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Day: May 15, 2024

Young, Black and Republican: House conservative aims to win Black voters over with cognac and cigars

Young, Black and Republican: House conservative aims to win Black voters over with cognac and cigars

FIRST ON FOX — Republicans are ramping up efforts to reach out to Black voters as a critical November election approaches, with President Biden, a Democrat, appearing to lose support with minorities.  Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, is spearheading an initiative to recruit Black voters, particularly Black men, into the party’s fold after former President Trump in 2020 showed surprising strength with that traditionally Democratic constituency. Hunt told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Trump’s popularity with Black men is a “phenomenon,” and shared his view that the GOP has an opportunity to win a new generation of voters — if they show up where they are. Republicans need to “fish where the fish are,” Hunt said: “Our party doesn’t always go to the Black community. I’ve been Black my whole life, man. Growing up — my family is from New Orleans, I grew up here in Houston. And it dawned on me that whenever you look around, you don’t see any Republicans actually taking what we want as a party to the Black community.”  Hunt aims to change that with a series of events he’s calling “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars.” Throughout the summer, the Texas representative will host conversations inviting Black men who live in minority-majority cities in swing states to hear how Republicans will lead on issues that matter to all Americans.  NEW POLL REVEALS DEMS ARE LOSING SIGNIFICANT SUPPORT FROM THESE 2 KEY DEMOGRAPHICS: ‘ESPECIALLY CONCERNING’ The first event will take place on Tuesday, June 4th in Philadelphia and will feature a discussion between Hunt and his friend and college Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., with former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya as moderator. Similar events will follow in Atlanta, Ga, Detroit, Mich. Milwaukee, Wisc., Charlotte, N.C. and other cities in states key to winning the 2024 presidential election. The initiative comes as recent polls have showed minority voters appearing to sour on President Biden. The surveys, released Monday by the New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer, show Trump with the lead in five of the six key battleground sates where he was narrowly defeated by Biden four years ago.  Especially concerning for Democrats is the polls found Biden leading Trump among Black voters 63% to 23%, which would be a sharp drop from the 87% of Black voters who supported Biden in 2020 and helped him flip Georgia and other swing states. If the results stand on election day, Trump winning more than 20% of the Black vote would be the highest level of backing by Black voters of a GOP presidential candidate in generations.  Hunt argues the tide is now turning in favor of Trump and Republicans.  ‘COUNTRY IS IN CRISIS’ HOUSE GOP UNLEASHES ON DEMS WITH BLISTERING AD MARKING 6 MONTHS UNTIL ELECTION DAY “President Trump in 2020 got 18.2% of the Black male vote. That’s almost 20%. To put that in perspective, [2008 Republican nominee] John McCain got roughly 4% of the Black male vote. So what you’re seeing is exponential growth,” Hunt said. “And if we could turn that 20% into 25%, which is very likely at this point, now we’re having a very different conversation.”  Hunt acknowledged that the dramatic political realignment he described “doesn’t happen overnight.” But he said the seed is planted because Biden has been “a horrible president in the Black community,” pointing to high inflation and the border crisis.  Inflation rose again in April, with wholesale prices climbing another 2.2%, the highest level since April 2023, according to a Labor Department report released Tuesday. The report comes one day before the Biden administration will release the closely watched consumer price index (CPI), which measures prices paid directly by consumers. That report is expected to show inflation rose 0.4% in April from the previous month and climbed 3.4% from the same time last year. “What you hear a lot is President Biden harps about how great the stock market is right now. Well yeah, that’s good if you have the kind of capital for investments. But everyday middle class workers that make under $80,000 a year are getting absolutely destroyed,” Hunt said, citing rising costs for eggs, bacon and other groceries.  BLACK GOP LAWMAKER SHUTS DOWN ‘ENRAGED’ PROTESTER CALLING HIM ‘RACIST’ DURING PRO-TRUMP SPEECH “The Black community is hypersensitive to that because the Black community is in a lower socioeconomic demographic than the average American,” he added. Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell said it is “critically important” for Republicans to be present in the Black community if they hope to win their support. “Republicans don’t win in many of these areas because they don’t show up, and that’s what’s been the problem,” Caldwell said.  He agreed with Hunt’s assessment that the Democratic Party’s stronghold on the Black vote is loosening as living costs rise and illegal immigrants receive millions of taxpayer dollars in benefits denied to American citizens.  OUTRAGED RESIDENT WARNS WHAT $70M MIGRANT FUNDING WILL DO TO SANCTUARY CITY “It’s beginning to fall apart with Joe Biden … with migrants coming from all over the world into particular communities and resources being usurped in those communities,” said Caldwell, mentioning his hometown of Chicago as an example.  Matt Shupe, a Republican communications strategist and principal of Praetorian Public Relations, said Hunt and other Republicans would be wise to expand the party’s reach into places where the GOP has traditionally been risk-averse.  “Republicans should be campaigning everywhere, all the time, and to all voters, especially to voters that typically don’t vote Republican. Politics is about addition, not stagnation. We cannot afford to cede entire demographic groups; we will eventually wither away from attrition,” Shupe said. “What Rep. Hunt and Rep. Donalds are doing is great. We need more ‘brand ambassadors’ like them to go outside their districts and speak to voters who don’t typically hear from Republicans,” he added.  CONTENTIOUS PRIMARIES IN 3 STATES SET UP CRUCIAL GENERAL ELECTION MATCHUPS IN HOUSE, SENATE – WHAT TO KNOW The “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” tour is

Biden district Republican says this critical issue will define 2024 elections

Biden district Republican says this critical issue will define 2024 elections

A House Republican who represents a district President Biden won by more than six points is arguing “security” will be the deciding factor in races like his across the country come November. “It’s an irrational thing for a voter not to want security,” Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital in an interview. Garcia is the only Republican in the House of Representatives who represents part of the Los Angeles metro area. He’s also one of 17 House GOP lawmakers in districts Biden won in 2020 and is a prime target for Democrats in trying to retake the House. He argued that security in all forms — foreign, domestic and economic — will be what leads voters to their decisions in November.  RACIAL SLUR, ALLEGED THREAT TO ‘EXECUTE’ MAN: WATCH MOST OUTRAGEOUS MOMENTS FROM THIS DEM SENATE CANDIDATE Garcia represents California’s 27th Congressional District, including parts of northern Los Angeles County, like Santa Clarita and part of the San Fernando Valley. It’s also a majority nonwhite district, with Hispanic and Latino Americans making up the largest share of the population. “To me, the word security is what this election is going to be about. And with that, you get strength, right? I know in my district, a third are Hispanics. I would say 75% of them are registered as Democrats, but they don’t like weakness. They don’t like the fact that the United States looks weak on the global stage,” Garcia said. BIDEN FACING UPHILL BATTLE IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES AS DOWN-BALLOT DEMS LEAD: POLL “They don’t like the fact that President Biden — it looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing relative to his counterparts in Russia and China. They value strength and, so, I think valuing law enforcement is a big deal, and valuing border security and economic security, stopping the out-of-control spending, lowering taxes, valuing neighborhood security by getting more cops on the street. … These are very … common denominator issues.” In Los Angeles, in particular, he said constituents are tired of progressive justice officials enacting policies they see as soft on crime and left-wing calls to defund the police. “We’re highlighting the difference between Republican and Democrat elected officials, not voters. Because when you talk to the average Democrat voter in the streets — especially in my district, we have one of the highest density populations in terms of current and retired law enforcement, firefighters, first responders — a lot of those folks are Democrats, actually,” Garcia said. “The Democrat voters do actually value security. And they see this defund the police movement as a product of a very far left faction of the Democrat Party. They don’t appreciate it.” TRUMP VEEPSTAKES: THE PROS AND CONS OF SOUTH DAKOTA GOV. KRISTI NOEM He noted that Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office was killed in his district in an apparent ambush late last year while the officer sat in his patrol car. Garcia characterized it as a tragic manifestation of the wider issues with law enforcement in Los Angeles County. “They’ve got leadership, laws and crazies around them that are literally killing them – them being the cops,” Garcia said. “They aren’t getting reinforcements. They’re working as many overtime hours as they are … regular hours. And, so, when you see that and when you see elected officials who are supposed to be protecting you, that are supposed to be on your side … most of these elected officials bent the knee to this defund the police movement out of fear of the protesters.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for comment but did not hear back at press time. 

NY v Trump: As ‘star witness’ Michael Cohen testifies, Trump allies flock to court to ‘support their friend’

NY v Trump: As ‘star witness’ Michael Cohen testifies, Trump allies flock to court to ‘support their friend’

As the prosecution’s “star witness,” and likely its final witness, Michael Cohen testified on Tuesday, allies of former President Trump flocked to the court in a show of support for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in his criminal trial. A number of high-profile GOP allies joined Trump at the Lower Manhattan court for the 17th day of his criminal trial – a day that once again featured Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, being questioned by both New York prosecutors and a cross-examination by Trump’s defense attorneys.  TRUMP ALLIES POUR INTO NYC COURTHOUSE TO ‘SUPPORT THEIR FRIEND,’ SAY THEY’RE NOT COORDINATING WITH CAMPAIGN “I came here, again, today, on my own to support President Trump,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said outside the court in New York City on Tuesday morning, blasting Cohen as a “man who is clearly on a mission for personal revenge.” “[He] is widely known as a witness who has trouble with the truth. He is someone who has a history of perjury and is well-known for it. No one should believe a word he says today,” Johnson said of Cohen, adding that “he lied to Congress; he lied to the IRS; he lied to federal election officials.”  “Even Cohen’s own lawyer testified to a grand jury that he is not reliable. So, there’s nothing that he presents here that should be given any weight at all by a jury,” Johnson said, noting the case “is not about justice” but “all about politics, and everybody can see that.”  Johnson, along with Reps. Byron Donalds and Cory Mills, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy all attended the trial in a show of support for Trump. Sens. J.D. Vance, Tommy Tuberville, Rick Scott and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis attended court with the former president on Monday.  “All guests volunteer to come to court to support their friend, President Trump, and are not invited by the campaign,” a Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital.  The official said the growing number of Republican allies coming to the downtown Manhattan courthouse is “not some kind of coordinated political thing.”  NY V TRUMP: APPEALS COURT REJECTS TRUMP’S REQUEST TO END ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ GAG ORDER Cohen is said to be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team as they try to prove the former president falsified business records relating to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence. MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES HE SECRETLY RECORDED TRUMP IN LEAD-UP TO 2016 ELECTION As for Cohen’s testimony, the ex-Trump attorney said he was “reimbursed $420,000” for the $130,000 he paid to Daniels. Cohen said former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg suggested he “gross up” the payments. Cohen testified that Weisselberg facilitated his reimbursement plan for the payment and that Trump knew the details of that reimbursement. Trump is unable to speak about witnesses or court staff due to the gag order imposed upon him by Judge Juan Merchan. The former president appealed the gag order, arguing that it violated his First Amendment rights. But as Cohen testified Tuesday, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court denied Trump’s appeal of the gag order. Now Trump’s attorneys will have the opportunity to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals. The prosecution presented Cohen with 11 checks totaling $420,000. Cohen confirmed that they were all received and deposited. The checks had a description of “retainer,” which Cohen said was false. Under cross-examination by Trump attorney Todd Blanche, Cohen testified that he apologized to Congress, the country and to his family for lying to them in 2017 and “acting in a way that suppressed information that the citizenry had a right to know in order to make an informed decision about an individual who was seeking the highest office in the land.” Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations, making false statements to Congress and tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in prison. SPEAKER JOHNSON TO ATTEND TRUMP TRIAL IN MANHATTAN IN SHOW OF SUPPORT Blanche grilled Cohen on his negative past statements he made online and to the media about Trump. Over the course of the investigation and case, Cohen made more than 20 television appearances. He has recorded hundreds of podcast episodes – four total episodes a week all year long – since the investigation for this trial started. Cohen agreed that Trump has been mentioned in every podcast. Blanche also asked Cohen if he was obsessed with Trump. “I don’t know if I would call it obsessed,” Cohen said. “I admired him tremendously.” Under cross-examination, Cohen also admitted to meeting with former New York prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who resigned in 2022 when Bragg took over the Manhattan DA’s probe of Trump after he signaled he was uninterested in bringing charges against the former president. Cohen in 2021 testified that he wanted the DA’s office to publicly acknowledge he was cooperating with their investigation, as he was hoping to have his sentence lessened. Cohen, at the time, was serving his sentence but was moved from prison to home confinement. Ultimately, there was no letter or public announcement made by the DA about his cooperation. Blanche said he will continue the cross-examination of Cohen on Thursday; court does not meet on Wednesdays. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Cohen was the prosecution’s last witness.

Vulnerable House Dem flip-flops on immigration after dismissing border wall as ‘silly’

Vulnerable House Dem flip-flops on immigration after dismissing border wall as ‘silly’

A vulnerable congressional Democrat in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania who previously dismissed a border wall as “silly,” appears to have shifted her views on immigration, according to a recent op-ed calling for stricter border security.  “We may be a long way from the U.S.-Mexico border, but the problems created by a broken system affect us too, particularly with regard to the entry of illegal drugs into our country,” Rep. Susan WIld wrote in an op-ed published last month in The Morning Call.   Wild’s op-ed, which was headlined “Your View by US Rep. Susan Wild: It’s time to do something about the Southern border,” comes after immigration has spiraled under the Biden administration. Nearly 7.3 million illegal immigrants flooded the nation between Biden’s first day in office and February of this year, Fox News Digital previously reported. The figure is greater than the population of 36 individual states, and has affected states across the nation.  After the Biden administration avoided calling the flood of migrants at the border a “crisis” in 2021, Wild joined a C-SPAN program in January 2022 to discuss Biden’s first year in office and said she doesn’t agree with Republican colleagues that every state was a border state due to lax immigration laws.  VULNERABLE HOUSE DEM COMPARES SUPREME COURT PRAYER DECISION TO TALIBAN, CALLS FOR COURT-PACKING “No, I don’t agree with that statement,” she said in the interview.  In 2018, when President Trump was in office, Wild joined a local Democratic debate and said the plan to build a border wall was “silly.”  GOP HOPES FOR HOLDING HOUSE COULD COME DOWN TO 6 RACES IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE “Anybody here for building the wall? Anybody?” the debate moderator asked the group of Democrats.  “Absolutely not. I think we, we, end that silly idea and put that money toward education and health care,” Wild responded.  Wild represents Pennsylvania’s 7th District in Lehigh Valley, which includes cities and towns such as Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. Wild has served in Congress since 2018, and is expected to face an uphill battle this election year in the key battleground state.  Ahead of the election season kicking off in earnest, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a list of more than two dozen Democrats last year considered vulnerable as they face off against Republican challengers. Wild was included on the list, alongside fellow House Pennsylvania members Chris Deluzio and Matt Cartwright.  Immigration, as well as inflation and the economy, are top concerns for voters across the nation, including in Pennsylvania. A Fox News poll published last month focusing on the Keystone State found that Trump has a 16-point edge over Biden when it comes to border security and immigration, as well as a 4-point lead regarding his foreign policies.  VULNERABLE DEMS SIGNED PLEDGE FROM GEN Z GROUP THAT PUSHES NO-CASH BAIL, DECRIMINALIZING PROSTITUTION Wild’s op-ed appears to mark a turn in her previous rhetoric on border security, calling the matter a “crisis” that needs to be remedied.  “There is unquestionably a crisis at our Southern border – and this is something that almost everyone, no matter their political persuasion, can agree on,” she began in the op-ed.  She went on to pin blame for the lack of a secure border or immigration plan on “extreme politicians” who pull “cheap political stunts.” “Many of us in Congress have proven time and time again that we are more than willing to work with members of either party on large-scale policy proposals to address border and immigration challenges. However, we are held hostage by the extreme politicians who continue to stall our efforts in the name of cheap political stunts,” she wrote.  She promoted a piece of legislation she co-sponsored, The Dignity Act, in the op-ed, which she said will “immediately address critical elements of our immigration system, restore order at our Southern border and implement long-term, much needed changes.” PA DEM IN DISTRICT THAT VOTED FOR TRUMP SAYS HE’S A MODERATE, BUT VOTING RECORD TELLS ANOTHER STORY “The Dignity Act would increase border patrol personnel and provide cutting-edge screening technology to help detect contraband and illegal substances; change our political asylum system by constructing facilities in Latin America, where asylum seekers would be screened for eligibility; require employers to verify the immigration status of their employees, and create a pathway to citizenship for ‘Dreamers,’” she wrote. The op-ed comes after Wild dismissed the notion that illegal immigrants would take jobs from legal American residents during a C-SPAN interview, arguing “we have the opposite problem.” “As far as what you mentioned about people coming across the border and taking jobs, quite honestly sir, we have the opposite problem right now. We need more people in our workforce,” she said.  ONE OF NATION’S MOST VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS COZIES UP TO BIDEN FOR PENNSYLVANIA RALLY Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, argued in comment to Fox News Digital that Wild is making a “desperate” attempt to backtrack her policies ahead of 2024.  “It must be an election year because Susan Wild is making a desperate scramble to reel back her extreme policies. The truth is, Wild never once voted to secure the border and none of her lies can change that fact.” said NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella.  Wild’s congressional office told Fox News Digital that Wild “has consistently advocated for the need to secure our Southern border.” She recently voted “to send nearly $20 billion to Customs and Border Protection – including $75.5 million to acquire additional inspection detection systems and $20 million for additional CBP Officers to support counter fentanyl efforts – and has called repeatedly for House Republican leadership to take up the Bipartisan Border deal crafted by both parties in the Senate, which would have been the most comprehensive immigration reform the U.S. has seen in decades,” congressional office spokeswoman Natalie Gould said.  Wild notably broke with her party in March, voting in favor of the Laken Riley Act, which is named after the college student who was