Kamala Harris’s campaign flexes celebrity support in Detroit and Atlanta
United States Vice President Kamala Harris has deployed some of the music industry’s star power to rally voters in the final weeks before November’s presidential election. On Saturday, two of the Democratic nominee’s events were headlined by prominent musicians. At her first stop, in Detroit, Michigan, the singer and rapper Lizzo warmed up the crowd with a passionate on-stage endorsement. “I already voted early and I voted for Harris,” the musician, a Detroit native, told a cheering crowd. Michigan is one of about seven key swing states in the presidential race, which could tilt either towards the Democrat or her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. Later in the day, Harris visited another pivotal battleground: the southern state of Georgia. There, she had also lined up another hometown hero, the musician Usher, who began his music career in Atlanta, the state’s capital. Usher sang a few bars with the crowd before starting his speech. “It’s really great to be home. I’m here, home, for my Past Present Future Tour but took a quick break from that to come here, share a few words with you about the significance of this moment,” he said. “I feel that this is a momentous opportunity for each and every one of us. It’s just 17 days away from a very important election, as we all know, and we have the opportunity to choose a new generation of leadership for our country.” Record early voting Harris’s visit to Michigan on Saturday coincided with the first day of in-person early voting in Detroit. Absentee voting by mail had already begun in the state. Michigan’s online “voting dashboard” indicated that, by Saturday morning, more than 1 million mail-in ballots had been received. It was one of several strong showings across the country, indicating a possible surge in voter enthusiasm. States like North Carolina and Georgia have notched records for early-voting turnout this week, according to officials. The chief operating officer for Georgia’s secretary of state, Gabriel Sterling, posted on social media that turnout continues to be high. Georgia’s first day of early voting was Tuesday. “Congratulations to the counties and especially our great Georgia voters. Y’all have broken another RECORD. Biggest turnout ever for a General Election Saturday,” Sterling wrote. While experts caution against extrapolating too much from the numbers, political analysts note that Democrats have traditionally seen a boost from large early turnouts. Harris sought to build on this year’s momentum during her weekend campaign stops. “Georgia started early voting, broke historic records. North Carolina started early voting, broke historic records in North Carolina. Now, who is the capital of producing records?” she told supporters in Detroit, with a winking reference to the city’s music industry. “So we are going to break some records here in Detroit today.” Addressing war in Gaza During her visit to Michigan, Harris also took the opportunity to repeat her call for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has led a yearlong military campaign, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians. US support for Israel and its war has eroded support for Democrats among Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan. The state boasts the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and it also the home of a national protest movement against the administration of President Joe Biden over its stance on the war. Harris, who has also been a recipient of that criticism, voiced hope that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza might usher in an end to hostilities. “This creates an opening that I believe we must take full advantage of — to dedicate ourselves to ending this war and bringing the hostages home,” Harris told reporters in Detroit. She added that Middle East policy has long been a difficult issue for the US. “It has never been easy,” Harris said. “But that doesn’t mean we give up.” Razzing Trump At her campaign rally in Detroit, Harris addressed supporters in front of “Detroit Votes Early” signs — and she and other speakers used their platform to slap back at Republican criticisms of the city. Earlier in the month, Trump cast Detroit in an unflattering light, telling the Detroit Economic Club that another Democratic president would render the entire country like the “Motor City”. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” Trump said of Harris, calling Detroit “a mess”. Harris, by contrast, took the stage on Saturday in a T-shirt that read “Detroit vs Everybody”, a slogan that has adorned clothing lines and rap songs. Lizzo, meanwhile, addressed Trump’s comments more bluntly. “I’m so proud to be from this city,” she told the crowd. “You know, they say if Kamala wins, then the whole country will be like Detroit. Proud like Detroit. Resilient like Detroit.” “Put some respect on Detroit’s name,” she added. Celebrity support Analysts in general say that the Democratic Party has been more successful in rallying star power to its cause this election cycle. Harris not only enjoys the endorsement of figures like Lizzo and Usher, but celebrities like Taylor Swift, Oprah and George Clooney have also announced their support for her since she became the presidential candidate in July. It is not clear, however, if celebrity support actually makes a difference in a campaign. More than 76 percent of voters polled recently by Quinnipiac University said Swift’s endorsement would not affect their ballots. The same goes for Republicans. Two-thirds of those surveyed said entrepreneur Elon Musk’s recent support for Trump would not affect their vote either. But Democrats are nevertheless banking on the glitter of its star power. This upcoming week, for instance, former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama are hitting the campaign trail, with only two weeks to go before the election. It will be the first time Michelle has done the rally circuit. Barack, meanwhile, made his first campaign-trail appearance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, earlier this month. Both Harris and Trump are trying to squeak ahead in the crucial last weeks of campaigning.
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Harris appears to agree with protester accusing Israel of genocide: ‘What he’s talking about, it’s real’
Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to agree with an anti-Israel protester who accused the Jewish state of genocide during a campaign stop. A video of the exchange during a campaign stop Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee showed the moment Harris was interrupted by a keffiyeh-wearing protester. “I know what you’re speaking of. I want a cease-fire. I want the hostage deal done. I want the war to end,” Harris said. “But what about the genocide? What about the genocide though?” the interrupting protester yelled. KAMALA HARRIS APPLAUDS STUDENT WHO ACCUSED ISRAEL OF ‘ETHNIC GENOCIDE,’ FOR SPEAKING ‘YOUR TRUTH’ Harris replied, “I respect your right to speak, but I’m speaking right now,” prompting an eruption of cheers. The man was removed from the crowd and continued to yell. “How about the billions of dollars to Israel?” he shouted. “What about the 19,000 children dead, and you won’t call it a genocide?” After the protester was escorted away, Harris addressed the audience and seemed to lend credence to his claim about Israel. TWO WEEKS OUT, THE STATE OF THE RACE “Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real,” she said. “That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real, and I respect his voice.” The vice president has never previously accused Israel of genocide during the Israel-Hamas war. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. Harris has previously appeared to agree with students who accused the Jewish state of genocide. In 2021, Harris nodded while a student accused Israel of ethnic genocide and then responded by saying the student’s “truth should not be suppressed.” The student, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, had raised questions about the money the U.S. is providing Israel and Saudi Arabia and accused the Jewish State of genocide. Harris said she “was glad” the student brought up such concerns and said her opinion should be heard in a democracy. “And again, this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed, and it must be heard, right? And one of the things we’re fighting for in a democracy, right?” Harris said. Fox News Digital’s Jon Brown contributed to this report.
Harris recruits pop stars Usher, Lizzo for swing state pushes: ‘It’s going to be a tight race’
Vice President Kamala Harris was joined by pop stars Usher and Lizzo at separate rallies in Georgia and Michigan, respectively, on Saturday, as the Democratic presidential nominee continued her push through the key swing states to Election Day. “We can make a difference in this election, Georgia,” Usher told an enthusiastic crowd in Atlanta on Saturday evening, explaining that he was in his home state for his “Past, Present, and Future” tour, but took a break to speak out for Harris. “Normally, I’m up here to entertain, but today for something far more significant for Atlanta and all of Georgia,” he told the audience at the Lakewood Amphitheatre. The “Yeah!” singer said that he supports Harris because she “fights for everyone’s rights, for freedom, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from. She has a vision for our country that includes everyone.” HARRIS CALLS TRUMP DEBATE DECISION A ‘PRETTY WEAK MOVE,’ PRAISES NATIVE COMMUNITY AT ARIZONA RALLY “We can make a difference in this election, Georgia,” he added. “Let’s vote for a future, ladies and gentlemen.” Lizzo spoke earlier at a Harris get-out-the-vote rally in the singer’s hometown of Detroit, calling Michigan the “swing state of all swing states, so every last vote here counts.” She added, “If you ask me if America is ready for its first woman president, I only have one thing to say: “It’s about damn time!” referencing her 2022 song. HARRIS SAYS PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS ARE ‘AT THE WRONG RALLY’ HOURS BEFORE CATHOLIC CHARITY DINNER SNUB Harris has made use of several musicians during her abbreviated campaign, including Megan Thee Stallion, Bon Iver, John Legend, Lil Jon, and Patti LaBelle, who have performed at rallies and August’s Democratic National Convention. “So Atlanta, we have 17 days left — 17 days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime. And look, let’s have some real talk. It’s going to be a tight race until the very end. And we are the underdog and we are running as the underdog,” Harris said. “But make no mistake, we will win. We will win. Yes we will. We will win. Yes we will. We? Also. And we will win. And we will win because we understand what is at stake.” She was also endorsed by pop superstar Taylor Swift on the night of Harris and Trump’s only debate last month. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP During her speech, Harris urged the state, which has broken records for early voting, to continue the trend, noting that if 100-year-old Jimmy Carter can vote, they can too. Former President Trump, who rallied in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, has also been pulling in star power with support from musicians such as Billy Ray Cyrus, Kid Rock, DaBaby, Jason Aldean, and Kanye West, as well as actor Dennis Quaid.
Trump asks Pennsylvania crowd, ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’
Former President Trump echoed Ronald Reagan on Saturday during a spirited battleground outdoor rally at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, asking, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump blasted the Biden-Harris administration right off the bat, calling the current White House a “nightmare of inflation, invasion, and humiliation.” The Republican presidential nominee also commented on his attendance at the Catholic Charities’ Al Smith Dinner on Friday night, where Vice President Kamala Harris was noticeably absent. FORMER NFL STAR ANTONIO BROWN SLAMS HARRIS, SAYS ‘TAMPON TIM’ WALZ WASN’T A REAL FOOTBALL COACH AT TRUMP RALLY Trump recalled, “she’s the only one in years, decades that didn’t show up. She didn’t show up.” “And [Harris] ended up doing a tape that was pathetic,” said Trump. “And it was an insult to Catholics, frankly, because she was actually sort of knocking them or knocking religion that she had the other event the other day where she said, you’re in the wrong location when they started talking about a certain subject right here in the which basically was a knock on Christianity and a knock on religion, because she doesn’t know what the hell she’s saying.” Trump was joined by a slate of speakers during Saturday night’s rally, including former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown. “I want to say I know the media is going to call me crazy, me and Trump crazy for having me speak here,” Brown said. “But I want to make this clear. We are not. They are.” BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR SAYS WALL STREET ‘VERY CONVINCED’ TRUMP WILL WIN 2024 ELECTION The crowd was both large and optimistic, with many children present at the rally dressed up as the former president and local steelworkers wearing hard hats. Trump opened his nearly two-hour stump with a tribute to his late friend and PGA golf legend Arnold Palmer. “But there was nobody that had his magic. He was a thriller. He was unbelievable. He, he knew how to win and he knew how to,, just do whatever it was that electrified a crowd,” Trump said. “If I had him here right now with me, this crowd would be going absolutely crazy. They’d say, Trump, get off this stage. We want Arnold Palmer to speak.” Trump said he was good friends with and named one of the villas on his Doral, Florida, property after Palmer, who was a native of Pennsylvania, and died in 2016. Trump focused much of his energy and attention on the Keystone State, especially on manufacturing jobs. “For most of American history, Pennsylvania was the commercial and industrial powerhouse of the United States. But year after year, globalist radical left politicians and incompetents like Kamala Harris have waged a war on your Commonwealth,” Trump said. “They’ve annihilated your steel mills, decimated your coal jobs, assaulted your oil and gas jobs, and sold off your manufacturing jobs to China and foreign nations all over the world. Under the Trump administration, we are going to take back what is ours,” he said. Pennsylvania rank-and-file steelworkers with the Mon Valley Works union were welcomed onstage by Trump, who offered him a commemorative hard hat. “The president saved the steel industry with tariffs, you saved it with tariffs,” said a steelworker. “And you’re my hero, and you’re the greatest president ever. We love you. So steelworkers for Trump and the rank-and-file Mon Valley Works wanted to endorse you.” Trump plans on introducing a “Built in America” policy should he win in November, which would bring more manufacturing jobs back to Pennsylvania and the country at-large. “So if we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole damn thing, right? And starting on day one of my new administration, I will end Kamala Harris’s war on Pennsylvania energy. Because, you know, she’s going to ban you know, she’s going to ban fracking, right? 100%,” Trump said. “You know, she was against fracking, against all this stuff. And then all of a sudden, about a year and a half ago, when she was getting killed in the polls, she said, I like fracking very much,” he added. According to a late September Fox News Poll, 60% of Pennsylvanians who are registered voters support fracking. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Pennsylvania, if you want to end this disaster, you must get out and vote,” Trump said. “You have to go and vote. Get everybody you can.” The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Russia, Ukraine each bring home 95 prisoners of war in UAE-mediated swap
The exchange was the 58th to take place since the beginning of the war, Ukraine says. Russia and Ukraine have swapped 190 prisoners of war under a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. The exchange late Friday saw each side release 95 prisoners. Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated that returning Russian service members were undergoing medical checks in Belarus, one of Russia’s closest allies throughout the two-and-half-year conflict. A Russian military video showed smiling soldiers boarding buses. A video posted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram account, meanwhile, showed men, some wrapped in the Ukrainian flag, getting off a bus and hugging loved ones. “Every time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, we get closer to the day when freedom will be returned to all who are in Russian captivity,” the president said. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the exchange as “a reflection of the cooperative and friendly relations between the UAE and both countries”. It was its ninth time mediating such an exchange between Moscow and Kyiv. The Ukrainian president said the freed prisoners had served on various fronts, including those who had defended the port city of Mariupol for nearly three months in 2022. There, they defended Mariupol and the Azovstal steelworks, which was widely viewed as a stealthy instance of resistance against Russia’s war. Mariupol has since been under Russian occupation. “Ninety-five of our people are home again. These are the warriors who defended Mariupol and ‘Azovstal,’ as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson regions,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. Ukrainian media and human rights organisations reported that Ukrainian rights activist and service member Maksym Butkevych, who was convicted by a Russian court of shooting at Russian forces, was among those freed. Forty-eight of the returnees had been handed sentences by the Russian judicial system, according to the body coordinating the affairs of prisoners of war. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, said the latest exchange was the 58th since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and brought to 3,767 the total number of prisoners returned home. The swap follows the repatriation of the bodies of 501 soldiers to Ukraine earlier on Friday in what appeared to be the biggest repatriation of those killed during the conflict since the war broke out. Most of those soldiers died while in action in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Adblock test (Why?)
For US universities, Arab and Muslim lives do not matter
On October 7, the Tahrir Coalition, a union of pro-Palestinian organisations at the University of Michigan, posted on social media what it said was a recording of the university’s president, Santa Ono. In the audio file, a man’s voice can be heard talking about pressure from “powerful groups” and the threat of withholding federal funding if the university administration does not focus almost exclusively on combating anti-Semitism. He states: “The government could call me tomorrow and say, in a very unbalanced way, the university is not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism. And I could say it’s not doing enough to combat Islamophobia, and that’s not what they want to hear.” Although the Tahrir Coalition did not explain how they obtained the recording or when and where it was made, neither Ono, nor the university disputed its authenticity. Instead, the university administration issued a statement to the local newspaper Metro Times, saying: “The University of Michigan is steadfastly committed to ensuring our community remains a safe and supportive environment, where all students – regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or other identities – have the opportunity to learn and thrive.” The problem is that the university is not committed to the safety and support of Muslim and Arab students. Of course, we did not need the leaked recording to know that, but it does provide the general public with an explanation of the university’s utter failure to support marginalised students. Over the past year, we have watched in shock as mass slaughter has unfolded in Palestine – and, since September, in Lebanon. Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,000 children, and more than 2,300 Lebanese, including more than 120 children. For Palestinian and Lebanese students, the pain is acute. We have watched our homelands destroyed, our people slaughtered, tortured and starved. Yet, as we, along with many allies, have tried to process this trauma and advocate for human rights, we have been vilified and silenced on campus. Our existence has been reduced to a problem, our grief weaponised, our calls for justice criminalised. The same cannot be said about students who have actively advocated for Israel’s “right to self-defence” – a right that Israel does not have when it comes to resistance from a population it is occupying. The effect of this “unbalanced” approach is that today Muslim and Arab students face increased harassment and discrimination, and their attackers are only emboldened because they know there will be no consequences for what they do. The university’s hypocrisy became apparent to me and other Palestinian students almost immediately after October 7, 2023. On October 9, students at the Michigan Law School used the public law-open server, an email chain that connects everyone at the law school, to describe Palestinians as “animals” and their Muslim and Arab classmates as “rejoic[ing] in mass murder” and supporting rape. This language was reported to the administration, who took no action. As the greater Michigan student body started organising and protesting on campus, the university’s discrimination against marginalised students became even more apparent. It repeatedly sent campus police to disperse our protests and sit-ins, with students being physically assaulted, pepper-sprayed and arrested, while hijabs of female students were ripped off. It also ramped up surveillance. Police presence and the number of surveillance cameras around the Arab lounge on campus noticeably increased. The administration never issued any apology for nor condemnation of the extreme acts of police violence against students who were protesting a genocide that the university funds. It also did not act as accusations of anti-Semitism started being weaponised against us. It did not step in to differentiate between hatred against the Jewish people and the legitimate criticism and denunciation of genocidal Israel. It did not protect our right to protest and freedom of expression. Instead, it seemingly accepted the false equivalence of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Over the summer, the Department of Education released a report about the supposed “failure” of the university to act on accusations of anti-Semitism. Among them were claims that anti-genocide protests created a “hostile environment” which the university did not investigate. The university easily succumbed to pressure and unilaterally changed campus policies to facilitate its crackdown on students engaging in pro-Palestinian activism. It did not consult faculty or the student body about them. The university administration has gone out of its way to address the sentiments of Jewish students on campus but has yet to utter one word to us, the Palestinians. One has to wonder how many more Palestinians have to be exterminated before Ono and the rest of the university leadership recognise our suffering, or if they even see us as human at all? Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students increasingly feel that our administration is fully comfortable with our people being slaughtered and our land being carpet-bombed. This attitude isn’t unique to the University of Michigan. Nationwide, more than 3,000 people have been arrested for pro-Palestine advocacy on college campuses in just six months. Universities that once championed free speech have become hostile environments for Muslim and Arab students and their allies. The chilling effect this has had is palpable. Many Muslim and Arab students now feel unsafe expressing their identities or views, fearing academic, legal and job prospect repercussions. For Palestinian students, this silencing is particularly traumatic – we are denied the right to mourn publicly or call for justice. Adding to our pain is the fact that our tuition dollars are invested in companies supporting violence against Muslims and Palestinians abroad. Despite protests, the University of Michigan maintains investments in companies linked to Israel, even though it was quick to divest from companies linked to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. In response to the leaked audio, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan Chapter (CAIR-MI) filed a complaint with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. The complaint calls for an investigation into whether the University of Michigan has followed “its obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as well as its
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