‘Out of money’: Whistleblowers allege lack of Secret Service funds, delayed payments, top senator reveals
New whistleblower records allege a failure of the Secret Service to provide funding for Homeland Security “jump teams” and their travel to support security efforts on the campaign trail ahead of the November election. One email sent on Sept. 26 read, “Subject: Jump Team ‐ Out of Money,” according to a record obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and his oversight team. The Department of Homeland Security’s investigation unit jump team provides “a mechanism to build the connections between mission support and the front-line,” according to the DHS website. FOR WISCONSIN DEMS, A 2024 WIN IN THE BATTLEGROUND STATE IS YEARS IN THE MAKING Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an agency within DHS, is charged with addressing global threats. “Jump Team members are responsible for helping to solve immediate issues, guide how funding is allocated, and to assist in developing solutions to deliver support most effectively to our front-line,” the DHS website added. In the wake of two separate assassination attempts against former President Trump, who is currently campaigning to be president again, jump teams have been deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service. SEE IT: WISCONSIN DAIRY FARMER SAYS ‘NO QUESTION’ TRUMP ADMIN WAS ‘MUCH BETTER’ THAN BIDEN-HARRIS However, the documents provided to Grassley’s office via legally protected whistleblower disclosures show that fears of unpreparedness and mismanagement in the DHS and Secret Service could still be true, despite efforts to ramp up security. “Please do not submit or resubmit Jump Team authorizations. There is only $33 on the line right now,” DHS officials told HSI agents on Sept. 9, per Grassley. The senator’s office pointed to this email as an example of just how low the funds had fallen. On Sept. 26, agents were informed, “We will not receive more money for Jump Team this year.” The email instructed agents not to use the usual methods of expensing items, laying out a process of what to do instead. “If by some miracle money is added, you will be notified immediately,” the email continued. “The Secret Service has a critical, no-fail protective mission to carry out. Based on protected whistleblower disclosures, it neglected to transfer enough funds for HSI to reimburse its agents, calling into question the agency’s ability to manage federal resources and raising major concerns,” Grassley said in a statement. “Congress and the American people have witnessed too many Secret Service shortfalls in recent months – they deserve answers, and it’s Congress’ job to bring transparency and accountability.” WISCONSIN SENATE RACE SHIFTS TO ‘TOSS UP’ BY HANDICAPPER AS TAMMY BALDWIN FIGHTS FOR RE-ELECTION In the Sept. 26 email from a DHS official, they revealed that “we had over $371,000 worth of Jump Team Authorizations Fail last night.” According to Grassley’s office and the documents it has obtained, agents have been required to pay for expenses the agency can’t cover. The senator noted that this would be in violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from obligating or spending federal funds before they are appropriated. Reimbursements to agents are also apparently being delayed, and employees are left with uncertainty about their pay. In a Wednesday letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe; Patrick Lechleitner, the deputy director and senior official performing the duties of the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Katrina Berger, HSI executive associate director, Grassley described that “HSI agents are deployed, usually on very short notice, across the country on Jump Teams from as short as a few days for as long as multiple weeks, several times throughout the year.” TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT “The whistleblower disclosures further show that in some cases HSI agents have had to pay for their own travel expenses such as flights, food, rental cars, and hotels, and other incidentals, because HSI has delayed reimbursing agents for costs due to the Secret Service failing to transfer funds to HSI.” “If you have an explanation to add context to these emails, I welcome it,” he told the leaders. Grassley requested additional information from the department and agencies, including documentation about the finances of HSI and its jump teams. Neither the Secret Service nor Homeland Security immediately provided comment to Fox News Digital.
Trump calls for federal education dollars to ‘follow the student’ in push for universal school choice
Former President Trump is proposing that federal education dollars “follow the student” in his possible second term, while pushing his “universal school choice policy,” and stressing that he backs it “all the way.” The former president championed school choice last week, making his strongest case yet for the movement on the federal level. “We want federal education dollars to follow the student, rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.,” Trump said at an event in Milwaukee. TRUMP PUSH TO DISMANTLE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT MET WITH ENTHUSIASM IN HOUSE GOP “If you want a better education for your child, Kamala Harris stands in your way,” Trump said. “Kamala and the Radical Left Democrat Party want to keep Black and Hispanic children trapped in family government. I think that’s really the reason.” The former president said he believes school choice “is the civil rights issue of our time.” “A child’s fate should be determined by their love of education, by their parents, by so many factors. But it can’t be determined by a ZIP code,” Trump said. “And no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government-run school.” Trump’s universal school choice would allow parents to send their children to public, private or religious schools. Trump’s stance is reflected in the 2024 Republican Party platform. According to proponents of school choice, it recognizes a role for both federal and state governments in expanding tax credit scholarship programs and Education Savings Accounts, which currently serve more than a million K-12 students across the country. The Trump campaign said school choice “leads to higher graduation rates, higher parental satisfaction and involvement, lower costs, increased competition among schools, and higher reading and math test scores.” At this point, 11 states have universal school choice, and 32 states and Washington, D.C., have at least one private school choice program – but 18 states have none. “Before President Trump took office, zero states had a universal school choice policy. Now, almost a dozen do, and it is in large part because of the voice and visibility that he gave to elevate the issue into the national consciousness during COVID – but even before that,” former Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Digital. “There is an increase in the number and needs of American school children with respect to alternatives to conventional public schools,” Conway said. “There is an increase in resistance among Kamala Harris and Democrats to allow these types of alternatives – these types of options and choices – to be in the hands of parents.” On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are expanding their opposition to school choice, and teachers’ unions rejoiced when Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, dubbing the ticket as a major win for public educators. Walz is a former teachers’ union member who has said he is opposed to the school choice “agenda.” MINNESOTA WALZ-APPOINTED BOARD REQUIRES TEACHERS TO ‘AFFIRM’ THEIR STUDENTS’ GENDER IDENTITIES Teachers’ unions pushed hard to prolong school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many districts shuttered for more than a year. Former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Walz was a “5-alarm fire for parents and students.” As for the Democratic Party platform, Democrats support all children “no matter their ZIP code” to have access to a “quality public K-12 education and for college to be affordable for every American.” Democrats are looking to push federal dollars toward public schools in an effort to “expand opportunities for higher education and job training.” Harris’ campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but her website lays out her plan to “ensure parents can afford high-quality child care and preschool for their children.” Harris also plans to focus on working to “end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to the middle class.” Harris said she would work to “scale up programs that create good career pathways for non-college graduates.” But Conway explained that parents are focused on having more of a role in their child’s education – now more than ever. “There is a continuation of the parent’s rights renaissance that started during COVID and spilled over into 2021 and into Glenn Youngkin’s election over Terry McAuliffe in 2021 and continues unabated in so many states across this country,” Conway said, noting that since the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered schools at the request of the teachers’ unions, there “are a higher number of people running for school board, and you have more parents engaged in choices of schools and character of curricula.” “There is a need for a charismatic and compelling leader to take this on,” Conway said, referring to Trump. By December 2020, Trump signed an executive order to expand education opportunities for American children and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That order offered flexibility to provide children with emergency K-12 scholarships to access in-person learning opportunities – an effort to provide an in-person learning option after prolonged school closures. The Trump administration also invested nearly $1.5 billion in the development of public charter schools and, under his tax reform bill, made it possible for parents to withdraw up to $10,000 tax-free per year from 529 education savings plans to cover public, private, or religious K-12 schooling costs. “President Trump says this is the civil rights issue of our time, and it is true, but also, when you look at the sheer numbers of charter schools and school choice scholarship recipients and even the alternatives, like homeschooled students – and that is still a growing piece – but parents want to take things into their own hands. They know their children best,” Conway said. “If Trump is re-elected, this is going to be a biggie.” As for the word “choice,” Conway said the left “wants to own that word” but only when it relates to abortion. “The
Russia has suffered more casualties in Ukraine war than all other conflicts combined since WWII: Pentagon
Russia has suffered some 600,000 casualties in its war with Ukraine – more than its losses in every conflict since World War II combined, according to U.S. officials. This September was the deadliest month of the entire war for Russia, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on a call Wednesday. “Russian losses, again both killed and wounded in action, in just the first year of the war exceeded the total of all Soviet losses in any conflict since World War II combined,” the official said. However, the steep casualties are not a “definitive metric” of success for Ukraine, the official warned. Ukraine has also suffered mass casualties, though the U.S. has not disclosed how many. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in February that some 31,000 troops had been killed. The U.K. ministry of Defence put Russia’s daily casualty count at 1,271 in September, and said some 648,000 Russians had been killed or injured in the war. NORTH KOREAN TROOPS NOW FIGHTING FOR RUSSIA IN UKRAINE, SEOUL SAYS “It’s kind of the Russian way of war where they continue to throw mass into the problem, and I think we’ll continue to see high losses,” the U.S. military official said. South Korea warned earlier this week that North Korea was sending its forces to fight alongside the Russians. Russia has also lost two-thirds of its pre-war inventory of tanks to Ukraine, along with 32 medium-to-large naval vessels. Russian President Vladimir Putin is “trying to avoid a mass mobilization because of the effect that would have on Russia’s domestic population,” the official said. “At this point, he has been able to significantly increase the pay of these voluntary soldiers, and he has been able to continue to field those forces without doing a major mobilization.” “And I think we’re just watching very closely how long that stance can actually be one that he can maintain, and I think it’s an important one for all of us to watch very closely,” the official added. FMR ESTONIA PRESIDENT TELLS US TO STOP BEING AFRAID OF PUTIN Ukraine’s military said it struck a base in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region storing nearly 400 strike drones on Wednesday. Russia has made some progress in the Donetsk region, taking the town of Vuhledar earlier this month and pressing toward Povrosk, a key railroad hub and supply station for Ukraine. The U.S. official said the Russian strategy around Vuhledar and Povrosk had brought “substantial casualties” for minor gains. Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine invaded in August, is also in the midst of heavy fighting. Ukraine had hoped to divert Russian troops from the front line to defend Kursk. Russia has since recaptured some of the region, though the military official said that Ukrainian troops could hold onto the Kursk region for months or longer. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to pour billions into Ukraine’s defense. Last month, President Joe Biden announced an $8 billion package for Kyiv to supply it with military equipment through January. It is the last of the $61 billion that Congress approved in April for Ukraine. Despite Zelenskyy’s calls, Biden has resisted authorizing Ukraine’s use of U.S.-given long-range missiles, known as ATACMs, to strike inside Russia and take out its stores of weapons capabilities, for fear of escalation. Many U.S. lawmakers have backed Zelenskyy’s request, but the U.S. official said the Biden administration is not considering reversing its policy. He said many of the arms that Ukraine is looking to take out, like Russia’s deadly glide bombs, have been moved out of range of ATACMs.
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Mayorkas doubles down, hammers ‘pernicious’ misinformation amid FEMA criticism
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday doubled down on his fierce criticism of those he accused of deliberately spreading false information about the work the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doing during hurricane season. “There is so much false information being spread, and we cannot have people relying on that false information or actually deterred from seeking relief that’s available to them that they need because of that false information,” Mayorkas said on “Morning Joe” Wednesday before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida Wednesday night. “It’s really pernicious.” Mayorkas, along with DHS and FEMA, have been under pressure over the handling of Hurricane Helene. The agency has been pushing back against claims online that it has diverted resources to illegal immigrants, that it is out of money, that it has been slow in responding and that it is blocking recovery flights. MAYORKAS RIPS ‘POLITICIZED’ ATMOSPHERE OVER FEMA DISASTER RESPONSE AMID GOP CRITICISM’ Focus on the agency was fueled when Mayorkas said last week that FEMA does “not have the funds to make it through the season” although he said it did have enough for “immediate needs.” The administration has pushed for Congress to return and pass a spending bill to provide additional funding for the hurricane season. But the questions over funding led critics to look at the $650 million provided for grants to help illegal immigrants in the Shelter and Services Program (SSP). It led to accusations, including from former President Trump, that money that could have gone to disaster relief was being diverted. The administration pointed to the fact that the funding is congressionally appropriated and is separate from the much larger Disaster Relief Fund. But Republicans have still expressed concern that an “entanglement” in the border crisis has had a knock-on effect. SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ Others have pointed to a possible political bias after an “equity” blueprint went vital, saying “Diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be optional.” Republicans have accused the administration of mishandling the response more broadly, with House Speaker Mike Johnson accusing it of “egregious errors and mistakes” and a lack of leadership. But FEMA and DHS have been pushing back against numerous viral online claims that it says are false, including claims that FEMA grants must be repaid, that it is distributing aid based on demographic characteristics and that it is restricting airspace for recovery operations. President Biden has also slammed “reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people.” On Wednesday, Mayorkas warned that misinformation can stop recovery efforts. TRUMP TARGETS BIDEN, HARRIS OVER FEDERAL RESPONSE TO HURRICANE: ‘INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED’ “Historically, this country has come together as one in times of crisis, in times of disaster. We need that history to be lived today. We cannot have the irresponsible voices that actually wreak damage to individuals in need and prevent survivors from seeking the relief that is available to them,” he said. He had made a similar appeal on Tuesday night on MSNBC, speaking on the impact on the workforce and on the ability for individuals to get help. “It is extraordinarily damaging. Most of all, it is extraordinarily damaging to the survivors of Hurricane Helene, of natural disasters. Individuals lose trust in their government, they are reluctant to seek the assistance that they need to meet their immediate demands — food, water, shelter. They don’t seek it. They are entitled to it. They need it,” Mayorkas said. “We implore them to ignore the false information that is being spread and to seek the help that we have available to them. “It is also extremely demoralizing to our federal law, our emergency response personnel, the state and local emergency response personnel who are risking their lives in the service of those in need. When we reach into flooded zones, when we reach into a home that has been destroyed to assist another individual, we don’t ask about their party affiliation. We are there to help, and they need to understand that. They need to trust us. They can rely on us.” Earlier this week, Mayorkas warned that people “are not seeking that relief because of the disinformation, the intentionally false information they are receiving.”
Voters in key battleground states give Trump an edge over Harris on this top tier issue: poll
A new poll released this week shows former President Trump with a strong lead over Vice President Kamala Harris on the subject of immigration – even after Harris has sought to present herself as the best candidate to secure the southern border. The Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday found Harris leading Trump in Pennsylvania, while Trump is ahead in Michigan and Wisconsin. The three Rust Belt states are being closely watched as they could determine which candidate is the next president. But on the question of who is best to handle immigration, Trump has the edge in all three states. He carries a four-point lead in Pennsylvania (50-46), a nine-point lead in Michigan (53-44) and an eight-point lead in Wisconsin (52-44). VANCE, WALZ SPAR ON IMMIGRATION DURING VP DEBATE: BEEN TO THE BORDER ‘MORE THAN OUR BORDER CZAR’ Trump was also preferred in all states on the economy and handling the conflict in the Middle East, while Harris was preferred on abortion and preserving democracy. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, along with Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, had razor-thin margins that decided President Biden’s 2020 White House victory over Trump. And the seven states are likely to determine if Trump or Harris wins the 2024 presidential election. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin are also the three Rust Belt states that make up the Democrats’ so-called “Blue Wall.” The party reliably won all three states for a quarter-century before Trump narrowly captured them in the 2016 election to win the White House. A recent Marquette Law School poll found that 49% favor Trump while just 37% favor Harris on immigration, with 8% saying they’d be about the same, and 6% saying neither are good on the issue. Harris was tasked with tackling root causes of migration to the southern border in early 2021 as border numbers began to surge. She was eventually dubbed the “border czar” by media outlets and critics – although the White House rejected that title. HARRIS SHIFTS KEY POSITIONS ON BORDER, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS CAMPAIGN PROMISES ‘PRAGMATIC’ APPROACH Republicans have accused her of playing a key role in the border crisis and the policies they believe fueled it, including the rolling back of Trump-era policies. Trump has promised to launch a massive deportation operation if elected, restart border wall construction and end Biden-era parole policies. Critics have also highlighted her more left-wing policies as a senator and presidential candidate in 2019 – including her positions on immigration funding and the detention of illegal immigrants. Harris’ campaign says her views have changed since 2019 and have been shaped by her involvement in the administration. This year, her campaign has highlighted her past as a prosecutor and noted her backing of a bipartisan Senate bill to increase funding to the border. Her campaign has noted a recent sharp drop in border encounters since President Biden signed a presidential proclamation in June limiting asylum entries. She has accused Trump of scuppering the border bill for political purposes and of “playing political games.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Trump announces his daughter Tiffany is pregnant: ‘So that’s nice’
Former President Donald Trump shared on Thursday that his daughter Tiffany, 30, is pregnant. The announcement came as the Republican nominee was giving remarks at the Detroit Economic Club in Michigan on a campaign stop. Trump recognized businessman Massad Boulos, who is the father of his daughter’s husband, Michael Boulos. “He happens to be the father of Tiffany’s husband, Michael, who’s a very exceptional young guy. And she’s an exceptional young woman. And she’s going to have a baby. So that’s nice,” said Trump. Tiffany and Michael were married at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in 2022 after having dated since 2018. The couple were engaged in January 2021 after Trump left office. ALL IN THE FAMILY: 5 TRUMP KIN TO REPRESENT FLORIDA AT REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION Tiffany’s mother is Trump’s second wife, actress Marla Maples. TRUMP HAS 9-POINT LEAD ON MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE TO VOTERS: POLL Tiffany is Trump’s youngest daughter. She graduated from Georgetown Law in 2020 and works as an attorney. She also delivered remarks at the 2020 RNC in support of her father. “A vote for my father, Donald J. Trump, is a vote to uphold our American ideals. Be true to yourself. And stay true to the Dream of America,” said Tiffany at the time. While Tiffany has remained mostly private since her marriage in 2022, she took to social media in the wake of her father’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. “The outpouring of love and support for my dad is deeply appreciated,” she wrote. “Thank you God for keeping my father alive. Political violence is never the answer. God bless the secret service and law enforcement who fearlessly intervened. Please include the families of the victims in your prayers. As you saw today, my father is a fighter and he will continue to fight for you and the USA.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Neither Tiffany nor Michael has announced the pregnancy on social media at the time this article was published.
For Wisconsin Dems, a 2024 win in the battleground state is years in the making
MADISON, Wis. — Democrats in the state believe they have been laying the groundwork for winning the 2024 presidential election for roughly seven years. Wisconsin Democrats Chair Ben Wikler told Fox News Digital in an interview that their “everything, everywhere, all at once” and neighbor-to-neighbor organizing has been building the infrastructure for Democrat nominee Vice President Harris to win the critical battleground state. He said Democrats in Wisconsin have been “building teams of neighbors to take responsibility for talking to folks in their surrounding area” continuously “for the last seven years.” SEE IT: WISCONSIN DAIRY FARMER SAYS ‘NO QUESTION’ TRUMP ADMIN WAS ‘MUCH BETTER’ THAN BIDEN-HARRIS The Harris campaign is then building off the groundwork they have spent years laying for Democrats, he said. Wikler attributed recent statewide electoral wins for Democrats in the last six years to this organizing strategy. “What we know is that a trusted messenger matters almost as much as the message,” Wikler said. “And there are Democrats in rural areas talking to other rural voters, in suburbs talking to other suburban voters, in cities talking to other city-dwellers about their votes.” WISCONSIN SENATE RACE SHIFTS TO ‘TOSS UP’ BY HANDICAPPER AS TAMMY BALDWIN FIGHTS FOR RE-ELECTION “We think that the messages that Harris and Walz are carrying, they can resonate with everybody,” he said. “And having a messenger who can actually start that conversation and have it not at the talking-point level but at ‘what’s actually happening in our lives and communities’ level makes all the difference. “ Wikler noted that “Wisconsin is the perennial tipping-point state,” referencing its past electoral shifts from going for former President Trump in 2016 to President Biden in 2020. TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT “On the Democratic side, we have a real ground organizing volunteer operation, and we have 16,000 people who’ve done their first volunteer shift with Democrats” since Harris became the nominee late in the campaign. He hit Republicans and allied organizations for using “paid canvassers, people who are hired to go knock on doors but don’t necessarily have a connection to the community where they’re having those conversations.” HERE’S WHAT 2 UNDECIDED WISCONSIN VOTERS ARE HOLDING OUT FOR IN 2024 ELECTION “I think we’ll see at the end of the day which of these strategies has a bigger effect,” Wikler added. This week, Fox News Power Rankings rated Wisconsin as a “Toss Up” going into the presidential election. On the ground, Republicans and Democrats alike are expecting the state to come down to just tens of thousands of votes, as it did in 2016 and 2020. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
VP Harris ripped by victim of illegal immigrant released under her program over resurfaced speech
FIRST ON FOX: A woman whose skull was fractured by an illegal immigrant let out of jail as part of a program launched by then San Francisco DA Kamala Harris is blasting the vice president over a resurfaced speech where Harris discusses the matter as being the result of a “glitch” in the system. “That ‘glitch’ certainly had a negative impact on my life,” Amanda Kiefer, who suffered a brutal attack at the hands of an illegal immigrant in 2008 while she walked down the street with friends, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “It would be easier to believe it was a mistake if Democrats in San Francisco didn’t have a long history of enabling illegal immigration, choosing not to prosecute illegal immigrant criminals and refusal to deport anyone.” “It wasn’t a “glitch” that the Biden Harris administration has let in millions of illegal immigrants, including tens of thousands of known, convicted criminals and those on the terror watch list. At a certain point, it can’t be incompetence, it’s intentional. Harris doesn’t care about Americans’ safety.” Then San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, in a resurfaced speech, blamed a “glitch” in the system while discussing the attack on Kiefer. CBS ’60 MINUTES’ AIRS TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS FROM VP HARRIS TO THE SAME QUESTION “But whenever you’re rolling out something new, there will at some point become apparent that there is a mistake or a glitch in the design, and when you’re in these kinds of positions, that mistake or glitch is on the front page of the paper,” Harris said during a 2010 Women in Leadership conference at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business while discussing the “Back on Track” program she launched that allowed non-violent offenders to avoid jail and instead enter job training and eventually have their records expunged. “And so you have to take a knock for that,” Harris said in the speech. “When I rolled out Back on Track, I took a big political hit, when a couple of years later, it turned out, especially in criminal law, because when you’re taking, when you’re doing innovation in the criminal justice system, let me tell you what that means. That means I’m doing something differently with somebody who’s on my radar. Why are they on my radar? Because they committed a crime.” Kiefer was brutally attacked by 20-year-old Alexander Izaguirre, an illegal immigrant, while she walked with friends down a San Francisco street in 2008. Izaguirre stole her purse and then attempted to run her down in a waiting SUV, fracturing her skull. Izaguirre had been arrested a few months prior to the attack on drug charges but was able to roam free, thanks to the program launched by Harris. Harris continued in the speech, “Now, remember, I’m focused on the non-violent offender with these innovative programs, right? The fear will always be that guy will go out and kill a baby and a grandmother tomorrow, and then everyone will look backwards and say, ‘Why didn’t you do it the way it’s always been done? Why did you try something new?’ It’s a big risk. And so when I rolled out Back on Track, couple years in, we learned that there was basically, there was a participant who went out, during the time he was in the program, committed a robbery, there was a horrible injury to the victim. And turned out that this individual is an undocumented immigrant.” In her speech, Harris went on to mention an article written about her at the time that said, “‘Kamala Harris has created a program to shield illegal aliens.’” “Right?” Harris said. “And that’s when my friends came really in handy to just say it’s, you know, because I was upset about the unfairness and the mischaracterization and . . . ‘Don’t people want these things fixed? Don’t they understand what innovation requires?’ And, and that’s when you have to rely on your friends who understand what you do and care about you and will support you without judgment, but also give you critical feedback when you need it.” KAMALA HARRIS STRUGGLING TO SAY HOW SHE’S DIFFERENT THAN BIDEN ON ‘THE VIEW’ SURPRISES CNN PANEL In 2009, Harris told the press that Izaguirre is “being prosecuted” and “will be deported with my full encouragement and support.” Harris also said at the time that Izaguirre’s release was a “flaw in the design” that was fixed. Kiefer also spoke out about her experience earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported. She said that the experience was a “red pill moment” for her, leading her to abandon what she said were her liberal political views from the time and embrace candidates such as former President Trump. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Kiefer appeared alongside Trump when he visited the Arizona border earlier this year and spoke along with other victims of illegal immigrant crime. “I moved out of San Francisco because I didn’t feel safe there and I don’t think our country is going to be safe under Kamala Harris,” Kiefer said. Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign, which did not provide a comment. Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report.