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In vitro fertilization (IVF) accounts for only 2% of all U.S. births, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a major campaign issue dividing some Republicans from their party standard-bearer, former President Trump, who recently indicated he would push for federally funding the procedures if elected.

But some Republicans and pro-life religious conservatives aren’t fully on board with federally funded IVF procedures.

Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., — a Trump ally — said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he would rather support a tax-credit for IVF users “to encourage people to have children.”

“We’ve been accused — the party has — of being against birth control,” Graham, who voted with most Republicans against the Democrat-led Right to IVF Act this year that would have protected access to IVF this year, said. “We’re not. We’ve been accused of being against IVF treatments. We’re not.”

REP. MAXINE WATERS DODGES QUESTION ON CONTROVERSIAL ABORTION PROCEDURE

In vitro fertilization (IVF) accounts for only 2% of all U.S. births. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

“I’ll talk to my Democratic colleagues,” he added. “We might be able to find common ground here.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that “all Republicans, to my knowledge, support IVF in Congress.” 

“And there’s no state that prohibits or regulates IVF in a way that makes it unacceptable,” he said. “It is expensive for many couples. I understand that. So, it’s something I’m open to, [and] that most Republicans would be open to.”

Nearly all of California Republicans likewise voted against a Democrat-led bill last week aimed at expanding IVF access, too.

While former President Trump skirted attacks from his pro-life base last week for suggesting he may oppose Florida’s six-week abortion ban — calling it “too short” — he later came out in opposition to Amendment 4, an initiative on the Sunshine State’s ballot this November that critics say would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

Trump also said he’d subsidize the costly IVF treatments, because “we want more babies,” despite leaving abortion access up to the states. The Trump campaign did not directly respond to what constitutes a state issue versus a federal one when asked via email last week.

JD VANCE VOWS TRUMP WOULD NOT IMPOSE FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, VETO IT IF IT COMES ACROSS HIS DESK

Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., — a Trump ally — said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he would rather support a tax-credit for IVF users. (Getty Images)

“President Trump also supports universal access to contraception and IVF. Contrarily, Kamala Harris and the Democrats are radically out of touch with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth and forcing taxpayers to fund it,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

IVF is a fertility treatment for couples struggling to have children that involves freezing eggs to use later for conception. But some religious pro-lifers believe the procedure is a moral dilemma. The treatments also cost tens of thousands of dollars per couple. 

Illume Fertility, a leading modern fertility treatment network, reported in May that when their clinic retrieves 12 eggs, approximately 80% — or nine to 10 eggs — are viable. Of these viable eggs, around 80% will successfully fertilize, resulting in about seven to eight embryos per patient, the report noted.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SAYS PRO-LIFERS GIVE ‘TACIT ENDORSEMENT’ OF HARRIS’ ‘RADICAL’ ABORTION POSITION BY NOT VOTING

Sen. Tom Cotton said he believes Republicans in Congress support IVF treatments. (CBS)

Eric Sammons, executive director of faith-based magazine Crisis Pub, said, “No child created via IVF is evil any more than a child created via rape is evil. But that fact doesn’t make the method of creation good.”

Live Action social media consultant Samantha D. wrote, “We still need to keep the pro-life pressure on Trump. Government funded IVF is CRAZY. So many lives will be lost.”

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

Lila Rose, the founder of Live Action, also sparked controversy last week for her comments suggesting she would not vote for Trump unless he made more public anti-abortion statements. She has also slammed the notion of funding IVF treatments. 

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“Trump just announced his admin would either pay for IVF with tax dollars or force all insurance companies cover it,” Rose wrote last week on X, “How is this morally different than the contraceptive mandate under Obama?”

An Alabama Supreme Court ruling earlier this year established that frozen embryos created in the IVF process are considered children. However, IVF treatments have a success rate of around 50% for women under 35, dropping further with age. To increase the likelihood of a successful pregnancy, critics argue that clinics reportedly create more embryos than needed, leading to the freezing or disposal of millions of excess embryos.

Everyone wants to be a centrist now.

It’s all the rage.

Now if an ordinary person, say a friend of yours, changed positions on major issues, they would probably offer you an explanation. But politicians play by a different set of rules. 

After a primary season in which both Donald Trump and now Kamala Harris have been laser-focused on riling up their base, both are edging–in some cases sprinting–toward the center.

VP HARRIS ACCUSED OF ‘ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING’ ILLEGAL MIGRATION — AND COORDINATING WITH MEXICO

Political theft is not a crime, or the jails would be packed to capacity. 

Harris, in Las Vegas, blatantly ripped off Trump’s proposal to bar taxes on tips to service workers.

The focus has been on the vice president, not just because she’s new to the race but because she has studiously avoided the press until her sitdown with CNN’s Dana Bash. She does regularly come back on the plane for off-the-record sessions, with each reporter present getting a question. But obviously that’s of limited value to the rest of us.

The larger problem for Harris is that she has a host of far-left positions she took in her 2020 presidential run that she had abandoned without explanation.

Vice President Kamala Harris raised eyebrows when telling CNN’s Dana Bash that her “value’s haven’t changed” after making complete reversals on far-left positions she held in 2019. (Screenshot/CNN)

These include the abolition of private health insurance (under Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All); her past opposition to fracking, and embrace of decriminalizing illegal border crossings.

Her repeated refrain; “My values have not changed.”

On fracking, Harris told CNN, “I made clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking as vice president.” That is not true. She said Joe Biden would not ban fracking. 

The VP did offer something of an explanation, that the administration had created over 300,000 clean energy jobs and “that tells me…we can do it without banning fracking.”

FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP RIPS ‘DISHONEST MEDIA’ OVER MISREPRESENTATION OF JOKES

Bash cited another blast from the past: “There was a debate. You raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized. Do you still believe that?”

Harris: “I believe there should be consequences. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally.” No mention of why she shifted her stance.

What Kamala is doing is what most general-election candidates do: moving toward the center. Whatever she thought matched the mood of the country in 2019, including her earlier career as a prosecutor, is clearly untenable today.

But on the Republican side, Trump is doing the same thing. It’s just getting less attention because he makes plenty of other news, from the Arlington Cemetery flap to personal attacks on Harris.

(Kate Medley for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

This has been most visible on abortion, which has become a difficult subject for Republicans. On one level, Trump owns the issue, because it was his three Supreme Court justices who enabled the overturning of Roe after a half-century of precedent.

But now he’s said that Florida’s 6-week ban on the procedure is too short, that he believes there need to be more weeks. There was some backtracking on whether he’d support a competing initiative in the state, but not on the comments about 6 weeks, when many women don’t know they’re pregnant.

When I interviewed the former president at Mar-a-Lago, he indicated he would favor a 15- or 16-week abortion ban – but decided at the state level, under the SCOTUS ruling. 

WHY KAMALA HARRIS AND DANA BASH GET A MIXED GRADE IN VP’S FIRST MEDIA SIT DOWN

“He also declared that “my administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” This has triggered a backlash among some pro-life groups, who now deem Trump essentially pro-choice.

Trump is basically sliding to the center, to make his position more palatable to a wider range of voters, especially women, even though he has boasted about the repeal of Roe. 

(In that Mar-a-Lago interview, I asked Trump why he changed his mind on TikTok after trying to ban the Chinese-owned app as president. He said that would help Facebook, which he’s more concerned about, and of course TikTok has an enthusiastic base of younger users.)

Over the weekend, Trump said he would back another Florida measure, to legalize recreational use of marijuana. He said the state should not “ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars” by prosecuting people who possess small amounts for personal use. Again, a move toward a more moderate position that has drawn flak from some conservatives. 

Kamala accused him of, well, a flip-flop. She said that as president his Justice Department cracked down on pot smokers.

Part of what’s going on is that both candidates ignore the timing of past stances for political benefit. A Trump ad has Harris saying “Everyday prices are too high. Food, rent, gas, back-to-school clothes,” edited into “Bidenomics is working.” 

Harris was talking about high prices caused by the pandemic in a speech last month, and “Bidenomics” was from a speech last year when she was reacting to a monthly jobs report. 

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Kamala says Trump is pushing Project 2025, although he disavowed the Heritage project early on and repeatedly (though it’s staffed by many of his former White House aides).

Moving to the center is an art form, and that’s what both candidates are attempting right now.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., denied there was any evidence of illegal immigrants voting in U.S. elections on Tuesday when he was asked about legislation that would require proof of citizenship in order to vote. 

“There is no evidence that undocumented migrants vote,” the border senator told Fox News’ Chad Pergram at the Capitol during the chamber’s pro forma session. 

Kelly had been asked for his thoughts on including a bill to require proof of citizenship in order to vote in a must-pass spending bill at the end of the month. 

MCCORMICK SEIZES ON PENNSYLVANIA SENATE RACE GAP, LAYING BORDER BLAME ON CASEY

Kelly was in consideration to be Kamala Harris’ running mate.  (Vincent Alban/Reuters)

“This is a solution looking for a problem,” he responded.

Kelly reiterated again, “The problem doesn’t exist.” 

Republicans have ramped up their efforts to secure elections ahead of the pivotal November races, in part by removing noncitizens from voter rolls across the country. Last month, 138 noncitizens were found to have recently voted in Ohio during a months-long voter roll audit. This came after Ohio removed hundreds of registered noncitizens from voter rolls earlier this year. 

It’s unclear, however, whether the noncitizens who have illegally voted were in the U.S. illegally.

BLUE-STATE REPUBLICAN TOUTS HIS ANTI-TRUMP CREDENTIALS IN BID TO FLIP SENATE SEAT RED

The border has become a large issue going into the November election. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Despite Kelly’s claim, similar instances of registered noncitizens have been found across the country. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, revealed that more than 6,500 noncitizens were registered in the Lone Star State. 

“Of the over 6,500 potential noncitizens removed from the voter rolls, approximately 1,930 have a voter history,” read an August press release. 

Alabama, Virginia and Georgia also announced numerous instances of noncitizens being registered to vote during their own audits. 

MICHIGAN BECOMES TOP GOP SENATE TARGET AS MIKE ROGERS TIES WITH DEM OPPONENT AMONG OLDER VOTERS

Kelly denied that migrants were participating in elections. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Ahead of the 2024 election, some conservative Republicans in the House and Senate have made it their mission to include the federal legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote in a must-pass stopgap spending bill at the end of September.

The bill, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, passed the Republican-led House earlier this summer by a vote of 221-198. Five Democrats joined the measure, including Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas; Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas; Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine; Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C.; and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.

GOP SENATORS LOOK TO TIE CRACKDOWN ON NONCITIZEN VOTING TO MUST-PASS SPENDING BILL

Kelly represents a border state.  (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

However, the bill has not been scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Some proponents have suggested tying it to the spending bill is the only way to secure a Senate vote on the measure. 

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According to Kelly, it is “hard enough to get citizens to vote.” 

He said the legislation would create a “new system and requirements that there doesn’t seem to be any necessity [for].”

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

Former President Donald Trump is ramping up his campaign schedule ahead of the highly anticipated debate against Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, with campaign officials telling Fox News Digital that meeting with voters and taking questions from the press is his way of “getting ready.”

Trump and Harris are expected to face off for the first time in a debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10 on ABC News. The debate will be held in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center. 

The Harris campaign has agreed to the terms set forth in the initial agreement — the same terms used during the debate between Trump and President Biden in June. 

Trump and Harris are expected to face off for the first time in a debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10 on ABC News. (Peter Zay/AFP via Getty Images)

HARRIS PREPS FOR DEBATE WITH GOOGLE LAWYER, CREATING ‘CONFLICT OF INTEREST,’ TRUMP CAMPAIGN SAYS

Biden’s debate performance against Trump led to his ouster, shaking up the election cycle and forcing a switch to the top of the Democrat ticket. Biden suspended his re-election campaign shortly after and endorsed Harris. 

“We’re glad Kamala has finally agreed to the debate terms after trying to open up negotiations again,” a Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital. 

The rules are as follows: no notes, no sitting, no audience and no open microphones. 

The Harris campaign had argued last month that microphones should be open, and not muted, throughout the debate but ultimately agreed to the initial terms. 

Former President Donald Trump is ramping up his campaign schedule ahead of the highly anticipated debate against Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)

Ahead of next Tuesday’s debate, Trump is ramping up his campaign schedule with multiple events per day. 

Trump will be in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday. 

On Thursday, Trump will travel to New York City to give a speech at the New York Economic Club. Later Thursday, he will deliver remarks to the Republican Jewish Coalition. 

On Friday, Trump is headed to North Carolina to meet with law enforcement groups, where he is expected to deliver remarks. 

On Saturday, the former president will hold a rally in Wisconsin. 

TRUMP ADDS RFK JR., TULSI GABBARD TO HIS TRANSITION TEAM AS HE RECRUITS SUPPORTERS ‘ACROSS PARTISAN LINES’

“He uses rallies and speeches as a big part of debate prep,” a campaign official told Fox News Digital. “Meeting with voters and interacting with the press is a form of getting ready — you have seen him doing more media engagements in the last couple of weeks.” 

The official added: “In a lot of ways, that’s his preparation.” 

Fox News Digital has learned that campaign senior adviser Jason Miller is leading debate preparations, with Stephen Miller and the policy team also involved. 

As for the Harris campaign, Fox News Digital reported last month that the vice president had recruited Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison attorney Karen Dunn to help with debate prep. Dunn helped prepare Harris for her 2020 vice presidential debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence. 

Dunn is simultaneously working as Google’s lead defense attorney in the Biden-Harris administration’s lawsuit against the tech giant. 

That lawsuit, United States v. Google LLC, is the Biden-Harris administration’s antitrust lawsuit targeting Google’s digital advertising practices. The trial is set to begin Sept. 9 — a day before the first presidential debate. 

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“Kamala Harris will never stand up to Big Tech because she’s being coached on what to say in the debates by Google’s top lawyer,” Trump campaign senior adviser Tim Murtaugh told Fox News Digital. “Think about how outrageous it is — their administration is suing Google, but Harris is taking political advice from the defendant’s lawyer.” 

Murtaugh said, “Any first year law student knows that’s a conflict of interest.” 

Neither the Harris campaign nor Dunn responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest political news from Washington, D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

Here’s what’s happening…

– The White House calls Labor Day anti-Israel protests “heinous”…

– VP Harris leads former President Trump by five points in new poll

– Cuomo slammed ahead of COVID hearing

‘Opening the Door’

The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) is facing another lawsuit, as the Republican National Committee (RNC) is suing the battleground state for allegedly opening the door for non-citizens to vote.

The lawsuit brought by the RNC and the North Carolina Republican Party in Wake County last week accuses the NCSBE and members, Alan Hirsch, Jeff Carmon, Siobhan Millen, Stacy Eggers IV and Kevin Lewis of failing to require identification to prove citizenship. 

The lawsuit alleges that by violating the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and not checking the identification of approximately 225,000 voters, the agency “is opening the door for non-citizens to vote.”

North Carolina is the first state in the nation to start voting. The battleground state starts mailing out ballots for eligible voters on Sept. 6.  

“The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We are committed to the basic principle – and commonsense law – that only Americans decide American elections. Deliberately failing to follow the law, right before our country’s most important election, is inexcusable. We will fight every day to ensure that NCSBE follows the law, cleans the voter rolls, and protects the vote for North Carolinians.”…Read more

“I Voted” stickers at a polling station at the Wayne County Public Library in Goldsboro, North Carolina, US, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. This year’s Super Tuesday primaries will put Donald Trump on the cusp of the Republican nomination and launch the longest general election battle in recent US history.  (Allison Joyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

White House

‘ESPECIALLY HEINOUS’: White House blasts Labor Day protest including terror insignia …Read more

‘INSANELY WEIRD STORY’: Biden blasted for dusting off ‘tall tale’ at Labor Day campaign stop …Read more

CAMPAIGN TRAIL CRASH: Incident involved vans traveling at the rear of VP candidate’s convoy …Read more

‘THAT WAS A JOKE’: Biden quips his family was ‘so damn disappointed’ to learn ancestor was not part of deadly secret society …Read more

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 02: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala at IBEW Local Union #5 on September 02, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden joined Vice President Harris for her second Labor Day event, for the first time on the campaign trail since he departed the Democratic ticket and Harris was confirmed as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election against Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump. The event was attended by members of the IBEW,United Steelworkers, AFSCME, and other unions.  (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Capitol Hill

‘MUTUAL INTERESTS’: VP Harris is ‘actively’ promoting illegal immigration in coordination with Mexico: Sen. Cruz …Read more

ANTI-TRUMP REPUBLICAN: Republican aiming to flip key Senate seat in blue bastion spotlights anti-Trump credentials …Read more

Fighting Antisemitism

TAKING A STAND: Jewish Americans take self-defense precautions before high holy days amid rising antisemitism …Read more

BACK TO SCHOOL: Masked anti-Israel protests return to Columbia as students arrive for first day of classes …Read more

Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate outside Columbia University on Tuesday, Sep. 3, in New York City. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)

On the World Stage

KILLING SPREE: Iran slammed for record surge in executions of regime opponents …Read more

Iranian members of the diaspora, activists, gathered in front of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin during the ‘United Against Executions in Iran’ protest on January 27, 2024. Organized by the Echo Iran group, this protest condemned the increase in death sentences by the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), a non-political and non-governmental organization dedicated to defending human rights, at least 746 people were executed in Iran in 2023. A highlight of this demonstration was Kosar Eftekhari, who, after the death of Mahsa Amini, joined thousands of Iranians in several demonstrations for the women’s life freedom movement.  (Echo Iran/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Tales from the Trail

‘TURN THE PAGE’: Ex-Obama adviser says Harris is running against ‘incumbent’ Trump …Read more

HOPEFUL FOR HARRIS: The VP leads Trump by 5 points in a new poll …Read more

FINAL STRETCH: Trump/Harris showdown: With 9 weeks until Election Day, the pace picks up …Read more

‘ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY’: Jobs, inflation are what Black Americans are voting on, says Chicago GOP activist …Read more

3 DAYS IN: With voting starting Sept. 6, ‘election season’ kicks off sooner than you think …Read more

PROJECT 2025: The Heritage blueprint is not unprecedented, despite firestorm of controversy …Read more

Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate outside Columbia University on Tuesday, Sep. 3, in New York City. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)

Across America

KILLING SPREE: Iran slammed for record surge in executions of regime opponents …Read more

REEL IN THE KIDS: New Texas law takes effect requiring parental approval for children to create social media accounts …Read more

‘IT’S OK TO BE PATRIOTIC’: Chants of ‘USA’ erupt at concert for college students who defended U.S. flag …Read more

‘NO APOLOGY, NO REMORSE’: Cuomo slammed ahead of COVID hearings …Read more

NORTHERN EXPOSURE: One US-Canada border sector is seeing more apprehensions than last 13 years combined …Read more

‘THE MAYOR IS DRUNK’: Ritzy beach town politician arrested for alleged DUI …Read more

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Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

Former President Trump plans to plead not guilty to the revised charges in the federal election inference case against him, a new court document shows.

According to a court filing obtained by Fox News, Trump signed an entry of not guilty plea. In the document, which was filed on Tuesday, Trump also waived his right to be present at his arraignment.

“I authorize my attorneys to enter a plea of not guilty on my behalf to each and every count of the superseding indictment, Doc. 226,” the document says. “I further state that I have received a copy of the superseding indictment and reviewed it with my counsel.”

The case pertains to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Last week, the former president was indicted and given revised criminal charges by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who alleges that the Republican candidate pressured former Vice President Pence to reject legitimate electoral votes, in addition to mounting fake electors in key states that went to President Biden, to attest to Trump’s electoral victory.

TRUMP UNLEASHES ON HARRIS, TALKING IMMIGRATION, CHINA IN EXCLUSIVE ‘LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN’ INTERVIEW

Republican presidential nominee former President Trump greets supporters following a town hall campaign event on August 29, 2024, in La Crosse, Wis. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Smith revised the charges after a recent Supreme Court ruling extended presidential immunity for official White House acts in a 6-3 decision. 

The recent indictment retains the criminal charges against Trump, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump had previously pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Speaking with Shannon Bream during Sunday’s episode of “Fox News Sunday,” Trump said he had “every right” to do what he did after the 2020 presidential election.

‘FOR ELECTION PURPOSES’: CRITICS BALK AT HARRIS’ CLAIM SHE WILL ‘ENFORCE OUR LAWS’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER

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

“Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it?” Trump said.

Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign released a statement blasting Trump on Monday and claimed that the Republican candidate’s recent comments “make it clear that he believes he is above the law.”

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

“Now, Trump is claiming he had ‘every right’ to interfere in the 2020 election. He did not,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said in the statement.

Reuters and Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Republican attorney and Marine veteran John Deaton of Bolton won a US Senate primary in Massachusetts on Tuesday and will now face longtime Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November.

Deaton, a personal injury attorney and crypto advocate, moved from Rhode Island to Massachusetts last year. He faced off in the primary against Ian Cain of Quincy, Massachusetts’ first black and openly gay city council member, and Bob Antonellis, an engineer and political newcomer from Medford.

Deaton, 56, has refused to say whether he’ll vote for Donald Trump in the presidential race; Antonellis was the only candidate to pledge support for the top of the ticket in the historically blue state’s race. 

NEW REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER TO ELIZABETH WARREN SAYS ‘NO ONE HAS DISAPPOINTED MASSACHUSETTS MORE’

Woburn, MA – April 12: John Deaton, GOP US Senate candidate, poses for a portrait. (Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Deaton was far better-funded than either of his competitors thanks in large part to a $1 million loan he made to his campaign. He more than doubled Cain’s spending and had $975,000 on hand at the end of June, according to FEC records. At the same time, Cain had about $22,000 left in his war chest.

Deaton has often told the story of his low-income upbringing in a violent and impoverished Highland Park neighborhood of Detroit. He said he’d watched a thief stab his mother and, on his first day of high school, had a gun shoved in his mouth.

He said he broke the cycle of poverty by working his way through college and law school before going on to join the Marine Corps and spending seven years as a special assistant to the U.S. attorney in Yuma, Arizona, fighting cartels in the 1990s. 

Deaton said he’s spent the last 22 years representing injured workers in legal battles against “corporations and insurance companies.”

ELIZABETH WARREN HEDGES ON SUPPORT FOR BIDEN STAYING IN THE RACE: HE HAS A ‘REALLY BIG DECISION TO MAKE’

Three Republicans ran to take on Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., in the general election. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Massachusetts has not elected a Republican to statewide office since moderate GOP Gov. Charlie Baker left the governor’s mansion in January 2023. Polling suggests Warren, a former Republican herself, is likely to hold her seat in November.

The state Republican Party only fielded challengers to Warren and two other House incumbents: Democrat Reps. Stephen Lynch and Bill Keating. Seven other Massachusetts House Democrats, none of whom faced primary challenges, are expected to sail to victory in the general election.

Warren faced a competitive race when she beat out Republican incumbent Scott Brown in 2012. She scored more than 60% of the vote in 2018 and President Biden carried the state with 66% of the vote in 2020. 

Deaton has focused on the migrant crisis and on “retiring” Warren from office. 

“Thanks to the failed policies of and partisanship of career politicians like Elizabeth Warren, every state is now a border state, and Massachusetts is sucking the consequences,” Deaton said in a campaign video. 

ELIZABETH WARREN HAS FIERCE CLASH WITH CNBC HOST ON HARRIS’ PRICE CONTROL PLAN: ‘A FOOL’S ERRAND’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on March 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis famously flew migrants to the wealthy Massachusetts enclave Martha’s Vineyard in 2022. 

Deaton wrote on X on Monday that Warren is “more focused on her national profile and special interest groups” than spending time in local communities. “It’s going to cost her on Nov. 5th.”

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All three candidates have made the border central to their campaign and bashed the state’s sanctuary policies. 

Antonellis said he would push to end sanctuary state status in Massachusetts, which he said is “destroying whole regions of the country.” He had also pushed to ban offshore and onshore wind farms and came under fire for claiming the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job.

“Washington is stealing our liberty and freedoms, systematically, even Demonically,” Antonellis wrote on his campaign website. “9/11 as an ‘inside job,’ we’ll be talking more about Harvard’s role in that, it was done, in part, to get American Patriots to support the Patriot Act, which forces Americans to nearly undress, just to get on a plane, and legalized spying on everyone.”

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

House lawmakers subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday over his alleged refusal to testify about the Biden administration’s deadly 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee said Blinken must appear before the committee on Sept. 19 or face contempt charges, the committee said in a letter written by Republican Chairman Michael McCaul, of Texas. 

“It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the Committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement, Reuters reported.

HARRIS SLAMS TRUMP OVER ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY ALTERCATION, PROMPTING FIERY RESPONSE FROM JD VANCE

Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks during a NATO public forum as part of the 2024 NATO Summit on July 10, 2024 in Washington, D.C.  (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department. 

In May, McCaul asked Blinken to appear at a hearing in September on the committee‘s report on its investigation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The State Department failed on several occasions to provide a date for Blinken to appear before lawmakers, McCaul said. 

Current and former State Department officials confirmed that Blinken was “the final decisionmaker” on the withdrawal and evacuation, McCaul said in his letter. 

“The Committee is holding this hearing because the Department of State was central to the Afghanistan withdrawal and served as the senior authority during the August non-combatant evacuation operation,” he wrote. 

TULSI GABBARD DEFENDS TRUMP CAMPAIGN, SAYS CAMERA AT ARLINGTON WAS ‘APPROVED’]

U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron load passengers aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) on Aug. 24, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Getty Images)

“You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to the Department’s legislative authorization,” McCaul added. 

The committee has been investigating the chaotic withdrawal, which ended with 13 U.S. military service members killed, for years.

Former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery last month and took part in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 military members. Trump and Republicans have long criticized President Biden over the withdrawal, which saw the Taliban retake Afghanistan following 20-plus years of U.S. occupation. 

Republican presidential nominee former President Trump stands alongside Bill Barnett (L), whose grandson Staff Sgt Darin Taylor Hoover died in the Abbey Gate Bombing, during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 26, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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The parents of the deceased service members “lost a child because of Biden and because of Kamala, just as though they had a gun in their head because it was so badly handled,” Trump told podcaster Lex Fridman on Tuesday, the New York Post reported. 

It’s back to school time on Capitol Hill.

But not really until next week.

What?

Even though millions of kids returned to school just after Labor Day, the end of August, or, in some cases, even earlier in August, Congress still isn’t in session yet for the fall term.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: WHAT THE END OF THE YEAR LOOKS LIKE IN CONGRESS

That comes on Monday, September 9. That’s when the House and Senate come back for legislative action for the first time in more than a month. The Senate last voted on August 1. The House was supposed to be in session until then as well. But the House shaved an entire week off its schedule in July, abandoning Washington a week earlier.

But things around the Capitol are starting to return to normal.

And yours truly – along with some members of the Congressional press corps – began filtering back into the Capitol this week.

Reporters and staffers alike are returning to Capitol Hill and falling back into the congressional groove as both chambers’ recesses draw to a close. (Aaron Schwartz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

My mother taught second grade for decades in Ohio. And she would usually return to school for a few days in late August for meetings and to prepare her room for the new school year.

So, some Congressional aides, the administrative staff and some reporters came back to the Capitol this week to “prepare their rooms” for the new school year.

But the analogies of Congress returning to session just like students filing back into the classroom is imperfect. This isn’t the start of a new Congress. People don’t have new teachers and new lockers. There aren’t new kids from other schools. The promise and energy of opportunity associated with a new year doesn’t permeate the air. Everything is pretty much the same as it was on Capitol Hill in September as it was in July. The “true” start of the “school year” comes at noon on January 3, 2025 when they swear-in the 119th Congress. That’s when new people appear. There are new chairmen and chairwomen of committees. Some lawmakers get new offices. The Capitol usually throbs with optimism.

BORDER SENATOR AND FORMER HARRIS VP SHORT-LISTER CLAIMS ‘NO EVIDENCE’ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS VOTE

The only thing students and Members of Congress have in common at this time of year is the desire to get out of school. That universal yearning is common year round among students and lawmakers. Everyone wants to get out. Be free. Be on recess.

Perhaps it’s only appropriate that they call a Congressional break “recess.” However, some optics-conscious lawmakers frequently refer to such respites as the more dignified and anodyne “district work period.”

Can you imagine students referring to anything after 7th period as “the homework period?” The “Algebra II Augmentation?” How about the “Earth Science Addendum?”

If there’s any comparison to be found between American students and their congressional representatives, it’s the shared yearning for their so-called summer “recess.” (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Pray tell, what would college students call spring break in Panama City? “Sprint Semester By the Sea.” Perhaps “A Guide To Local Open Container Laws.” Maybe “A Survey of Legal Systems in the Caribbean.”

But back to Congress.

It’s an election year. And lawmakers utterly can’t wait to get out of here – even though they haven’t really been here all summer.

THE HOME STRETCH: VP HARRIS FILLS DEMOCRATS WITH OPTIMISM AS ELECTION DAY NEARS

The legislative traffic in Congress was light all year. The assassination attempt of former President Trump and the backroom struggle among Democrats to convince President Biden to step aside consumed the bulk of everyone’s attention this summer. The last major bills Congress tackled came in April. Congress finally approved a set of bills to fund the government – which were due last October. And Congress greenlighted assistance to Israel and Ukraine. Other than that, Congress didn’t have a lot to do other than to get through the conventions. Now it’s on to the election where both the House and Senate are divided by a razor’s edge. The same with the Presidential election. So there’s not a lot to do on Capitol Hill. And lawmakers who are retiring or lost their primaries are more than happy to skip out of Washington early.

So this is hardly “back to school.” In Congressional terms, the fall is often reminiscent of what students encounter in the spring. It’s getting hot out. The mind wanders. Teachers struggle to keep everyone focused. Everyone is looking forward to summer break. It’s a little like the seasons are reversed in Congress.

Another apt comparison: Congress, like school, doesn’t let out until its delegates have completed their coursework – which, on Captiol Hill, equates to funding the government. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The House is slated to meet next week for four days. Then four days the week of September 15. And finally, five days the week of August 22. That’s it until Tuesday, November 12. But there is even chatter that the House could (I’ll underscore could) give back the final week of September – if Congress has funded the government and there’s no chance of a shutdown on October 1. That’s when the government’s new fiscal year begins.

Yes, like school, Congress must complete its work before recess. But sometimes Congress doesn’t meet the deadline and needs a remedial course. “Summer school.” Only that’s “fall and winter school” in the eyes of Congress. Or even “spring school.” Remember, it took Congress until this past April to fully fund the government last time. They burned through three seasons alone right there. It’s not quite clear what the principal would have done with students as delinquent as this Congress finishing its work.

But like students, Congress has similar motivations. Anything to get home. Go to the beach. Take a break. Or, in this case, campaign.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: WHAT A ‘YACHT ROCK’ SUMMER LOOKS LIKE ON CAPITOL HILL

House Republicans are struggling with fundraising. Democrats are on the charge after the switch out with Vice President Harris. Both parties know the House will hinge on a handful of seats. And it’s likely that whichever party captures the White House will dictate the party in control of the House in 2025.

So both sides have equal motivation.

It’s similar in the Senate – although it’s a tougher challenge for the Democrats to maintain their narrow 51-49 majority. West Virginia is likely gone after the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.V., who caucuses with the Democrats. And Democrats must hold swing seats in red states like Ohio and Montana. That’s to say nothing of maintaining seats in battleground states like Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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So school is back for now. And it doesn’t even matter if Congress hits the books between now and the end of the term. A big test is coming up. The voters will deliver quite the education to lawmakers on election day.

Over the long Labor Day weekend, Democratic officials defended Vice President Kamala Harris from criticisms that she has been flip-flopping on various policy positions.

“I think it’s a sign of a good leader, that they learn and evolve over time,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. 

“Most voters recognize that as you get more information, as you get more experience, perhaps as you hold a different job… that there would be a natural evolution,” echoed Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Penn., during a Labor Day appearance on CNN. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., took a different approach when he appeared on NBC’s “Meet The Press” over the weekend, describing her as a “progressive who [is] pragmatic” and one who is “consistent” in her policy approach. 

BILL MAHER MOCKS FLIP FLOPS FROM HARRIS AND WALZ IN CNN INTERVIEW: ‘JUST INSULTING MY INTELLIGENCE’  

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) speaks at a Student Loan Forgiveness rally near the White House in April 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

During her first interview as the Democratic nominee on Thursday, Harris insisted she would “enforce” the law against illegal border crossings, something Harris indicated she was against while running her 2019 campaign to become president. 

‘FOR ELECTION PURPOSES’: CRITICS BALK AT HARRIS’ CLAIM SHE WILL ‘ENFORCE OUR LAWS’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER

Harris also argued that she made it clear as the vice presidential nominee in 2020 that she does not wish to ban fracking, despite indicating as a presidential nominee in 2019 that she was “in favor of banning fracking” on federal land.

Vice President Kamala Harris raised eyebrows when telling CNN’s Dana Bash that her “values haven’t changed” after making complete reversals on far-left positions she held in 2019. (Screenshot/CNN)

“This idea that she hasn’t been consistent — I mean what about Donald Trump’s flip-flops? What about his flip-flops on abortion?” Khanna questioned Sunday. “I think the vice president is consistent on the position on fracking. It’s exactly how Joe Biden ran.” 

On healthcare, campaign officials have said Harris does not support Medicare for All. However, Harris has yet to share publicly that she is not in favor of a single-payer health care system after indicating during a 2019 debate that she would “abolish” private healthcare in favor of a “government-run plan.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for clarity on Harris’ position when it comes to healthcare, but did not receive a response. 

“I ran against her as a co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ campaign — she was not for Medicare for All in that 2020 primary,” Khanna said.

Polis and Boyle, meanwhile, acknowledged Harris’ changing positions but argued they were signs of good leadership. 

“Whether it’s a move to the middle, the left, the right, it’s really about what works. Kamala Harris is a pragmatic leader who looks at data and science and makes the best decisions she can,” Polis said.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“I do not have 100% of the same positions today that I first had 15 years ago when I was first elected to office,” Boyle told CNN in reference to Harris’ stance on fracking. “That’s part of growing. I think that’s natural. The bottom line is, did you ultimately arrive at the position that is right on policy, and in the case of Kamala Harris, she did.”

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Boyle also charged Trump with being far more inconsistent on his policy positions than Harris. “There just is no comparison between Kamala Harris and the constant, unending flip-flops, on most issues, of Donald Trump,” he said.

House Republican leaders are vowing to push back on anti-Israel protests that are once again taking over college campuses as students return for the fall semester.

It comes as activists have already begun defacing property and staging demonstrations at Columbia University in New York City, which was a hotbed of controversial activity in the spring.

“There should be a zero tolerance policy for antisemitic violence on campus that targets Jewish students. If universities won’t hold protestors accountable, Congress will,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital. “Just last month, we subpoenaed several Columbia University officials, and we will continue our investigations and take action on the floor as students return to campus.”

HAMAS TERRORISTS RELEASE FOOTAGE OF SIX SLAIN HOSTAGES, PROMISE TO SHARE ‘LAST MESSAGES’ 

House GOP leaders like Steve Scalise, Mike Johnson and Elise Stefanik are coming out against the anti-Israel protests at Columbia. (Getty Images)

GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., similarly said, “Columbia University has repeatedly enabled radical pro-Hamas mobs, putting Jewish members of their community at risk and allowing antisemitic hate to take root at a once acclaimed institution. House Republicans will use every tool at our disposal to demand immediate action from Columbia University on behalf of the Jewish students who want to pursue their education without fear.”

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital, “It’s no wonder the pro-terrorist mob is back at Columbia — the Democrats have enabled and empowered the antisemites in their party.”

Emmer said House Republicans would “continue to send a resounding message” of support for Israel and for Jewish students in the U.S.

BIDEN CLAIMS NETANYAHU NOT DOING ENOUGH TO SECURE DEAL WITH TERRORISTS 

People are seen falling to the ground during a scuffle at Columbia University during the anti-Israel protests on Thursday, Sept. 3. (Fox News)

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, urged the White House to speak out against the protests as well.

“It is the first day of class at Columbia University and the pro-Terrorist, antisemitic mob is already back,” Johnson wrote on X. “The Biden-Harris Administration should condemn this mob immediately.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for a response.

At least one protester was arrested during the Manhattan demonstrations on Tuesday, video shows. Footage also shows activists pushing barricades, and a second person was taken into custody outside of Columbia’s sister school, Barnard College.

ANTISEMITIC RIOT AT COLUMBIA REACHES BOILING POINT AS AGITATORS TAKE OVER ACADEMIC BUILDING, BARRICADE DOORS

Anti-Israel demonstrations continued in New York City Tuesday on Columbia University’s campus. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)

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Republicans have seized on Israel as a unifying issue for their own party as the left continues to fracture over U.S. relations with its close Middle Eastern ally.

Moderate Democrats, however, have pointed to the primary losses of anti-Israel progressives as proof that the left is capable of policing its own anti-Semitism problem.

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is convinced that American voters care more about having secure elections than the politics of a possible government shutdown, he said Tuesday, 

“My constituents want [honest elections], they want a secure border, they don’t really give two flying s—s about the government funding,” Roy told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Members of Congress will be back in Washington, D.C., next week after their summer recess, returning with just three weeks to find an agreement to avoid a partial government shutdown by Oct. 1.

HARRIS WAS ‘OPEN’ TO PACKING SUPREME COURT DURING 2019 PRESIDENTIAL BID

Rep. Chip Roy (Getty Images)

It’s all but certain that a short-term funding extension called a continuing resolution (CR) will be needed to buy negotiators more time to hash out spending priorities for fiscal 2025.

Roy and other conservative rebels in the House have been pushing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pair a CR with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill to require proof of citizenship for registering to vote. 

But the SAVE Act has been deemed a nonstarter by the White House and Senate Democrats, and both sides are wary about the optics of a partial government shutdown just weeks before Election Day.

Roy declined to say whether he would support a shutdown but told Fox News Digital the blame would be on Democrats rather than Republicans.

HARRIS CAMPAIGN MANAGER IGNORES PRESS CONFERENCE QUESTION AS VP HITS 33 DAYS WITHOUT ONE

Speaker Mike Johnson is being lobbied by conservatives on the plan. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“I’m not going to play the shutdown game … the press wants to make it about a shutdown. Democrats want to make this about a shutdown,” Roy said. “Our point is pretty simple. We’re offering to fund the government – all manners of sin, by the way, in that government – we’re willing to do that, but these guys need to make sure our elections are secure.”

“If [Democrats] want to shut the government down, that’s on them.”

Two sources told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that pairing the bill with a CR through March is at least one plan being discussed by House GOP leadership. 

Johnson’s office did not return a Friday request for comment on the record on whether that would be his plan. Fox News Digital followed up on Tuesday.

HARRIS CAMPAIGN MANAGER IGNORES PRESS CONFERENCE QUESTION AS VP HITS 33 DAYS WITHOUT ONE

Republican presidential candidate Trump urged Republicans to shut down the government if the Senate does not pass it. (PETER ZAY/AFP via Getty Images)

Former President Trump said on Monica Crowley’s podcast last week that House Republicans should “shut down the government” if such a proposal isn’t passed.

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Meanwhile, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., previously said he would support a CR through December but cast doubt on whether the SAVE Act would be attached, noting any final product would have to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate.

But Roy’s comments are an early warning sign that the fight to fund the government in the next fiscal year could be as messy as last year’s protracted battle that resulted in the ouster of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, is targeting Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., on his alleged lack of action to secure the southern border and the coinciding fentanyl overdose epidemic wreaking havoc on the battleground state. 

In a new ad placed after Labor Day, Blair County Sheriff Jim Ott recalled the loss of his son to a fentanyl overdose. 

“If the border was secure, chances are my son would be alive today. We can’t bring back the people we’ve lost. But we can get rid of the weak politicians like Bob Casey who let it happen,” he said.

The $2.2 million, 30-second ad buy will run on TV and digital statewide. 

BLUE-STATE REPUBLICAN TOUTS HIS ANTI-TRUMP CREDENTIALS IN BID TO FLIP SENATE SEAT RED

Sen. Casey is slammed for inaction on the border by a constituent in a new ad for opponent Dave McCormick. (Reuters)

Labor Day, which is less than 10 weeks from the presidential election, is traditionally considered by operatives to be when voters begin to commit to their candidate choices. And while McCormick has been trailing Casey in recent polls, GOP strategists expect voters to begin paying closer attention and get behind the Republican. 

In a poll last month by Quinnipiac University, Casey defeated his challenger 55% to 44% among likely voters in Pennsylvania. 

Quinnipiac University Polling analyst Tim Malloy explained, “McCormick battles low name recognition and a popular incumbent in a closely watched, critical Senate race.”

Businessman and politician Dave McCormick speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

MICHIGAN BECOMES TOP GOP SENATE TARGET AS MIKE ROGERS TIES WITH DEM OPPONENT AMONG OLDER VOTERS

However, recent Fox News polling has also demonstrated the importance of immigration as an issue not just nationally but in Pennsylvania. Immigration was considered the most important issue in the upcoming election by the second-most number of Pennsylvania voters in a July survey, with 16% saying so. The issue considered as the most important by the largest number of people was the economy at 39%. 

The presidential matchup in the coveted battleground state is further expected to influence the Senate election, putting McCormick in a position to reap the benefits of former President Trump potentially taking Pennsylvania.

The July Fox News Poll showed Trump and Vice President Harris tied in the Keystone State. 

GOP SENATORS LOOK TO TIE CRACKDOWN ON NONCITIZEN VOTING TO MUST-PASS SPENDING BILL

Bundles of blue pills containing fentanyl intercepted at the border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

In response to the latest attack on Casey’s immigration record, Casey campaign spokesperson Kate Smart told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Senator Casey is working hand in hand with law enforcement to stop the flow of fentanyl, and has passed bipartisan legislation to sanction Chinese fentanyl producers. Meanwhile, David McCormick invested millions in China’s largest producer of fentanyl and even opposed a bipartisan border deal that would’ve helped prevent fentanyl from being trafficked across our border.” 

Smart referenced the fact that McCormick was CEO of Bridgewater Associates from 2020 to 2022, and that as of 2021, the company had a nearly $1.7 million investment in Chinese company Humanwell across seven different hedge funds, according to publicly available records with the Department of Labor.

HARRIS WAS ‘OPEN’ TO PACKING SUPREME COURT DURING 2019 PRESIDENTIAL BID

Dave McCormick (Getty Images)

However, the pharmaceutical manufacturing company produces medical-grade opiates and is not one of the companies the U.S. has identified as a producer of chemical fentanyl precursors, which are transported illegally through the southern border. 

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According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, “[I]llicit fentanyl, primarily manufactured in foreign clandestine labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico, is being distributed across the country and sold on the illegal drug market.” 

The agency has pointed to illicitly manufactured fentanyl as the primary cause of the substantial increase in overdose deaths due to synthetic opioids.

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

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accused Vice President Kamala Harris of working with Mexico’s president to encourage the flood of illegal immigrants to the U.S. in a bid to shift the U.S. father left on the political scale. 

“Kamala Harris wants more illegal immigrants in America,” Cruz said in his podcast “Verdict” on Monday. “Just about every single congressional Democrat in the Senate and the House, they want more illegal immigrants in America. They are actively encouraging, facilitating and accelerating the invasion at our southern border.”

“So now the government of Mexico is actively aiding and assisting the human traffickers,” he continued. “They will provide bus rides throughout Mexico, along with armed escorts from police and soldiers to bring illegal immigrants to the border to invade this country. And they’re doing this because Kamala Harris wants them to do this.”

Cruz was reacting to the Mexican government announcing over the weekend that the country will provide escorted bus rides from southern Mexico to the U.S. border for non-Mexico citizens granted U.S. asylum. 

TRUMP UNLEASHES ON HARRIS, TALKING IMMIGRATION, CHINA IN EXCLUSIVE ‘LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN’ INTERVIEW

“Kamala Harris wants more illegal immigrants in America,” Cruz said in his podcast “Verdict” on Monday. (AP/Stephen B. Morton)

The buses will leave cities such as Villahermosa and Tapachula to travel north to the U.S. border, the AP reported. 

Cruz read portions of the Associated Press article on air, which included reporting that the Mexican government’s move to bus migrants appears to be an “attempt to make applying for asylum appointments from southern Mexico more attractive to migrants who otherwise would push north to Mexico City or the border.”

The announcement, Cruz continued, was made one week after the U.S. “expanded access to the CBP One application to southern Mexico” after previously only allowing migrants in central and northern Mexico to apply. 

GOP GOVERNOR RIPS HARRIS AFTER ANALYSIS REVEALS EYE-POPPING COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN STATE: ‘DISASTER’

“AMLO, the president of Mexico, wants as much illegal immigration as possible to go into America, and Kamala Harris wants as much illegal immigration as possible to go into America,” Cruz said. “Both for the same reason, which is to fundamentally shift the policies of the United States of America and to move them dramatically to the left.” 

The Texas senator argued that Harris and the Democratic Party want to boost migrant numbers from more than 11 million to “by 20 million, to be 30 million, to be 40 million” migrants in the U.S. 

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

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accused Vice President Kamala Harris of working with Mexico’s president to encourage the flood of illegal immigrants to the U.S. in a bid to shift the U.S. father left on the political scale. (Getty Images)

“Because, in their view, if that happens, Democrats win every election forever and ever,” Cruz continued. 

Cruz’s co-host, Ben Ferguson, added during the conversation that Mexico would not offer escorted buses from southern Mexico towards the U.S. border “without the two countries working hand in hand.” 

Cruz agreed that both nations “have mutual interests.” 

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

Cruz was reacting to the Mexican government announcing over the weekend that the country will provide escorted bus rides from southern Mexico to the U.S. border for non-Mexico citizens granted U.S. asylum. (John Moore/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Harris’ vice presidential office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Labor Day – which is traditionally the starting gun for the final stretch in a presidential election – is now in the rearview mirror.

“Sixty-four days until the most important election of our lives, and probably one of the most important in the life of our nation,” Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized as she spoke to supporters at a union gathering in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Tuesday marks nine weeks until Election Day 2024, when Harris and former President Donald Trump face off with the White House at stake.

However, in reality, the election gets underway well before Nov. 5.

ELECTION SEASON STARTS A LOT EARLIER THAN YOU THINK

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)

In a slew of states, the election actually kicks off this month. 

In swing state North Carolina, absentee ballots are mailed out starting on Friday. Early voting begins on Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania and Sept. 26 in Michigan, two other crucial electoral battlegrounds.

Next Tuesday, Harris and Trump are scheduled to meet for their first and potentially only presidential debate, a primetime showdown taking place in Philadelphia. 

NEW FOX NEWS POLL NUMBERS IN 4 KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES

Pennsylvania, the biggest of the seven crucial battlegrounds that decided the 2020 election between Trump and President Biden, is getting plenty of attention this week. 

Harris returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday, her second trip this week to western Pennsylvania’s largest city and union stronghold, and her 10th stop this year in the Keystone State.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden arrive at a campaign event at the IBEW Local Union #5 union hall in Pittsburgh on Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Trump, who has also made numerous trips to Pennsylvania this year, returns on Wednesday to headline a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity in Harrisburg.

Most of the latest national surveys show Harris with a slight single-digit edge over Trump, but the presidential election is not a national popular vote contest. It is a battle for the individual states and their electoral votes.

The latest surveys in the seven key swing states indicate a margin-of-error race. Among those polls are a batch from Fox News that made headlines last week.

FOX NEWS’ HANNITY TO HOST TOWN HALL WITH TRUMP ON WEDNESDAY

Trump argues he has the momentum.

“We’re leading in the polls now,” the former president said in an interview Friday with Fox News’ Bryan Llenas.

Minutes later, at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump touted that “our poll numbers are starting to skyrocket.”

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamalas Harris. (Getty Images)

Harris is urging her supporters not to pay too much attention to the polls because, as she reiterated on Labor Day, “we are the underdog in this race.”

Last week, at a rally in Savannah, Georgia, the vice president predicted that “this is going to be a tight race until the very end.” 

The current state of the race is a big change from earlier this summer when Biden was still running.

Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump in their late June debate turned up the volume of existing doubts from Americans that the 81-year-old president would have the physical and mental stamina to handle another four years in the White House. It also sparked a rising chorus of calls from top Democratic Party allies and elected officials for Biden to drop out of the race.

National and battleground state polls conducted in July indicated Trump had opened up a small but significant lead over Biden.

The president dropped his re-election bid on July 21 and endorsed his vice president, and Democrats immediately coalesced around Harris, who quickly enjoyed a boost in her poll numbers and in fundraising.

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Still, pollsters and political analysts stress that the Harris-Trump contest remains a coin-flip at this point.

However, Trump’s team likes the current poll position, as they point out that the former president has a history of outperforming public opinion surveys.

“At this point in the race in 2016, Donald Trump was down to Hillary Clinton by an average of 5.9 points. At this point in the race in 2020, it was 6.9 to Joe Biden,” senior adviser Corey Lewandowski noted this weekend in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

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

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sector on the northern border has seen more apprehensions in the last fiscal year than the previous 13 years combined.

The Swanton Sector Border sector has seen 15,000 apprehensions in the 10 months of fiscal year 2024, the largest volume ever recorded by the sector, over 14,000 more than was recorded in fiscal year 2021, according to a report on CBS 19.

The sector, which spans 295 miles of the border with Canada and covers all of Vermont and parts of upstate New York and New Hampshire, has seen its numbers of apprehensions in just part of this fiscal year exceed the previous 13 combined, the report notes, adding that illegal migrants from 85 different countries have attempted to illegally cross in the area.

WATCH: RESIDENTS ALONG THE BORDER TRUST TRUMP OVER HARRIS ON BORDER SECURITY

A Canadian Customs and Fisheries officer watches over the U.S.-Canada border between Blaine, Washington, and White Rock, British Columbia, on Nov. 8, 2001 in White Rock, Brithish Columbia. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images)

The report comes as illegal immigration continues to be an issue at the top of voters’ minds ahead of November’s election, with many polls showing voters have been dissatisfied with the record amount of illegal crossings at the nation’s southern border between 2021 and 2023.

While the southern border has received much of the attention, the report notes that the northern border has also reported a record number of illegal entries and apprehensions so far this fiscal year. In FY 2023, a record number of 190,000 migrants were apprehended at the U.S. border, while 162,865 have so far been apprehended at the border with Canada in the current fiscal year.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers greet refugees as they arrive at the Roxham Road border crossing in Champlain, New York, on March 25, 2023. (Photo by LARS HAGBERG/AFP via Getty Images)

TEXAS RESIDENTS AFFECTED BY BORDER SECURITY UNDER BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN EXPRESS FEAR OF FUTURE ATTACK

The report also noted that close to 1,100 known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) have attempted to enter the U.S. from Canada between 2021 and 2023, making up a large percentage of the over 1,700 total KSTs that have been apprehended nationwide since FY 2021.

Border Patrol stakes out a rural area near the Canadian border, which borders New Hampshire and Vermont, in Canaan, Vermont, on Jan. 20, 2024. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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CBP and the White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will sit for a hearing Sept. 10 before the congressional subcommittee tasked with probing the coronavirus pandemic, the panel announced Tuesday.

Cuomo, one of the most visible governors during the height of the pandemic, was lambasted for implementing stringent social and economic restrictions throughout the Empire State. 

He also was blamed for thousands of COVID-related deaths that occurred in nursing homes, which a 2023 report from the NYS Department of Health calculated to be 826 in Suffolk County, 813 in Erie County – which includes Buffalo — and 623 in Queens County.

“Mr. Cuomo will be questioned about his Administration’s issuance of unscientific guidance that forced New York nursing homes and long-term care facilities to admit COVID-19 positive patients,” an announcement for the hearing read.

CUOMO ALLEGATIONS HAVE NEW YORK DEMOCRATS GOING AFTER EACH OTHER ‘MORE THAN THE ROYAL FAMILY’: GAETZ

Former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. (Getty Images)

Cuomo, a Democrat, previously sat for a seven-hour transcribed interview with the subcommittee. The panel also interviewed Cuomo’s former secretary, Melissa DeRosa, and then-NYS Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., a Staten Island lawmaker who sits on the subcommittee, said in an interview Tuesday that Cuomo still refuses to take responsibility for his orders and their repercussions.

She recounted how no one in Albany could point to exactly where the order partitioning nursing home patients came from.

“We still don’t know who approved that directive because the governor saying he didn’t know about it, he’s claiming that [Zucker] knew about it before it went out. And yet somehow they’ve been unable to identify who the person was that approved it and issued it, which is so negligent for a directive like that to go out without the health commissioner approving it at minimum,” she said.

The New York lawmaker also pointed to then-President Donald Trump dispatching a military medical ship to New York Harbor, the Jacob Javits Center, and the availability of a mental hospital in her district for the purposes of treating and partitioning serious COVID-19 patients.

“They weren’t being used. So why you have that directive in place, forcing the nursing home to take the COVID positive patients, even when you had alternatives? That was a big failure because at that point he was very clear about this directive.”

SUNUNU NAMES THE TWO GOVERNORS ALL THE OTHERS ‘HATE’

Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from New York, will be one of the lawmakers questioning former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo next week. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

When asked how people in her district feel about the situation, Malliotakis said many had lost loved ones during the pandemic from “preventable deaths.”

“They were a result of putting COVID-positive patients in nursing homes. And that was based on a directive and mandate by the Cuomo administration. And the buck stops with him, and he needs to be held accountable,” she said.

“[He blamed] everybody but himself. No apology, no accountability. No remorse… the public deserves answers, and we’re going to push for them at this hearing.”

However, a Cuomo spokesman told Fox News Digital, “the facts speak for themselves” when it comes to the former governor’s handling of COVID, calling congressional Republicans’ oversight a “master class in gaslighting.”

“New York had a lower nursing home death pro-rata than all but 11 states,” said Rich Azzopardi.

The New York Capitol building is seen, June 30, 2023, in Albany, New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Azzopardi called the committee a “farce” and criticized it for being comprised of a “foot doctor” – referring to Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, — “Trump’s personal physician” – former White House doctor; current Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and “a representative with a Ph.D. in QAnon,” in regard to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.,

“[The committee] refuse[s] to look in the mirror at their own anti-science policies that caused hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths or call the one witness who is most relevant and was supposed to lead the entire effort: Donald Trump,” Azzopardi said.

While in office, Cuomo was at times questioned by the press on the matter. In one notable exchange during a July 2020 press conference, the governor was asked about a state report on nursing homes and why an independent investigator was not appointed.

“I don’t believe your characterization is correct – I believe it is a political issue,” Cuomo shot back at the reporter.

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Cuomo then went on to blame the New York Post and Fox News, as well as political motivations, for the issue’s prominence.

“People died in nursing homes. That’s very unfortunate. Just on the topline, we are number 35th in the nation in percentage of deaths in nursing homes. Go talk to 34 other states first.”

Cuomo was also criticized for interviews during the pandemic with his brother, Chris, on CNN. In one exchange, the siblings shared a laugh after Chris brandished two comically-large nasal swabs to suggest Andrew has exceptionally large nostrils.

California’s Democratic-controlled legislature axed a Republican proposal that would have exempted tipped-income from state income taxes, striking down a policy proposal similar to ones endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

“It is deeply disappointing that the legislature chose not to consider a proposal that could have provided much-needed relief to California’s workers,” Republican State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, who introduced the measure, said in a press release after it was defeated.

Ochoa Bogh introduced the amendment in California’s Senate on Thursday that would have exempted service industry workers with a state tax exemption on tips, but the proposal was voted down on a mostly party line vote without discussion or debate by the Democratic majority.

TRUMP PLEDGES TO ELIMINATE TAXES ON TIPS FOR SERVICE WORKERS DURING LAS VEGAS RALLY

California state Capitol on Sunday, July 17, 2022 in Sacramento, California. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Image)

“With Californians facing one of the highest costs of living in the nation, our service and hospitality industry employees are particularly burdened by a tax system that leaves them struggling to make ends meet,” Ochoa Bogh said. “They deserve better, and today’s decision is a missed opportunity to support those who need it most.”

The attempt to exempt tips from taxes in the state comes as both Trump and Harris have expressed support for federal tax legislation that would exempt tipped-income on the campaign trail. Trump was the first to champion the proposal during a June rally in Nevada, while Harris, who started her political career in California, echoed a similar sentiment during an August rally in Las Vegas.

Flanked by labor union leaders, Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to union workers during a campaign event on Sept. 2, 2024 at Northwestern High School in Detroit. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

According to a press release by California Senate Republicans, the proposal in that state was aimed at helping service workers navigate California’s “unsustainable tax burden,” allowing workers who rely heavily on tipped-income to have more take-home pay.

REPUBLICANS BLAST BIDEN ADMIN OVER PLAN TO CRACK DOWN ON WAITERS’ TIPS

All nine Republican state senators supported the amendment, while almost all the state’s Democratic senators, except for Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire and State Sen. Nancy Skinner, voted in opposition. McGuire and Skinner voted to abstain.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Wednesday campaign event in Asheboro, North Carolina. (Kate Medley for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“The negligence involved in a refusal to even debate a policy issue of this magnitude cannot be overstated,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones said in the release. “Legislative Democrats knew they were on the wrong side of this important issue, so they chose to sweep it under the rug rather than do the right thing for working Californians. The push to eliminate the federal tip tax has made its way to the campaign stage for both major party’s this year, yet California Democrat politicians don’t believe it be even worthy to discuss at the state level for residents here.” 

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McGuire’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on the Democratic majority’s opposition to the amendment.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) is facing another lawsuit, as the Republican National Committee (RNC) is suing the battleground state for allegedly opening the door for non-citizens to vote.

The lawsuit brought by the RNC and the North Carolina Republican Party in Wake County last week accuses the NCSBE and members, Alan Hirsch, Jeff Carmon, Siobhan Millen, Stacy Eggers IV and Kevin Lewis of failing to require identification to prove citizenship. 

The lawsuit alleges that by violating the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and not checking the identification of approximately 225,000 voters, the agency “is opening the door for non-citizens to vote.”

North Carolina is the first state in the nation to start voting. The battleground state starts mailing out ballots for eligible voters on Sept. 6.  

“The NCSBE has once again failed in its mandate to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls, fueling distrust and jeopardizing our elections,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We are committed to the basic principle – and commonsense law – that only Americans decide American elections. Deliberately failing to follow the law, right before our country’s most important election, is inexcusable. We will fight every day to ensure that NCSBE follows the law, cleans the voter rolls, and protects the vote for North Carolinians.”

RFK JR. SUES NORTH CAROLINA TO REMOVE NAME FROM BALLOT BEFORE ELECTION

“I Voted” stickers at a polling station at the Wayne County Public Library in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.  (Allison Joyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“This State Board continually has problems ensuring voter rolls only have verified citizens,” NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons added. “This lawsuit will remedy their ongoing refusal to collect the required information from those who want to take part in North Carolina elections. Accountability and fidelity to following the rule of law is long overdue for the most partisan Elections Board in state history.”

The state board formerly used a voter registration form that failed to require HAVA-required identification information, such as a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. Election officials admitted the form was non-compliant with HAVA and eventually fixed it, but in the meantime, approximately 225,000 people registered without supplying the HAVA-required information, the complaint says.

Election officials allegedly refused to take remedial action and did not reach out to these voters to collect the required information. Instead, what the defendants “offer as a solution is a half-hearted promise that those who were ineligible to register but were allowed to anyway will naturally filter themselves out from the state’s voter rolls when they conduct other election-related activities,” the complaint says.

“This inaction misses the mark,” the lawsuit says. “Not only does this ‘solution’ fail to remedy the ongoing violations of state and federal law or account for Defendants’ responsibilities under the same, but it leaves North Carolinians to wonder how they can trust in the security of their elections, especially when those tasked with protecting their rights cannot be bothered to do what is required by law.” 

Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro, North Carolina, on Aug. 21, 2024.  (PETER ZAY/AFP via Getty Images)

TRUMP RALLIES IN NC BEHIND BULLETPROOF GLASS AT FIRST OUTDOOR EVENT SINCE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

“Even worse, this ‘solution’ sends the message to the millions of duly qualified and registered voters in North Carolina that their chief elections officials will shirk their responsibilities and refuse to verify whether those who vote in the state’s elections are entitled to do so in the first place,” it adds. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the NCSBE for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

This is the second lawsuit filed by the RNC and the NCGOP against the North Carolina Board of Elections in a matter of weeks. 

Last month, Republicans sued the board for allegedly failing to check jury questionnaire responses to identify and remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, as required by law. 

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigns at the Hendrick Center For Automotive Excellence on Aug. 16, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina.  (Grant Baldwin/Getty Images)

Last year, the state legislature passed SB747, a major election integrity law that requires state elections officials to cross-check when an individual claims to be a non-citizen on a jury questionnaire, to make sure that same person is not on the voter rolls. The RNC and NCGOP alleges that despite the law going into effect July 1, election officials have not begun to enforce it.  

In February, North Carolina’s Office of State Budget and Management reported that approximately 325,000 “unauthorized” immigrants were residing in the state. 

That was out of the total of 501,000 foreign-born non-citizens in North Carolina, according to the complaint in that case.

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Last week, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. also sued the North Carolina State Board for denying his request to be removed from the state’s ballot before the November election. Despite the candidate dropping out of the race and endorsing former President Trump, the board decided in a 3-2 vote to keep Kennedy’s name because nearly 2 million ballots had already been printed. 

Kennedy also was unable to remove himself from the ballot in the fellow battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin. 

President Biden joked he was once “disappointed” to find out his great-grandfather was not part of a violent group that killed bigoted mine foremen.

The president spoke about his ancestor, Edward Francis Blewitt, during a rally in support of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh on Monday.

“I remember when my great-grandfather was only the second Catholic elected statewide in the state Senate here in Pennsylvania,” Biden told the audience. “And I remember they talked about – when they’d run against him in 1906 – they said, ‘Guess what? He’s a Molly Maguire.’”

BIDEN TEAMS UP WITH HARRIS ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL FOR 1ST TIME SINCE DROPPING RE-ELECTION BID AGAINST TRUMP

President Biden talks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., after returning from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“A lot of the English owned the coal mines and what they did was they really beat the hell out of the mostly Catholic population in the mines. Not a joke,” Biden continued. “But there was a group they called the Molly Maguires. And Molly Maguires, if they found out the foreman was taking advantage of an individual, they would literally kill him. Not a joke. And they would bring his body up and put him on the doorstep of his family.”

Harris nodded along as the president told the story of his maternal ancestor, an anecdote he previously used while on the campaign trial with former President Barack Obama.

“Kind of crude, but I gotta admit they accused my great-grandfather of being a Molly Maguire – he wasn’t, but we were so damn disappointed,” Biden told the audience before assuring them, “That was a joke. That was a joke.”

MARGIN OF ERROR RACE BETWEEN HARRIS AND TRUMP AS 2024 ELECTION ENTERS FINAL STRETCH

President Biden speaks during a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at IBEW Local Union #5 in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

The Library of the Pennsylvania Senate confirms that Blewitt was the second Catholic person elected to the state assembly in 1907; he followed William McSherry, who served from 1813-1817.

Biden’s appearance in Pittsburgh marks a return from approximately a week of low profile vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. 

That vacation immediately followed an entire separate six-day getaway to Democratic Party donor Joe Kiani’s California ranch estate. Biden cleared his work schedule ahead of the multi-week holiday.

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Flanked by labor union leaders, Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to union workers during a campaign event at Northwestern High School in Detroit. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Biden’s disastrous performance against former President Donald Trump in their late June debate turned up the volume on existing concerns from Americans that the 81-year-old president would have the physical and mental stamina to handle another four years in the White House. 

It also sparked a rising chorus of calls from top Democratic Party allies and elected officials for Biden to drop out of the race, which he did on July 21 before almost immediately endorsing Harris.

Most of the latest national surveys show Harris with a slight single-digit edge over Trump, but the presidential election is not a national popular vote contest. It is a battle for the individual states and their electoral votes.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.