancer who eat very healthy diets,” said Chan.
“Identifying other risk factors for early onset colorectal cancer is one of the focuses of the work that we’re leading here at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News senior medical analyst who was not involved in the research, noted that the study is observational, so it can’t prove causation, but it is “very exciting, because it fits in with what is becoming clearer and clearer about these drugs.
“Namely, they are systemic anti-inflammatory agents that overcome insulin resistance and improve metabolic function.
“One caveat – it may not be for all people.”
“It is disarray of metabolism, especially when accompanied by inflammatory chemicals that can form the precursors of cancer, including colon cancer.”
The doctor said he believes further studies will confirm that GLP-1s can reduce the risk of various types of cancers.
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“One caveat: It may not be for all people,” Siegel said. “Delayed gastric emptying, which accompanies these drugs, could be a carcinogenic factor with some patients, perhaps those with inflammatory bowel disease.”
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The study was funded in part by Cancer Research UK, the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society.
In the U.S., colorectal cancer is the third-most common cancer and second leading cause of cancer death. An estimated 154,000 new cases and about 52,900 deaths are expected in 2025.
Man who taunted victims with messages in blood faces execution Friday
A man in South Carolina who killed three people more than 20 years ago is scheduled to become the third person in the state to be executed by firing squad this year.
Stephen Bryant, 44, is expected to die at 6 p.m. Friday at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.
South Carolina restarted executions in September 2024 after a 13-year pause partly related to the state struggling to keep an adequate supply of lethal injection drugs and concerns over botched lethal injection executions.
Four men have been killed by lethal injection in the state since September 2024. The electric chair is also legal there.
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Three prison employees have volunteered to carry out Bryant’s execution from 15 feet away.
He has no pending appeals but is allowed to ask the governor for clemency. A South Carolina governor has not given clemency, which wouldn’t come in until minutes before the execution, since the United States resumed the death penalty in 1976.
Bryant chose to die by firing squad over lethal injection and the electric chair last month.
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Bryant admitted to fatally shooting Willard “TJ” Tietjen in his home, burning his eyes with cigarettes and painting “catch me if u can” on the wall with Tietjen’s blood.
Candles were lit around Tietjen’s body, and the corner of a potholder was dipped in Tietjen’s blood and used to write “victem 4 in 2 weeks. catch me if u can” on a wall, according to officials.
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Tietjen’s daughter called him six times, telling investigators on the final call that a strange voice answered and told her of killing Tietjen.
Prosecutors alleged Bryant also shot and killed two other men in the back after offering them rides in October 2004, one prior to Tietjen’s death and one after.
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Bryant’s lawyers said he was distressed before the killings, repeatedly asking for help as he struggled with trauma from being sexually abused by four male relatives as a child, according to the report. He allegedly tried to cope through drug use, including meth and bug spray-laced joints.
Attorneys for Mikal Mahdi, the last man put to death by firing squad earlier year, are suing the state, claiming that the bullets missed his heart and he was likely alive and suffering for up to a minute afterward.
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Mahdi, 42, was convicted in the 2004 killings of an off-duty police officer in Calhoun County, South Carolina, and a convenience store clerk in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was sentenced to death for the murder of the officer and life in prison for the clerk’s murder.
Johnson furious over Senate’s $500K lawsuit provision hidden in shutdown bill
The House is expected to vote next week on repealing a controversial measure in the bill that ended the government shutdown.
It caused heartburn for House Republicans in the final days of the shutdown and provided fresh ammo for Democrats hoping to delay their federal funding legislation in its final hours.
The provision, tucked into the Legislative Branch appropriations bill and dubbed “Requiring Senate Notification for Senate Data,” would allow senators directly targeted in former special counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation to sue the U.S. government for up to $500,000.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., who was involved in crafting part of the successful funding deal, told Fox News Digital he had even been afraid it could derail the final vote to end the shutdown.
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“It had been done without our knowledge. I mean, it had been added in the Senate without our knowledge,” Cole said. “It was a real trust factor … I mean, all of a sudden, this pops up in the bill, and we’re confronted with either leave this in here, or we pull it out, we have to go to conference, and the government doesn’t get reopened.”
It was placed into the bill by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and given the green light by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sources confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Thune put the provision into the bill at the request of members of the Senate GOP, a source familiar with the negotiations told Fox News Digital, which included Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
It was a big point of contention when the House Rules Committee met to prepare the legislation for a final vote on Tuesday night. Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Austin Scott, R-Ga., and Morgan Griffith, R-Va., all shared House Democrats’ frustration with the measure, but they made clear it would not stand in the way of ending what had become the longest shutdown in history.
Those Republicans agreed with the motivations behind their Senate counterparts wanting to sue but bristled over the notion that it would come at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
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Roy told Fox News Digital that he brought his concerns to the Senate GOP himself.
“Well, they heard them,” Roy said when asked how those concerns were received. “I mean, you know, the lords don’t like to be told by mere commoners what to do. But we’re going to have to take a pretty strong stand on this one.”
The measure’s inclusion was enough for Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., to vote against the final bill, telling reporters, “I’m not voting to send Lindsey Graham half a million dollars.”
Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., among the GOP lawmakers outside the Rules Committee who made their concerns public, introduced legislation to repeal the provision.
“The American people should not be asked to make compensation to United States senators, the ultimate insiders, if you will — who have been wronged, no doubt in my mind … this provision does not allow other Americans to pursue a remedy. It does not even allow the President of the United States, who was equally wrongfully surveilled and pursued by the Justice Department — they didn’t even include President Trump in this,” Rose told Fox News Digital. “They saved this special treat for themselves. And, you know, frankly, the right answer is that they should all disavow that immediately.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared equally, if not more, annoyed when asked by reporters about the measure. He said a vote on repealing it would be fast-tracked next week and hoped his Senate counterparts would do the same.
“I was just as surprised by the inclusion of that language as anyone. I had no prior notice of it at all,” Johnson said. “I was frustrated, as my colleagues are over here, and I thought it was untimely and inappropriate. So we’ll be requesting, strongly urging, our Senate colleagues to repeal that.”
But there was an appetite among Senate Republicans to respond to Smith’s investigation, where senators were not notified that their records would be requested without notification. And the provision is narrowly tailored to just include senators and would require that they be notified if their information is requested by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The idea is to prevent the abuse of the DOJ to go after sitting senators now and in the future.
Graham, when asked if he would be filing a lawsuit, told reporters in South Carolina, “Oh, definitely.”
“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” he said.
When asked for comment on the matter, Cruz’s office pointed Fox News Digital to comments he made in a recent Politico report.
“Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators,” Cruz told Politico.
Several senators were unaware of the provision’s inclusion, including Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the top Democrat on the Legislative Branch appropriations subcommittee.
“I am furious that the Senate Minority and Majority Leaders chose to airdrop this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour — with zero consultation or negotiation with the subcommittee that actually oversees this work,” Heinrich said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This is precisely what’s wrong with the Senate.”
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Most of the eight senators who did have their phone records subpoenaed as part of Smith’s investigation were also unaware of the provision until the legislation was unveiled over the weekend and have no intent to file a lawsuit.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, “first learned about this provision when he and his staff were reading the bill to open the government,” Amanda Coyne, a senior advisor for the lawmaker, told Fox News Digital. “The senator has no plans to sue.”
And Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has pressed for a full disclosure of the probe alongside Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital in a statement, “I have no plans at this time” to sue.
“If I did sue, it would only be for the purpose of using the courts to expose the corrupt weaponization of federal law enforcement by the Biden and Obama administrations,” he said. “With the full cooperation in our congressional investigations from the Trump DOJ and FBI, that shouldn’t be necessary.”
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But he noted that he supports the provision, “As a deterrent to prevent future misuse of federal agencies.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., plans to seek a declaratory judgment, rather than monetary, over her phone records being requested by Smith before the provision was added into the bill. She said she would support plans to repeal the provision.
“If the Senate votes on the bill to undo the Arctic Frost provision in the government funding bill, I will support the effort to reverse it,” she said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This fight is not about the money; it is about holding the left accountable for the worst weaponization of government in our nation’s history.”
Major discount retailer announces sweeping store closures nationwide
Saks Off 5th, the discount sister brand of luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue, is planning to close nine stores across the U.S. beginning early next year.
The retailer – which operates roughly 100 stores across the U.S. and Canada – will close stores starting in January 2026 as part of a broader effort to “optimize” its store presence, a Saks Global spokesperson confirmed to FOX Business in an email.
“As part of our ongoing and comprehensive strategy, we have taken a critical eye to our store footprint and will be closing select store locations in early 2026,” the spokesperson said.
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Stores are expected to close in Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; East Hanover, New Jersey; Niagara Falls, New York; Pittsburgh North, Plymouth Meeting and Franklin Mall in Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.; and West Hartford, Connecticut.
The move will allow the retailer to “place greater attention to our high-performing and high-potential store locations, and refinements across our store footprint,” the spokesperson told FOX Business.
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“We are confident this will better position the Saks OFF 5TH business for long-term success and look forward to continuing to deliver for our customers,” the spokesperson added.
Saks Off 5th is also expected to close its 57th Street location in Manhattan in December, Crain’s New York Business previously reported.
In October, spending on luxury brands declined 3% year over year, Reuters reported, citing the latest U.S. credit card data from Citi.
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This followed three months of improvement as the government shutdown weighed on consumer confidence.
Saks Off 5th is among a number of retailers that have announced closures in recent years.
In January, Macy’s identified 66 stores that it planned to close this year. A month later, JCPenney announced plans to close a “handful” of stores as it struggled to keep pace with rapidly changing market conditions.
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Stephen Miller’s wife says threats from leftist neighbors forced family to move
Podcaster Katie Miller — wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller — told the “Ruthless” podcast Thursday that her young children could no longer play in their front yard due to threats from left-wing activists.
Miller, whose husband helped craft President Donald Trump’s deportation strategy, told the podcast hosts they received death threats and harassment from neighbors, forcing the family to move out of their Arlington, Virginia, home.
“There were people who drove by my home, there were people who sent us death threats, who knew where we lived, and it was no longer safe for our children to play in our front yard, or our backyard,” Miller said.
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The Atlantic reported in October that Miller and his family recently relocated to military housing after facing ongoing protests outside their home in Arlington.
The report noted that at least six senior Trump administration officials have done the same, citing safety concerns for themselves and their families.
Local outlet ARLnow detailed some of the harassment tactics allegedly used against the Miller family.
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Protesters reportedly posted fliers in the Millers’ neighborhood with their home address, labeling Stephen Miller a “Nazi” who was responsible for “crimes against humanity.”
The group Arlington Neighbors United for Humanity also organized sidewalk chalk protests leaving messages accusing Miller of “destroying democracy,” “kidnapping,” and “White nationalism.”
Katie Miller told “Ruthless” she constantly feared someone might attack her while she was with her children in the neighborhood.
“But unfortunately, what happens when you have little kids who are impossible to get in and out of car seats, right? How many parents can relate to a kid doing a tantrum?” she asked. “How many parents can relate to their kids chalking or learning to ride a bike, and that takes a while and your heads are not on a swivel looking around for who’s coming fast with a high-powered weapon? And that’s a society that we’re living in.”
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Miller recalled that the day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was murdered, “we had someone who came outside who had taunted me and passed out fliers to our neighbors with ‘Wanted’ signs that said, ‘You know, here’s your neighbor, Stephen Miller. Here’s where his home address is. Here’s all these apparent crimes he’s committed.’”
“And it leads you to only one conclusion when you’re doing that — 9:30 a.m. the day Charlie was murdered,” she said, adding, “And so, if their intention isn’t to intimidate, harass and scare, I don’t know what it is.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson weighed in on the threats shown to the Miller family and other Trump administration officials, telling Fox News Digital, “Deranged leftist lunatics have targeted not only President Trump — who survived two assassination attempts — but also members of his administration as well.”
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“Doxxing and any other actions that directly threaten the safety of officials and their families should be resoundingly denounced and thoroughly investigated to ensure attacks against members of the administration are not realized,” Jackson added.