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Connecticut absentee voting begins

Connecticut absentee voting begins

Connecticut’s seven Electoral College votes are up for grabs as voters make their choices in national, state and local races. There is one competitive district in Connecticut: This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Connecticut. Connecticut began absentee voting on Friday. Applicants will need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. The resident must receive a ballot application by Nov. 4, and that ballot must be delivered to county officials by Nov. 5. Connecticut will begin early in-person voting Oct. 21, and it will continue through Nov. 3. Connecticut residents can register to vote online or by mail through Oct. 18. They can register in person at any time during early voting as well as on Election Day.

New poll reveals Trump has significant lead on immigration, border security in key battleground state

New poll reveals Trump has significant lead on immigration, border security in key battleground state

Former President Donald Trump holds a firm lead in a key state over Vice President Kamala Harris on the question of how to handle immigration — as the border crisis remains a top issue for voters. A new poll released this week from Marquette Law School finds Harris leading Trump overall in Wisconsin by 52-48%.  But when it comes to immigration and border security, Trump dominates. Of voters, 49% favor Trump while just 37% favor Harris, with 8% saying they’d be about the same, and 6% saying neither are good on the issue. VANCE, WALZ SPAR ON IMMIGRATION DURING VP DEBATE: BEEN TO THE BORDER ‘MORE THAN OUR BORDER CZAR’  Trump holds a similar 12 point lead on handling the war between Israel-Hamas, while Harris has an 11 point gap on handling Medicare & Social Security and a 17 point lead on abortion. Of the issues polled, immigration was near the top of the issues, with 15% of voters saying it was their most important issue, the same number who said abortion, and only behind the economy — which was top issue for 37% of voters. The poll is the latest indicator that Harris still has a fair way to go in convincing some voters that she is the better candidate on a topic that has dominated the headlines and remains a top issue for voters. Wisconsin, along with states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona could be election deciders in the election on Nov 5. Harris was put in charge of handling root causes of migration to the southern border in early 2021 as border numbers began to skyrocket. 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 hammered Harris on the border, saying it was the rolling back of Trump-era policies that led to the record numbers at the border. They have also pointed to her embrace of left-wing positions in her 2019 presidential bid. Since then, her campaign says her views have been shaped by the current administration, including on decriminalizing illegal crossings and closing immigration detention centers. “Harris can never be forgiven for her erasing our border, and she must never be allowed to become president of the United States,” Trump said in Wisconsin on Sunday. Harris has sought to present herself as better situated to handle the border. Her campaign has noted a recent drop in border encounters since President Biden signed a presidential proclamation in June limiting asylum entries. She has also thrown her support behind a bipartisan border security bill that would place similar limits on asylum and provide additional funding and detention beds.  Conservatives said that the bill would enshrine high border numbers, but Harris accused Trump of blocking the bill for political purposes. She did so again on a trip to the southern border in Arizona last week. “He picked up the phone and calls some friends in Congress and said, stop the bill. Because, you see, he prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” she said. “And the American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Disapproval mounts both at home and abroad as US avoids direct action against Houthi rebels

Disapproval mounts both at home and abroad as US avoids direct action against Houthi rebels

While much of the world has eyes on Israel’s battles with Hezbollah and Hamas, the U.S. Navy has its sights set on another of Iran’s proxies, the Yemeni Houthi rebels.   With a mission to keep international waterways at peace, the Navy now finds itself fending off attacks from the shadowy gang of pirates who have gone from arming themselves with assault rifles, pickup trucks and motorboats – to a seemingly unending supply of drones, missiles and other weaponry.  The Houthis often attack unarmed Western ships carrying goods through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden – while the U.S. has responded in kind with drone attacks on Yemen.  ISRAELI AIR FORCE STRIKES HOUTHI TARGETS IN YEMEN WITH ‘EXTENSIVE’ OPERATION That’s led to perilous waters along a trade route that typically sees some $1 trillion in goods pass through it, as well as shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and the Yemeni people.  And as the attacks continue, some experts argue the U.S. response has not been strong enough to deter the Houthis from inflicting billions of dollars worth of damage to the global economy.  “The U.S. response has been ineffective,” Can Kasapoglu, a Turkey-based Hudson Institute fellow who specializes in Middle East political-military affairs, told Fox News Digital.  “We have very limited intelligence about [the Houthis] and they are in a different part of the world, in a distant corner of the Middle East. But that corner also happens to be right next to a choke point on global trade… The Houthis are the most daring of the Iranian proxy network. And the U.S. has never gone into a preemptive phase where they target the Houthi leadership.” IRAN WARNS OF ‘DECISIVE RESPONSE’ IF ISRAEL CROSSES ‘RED LINES’  The U.S. has responded to attacks with air and missile defense efforts, drone and missile interceptions – only engaging the Houthis once an attack is imminent, said Kasapoglu.  “We never saw a high-yield targeted killing campaign by the United States, for instance, Israel killed [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah. Or just like Israel went after, for instance, the higher, high-level Iranian Revolutionary Guards generals, so this is what is missing – the U.S. acting against critical leadership.”  In addition to destroying goods destined for the West, the regular Houthi attacks drive up insurance costs: premiums for some shot up tenfold. They force some ships to travel the long way – down around the Horn of Africa, which can add $1 million in fuel costs for a round trip.  “They are launching relatively low-cost weapon systems, and inflicting major economic damage on the West on behalf of Iran. This is a very lucrative business,” said Kasapoglu.  One argument for restraint could be the cost of action: Houthi drones are estimated to cost a few thousand dollars each. The Naval missiles the U.S. fires back at them can run around $2 million a shot.  Houthi attacks ramped up after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, targeting 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones over the past year.  They’ve seized one vessel and sunk two and killed a total of four sailors. A U.S.-led series of airstrikes in May killed at least 16 people, the rebels said.  BIDEN ADMIN NEEDS ‘MORE AGGRESSIVE’ PLAN TO TAKE ON HOUTHIS  On Tuesday, the rebel group claimed it shot down a multimillion-dollar, U.S.-made MQ-9 Reaper drone flying near Yemen. The U.S. acknowledged losing one of the drones, which costs around $30 million apiece.  In January, the Iran-backed militias killed three U.S. service members and injured 40 others in an attack on a U.S. base in Jordan. The U.S. responded forcefully to that attack with a barrage of airstrikes on 85 targets across Iraq and Syria.  “That response proved to be effective, and I think that we could do more of that certainly – take that approach,” said retired Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz, former security coordinator of the Israel-Palestinian Authority.  Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has seen Reapers shot down in Yemen in 2017, 2019, 2023 and 2024. The U.S. military acknowledged the Houthis shot down two MQ-9s in September. The Houthis also continue to launch missiles targeting Israel. In response, Israel Defense Forces launched aggressive retaliatory strikes in Yemen’s key port city of Hodeida.  The rebels have maintained that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign in Gaza against Hamas. But many of the ships they attack have little connection to the conflict – some were even bound for Iran.  BIDEN SAYS HE WOULD NOT BACK ISRAELI STRIKE ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR SITES  Last month, they attacked the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion, which was carrying 1 million barrels of oil in the Red Sea.  And last week, Houthi rebels fired half a dozen ballistic missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and two drones at three U.S. ships traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. All were intercepted by Navy destroyers, a U.S. official said Friday.  “This gets resolved when we finish our dealings with Iran, whatever that looks like in the long term,” said Seth Krummrich, a retired Army colonel and former chief of staff at Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT). Sources say the U.S. lacks a will to put boots on the ground to fight the Houthis. Central to the Biden administration’s global strategy is a concern over escalating tensions that could lead to a full-scale confrontation with Iran – a nation that, by many estimates, is only weeks away from having the capability to build a nuclear bomb. “The Israelis have the will to fight the Houthis, but they have limited capability, and they’re also engaged with two wars going on right now, so it necessitates American intervention if the West really wants to stop them,” said Kasapoglu.  US FORCES DESTROY HOUTHI WEAPONS  “Avoiding escalation is an obsession right now. It is a psychological case, not a political case. And it is imprisoning American military capabilities.”  Krummrich argued that the Pentagon

Kamala Harris teams up with Liz Cheney in birthplace of Republican Party

Kamala Harris teams up with Liz Cheney in birthplace of Republican Party

RIPON, Wis. — As she turns up the volume on her efforts to court disgruntled Republicans in her battle with former President Trump for the White House, Vice President Harris on Thursday teamed up with the most visible anti-Trump Republican in the town that claims to be the birthplace of the GOP. Harris campaigned in battleground Wisconsin with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, a one-time rising conservative star in the GOP who, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, has vowed to do everything she can to prevent Trump from returning to power. “I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney told the audience as she formally endorsed the Democrat presidential nominee. “As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our Constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause.” Harris praised Cheney as a leader who “puts country above party and above self, a true patriot.” WHITE HOUSE LAWYERS WHO ADVISED REAGAN AND BUSH BACK HARRIS OVER TRUMP The campaign event took place in Ripon, Wisconsin, where a one-room schoolhouse was designated a national historic landmark due to its role in holding a series of meetings in 1854 that led to the formation of the Republican Party. Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, once rose within the ranks of House Republican leadership. But she was the most high-profile of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Trump in early 2021 on a charge of inciting the deadly January 6th riot at the Capitol, which was waged by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters who aimed to disrupt congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 election. TRUMP UPS HIS ANTE IN THE 2024 FUNDRAISING FIGHT WITH HARRIS The conservative lawmaker and defense hawk immediately came under verbal attack from Trump and his allies and was eventually ousted from her No. 3 House GOP leadership position. Cheney, who has been vocal in emphasizing the importance of defending the nation’s democratic process and of putting country before party, was one of only two Republicans who served on a special select committee organized by House Democrats that investigated the riot at the Capitol. In 2022, she lost the GOP congressional primary in Wyoming to Harriet Hageman, a candidate backed by Trump. At a speaking event in early September at Duke University in swing state North Carolina, Cheney announced that she would vote for Harris in the presidential election. Cheney’s father also endorsed Harris. Cheney on Thursday warned that “our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before: a former president who attempted to stay in power by unraveling the foundations of our republic.” She argued that Trump “can never be trusted with power again” and emphasized that “in this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty.” “What January 6 shows us is there is not an ounce, not an ounce, of compassion in Donald Trump. He is petty. He is vindictive. He is cruel. And Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation,” Cheney said. WHAT THE LATEST POLL IN BATTLEGROUND WISCONSIN SHOWS Harris, speaking after Cheney, highlighted that “anyone who recklessly tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has actively and violently obstructed the will of the people and the peaceful transfer of power as Donald Trump has … must never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States.” And Harris also said that “I take seriously my pledge to be a president for all Americans. Cheney was not always a fan of Harris. The Trump campaign on Thursday repeatedly pointed to a social media post by Cheney during the 2000 election in which she said, “@KamalaHarris has a more liberal voting record than Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Her radical leftist views-raising taxes, banning gun sales, taxpayer $ for abortion & illegal immigrant health care, eliminating private health insurance-would be devastating for America.” Trump, speaking with Fox News’ Bill Melugin during a rally in Michigan on Thursday, said Cheney was “terrible” and “a stupid war hawk. All she wants to do is shoot missiles at people.” On Cheney’s backing of Harris, Trump said, “I think they hurt each other. I think they’re so bad, both of them.” The Cheneys are part of a growing list of prominent Republicans who are supporting Harris. Two other high-profile anti-Trump Republicans, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, had speaking roles at the Democratic National Convention, which was held six weeks ago in Chicago. And Harris is backed by more than 200 alumni who served in both Bush administrations or worked for the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2008 and 2012 GOP presidential nominees, respectively. She’s also supported by more than 100 Republican former national security officials and other prominent Republicans. Ripon is not the only town that claims to be the birthplace of the GOP. Exeter, New Hampshire, also has some bragging rites as it was the site of meetings in 1853 – a year ahead of the Ripon gatherings – by disenchanted political leaders who discussed the formation of a new party of Republicans. But officials in Ripon said the group in Exeter never actually formed a political organization, or chose officials, as they did in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is one of seven crucial battleground states with razor-thin margins that decided Biden’s 2020 White House victory and are likely to determine if Harris or Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. With less than five weeks until Election Day in November, Harris and Trump are locked in a margin-of-error race in the key swing states. While Trump retains vast sway over the GOP, even a small sliver of Republicans supporting Harris could make an important impact in