VP Harris’ inaccurate claims about Trump’s platform in DNC speech fact-checked
Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday at the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention.
In her pitch to voters, Harris read a laundry list of complaints and accusations about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Some of the attacks on Trump hinged on inaccurate interpretations about the former president’s platform and policies, while others were outright false.
Trump and Project 2025
“We know what a second Trump term would look like,” Harris told Democrats on Thursday. “It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers, and its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back.”
STEPH CURRY ENDORSES KAMALA HARRIS AT DNC, MONTHS AFTER SUGGESTING HE WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT SOME DAY
Portrayed as a blueprint for a future Republican administration to restructure many parts of the U.S. government, Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, launched in April 2023 and is not directly associated with Trump’s campaign.
The Trump campaign has never endorsed the policy project, which was compiled by the Heritage Foundation — though several former members of the Trump administration did contribute to the document.
“They know I have nothing to do with it,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” Thursday. “I had no idea what it was. A group of people got together. They drew up some conservative values, very conservative values, and in some case, perhaps they went over the line. Perhaps they didn’t. I have no idea what Project 25 is.”
“Agenda 47 and President Trump’s RNC Platform are the only policies endorsed by President Trump for a second term,” Trump campaign spokesperson Danielle Alvarez told Fox News Digital last month, accusing the Democratic Party of “lying and fear mongering” by tying the platform to the former president.
Social Security and Medicare
“When you read [Project 2025], you will see — Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Harris claimed in the DNC address.
The Project 2025 policy plan does not advocate for cuts to Social Security.
33 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE
Trump himself began his campaign with inconsistent rhetoric about his intentions for Social Security and Medicare, saying he was open to significant reforms of the system and claiming “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.”
His spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, told NBC News earlier this year, “President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term.”
Since early 2024, Trump has been consistent about not cutting either program.
His official policy platform now states his intention to “fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.”
He has also proposed not taxing Social Security benefits.
Nationwide abortion ban
“[Trump] and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication, abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress,” Harris said in her speech.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly affirmed that a future administration intends to leave abortion policy decisions to the states.
This intention to back off from the abortion issue following the overturn of is reflected in the official Republican Party platform published last month.
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“We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights,” the draft reads.
However, for the first time in 40 years, the document makes no mention of a federal abortion ban, which Trump has emphasized that he opposes.
Instead, the new platform stresses, “We will oppose late-term abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control and IVF (fertility treatments).”
Karl Rove examines impact of third-party candidates ahead of RFK Jr’s likely exit from race
The political spotlight will be on Democrat turned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday, in what many expect will be an announcement that he is ending his White House bid.
Kennedy’s campaign says their candidate “will address the nation live on Friday about the present historical moment and his path forward.”
On the eve of his event in Arizona, Kennedy moved to withdraw his name from the state’s ballot – which appeared to be another signal of his intent to drop out of the race.
However, the biggest question surrounding Kennedy’s anticipated exit from the 2024 race is whether it will give former President Donald Trump a small but potentially significant boost in his showdown against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Pointing back to the previous two presidential elections, veteran Republican strategist and Fox News contributor Karl Rove spotlighted the influential role third party candidates played.
HARRIS TAKES AIM AT TRUMP AS SHE VOWS ‘TO BE A PRESIDENT FOR ALL AMERICANS’
“[Green Party candidate} Jill Stein got more votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania than Hillary Clinton lost those states by,” Rove noted as he pointed to Trump’s victory over the Democrats’ 2016 presidential nominee.
Rove added that “in 2020, Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian candidate, got more votes in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin than Donald Trump lost those states by. And in each instance, that was the difference between winning and losing.”
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. TO ADDRESS AMERICA ON FRIDAY ABOUT THE ‘PRESENT HISTORICAL MOMENT AND HIS PATH FORWARD’
Kennedy, the longtime environmental activist and high-profile vaccine skeptic, who is the scion of the nation’s most storied political dynasty, launched his long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in April of last year. However, last October, the 70-year-old candidate switched to an independent run for the White House.
While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father – Sen. Robert F. Kennedy – and his uncle – former President John F. Kennedy – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders.
President Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee for months repeatedly slammed Kennedy as a potential spoiler whose supporters could hand Trump a presidential election victory in November.
However, Kennedy remained a thorn in Biden’s side from last year through the president’s announcement last month that he was ending his re-election bid and endorsing Harris.
The Trump campaign also started taking aim at Kennedy after he switched to an independent run, labeling him a member of the “radical left,” and criticizing him for his environmental activism.
However, the relationship between Kennedy and Trump started warming earlier this year, and the two spoke last month after the assassination attempt against Trump and met in person the following day.
RFK JR.’S RUNNING MATE CHARGES DEMOCRATS ‘OBSTRUCTED A FAIR ELECTION,’ ‘FULLY SUPPORTS’ WORKING WITH TRUMP
Earlier this week, Kennedy running mate Nicole Shanahan sparked headlines by saying in a podcast interview that the campaign was considering whether to “join forces” with Trump to prevent the possibility of Harris winning the 2024 election.
“If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place,” Trump said on Thursday in an interview on “Fox and Friends.”
Kennedy’s event is being held in Phoenix a couple of hours before Trump holds a rally in nearby Glendale.
“President Trump will be joined by a special guest as he delivers remarks about his America First policies and his vision to lower inflation and the cost of living, secure the border, and make our cities safe again,” a release from the former president’s campaign announced on Thursday, which sparked more speculation about a potential Kennedy endorsement.
Trump called in to Fox News following Vice President Kamala Harris’ nominating acceptance speech on Thursday night. Noting that Trump and Kennedy would be in the same state, Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha McCallum asked Trump if Kennedy would endorse him on Friday, and the former President replied coyly, “It’s possible we will be meeting tomorrow, and we’ll be discussing it.”
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Kennedy’s campaign has been cratering in recent months. The last public event put on by Kennedy’s campaign came on July 9, in Freeport, Maine. However, even before that, his poll numbers – which once stood in the teens – had faded.
The most recent Fox News national poll, conducted Aug. 9-12, indicated Kennedy at 6% support.
His fundraising was also sinking, with campaign finance reports indicating he had just $3.9 million cash on hand as of the start of July, with nearly $3.5 million in debt.
Well-known non-partisan political handicapper Larry Sabato argued in a social media post that “Kennedy is barely relevant.”
“He can’t transfer much support, esp. to Trump. His backers will splinter,” Sabato predicted.
Rove, the mastermind behind former President George W. Bush’s two White House election victories, said that if Kennedy “does endorse Trump, my sense is the people who were supporting him because he was a Kennedy, and they didn’t like Biden, have dissipated over the last four to five weeks and his supporters are probably people more inclined to vote for Trump than Harris.”
Alex Castellanos, the veteran Republican consultant who served in leading positions on the campaigns of four GOP presidential nominees, said that if Kennedy drops out and backs Trump, “it could help in two ways.
“One is he’s an outsider and Trump’s an outsider. RFK got drop-kicked out of the Democratic establishment, so the anti-Washington message that Trump has is amplified,” Castellanos argued.
He added that “more importantly, RFK is the K in Kennedy and that brand still has magic. That brand is Camelot. It’s what could have been and was interrupted. It’s a promise about the future, and you need know who needs optimism and someone to help him get to the future is Donald Trump. I think the brand is more important than the one or two percent he might bring to the Trump campaign.”
Democratic strategist Marie Harf, a Fox News contributor, said that “Democrats are curious what will happen if and when he [Kennedy] drops out, because if him being in the race was taking votes from Trump, those votes will go back to Trump now.”
“It’s already a tight race and will get even tighter if all the RFK votes go to Trump,” Harf emphasized.
Biden’s vacation at mansion belonging to donor ‘friend’ draws critics’ ire
President Biden wants to establish an enforceable ethics code for Supreme Court justices, but the lame-duck president has been criticized over his own apparent conflicts of interest, including his relationship with friend and billionaire donor Joe Kiani.
Following his address at the Democratic National Convention Monday, Biden and his family flew to Santa Ynez, California, to vacation at Kiani’s ranch-style estate. The first family is reportedly staying there for free, said White House officials who described Kiani as a “friend,” according to the New York Post.
Kiani has given Biden’s super PAC, foundation and inaugural committee nearly $3 million, according to House Republicans who have taken issue with the relationship. Meanwhile, in September 2021, Kiani won an appointment from Biden to sit on his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which advises the executive branch on policy matters involving Kiani’s medical tech business, Masimo. Since Biden took office in January 2021, Masimo has received nearly $3 million in federal contracts, according to Republicans.
In addition to his appointment, Kiani received tickets from Biden in 2022 to attend a state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron, the Post reported. The outlet said it granted the billionaire CEO access to trans-Atlantic business officials and other global elites.
CLARENCE THOMAS FORMALLY REPORTS 2019 TRIPS PAID BY FRIEND AND GOP DONOR HARLAN CROW
News of the first family’s vacation at Kiani’s ranch comes amid Democratic efforts to reshape the Supreme Court, including an enforceable ethics code for justices and term limits. These efforts were largely spurred by Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship with Republican Party donor Harlan Crow.
Thomas, who has described Crow as one of his family’s “dearest friends,” has been under fire from critics for vacationing with Crow and accepting other gifts from him.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics, which oversees executive branch ethics, declined to comment, telling Fox News Digital it does not “discuss specific individuals or circumstances.”
“The self-proclaimed most ethical and transparent administration in history strikes again,” said Michael Chamberlain, director of the conservative nonprofit Protect the Public’s Trust.
“The Biden-Harris EPA is already doling out its Greendoggle billions to organizations with ties to the administration and its political allies. Now, we have this type of arrangement with a donor who has business before the government. Seems to be just how things get done in this administration.”
HUNTER BIDEN JOINS WHITE HOUSE MEETING, BEFUDDLES BIDEN STAFF: REPORT
In April 2022, a team of 12 House Republicans penned a letter to Shalanda Young, the director of the federal government’s Office of Management and Budget. The letter took issue with Biden’s relationship with Kiani, noting they want to be sure “political donations are not unduly influencing the Administration’s management of contracts and loans.”
While the relationship between Kiani and Biden has drawn scrutiny, so have Biden’s relationships with other major Democratic Party big wigs.
A year ago, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer opened the doors of his Lake Tahoe mansion to the Biden family. Steyer manages a green energy investment fund that’s working to “take advantage” of federal climate change spending provided through Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The Center for Renewing America, a conservative nonprofit, filed an ethics complaint with the Department of Justice in April, calling on it to investigate Biden for alleged “serious ethical lapses” in failing to disclose free vacations that do not appear to qualify under certain exemptions in the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA). The complaint lays out at least four questionable vacations taken by Biden and his family, including the trip to Lake Tahoe.
BIDEN ACCUSED OF FAILING TO DISCLOSE VACATIONS GIFTED TO HIM BY WEALTHY SUPPORTERS
Other trips mentioned in the complaint include a trip to the South Carolina beachfront mansion of Democratic Party donor Maria Allwin, a stay in Nantucket at private equity founder David Rubenstein’s $39 million mansion and a New Years trip to Bill and Connie Neville’s private Island property in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Nevilles were invited to a 2015 state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping around the time they began sharing their house, according to the complaint. Additionally, in December 2022, the same month Biden stayed at their mansion, the Nevilles were White House guests, attending a state dinner with Macron.
Kendra Arnold, executive director of the nonprofit Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, asserted Biden’s trip to Kiani’s mansion “reinforces the popular notion that individuals who give large amounts of money to politicians are rewarded with increased access and various perks that are unavailable to others.”
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“When, like is the case here, there is an apparent circular beneficial relationship, it is difficult to believe that, at a minimum, there has not been increased access granted,” Arnold concluded. “As a rule of thumb, our elected officials are encouraged to even avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, and, in this case, President Biden has certainly fallen short.”
Bikers blast Harley-Davidson’s ‘woke’ European CEO who ‘stabbed us in the back’
Harley-Davidson’s CEO Jochen Zeitz was Germany’s fresh-faced corporate wunderkind when he took over Puma in the 1990s.
Lately, he’s faced questions and concern from bikers and woke-exhausted consumers in the United States.
Zeitz is seen as a proponent of far-left ideology who, some critics say, has tarnished the legendary all-American Harley-Davidson brand since taking it over in 2020.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON BOARD OF DIRECTORS SILENT ON FUTURE, FATE OF ‘WOKE’ CEO AND CHAIRMAN
“They lost their human touch. That’s the best way to put it,” longtime Harley-Davidson biker “Horseshoe” Johnny Hennings told Fox News Digital at the end of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota last week.
“Harley was like a brotherhood … Now it’s just a ghost.”
But Zeitz’s supporters see it another way.
They say claims of Harley’s demise are vastly overstated by aging riders.
The Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker reported $5.4 billion in revenue in 2019, part of a decade-long downward trend. Revenue climbed to $5.8 billion last year, the third straight year of growth under the German-born CEO.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON SLAMS BRAKES ON ‘WOKE’ POLICIES AFTER SPARKING BIKER AND SOCIAL-MEDIA OUTRAGE
“He’s a smart dude and since he’s taken over, Harley has made more money for its investors,” the general manager at a Texas dealership told Fox News Digital.
“It’s simple as that.”
“He’s just all about being a new world order globalist.”
Harley’s iconic image, however, has been under the spotlight amid what appears to be a clash of cultures.
Old-time U.S. riders who fueled and embraced Harley-Davidson’s muscular image of rugged, flag-waving American independence are pitted against the European globetrotter with famous friends and left-leaning aims who today heads the brand.
“He’s just all about being a new world order globalist,” Vinny Terranova, the owner of Pappy’s Vintage Cycles in Sturgis, South Dakota, told Fox News Digital.
“He brought in bean counters and minions from Europe and they don’t care where Harley came from or the history of it. There’s no more service, no more customer interaction.”
HARLEY-DAVIDSON CEO COMPARES HIMSELF TO ‘TALIBAN’ IN EFFORT TO REMAKE MOTORCYCLE BRAND
Fox News Digital reached out to Harley-Davidson, Zeitz and members of the company’s board of directors for comment.
The unhappiness with Harley-Davidson’s drift away from core consumers came to a head in recent weeks when Zeitz’s “woke” agenda became the center of social media and consumer outrage.
“We are trying to take on traditional capitalism and trying to redefine it,” Zeitz said at a 2020 conference in Switzerland just as he was gripping the handles of Harley-Davidson.
The video was brought to daylight last week by anti-woke social-media warrior Robby Starbuck.
Zeitz also added, in a stunning reference to terrorism, that he was “the sustainable Taliban.”
Harley-Davidson changed amid public outrage earlier this week, announcing that it was scaling back some of its more controversial programs and refocusing on core consumers.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON ‘USED’ BIKERS BEFORE ‘WOKE’ CONTROVERSY, FORMER OUTLAW RIDER CLAIM
All of this has fueled questions about the man behind the plan.
Prior successes
Sparkling tributes to Zeitz in various media outlets describe his success at Puma and jaunts across the playgrounds of the rich and famous.
“Jochen Zeitz saved Puma. Now he’s trying to fix global business,” reads the celebratory headline of a Wired magazine tribute in 2018.
Zeitz launched Puma Ocean Racing, with Selma Hayek christening the first boat in Boston, in 2008; founded The B Team with Richard Branson, based in London and New York City, in 2013, with a mission to define business by social agenda; and opened the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in South Africa in 2017.
While his professional career has been publicly celebrated, Zeitz’s family history is largely unknown.
Little is publicly known about the CEO’s family.
He was raised in Heidelberg, Germany, to parents in the medical profession, according to rare bits of information from profiles, including in Women’s Wear Daily and other publications, found online. Little else is publicly known about his family.
A search of records and archives in the U.S. and Germany found no mention of family history.
What known is that he was just 30 when he took the reins of Puma in 1993, the youngest CEO of a publicly traded company in Germany’s history, according to several reports.
He turned the discount sneaker brand into a high-priced fashion statement, and cemented his status in global couture as a board member of Kering, the French parent company of luxury brands Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Puma and Saint Laurent, among others.
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Regardless of mystery or history, Zeitz has rubbed some of Harley’s most loyal consumers the wrong way in recent years.
“Harley-Davidson was our God and we were its disciples,” Marc Wilson of Colorado, a longtime Harley-Davidson rider who worked for one of its dealerships for 21 years, told Fox News Digital.
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“Then that God we worshiped stabbed us in the back,” he said — a reference to both the company’s wokeness in recent years and the way some customers feel the company has treated them.
Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats had a successful convention this week in Chicago. At every juncture, they sought to rebut the attacks from their opponents. The Harris-Walz team argued over and over, and particularly effectively, I thought, in the vice president’s Thursday night speech, that they were for national unity, against ideology, for the middle class, for women and most of all for the United States.
Even a casual observer couldn’t help but notice that there was very little in Vice President Harris’ speech that added up to an agenda for the United States or even policy prescriptions. The strategists behind the Harris-Walz ticket understand that, on issues, they could very easily lose to former President Donald Trump. But on life story, aspiration and symbolism, it is much more likely that the Democrats will turn what was a once a possible defeat with Joe Biden at the top of the ticket into a potential victory with Kamala Harris.
The Democratic convention has been characterized this week as one of great vibes and the politics of joy and Harris herself was able to rise to the occasion Thursday night. She gave voters, of all parties and ideologies, a sense that she stood them and them, in contrast to an aging, out-of-touch Donald Trump who, in her telling, stood specifically and principally with billionaires.
KAMALA HARRIS FORMALLY ACCEPTS DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION AT DNC
Both the vice president and her surrogates were strong. They set out to strike a patriotic tone and to reassure the electorate in stalwart terms that they would stand with our allies in Europe and Ukraine (and perhaps not Israel). Harris and her advocates made it very clear that while they stood for and with the middle class, most importantly, their goal was to accentuate and exacerbate the gender gap by making this convention largely for and about women.
It seems clear that the Harris-Walz ticket will get a modest bump from the very well-produced and executed Democratic convention in Chicago. The vice president is likely to go into the fall campaign with a narrow but clear lead over former President Trump both nationally and most likely in a majority of the swing states.
Elections are ultimately a referendum on the incumbent. We will see, in the Sept. 10 debate between the vice president and the former president, whether Harris is able to escape stigmatization over the perceived failures of the now fading current president.
But make no mistake, it would be wrong to believe that the overall direction of this race has been fundamentally changed or altered by the four-day spectacle that the Democrats were able to produce. For as many people who were uplifted by the event, few saw or heard anything that would fundamentally distinguish the Democratic ticket on the issues American voters care deeply about: inflation, the cost of living, immigration and crime. There wasn’t enough substance offered to build a significant contrast to former President Trump.
TRUMP BLASTS HARRIS AS PART OF TRUTH SOCIAL FLURRY ON WHAT SHE ‘DIDN’T MENTION’ IN DNC SPEECH
The convention began with Joe Biden, the incumbent president, having an approval rating at or below 40 percent. Despite the successful convention, Biden’s approval rating almost certainly did not budge at all this week. I say that because elections are ultimately a referendum on the incumbent. We will see, in the Sept. 10 debate between the vice president and the former president, whether Harris is able to escape stigmatization over the perceived failures of the now fading current president.
Despite what the national media is likely to say now, and following the inevitable post-convention bump in political support that the Democratic ticket will receive, this election is likely to remain very close. As close as the previous presidential elections were in 2016 and 2020.
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We will not really have a clear sense of the direction the 2024 presidential campaign is heading until the polls come in after the Sept. 10 Harris-Trump debate. But even then, keep in mind that Trump has always done much better in elections than he does in pre-election polls. What many in the liberal media may describe as the inevitability of Harris-Walz could well be, and is much more likely to be, a repeat of the last two national elections. In other words, following their convention, a victory for Democrats is not assured. Instead, this election will be very close.
The major question facing Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans now is whether they can successfully recalibrate the campaign to be as effective in their critiques of Vice President Harris as they were of the current president.
Our recent presidential elections have been decided ultimately by a swing of less than 100,000 votes. The same is likely to happen in 2024, notwithstanding the national media’s seeming embrace of the Harris-Walz ticket and the likely election to the presidency, in their minds, of the current vice president.
Both parties had successful conventions this summer. This week in Chicago, Harris was able to address in general terms, most, if not all of her negatives: being too far left, being polarizing, not having a record, being soft on immigration and crime. It is clear that she will continue in this vein for the rest of the campaign.
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The major question facing Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans now is whether they can successfully recalibrate the campaign to be as effective in their critiques of Vice President Harris as they were of the current president. That is the big unanswered question as we go forward into the traditional start of the presidential election campaign on Labor Day.
The bottom line: The politics of joy is not necessarily the politics of victory.
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Former Dem presidential candidate tapped to help Trump gives update on his debate prep
Former President Trump’s debate prep is going “great,” former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News on Friday.
“He knows the issues. He is very honed in on her [Kamala Harris’] record in reminding voters… ‘what have you done for the last three and a half years?’ You can paint this rosy picture about what you’re going to do, but we’re paying attention to what you’ve already done and how her policies have destroyed our economy, made us less safe, both here at home and abroad,” she told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade.
The former president recruited Gabbard to help sharpen his skills ahead of the highly-anticipated Sept. 10 debate, where he is slated to face off against Vice President Kamala Harris at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia.
TRUMP RECRUITS TULSI GABBARD FOR DEBATE PREP AFTER SHE ‘DOMINATED’ HARRIS IN 2019 PRIMARY
Gabbard infamously tore into Harris during a 2019 Democratic primary debate for jailing hundreds of Californians for marijuana violations despite smoking the drug herself.
“She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” she said during the viral exchange.
KAMALA HARRIS IS AN ‘EMPTY SUIT’ AND CAMPAIGN HANDLERS ARE WORRIED, SAYS TULSI GABBARD
Gabbard isn’t the only former Democrat who appears to be in Trump’s corner.
Rumors continue to swirl that Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is slated to drop out of the race and endorse the former president this Friday.
Gabbard also weighed in on that speculation.
RFK JR.’S RUNNING MATE SAYS DEMOCRATS ‘OBSTRUCTED A FAIR ELECTION,’ ‘FULLY SUPPORTS’ WORKING WITH TRUMP
“His supporters are independent-minded people who value freedom, who are concerned about what President Biden and Vice President Harris have done to our country and leading us onto the brink of multiple regime change wars, the brink of World War III and nuclear war. They’re concerned about this broken health care system and the deep rot of corruption that is entrenched in almost every agency in our government,” she said.
“We’ll see what Bobby Kennedy decides to do, and no vote should be taken for granted. We’ll have to make the case to his supporters about the very clear contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Kamala Harris is standing for taking away our freedom, an increasingly tyrannical government and more war versus Donald Trump, who stands for peace, prosperity and freedom.”
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Details of Richard Simmons’ death confirmed by medical examiner
Richard Simmons’ cause of death has been revealed.
The fitness instructor and TV icon died as a result of blunt traumatic injuries, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office announced on Thursday. The 76-year-old’s manner of death was ruled as an accident.
Arteriosclerotic cardiovascular was listed as a contributing factor.
RICHARD SIMMONS’ BROTHER SAYS FITNESS ICON DIED FROM ‘RECENT FALLS, HEART DISEASE’
The star suffered a fall on July 11 and spent the following day in bed. On the morning of July 13, Simmons was found unresponsive on his bedroom floor. Authorities were called, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the statement, the deputy medical examiner concluded their examination at the department’s Forensic Science Center on July 14. Simmons’ cause of death was certified on Aug. 22.
A full medical examiner’s report will be ready by Aug. 30, the medical examiner’s office added.
The announcement confirmed what Tom Etsey, the Simmons family spokesperson, previously told Fox News Digital.
“This morning, Richard Simmons’ brother Lenny, received a call from the LA Coroner’s office,” Etsey said in a statement sent on Wednesday.
“The Coroner informed Lenny that Richard’s death was accidental due to complications from recent falls and heart disease as a contributing factor. The toxicology report was negative other than the medication Richard had been prescribed.”
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“The family wishes to thank everyone for their outpouring of love and support during this time of great loss,” Estey added.
Simmons’ longtime caretaker, Teresa Reveles, found him in his bedroom on the day that he died.
“When I saw him, he looked peaceful,” Reveles told People magazine, noting that his hands were balled into fists.
“That’s why I know it was a heart attack.”
She added, “I had a heart attack a few years ago, and my hands did the same.”
The day before he died, Reveles said Simmons’ leg was hurting from a fall the previous day. Simmons passed away one day after his birthday, July 12.
She told him, “Let’s go to the hospital. Maybe you broke your leg.” Simmons protested, “No, Teresa, not on my birthday. Why [don’t we] wait, and we do it in the morning?”
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“But in the morning, it was too late,” Reveles said.
Los Angeles Police Department officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that “there is no foul play.”
Simmons was laid to rest five days after his death. Etsey said in a statement that he was surrounded “by only family and closest friends.”
The former fitness coach, who stepped away from the spotlight 10 years ago, told People magazine in a recent interview he was “grateful” to be “alive for another day” after his skin cancer diagnosis.
“I am grateful that I’m here, that I am alive for another day,” he told the outlet. “I’ll spend my birthday doing what I do every day, which is to help people.”
Simmons first became famous in the late 1970s with “The Richard Simmons Show,” appearances on game shows and late-night TV, and his “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” workout videos, which were first released in 1988.
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“I’ll spend my birthday doing what I do every day, which is to help people.”
“The Richard Simmons Show” earned two Daytime Emmys for best direction and best talk show. Simmons was beloved for his upbeat and goofy personality and for connecting with regular people who wanted to get fit using his workout videos.
Network host corrected on air after floating surprise DNC guest appearance
The names of several A-listers were mentioned as possible surprise guests on the final night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), including celebrities like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, but one NFL star linked to Swift was also floated as a potential attendee.
The only problem? He was on the sidelines somewhere else.
CBS host Gayle King said Thursday that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had “reached out” to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign with interest in attending day four of the convention.
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However, the Chiefs were slated to play in their final preseason game against the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium with an 8:20 p.m. kickoff time.
“The Taylor Swift rumor is interesting to me because I was told a couple of days ago that Travis Kelce also had reached out to the Harris campaign when it was first announced and said that he wanted to be here on the night that she was speaking. We’ll see if that is true.”
However, King was quickly reminded by her co-hosts of Kelce’s scheduling conflict.
CHIEFS FANS FRUSTRATED AS DNC THROWS WRENCH IN VIEWING FINAL PRESEASON GAME VS BEARS ON TV
Both Norah O’Donnell and Nancy Cordes chimed in about Thursday night’s game against the Bears, but King was unrelenting.
“I know he has a game, but that doesn’t mean he’s playing.”
King did, however, admit that the rumor could be “part of the ‘keep hope alive’ plan.”
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While Kelce did not appear at the United Center in Chicago on Thursday night, he also did not play in the final preseason game. Additionally, while the NFL schedule may have thrown a wrench in Kelce’s reported intentions to appear, the DNC also threw a wrench into Chiefs fans’ TV viewing plans.
The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that the broadcast in the area was set to air on KMCI instead of the usual KSHB. However, the DNC would be airing on TV instead of football. The NFL Network was also airing the game, but due to blackout restrictions, fans in Kansas City would not be able to stream the game there.