The first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate says Kamala Harris “got it wrong” when she criticized Joe Biden over racial issues during a Democratic debate last week.
Carol
Moseley Braun, who represented Illinois in the Senate for one term,
from 1993 to 1999, said it was “sad” that Harris, a U.S. senator from
California, chose to attack Biden, the former vice president and U.S.
senator from Delaware.
“We can be proud of her nonetheless, but
her ambition got it wrong about Joe,” Moseley Braun said, according to
Politico. “He is about the best there is. For her to take that tack is
sad.”
“We
can be proud of her nonetheless, but her ambition got it wrong about
Joe. He is about the best there is. For her to take that tack is sad.” — Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. senator
During
last Thursday’s debate in Miami, Harris blasted Biden’s decades-ago
work with segregationist senators, making the point personal by
explaining she was a member of only the second class of black children
in California to be bused to school in an effort to force desegregation.
Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. (Associated Press)
“That little girl was me,” Harris told the former vice president.
The
confrontation was viewed as a key moment for Harris, whom some claimed
had “won” the debate among 10 candidates. Harris’s campaign said it
raised more than $2 million in the 24 hours immediately after the debate.
Some of the money came from sales of $30 T-shirts with a photo of Harris as a child and the quote from the debate.
Biden, meanwhile, got involved in another race-related controversy the next day, when he made a remark in Chicago.
“That
kid wearing a hoodie may very well be the next poet laureate and not a
gangbanger," Biden said during a speech at the headquarters of the
Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a group of nonprofits organized by the Rev.
Jesse Jackson.
The comment drew backlash from Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and others, who took issue with Biden’s choice of words.
Moseley Braun, meanwhile, continues to stand by Biden, Politico reported. The 71-year-old Chicago native had previously endorsed Biden for president, the report said. Fox News’ Brie Stimson and Danielle Wallace contributed to this story.
Fox News' Raymond Arroyo guest hosted "The Ingraham Angle"
Tuesday and gave a concise explanation on why pride in America has
decreased in recent years and what America's past will teach citizens as
they approach the future.
"Obviously partisanship is accelerating
this dwindling pride in the country and frankly it shouldn't. No matter
who's elected president, no matter who's calling the shots in Congress
that should in no way disturb our love of country," Arroyo said
referencing a Gallup poll showing pride the country at an all time low.
"The
freedoms we enjoy, the prosperity all around us, the liberty that we
too often take for granted. Part of our problem is there's so little
that unites us today."
Arroyo criticized those that have
disparaged the founders and history of America, claiming that these
actions have eroded the one thing that united this diverse nation.
"This
was a republic founded on an ideal not blood or race but an ideal of
freedom and self governance. It was predicated on morality and common
purpose. But over the last few decades we have run down the reputation
of the founders, disparaged even the founding itself and strafed our own
history. Today we're fighting over Betsy Ross' flag," Arroyo said,
referencing a Wall Street Journal report
that former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick asked Nike to shelve a
shoe featuring the Betsy Ross version of the American flag because it
was racist.
The Fox Nation personality argued that scrutinizing history would only further divide the country.
"This
self-loathing to this destructive cultural crusade to strike the memory
of any individual that fails to measure up to the shifting mores of the
day will only further divide us and hasten our forgetting of self,"
Arroyo said.
"History is made by human beings who are by their
nature flawed and broken and admit their failings are great lessons that
cannot and should not be forgotten."
Arroyo said that what makes us proud to be American is overcoming our shortcomings.
"We
owe it to our children to offer them the whole American story the good,
the bad, the sins and the glory. How else will they learn how to avoid
in the future or to emulate. And what to be proud of as Americans,"
Arroyo said.
Fareed Zakaria,
the CNN anchor, on Sunday said it “pains” him to admit it, but
President Trump was correct that the U.S. finds itself in a crisis with
asylum system and the number of new arrivals.
The host of “Fareed
Zakaria GPS,” was also critical of asylum rules that he called “vague,
laxed and being gamed.” Zakaria said asylum was initially intended for a
small number of people in the most extreme circumstances, not as a
process of immigration in itself. He said the rules need to be
“substantially tightened."
He pointed out that “many” current asylum-seekers often have “suspiciously similar stories” and employ “identical phrases.”
“Democrats
have spent most of their efforts on this topic, assailing the Trump
administration for its heartlessness,” he said. “Fine. But that does not
address the roots of this genuine crisis. If things continue to spiral
downward and America's southern border seems out of control, Trump's
tough rhetoric and hard-line stance will become increasingly attractive
to the public.”
A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a
Trump administration policy that would keep thousands of asylum-seekers
locked up while they pursue their cases, saying the Constitution demands
that such migrants have a chance to be released from custody.
The
Justice Department did not immediately return an email seeking comment
from the AP, but the government was expected to quickly appeal the
decision. The Associated Press contributed to this report
Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale
isn't worried about whoever emerges as the Democratic challenger next
year and is confident the president will win four more years in the
White House.
"I think the president could beat anybody. The
momentum we're seeing right now. I mean look... one hundred five million
raised, a hundred million cash on hand. What we're seeing overall the
president success is overseas, the momentum behind this president right
now is like nothing that history has ever seen," Parscale said Tuesday
on "The Story with Martha MacCallum"
dismissing Democratic presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren, Kamala
Harris and Pete Buttigieg's rise in the polls and campaign fundraising.
The Trump campaign announced Tuesday that its re-election operation raised a whopping $105 million in the second quarter, significantly more than Democrats have been pulling in.
A Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday
showed Joe Biden at 22 percent, down 8 points from a prior poll in
June. Harris, meanwhile, soared from just 7 percent to 20 percent in the
latest survey, putting her in a statistical tie with the Democratic
powerhouse. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren held steady at 14
percent.
Parscale touted Trump's success in his presidency so far, saying that will fuel his re-election.
"We're
not even in the main portion of the campaign yet where we're already
raising large numbers, this president in the voice he has, the message
he can control, in the way he can control what's happening on the media.
No one can touch this," Parscale said.
"And I think the president is set for four more years."
MacCallum
asked the campaign manager how the president would respond to the
promises being made by Democrats including free college and health care.
Parscale gave Trump red for correcting the Affordable Care Act and said
the administration would have to talk about the "rising college
prices.
Parscale also said Republican and Latino voters looked "strong" for 2020.
"I
think the Republican Party is in a strong position with Latino voters
and other demographics. I think the Republic Party is on a straight
course to more victories win back the House lead the Senate and have
four more years of President Trump so I'm not worried about it one bit,"
Parscale said. Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk is launching a massive get-out-the-vote campaign Tuesday aimed at identifying and enlisting 1 million student supporters of President Trump ahead of the 2020 election.
The
“Students for Trump” campaign will look to target students on more than
300 campuses, in what Kirk describes as the biggest operation of its
kind.
“This is the most aggressive voter identification GOTV
program targeting students on college campuses for a Republican
president ever,” Kirk told Fox News. “The road to the White House goes
straight through college campuses and the left is targeting a lot of
their messages on policy directly toward students—student loan
forgiveness, unrealistic socialist programs—we’re doing everything we
can to make sure Trump does get re-elected.” WATCH CHARLIE KIRK ON 'FOX & FRIENDS' TUESDAY AT 6:30 A.M.
The project is affiliated with Kirk's conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA.
The Students for Trump push originally was launched last election cycle
by conservative commentator Ryan Fournier, who then partnered with Kirk
and Turning Point USA to expand its reach.
Kirk told Fox News
that “Students for Trump” has a budget of $15 million, 150 staffers and a
presence on more than 1,400 college campuses due to its affiliation
with Turning Point USA. He described it as a “nationwide effort” with a
“hyper-focus” on key swing states.
Kirk told Fox News that the
goal is to “identify” Republicans on campuses and motivate them to the
polls with pro-Trump rallies, voter registration events, digital
advertising and more.
“We’re going to encourage students to vote
in the states where their campuses are,” Kirk said,
specifically referring to students at colleges in Florida, North
Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Ohio—key
states critical to a Trump victory.
“Democrats believe that this
is their path of least resistance—that they’ll be able to waltz onto
campuses, put their messages across with little to no cross-examination,
and what we’re doing is going to be a very large component,” Kirk said.
He'll have his work cut out for him.
According to a Gallup poll from March, only 28 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 approve of the president’s job performance.
And
Democratic presidential candidates indeed are openly appealing to
students with student loan forgiveness programs and other promises of
free or subsidized higher education.
Kirk argued, though, that
“Students for Trump” will bring “much-needed sobriety and reality to
political promises being made by the left.”
“The probability that
these gallivanting politicians will be able to forgive massive student
loan debt and deliver free health care is quite low,” he said. “It would
add decreased economic mobility and freedom and opportunity, and adding
this type of reality is so overdue and needed.”
Kirk added that
while it is “very difficult to run up against an entire political party”
pushing for student loan forgiveness, he argued that “a large part of
the college population includes students who went to community college
first and worked their way through college.”
“The majority of
students do have student loan debt, but there are a fair amount of
students that work and have been paying off their student loans
religiously—do they get any form of reimbursement?” Kirk said. “We will
target those students in these key states that have worked their way
through college—and there are plenty of them.”
Kirk added that the
issue of student loan debt forgiveness is being used by Democrats as “a
carrot to make more students go vote for them, despite the unrealistic
nature of it.”
“We see Trump policies working for young people,
whether it be the best economy, lowest unemployment, or wages finally
going up for the middle class—we want to get that reality out there in
the face of a massive Democrat campaign,” Kirk said. “The battle of
ideas is going to be more consequential on college campuses in the next
18 months than I think ever before.”
The president's eldest son is expected to be involved with some of the group's events.
“I
am thrilled to see [Kirk] and his successful team focus on motivating
and turning our college students to help my father get reelected in
2020,” Donald Trump Jr. said in a statement.
The Students for Trump launch party is scheduled to be held next month in Las Vegas, timed with the start of the fall semester.
Just don’t do it.
That was the message ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick
delivered to Nike over the planned release of a USA-themed sneaker,
which featured a Betsy Ross flag on the heel, according to a report.
Nike
nixed the released of the Air Max 1 USA after having already sent the
sneakers to retailers because the protesting quarterback said he felt
the use of the Betsy Ross flag was offensive and carried slavery
connotations, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nike nixed the released of
the Air Max 1 USA after complaints from ex-NFL quarterback Colin
Kaepernick.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal’s report stated:
“After images of the shoe were posted online, Mr. Kaepernick, a Nike
endorser, reached out to company officials saying that he and others
felt the Betsy Ross flag is an offensive symbol because of its
connection to an era of slavery.”
"Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth
of July as it featured the old version of the American flag," a
spokeswoman reportedly said.
In response, a Nike spokeswoman told the Journal:
“Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of
July as it featured the old version of the American flag.”
The sneaker originally was slated to be released on Monday, and posts hyping its release said it would cost $140.
Kaepernick,
the former quarterback who famously kneeled during the National Anthem
starting in 2016, was named as the face of Nike’s latest “Just Do It”
campaign last year. After the announcement, Nike’s stock initially fell
more than 3 percent, before online sales increased.
A report from Edison Trends
said the company’s online sales grew 31 percent the week the campaign
was launched. The surge was stronger than the 17 percent increase
recorded last year during the same period, the report stated.
“There
was speculation that the Nike/Kaepernick campaign would lead to a drop
in sales but the data does not support that theory,” the company said in
a statement.
It's
standard practice in presidential politics: Candidates move to the left
(or right) to win the nomination, then tack toward the center in the
general election.
But the Democrats are in danger of marching so far left that they go over a cliff.
That's
not just my view. Mainstream reporters, who tend to be less sensitive
to liberal positions that match their personal views, are openly
acknowledging and debating the dramatic shift. It was even on the front
page of The New York Times.
For those whose most fervent desire is
to evict Donald Trump from the White House, there's growing concern
that the Democrats are blowing it.
The
two debates in Miami last week crystallized how most of the candidates
are taking stances that would antagonize many millions of Americans once
you get out of the liberal bubble.
And the few contenders who are
positioning themselves as left-of-center moderates are muting those
views in the face of palpable progressive pressure. So with Trump
already signaling that he plans to run against a socialist party, they —
including Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar — are being lumped in with the
left-wingers.
We're talking here about big, fundamental stuff,
especially on health insurance and immigration. And in some instances,
these are positions that no presidential candidate other than Bernie
would have dared take in 2016. But now, the aspirants are torn between
the burning desire to beat Trump and the overwhelming urge to be in
lockstep with a "woke" party. And those two imperatives are coming into
direct conflict.
The
Democrats are now a party where all 10 candidates on stage raised their
hands to support health services for illegal immigrants. As recently as
2016, Hillary Clinton drew flak for not having fully embraced a New
York plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. And no one
aggressively challenged Julian Castro when he called for decriminalizing
illegal border crossings.
The Democrats are now a party where
several top contenders (including Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris,
despite the latter's subsequent attempt to fudge the issue) support
government-run health care that would abolish private medical insurance
for more than 150 million Americans.
The Democrats are now a party calling for free college tuition or free community college, which would be hugely expensive.
The Times news story
flat-out declares the debates showed that "many of the leading
presidential candidates are breaking with the incremental politics of
the Clinton and Obama eras, and are embracing sweeping liberal policy
changes on some of the most charged public issues in American life, even
at the risk of political backlash."
And: "With moderate Democrats
repeatedly drowned out or on the defensive in the debates, the sprint
to the left has deeply unnerved establishment Democrats, who have
largely picked the party nominees in recent decades."
Two leading
Clintonites, James Carville and Rahm Emanuel, are on the record as
ripping the leftward march. Says Carville: "This is an election that
Trump can’t win but Democrats can lose."
Even more biting are pieces by two moderately conservative but anti-Trump columnists for the Times.
David Brooks, who says he couldn't vote for Trump in a million years, writes under the headline "Dems, Please Don't Drive Me Away":
"The
party is moving toward all sorts of positions that drive away moderates
and make it more likely the nominee will be unelectable. And it's doing
it without too much dissent."
Brooks says, for instance, that
"Democrats are wandering into dangerous territory on immigration. They
properly trumpet the glories immigrants bring to this country. But the
candidates can't let anybody get to the left of them on this issue. So
now you've got a lot of candidates who sound operationally open borders.
Progressive parties all over the world are getting decimated because
they have fallen into this pattern."
Bret Stephens says the Dems are becoming "a party that makes too many Americans feel like strangers in their own country."
He goes into an us-versus-them riff:
"They
speak Spanish. We don't. They are not U.S. citizens or legal residents.
We are. They broke the rules to get into this country. We didn't. They
pay few or no taxes. We already pay most of those taxes. They willingly
got themselves into debt. We're asked to write it off. They don't pay
the premiums for private health insurance. We're supposed to give up
ours in exchange for some V.A.-type nightmare. They didn't start
enterprises that create employment and drive innovation."
And when
a candidate like Biden offers more incremental change, essentially a
return to the Obama era, he is mocked and dismissed for living in the
past.
It's not like the hard-left proposals will be magically
forgotten in the fall of 2020. The Democrats sure are giving Trump
plenty of ammunition.
President Trump sat down with Fox News host Tucker Carlson for an exclusive interview during his visit to Japan for the G20 summit and shared his plans to combat rising homelessness and mental illness in America.
During
the interview, Trump told Carlson he is "looking at it very seriously"
and said some people forced to live on the streets are "living in hell."
"It's
disgraceful. I'm going to maybe and I'm looking at it very seriously,"
Trump said. "We're doing some other things that you probably noticed
like some of the very important things that we're doing now. But we're
looking at it very seriously because you can't do that.
"You can't
have what's happening -- where police officers are getting sick just by
walking the beat. I mean, they're getting actually very sick, where
people are getting sick, where the people living there living in hell,
too."
Trump
continued, saying most people suffering from homelessness have an
accompanying mental illness and sometimes don't realize they're living
in their own filth. He also said the issue needs to be addressed before
it starts affecting healthy working people as well.
"Some of them
have mental problems where they don't even know they're living that
way," he said. "In fact, perhaps they like living that way. They can't
do that. We cannot ruin our cities. And you have people that work in
those cities. They work in office buildings and to get into the
building, they have to walk through a scene that nobody would have
believed possible three years ago."
Trump blamed the liberal
politicians for exacerbating the problem and said he's been fighting
them on all fronts, including within the city limits of Washington, D.C.
"And
this is the liberal establishment. This is what I'm fighting," he
added. "They -- I don't know if they're afraid of votes. I don't know if
they really believe that this should be taking place. But it's a
terrible thing that's taking place. And we may be -- you know, I had a
situation when I first became president, we had certain areas of
Washington, D.C. where that was starting to happen, and I ended it very
quickly.
"When
we have leaders of the world coming in to see the President of the
United States and they're riding down a highway, they can't be looking
at that. I really believe that it hurts our country.
"They can't be looking at scenes like you see in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
San Francisco... so we're looking at it very seriously. We may
intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up.
It's inappropriate."
Trump also said it shouldn't fall on the
federal government to address the issue, but didn't give any indication
that it would deter his administration from getting involved.
"We're
really not very equipped as a government to be doing that kind of
work," he told Carlson. "That's not really the kind of work that the
government probably should be doing. We've never had this in our lives
before in our country. And it's not only those few cities, it's a
couple of other ones."
The president's comments came after figures released last month stated the number of homeless people in Los Angeles County
jumped 12 percent over the past year, officials announced Tuesday,
despite $619 million in government spending to help alleviate the
problem.
The annual point-in-time count recorded
nearly 59,000 homeless people countywide, with the largest number --
36,000 -- coming from the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless
Services Authority, a county agency which conducted the count, delivered
its report to the Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday meeting.
The
2018 tally found a slight decrease in the homeless population at just
over 53,000 people. Supervisor Janice Hahn called the new numbers
"disheartening."
The count found a 24 percent increase in homeless
youth, defined as people under 25, and a 7 percent jump in people 62 or
older. An estimated 29 percent of people experiencing homelessness are
mentally ill or have substance abuse issues, officials said.
Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. (Associated Press)
