Mayorkas grabs high-end sushi from DC Nobu directly after quick stop in Hurricane Helene-hit North Carolina
After a visit to Hurricane Helene-hit North Carolina on Thursday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made a stop to Washington, D.C.’s ritzy sushi restaurant Nobu. Mayorkas visited North Carolina and delivered an update to Thursday afternoon’s White House press briefing via satellite, asserting that the federal government can handle both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton relief. “No resources needed for Hurricane Helene response will be diverted to respond to Hurricane Milton,” said Mayorkas. “We have made it clear we will be there for every impacted community, every step of the way.” MAYORKAS DOUBLES DOWN, HAMMERS ‘PERNICIOUS’ MISINFORMATION AMID FEMA CRITICISM According to the DHS’ update on Thursday, search and rescue teams have rescued over 4,300 people stranded or lost due to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina so far. More than 220 people have died from Helene across the Southeast, according to current numbers. Mayorkas announced via X that he arrived in the Tar Heel state around 10:00 am on Thursday. Directly after his visit to storm-torn North Carolina, Secretary Mayorkas jetted back to Washington, D.C., where a photographer with the NYPost caught the DHS head whisking away a dinner order. NC LAWMAKER ACCUSES MAYORKAS OF POLITICIZING ‘TRAGEDY FOR PERSONAL GAIN’ AFTER FEMA FUNDING ALARMS The Post showed snaps of Mayorkas bringing out several to-go bags from the restaurant at around 5:15 pm. Nobu is a high-end international sushi chain, with Wagyu beef retailing for $40 per ounce. Their D.C. location has advertised a chef’s tasting menu that costs $200 per person, called “Omakase.” Nobu is best known for its association with world-famous Japanese “Iron Chef” Masaharu Morimoto. Mayorkas has recently come under fire for going shoe shopping after Hurricane Helene had made landfall and before his visit to the Tar Heel State. Elon Musk made a post on his site X on Tuesday the 8 saying, “Maybe Mayorkas could take a break from shoe shopping to look into this,” citing reporting from Fox News’ Chad Pergram on untapped FEMA funds. In another post on X from earlier on Thursday, Mayorkas wrote, “This morning, I spoke with @NC_Governor Roy Cooper, @SenThomTillis, and @SenTedBuddNC, and reiterated the full force of our @DHSgov and federal support to the people of North Carolina as we work to recover and rebuild. We will be there every step of the way.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Nobu restaurants did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Politics: ‘Brothers’ for Kamala
Welcome to the Fox News’ Politics newsletter, with the latest political news from Washington, D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. Here’s what’s happening… – Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Pezeshkian to celebrate ‘very close’ relationship – Top Republican demands answers as billions in FEMA relief are still going to COVID: ‘Legitimate concern’ – Doug Emhoff doesn’t deny report he slapped ex-girlfriend outside overseas movie event During a pre-campaign-rally stop in Pittsburgh on Thursday, former President Barack Obama appeared to admonish Black Americans who have not been as fervent in their support for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid as they were for his in 2008 and 2012. “We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,” Obama said during a stop at a campaign office. “Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So if you don’t mind — just for a second, I’ve got to speak to y’all and say that when you have a choice that is this clean: When on the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, went to college with you understands the struggles [and the] pain and joy that comes from those experiences…” …Read more ‘REALLY OUTDONE YOURSELVES’: Politico says Harris is running on a ‘dream economy’ but voters aren’t noticing…Read more ‘CRUSHING GUILT’: Hunter Biden legal saga is ‘real war’ that ‘preoccupied’ outgoing president, new Woodward book claims…Read more ‘SERIOUS RISK’: Biden admin pushed to reveal full report on migrants entering US, boarding flights without ID …Read more TIME RUNNING OUT: US has helped tiny fraction of its citizens evacuate war-torn Lebanon…Read more ‘NONSENSE’: Lead counsel hits new Dem effort to ‘delegitimize’ Supreme Court amid senator’s report on Kavanaugh probe…Read more ‘SINGLE ISSUE VOTERS’: Vaping advocate warns Dem crackdown on ‘common sense’ tobacco alternatives could backfire in swing states…Read more WHO’S MORE ACCESSIBLE? Trump-Vance ticket has done a combined 71 interviews since August to just 37 for Harris-Walz…Read more UNDERMINING DEMOCRACY?: Dems launched an onslaught of schemes slammed as tactics to undermine democracy ahead of high-stakes election…Read more OBAMA VS. TRUMP: Obama, stumping for Harris in key battleground, charges Trump ‘will makes problems worse’…Read more GEORGIA ON THE LINE: Why this one Peach State county could be ‘key’ to presidency…Read more TOWN HALL: Harris makes pitch to Latino voters at Univision town hall: Top 5 moments…Read more ‘OPERATION AURORA’: Trump to announce ‘Operation Aurora’ to target Tren de Aragua gang in Colorado rally…Read more POLITICAL STORM: Milton’s gone, but the political storm keeps raging over federal government’s hurricane efforts…Read more DOUBLE WHAMMY: As Hurricane Milton hits Florida, so do more illegal immigrants…Read more MARYLAND SENATE: Alsobrooks backs court-packing as Hogan fights GOP, McConnell, Trump associations …Read more ‘DO YOUR JOB!’: Jewish organization blasts colleges in billboard ad near San Diego State University to combat antisemitism…Read more LIGHT IT UP: Blue state CEO sued over pro-Trump sign nets ‘epic win for free speech’…Read more DEMOCRACY ’24: Alaska, Colorado, and Massachusetts begin absentee voting…Read more Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.
Comer slams Raskin as ‘ultimate hypocrite’ after Raskin stopped short of committing to certify a Trump win
House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., criticized Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Friday, calling him “the ultimate hypocrite” in response to a new report in which Raskin stopped short of committing to certify a potential 2024 presidential win for former President Trump. “Ranking member Raskin is the ultimate hypocrite,” Comer told Fox News Digital. “He talks a big game about ‘saving democracy’ yet actively undermines it by sowing seeds of doubt in America’s free and fair elections when it benefits him to do so.” Comer slammed Raskin as “a two-time election denier,” saying Raskin “suggested the 2000 election was illegitimate and didn’t certify election results when Trump won the White House in 2016.” “Now ranking member Raskin is signaling he’d do the same if Trump wins again in November. Raskin doesn’t care at all about democracy. He only cares about putting a Democrat in the White House whatever the cost,” Comer said. DEMS LAUNCHED ONSLAUGHT OF SCHEMES SLAMMED AS TACTICS TO UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY AHEAD OF HIGH-STAKES ELECTION Raskin, the top Democrat on the committee and a former Jan. 6 committee member, told Axios in a report published Thursday if former President Trump “won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it.” The report continued to say that Raskin said he “definitely” does not assume the former president will employ “free, fair and honest means” to win the Oval Office. Trump “is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments,” Raskin told Axios. TRUMP, HARRIS LOCKED IN DEAD HEAT IN 7 BATTLEGROUND STATES, POLL FINDS: ‘COULD NOT BE CLOSER’ Several other Democratic members of Congress shared Raskin’s sentiments, including Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern. McGovern told Axios Democrats will certify a Trump win “assuming everything goes the way we expect it to.” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., also called the Democrats’ statements “the most predictable hypocrisy in politics.” “After years of the radical left’s stenographers in the mainstream media, corporate special interest groups and radical Democrats viciously smearing President Trump and Republicans for standing up for election integrity, now 24 days until Election Day, far left Democrats are claiming that a President Trump victory would be illegitimate, and the mainstream media remains silent,” Stefanik told Fox News Digital. Raskin responded to the criticism in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying, “The Democratic Party is a party of democracy and the rule of law. We stand by both. “Trump and his followers have tried to use fraud, deceit, lies, coercion, trickery, voter suppression and mass insurrectionary violence to seize power against the rules of our constitutional order,” Raskin said. “I will never back down from defending American constitutional democracy against their big lies, political coups and violent insurrections. And I certainly won’t get into the mud with Chairman Comer and call him a hypocrite because that would imply he has some principles and ideals to betray.” Top Democrats criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson last month after he was asked if he’d commit to observing regular order in certifying the election results if Vice President Kamala Harris were to win. “Well, of course — if we have a free, fair and safe election, we’re going to follow the Constitution. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely,” Johnson said. MICHAEL MOORE MOCKS DEMOCRATS PANICKED BY TIGHT 2024 RACE: ‘SHOCKING TO ME’ THEY BELIEVE TRUMP IS GOING TO WIN Election certification was also touched upon during the vice presidential debate a few weeks ago, when Sen. JD Vance was pressed on past comments saying he would not have voted to certify the 2020 election results in January 2021. Vance fired back at the proposition that Trump could prove to be a “threat to democracy,” saying he believes “we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country” in the form of censorship. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz circled back to the 2021 exchange, blasting Trump and Republicans for denying the events that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building.
NYC pursuing thousands of hotel rooms to house migrants amid multibillion-dollar costs: report
New York City reportedly wants 14,000 hotel rooms to house migrants through next year as the sanctuary city continues to spend billions on the fallout from the border crisis. The New York Post reported the city’s use of hotels to house migrants will continue despite a significant drop in migrant encounters at the southern border, and the Department of Homeless Services is seeking a contract with hotels to provide a total of 14,000 rooms to shelter migrants. The Post reported that spending on housing over a three-year period will surpass $2.3 billion, with most of that spent on rent for hotels. Spending on the migrant crisis is expected exceed $5 billion, and Mayor Eric Adams has previously said costs could balloon to over $10 billion by the end of next fiscal year. Previous estimates had put that number even higher. NEW YORK CITY MIGRANT CRISIS COSTS EXPECTED TO EXCEED $5B IN TWO-YEAR PERIOD – DOUBLE TO $10B BY 2025 At an average of $352 per night for at least 36,939 households, the city has previously projected it will spend $4.75 billion providing shelter, food, health care and education to the influx of migrants during the 2025 fiscal year, according to the current forecast by the city’s online asylum seeker funding tracker. In August, the city announced two new contracts totaling $40 million for contractors to service migrants at hotels used as emergency shelters. As numbers surged at the border in 2021 and 2022, tens of thousands of migrants traveled to major blue cities like New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia. They were aided in 2022 when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began bussing migrants straight to those cities as a way to relieve the pressure on the border state. He chose sanctuary cities — cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement — because he said they encouraged the crisis. There were scenes of hundreds of migrants camped outside the Roosevelt Hotel during the height of the crisis. New York City officials now say over 218,000 migrants have received services in NYC since 2022. MAN STABBED AT NYC MIGRANT ENCAMPMENT BY RANDALL’S ISLAND SHELTER WEEKS AFTER DEADLY SHOOTING NEARBY Officials say they have helped complete more than 72,000 applications for work permits, temporary protected status and asylum. The city has also bought 47,000 tickets to help migrants go to other parts of the country. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE At the peak of the crisis, the city was taking in an average of 4,000 migrants per week. But that dropped into the hundreds in recent months as the crisis at the border abated after a presidential proclamation from President Biden that limited asylum claims. The Post reported more than 700 new migrants arrived in the city last week. This week, the city announced it would be closing a massive tent shelter on Randall’s Island. Officials said the number of asylum seekers in city shelters has dropped for 14 straight weeks and now is at the lowest point in over a year. Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Robert Roberson loses one of his final appeals to stop Texas execution
The state’s highest criminal court’s refusal to stay the Oct. 17 execution leaves the Palestine man with few options amid widespread support for clemency.
Biden calls VP Harris ‘president’ at hurricane briefing after being interrupted twice
President Biden on Friday joked that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is his “boss” and referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as the “president” while he delivered an update on hurricane recovery efforts from the White House. Seated in the Roosevelt Room with members of his Cabinet, including the secretary and the vice president, who joined by teleconference, Biden said the priorities for his administration are power restoration and debris removal. “Our heart goes out to all those folks who’ve lost not only personal property, but their homes and some lost lives and grieving after the aftermath of the tornadoes, brutal wind, record downpours and historic flooding,” Biden said. The president informed reporters that he has spoken with dozens of officials from North Carolina, Florida and other states impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the last two weeks. According to Biden, experts have estimated that Milton caused $50 billion in damage alone. FOLLOW THE MONEY: UNDERSTANDING FEMA’S DISASTER BUDGET IN HURRICANE MILTON AFTERMATH “We’re going to do everything we can to help you pick back up the pieces and get back to where you were,” he said. North Carolina authorities on Friday confirmed at least 92 storm-related fatalities from Hurricane Helene, but were unable to provide the number of those who remain missing or unaccounted for. Florida officials confirmed at least eight people are dead after Hurricane Milton spawned at least four tornadoes which wreaked havoc in St. Lucie County, The Associated Press reported. More than 3 million people remain without power in Florida and an untold number of homes are damaged from flooding, heavy wind and fallen trees. Even so, 50,000 power line workers pre-staged by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have already restored power to 1 million customers. President Biden reiterated that the federal government is fully involved in rescue and recovery efforts, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Coast Guard, the Army Corps and the Florida National Guard. He also criticized “disgusting” claims spread online that suggest the federal hurricane response has been inadequate. POLITICAL STORM: ON TRUMP ‘ONSLAUGHT OF LIES,’ BIDEN URGES FORMER PRESIDENT TO ‘GET A LIFE, MAN’ The 81-year-old president appeared to trail off toward the conclusion of his remarks. At that point, Granholm interrupted by touching Biden on the arm, apparently to remind him to turn over the microphone to the vice president. “I know,” Biden said. “I’m going to go to the vice president in a second.” Then, with a glance toward the reporters in the room, he grabbed the secretary’s hand and joked, “She’s my boss here.” Harris then seemed to interject, and Biden replied, “Hang on a second, Madame Vice President.” Before turning the news conference over to Harris, Biden said his administration will request additional funds from Congress for recovery efforts. DESANTIS FIRES BACK AT HARRIS OVER HURRICANE RESPONSE: ‘SHE HAS NO ROLE IN THIS PROCESS’ “We’re going to need a lot of help. We need a lot more money,” he said. “So I’m just telling everybody now that I don’t want to hear this is going to be the end of it. So with that, I will yield to the president, I mean, the vice president,” he said. Harris has clashed with DeSantis in recent days after the Republican governor declined to take her call regarding the hurricane response. He said Thursday that the vice president has “no role” in the process and added that she had never attempted to call him during previous storms in Florida. “I am working with the president of the United States. I’m working with the director of FEMA. We’ve been doing this now nonstop for over two weeks,” DeSantis said Thursday. Speaking from a TV screen, Harris made an effort to show that she is involved in cabinet discussions about recovery efforts, noting that she has spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about cracking down on purported price-gouging in the wake of the disaster. “We continue to coordinate resources with local and state authorities, including food, water, medical supplies and generators, and we will continue to work with the teams on the ground to restore water and power as quickly as possible in the coming days and weeks,” Harris said. “President Biden and I will make sure that the communities that are there on the ground and have been affected will have the resources they need not only to respond to the storm, but also to recover. And we will continue to keep communities in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and across the Southeast ensured that they will recover from Hurricane Helene.” “The bottom line is we are in this for the long haul,” she said. Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
Doug Emhoff doesn’t deny report he slapped ex-girlfriend outside overseas movie event
Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff did not explicitly deny allegations — made to the Daily Mail by several unnamed sources — that he once slapped an ex-girlfriend and also hired a “trophy secretary” at his Los Angeles law firm. Emhoff called the tabloid stories “a distraction” when responding to a question during a Friday interview with “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. The allegations could not be independently verified by Fox News Digital. “We don’t have time to be pissed off. We don’t have time to focus on it. It’s designed to try to get us off our game,” Emhoff said, before pivoting to a warning about a potential second term for former President Trump. “We understand the stakes. We understand the responsibility. We understand what is necessary. Our very country. Our future.” HARRIS VOTERS DEFEND DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE ON ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT: ‘HE’S MARRIED TO A JEWISH GUY’ Trump recently told the Daily Wire that if he were subject to the same allegations as Emhoff, it would be “the greatest story in the last five years” in the media. Earlier this month, an unnamed representative for Emhoff told Semafor the report that he slapped a former girlfriend during a 2012 trip to the Cannes Film Festival is “untrue.” HARRIS SUPPORTERS SOUND OFF ON HER BORDER BLUEPRINT “Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false,” the representative said. The Daily Mail’s exclusive story at the time quoted three unidentified sources who claim Emhoff slapped his then-girlfriend while the couple waited in a valet line following an event in Nice, France, in 2012. The alleged altercation was purportedly sparked when the woman — identified only by the pseudonym “Jane,” and described as a successful New York attorney — flirted with a valet, according to the article. The Harris campaign, the Office of the Vice President and a representative for Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, did not comment despite repeated requests from Fox News. Several media outlets, including Semafor, noted they had been unable to match the Daily Mail’s reporting, and legacy media companies such as The New York Times have yet to report on the claims. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Daily Mail’s article hinged on the recollections of three people described as being friends of “Jane.” The outlet said its sources requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from Emhoff. The three friends reportedly provided the outlet with a photo of the pair when they were still a couple, as well as itineraries and correspondence between Emhoff and “Jane” to substantiate that they made the trip to France in May 2012. One of the sources is described by the Daily Mail as a female New York attorney who learned about the alleged incident from “Jane.” “He hauled up and slapped her so hard she spun around,” the source is quoted as saying. “She said she was in utter shock. She was so furious, she slapped him on one side, and then on the other cheek with the other hand.” Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
Trump announces ‘Operation Aurora’ to target illegal immigrant gang members in Colorado
Former President Trump is expected to detail “Operation Aurora” during his rally in Colorado Friday afternoon — a program at the federal level that would remove illegal immigrant members of the dangerous transnational Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, a senior Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital. Trump is expected to hold a rally on Friday in Aurora, Colorado, where he will formally propose the removal program. The program is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle “every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil,” the official said. BLOODTHIRSTY VENEZUELAN STREET GANG SPARKS FEAR IN US AMID MIGRANT SURGE: WHAT TO KNOW The announcement comes after members of Tren de Aragua last month were caught on camera, armed with rifles and handguns, as they forced their way into an apartment in Aurora and threatened the tenant at gunpoint. Shortly after, they opened fire on a 25-year-old man outside the building, fatally shooting him. Of the three identified, all three are illegal aliens who were in Border Patrol custody but later released into the U.S. The Trump campaign also points to the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was kidnapped, tied up, and assaulted for two hours under a bridge before she was allegedly killed by two of the gang members. TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBER, ILLEGAL VENEZUELAN MIGRANT, ARRESTED IN HOUSTON The campaign official said police just this week arrested over a dozen members of Tren de Aragua who had taken over yet another apartment complex in San Antonio, Texas and terrorized its residents. Pointing to newly published data from ICE, the campaign official said there are now 13,099 illegal alien convicted murderers at large in the United States “under Border Czar Kamala Harris.” The gang is believed to have originated in Venezuelan prisons and moved north over the last decade. But its reputation within the U.S. has grown this year, in part due to a number of high-profile crimes linked to the gang, with many believed to have arrived by coming across the southern border as part of the sharp increase in migration in recent years. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bulletin in March alerted agents to tattoos and other identifiers of the gang. Federal authorities had previously warned that the gang was trying to establish itself in the U.S, and could potentially team up with the violent MS-13 gang. In February, New York officials linked the gang to more than 62 robberies in the city, and two suspected members of the gang were arrested in connection with a shocking assault of two NYPD officers. The brother of the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley has ties to the gang, and in Texas 10 migrants affiliated with the gang were arrested earlier in May. The gang has established a significant presence in parts of Colorado. Fox News Digital reported in July that TdA members have been given a “green light” to fire on or attack law enforcement in Denver. More recently, reports have emerged of the gang taking over at least two apartment buildings in Aurora, with surveillance video showing heavily armed men kicking down an apartment door. The Aurora mayor said on Fox News that there are “several buildings actually under the same ownership, out of state ownership, that have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs.” The Biden administration announced significant action against the gang in July when the Treasury designated Tren de Aragua a “significant transnational criminal organization.” That move blocks all property and assets owned by the gang in the U.S. Meanwhile, the State Department offered up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest of three of the gang’s leaders. The administration also stressed that it is working to disrupt the gang and has increased vetting.
Donald Trump, Kamala Harris locked in close election race: WSJ poll
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump are locked in a dead heat race for the presidency in the United States less than a month before the vote, a new Wall Street Journal poll suggests. According to the data, published on Friday, the vice president and former president are within two percentage points of one another in six of the seven battleground states that will ultimately decide the next president. In the poll, while Harris led in the states of Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, Trump was ahead in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada. All the results are within the margin of error with the exception of Nevada, where Trump is led by 5 percent in the WSJ poll. The newspaper said it surveyed 600 registered voters per state between September 28 and October 8. US elections are not won by popular vote nationwide. Rather, candidates compete in individual states to win electoral college votes. It’s akin to a point system, where each state is worth a number of points proportionate to the size of its population. In all but two states – Maine and Nebraska – the winner takes all the electoral college votes. Most states are almost certain to go to one party. For example, a Democratic win in California and Vermont is often projected as soon as the polls close, while states like Oklahoma and Alabama are Republican strongholds. The battleground states That leaves a handful of states where there are close, competitive elections. These are known as swing states. In this round, all eyes are on the seven states polled by WSJ. In 2016, Trump won the presidency despite losing the popular vote because he defeated the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in most battleground states. According to a Pew Research Center survey released on Friday, Harris is leading the race nationally by one point – 48 percent to Trump’s 47 percent. US election poll results have fluctuated in recent months. While Trump enjoyed a solid lead over Joe Biden earlier this year in almost all polls, the Democrats received a boost after the US president stepped aside and was replaced by Harris as the party’s nominee. A Morning Consult poll in September had Harris beating Trump 51 percent to 46 percent. But the former president appeared to claw back some support amid concerns about the economy and the turmoil in the Middle East. US election polls have also been wide off the mark in the past. For example, many surveys had indicated that Clinton was set for a comfortable win when she lost to Trump in 2016. Still, this year various polls appear to agree that the US is heading to a close presidential election next month. Senate race Control of the Senate and House of Representatives will also be up for grabs on November 5. A New York Times poll on Friday predicted bad news for Democrats’ hopes of protecting their narrow majority in the Senate. The Democrats currently control the 100-member chamber with 51 seats, including four independents who caucus with the party. But the Times survey found that Democrats are likely to lose a potentially decisive seat in a Republican-leaning state. Republicans were already expected to flip a Senate seat in West Virginia – where conservative Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin is not running for re-election. But the Times poll indicated Democratic Senator Jon Tester is trailing his Republican opponent by eight percentage points in rural Montana, where Trump won with ease in 2016 and 2020. Democrats will also have a fight on their hands to keep Senate seats in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona and Nevada, but they will be hoping to challenge Republican incumbents in Texas and Florida. A Republican-controlled Senate can prove to be a major hurdle for Harris should she win in November. Beyond its legislative powers, the Senate is tasked with confirming judicial appointments and cabinet members, which would allow Republicans to pressure Harris, should she be elected, on who she chooses for her governing team. Adblock test (Why?)
Democrats attack third-party candidate Jill Stein in razor-thin race
Democrats issue their first ad slamming Green Party candidate, even as she polls at about 1 percent. With less than a month to go to election day in the United States, Democrats are locked in a tight battle for every available vote in the presidential campaign and have taken on the third-party candidates they see as potential “spoilers”. The Democratic National Committee (DNC), the party’s executive branch, issued a television advertisement on Friday attacking Jill Stein, the longtime Green Party candidate to whom some progressives disillusioned with the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, have flocked. The advertisement, which is running in the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, blames Stein for Republican challenger Donald Trump’s 2016 win and warns that “a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump” – a refrain Democrats have regularly levelled against her in tight races between their candidates and Trump. The video also includes a comment by former President Trump, saying, “Jill Stein? I like her very much.” The advertisement, the first against the third-party candidate, signals Democrats’ growing worry that every lost vote may cost them such a razor-thin election. Stein has been polling at about 1 percent, similar to progressive academic and independent candidate Cornel West and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver. In some battleground states, those votes may make all the difference. Third-party history Third-party candidates have long been blamed for their impact on tight election outcomes — most notably in 2000 when Green Party nominee Ralph Nader earned 97,421 votes in Florida, a state that eventually went to George W Bush, along with the presidency, by only 537 votes. But third-party candidates and supporters have rejected the blame, arguing that they are working to challenge a fundamentally broken two-party system and giving voters a greater choice. “You don’t have a democracy unless it’s a competitive democracy at election time,” Nader recently told Al Jazeera. “Historically, the function of third parties in an Electoral College system has never really been to win elections but to have new agendas,” he said. With only two choices, Democrat or Republican, Nader added, “on major issues, they are very similar.” A Gallup poll this month found 58 percent of US voters agree that a third major party is needed because the Republican and Democratic parties “do such a poor job” of representing the American people. Stein on Israel While she has virtually no chance of winning the presidency, Stein’s message has been particularly resonant for some voters during Israel’s war in Gaza and Democrats’ and Republicans’ unwavering support for it. She has been a consistent critic of US support for Israel – a position that has won her new supporters this election cycle. “The Kamala Harris campaign is looking for a scapegoat,” she told The Washington Post this week, referring to the Harris campaign’s concern about her candidacy. “They could change their policy right now. The problem is they would rather lose the election than end the genocide”. This week, the Abandon Harris campaign, a Michigan-based Muslim group that says it aims to hold Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration “accountable for the Gaza genocide”, endorsed Stein for president. “Our movement remains dedicated to ensuring that the American people, especially the Muslim-American community, recognize the responsibility we share in standing up against oppression and using all our power to stop genocide — wherever it may arise,” the group said in a statement. “On the precipice of the election, we endorse Jill Stein.” Adblock test (Why?)