NationalWatch

The Trump campaign on Tuesday pushed back against a narrative within the media that Vice President Kamala Harris is taking a more positive approach to border wall construction — calling such a claim “preposterous.”

“How much longer will the mainstream media allow Kamala Harris to hide and use staff to speak on her behalf?” Karoline Leavitt, National Press Secretary for the Trump campaign said in a statement. “It’s DAY 37 of ZERO interviews and Kamala’s anonymous campaign sources are now claiming she supports President Trump’s border wall — this is a preposterous and false claim.”

Axios ran a headline on Tuesday morning that accused Harris of a “flip flop” on border wall construction. It noted Harris’ support of a bipartisan border security bill introduced in January. The bill pushes funding to the border, while also authorizing limits on asylum entries.

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN REFUSES TO REVEAL NATIONALITIES OF TERROR WATCHLIST MIGRANTS NABBED AT BORDER 

The Harris campaign has not announced that an interview has been scheduled.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The package, which has the support of the Biden administration but has so far failed to drum up enough Republican support to pass the chamber, also includes a limited amount of funding for additional border wall construction, but it is just a fraction of the $25 billion former President Trump eyed for the project.

While Harris, along with President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have consistently backed the bill, Axios said that her recent speech at the Democratic National Convention in which she said she would sign the bill was a sign of her embracing a more hawkish immigration policy.

“Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. The Border Patrol endorsed it. But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign, so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal. Well, I refuse to play politics with our security, and here is my pledge to you. As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law. I know — I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border,” she said.

New ads, in which the Harris campaign portrays the former California senator as tough on the border, show images of the Trump-era border wall.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS BIDEN ADMIN MOVE TO GIVE LEGAL STATUS TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SPOUSES OF US CITIZENS

Candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border on August 22, 2024 south of Sierra Vista, Arizona. Trump will hold a rally in Glendale, Arizona tomorrow. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images) (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

But the Trump campaign noted that, despite that limited support, Harris has a history of opposing the wall at the border. The Trump administration built more than 400 miles of border wall, and it was abruptly halted by the Biden-Harris administration in 2021. 

While there have been some gaps filled and some limited extra construction due to already appropriated congressional funds, the administration has consistently said it opposes border wall construction and there have been no indications of plans for significant extra construction. 

Additionally, Harris has long been a critic of the wall construction that took place in the Trump-era. In 2018, Harris called the wall “un-American.” That came a year after she joined Democrats in introducing a bill to block border wall construction.

During her campaign launch in 2019, she dismissed the wall’s effectiveness.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

“On the subject of transnational gangs, let’s be perfectly clear. The president’s medieval vanity project is not going to stop them,” she said.

In 2020, she called it “a complete waste of taxpayer money and won’t make us any safer.”

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The Trump campaign also sought to link her to the decision to halt border wall construction in her role “as border czar” — although that role was limited to international diplomacy related to root causes. 

“As Border Czar, Kamala Harris halted construction of the border wall. Kamala’s ACTIONS speak much louder than the WORDS of the anonymous staff she is cowering behind,” Leavitt said.

Trump senior adviser Jason Miller described the report as “total bulls—” and said that Harris “hasn’t flip-flopped on anything.”

“Harris opposes the wall, has always opposed the wall, and stopped wall construction as VP,” he said.

Special counsel Jack Smith has filed another indictment against former President Trump in the election interference case on Tuesday.

The new charges narrow the allegations against the Republican presidential nominee following a Supreme Court ruling that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. 

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Sources familiar with the matter tell Fox News that discussions surrounding the superseding indictment will likely not speed things up, and it is unlikely it will go to trial before the November election. 

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This is a breaking story. Check back for updates. 

FLASHBACK: A current top campaign adviser for VP Kamala Harris was deeply involved in pushing Facebook to suppress “misinformation” in an effort to control the political narrative on COVID and other issues.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter on Monday while expressing regret that his company, Facebook, was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor Americans, particularly regarding COVID-19 content, bringing to the forefront actions taken by Harris’ deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty as part of that pressure campaign.

Flaherty, who previously served as the White House director of digital strategy, helped lead the campaign to target alleged “misinformation” relating to the COVID-19 virus and its vaccinations, FOX Business previously reported.

Flaherty emailed Google team members in April 2021 to “connect […] about the work you’re doing to combat vaccine hesitancy, but also crack down on vaccine misinformation,” according to the documents. 

META CEO ZUCKERBERG ADMITS HE WAS PART OF THE BIDEN-HARRIS CENSORSHIP SCHEME. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED, AMERICA

A top aide for VP Harris once helped pressure tech companies to suppress certain narratives on social media. (Getty Images)

Flaherty continued asking for trends surrounding vaccine misinformation on the website, while offering government assistance in the form of COVID experts at the White House to partner in product work with YouTube. 

Google, in an internal email, noted that after a subsequent meeting with Flaherty, the White House staffer “particularly dug in on our decision making for borderline content” – which is content that doesn’t cross Community Guidelines but rather brushes up against it, according to YouTube. 

A week later, Google acknowledged that it sent the White House the total amount of videos removed for COVID vaccine misinformation, while discussing the government’s desire for even more data.

“Really [Flaherty’s] interested in what we’re seeing that is NOT coming down,” read an internal Google email between employees, seemingly referring to videos that had not yet been removed. 

According to internal company communications viewed by FOX Business and reported on in 2023, Flaherty asked Facebook if they could provide government agencies with special access to tools to target users in 2021. 

“Since it’s a global pandemic, can we give agencies access to targeting parameters that they normally wouldn’t be able to?” Flaherty asked.

TRUMP SAYS MARK ZUCKERBERG CALLED TO APOLOGIZE ABOUT PHOTO OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Robert Flaherty testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee on May 1. (House Judiciary Committee)

The idea came up in a conversation about how to convince people worried about side effects around the COVID vaccine to take it.

On an April 5 call, a Facebook employee mentioned how if someone was worried about nosebleeds as a side effect of the vaccine, in an ideal world, they would direct them to information addressing that concern. Flaherty asked the Facebook team, “Are you able to provide resources?” 

Another Facebook employee replied that doing something like showing them a targeted resource addressing their concern might trigger people. The Facebook employee said they “have to be careful in how we approach.” 

Flaherty asked, “If people are having the conversation, is the presumption that we let people have it. Direct them to CDC. What then?” 

A Facebook employee replied, “We all know people that have had the experience that think that FB is listening to them.” 

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once claimed Facebook had suppressed 18 million posts that contained “misinformation” about COVID-19. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Facebook employee told Flaherty that something like an immediate generated message about nosebleeds might give users “the Big Brother feel” but suggested they show the content on a delay to avoid setting off alarm bells among users. 

“We should pay attention to those conversations, make sure that people see information, even if it’s not right then,” the Facebook employee said. 

Flaherty was involved in a tense exchange with GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, during a hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this year when Flaherty claimed that Elon Musk did not face “any adverse government actions” in response to changing the outlet’s censorship policies.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the Harris-Walz campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

“Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure,” Zuckerberg wrote in his letter to the House Judiciary Committee this week. “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.

Fox News Digital’s Hillary Vaughn and Chase Williams contributed to this report

FIRST ON FOX: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner is demanding President Biden take “immediate and forceful action” against Iran, calling his administration’s response “dangerously insufficient,” after the intelligence community determined the regime is “actively” attempting to influence the 2024 presidential election.  

Turner, R-Ohio, in a letter to President Biden, obtained by Fox News Digital, wrote about his “grave concern” about Iran’s activities. 

IRAN IS ‘INCREASINGLY AGGRESSIVE’ IN ITS OPERATIONS TO TARGET US PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: INTEL COMMUNITY

“The FBI and U.S. intelligence community have unequivocally demonstrated that Iran is engaged in a systemic campaign to compromise the integrity of our democratic process,” Turner wrote. “Moreover, within the past few months, multiple individuals linked to the Iranian government have been implicated in plots to carry out political assassinations on former President Trump and members of his administration on American soil.” 

Turner said that despite the “severity of these threats,” the response from the Biden-Harris administration has been “dangerously insufficient.” 

“The failure to decisively confront Iran not only undermines the security of our electoral system but also emboldens other hostile actors who might seek to exploit this weakness,” Turner wrote, adding that allowing Iran to “persist in its misinformation and aggression not only empowers a rogue regime but also places American lives at unacceptable risk.” 

Turner is urging Biden to take “immediate and forceful action” to counter the threat from Iran. 

“Your administration must develop a comprehensive strategy to safeguard our elections and protect our citizens,” Turner wrote. “The security of our nation and the integrity of our democracy depends on a strong and proactive response.” 

Turner’s letter comes just days after the intelligence community said it had observed “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity” during the 2024 election cycle, involving influence operations targeting the American public and presidential campaigns.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said Monday that Iran “seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” 

“Iran has furthermore demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means, including through the use of cyber operations to attempt to gain access to sensitive information related to U.S. elections,” the agencies said in a joint-statement. “In addition to these sustained efforts to complicate the ability of any U.S. administration to pursue a foreign policy at odds with Iran’s interests, the IC has previously reported that Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome.” 

The intelligence community said it has observed “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity” during the 2024 election cycle, specifically involving “influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns.” 

“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran,” they said. 

The FBI has been investigating Iranian cyber hacking attempts against Trump’s presidential campaign, after Politico began receiving internal Trump campaign documents. 

The Trump campaign said the documents were obtained “illegally from sources hostile to the United States,” who “intended to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.” 

FBI INVESTIGATING IRAN’S HACK OF TRUMP CAMPAIGN DOCUMENTS

Iranian hackers broke into the account of a “high ranking official” on Trump’s campaign in June 2024. 

The hack by Iran came “after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy.” 

“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”

But the intelligence community said it is “confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.” 

“Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process. It is important to note that this approach is not new,” they said. “Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world.” 

FBI INVESTIGATING IRAN’S HACK OF TRUMP CAMPAIGN DOCUMENTS

The agencies stressed that “protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority.” 

“As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible,” they said. “We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns.” 

The intelligence community said it is working closely with its public and private sector partners to “share information, bolster security, and identify and disrupt any threats.” 

The 2024 presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris told Fox News it “vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems.” 

Iran has long been suspected of running hacking campaigns targeting its enemies in the Middle East and beyond. Tehran also has long threatened to retaliate against Trump over the 2020 drone strike he ordered that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

In its report, Microsoft stated that “foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity.”

The analysis continued: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran’s operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters.”

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“Recent activity suggests the Iranian regime – along with the Kremlin – may be equally engaged in election 2024,” Microsoft concluded.

Former President Trump has added former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to his transition team, broadening his coalition of supporters “across partisan lines.” 

“As President Trumps’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team,” Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes told Fox News Digital.

FORMER DEMOCRAT TULSI GABBARD ENDORSES TRUMP IN THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

“We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team as we work to restore America’s greatness,” Hughes added. 

RFK Jr., who began the 2024 cycle running for president as a Democrat, then shifted to run as an Independent, suspended his campaign last week and endorsed former President Trump—a historic move for a member of the Democrat Kennedy family dynasty. 

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, shakes hands with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz.

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard also switched party affiliation, and considers herself an Independent. 

Gabbard, a veteran and the former Democratic representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district, endorsed Trump this week. 

“I am proud to stand here before you today, whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent,” Gabbard said. “If you love our country, as I do, if you cherish peace and freedom as we do, I invite you to join me in doing all that we can to save our country and elect President Donald J. Trump and send him back to the White House to do the tough work of saving our country and serving the people.”

Gabbard, who ran in the 2019 Democratic presidential primary against Kamala Harris, was recently recruited by Trump to help with debate prep ahead of his Sept. 10 face-off against the vice president at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia.

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump shakes hands with former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed Trump, at the National Guard Association of the United States’ 146th General Conference, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

RFK JR DEFENDS ‘MAGA,’ TEASES MORE TO JOIN TRUMP ‘UNITY GOVERNMENT’

Meanwhile, RFK Jr. took to social media this week to give his own definition of “MAGA.” 

“‘Make America Great Again’ recalls a nation brimming with vitality, with a can-do spirit, with hope and a belief in itself. It was an America that was beginning to confront its darker shadows, could acknowledge the injustice in its past and present, yet at the same time could celebrate its successes,” Kennedy wrote.

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“It was a nation of broad prosperity, the world’s most vibrant middle class, and a [sic] idealistic belief (though not consistently applied) in freedom, justice, and democracy. It was a nation that led the world in innovation, productivity, and technology. And it was the healthiest country in the world. I have talked to many Trump supporters. I have talked with his inner circle. I have talked to the man himself. This is the America they want to restore.”

The Arizona Police Association (APA) turned heads recently by endorsing liberal Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, despite Gallego’s controversial history on law enforcement issues and the APA’s simultaneous support of former President Donald Trump.

“Congressman Gallego has continually fought for robust, increased funding for America’s Law Enforcement, and specifically Arizona Law enforcement,” the APA said in a statement Monday, arguing that Gallego helped secure $168 billion in “direct support of police officers so that they have the personnel and equipment needed.”

The move to back the Democrat over Republican Kari Lake comes despite the organization endorsing Lake’s bid for governor during the last election cycle and just days after it announced its endorsement of Trump in the presidential race.

‘NEVER TRUMPERS’ COALESCE BEHIND DEM TICKET IN REPUBLICANS FOR HARRIS CAMPAIGN

U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake speaks during a campaign rally of former President Donald Trump at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images)

“As a Marine combat veteran, we know Congressman Gallego understands the complexities of modern policing in American society today, while at the same time recognizing the public’s expectations,” APA President Justin Harris said in a statement posted to X.

“I am proud to have the APA’s support and look forward to working with them in the Senate to ensure Arizona’s law enforcement officers have the resources necessary to combat fentanyl trafficking, train the next generation of officers, and, above all, keep Arizona families safe,” Gallego said in a statement attached to the APA release.

The move also comes as Gallego’s record on police issues has come under increased scrutiny, including an Arizona Sun Times report last week that detailed the lawmaker’s record and statements on law enforcement.

In one instance detailed by the report, Gallego argued for restrictions on police use of certain weapons because they “don’t know how to use” them in a “safe manner.” In another instance, he posted on social media about his effort to restrict police departments from being able to access military gear.

U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake speaks during Day 2 of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

KARI LAKE WINS GOP NOD, SETTING UP GENERAL ELECTION BATTLE WITH GALLEGO FOR SINEMA’S SEAT

The report also detailed Gallego’s history of social media posts in support of Black Lives Matter in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020, including one post in which he argued that protesters “aren’t the bad guy” and that “the bad guys were the one behind the police line.”

“Signing major reforms into law & transforming the culture of law enforcement remains a matter of life & death, especially for Black communities,” the Arizona lawmaker said in a separate post on the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death. “We cannot stop fighting for racial justice.”

The APA’s decision was blasted by Lake’s campaign, which has made public safety a centerpiece of the race in Arizona.

“Ruben Gallego supported defunding the police and vilified law enforcement while serving in Congress,” a Lake spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “He supports open borders and is weak on crime. Kari Lake will always back the blue and support law enforcement and safe communities.”

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. (ill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Nevertheless, the APA opted to back Gallego, noting his support for legislation such as the Invest to Protect Act and Enhancing COPS Hiring Program Grants for Local Law Enforcement Act.

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“The APA does not take our endorsements lightly; we recognize the importance of having a U.S. senator that can bring people together to improve society for all,” he added. “We believe Congressman Gallego will be that U.S. Senator.”

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Gallego referred Fox News Digital to the lawmaker’s statement in the APA release. The APA did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

A new poll indicates a deadlocked Senate race in Maryland, where Republicans are aiming to flip a long-held Democrat seat in an overwhelmingly blue state in a key contest that may decide if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority.

Former two-term Gov. Larry Hogan – the Republican nominee in the race – and Democratic nominee Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks both stand at 46% support among likely voters in Maryland, according to an AARP public opinion survey released on Tuesday.

Seven percent were undecided, according to the survey conducted Aug. 14-20.

SENATE DEMOCRATS CAMPAIGN CHAIR GOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH FOX NEWS

Former two-term Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland celebrates his victory in the 2024 Maryland Republican Senate primary, in Annapolis, Maryland, on May 14, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

The poll is the first since the May primary in Maryland to indicate a tied race, with previous surveys suggesting Alsobrooks with the lead. The winner of the November election will succeed Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who is retiring this year after serving nearly two decades in the Senate and nearly six decades as a state and then federal lawmaker.

TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN CRISS-CROSSES THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN ‘MAKE OR BREAK’ MOMENT TO WIN BACK MAJORITY

While Hogan and Alsobrooks are tied, the poll indicates Vice President Kamala Harris far ahead of former President Donald Trump in Maryland. According to the survey, Harris tops Trump by 30 points in a multi-candidate field and by 32 points in a head-to-head match-up.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Vice President Kamala Harris, right, stand on stage together after speaking at a campaign event on Gun Violence Awareness Day at Kentland Community Center on June 7, 2024 in Landover, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“Hogan is running a net 32-points ahead of Trump,” the poll’s release highlighted. “Not surprisingly, he is outrunning Trump among all major demographic groups.”

Democrats control the Senate by a razor-thin 51-49 margin, and Republicans are looking at a favorable election map this year with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.

One of those seats is in West Virginia, a deep red state that Trump carried by nearly 40 points in 2020. With moderate Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a former governor, not seeking re-election, flipping the seat is nearly a sure thing for the GOP.

Republicans are also aiming to flip seats in Ohio and Montana, two states Trump comfortably carried four years ago. And five more Democratic-held seats up for grabs this year are in crucial presidential-election battleground states.

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With Democrats trying to protect their fragile Senate majority, Hogan’s late entry into the race in February gave them an unexpected headache in a state previously considered safe territory. Hogan left the governor’s office at the beginning of 2023 with very positive approval and favorable ratings.

The poll highlights that “Hogan is making the race competitive in spite of Maryland’s large Democratic registration advantage by winning Independents by 23-points and also a quarter of Democrats.”

Republican Presidential nominee former President Donald Trump takes questions at a campaign event in Howell, Michigan, on Aug. 21, 2024. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)

Hogan, a vocal Republican Trump critic who flirted with a 2024 White House run before deciding against it, has repeatedly said that he won’t vote for the former president in November’s election. And in the spring, he stood out from most other Republicans for publicly calling for the guilty verdicts in Trump’s criminal trial to be respected.

Asked about having Trump at the top of the Republican ticket, Hogan said in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this year that “it’s a tough hurdle to overcome because he lost my state by 33 points…It’s not going to be helpful to me, but I think we’re going to be able to overcome that challenge.”

The AARP poll was conducted by the bipartisan polling team of Fabrizio Ward (Republican) & Impact Research (Democrat). The firms interviewed 1,258 likely voters in Maryland.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

FIRST ON FOX: Former President Trump is criticizing President Biden’s botched handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal in a new documentary which ties the terror attack at Abbey Gate to a focus on “culture wars” by the Biden administration.

The American Principles Project (APP), a conservative think tank, released a trailer for a documentary that will be released next week.

The documentary, “Culture War: The Deadly Consequences of a Woke War Machine” looks at the 2021 suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, the third anniversary of which was marked on Monday. The bombing, which occurred during the frantic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, killed 13 American service members and 180 people in total.

The documentary includes interviews with former President Trump, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, multiple members of Congress, and the families of four service members who were killed in the attack. The documentary alleges that the Biden administration was focused on a “culture war.” The trailer highlights decisions made over COVID-19 vaccinations and recruitment efforts using drag queens.

TRUMP EXPECTED TO SLAM HARRIS ON 3RD ANNIVERSARY OF DEADLY AFGHANISTAN ATTACK THAT KILLED 13 AMERICANS 

Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) await a flight at Al Udeied Air Base, Qatar August 17. Marines are assisting the Department of State with an orderly drawdown of designated personnel in Afghanistan. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1st Lt. Mark Andries  |  AP)

Trump, who visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate terror attack, takes aim at Biden for his handling of the botched withdrawal in the upcoming documentary.

“When Biden got in, he didn’t know what he was doing, frankly, and they lost respect for our country. They respected our country when I was here,” Trump said.

“We had no killing whatsoever for eighteen months, until that horrible day where they lost so many people. We got out with no dignity, no pride, no strength. It was really a horrible situation,” he continued.

American Principles Project President Terry Schilling accused President Biden and Vice President Harris of overseeing a “left-wing social experiment.”

“Maintaining a strong military is one of the president’s most important responsibilities. Yet under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, our armed forces have been turned into a left-wing social experiment, with deadly consequences,” Schilling said.

“‘Culture War’ seeks to expose the true destruction that Democrats’ cultural extremism has wrought on our service members. The men and women who died at Abbey Gate deserved far better from our current leadership in Washington,” he continued. “We owe it to them and their families to ensure their stories are told, so that the American people know exactly how we have reached this dangerous point and what needs to be done to avoid such a needless catastrophe in the future.”

HARRIS’ ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL A MYSTERY DESPITE BEING ‘LAST PERSON IN THE ROOM’ WITH BIDEN

This screenshot shows former President Donald Trump in a new documentary. ( )

The relatives of some of the 13 American service members who were killed appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention last month, saying Biden had never publicly named their loved ones. 

Biden and Harris released separate statements on Monday recognizing the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, with each notably listing the names of the 13 fallen troops. 

“These 13 Americans—and the many more that were wounded—were patriots in the highest sense. Some were born the year the war in Afghanistan started. Some were on their second or third tour. But all raised their hand to serve a cause greater than themselves—risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, Allies, and Afghan partners. They embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill,” Biden said.

Biden’s statement contradicts his June debate response when he claimed, “Truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have — this decade — any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did.” Biden’s comment at the time received intense backlash.

HARRIS LEAVES OUT DEADLY BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL IN SOARING PRO-MILITARY DNC SPEECH

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“We also owe their brothers and sisters-in-arms—who served and sacrificed for our freedom and future during America’s longest war. 20,744 American service members were wounded. 2,461 made the ultimate sacrifice. They were sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, spouses and friends. No matter how much time passes, the pain of their loss will remain real and raw. And so will the pride we feel in their service. From the deserts of Helmand, to the mountains of Kunduz, and everywhere in between—these women and men worked alongside our Afghan partners to protect our nation. And deployment after deployment, tour after tour, they dared all, risked all, and gave all to keep us safe,” he continued.

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s media inquiry.

Fox News’ Cameron Cawthorne and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

After tabulations from the state’s recent primary were finalized, the Vermont Republican Party recorded 22 new candidates for state House races, on top of the 74 that had already been on the ballot for the 150-member chamber.

While nationally considered a blue state, Vermont Republican Party Chairman Paul Dame said Monday the development was exceptional, given the state’s actual penchant to blur partisan lines.

He ascribed the GOP’s boost to a recently enacted “double-digit” property tax hike in the state, as well as voters’ renewed focus on the presidential race.

“I think we’re absolutely poised to pick up seats from where we have been, there seems to be much more energy and cohesion on the Republican side than we’ve had in a while,” Dame said.

RNC FILES LAWSUIT OVER NONCITIZEN VOTING RIGHTS IN VERMONT’S LARGEST CITY

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (Philscott.org)

Gov. Phil Scott, a moderate Republican ranked the most popular such official in the country at 81%, has also been involved with party work, Dame said. A request for comment from Scott was not immediately returned.

Dame said he’s talked to several of the new candidates, including a man from Colchester, who had been on the fence when petitions were circulated in May.

“Over the summer, you always get his kids ready to enroll in school. And he said, ‘You know what – now Vermont is going to be our home. We’re going to make a commitment to stay here. If that’s the case, I want to run and change the course that we’re on,'” Dame recalled.

In Vermont, many of the latecomers to the ballot appear to follow a similar timeline. 

After the primary ballot is finalized in May, voters realize there are vacancies on the final ballot and then may try to organize write-in campaigns.

VERMONT REBUILDS AFTER HURRICANE FLOODING

If 25 voters write the same name in for a House seat, or 50 voters for a state Senate seat, that name will then appear on the November general election ballot.

While 96 Republicans is still somewhat distant from two decades ago when Vermont saw 130 Republicans on the ballot, the significance is that Vermonters are stepping up to serve.

“It’s a story of regular voters, seeing the need for change and deciding that they’re willing to step up and be part of that change,” he said.

“It’s definitely inflation and affordability. I think that that’s sort of the national… but then Vermont is adding a new layer on top of that.”

With the Democrats recently earning a supermajority in the legislature, Scott has issued a record number of vetoes and Democratic lawmakers in return have issued a record number of veto overrides.

Thus was the case in the property tax debate, with Scott calling for “tax relief now,” while House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Chittenden, said the governor failed to offer a sufficient alternative plan.

As for the GOP’s prospects in November, Vermont has had a penchant for ideologically divergent election results.

Scott is just as much a heavy favorite as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the self-described “democratic socialist.”

“Vermonters vote for authenticity,” Dame added. 

“And both Gov. Phil Scott and Sen. Bernie Sanders have a relationship with Vermonters that Vermonters know that they believe what they’re saying – they say very different things, but they know that they can trust what they’re saying there and they’re not pandering.”

Both Scott and Sanders are not afraid to criticize their own party.

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Peter Duval, left, and Esther Charlestin were two Democrats vying to run against Vermont’s GOP Gov. Phil Scott.

Sanders has critiqued President Biden and members of the Democratic caucus in Congress on occasion, while Scott was the first GOP governor to back impeachment inquiries against former President Trump.

In the latest University of New Hampshire poll, Sanders leads his Republican challenger Gerald Malloy 66-25%. Scott leads Democrat Esther Charlestin by a similar 55-28%.

Former Sen. Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., who notably ceded Republican control of the Senate when he switched to a Democrat-caucusing-Independent in 2001, was the last GOP member of Congress from the Green Mountain State.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Vermont Democratic Party for comment but did not hear back by press time.

A left-wing environmental group is resurfacing a 2012 story about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. transporting part of a whale carcass across state lines in an effort to have him prosecuted this week.

The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund referenced a 2012 interview with Kennedy’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, with Town and Country Magazine. In the interview, Kick describes her father cutting the head off of a dead whale and strapping it to the roof of their vehicle, before driving from a beach in Massachusetts to Mount Kisco, New York.

The center claims the animal was protected by the Marine Mammal Protection and Endangered Species, making it illegal to possess any part of it.

They further claim that it was likely a felony violation of the 1900 Lacey Act, “which prohibits the transportation of any wildlife, dead or alive, that was reduced to possession in violation of any state, federal or international regulation or law,” the group told Axios.

KENNEDY FAMILY CHOOSES POLITICS OVER FAMILY WITH ENDORSEMENT IN 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

A left-wing environmental group is resurfacing a 2012 story about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. transporting part of a whale carcass across state lines in an effort to have him prosecuted this week. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Representatives for Kennedy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kick, in the interview, recalled how when she was 6 years old, her father heard that a dead whale was on the shore of Hyannis Port’s Squaw Island. She said that as someone who was interested in studying animals, her father went to the site with a chainsaw, removed the head and tied it to his car’s roof with a bungee cord.

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kick told the magazine, saying the incident happened sometime around 1994.

“We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us,” she added.

TRUMP THANKS RFK JR FOR ENDORSEMENT AFTER THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATE SUSPENDS HIS CAMPAIGN: ‘THAT’S BIG’

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. waves to the crowd at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The center did not immediately respond to questions from Fox News Digital about whether the group has reached out to law enforcement. A letter from the group obtained by Axios calls on Kennedy to surrender any animal remains he may have in his possession.

The group is the political action wing of the Center for Biological Diversity, and it advertises its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on the landing page of its website.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. LAMBASTS ‘DNC-ALIGNED MAINSTREAM MEDIA,’ ACCUSES THEM OF ENGINEERING HARRIS’ RISE

The resurfaced story comes just days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

“The 2024 election is crucial for the future of the environment. That’s why we’ve endorsed Kamala Harris for president and are working with our progressive partners to elect climate champions up and down the ticket,” the group wrote.

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The resurfaced story comes just days after Kennedy withdrew from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

The White House insisted again Monday that President Biden remains in charge of the country despite being on a second straight week of vacation. 

During a teleconference Monday, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby recognized the three-year-anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, Abbey Gate suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans outside Kabul Airport. 

Biden, who is at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the week, notably remained out of public view on the anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack. Last week, Biden was vacationing in California, including when the Israeli military said they launched a preemptive strike destroying thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon, essentially deterring a major attack by the terrorist group intended for central Israel.  

A journalist noted Biden’s public absence in a question to Kirby on Monday.

“The President’s public comportment and the paucity of events on his public schedule, as on this very day, have fostered a public perception that Mr. Biden is increasingly disengaged from the presidency,” Newsmax’s James Rosen said on the teleconference. “Time and again, the question I am hearing from members of the general public, and which I put to you here, Admiral, is: Who is running the country?”

BIDEN FLIES FROM ONE VACATION TO ANOTHER AFTER VOWING TO END GAZA WAR, WITH MIDDLE EAST ON THE BRINK

President Joe Biden walks to get into a vehicle upon arrival in Gordons Pond in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on August 25, 2024.  (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

“Is he a ceremonial figure in some sense at this point?” he added. 

“James, now you know better than that. I mean, my goodness, he talked to Prime Minister Modi today,” Kirby said of Biden. “He had calls with leaders in the region and in Europe, President Zelenskyy, last week.  He monitored in real time what was going on over the weekend. I mean, come on.” 

“The President is on vacation, but you can never unplug from a job like that, nor does he try to,” Kirby added. “He’s very much in command of making sure we can continue to protect our national security interests here at home and certainly overseas.” 

Former President Donald Trump stands alongside Misty Fuoco, whose sister Sgt. Nicole Gee died in the Abbey Gate bombing, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 26, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Former President Trump participated in a wreath laying ceremony Monday with relatives of the 13 fallen at Arlington National Cemetery. Biden and Vice President Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, were both absent but released separate statements listing the names of the 13 U.S. service members killed. 

TRUMP EXPECTED TO SLAM HARRIS ON 3RD ANNIVERSARY OF DEADLY AFGHANISTAN ATTACK THAT KILLED 13 AMERICANS

Some of the relatives of the fallen took to the stage of the Republican National Convention last month to condemn Biden for never publicly stating their names, and the Trump campaign doubled down on their criticism of the Biden-Harris administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal, noting that Harris had “bragged” about being the last person in the room with Biden before he made the decision.

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby during a daily press briefing on July 31, 2024, at the White House. Kirby held a teleconference with media on the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing Monday. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Trump campaign on Monday also slammed how neither Biden nor Harris, despite their written statements, have ever said the names of the 13 Americans killed out loud publicly and stressed how their handling of the withdrawal “stranded thousands of American citizens and left billions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment behind for the Taliban.” 

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The statements from Biden and Harris each noted that “America’s longest war” was over and remembered the 2,461 U.S. service members killed and the 20,744 wounded during the two-decade-long conflict. 

The state of Mississippi is spending over $100 million on illegal immigration, according to a new report by the state — with the governor blaming it on an “intention failure” by the feds to secure the border.

The report by the Mississippi state auditor found that there are at least 22,000 illegal immigrants in the state. Analysts estimate that it costs taxpayers over $100 million annually, with more than $25 million to educate illegal immigrants in public school alone.

Meanwhile, taxpayers spend $77 million to provide health care for illegal immigrants and their children, and another $1.7 million to incarcerate illegal immigrant criminals, it found.

BORDER RESIDENTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST KAMALA HARRIS’ RECORD ON SECURITY: ‘EVERYTHING IS LITERALLY OPEN’ 

Migrants walk along the highway through Suchiate, Chiapas state in southern Mexico, Sunday, July 21, 2024, during their journey north toward the U.S. border. ((AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente))

“Mississippi’s illegal immigration problem is spiraling out of control and is costing taxpayers millions,” said State Auditor Shad White. “Our public schools, hospitals, and prisons will continue to lose massive sums of money that we could have spent on our own citizens if this problem is not solved.”

The number is only an estimate because specific data is not always available. The report noted that the Mississippi Dept. of Education is barred from collecting citizenship information. Instead, it used data from the University of Mississippi to project that there are approximately 2,500 illegal immigrants attending public schools. It also accounted for extra spending on English Language Learners  and Low Income Student Supplements. 

For health care, the report found that approximately 50% of illegal immigrants have no health care coverage and 38% use emergency medical services for primary care. It also notes the costs of births to illegal immigrants and the cost of Medicaid for children born to illegal immigrants — who are citizens of the United States.

OVER 100 STUDENTS WITHOUT BUS SERVICE AS MASSACHUSETTS FUNDS BUSES FOR MIGRANTS

The report says that due to the limited amount of reliable data, the actual spending could be much higher.

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves delivers his State of the State address to the Mississippi State Legislature, Feb. 26, 2024, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss.  (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

The report comes at a time when border security and the ongoing crisis at the southern border is a top priority for voters and a major issue ahead of the November election.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said that states “are being forced to step up and pay for the Biden-Harris administration’s intentional failure to secure our border, and Mississippi is no exception.”

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“Their dangerous immigration policies are endangering Americans and putting enormous financial strain on states all across our country — and it’s long past time to put a stop to it. It’s clear Kamala Harris isn’t up to fixing the administration’s self-inflicted problems at the border,” he said. “She’s been a disaster as border czar and is actually making the situation worse. Securing our border starts with electing Donald Trump in November.”

Republicans have blamed the three-year border crisis on the Biden administration’s policies, claiming that the administration rolled back Trump-era policies and encouraged migrants to flood into the country as a result.

The Biden administration has said it needs more funding and reform, including a recent bipartisan Senate bill, but that Republicans have failed to provide it. It has also pointed to a recent sharp drop in encounters and releases since President Biden signed an executive order limiting asylum in June. Vice President Kamala Harris told attendees at the Democratic National Convention last week that former President Trump has “ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal.”

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“As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law. I know, I know, we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system,” she said. “We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.”

The votes of the law enforcement professionals and their families will help determine the election as police officers weigh the prospect of heightened lawlessness on American streets under a potential Vice President Harris administration, a retired Illinois police chief predicted. 

“It’s my personal belief that no police officer or family member should vote for [Harris’] agenda, because it’s anti-police,” retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. 

“All you have to do is look at her record. I mean, you can go back to when she helped the Minneapolis Freedom Fund. I don’t know of any evidence that she donated money, but I do know evidence that she publicized it and that attracted more money to that freedom fund, which is basically a bond fund to bond out prisoners. And many of those prisoners that were bonded out had attacked police officers during the riot, especially the George Floyd rioting.”

Weitzel said his comments on Harris, the 2024 Democrat presidential nominee, and her Republican opponent, former President Trump, are made through a public safety lens, stripping away typical Republican-vs.-Democrat politics in favor of weighing the two candidates based on their track record of curbing crime and supporting law enforcement. 

KAMALA HARRIS’ RECORD AS PROSECUTOR IN CALIFORNIA SPELLS ‘TROUBLE’ FOR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: LAWYER

Tom Weitzel is shown when he was police chief of Riverside, Illinois. (Tom Weitzel)

Weitzel argued that the police vote could sway the election, noting that when considering family members and loved ones, the police vote sits at about 1.5 million people. 

“I read a story the other day that there’s over 710,000 police officers, full-time police officers in the United States, over [840,000] if you take in federal law enforcement and specialized agencies, such as colleges and universities. Those are votes and most of those law enforcement officers you know, their spouses, their children, their friends, that there could be 1.5 million votes there, easily, if not more,” Weitzel explained. 

DNC PAINTS HARRIS AS ‘LAW AND ORDER’ STANDARD-BEARER AS PAST COMMENTS ON ‘MILITARIZATION OF POLICE’ RESURFACE

Weitzel retired from the Riverside Police Department, which is located about 12 miles from downtown Chicago, in 2021 after serving as the department’s chief for 13 years. He served in law enforcement for a total of 37 years, which included him being ambushed and shot in the line of duty in 1987 by Chicago criminals. 

Vice President Harris greets President Biden at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital spoke to Weitzel just days after high-profile Democrats flooded Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, where Harris officially accepted her party’s nomination for president. Harris touted the military and her law enforcement background as San Francisco’s district attorney and California attorney general, but she did not offer full-throated support to police or first responders. 

Harris said “law enforcement” three times in her speech on Thursday evening, including two references to Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of Trump breached the U.S. Capitol.

KAMALA WAS A ROGUE SOROS-LIKE PROSECUTOR BEFORE IT WAS POPULAR AMONG WOKE ELITES

“And let me be clear … after decades in law enforcement, I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our border. Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. The border patrol endorsed it. But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign, so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal,” Harris said when mentioning law enforcement for the third and final time in her speech. 

Republican presidential nominee former President Trump touches the turnout coat of former Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Corey Comperatore during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. (Reuters/Jeenah Moon)

Weitzel said Harris made a “huge mistake” by not trying to build a bridge with police during her speech, pointing to how Trump conversely made further inroads with law enforcement and first responders during his Republican National Convention (RNC) speech in July, when he paid an emotional tribute to retired fire chief Corey Comperatore.

HARRIS CAMPAIGN SIGNALS CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR ENDING CASH BAIL

Comperatore was killed last month in Butler, Pennsylvania, during a Trump rally when shooter Thomas Crooks attempted to assassinate the 45th president. Trump was wounded when a bullet grazed his ear. 

“Corey, a highly respected former fire chief … was accompanied by his wife, Helen … and two precious daughters,” Trump said during his convention speech. “He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets … what a fine man he was.”

Trump also walked over to Comperatore’s firefighting jacket and helmet, which were sent to the convention by his family, and held a moment of silence for the Pennsylvania dad.

Weitzel said Harris not honoring first responders in her speech was a mistake while arguing Trump’s “human touch” of honoring Comperatore spoke volumes to those who work in public safety.

KAMALA HARRIS’ LEGAL, POLITICAL CAREER KICKED OFF WITH FAILED BAR EXAM

Former President Trump famously raised his fist and yelled “fight” to the crowd after surviving an assassination attempt in July. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Trump honored the firefighter that was killed during his assassination attempt. Did you see the part when he walked over to where they put a mannequin up with his fire gear on? That type of respect for the fire service is the same type of respect it is given to law enforcement. That’s a public safety realm. That’s the public safety realm of fire and police, and that’s why police officers support him also. … That type of human touch and that type of support that was shown during the RNC for that fire chief that was killed is the same reason police are supporting him and have been since his presidency,” Weitzel said. 

RETIRED ILLINOIS POLICE CHIEF RELIVES LATE-NIGHT ‘AMBUSH’ BY CHICAGO GANGSTER WHO LEFT HIM FOR DEAD: AUDIO

Weitzel said the election comes down to “lawlessness vs. law and order” and that police support of Trump’s run will only increase as the election cycle spills into the fall. 

The retired police chief said the cops who he speaks to are “concerned” about a potential Harris administration after Democrats nationwide turned their backs on officers in 2020, rallying support to defund police amid widespread riots following the death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

Tom Weitzel (Tom Weitzel)

“They’re very concerned. And make no mistake, you know, Trump isn’t perfect. Nobody’s saying everything he does is fantastic. … I’m just talking from a public safety perspective. And yes, they are concerned that if Kamala Harris was to become president and her administration would not be supportive of police, and that would be a huge deal. I mean … you’re talking about the United States Justice Department. You’re talking about funding for police agencies, federal grant funding. You’re talking about policies that would be set up nationally, and you would just have this framework [that’s] anti-police and anti-police agenda. You know what that breeds? That breeds lawlessness,” he said. 

TRUMP PAYS EMOTIONAL TRIBUTE TO COREY COMPERATORE DURING RNC SPEECH: ‘SPIRIT THAT FORGED AMERICA’

Harris’ career, up until she was sworn in as a senator in 2017, focused on law enforcement. 

Then-District Attorney Kamala Harris walks into the courtroom shortly before a hearing for David Hill, the suspect in the shooting death of police officer Isaac Espinoza, on April 29, 2004, in San Francisco. (Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

She launched her legal career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office as a deputy DA in 1990. In the late 1990s, she moved over to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office as assistant DA, then to the San Francisco city attorney’s office before running in 2004 to become San Francisco’s top cop. She was elected as San Francisco DA and served in the role for about seven years, in that time building a friendship with then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and rubbing elbows with fellow Californian, Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Harris sympathized with rioters during the 2020 protests that swept the nation at a time when the coronavirus pandemic was at a fever pitch and upended day-to-day life for Americans. 

​​”If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” Harris posted on X, then Twitter, in 2020, urging people to donate to the fund during the 2020 campaign. 

Harris promoted the bail fund in June 2020 to help bail Black Lives Matter rioters out of jail, but only a fraction of the more than $41 million actually went to freeing rioters, subsequent reporting found. 

Weitzel pointed to Harris’ promotion of the bail fund, as well as her failure to prosecute some criminals when she served as San Francisco DA and California attorney general. 

Presidential nominee Vice President Harris is shown at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“There’s a very well-known case in 2004 where there was a San Francisco police officer brutally murdered with an AK-47, and she, three days after he was buried, came out with a statement that she would not seek the death penalty, and even her own Democratic Party in California did not support her on that one,” he said.

‘WEAK-ON-CRIME LIBERAL’: TRUMP CAMPAIGN HITS BACK AFTER HARRIS BLAMES HIM FOR ‘VIOLENT CRIME WAVE’

Weitzel was referring to the 2004 murder of 29-year-old San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza by a gang member who shot at the officer and his partner to avoid being caught with a firearm. Harris turned down seeking the death penalty against the perpetrator, arguing it would “send the wrong message,” sparking fellow Democrats at the time to criticize the decision. 

“This is clearly a case where local politics took precedence over the facts of the case and a deliberative review of the circumstances,” a Democrat California assemblyman said at the time of Harris’ decision. 

Espinoza’s family members have since said they will not support Harris in her 2024 presidential run, the New York Post reported. 

Kamala Harris is shown when she was San Francisco’s district attorney on Oct. 29, 2008. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

As law enforcement officers – and loved ones of cops – head to the polls this year, Weitzel called on them to weigh the “lawlessness” that has played out on the streets of America since 2020 and vote on the platform of public safety. 

DNC ATTENDEES WEIGH IN: ARE KAMALA HARRIS’ AND JOE BIDEN’S RECORDS ONE AND THE SAME?

“Lawlessness is absolutely flooding this country. You can see it. All you have to do is follow any social media accounts. You can see it in local news,” he said. “… We see politicians put out that you can pretty much do what you want and disregard the police. And I can tell you that there are more and more police officers being assaulted, battered, attacked than ever before.”

Former President Trump and Vice President Harris (Getty Images)

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“In fact, there was just a study that came out that there’s a police officer shot, not killed, but a police officer shot in the line of duty every 22 hours in America. If that continues, we will have more shootings of police officers and more police officer deaths by the end of 2024 than ever.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Tuesday marks 10 weeks until Election Day on Nov. 5.

And former President Trump is now working at breakneck speed as he aims to blunt Vice President Harris’ momentum as she rides a wave of energy and enthusiasm out of last week’s Democratic National Convention.

Trump campaigns this week in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, three of the seven battleground states from coast to coast that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, returns to Michigan.

Last week, as the Democrats held their convention in Chicago, Trump stopped in five of the key swing states, part of his counter-programming effort, with Vance also crisscrossing the campaign trail.

TRUMP PICKS UP PACE AS WHITE HOUSE RACE ENTERS FINAL PHASE

Republican presidential nominee former President Trump speaks at a campaign event in Las Vegas on Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

The vice president and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, kick off a two-day bus tour this week in the crucial southeastern battleground of Georgia.

Expect the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the campaign trail to be repeated going forward until Election Day.

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But over the next month, there are also a handful of major markers that could impact the outcome of the election.

Harris interview?

Trump, Vance, their campaign and allied Republicans have repeatedly criticized Harris for not holding a news conference or sitting for an interview since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket more than five weeks ago.

Presidential nominee Vice President Harris is shown at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“She can’t answer questions,” Trump said on Monday as he took questions from reporters during a stop in northern Virginia.” Why doesn’t she do something like I’m doing right now?”

So, all eyes will be on Harris to see if she lives up to her promise to do a national news media interview by the end of the month.

Fundraising fight

There are just a handful of days left in August, and the end of the month brings anticipation of the latest fundraising figures from both the Trump and Harris campaigns.

Biden enjoyed the fundraising lead over Trump earlier this year, but the former president saw his fundraising soar in the late spring and early summer.

But after Biden’s blockbuster move to end his re-election bid and Harris replacing him as the Democrats’ standard-bearer, the campaign and the party’s fundraising surged and Harris walloped Trump in fundraising during July.

Former President Trump and Vice President Harris (Getty Images)

The August numbers, which the campaigns could release as early as Sept. 1, will be closely watched and scrutinized, as fundraising along with polling is a crucial metric.

Debate clash

The first and possibly the only presidential debate between Harris and Trump is scheduled for Sept. 10 in Philadelphia. But Trump on Monday questioned whether he would take part in the ABC News-hosted showdown as he charged that the network was “biased.”

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The face-off, if it truly happens, could be the most important evening in the 2024 presidential election, with the power to potentially shift or transform the current margin-of-error race between the vice president and the former president.

For proof of this, look back to the late-June debate between Biden and Trump. The president’s disastrous performance fueled questions about whether the 81-year-old president had the mental and physical stamina to handle another four years in the White House. And it sparked calls from within his own party for Biden to drop out of the race.

Less than a month after the clash in Atlanta, the president was out of the race.

Early voting

There are 70 days to go until Election Day, but some voters start casting ballots next month.

In swing state North Carolina, mail-in voting begins on Sept. 6. And early voting begins on Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania and Sept. 26 in Michigan, two other crucial electoral battlegrounds.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

The debate over debates tells us a great deal about the state of the presidential race.

If only we could figure out what it is.

Donald Trump, by slamming “ABC FAKE NEWS,” suggested he may pull out of the Sept. 10 faceoff. He said yesterday at a Vietnamese restaurant in Virginia that it was Kamala Harris who is trying to back out of the debate.

A top Harris campaign official, Michael Tyler, responded on MSNBC that the vice president is actually anxious to debate and he thought all the issues had been worked out.

KAMALA HARRIS, TIME COVER GIRL: IS HER SURGE AGAINST TRUMP FUELED BY AN ENDLESS MEDIA HONEYMOON?

My best read is that the debate will happen and that this is the kind of last-minute negotiation for which Trump is renowned.

Remember, this debate was worked out with Joe Biden, whose first encounter with Trump, which the president demanded, was such a disaster that it knocked him out of the race. That led to Harris as the substitute nominee, which was not a “coup” – it’s clear that Trump misses Biden – because nobody ran against Kamala.

A good rule of thumb is that the candidate who is perceived to be behind, or to have lost momentum, wants the debate more urgently.

With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abandoning his longshot presidential bid to join team Trump, the state of the race is anybody’s guess – and incredibly hard to gauge. (Left: Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images; Right: Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images; Inset: Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

At the CNN debate, Biden insisted that the microphones be muted for the candidate who wasn’t recognized to speak. He was obviously trying to avoid a repeat of their first 2020 encounter, when Trump constantly talked over him.

But now Kamala is insisting that the mikes be kept live no matter who is speaking. Her campaign says this will demonstrate that Trump isn’t capable of acting “presidential” for 90 minutes.

Another way to look at it: If the former president does constantly interrupt her, it will remind people what they don’t like about him – and could seem more rude when up against a woman of color. Then she can complain that he trampled on her.

TRUMP, REJECTING ADVICE, TRIES MOCKERY, INSULTS, AI AGAINST KAMALA, BUT IS IT WORKING?

In fairness, though, what Harris wants now is the way it’s been in virtually every presidential fall debate. It was the CNN debate, at the insistence of the 81-year-old Biden, that was the exception.

Is this dispute enough to derail the thing? Again, I doubt it. 

Here’s what Trump had to say (and he’s back tweeting!):

“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s (K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?… 

Trump slammed ABC and other mainstream outlets in a Truth Social tirade suggesting he may not participate in his scheduled Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Harris. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)

Will panelist Donna Brazil[e] give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton? Will Kamala’s best friend, who heads up ABC, do likewise.” After making fun of the name of George Stephanopoulos – who will not be involved in the debate – Trump says: They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!! Why did Harris turn down Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN? Stay tuned!!!”

The ABC panel that drew Trump’s ire was Karl, Politico’s Jonanthan Martin and Rachael Bade, and contributor Donna Brazile.

The 45th president, who is facing an overwhelmingly hostile press corps, may also be trying to grab some attention after a month of pro-Kamala coverage. The Democratic convention was successful by almost any measure, including Harris’ speech, but when Rachel Maddow said that she and others at the MSNBC mothership “stood up and cheered” over Tim Walz’s appearance, that was rather striking.

What’s equally fascinating is how many pundits defended Biden’s mental acuity, but now, with Trump running against a 59-year-old woman, are trying to portray him as having lost a few steps.

Most journalists and commentators have displayed little interest in Harris’ refusal to do interviews, with some even saying she shouldn’t because things are going so well. Her deputy campaign manager told me on “Media Buzz” that the first one would be by Aug. 31, and we’ll see if it’s with a sympathetic liberal.

Trump, meanwhile, did two lengthy news conferences in about a week – and MSNBC refused to take the second one live, with their pundits saying he lies all the time anyway.

RFK JR QUITS, DENOUNCES MEDIA

RFK Jr. stepped on Harris’ post-convention vibe fest by dropping out and endorsing Trump, which certainly could help him at least marginally in such a close race. MSNBC, again, refused to take Kennedy’s presser live. Now does anyone seriously believe that if RFK had endorsed Kamala Harris, the network wouldn’t have aired it live – and immediately invited him on?

Kennedy fans are welcome to vote for him, although his siblings called his Trump endorsement the ultimate betrayal. His response was to scapegoat the media:

“ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN combined gave only two live interviews. Those networks instead ran a continuous deluge of hit pieces with inaccurate, often vile audios and defamatory smears …

“Your institutions have made themselves government mouthpieces and stenographers for the organs of power.”

RFK Jr.’s withdrawal from the race effectively neutered the post-convention morale bump anticipated for Harris. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Many interviews are pretaped, but the reason the networks gave RFK little airtime is he was a fringe candidate with no plausible hope of winning a single state. He was certainly a colorful candidate – saying he had a brain worm, covering up how he put a dead bear carcass in his car that he planned to eat for dinner – but that’s something entirely different.

And consider this: RFK ran as a Democrat, then an independent. He tried to make a deal with both Kamala and Trump to trade his endorsement for the promise of a top health care job if either won. That didn’t work out.

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So he endorsed Trump anyway without a job promise, unless there was a wink and a nod.

Doesn’t that raise questions about what Kennedy actually stands for?

Now, as such speakers as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama warned, Harris faces a tough two months where Republicans will relentlessly attack her record and particularly the left-wing positions from 2020 that she changed without explanation. 

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Some analysts say she calls herself the underdog as a way of positioning herself as the change candidate, but she is in fact the underdog.

GOP presidential nominee former President Trump on Monday promised that if he were to retake the Oval Office he would demand on Day 1 the resignation of “every single official” responsible for the “Afghanistan calamity.”

“The voters are going to fire Kamala and Joe on Nov. 5, we hope, and when I take office I will ask for the resignation of every single official. We’ll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day,” Trump said, speaking to a crowd at the National Guard Association in Detroit.

“You know, you have to fire people,” Trump said. “We never fire anybody. You got to fire them, like on ‘The Apprentice.’ You’re fired. You did a lousy job,” he continued, paying homage to his reality TV series. 

“You did a terrible, terrible disservice to our country. You get fired when that happens. Nobody got fired,” Trump said of the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. “Nobody ever gets fired in this administration. It’s amazing, all the bad things that have happened. Nobody ever gets fired.”

REPUBLICANS SLAM HARRIS FOR BEING ‘LAST PERSON IN THE ROOM’ WHEN BIDEN MADE CALL TO EVACUATE AFGHANISTAN

Former President Trump stands alongside Bill Barnett, whose grandson, Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, died in the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 26, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia. (Getty Images )

Monday marks three years since the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 American service members and more than 100 Afghans. Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack.

Roughly four months before the tragic terror attack, Vice President Kamala Harris talked about her role during a CNN interview in which she confirmed she was the last person in the room before Biden made the deadly decision to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. That video is making the rounds on social media three years later. 

CNN anchor Dana Bash asked, “Afghanistan, were you the last person in the room?”

“Yes,” Harris responded. 

“And you feel comfortable?” Bash followed up, to which Harris responded, “I do.”

HARRIS’ ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL A MYSTERY DESPITE BEING ‘LAST PERSON IN THE ROOM’ WITH BIDEN

Pallbearers carry one of the 13 slain service members from the Abbey Gate attack at Kabul airport in April 2021. (Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Last month, President Biden faced criticism from Gold Star families after falsely claiming during the CNN Presidential Debate that he’s the “only president this century, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world.”

Darin Hoover, Gold Star father of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, who was one of those 13 American service members killed in Kabul, had a strong reaction to Biden’s debate claims.

Former President Trump on Monday promised that if he retakes the Oval Office he would demand on Day 1 the resignation of “every single official” responsible for the “Afghanistan calamity.” (Getty Images)

“You know, the stumbling, bumbling buffoon that we have in the White House had the audacity to say that, under his watch, that no military members have died,” Hoover said in an interview with Fox News Digital in June.

The Gold Star dad added, “The rage, the absolute disgust that I got from hearing him say that. I started yelling back at the TV just out of frustration. He’s never acknowledged, not one time, any of our kids. He’s never said their names. Even to this day, I doubt very seriously that he even knows their names.”

Hoover said the Biden administration sent the 13 Afghanistan Gold Star families letters a year after the attack. 

HARRIS LEAVES OUT DEADLY BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL IN SOARING PRO-MILITARY DNC SPEECH

U.S. troops stand guard behind concertina wire on a roadside near the airport in Kabul on Aug. 20, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

“All the 13 families get a canned letter. It said the same exact same thing. And it looked like it was a photocopy of all of that. It was basically, we’re sorry that your service member had died, and that’s been it. We’ve had absolutely nothing before, nothing since,” Hoover added. 

Responding to Hoover’s criticism, a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital in June that the president “cares deeply about our service members, their families, and the immense sacrifices they have made.”

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“As he said then and continues to believe now: Our country owes them a great deal of gratitude and a debt that we can never repay, and we will continue to honor their ultimate sacrifice,” the spokesperson added.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Brian Flood contributed to this report. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket has generated momentum in the polls for the party, but some experts aren’t convinced by her new lead.

“If the polling errors are anywhere close to what they were in 2016 and 2020, then Trump is in the lead right now,” Democrat strategist Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital.

The comments come as the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Harris with a slim 1.5 point lead over former President Trump nationally, a significant shift from the three-point lead Trump held over Biden the day before the president dropped out of the race.

BIDEN TO ANNOUNCE SUPPORT FOR MAJOR CHANGES TO SUPREME COURT AMID OUTRAGE OVER RECENT DECISIONS: REPORT

Former President Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, on Aug. 9. The poll found American adults think more highly of Trump’s ability to handle the economy, compared to Harris. (AP/Rick Bowmer)

But the Harris lead is also a much smaller gap than Trump faced at the same time in 2016 and 2020, when the Republican nominee trailed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 6 points and Biden by 7.1.

While Trump won in 2016 and failed to win re-election in 2020, the former president greatly outperformed his polling numbers in two close elections, a fact that is not lost on Democrats heading into the stretch run of 2024.

According to a report from Politico last week, recent polls conducted by Democratic firms that show Harris in the lead also contain warning signs, including leads for Trump in characteristics more likely to sway voters. Harris is also essentially tied with Trump across the battleground states, the polls show, meaning the vice president is underperforming her national numbers in states set to decide the election.

“It’s still a very tough race, and that feels consistent with everything we know,” said Margie Omero, a partner at the Democratic polling firm GBAO Strategies, told Politico.

WALZ VS. VANCE: NEW POLL REVEALS WHICH VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE IS FAVORED AMONG VOTERS

Former President Trump speaks at a campaign event, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Democratic pollsters also fear the prospect of another polling error, even though several of the party’s top firms got together in an attempt to diagnose the problem after 2020.

“I spent a ton of time and analysis trying to dig into those problems. And I feel much better educated about those problems,” Nick Gourevitch, a partner at Global Strategy Group who participated in the Democratic “polling autopsy,” told Politico. “I don’t think there’s any pollster in America who can sit here and say… that they’re 100% sure that they fixed any issues in polling. I think that would be silly.”

That reality is not lost on Democratic pollsters, who have urged caution despite Harris’ quick rise over the last several weeks.

“Every year, we’ve had different curveballs. This is a difficult industry,” John Anzalone, the lead pollster on Biden’s 2020 campaign, told Politico. “Something’s gonna happen in 2024. You and I, right now, don’t know what that is.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during an event at the Prime Osborn Convention Center on May 1, 2024, in Jacksonville, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Meanwhile, Epstein sees several reasons for Democrats to worry, pointing out that Harris is still “underperforming in the Rust Belt battleground by significant numbers” and “with working class voters and Black voters.”

“The idea that Harris doesn’t have to specify policy or go before the news media is a strategy born of conceit and foolhardiness and will ultimately backfire,” Epstein added.

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday appealed federal Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling dismissing his classified records Mar-a-Lago case against former President Donald Trump, arguing that his appointment is valid. 

Cannon, the U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, last month dismissed Smith’s case against Trump, ruling that it violated “the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.” 

Cannon said Smith’s appointment of special counsel was unconstitutional. 

But Smith appealed Monday. 

JUDGE DISMISSES TRUMP’S FLORIDA CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE

Donald Trump and Jack Smith  (Getty Images)

“The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded,” the filing states. “In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels.” 

“The district court’s contrary view conflicts with an otherwise unbroken course of decisions, including by the Supreme Court, that the Attorney General has such authority, and it is at odds with widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government,” Smith argued. “This Court should reverse.”

Smith also argues that he was “properly funded through the congressionally enacted ‘permanent indefinite appropriation’ to ‘pay all necessary expenses of investigations and prosecutions by independent counsel appointed pursuant to'” U.S. code. 

“The district court’s contrary conclusion depended solely on its erroneous determination that no ‘other law’ supported the Special Counsel’s appointment,” he continued. “Because its premise was wrong, so was its conclusion.”

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Appointments Clause says, “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.” 

Smith, however, was never confirmed by the Senate.

CLASSIFIED DOCS CASE DISMISSAL MEANS ‘GREATEST’ LEGAL ‘THREAT’ TO TRUMP IS ‘GONE’: EXPERTS

“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme – the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Cannon wrote in her decision last month. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Justice Department on Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers. That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere – whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not,” she continued.

“In the case of inferior officers, that means that Congress is empowered to decide if it wishes to vest appointment power in a Head of Department, and indeed, Congress has proven itself quite capable of doing so in many other statutory contexts. But it plainly did not do so here, despite the Special Counsel’s strained statutory readings,” Cannon added.

“In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny,” she said.

Republican Presidential candidate, former U.S. president, Donald Trump speaks at II Toro E La Capra on August 23, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  (Ian Maule/Getty Images)

Trump had faced charges stemming from Smith’s investigation into his possession of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago residence. He pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung reacted to Smith’s appeal Monday evening, saying every case against Trump should be tossed. 

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“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation, not only should the dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida be affirmed, but be immediately joined by a dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Cheung said. “The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Comrade Kamala’s Political Opponent, President Trump.” 

He added: “Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!” 

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement Monday morning honoring the 13 U.S. service members who were killed during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago, but has been conspicuously absent from public memorials or events on the anniversary of their deaths. 

Harris released a statement early Monday morning naming the 13 U.S. service members who were killed during the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, mourning their deaths and calling on Americans to “come together as one nation to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice three years ago.”  

“Today and everyday, I mourn and honor them. My prayers are with their families and loved ones.  My heart breaks for their pain and their loss.  These 13 devoted patriots represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves and deploying into danger to keep their fellow citizens safe,” Harris wrote in the statement. 

Harris also posted her statement to her vice president X account on Monday. 

HARRIS LEAVES OUT DEADLY BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL IN SOARING PRO-MILITARY DNC SPEECH

Fox News Digital reached out to both Harris’ campaign and her vice presidential office asking if she had plans to honor the service members during live events, whether public or private, but did not receive responses. 

The anniversary of the tragic military deaths comes after Harris wrapped up in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention last week, where she officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Oval Office after President Biden dropped out of the race last month amid mounting concern over his mental acuity. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are slated to visit Georgia next week in their first public event following the DNC, NBC News reported. 

GOLD STAR DAD SAYS BIDEN-HARRIS ‘DENIED’ SON’S SERVICE AS FALLEN AFGHANISTAN SOLDIERS HONORED IN CALIFORNIA

Israeli citizens speak with Fox News Digital to discuss their varying views on what a Harris presidency would mean for the people of Israel. (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

Biden also honored the 13 fallen U.S. service members in an early morning statement. The president is in Delaware at his beach home this week, and has no public events scheduled, Fox Digital reported earlier Monday. 

3 YEARS LATER, AFGHANISTAN WAR VETERANS HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN – HAVE YOU?

“These 13 Americans—and the many more that were wounded—were patriots in the highest sense. Some were born the year the war in Afghanistan started. Some were on their second or third tour. But all raised their hand to serve a cause greater than themselves—risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, Allies, and Afghan partners. They embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill,” Biden wrote in his statement, which also included the 13 names of the service members. 

In this Aug. 21, 2021, photo provided by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command, provide assistance at an evacuation control checkpoint during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps via AP)

During her acceptance speech last week, Harris touted her foreign policy record and support of veterans, but left out any mention of the Biden-Harris administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists. And I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un, who are rooting for Trump. Because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors. They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable — because he wants to be an autocrat,” Harris touted from the DNC’s stage in Chicago Thursday evening.

“As president, I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals. Because, in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand — and where the United States of America belongs.”

GOLD STAR DAD RECALLS KNOCK AT HIS DOOR THAT ‘CHANGED EVERYTHING’

In addition to the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members defending the Kabul airport during the botched withdrawal, hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies were left in the country under Taliban rule. Critics such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the withdrawal paved the way for adversaries such as Russia to invade Ukraine. 

The Taliban ultimately claimed control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal. 

This image made available to AFP on August 20, 2021 by Human Rights Activist Omar Haidari, shows a US Marine grabbing an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021. (Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)

Harris previously confirmed that she was the “last person in the room” with Biden before he made the decision to withdraw and also told the media that she was “comfortable” with the operation that ultimately turned deadly and chaotic.

On the Republican side of the presidential race, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly honored the fallen service members, including families of those killed during the withdrawal, taking the RNC’s stage last month in Milwaukee for 20 minutes in an emotional remembrance. The families also criticized Biden in their remarks from the RNC’s stage, calling on the president to apologize to them. 

“Look at our faces. Look at our pain, and our heartbreak. And look at our rage. [The Afghanistan withdrawal] was not an extraordinary success,” Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, said. “Joe Biden owes the men and women who served in Afghanistan a debt of gratitude, and an apology.”

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION IN ‘DENIAL’ ABOUT BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL, HR MCMASTER SAYS

On the anniversary Monday, Trump traveled to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia for a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and was again joined by the families of those killed in Afghanistan three years ago. 

The 45h president was seen listening to taps, laying the wreath at the tomb, and meeting with family members during the solemn ceremony. 

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – AUGUST 26: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump stands alongside Bill Barnett (L), who’s grandson Staff Sgt Darin Taylor Hoover died in Abbey Gate Bombing, during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on August 26, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. Monday marks three years since the August 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 American service members.  (Getty Images )

Trump has consistently slammed the Biden administration for its botched withdrawal from the country in 2021, calling it the “most embarrassing moment” in U.S. history in a Truth Social post on Monday. 

“​​This is the third anniversary of the BOTCHED Afghanistan withdrawal, the most EMBARRASSING moment in the history of our Country. Gross Incompetence – 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds of people wounded and dead, AMERICANS and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND. You don’t take our soldiers out first, you take them out LAST, when all else is successfully done. Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became, and is, a laughing stock all over the World,” Trump posted on Truth Social. 

TRUMP RIPS BIDEN FOR NOT FIRING GENERALS AFTER BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: ‘INCOMPETENCE’

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, clasps her hand in the air with President Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby fielded questions from the media regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal on Monday, including a reporter asking why Biden and Harris felt they “did not need to host or attend public events in the way that former President Donald Trump did today.”

“You don’t have to look very far at the president and the first lady’s track record and the vice president’s track record, over the last three and a half years to see how deeply devoted they are to the men and women of our military and to our veterans and to their families. Everything from Joining Forces to the Pact Act,” Kirby responded. 

He added that Trump was personally invited by the families to join them at Arlington National Cemetery, and that there are “many ways” for U.S. leaders to honor the fallen service members that does not include “a lot of fanfare.” 

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“Another way is to continue to work. Maybe not with a lot of fanfare. Maybe not with a lot of public attention. Maybe not with TV cameras, but to work with might and main every single day to make sure that the families of those, of the fallen and of those who were injured and wounded, not just at Abbey gate, but over the course of the 20 some odd years that we were in Afghanistan, have the support that they need,” he said. 

The Biden administration’s efforts to grant a pathway to citizenship to some illegal immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens have been put on hold temporarily by a federal judge after a lawsuit from 16 Republican-led states.

U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker on Monday put a stay on the “parole in place” program, which was announced in June and allows for humanitarian parole and a path to permanent residency for certain illegal immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens without them having to leave the country.

The 16 states, led by Texas and America First Legal, argued in a filing first reported by Fox News Digital that the rule violates federal law, which prohibits illegal immigrants from obtaining immigration benefits, including permanent status, without first having left the country and being readmitted. 

BIDEN ADMIN SUED BY 16 STATES OVER PAROLE PUSH FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH US SPOUSES

They argued it does that by an unlawful use of parole, which is limited to use on a “case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”

“Biden’s unconstitutional scheme would have rewarded over 1 million illegal aliens with the opportunity for citizenship after breaking our country’s laws—and incentivized countless more,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law. Great to work together with America First Legal, Stephen Miller and our partner states,” he said.

“This is a huge victory in our courtroom battle to block the Biden-Harris executive fiat giving over 1 million illegal aliens a path to U.S. citizenship. That executive decree is now frozen. America First Legal is deeply honored to partner with Attorney General Paxton, [Idaho] Attorney General [Raul] Labrador, along with 14 other states to fight this unconstitutional mass amnesty,” Stephen Miller, president of AFL, said in a statement.

The administration had estimated that about 500,000 immigrants would benefit, and about 50,000 children.

The new process would have applied to noncitizen spouses who have lived in the U.S. for 10 years as of June and are judged not to pose a threat to public safety or national security, allowing them to apply for permanent residency. It argued that families live in fear and “face deep uncertainty about their future” due to the requirement that they depart and be processed abroad.

“In addition, individuals must have no disqualifying criminal history or otherwise constitute a threat to national security or public safety and should otherwise merit a favorable exercise of discretion,” a fact sheet said.

GOP LAWMAKERS WARN BIDEN PAROLE SCHEME COULD LEAD TO MASSIVE SPIKE IN MARRIAGE FRAUD

The stay will last for two weeks but can be extended. Barker is a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump.

“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” he said in the order.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but had responded to the lawsuit last week with a statement promising to defend the policy in court.

“The Department of Homeland Security is committed to Keeping Families Together. Keeping Families Together is grounded in well-established legal authority, and its purpose – enabling the families of U.S. Citizens to live without fear of separation – is consistent with fundamental American values. We will defend it in court. DHS is continuing to process already filed applications, and to accept and process new applications,” a spokesperson said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

The White House, in a separate statement, had accused Republican officials of being “more focused on playing politics than helping American families or fixing our broken immigration system.”

“This lawsuit is seeking to force U.S. citizens and their families, people who have lived in the United States for more than ten years, to continue to live in the shadows. The lawsuit aims to separate American citizens from their spouses and stepchildren who are already eligible for lawful permanent residency and could remain together through this process,” spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said. “This lawsuit goes against our nation’s values, and we will vigorously defend Keeping Families Together and our ability to make the immigration system more fair and more just. We will also continue securing our border and enforcing our laws, something Congressional Republicans have refused to do time and time again.” 

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“Since President Biden announced new, decisive executive actions to secure the border, encounters between ports of entry have dropped significantly – encounters in July 2024 were the lowest since September 2020 and lower than at this point in 2019,” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.