J6 Bombshell: Secret Service got intel on 'high potential' for violence but didn't tell agents - Steven Richards and John Solomon

 

by Steven Richards and John Solomon

Homeland Inspector General report urged changes to Secret Service training, communication three months before July 13 Trump assassination attempt exposed additional flaws.

 

The Secret Service developed intelligence that there was a “high potential for violence” before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but failed to share that information with its agents guarding Donald Trump, Mike Pence or Kamala Harris that fateful day, according to a bombshell report delivered to Congress on Thursday that exposed a fresh round of failures by the presidential protection agency.

Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari's report was forced into the public by pressure from House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and it confirmed earlier Just the News reporting, including that the Secret Service whisked Harris, then the Vice President-elect, within 20 feet of an undetected pipe bomb at Democrat National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington because it failed to employ its normal explosive detection tools.

“The Secret Service had not employed all its explosive detection tactics and measures for the security sweep, instead providing only canine teams at the DNC building that day. Afterward, the Secret Service did not report the buildings evacuation as an unusual protective event, as required by its policies,” the inspector general concluded

The report, obtained by Just the News, not only adds dramatic new details about security and intelligence failures on Jan.6, 2021 but it also offered powerful new evidence to the growing inquiry into how the Secret Service failed to detect the gunman who wounded Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa.

Congressional aides briefed on the report said its findings and six recommendations for improved communication, training and other security tactics were delivered to Secret Service management in April, three months before the Trump assassination attempt. Cuffari, himself, made a point in the report to stress that the shortcomings exhibited during the Capitol riot 3 1/2 years ago should be a learning event for the Secret Service.

"The events of January 6 were unprecedented and the issues we identified during our review presented an opportunity for the Secret Service to be better prepared in the future," the report implored.

The report also revealed some friction between Cuffari's office, the chief watchdog for Homeland Security, and Secret Service managers, who disagreed with some of the report's findings and recommendations.

The report shows that the Jan. 6 events exposed some of the same failures now suspected to be at the center of the rally tragedy, including problems with communication with local police, faulty security sweeping and inadequate threat identification.

According to the report, the Secret Service's Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division “received some information indicating a high potential for violence leading up to January 6th, but but USSS/PID did not incorporate such information in the final" security assessments provided to the agents protecting VIPs at and near the Capitol.

Because the Secret Service failed to incorporate the information, “two relevant documents” about the political protests distributed by the agency did not include the high potential for violence that ultimately impacted the agency’s mission.

For example, after protesters surrounded the Capitol, the protective detail struggled to keep Vice President  Pence away from rioters “[due] to communication challenges and limited contingency planning” and only “narrowly avoided” a confrontation, the report said.

The report also found that the Secret Service did not properly sweep the DNC headquarters ahead of Vice President-elect Harris’ visit that resulted in her motorcade driving within 20 feet of a pipe bomb.

The security failure resulted from the Secret Service’s failure to sweep the bushes were the pipe bomb was ultimately found and "advanced security sweeps by the Secret Service at the DNC building did not include the outside area where a bomb had been placed.”

Additionally, Secret Service personnel interviewed had "differing interpretations of canine search requirements and procedures” that further complicated efforts to secure the property, the report warned.

Cuffari's office also concluded that the Secret Service had not used its full arsenal of explosive detection measures “in part because it did not have adequate policies and procedures for requesting these capabilities for ‘elect’ protectees."

Even after the pipe bomb was belatedly discovered by another police agency and Harris was evacuated from the premises, the inspector general found that the Secret Service failed to properly report the incident as an “unusual protective event” even though it matched the definition of a security failure.

“Following the events of January 6, the Secret Service, neither designated nor reported the Vice President–elect’s evacuation at the DNC as a [unusual protective event]. However, according to Secret Service policy, the vice president elect evacuation due to the discovery of a pipe bomb and relocation to her residence qualifies as a ‘security failure’,” the report concludes.

The findings confirm a 2023 report by Just the News that security footage showed the Secret Service brought Harris within yards of the bomb, apparently unbeknownst to her security detail.

The report notes that the Secret Service was less than fully cooperative with the inspector general, instead it “significantly delayed OIG’s access to information, impeding the progress of [the] review.”

“For example, we experienced a 7–month delay receiving emails from Secret Service,” the report says, explaining that the agency sought to reduce the scope of the inspector general’s request for electronic communications, provide search terms, and “conduct an internal review of the date prior to submission.”

The inspector general also requested text message communications from the agency, but the Secret Service belatedly informed the investigators that all the phones had been wiped for a planned software update and that no backup files were available.

The report comes after Loudermilk, the Chairman whose subcommittee is leading an investigation into the security failures of January 6, pressured the Homeland Security Department to allow its insoector general to release the long-delayed report.

“We need to get this ... report. We need to see it,” Loudermilk told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday. “And it needs to happen soon because we just created a task force to look at it. And ... I think there's important information there.” Just days later, the inspector general sent its final report to the Secret Service.

The final report also confirmed other reporting by Just the News, including that the Secret Service directly disputed Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s story to the January 6 Select Committee that an angry Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel of a presidential vehicle after the Secret Service denied his request to go to the Capitol with his supporters.

In a footnote of the report, the inspector general says witnesses to the president’s drive back to the White House after his speech on the Ellipse say that “those actions did not occur.”

 
Steven Richards and John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/security/hldinspector-general-report-secret-service-highlights-j6-security-failures

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FDA knew 'gender affirming' puberty blockers increase 'suicidality' in 2017, promotes them today - Greg Piper

 

by Greg Piper

"Safety review" by Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products contradicts narrative promoted by HHS's Rachel Levine, FDA's child health and endocrinology leaders. Insurance coverage invoked to justify approval for "gender transition."

 

 

Five months before the Food and Drug Administration issued a health warning on puberty blockers widely used off-label to treat minors with gender confusion, undermining a Department of Health and Human Services office that claimed "early gender affirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being," an FDA leader acknowledged other health concerns.

Pediatric patients exposed to "gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists," most with central precocious puberty (CPP) and "a handful … transgender kids using the drugs off-label," had an "increased risk of depression and suicidality, as well as increased seizure risk," Division of General Endocrinology clinical team leader Shannon Sullivan told colleagues.

The 2017 safety review by the FDA's Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products (DMEP), cited by Sullivan, contradicts claims by American medical groups and Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine that gender affirming care is "suicide prevention," as the government's highest-ranking transgender official said at the 2022 Out For Health Conference.

It also undercuts Sullivan's own call to approve puberty blockers for "gender transition" in the same Jan. 25, 2022, email chain.

Kids aren't the only ones at risk, according to an study in April by University of Texas Medical Branch researchers in the peer-reviewed journal Cureus, which found gender-affirming surgery in adults is "significantly associated with elevated suicide attempt risks."

Members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, whose Standards of Care play an outsized role in American medicine, swapped candid stories about young patients or colleagues developing life-threatening medical conditions or even dying after years of gender-affirming treatment, in leaked forum discussions.

 

“It is very difficult to ask that they wait until age 16...” pic.twitter.com/h05aXKGAGM

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) March 4, 2024

Sullivan, her colleagues on the email chain and the FDA did not respond to Just the News requests for further context, why Sullivan supported the drugs' approval for gender transition in spite of the FDA's findings and whether it all boils down to insurance coverage.

"Legal and insurance contexts" were major factors in the removal of age minimums for even transgender surgery in WPATH's Standards of Care 8 in 2022, according to the prepubescent children chapter's lead author. Levine's staff pressured WPATH behind the scenes to drop the age minimums entirely, according to discussions exposed in litigation.

The National Institutes of Health hired another cheerleader for puberty blockers and Levine ally, Texas Children's Hospital pediatrician-in-chief Dr. Catherine Gordon, as clinical director of its National Institute for Child Health and Human Development last fall, without noting her life's work in gender-affirming care and related conflicts with Texas GOP elected officials.

America First Legal obtained the FDA emails through Freedom of Information Act litigation and shared them with Just the News after The Daily Signal posted two screenshots from the FOIA production.

FDA emails on puberty blockers and suicidality.pdf

They mention the FDA updating the "product labeling" for GnRH agonists based on the 2017 review but also a new "potential signal of a serious risk regarding intercranial hypertension in children treated for CPP" in an ongoing review.

That apparently refers to the "risk of pseudotumor cerebri" the FDA added to GnRH agonists including Lupron – which rose to prominence as a pricey sex-offender castration drug with severe side effects – and Supprelin LA on July 1, 2022. 

The agency found a "plausible association" between the drugs and the adverse event in six cases, all girls 5-12, one of whom was receiving "transgender care."

Kaiser Health News touted GnRH agonists to treat gender dysphoria in August 2016, claiming they had been used to treat precocious puberty "safely for decades." One family put their son who identified as a girl on Lupron and Kaiser Permanente covered it, the nonprofit reported, without mentioning Lupron's use for sex offenders.

By February 2017 KHN was reporting just the opposite in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting, noting 10,000 adverse-event reports about Lupron filed with the FDA while saying nothing about gender-affirming care.

"In the interviews with women who took Lupron to delay puberty or grow taller, most described depression and anxiety," KHN and CIR said. "Several recounted their struggles, or a daughter’s, with suicidal urges." 

Women in their 20s who took Lupron a decade or more earlier developed bone-thinning, osteoporosis and a cracked spine, chronic pain and degenerative disc disease, and total hip replacement, according to the report. 

The FDA told the outlets it was reviewing "nervous system and psychiatric events," as well as potentially fatal seizures, associated with GnRH agonists including Lupron.

 

Five years later, Reuters reporter Chad Terhune asked the FDA about the off-label use of Lupron and Supprelin LA in gender-confused children in light of its 2017 safety review of GnRH agonists, prompting the Jan. 25, 2022, email chain obtained by America First Legal.

"There are questions about bone health, brain development and fertility. Did anything come out of that?" Terhune asked. "Has FDA done anything in relation to their off-label use for gender dysphoria in children?"

Sullivan's boss Theresa Kehoe, who had directed the division for a little over a year, asked her for "some history here" to answer Terhune's questions.

"DMEP did do a safety review" following the KHN article "in which adults with histories of CPP attributed multiple complaints to prior use of a GnRH agonist," Sullivan, who joined the FDA in 2016 and still teaches medicine at Georgetown, responded. "The complaints were extensive and variable, and included fibromyalgia type symptoms, infertility, [polycystic ovary syndrome], and weight gain, among others."

Sullivan's team reviewed "suicidal ideation/depression, seizures, and bone health," finding no effect on the latter "after factoring in catch-up growth," she said. (The KHN/CIR report said bone problems came much later in women they interviewed.)

 

🚨SHOCKING EXPOSÉ🚨

Our litigation just exposed that Biden’s FDA recommended approving puberty blockers to minors despite noting that these drugs are associated with an “increased risk of depression and suicidality.”

DETAILS: pic.twitter.com/IfNc8ZQaaX

— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) August 1, 2024

The agency issued safety-related labeling changes for "the entire class" for the increased risk of depression, suicidality and seizure, she said.

Without grappling with the tension between the review's findings and her own preference, Sullivan said there was "definitely a need for these drugs to be approved for gender transition," citing her participation in a Division of Urology, Obstetrics, and Gynecology "patient listening session with trans kids and separately with trans adults."

Like WPATH's reversal on age minimums, Sullivan justified approval on the basis that insurance would then cover the drugs, which are "expensive out of pocket." No company has yet sought such approval, but Sullivan's understanding is that "DUOG would take these applications if and when if and when any come in" to the FDA.

"It seems we cannot talk about off label indications (transgender)," Kehoe responded. She suggested language from a "safety perspective" about the updated product labeling for CPP based on the 2017 review, ongoing monitoring for adverse events and the recently discovered "potential signal" about intercranial hypertension.

"I don't know if it's accurate to say that we made labeling updates based on review of that safety signal, since the seizures/psych reviews were ongoing at the time we were made aware of the KHN article," responded Chief of Project Management Staff Elisabeth Hanan.

 

Greg Piper

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/fda-knew-gender-affirming-puberty-blockers-increase-suicidality-2017

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The Looming Kamala Calamity - Larry Sand

 

by Larry Sand

The putative Democratic candidate for POTUS will be disastrous if elected.

 

Barring a possible but unlikely “October surprise,” Kamala Harris will be the Democratic nominee for president. When Democratic string pullers decided that Joe Biden was unfit to run again, Harris became the obvious—if not best—choice.

Her disapproval ratings are telling. While 38% approve of Harris, 52% disapprove, and a detailed report by the David Horowitz Freedom Center spells out a legacy that would make the late Joe Stalin proud. Just a few of the taxpayer disasters that Harris has in mind are that health care is a fundamental right and “Medicare for All” should be the policy. She also believes in economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work. She favors family and medical leave, vacations, and retirement security for all workers, as well as “high-quality health care” administered by the federal government.

Harris also adheres to all the au-courant left-wing fashions. As the Black Lives Matter riots were spreading like wildfire, she tried to set up a bail fund for those who were arrested. She wants to ban right-to-work laws, which allow private industry workers not to be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

Harris fought for the passage of the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan”—virtually all of which was financed by borrowed money and which even liberal finance experts warned would be inflationary—and she cast the deciding vote for the laughably named “Inflation Reduction Act,” the projected costs of which have risen to more than $1 trillion, leading to out-of-control inflation.

She is a nightmare on taxes. As if we are all not forking over enough money already, Harris has pushed to raise the corporate income tax, expand the estate tax, impose a financial transaction tax on stock trades, raise the top marginal income tax rate on the top 1% to 39.6%, and implement a 4% “income-based premium” on households making more than $100,000 annually to pay for her “Medicare for All” gambit.

Harris, as the so-called border czar, has failed miserably. In fact, “border-free czar” would be much more accurate. Under her watch, illegal immigration has exploded. As of January 2024, more than 7.2 million migrants had illegally crossed into the U.S. over the southern border during the Biden administration—a number higher than the individual populations of 36 states. Even left-wing fact-checker Snopes rates this number as accurate.

Harris is notorious for rambling, often incoherently, when speaking. Cal Thomas offers a typical example of her word salads: “Culture is (pause) It is a reflection of our moment in our time, right? And, and present culture is the way we express our feeling about the moment. And, and we should always find time to express how we feel about the moment that is a reflection of joy ’cause, eeeh, you know, it comes in the morning (cackles). We also have to find ways to also express the way we feel about the moment in terms of just having language and, and and, a connection to how people are experiencing life and I think about it in that way, too.”

And then there is education. Harris asserted in 2019, “I am running to declare education is a fundamental right, and we will guarantee that right with universal pre-k and debt-free college!”

That same year, as a senator, she tried and failed to enshrine the 21^st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act, which would have directed the Education Department to provide funding for school districts to cover the costs of STEM education activities for girls and children from racial minorities. Harris supports increasing Title I funding, changing the Title I formula to be “more equitable,” and incentivizing states to increase spending on schools. The current national outlay of $927 billion on government schools will easily top $1 trillion if Harris gets her way.

In November 2019, Harris proposed offering federal funds to encourage schools to add after-school programming to accommodate working families’ schedules.

When running for president in 2020, Harris said she would work to cut child poverty by 50% in her first term. Her proposed strategies included expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit and boosting food stamp benefits for children.

Most recently, Harris inanely proclaimed, “And yet, today, extremists pass book bans—book bans, in this year of our Lord 2024—while they also try to erase, overlook, and rewrite the ugly parts of our past.”

It’s no surprise that she is the darling of the teachers’ unions. She maintains that public school teachers earn 11% less than professionals with similar educations.” To address the situation, which Harris claimed in 2019 is “creating disastrous consequences,” proposed providing the “average teacher” with a $13,500 raise, with states being forced to add $1 to the pot for every $3 the feds throw in.

The cost of Harris’ teacher pay plan would be prohibitive. As Mike Antonucci explains, the raise would cost taxpayers about $42 billion a year. Not only that, but teacher pensions are typically based on average salary over a period of time, and Harris’ scheme would greatly stress already underfunded state pension systems.

It’s worth noting that the above assertions are erroneous when looking at what teachers really make. As Just Facts notes, in the 2021–22 school year, the average school teacher in the U.S. made $66,397 in salary but received another $34,090 in benefits (such as health insurance, paid leave, and pensions) for a total compensation of $100,487.

Additionally, full-time public school teachers work an average of 1,490 hours per year, including time spent on lesson preparation, test construction, and grading, providing extra help to students, coaching, and other activities, while their counterparts in private industry work an average of 2,045 hours per year, or about 37% more than public school teachers.

Overall, with various perks included, a teacher makes an average of $68.85 per hour, whereas a private sector worker makes about $40 per hour.

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, announced its endorsement of Harris on July 24. The following day, Harris gave a rip-roaring speech at the American Federation of Teachers convention, in which she trotted out a bevy of bromides that warmed the cockles of the unionistas’ hearts.

“While you (the teachers) teach about our nation’s past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn, and to acknowledge our nation’s full history, including book bans,” she declared. “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.”

Harris doubled down on the Biden administration’s ambitious efforts to ease the burden of student loan debt by describing a teacher in Philadelphia she met recently who had been paying off her student loan for 20 years but still had $40,000 to pay off, despite being part of the public service loan program that has been in place for years.

“We forgave it all,” she said.

However, as the New York Times reports, Ms. Harris’s speech to the AFT ignored several crucial education issues that could put her on shaky political ground, and that Republicans are ready to pounce on them.

She avoided discussing the horrific damage caused by the pandemic-era school closures, which were dictated by the teachers’ unions. She did not address whether families should have greater access to charter schools, private school choice, or public funds for homeschooling—all popular options that the unions falsely claim reduce funding for traditional public schools. Harris also never alluded to the rampant antisemitism and stifling of free speech on college campuses that the teachers’ unions haven’t addressed.

A vote for Harris will accelerate America’s descent into an authoritarian, woke, and socialist hellhole. While Trump is far from perfect, he is a much better choice to lead the country.

*   *   *

Larry Sand, a retired 28-year classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. The views presented here are strictly his own.

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/08/02/the-looming-kamala-calamity/

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Europe's Recipe for Disaster: The Von der Leyen Program - Drieu Godefridi

 

by Drieu Godefridi

[A] whole series of new regulations with global ambitions are announced, confirming the EU's claim to legislate not just for Europe, but for the world. For instance, a "European Oceans Pact" -- note the "s" in Oceans – is declared: evidently the EU claims to regulate all the world's oceans, whereas it only dips its toes in one.

 

• [T]his reduction [of greenhouse gas emissions] structures and determines the whole of the Commission's program, because all human activity -- industrial, commercial and private -- emits greenhouse gases. In fact, in a program document published by the Commission in February 2024, already under the aegis of von der Leyen, are plans to invest 1.5 trillion euros per year in decarbonizing the European Union, and to this end take authoritarian measures in all areas of human activity. The amount is equivalent to 10% of Europe's GDP -- every year. Apparently this policy is the uncompromising model found in every party in Germany, but apart from a war effort, there is no objective of any kind that has ever required the diversion of 10% of a continent's GDP by political decree.

• European funds, which are distributed to EU member states in various ways, will henceforth be "conditional on respect for the rule of law"... In other words, any deviation from the EU's ideological line, in any area, will be subject to financial sanctions - as is already happening with Hungary. This new direction for the EU will lead to the ideology of Western Europe being imposed on Eastern Europe: "open borders", environmentalism, the fight against "hate" -- but only "hate" from the right of the political spectrum.

• In particular, the aim is apparently to penalize social media networks that refuse to censor their users or, more precisely, that refuse to penalize their users in the way the EU wants... either X submits to the EU's ideology and censorship, or X will have a part of its global revenue confiscated.

• Again and again, the suggestion is set forth to build a European army, essentially supported by states such as Germany and Belgium, which... would already be incapable of defending their own borders without American assistance.

• [I]n accordance with the ECHR's case law, any illegal immigrants intercepted in the Mediterranean, even within sight of the African coast, must be brought to the European Union to exercise their "rights." A tenfold increase in the number of border guards would do nothing to change the law in force; as long as the law is not reformed, unlimited and unvetted migration in Europe will continue.

• [A] whole series of new regulations with global ambitions are announced, confirming the EU's claim to legislate not just for Europe, but for the world. For instance, a "European Oceans Pact" -- note the "s" in Oceans – is declared: evidently the EU claims to regulate all the world's oceans, whereas it only dips its toes in one.

• Of these groups, the center-right is by far the largest.... [But] It is the demands of the smallest group — environmentalists — that dominate....

• By refusing on principle ever to govern with real right-wing parties, the center-right guarantees that the left remains forever in power.

In a speech to the European Parliament on July 18, 2024, the President of the European Commission, Germany's Ursula von der Leyen, an outspoken environmentalist, set out her program for its next five years. It owes more to the Greens (53 MEPs) than to the center-right (188 MEPs). By refusing on principle ever to govern with real right-wing parties, the center-right guarantees that the left remains forever in power. When voting no longer serves any purpose, democracy dies. Pictured: Von der Leyen at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on July 18, 2024. (Photo by Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images)

In a speech to the European Parliament on July 18, 2024, the President of the European Commission, Germany's Ursula von der Leyen, an outspoken environmentalist, set out her program for its next five years. Here are some of the salient aspects of her proposal, strictly in line with her previous term of office.

1. The objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- 90% reduction by 2040, 100% by 2050 - is maintained. By definition, this reduction structures and determines the whole of the Commission's program, because all human activity -- industrial, commercial and private -- emits greenhouse gases. In fact, in a program document published by the Commission in February 2024, already under the aegis of von der Leyen, are plans to invest 1.5 trillion euros per year in decarbonizing the European Union, and to this end take authoritarian measures in all areas of human activity. The amount is equivalent to 10% of Europe's GDP -- every year. Apparently this policy is the uncompromising model found in every party in Germany, but apart from a war effort, there is no objective of any kind that has ever required the diversion of 10% of a continent's GDP by political decree.

2. European funds, which are distributed to EU member states in various ways, will henceforth be "conditional on respect for the rule of law". By the rule of law, the EU means a very specific and at the same time vague notion, enabling it to disqualify regimes and personalities with which it disagrees, principally but not exclusively, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary.

   In other words, any deviation from the EU's ideological line, in any area, will be subject to financial sanctions - as is already happening with Hungary. This new direction for the EU will lead to the ideology of Western Europe being imposed on Eastern Europe: "open borders", environmentalism, the fight against "hate" -- but only "hate" from the right of the political spectrum. For example, far-left MEP Rima Hassan frequently issues direct threats against colleagues who don't share her hatred of Israel, without any consequences. The countries of Eastern Europe are the main beneficiaries of EU funds. It remains to be seen whether Eastern Europe will be taken in.

3. "We will start by focusing on the implementation and enforcement of the digital laws adopted during the last mandate. Tech giants must assume responsibility for their enormous systemic power in our society and economy. We have begun the active enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. We will ramp up and intensify our enforcement in the coming mandate", explains von der Leyen. In particular, the aim is apparently to penalize social media networks that refuse to censor their users or, more precisely, that refuse to penalize their users in the way the EU wants. The first to be targeted is X, formerly known as Twitter, as Commissioner Thierry Breton has made no secret: either X submits to the EU's ideology and censorship, or X will have a part of its global revenue confiscated.
4. As has been stated for the last 80 years, a plan has been announced to construct a genuine "Europe of defence". Again and again, the suggestion is set forth to build a European army, essentially supported by states such as Germany and Belgium, which devote a royal 1% of GDP to their military defenses and which would already be incapable of defending their own borders without American assistance.
5. Von der Leyen also announced the tripling of the FRONTEX border guards to 30,000 staffers. The problem is that, under EU law and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), these border guards, whatever their numbers, are essentially providing a free ferry service between Africa and Europe. Indeed, in accordance with the ECHR's case law, any illegal immigrants intercepted in the Mediterranean, even within sight of the African coast, must be brought to the European Union to exercise their "rights." A tenfold increase in the number of border guards would do nothing to change the law in force; as long as the law is not reformed, unlimited and unvetted migration in Europe will continue. As von der Leyen points out: "We will always respect human rights and will ensure that those who have a right to stay can do so, and can receive essential support to integrate into communities."
6. Finally, a whole series of new regulations with global ambitions are announced, confirming the EU's claim to legislate not just for Europe, but for the world. For instance, a "European Oceans Pact" -- note the "s" in Oceans – is declared: evidently the EU claims to regulate all the world's oceans, whereas it only dips its toes in one.

Calculated in terms of purchasing power parity – meaning disregarding the strength of the dollar -- the average GDP per capita in the EU as of 2022 is 72% of the average GDP per American. Given that economic growth is higher every year in the United States than in the EU, this gap will only widen. This backwardness is confirmed by the innovation vitality of the American economy. In just one example, compare artificial intelligence, essentially an American innovation, to the lack of creativity in the European economy. NVIDIA's success is unthinkable in Europe.

Three factors might help to explain Europe's economic backwardness compared to the United States: the cost of energy, which is five to ten times higher in Europe than in the US; the greater difficulty in Europe of concentrating private capital to invest in R&D and finally, the pull of the "mad legislator", which is even worse in Europe than in the US. For example, Apple recently settled an EU investigation regarding its restriction on third-party developers accessing its payment technology, which could have led to a fine of 10% of its annual revenue for non-compliance. Apple's total net sales in 2023 were $383.3 billion, so a 10% fine would amount to $38.3 billion. Given Apple's operating income in Europe is $36.1 billion, non-compliance with EU regulations could result in fines exceeding its regional earnings.

How is it, when all these facts are known, that von der Leyen was reappointed to her post, while the Greens lost the European Parliament elections, and the right-wing parties of all persuasions won them by a wide margin? Perhaps this seeming paradox can be explained by the fact that the center-right, the largest party bloc in the European Parliament, is ideologically subservient to the left, on two levels: 1) by adhering to most of the dogmas of the left, starting with environmentalism, and 2) by refusing on principle any coalition with real right-wing parties such as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy or, in France, Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN).

This ensures that, while losing elections, the left can stay in power. The new von der Leyen majority consists of four parliamentary groups: the center-right, the socialists, the left-wing liberals and the far-left environmentalists. Of these groups, the center-right is by far the largest. It would therefore be logical for them to dominate von der Leyen's program. But that is not what takes place. It is the demands of the smallest group — environmentalists — that dominate: continuation of the Green Deal, total decarbonization by 2050.

European power is a mirror image of its two driving forces -- France and Germany -- where the center-right parties behave in the same way: ideological submission to the left and a ban on the right governing. In Germany, the right-wing political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), finds itself in a position to govern several regions with the center-right. But everywhere in Germany, the center-right prefers to ally with the left, the environmentalists, sometimes even the communists, than to govern with the AfD. In France, Le Pen's RN clearly won the European elections, then the first round of legislative elections. The center-right immediately announced that it preferred a victory for the far left and the communists to a victory for Le Pen.

The post-war European citizen has never voted so far to the right. He is harvesting a program that has never been so extremely left-wing. The von der Leyen program owes more to the Greens (53 MEPs) than to the center-right (188 MEPs). By refusing on principle ever to govern with real right-wing parties, the center-right guarantees that the left remains forever in power. When voting no longer serves any purpose, democracy dies.

This article is dedicated to Isolde.

Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain), philosopher (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain) and PhD in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is an entrepreneur, CEO of a European private education group and director of PAN Medias Group. He is the author of The Green Reich (2020).

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20822/eu-von-der-leyen-program

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The Fallacies of Kamala Harris - Steve Gruber

 

by Steve Gruber

Remember what Democrats say about America. Remember what Democrats have said about us. Most of all, remember to vote against Kamala Harris.

 

In a word, Kamala Harris is fallacious; Pete Buttigieg too. The two are “just plain weird,” which is what Harris calls President Trump. The two, Harris and Buttigieg, describe themselves when they disparage Trump’s vision or say JD Vance has a “strange worldview.” To Harris and Buttigieg, normality is abnormal; masculinity is sexist; pride—of country—is strange; and Americanism is just plain weird. To Harris and Buttigieg, whose silence about drag queens and dancers mocking “The Last Supper” speaks volumes, MAGA country is as alien to them as the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics is awful to us.

To the Democrat Party, which is a hate group with an ass for a mascot, we are deplorable. Were we anything else, we might deplore ourselves. But because we know what we believe, because we believe in certain immutable laws of natural law and of nature, because we believe in unalienable rights and the rightness of unalterable truths, that all men are created equal and all biological men are endowed—literally—by their Creator with XY chromosomes, we know God is great.

We also know America is great. Or, rather, we know we can and will make America great again. We know where we stand and what we stand for, in contrast to Harris and Buttigieg. We know Harris is unqualified to be president, that she sounds like a know-nothing, while Buttigieg sounds like he believes he knows everything.

The two combine Hillary Clinton’s brainless politics with Joe Biden’s brain-dead policies. The result is a hybrid, a Parisian crossbreed, with little or no appeal to tens of millions of Democrats and independents. The result is a dead end for sane Democrats, especially white males, for whom the predominant feeling is one of abandonment. The result is exile for men who are guilty of nothing save their love of God and country.

If the Democrat Party wants to leave these men behind, if the party wants to expel these men because of their race and gender, President Trump and JD Vance are glad to have them.

If Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg are too dumb to realize that divisiveness is a losing strategy, that subtraction is not how politicians win elections, we have no duty to stop them. If anything, we should encourage them.

The more they slander us, the better. The more they defame our character and insult our integrity, the worse their chances look. The worse they reveal themselves to be, the better and stronger (together) the chances for America are; because this nation, under God, shall be born again—in freedom—for all Americans, regardless of color or creed.

Whether Harris attacks us or makes Buttigieg her bitch, regardless of who the attack dog is, the attacks will not work.

President Trump knows how awful the attacks are.

He knows how awful Democrats were in response to an attack on his life, that they still do not believe the attack was real, that they still cannot believe the attack failed.

JD Vance also knows how awful the attackers are because he works with them.

To Democrats in the Senate, Vance is neither a colleague nor an opponent. He is neither an American nor a Republican, but a stereotype—a caricature—of Democrat propaganda. He is the newest target to be put in a bullseye by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. That Vance is a Marine and a veteran, that his service to the nation precedes his service in the Senate, that the former is the highest form of public service, is of no interest to Democrats.

That Vance is also a success, that he is a self-made man in the truest sense, that he continues to write his story—that his memoir ends with a new beginning—is what makes him unacceptable to Democrats. For this reason alone, Democrats hate him.

Everything that makes Vance’s story relatable, that inspires Americans to read his story, for his is an American story of resolve and redemption, is what Democrats despise.

Everything that makes Vance a national candidate makes him anathema to Democrats. And because he is President Trump’s running mate, everything Democrats say about Trump also applies to Vance.

Of course Vance’s life is weird—to Kamala Harris.

Of course Vance’s lifestyle is strange—to Pete Buttigieg.

Of course faith and freedom are strange to these Democrats, for whom these principles are meaningless.

When Democrats do everything to estrange themselves from the ideals of their party, when they forsake the plain speech of Harry Truman or the promise of John F. Kennedy’s best speeches, when the only pledge they make is to themselves, they make themselves strangers in our land.

Because we know Kamala Harris is no Truman and Pete Buttigieg is no Kennedy, and because everyone knows Joe Biden is a plagiarist who pretends he is a Kennedy, we refuse to pretend things are fine.

Do not expect the attacks to diminish or go away, because a party that would remake America in the tenor of the Paris Olympics will not hesitate to embrace the terror of the French Revolution.

Remember what Democrats say about America. Remember what Democrats have said about us. Most of all, remember to vote against Kamala Harris.

 

Steve Gruber is the host of America’s Voice Live, which airs daily on Real America’s Voice TV

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/08/02/the-fallacies-of-kamala-harris/

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Biden admin freezes controversial migrant flight program after fraud revelations - Adam Shaw

 

by Adam Shaw

DHS told Fox News Digital the move came 'out of an abundance of caution'

 

 

FOX EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration has put a controversial program that allows tens of thousands of migrants from four nations to fly or travel directly into the U.S. on hold, after a report circulated internally showing significant amounts of fraud in the program.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to Fox News Digital that "out of an abundance of caution," it has temporarily paused the issuing of advance travel authorizations for the program — which allows up to 30,000 nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) to travel into the U.S. each month and enter legally under the administration's use of parole if they meet certain conditions. 

A congressional source had told Fox News Digital the pause came in mid-July after an internal report unearthed large amounts of fraud in applications for those sponsoring the applicants. DHS said the pause was occurring as it reviewed sponsor applications. The focus is on issues with supporter filings, and not with the filings from the beneficiaries of the program themselves.

DHS DOCS REVEAL WHERE PAROLED MIGRANTS UNDER CONTROVERSIAL BIDEN FLIGHT PROGRAM ARE LANDING 

A migrant flight takes off to Chicago from Texas on Dec. 19, 2023. (Texas Gov. Greg Abbott)

"DHS has review mechanisms in place to detect and prevent fraud and abuse in our immigration processes. DHS takes any abuse of its processes very seriously," a DHS spokesperson said. "Where fraud is identified, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will investigate and litigate applicable cases in immigration court and make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice." 

"Out of an abundance of caution, DHS has temporarily paused the issuance of advanced travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it undertakes a review of supporter applications. DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards," they said.

The program was initially announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, and allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S., and passed certain biometric and biographical vetting. The program does not itself facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel.

In January 2023, the administration announced that the program was expanding to include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans and that the program would allow up to 30,000 people per month into the U.S. It allows for migrants to receive work permits and a two-year authorization to live in the U.S. and was announced alongside an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities.

A congressional source tells Fox News Digital that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stopped issuing travel authorizations to Venezuelans on July 6 and authorizations for the three remaining nationalities on July 18.

The internal report found that forms from those applying for the program included social security numbers, addresses and phone numbers being used hundreds of times in some cases.

Parts of the report shared with Fox News Digital by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative immigration group, showed that 100,948 forms were filled out by 3,218 serial sponsors — those whose number appears on 20 or more forms.

‘ILLEGAL PROGRAM': GOVERNOR VOWS TO FIGHT BIDEN FLYING MIGRANTS INTO US

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently said the CHNV parole program "is a key element of our efforts to address the unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere, and other countries around the world see it as a model to tackle the challenge of increased irregular migration that they too are experiencing." (Getty Images)

It also found that 24 of the 1,000 most used numbers belonged to a dead person. Meanwhile, 100 physical addresses were used between 124 and 739 times on over 19,000 forms. Those addresses included storage units. One sponsor phone number was submitted on over 2,000 forms, and there were 2,839 forms with non-existent sponsor zip codes, according to the leak.

The report was created by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate to ensure DHS can quickly respond to fraud in immigration benefits programs. Sponsors must pass security and background vetting and demonstrate financial resources to support the individual they are sponsoring.

DHS stressed to Fox News Digital that CHNV beneficiaries are "thoroughly screened and vetted prior to their arrival to the United States." 

"The multi-layered screening and vetting for advanced travel authorizations is separate from the screening of U.S.-based supporters," the spokesperson said. "DHS has not identified issues of concern relating to the screening and vetting of beneficiaries." 

The freeze is likely to raise additional questions from Republicans, who have alleged that the Biden administration’s use of parole is an abuse of congressionally granted authority — which limits the power to be used only for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.

"This is an indication that the administration was willing to cut every corner and endanger public safety in order to bring in as many illegal aliens as they could," Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for FAIR, told Fox News Digital.

The administration is also using the CBP One app to allow 1,450 migrants to enter the U.S. via a port of entry each day. It recently announced a "parole in place" for spouses of illegal immigrants. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Video

 

 

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently said the program is a "safe and orderly way to reach the United States" and has "led to a reduction in numbers of those nationalities."

"It is a key element of our efforts to address the unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere, and other countries around the world see it as a model to tackle the challenge of increased irregular migration that they too are experiencing," Mayorkas said.

DHS revealed this year that, as of October 2023, there were about 1.6 million applicants waiting for DHS approval to fly to the U.S. via the parole program.

A lawsuit challenging the program was shot down earlier this year, but Republican states who filed it have indicated they intend to appeal.

 

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-freezes-controversial-migrant-flight-program-after-fraud-revelations

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Diabolical 9/11 plotter with plea deal from Pentagon planned even more carnage for United States - Steven Richards

 

by Steven Richards

The attacks carried out with his planning on that fateful September day were only a sliver of the terror the Osama bin Laden confidant wanted to carry out on the United States.

 

As the passage of 23 years fades the nation’s memory, the terrorist who has now received a plea deal from the Biden administration was a diabolical plotter who planned even more insidious carnage than what the terrorists achieved in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Wednesday that it had reached a plea deal with notorious 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of his accomplices after more than 16 years after they were first prosecuted.

It turns out that the attacks carried out with his planning on September 11 were only a sliver of the terror the Osama bin Laden confidant wanted to carry out on the United States.

The plea deal, which takes the death penalty off the table, was greeted by astonishment by many Americans for whom the scars of the 9/11 attacks are still felt, even after more than two decades and as the younger generations are less connected to the event.

“The prosecution and families have waited 23 years to have our day in court to put on the record what these animals did to our loved ones. They took that opportunity away from us," retired police officer Jim Smith, whose wife Moira Smith was a NYPD officer who died in the attacks, told the New York Post.

"They committed the worst crime in the history of our country, they should receive the highest penalty."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was personally tasked with planning the 9/11 terror attacks by Osama bin Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda, in 1998. But, Mohammed’s original plans for the attacks were much more extensive and intended to cause carnage on both the East and West coasts.

He originally approached bin Laden in 1996 and proposed a plan to hijack ten commercial airplanes and fly them into targets across the United States—five on the East coast and five on the West coast. However, bin Laden reportedly believed this plan to be impractical, eventually leading to the scaled-down version that the terrorists carried out on 9/11.

Mohammed told investigators he went to bin Laden "to give him money and operatives so he could hijack 10 planes in the United States and fly them into targets,” the Associated Press reported in 2003.

One of those would-be targets was identified as the U.S. Bank Tower—called the Library Tower at the time—in Los Angeles. It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at the time.

The core of his original plans was borrowed from a foiled 1995 terror plot he hatched, known as the Bojinka plot, where he planned to blow up 12 airliners across Southeast Asia, according to the Associated Press. Mohammed’s scaled-up plan, which was based on this plot, was ultimately refined with the help of bin Laden, who believed the plan was too ambitious, Mohammed told U.S. authorities during an interrogation.

Mohammed has been detained by the United States government more than 20 years and families of 9/11 victims have been waiting a long time for him to stand trial and see justice done. However, many have been stung by plea deal, which means that Mohammed and his co-conspirators will not face the death penalty for their crimes. “They committed the worst crime in the history of our country, they should receive the highest penalty,” Jim Smith told the New York Post.

Other family members echoed Smith’s sentiments.

"I am angry and disappointed that enemy combatants who killed thousands of Americans in our homeland are now able to exploit the US judicial system to their benefit, receiving support from American taxpayers for shelter, food, and healthcare for the rest of their lives,” another retired police officer, Kathy Vigiano whose husband was killed on 9/11, told the Post.

“I am very disappointed. We waited patiently for a long time. I wanted the death penalty — the government has failed us,” said Daniel D’Allara, whose twin brother was also killed that day.

It is not clear yet what the other specific terms of the plea deals include, but the three co-defendants will reportedly plead guilty to the murder of the 2,976 people killed on 9/11 in addition to other charges. In exchange, they will receive life imprisonment, rather than the death penalty.

In a letter to the family members of victims, the Defense Department justified its decision to pursue the plea agreements. It wrote that its decision to settle the cases “was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case,” according to NPR.

Part of the reason for the delays turns on the fact that the 9/11 defendants were allegedly tortured in CIA prisons. Attorneys have spent years arguing whether evidence obtained through torture would be admissible in court. After a judge threw out a confession obtained using torture last year related to the suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, the Defense Department may have taken that case as a warning for prosecutors to make the plea deal with the 9/11 defendants. 

 
Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/diabolical-911-plotter-plea-deal-biden-admin-planned-even-more-carnage-united-states

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In the IDF's crosshairs: Remaining Hamas leadership recalculate after eliminations - analysis - Amir Bohbot

 

by Amir Bohbot

Hamas leadership in crisis after IDF kills top figures Deif and Haniyeh, leaving Sinwar under pressure in Gaza.

 

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's political chief in Gaza, speaks during a rally organised by the representatives of prominent families (mokhtar) in support of "the Palestinian resistence" in Gaza City, on June 20, 2021.

(photo credit: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

The assassination of Mohammed Deif, Hamas's military wing leader, and the assassination of the organization's political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, will force Hamas's remaining leadership to reassess their strategy and to remain in hiding. They could be next in line for assassination.

The main pressure now falls on Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who is nearly alone in leading the terror organization in the Strip.

His younger brother, Mohammed Sinwar, might succeed the military wing leader, Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an IDF attack in Khan Younis about two weeks ago. Alongside him, the brigade commanders still operating in the Strip might receive promotions.

Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran Wednesday, is expected to be replaced by his colleagues in the organization's political leadership, Khaled Mashaal or Mousa Abu Marzouk.

Mohammed Deif confirmed killed

The IDF and Shin Bet confirmed on Thursday, after several weeks of tense waiting, that Mohammed Deif was killed in the attack in Khan Younis. In the same attack, Deif's deputy, the commander of Hamas's Khan Yunis Brigade, Rafa’a Salameh, was also killed.

Yahya Sinwar (credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

This followed an earlier announcement by Hamas that Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli bombing in Tehran, where he was visiting to attend the inauguration of Iran's new president.

According to the Iranian news agency, the house where Haniyeh was staying was booby-trapped. The Revolutionary Guards announced an investigation had been opened, and it was reported that one of Haniyeh's bodyguards also died in the attack. Haniyeh's body was transferred to Qatar, where he was buried after a ceremony held in Tehran.

Amir Bohbot

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-813022

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Barrage of rockets launched at Upper Galilee in Israel's North - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

There were no reports of casualties from the barrage. However, KAN news reported that a fire broke out in the moshav of Beit Hillel due to the launch.

 

Iron dome anti-missile system fires interception missiles as rockets fired from Lebanon, as it seen over Kiryat Shmona, March 5, 2024.

(photo credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

At around 00:24 a.m., multiple alerts sounded across northern Israel. Some cities and towns where the sirens were heard included Kiryat Shmona, Metualla, Beit Hillel, HaGoshrim, and Kfar Yuval.

Social media footage showed a barrage of rockets crossing into the Upper Galilee from Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday as dozens of rockets were launched at the area, Israeli media reported.

יירוטים במטח הרקטות האחרון לעבר קריית שמונה והסביבה@rubih67
(צילום: 27א') pic.twitter.com/ajIdamKilg

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 3, 2024

The footage circulating on social media appeared to show some of the rockets being intercepted. There were no reports of casualties from the barrage. However, KAN news reported that a fire broke out in the moshav of Beit Hillel due to the launch. 

On Saturday evening before the barrage, The Kiryat Shmona municipality told its residents to stay near safe rooms due to IDF military operations in the area and to reduce movement in the city.

Heightened tensions in the Middle East 

The barrage comes as tension remains high between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah after Israel killed Hezbollah's military commander, Fuad Shukr, last week.

Fuad Shukr. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Israel's strike on Shukr came following a Hezbollah rocket launch last Saturday, which resulted in the deaths of 12 children from the Druze town of Majdal Shams. 

In addition, Iran has vowed to attack Israel directly following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday last week. 

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-813144

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Kamala 'Chameleon'? Trump’s new line of attack hits Harris on shifting background - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

Harris was born to a Jamaican father, Donald Jasper Harris, and an Indian mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan Harris. GOP VP nominee Vance said, “What I question is why she presents a different posture depending on which audience that she’s in front of."

 

Former President Donald Trump’s latest approach to Vice President Kamala Harris has been to cast her as a chameleon who adjusts her professed background, beliefs, and persona to match relevant audiences and whom the voters cannot trust to truthfully represent herself or her campaign.

"The contrast could not be more stark,” Trump said at a rally in Harrisburg, Pa. “On the one hand, you have a radical left puppet candidate who is fake, fake, fake, and on the other hand, You have a president who will fight, fight for America.”

Just below Trump on the ticket, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, suggested Thursday that Harris had a “fundamental chameleon-like nature” and adjusted her persona to her audience, NOTUS reported. "When asked by a reporter explicitly if he questions whether Harris is Black, Vance said, 'What I question is why she presents a different posture depending on which audience that she’s in front of.'"

The Trump team’s lines of attack have largely addressed her ever-changing self-description of her ethnic background and what he saw as a shift in the vice president’s presentation of it. Harris, Trump has contended, previously emphasized her Indian heritage but has shifted focus toward her black background amid her ascent to the top of the party ticket.

Harris was born to a Jamaican father, Donald Jasper Harris, and an Indian mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan Harris. Both immigrated to the U.S. in the late 20th century. Throughout her career, the media has emphasized different components of her diverse background.

The vice president’s campaign and her supporters have heavily emphasized her racial background. Her campaign hauled in roughly $200 million within the first week of her candidacy, with much of that sum stemming from Zoom calls directed to and inviting specific gender and/or racial groups. Those calls heavily emphasized Harris’s racial background and invoked concepts such as “white privilege” in justifying their support for Harris. Reason magazine said "There were a lot of privilege acknowledgments, paired with scorn for any white women who might use their privilege in ways that Democrats don't like."

 “We are here because… BIPOC women have tapped us in as white women to step up, listen, and get involved this election season,” influence Arielle Fodor said in a now-infamous Zoom call directed to white women. A separate Zoom call organized by the Win with Black Woman coalition saw participants refer to Harris as “our sister.”

But Trump has insisted that Harris’s representation of her heritage has been varying and opportunistic, asserting that she was a “phony.”

Trump suggests Harris flipped racial identities

Speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention on Wednesday, Trump addressed Harris’s ancestry, saying “I’ve known her a long time, indirectly… and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage.”

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” he added. 

Harris, has previously stated that her mother raised her as a black woman. She attended Howard University, a historically black institution. The remarks drew a litany of condemnatory headlines and drew sharp reactions from black officials in the Biden administration, such as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

But Trump and the campaign have doubled down, evidently hoping to shape the narrative. Two advisors to Trump told Just the News that his raising the issue of Harris’s background at the NABJ was deliberate and designed to get her discussing race rather than her prosecutorial record, which she had highlighted in contrast to Trump’s status as a convicted felon.

Harris fakes a southern accent

The black vote is of critical importance to the Democratic Party, particularly in southern swing states such as North Carolina and Georgia. Harris, for her part, held a rally in Atlanta this week with rapper Megan Thee Stallion, in part hoping to galvanize that portion of the electorate.

Fueling Trump’s attacks was an awkward moment from that event in which Harris herself faked a southern accent, telling supporters that "You all helped us win in 2020, and we gon' do it again in 2024.”

"Did you hear a new accent? If I ever did that... I'd have a week of Hell if I ever tried to do that,” Trump said at the Harrisburg rally, referencing the incident.

 

JUST IN: VP Kamala Harris unveils her new southern accent in Atlanta, Georgia.

"You all helped us in 2020, and we gon' do it again in twenty twenty fouah."

Harris also bragged about her track record on illegal immigration.

"I will proudly put my record against his any day of… pic.twitter.com/pe4yeQlNvJ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 30, 2024

Cooking with Mindy Kaling

Trump’s initial remarks at the NABJ drew critical headlines, but he insists on highlighting Harris’s own past public embrace of her Indian heritage. After his remarks, he subsequently posted video footage of Harris with actress Mindy Kaling in which Harris affirmed that she was Indian. Kaling, whose real name is Vera Mindy Chokalingam, is of Indian descent, and was born in Cambridge, Mass.

“Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black. This is a big deal. Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!” Trump posted.

The clip dates from Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign and shows Harris and Kaling preparing to cook an Indian recipe while discussing their shared Indian background.

“Ok, so what we’re gonna cook today is an Indian recipe, because you are Indian,” Kaling told Harris, to which she replied “yes.”

“I don’t know that everybody knows that,” Kaling went on. “But I find that, wherever I go, and I see Indian people at the supermarket, everyone is like ‘you know Kamala Harris is Indian right?’ It’s like our thing we are so excited about to like have you running for president.”

“So, we are both Indian, but actually we’re both South Indian,” Kaling continued. Harris then claimed that she was raised eating South Indian food and stated that Kaling resembled “one–half of my family.”

Picture with grandparents and sister

Trump on Thursday posted a photo of Harris with her grandparents and sister Meena clad in traditional Indian clothing. The photo shows Harris sporting a Bindi, a traditional Hindu forehead mark worn by women.

The exact date of the photo is somewhat unclear, but is decades old.

“Thank you Kamala for the nice picture you sent from many years ago! Your warmth, friendship, and love of your Indian Heritage are very much appreciated,” Trump said.

Kamala ‘chameleon’

Trump himself is not the only Republican to raise the issue. His running mate, JD Vance, defended Trump’s NABJ remarks during a campaign appearance in Arizona.

“So what he said, I thought it was hysterical. I think he pointed out the fundamental chameleon-like nature of Kamala Harris,” Vance said, according to NOTUS. And you guys saw yesterday, she was in Georgia, and she put on a southern accent for a Georgia audience. She grew up in Vancouver. What the hell is going on here? She is not who she pretends to be.”

“What I question is why she presents a different posture depending on which audience that she’s in front of,” he added.

"While Phony Kamala Harris is fake, fake[,] fake – President Trump is going to fight, fight, fight to make America great again!" Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Just the News.

 

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/frichameleon-kamala-trumps-new-line-attack-hits-harris-shifting-background

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