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Battleground state face-off: Harris, Trump hold dueling rallies miles apart

Battleground state face-off: Harris, Trump hold dueling rallies miles apart

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump held competing rallies at the same Friday night, just a few miles apart in battleground Wisconsin’s largest city. With just four days until Election Day, the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees made their final stops in Wisconsin, where nearly all the latest public opinion polls indicate a margin-of-error race between the two candidates. “We got four days to get this thing done. Four days. No one can sit on the sidelines,” the vice president emphasized to her supporters. “For you who have not yet voted, no judgment, but please get to it when you can.” NOVEMBER SURPRISE: DISMAL JOBS REPORT HANDS TRUMP INSTANT AMMUNITION TO FIRE AT HARRIS The Harris campaign said that over 12,000 packed into the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center, in West Allis, just yards outside the Milwaukee city limits. Trump, holding court at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum – the same arena where he accepted his party’s presidential nomination during the Republican National Convention in July – told his supporters “I want your damn vote.” VICE PRESIDENT KEEPS HER DISTANCE FROM BIDEN IN FINAL STRETCH TO ELECTION DAY Speaking ahead of Harris at her rally was popular rapper and songwriter Cardi B, who told the crowd she hadn’t planned on voting in the presidential election until Harris replaced President Biden in July atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket. “I wasn’t going to vote this year. … But Kamala Harris joining the race, she changed my mind completely,” the entertainer said. The rallies were Harris and Trump’s final appearances in Wisconsin ahead of Election Day – and it was the second time this week that the major party nominees held rallies on the same day in Wisconsin. “As of this weekend, the way to predict the winner is to flip a coin. It’s that close,” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor emeritus Mordecai Lee told Fox News. CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION The Democratic and Republican Parties’ vice presidential nominees — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, respectively — have also both crisscrossed Wisconsin, and major surrogates — including former Presidents Obama and Clinton for Harris — have parachuted into the Badger State. Obama returns on Sunday. Both campaigns and their aligned committees and super PACs have also flooded Wisconsin airwaves with TV ads in the closing stretch leading up to Election Day next week. Wisconsin, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, are the three Rust Belt states that make up the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall.” Democrats reliably won all three states for a quarter-century before Trump narrowly captured them in the 2016 election over Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton to win the White House. Four years later, in 2020, President Biden swept all three states by razor-thin margins to put them back in the Democrats’ column and defeat Trump. In Wisconsin, Biden carried the state by just over 20,000 votes out of more than 3.2 million cast. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Armed group in Bolivia takes over military post in latest flare-up

Armed group in Bolivia takes over military post in latest flare-up

The takeover is latest chapter in standoff between the Arce government and supporters of ex-president Evo Morales. An armed group in Bolivia has taken over a military post outside the city of Cochabamba while holding some soldiers captive, the armed forces said in a statement, ramping up tensions in the already restive Andean nation. Cochabamba, located in central Bolivia, is home to many supporters of former President Evo Morales. Friday’s standoff over the military post, located about 100 miles (160 km) east of Cochabamba, marks the latest escalation in Bolivia’s increasingly volatile and often violent politics. The military’s statement described the armed group as “irregular”, noting it had also taken control of firearms and ammunition, and stressed that such actions amounted to treason. Authorities urge group to disperse ‘immediately and peacefully’ It urged those responsible for the takeover to “immediately and peacefully” abandon the facility. “The lives of my instructors and soldiers are in danger,” warned an unnamed military official in a recording broadcast on local media. Televised images showed a row of uniformed soldiers with their hands behind their backs, possibly tied, surrounded by members of the armed group. Earlier on Friday, some soldiers stationed in the area as well as their families fled their homes, as police stations shut down to prevent further confrontations. After police and military units sought to remove a key highway blockade that connects Cochabamba with the city of Oruro, some protesters retaliated by launching dynamite at them from nearby hills. Police then hurled tear gas canisters at them. The seizure of the military outpost is seen as a response to efforts earlier this week by security forces under the control of President Luis Arce to dislodge highway blockades organised by supporters of Morales since mid-October. The two leftist leaders, both with roots in Bolivia’s ruling socialist party, have gone from close allies to bitter rivals in recent months as they jockey for position ahead of next year’s presidential election. In an address to the nation on Wednesday, Arce called for an end to the blockades, estimating that the disruptions to key transport routes have already cost the impoverished South American country’s economy over $1.7bn. Adblock test (Why?)

Supreme Court rejects bid by GOP not to count some Pennsylvania ballots

Supreme Court rejects bid by GOP not to count some Pennsylvania ballots

Republicans wanted some so-called provisional ballots to be rejected. The United States Supreme Court has dismissed an effort by Republicans to prevent the counting of provisional ballots in Pennsylvania – a move that would have meant thousands of votes were not tallied. Republicans in the state, which Joe Biden and the Democrats narrowly won in the 2020 US presidential election on their way to victory, had argued that “tens of thousands of votes” could be at stake and ought to have been rejected. Reports suggested that as of late this week, somewhere close to 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million were returned, as they had arrived at election offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature or a date. The ruling is a victory for voting-rights advocates, who had tried to force various counties, especially Republican-controlled counties, to allow voters to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if they had realised their mail-in ballot was to be rejected for any of a variety of errors. Provisional ballots generally protect voters from being excluded from the voting process if their eligibility is uncertain on Election Day. The vote is counted once officials confirm eligibility. The Associated Press said the court ruling could apply to thousands of ballots, and possibly more, according to elections experts. ‘The right to vote means the right to have your vote counted’ The Supreme Court justices left in place a decision by Pennsylvania’s top court that elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected. Democrats had intervened on the side of the activists, arguing that if a defective mail-in ballot could not be counted, that person had not yet voted and a provisional ballot must be counted. Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler and Democratic National Committee spokesperson Rosemary Boeglin said in a joint statement after the Supreme Court acted: “In Pennsylvania and across the country, Trump and his allies are trying to make it harder for your vote to count, but our institutions are stronger than his shameful attacks. [This] decision confirms that, for every eligible voter, the right to vote means the right to have your vote counted.” Adblock test (Why?)

Arizona top prosecutor investigating Trump’s comments about ‘gunfire’

Arizona top prosecutor investigating Trump’s comments about ‘gunfire’

Arizona’s top prosecutor is investigating whether Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump violated state laws for suggesting that one of his most prominent critics should face “gunfire” in combat. Trump has been widely criticised for comments he made about former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney at a campaign event in Arizona on Thursday. “She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said of Cheney. “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there, with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.” On Friday, speaking to a local TV station, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said Trump might have violated state laws that prohibit death threats. “I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analysing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” Mayes told 12News. Mayes said it was not yet clear if Trump’s comment amounted to protected free speech or a criminal threat. “That’s the question, whether it did cross the line. It’s deeply troubling,” Mayes said. “It is the kind of thing that riles people up, and that makes our situation in Arizona and other states more dangerous.” Cheney endorsed Democrats Cheney, a former top Republican in the US House of Representatives, has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and called the former president “a danger”. Harris told reporters the comments were a sign Trump has become increasingly unhinged. “Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president,” she said in Madison, Wisconsin. Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said his remarks were misinterpreted. “President Trump is 100 percent correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves,” she said. Trump goes after former VP At a rally in Warren, Michigan, earlier in the day, Trump attacked Harris and Cheney again, and this time his comments included her father – former Vice President Dick Cheney. “They want the Arab American vote. They want to get the Muslim votes, so she picks Liz Cheney whose father virtually destroyed the Middle East,” he said. He added: “It’s easy for her to say she wants to start wars from the comfort of her nice home, or her father’s lavish home, that he got from killing a big portion of the Middle East. You know that, right? You know he headed up a company, that was a big company, a big beneficiary of the wars.” Cheney was vice president under President George W Bush and played a key role in the so-called “war on terror” – the US response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Before he served as vice president, Cheney was the former CEO of Halliburton, a multinational oil services company that won multibillion-dollar contracts with the US military in Iraq. Cheney has also refused to back Trump’s third presidential run and has endorsed Harris. Both Harris and Trump held evening campaigns in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Friday as part of a final push for votes in the crucial swing state. Adblock test (Why?)

Trump clarifies he meant Cheney wouldn’t have ‘guts’ to fight a war with rifle comment after Dem backlash

Trump clarifies he meant Cheney wouldn’t have ‘guts’ to fight a war with rifle comment after Dem backlash

Former President Trump on Friday clarified that he meant former Rep. Liz Cheney doesn’t have the “guts” to fight on the front lines of war after he received a backlash from Democrats over comments he made Thursday about having guns trained on her.  “All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a War Hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have ‘the guts’ to fight herself,” the Republican presidential nominee wrote on Truth Social. “It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!’ Her father decimated the Middle East, and other places, and got rich by doing so. He’s caused plenty of DEATH, and probably never even gave it a thought. That’s not what we want running our Country!” Trump caused controversy when he called Cheney a “radical war hawk” at an event in Arizona on Thursday, adding, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face. They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops into the mouths of the enemies,’ but she’s a stupid person and I used to have meetings with a lot of people and she always wanted to go to war with people.”  Trump also told reporters at a campaign stop in Dearborn, Michigan, on Friday: “Even in my administration, she was pushing that we go to war with everybody, and I said if you ever gave her a rifle and let her do the fighting, if you ever do that, she wouldn’t be doing too well, I will tell you right now. But she’s a war hawk. She wants to go kill people unnecessarily.  HARRIS SAYS TRUMP’S RIFLE COMMENTS ABOUT LIZ CHENEY ARE ‘DISQUALIFYING’ The remarks prompted accusations from liberals of violent rhetoric and that Trump was suggesting Cheney should face a firing squad.  “He has increased his violent rhetoric about political opponents – Donald Trump has – and in great detail suggested rifles should be trained on former Rep. Liz Cheney,” Vice President Harris told reporters in a presser Friday. “This must be disqualifying. Anyone who wants to be President of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.” TRUMP CRITICISM OF LIZ CHENEY AS ‘RADICAL WAR HAWK’ FRAMED AS CALL FOR VIOLENCE BY ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ MEDIA Cheney, a Republican, endorsed Harris for president in September and has been campaigning with the Democratic nominee.  Cheney responded to Trump’s Thursday remarks on X Friday, writing, “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”  She added the hashtags “#Womenwillnotbesilenced” and “#VoteKamala.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Republicans have also accused Democrats of increasing the possibility of violence against Trump with rhetoric accusing him of being “fascist” and a “threat to democracy.” The former president was shot by a would-be assassin in July and was targeted by another suspect near his home in Florida. 

Unearthed documents contradict vulnerable House Democrat’s rhetoric about championing eviction ban

Unearthed documents contradict vulnerable House Democrat’s rhetoric about championing eviction ban

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has a long history of defending squatters’ rights and decrying foreclosure evictions during the 2008 recession, has filed eviction notices against multiple tenants of properties she owns. One of those eviction petitions, filed in 2021 in Toledo municipal court, was against a tenant for “non-payment of rent,” and that same tenant faced another eviction from Kaptur in 2023 for failing to pay rent.  That same tenant faced a possible eviction from Kaptur in 2024. ‘LEFT BEHIND’: VULNERABLE DEM INCUMBENT IN KEY SWING STATE SLAMMED FOR PUTTING ‘KNIFE IN BACK’ OF WORKERS Kaptur, running for her 22nd term in Congress, also filed an eviction petition against another tenant in 2024 for a noise complaint, animal complaint and for an unauthorized person living on the property. All of the eviction filings were eventually withdrawn by Kaptur.  VULNERABLE HOUSE DEM UNDER FIRE FOR INTRODUCING ONLY 5 BILLS THAT BECAME LAW IN 41 YEARS: ‘HASN’T DONE SQUAT’ Kaptur’s eviction filings come with a backdrop of the congresswoman vocally speaking out against evictions during her time in Congress.  During the COVID pandemic, Kaptur repeatedly pushed for the enactment and extension of eviction moratoriums to prevent landlords from removing tenants. In one letter Kaptur signed, she declared, “Keeping Americans affordably and stably housed during this pandemic is both a moral imperative and a public health necessity.” Kaptur co-sponsored legislation, H.R. 6347, to establish an eviction moratorium until six months after the COVID-19 emergency declaration expired. “Possession is 99% of the law; you stay in your house.” Kaptur said on the floor of the House of Representatives in 2009 after the 2008 housing crisis. “So, I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don’t you leave.” In 2017, Kaptur slammed Trump Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin for allegedly profiting from foreclosures and complained that “Mr. Mnuchin profited personally off of kicking people out of their homes. “Does such a person actually deserve confirmation as secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America?”  Kaptur told homeowners in 2009, “You should stay in your home. It is your castle. It’s more than a piece of property. It’s your home.” Fox News Digital reached out to Kaptur’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response. “This proves what we’ve been saying about Marcy Kaptur all along. She is a hypocrite who changes her language just because she’s in a tight election for the first time in her 41-year career,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital.  “Marcy Kaptur should be ashamed of herself for profiting off kicking hardworking Ohioans out of their homes.” Kaptur, serving her 21st term in Congress representing Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House. While the Cook Political Report ranks her race as “Lean Democrat,” redistricting following the 2020 census has Republicans believing they can flip the seat and ensure control of the House. Kaptur is opposed by GOP Ohio State Rep. Derek Merrin.