Thomas Jefferson's original Declaration of Independence rough draft: See the pictures The Founders made 86 changes to the rough draft

Thomas Jefferson's "original Rough draught," or rough draft, of the Declaration of Independence, written in June 1776, includes dozens of edits from historical figures, including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The Library of Congress has made high-resolution microfilm scans of the document available online.

Congress appointed a committee to draft the declaration on June 11, 1776. It included Jefferson, Franklin and Adams along with Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. Jefferson had previously drafted the Virginia Constitution in May of that year, and historians say that earlier writing influenced the Declaration of Independence.

The drafters made 86 changes to the initial manuscript, according to the Library of Congress. The early version shows one of the edits added the iconic phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” which originally read, "We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable."
The final draft's line, "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," was initially wordier. It read: "that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness."
See the high-resolution microfilm scans of the document by clicking here.

 
(Library of Congress)

Jefferson, the committee and Congress itself made many revisions before releasing the document -- some of which reportedly displeased Jefferson. For example, an entire paragraph blaming Britain's King George III for the American slave trade was omitted from the final version, according to the Library of Congress.

The Declaration of Independence was submitted to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, approved on July 2 and declared on July 4, which is now celebrated as Independence Day.

This vintage image features the Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Democrat Dick Durbin to face Senate challenge from Chicago businessman

A Chicago businessman says he plans to challenge longtime U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who will be seeking a fifth term in November.
Willie Wilson, who previously challenged former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2018, announced his independent candidacy Thursday, FOX 32 of Chicago reported.
Meeting with reporters, Wilson tore into Durbin, the current Senate minority whip.
“He’s been a failure all his life in politics. He never had a job,” Wilson said about the 75-year-old incumbent. “When he got out of law school, all he did was went into office. He spent other people's money – taxpayers.’ Hasn't spent nothin' of his own.”

“When [Durbin] got out of law school, all he did was went into office. He spent other people's money – taxpayers.’ "
— Willie Wilson, independent U.S. Senate candidate

Wilson, who claims to be a multimillionaire, intends to self-finance his campaign, according to FOX 32.
When reached by Chicago’s WLS-TV, Durbin campaign manager Greg Bales disputed Wilson’s claim of independence, saying the candidate was really a Republican.
“Dr. Wilson is not an independent. He's a Republican who publicly supported Donald Trump, [former Illinois Gov.] Bruce Rauner, and contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates this election,” Bales said.
“On police reform, he [Wilson] opposes the Congressional Black Caucus and every major civil rights organization -- including the NAACP and Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund -- and instead supports Trump's position. A vote for Wilson is a vote for Trump and a Mitch McConnell-controlled U.S. Senate.”

"A vote for Wilson is a vote for Trump and a Mitch McConnell-controlled U.S. Senate.”
— Greg Bales, Durbin campaign manager

But Wilson said Thursday that the upcoming election would be a referendum on Durbin, not the president.
“This race is not about President Trump. It's about me and Dick Durbin,” Wilson said, according to FOX 32. “So that is some old news. We all have supported different people for different reasons. This is my own party. I'm not a Republican or Democrat.”

“This race is not about President Trump. It's about me and Dick Durbin.”
— Willie Wilson, independent U.S. Senate candidate

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., left, will be seeking a fifth term but challenger Willie Wilson, an independent, hopes to unseat him.

In May, Wilson was critical of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, both Democrats, for ordering churches closed as part of coronavirus stay-at-home orders, WLS reported.
Wilson later offered to pay the fines of churches that held services in defiance of the Democrats’ orders, according to the station.
Durbin, a native of East St. Louis, Ill., served in the U.S. House from 1983 to 1997 and has been in the U.S. Senate since then, after being elected in 1996. He holds seats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee.
In June, Durbin apologized to U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., after referring to the African-American senator’s police-reform bill as a “token” approach to addressing police issues.
Scott responded on the Senate floor by saying Durkin’s choice of words “hurts us all.”
The Republican also mocked Durbin and other Democrats for wearing African kente cloths during a photo opportunity when they introduced their version of the police-reform bill.
“Y’all still wearing those kente cloths over there @SenatorDurbin?” Scott wrote on Twitter.
In addition to the independent Wilson, Durbin will face a challenge from Republican candidate Mark Curran in November.

Court docs allege 'ringleader' of statue vandals lit a cigarette with monument's flames

Jason Charter, the Antifa-linked activist who was booked Thursday as the alleged “ringleader” in the June 22 attempt to destroy the Andrew Jackson statue in Lafayette Square near the White House, was also allegedly involved in the destruction of the Albert Pike Historical Statue in Washington on June 20 -- and even lit a cigarette in the flames engulfing that monument.
That's according to court documents that underscore federal authorities' ongoing efforts to unmask and punish individuals who deface national monuments. President Trump has pushed authorities to go after rioters who take down statutes, signing an executive order to beef up security and penalties.
In June, the FBI tracked down one alleged firebomber even though she was wearing a mask -- with the help of a T-shirt she was wearing, and a subpoena to the Etsy store where she bought the clothes.
In Charter's case, the FBI's charging documents make clear that open-source surveillance footage and interagency cooperations were again critical to making an arrest. One of the many head-turning revelations in the documents, for example, is that a Washington, D.C. police officer who had given Charter a ride in the past was able to confirm his identity, along with social media commenters.
"Members of MPD, FBI and USPP have reviewed online open source videos," the FBI's summary of facts states, including "videos from MPD body-worn camera footage, and footage recorded by the Secret Service" in order to "identify the individuals who attempted to remove the Jackson Statue from its base and damage it, including the cannons at the statue’s base."
Charter has not spoken publicly since his arrest but had a court hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Charter, the bureau states, was spotted on a camera "entering the grounds of Lafayette Park on June 22, 2020, at approximately 6:16:52 PM," wearing not only a white face mask and ski goggles, but also an "armband on his right arm, holding a walking cane, and a "Swiss Gear logo backpack with a bicycle helmet dangling from the side."

Charter was then allegedly "boosted up onto the statue by an unknown subject and then appears to request ropes from people on the ground level."
He was carrying the "same Swiss Gear logo backpack, bicycle helmet, walking cane, and armband," the FBI went on, as he was seen taking part in the attack on the Pike statue days later.
On June 20, Charter "is seen ... standing over the toppled Pike Statue, pouring an unknown liquid onto the statue," the FBI states. "He is then observed waving others away from the statue, and squatting down behind the statue where his hands are not visible. Seconds later, the statue catches fire. Charter is seen standing over the flames as it burns."

Charter is "visible with his face covering removed, lighting a cigarette in the flames engulfing the Pike Statue," the FBI continues.
Officials estimate that repairing the Pike statue, including removing graffiti and restoring its burned facade, could cost up to $250,000. For the Jackson statue, Park officials have said the "historic cannon carriages at the base of the statue were irreparably damaged, that some parts of the statue were bent and that other parts of the statue sustained damage from blunt objects and chemicals," according to the FBI.
The estimated replacement cost for the historic cannon carriages is $76,000, according to the documents, and the  "estimated cost to repair one of the bent portions of the statue is $2,000."
Problematically for Charter, the FBI goes on to allege that at points, Charter was photographed in both instances without any face coverings.
And Lieutenant Jason Bagshaw of the Metropolitan Police Department told the FBI he has interacted with Charter on numerous occasions and was able to positively identify him. Charter has "called Lieutenant Bagshaw on his cell phone to discuss these matters on a regular basis, and Charter even rode with Lieutenant Bagshaw to a convenience store following a protest in June of 2020," according to the FBI.

Park authorities went online on June 26 and "observed a white male being physically assaulted by a male dressed in black, wearing a black helmet, red goggles, and holding a blue cane" in a video they found.
"In the comments section underneath the video, the male in black was identified as Jason Charter," the FBI goes on. "Officers were able to locate the Twitter account belonging to Jason Charter."
"Further investigation revealed that on June 20, 2020, shortly after the destruction of the Pike Statue, Charter posted an image on his Twitter page of the Pike Statue on fire with the caption, 'Tearing down statues of traitors to the nation is a service to this nation not a crime,'" according to the charging documents. "Law enforcement has also identified a Facebook account belonging to Charter where he posts images at 1:50 a.m. on June 20, 2020, of the Albert Pike Statue burning on the ground, along with the caption, 'Death to all Confederate Statues.'"
The Twitter account that the FBI alleges belongs to Carter was still online Thursday afternoon. The Daily Caller's Chuck Ross pointed to a tweet, apparently since deleted, in which Charter apparently confuses fetal alcohol syndrome with alcoholism.
Charter wrote in a July 2 tweet: "I find it hilarious people think that my dark eyes are from drugs and not from the countless hours I dedicate to work, activism, my love life, and my hobbies."
Law enforcement sources tell Fox News that Jason Charter was arrested at his residence Thursday morning, without incident, and charged with destruction of federal property. He was arrested by the FBI and U.S. Park Police as part of a joint task force.
These sources add that Charter has connections to Antifa and was in a leadership role on the night of June 22 when a large group of protesters tried to pull down the Andrew Jackson statue.
Journalist Andy Ngo also pointed out that Charter admitted his connection to Antifa in several tweets.
“They were very organized,” a federal law enforcement official said. “Charter was on top of the statue and directing people ... they had acid, chisels, straps and a human chain preventing police from getting to the statue.”
Last month, the Justice Department revealed it has filed dozens of charges for riot-related federal offenses in the aftermath of George Floyd's in-custody death -- including for aiming a green laser pointer at an FBI aircraft overhead in Milwaukee, torching the Third Precinct police station in Minneapolis, and impersonating a U.S. Marshal in Orlando.

Protesters gather near the Minneapolis Police third precinct to watch a construction site burn after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. May 28, 2020. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi 

The DOJ specifically released a document, obtained by Fox News, that outlines in dramatic detail how some of the arrests were made amid the chaos.
For example, Branden Michael Wolfe, 23, was spotted on June 3 "wearing body armor and a law enforcement duty belt and carrying a baton" as he tried to enter a home improvement store in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wolfe had previously worked as a security guard at the store, but was "fired earlier that day after referring to social media posts about stealing items from the Third Precinct," the DOJ said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had ordered the Third Precinct evacuated, drawing a rebuke from the president; Frey was later booed away by protesters for not agreeing to defund the police entirely.
Upon his arrest, Wolfe was allegedly wearing multiple items stolen from the Third Precinct, including "body armor, a police-issue duty belt with handcuffs, an earphone piece, baton, and knife" -- and Wolfe's name was "handwritten in duct tape on the back of the body armor."
Authorities later recovered a "riot helmet, 9mm pistol magazine, police radio, and police issue overdose kit" from Wolfe. He allegedly confessed to throwing a barrel into the fire at the police station.
Fox News' Bill Mears and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

Author says Jeffrey Epstein's friends 'are probably pretty terrified' after Ghislaine Maxwell arrest

Washington Free Beacon senior investigative reporter Alana Goodman told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Thursday that the circumstances of the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's ex-girlfriend and alleged madam, were "very bizarre."
"There were rumors of all different places that she was supposedly at," said Goodman, co-author of "A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey Epstein."
"I mean, some people claimed maybe [Maxwell was in] Paris. I mean, people had spotted her in Paris. There were claims about London. There were claims about, like, the Israeli embassy and things like that," Goodman added. "There's been some pretty wild speculation, but I think generally the idea was people assumed she was out of the country."
WHO IS GHISLAINE MAXWELL?
Maxwell was arrested Thursday morning in the small town of Bradford, N.H., where she had been residing in a million-dollar estate.
The 58-year-old appeared virtually before a federal magistrate in nearby Concord Thursday afternoon and waived her right to a detention hearing, clearing the way for her transfer to New York. She was ordered held without bail on multiple sex abuse charges, including conspiracy to entice minors to engage in sexual acts.
Goodman noted that because Maxwell holds citizenship in France, the country of her birth, she likely would not have been extradited from the European nation had she gone there.
"So it was very surprising that she is hiding out, really under everyone's noses in the United States, within driving distance of the U.S. attorney's office that is prosecuting her right now," Goodman said.
Host Tucker Carlson asked Goodman if any of Epstein's high-profile friends should be worried now that Maxwell is in custody.
"I think that a lot of the friends of Jeffrey Epstein who were very relieved after he died are probably pretty terrified at this moment," she answered, "because I think that Ghislaine Maxwell has every incentive to talk in this situation.
"Epstein is dead ... she doesn't really have to worry about protecting him or anything else at this point. And I think that [the Department of Justice] also has more leeway to potentially kind of deal with her than it did with Epstein because ... he was accused of being the kingpin in this situation."
Earlier, Goodman noted that Maxwell, the daughter of the late British media magnate Robert Maxwell, had been accustomed to living in luxury. When Carlson asked if Maxwell was the kind of person who would "take her own life," Goodman answered that she wasn't, but added that "this is a lifestyle she is not used to."
Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.

Cancel Culture Cartoons

Stonewall Jackson removed from Richmond’s Monument Avenue

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Work crews wielding a giant crane, harnesses and power tools wrested an imposing statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson from its concrete pedestal along Richmond, Virginia’s famed Monument Avenue on Wednesday, just hours after the mayor ordered the removal of all Confederate statues from city land.

Mayor Levar Stoney’s decree came weeks after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of the most prominent and imposing statue along the avenue: that of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which sits on state land. The removal of the Lee statue has been stalled pending the resolution of several lawsuits.

The Jackson statue is the latest of several dozen Confederate symbols to be removed from public land in the U.S. in the five weeks since the death of George Floyd at the hands of police sparked a nationwide protest movement.

In most instances, state or local governments moved to take down monuments in response to impassioned demonstrators, but in a few cases —including several other Virginia Confederate statues — protesters toppled the figures themselves. Also this week, Mississippi retired the last state flag in the U.S. that included the Confederate battle emblem.

Confederate statues were erected decades after the Civil War, during the Jim Crow era, when states imposed new segregation laws, and during the “Lost Cause” movement, when historians and others tried to depict the South’s rebellion as a fight to defend states’ rights, not slavery. In Richmond, the first major monument — the Lee statue — was erected in 1890.

Work crews spent several hours Wednesday carefully attaching a harness to the massive Stonewall Jackson statue and using power tools to detach it from its base. A crowd of several hundred people who had gathered to watch cheered as a crane lifted the figure of the general atop his horse into the air and set it aside.

“This is long overdue,” said Brent Holmes, who is Black. “One down, many more to go.”

Eli Swann, who has lived in Richmond for 24 years, said he felt “an overwhelming sense of gratitude” to witness the removal of the statue after he and others have spent weeks demonstrating and calling for it and others to be taken down. He said that as a Black man, he found it offensive to have so many statues glorifying Confederate generals for “fighting against us.”

“I’ve been out here since Day 1,” Swann said. “We’ve been seeing the younger people out here, just coming and constantly marching and asking for change. And now finally the change is coming about.”

Flatbed trucks and other equipment were spotted Wednesday at several other monuments as well. The city has roughly a dozen Confederate statues on municipal land, including one of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. Mayor Stoney said it will take several days to remove them.

The mayor said he also is moving quickly because he is concerned that people could be hurt trying to take down the gigantic statues themselves. In Portsmouth last month, a man was seriously injured when protesters tried to pull down a Confederate statue.

“Failing to remove the statues now poses a severe, immediate and growing threat to public safety,” he said, noting that hundreds of demonstrators have held protests in the city for 33 consecutive days.

Stoney said the removal of the statues is “long overdue” and sends a message that the city of Richmond — the onetime capital of the Confederacy — is no longer a place with symbols of oppression and white supremacy.

“Those statues stood high for over 100 years for a reason, and it was to intimidate and to show Black and brown people in this city who was in charge,” Stoney said.

“I think the healing can now begin in the city of Richmond,” he said.

Stoney’s move came on the day a new state law took effect granting control of the monuments to the city. The law outlines a removal process that would take at least 60 days to unfold.

But during a City Council meeting Wednesday morning, the mayor balked as the council scheduled a special meeting for Thursday to formally vote on a resolution calling for the immediate removal of the statues.

“Today, I have the ability to do this through my emergency powers,” Stoney said. “I think we need to act today.”

Work crews arrived at the Jackson statue about an hour later.

Full Coverage: Racial injustice

___

This story has been edited to correct that the mayor has ordered all Confederate statues removed from city land, not all Confederate statues in the city; and to clarify that there are several lawsuits pending against the Lee statue removal, not just two.

A predicted surge in US job growth for June

 

FILE - In this June 4, 2020 file photo, a pedestrian wearing a mask walks past a reader board advertising a job opening for a remodeling company, in Seattle. U.S. companies added nearly 2.4 million jobs in June, according to a private survey, a large gain that still leaves the job market far below its pre-pandemic levels. The payroll company ADP said that small businesses reported the largest gain, adding 937,000 jobs. Construction firms and restaurants and hotels also posted big increases in hiring. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers likely rehired several million more workers in June, thereby reducing a Depression-level unemployment rate, but the most up-to-date data suggests that a resurgent coronavirus will limit further gains.

Economists have forecast that businesses, governments and nonprofits added 3 million jobs — a record high — and that the unemployment rate fell a full percentage point to 12.3%, according to data provider FactSet. The predicted hiring gain would be up from 2.5 million jobs in May. Even so, the combined job growth for May and June would recover only a fraction of the 22 million jobs that were lost in March and April, when the virus forced business shutdowns and layoffs across the country.

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And even a jobless rate above 10% wouldn’t fully capture the scope of the pandemic’s damage to the job market and the economy. Millions more people are working part time but would prefer full-time work. And an unusually high proportion of workers have been subject to pay cuts, research has found.

With confirmed coronavirus cases spiking across the Sun Belt, a range of evidence suggests that a nascent recovery is stalling. In states that are suffering the sharpest spikes in reported virus cases — Texas, Florida, Arizona and others — progress has reversed, with businesses closing again and workers losing jobs, in some cases for a second time.

On Wednesday, California re-closed down bars, theaters and indoor restaurant dining across most of the state. And Arizona’s outbreak grew more severe by nearly every measure. Florida has closed some beaches.

Credit and debit card data tracked by JPMorgan Chase show that consumers have slowed their spending in just the past week, after spending had risen steadily in late April and May. The reversal has occurred both in states that have seen surges in reported COVID cases and in less affected states, said Jesse Edgerton, an economist at J.P. Morgan.

Nationwide, card spending fell nearly 13% last week compared with a year ago. That was worse than the previous week, when year-over-year card spending had declined just under 10%.

Real-time data from Homebase, a provider of time-tracking software for small businesses, shows that the number of hours worked at its client companies has leveled off after having risen sharply in May and early June. Business re-openings have also flattened. The economic bounce produced by the initial lifting of shutdown orders may have run its course.

Still, Thursday’s jobs report will be based on data gathered in the second week of June, so it will still likely reflect an improving hiring trend. Last week’s plateau in hours worked will instead affect the July jobs figures, to be released in early August.

“Whatever picture the jobs report gives us, things have become worse since then,” said Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter.

In addition to the renewed shutdowns across the Sun Belt, New York City has postponed plans to reopen indoor seating at restaurants in the face of more confirmed virus cases. Such moves are causing another round of layoffs or will limit future hiring.

McDonald’s has paused its reopening efforts nationwide. And Apple said it will re-close 30 more of its U.S. stores, on top of 47 it had already shut down for a second time.

Economists have long warned that the economic benefits of allowing businesses to reopen would prove short-lived if the virus wasn’t brought under control. Until most Americans feel confident enough to dine out, travel, shop or congregate in groups without fear of infection, restaurants, hotels and retailers won’t have enough demand to justify rehiring all their previous workers.

“The path forward for the economy is extraordinarily uncertain and will depend in large part on our success in containing the virus,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told a House committee this week. “A full recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it is safe to re-engage in a broad range of activities.”

Still, some bright spots in the economy may emerge in Thursday’s jobs report. Manufacturers expanded in June after three months of shrinking, the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group, said Wednesday. New orders are flowing in and factories are adding more jobs, the ISM said.

And record-low mortgage rates are encouraging more home buyers. Purchases of new homes rose sharply in May. And a measure of signed contracts to buy existing homes soared by a record amount in May, a sign that sales should rebound after falling for three straight months.

Seattle’s CHOP may be cleared, but political fallout could linger

Seattle police on Wednesday forcefully cleared out "CHOP," the infamous protest zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, after weeks of protests that culminated with two fatal shootings that forced the city's Democrat leadership to finally act after facing weeks of mounting scrutiny.
The long-term political fallout from allowing CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest) remained to be seen. But critics said it was remarkable that a major U.S. city would allow protesters to occupy six city blocks, seal off a police precinct and reportedly not allow first responders to enter. (The city insisted the zone was never really "cop free," as protest organizers contended.)
Shortly after police cleared the area, Faizel Khan, a business owner there, told Seattle's KING-TV he did not believe there were any winners in the city.
“I think we’ve actually lost,” he said. “I think we’ve lost a mayor. We’ve lost a city councilperson. We’ve lost residents. We’ve lost small businesses. We’ve lost the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, has been assailed by both protesters and Republicans over her handling of the crisis. Critics on the right described her as an out-of-touch leader and pointed to an interview on CNN when she was asked early on about how long she anticipated the zone to be a "police-free."  She responded, “I don’t know, we could have a summer of love.”
President Trump, who has billed himself as the “law and order” option in 2020, reacted to Durkan with astonishment.
"These Liberal Dems don’t have a clue," Trump said. "The terrorists burn and pillage our cities, and they think it is just wonderful, even the death. Must end this Seattle takeover now!”
The president's criticism was not limited to Durkan. He also took on Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, another Democrat, who took issue with Trump's threat to use force in the city and said he would not allow “threats of military violence against Washingtonians coming from the White House.”
Inslee initially said Durkan and her team briefed him on the situation and said the area was “largely peaceful. Peaceful protests are fundamentally American, and I am hopeful there will be a peaceful resolution."
Major cities across the U.S. have seen an eruption of riots and protests over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Trump’s first attack on city leadership was aimed at Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over his decision to evacuate a police precinct in his city back in May.
“The symbolism of the building cannot outweigh the importance of life, our officers or the public,” he said. “We could not risk serious injury to anyone. And we will continue to patrol the Third Precinct."
The protests over police brutality evolved into a larger movement that called on cities to make the changes required to assist minority communities and end police brutality -- even if it requires defunding the police to free up the budget.
City leaders in Los Angeles voted Wednesday to slash the Los Angeles Police Department budget by $150 million, which would reduce the number of officers to a level not seen for more than a decade. On Tuesday night, the New York City Council voted to cut the NYPD budget in 2021 by $1 billion.
Durkan tweeted earlier this week that she planned to meet with Police Chief Carmen Best to conduct a “deep review of SPD’s budget” and assess “what functions could be moved to other departments or be removed entirely.”
On Monday, a 16-year-old boy was killed and another teen was listed in critical condition, in an incident that marked the fourth shooting in the CHOP area.
The first death there came June 20 when 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson was shot and killed. His father, Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr., told Fox News’ “Hannity” that police and Durkan had failed to reach out to him since his son's death.
"They need to come talk to me and somebody needs to come tell me something, because I still don't know nothing," an emotional Anderson told host Sean Hannity. "Somebody needs to come to my house and knock on my door and tell me something. I don't know nothing. All I know is my son got killed up there."
Durkan insisted in a tweet Wednesday that "For weeks, we have had incredibly peaceful demonstrations on Capitol Hill."
Previously, she said her decision to close down CHOP was made for the public’s safety despite the city’s best efforts to deescalate the situation and bring the community together.
Durkan later urged the City Council to investigate Councilmember Kshama Sawant, a socialist, who the mayor accused of allowing hundreds of protesters into City Hall while it was closed; leading protesters to her home despite threats from the time that she was a U.S. attorney; and encouraging the protesters to occupy the East Precinct, according to Seattle's Q13 Fox.
"All of us have joined hundreds of demonstrations across the City, but Councilmember Sawant and her followers chose to do so with reckless disregard of the safety of my family and children. In addition, during or after Councilmember Sawant’s speech at that rally, her followers vandalized my home by spray-painting obscenities," Durkan wrote in a letter to Council President Lorena González.
Patch reported late Wednesday that the City Council refused the request.
"The public airing of issues amongst and between independently elected officials will not advance solutions on the deepening needs of our constituents,” González wrote.
Sawant and Durkan's public feud illustrated how divided members of the same political parties have been about how to resolve the problem. Trump has been criticized by some on the right for not taking bold enough action with protesters.
Best, the police chief, was reportedly at odds with Durkan over the city’s handling of the protest zone. The chief has accused the mayor of shirking her responsibilities as an elected official and allowing protesters to oust police officers from a precinct.
On Wednesday, Best said she was "stunned by the amount of graffiti, garbage and property destruction" she saw during a tour of the area.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr praised Best for what he called “her courage and leadership in restoring the rule of law in Seattle.”
“Chief Best has rightly committed to continue the substantive discussion while ending the violence, which threatens innocent people and undermines the very rule-of-law principles that the protesters profess to defend,” Barr said in a statement.
Fox News' Vandana Rambaran, Yael Halon, Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Father of CHOP shooting victim speaks out in emotional 'Hannity' interview: 'All I know is my son is dead'

Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr., the father of a 19-year-old black man who was shot and killed last month inside Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) publically pleaded for answers on "Hannity" Wednesday night, saying police and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan had failed to reach out to him since his son's death.

"They need to come talk to me and somebody needs to come tell me something, because I still don't know nothing," an emotional Anderson told host Sean Hannity. "Somebody needs to come to my house and knock on my door and tell me something. I don't know nothing. All I know is my son got killed up there.
"They say, 'He's just a 19-year-old.'" No, that's Horace Lorenzo Anderson [Jr.]. That's my son, and I loved him."

"Somebody needs to come to my house and knock on my door and tell me something."
— Horace Lorenzo Anderson, "Hannity"

The younger Anderson was killed early on the morning of June 20 when shots rang out near Cal Anderson Park on 10th Avenue and East Pine Street inside the CHOP. A 33-year-old man was wounded in the shooting.
Anderson Sr. broke down in tears as he recalled learning of his son's death.
"The only way I found out was just two of his friends, just two friends that just happened to be up there and they came and told me," he said. "They weren't even from Seattle. Now, mind you, I haven't heard --  the police department, they never came ...

"Someone should've came and knocked on my door and ... should've been, like, coming to talk to me and let me know about my son. To this day, I really don't know nothing. I'm still here sitting. I don't know nothing."
Anderson, who plans to bury his son on Thursday, told Hannity that he is "numb" and hasn't been able to sleep as questions about his son's final moments remain unanswered.
"I still don't know what's going on," he said. "I'm hearing from YouTube. I don't know nothing. All I know is my son is dead. I'm still trying to figure out answers so I can sleep. I don't sleep. My kids don't sleep. I can't even stay at home. My kids, they feel like they are unsafe at home. I've been buying motel rooms and I don't have that type of money. I wasn't prepared for this."
"My son needed help, and I don't feel like they helped my son," Anderson said of law enforcement. "My son needed help, and  I don't feel like they helped my son ... I feel like he doesn't -- without this, he would just be nobody. He's just -- it doesn't matter, he's just another guy. Just another child, just swept up under the rug and that's it and forgotten about."
At one point in the interview, Hannity became emotional as Anderson described the daily trauma of waking up to the realization that his son is no longer alive.
"I wake up in the morning ... I look for my son in the morning. He's not there no more. You know I'm saying? It's like I go in there, I'm kissing a picture. He's not there."

"You're taking away generations," he went on. "You're taking away our youth. You are taking away, my son never had a chance to have another child. My grandbaby would never be ... that's a generation taken from me."
"I understand Black Lives Matter and everything that's going on," Anderson said at another point in the interview. "But that's not my movement right now. My movement is [to] let them know that was my son."
Despite his grief, Anderson told Hannity that "I am being a Christian now, in my heart" as he tries to lead his family through this time of tragedy.
"Everything is in God's hands now," he said. "God's going to take care of it, I feel like ... God is going to take care of me and he is going to take care of my son."

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