NationalWatch

Federal, state and local officials convened a meeting in New Jersey Thursday focused on improving protection for “high-profile figures” and ensuring financial support to communities like Bedminster, which was not used to funding such endeavors.

State Sen. Doug Steinhardt, R-Belvidere, convened the meeting in Bedminster, where Trump owns a golf club he frequently visits. It featured officials from the township; Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J.; law enforcement; and other leaders.

Steinhardt, a former NJGOP chair who represents Trump’s club, said the assassination attempt in neighboring Pennsylvania prompted him to organize all potential stakeholders in this way.

“President Trump has been a champion for our country, and it’s our duty to ensure his safety and the safety of all our leaders,” Steinhardt said. 

TRUMP ASSASSINATION TASK FORCE REBUFFS PARALLEL CONGRESSIONAL PROBE

In this Nov. 20, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump, left, waves to the media as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie arrives at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J.  (Associated Press)

“The recent attack is a stark reminder of the growing threats they face. We cannot allow our communities to bear the financial burden of these enhanced security measures alone.”

Steinhardt later told Fox News Digital after the meeting that he and the other stakeholders took a “significant step in the right direction.”

“[We] reaffirmed that when high-profile figures visit our towns, the financial burden of providing enhanced security shouldn’t fall on local taxpayers,” Steinhardt said. 

“As we move forward, I’m optimistic that we can strike the delicate balance required for Secret Service and local communities to protect leaders like President Trump during this period of heightened political unrest.”

When asked about the meeting, Kean’s office cited legislation freshly drafted by the lawmaker that would authorize the Secret Service to reimburse state and local governments when their resources are used to coordinate VIP security.

The agency had come under scrutiny after the Butler incident for allegations it did not properly work with the Pennsylvania State Police and other agencies to prevent a threat like shooter Thomas Crooks.

Bedminster Mayor Larry Jacobs said in a statement he called Kean when the Secret Service requested township resources to help protect Trump’s club.

BUTLER LAWMAKER SLAMS ‘INAPPROPRIATE’ TREATMENT OF LOCAL POLICE AFTER TRUMP INCIDENT: ‘THROWN UNDER THE BUS’

A view of the entrance to Trump National Golf Club (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“Bedminster has always been willing to step up and answer the call to keep every resident in our town safe, and that includes the former president,” Jacobs said.

The rural community, at the crossroads of interstates 78 and 287 in the middle of the state, was not used to budgeting that kind of appropriation.

“We fully appreciate the Secret Service’s request, especially in light of the July 13 assassination attempt. However, this request could easily run into six figures and is simply too much for our small town to foot,” Jacobs said, calling Kean’s Presidential Security Resources Reimbursement Act the right solution.

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Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, the Republican vice presidential candidate, greets former President Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, right, during a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

A Somerset County official echoed those sentiments in her own statement shared by Kean.

Particularly in the time since New York state has pursued Trump in court, the former president has appeared to frequent his Bedminster club more than his namesake tower about an hour to the east.

With that trend likely to continue, properly securing the Raritan Valley and providing the resources to local and state concerns to do so remains paramount, officials added.

Vice President Kamala Harris defended flip-flopping on key policies such as energy in a preview clip of her first sit-down interview with the media since ascending the Democratic presidential ticket. 

“Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made?” CNN host Dana Bash asked Harris in the preview clip released late Thursday afternoon. “… Is it because you have more experience now, and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary? And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you’re saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?”

Harris responded that her “values have not changed” throughout her political career. 

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act,” Harris responded. 

TRUMP, VANCE CONTINUE TO HAMMER HARRIS FOR ‘COPYING’ THEIR POLICIES

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, United States on August 19, 2024. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Harris has been accused by voters, political pundits and the Trump campaign of flip-flopping on key policies since emerging as the Democratic Party’s nominee since President Biden dropped out of the race last month. On fracking, for example, Harris’ campaign announced last month that the vice president did not support a ban on the oil extraction technique that enjoys broad support in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

39 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS YET TO DO FORMAL PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE

That position, however, is the opposite of her remarks as a primary candidate during a 2019 CNN town hall event, when Harris said there is “no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”

Harris has also distanced herself from “Medicare for All” and semiautomatic rifle buyback programs, after publicly touting both programs during her failed primary campaign during the 2020 cycle. 

A scoreboard displays ‘DNC 2024’ ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center on August 16, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.  (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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

“We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” Harris continued in her comments to CNN on Thursday.

“As an example, that value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border. That value has not changed. I spent two terms as the Attorney General of California prosecuting transnational criminal organization, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage, of guns, drugs and human beings across our border, my values have not changed,” she said.

Harris and Walz will sit down for an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash that airs on Thursday evening. ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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The network will release the full interview with Harris at 9 p.m. Thursday evening, with Bash telling her audience Thursday afternoon that the interview will dive into Harris’ policies on handling the economy, inflation, the environment and immigration. 

The interview was conducted in the battleground state of Georgia at Kim’s Cafe, a Black-owned restaurant in Savannah. Harris was joined by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the interview.

Fox News Digital’s Mike Lee contributed to this report.  

Congress’ only career firefighter will introduce Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) conference in Boston Thursday in an effort to urge members to support the Trump-Vance ticket, after they were the first labor union to endorse President Biden in 2020.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., became a City of Miami firefighter in 1975 and rose to the rank of chief by the end of his career. He said Thursday that, like his fellow first responders, former President Trump has shown he is always ready to “answer the call.”

The IAFF has not thrown their support to either current presidential candidate yet.

Gimenez said while his main role is to introduce Trump’s running mate, he will make brief remarks on why his fellow firefighters should endorse the Republican nominee this time around.

TOP REPUBLICAN CALLS USSS DIRECTOR’S ‘SLOPED ROOF’ DEFENSE ‘FINAL STRAW’: I’M 70 AND ‘COULD RUN AROUND IT ALL DAY’

Rep. Carlos Gimenez poses at the IAFF convention in Boston, Massachusetts. (Office of Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla.)

“I felt it was important enough to get up at 3 a.m. to go to Boston and introduce Sen. Vance and talk to them about why I think President Trump and JD Vance are right for not just firefighters but for America.”

Gimenez discussed Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent policy proposals in a general sense, and suggested she has been pushing fixes to problems the Biden-Harris administration themselves exacerbated.

“My pitch is going to be, you know, where firefighters are always willing to answer the call or they answer the bell – Right now America is, is asking for help, and we should respond,” Gimenez said.

“And America is asking for help because of the disaster that’s been the Biden-Harris administration and… some of the things that have happened over the last three and a half years… that Kamala Harris in particular wants us to forget that they were in charge of.”

“Somehow they’re now going to fix it or she’s going to fix it… It’s like having the arsonist tell you how to put out the fire.”

Gimenez said that while he has held other roles throughout his life – commissioner, mayor of Miami-Dade County, congressman – when he is asked what his job was, he routinely replies, “firefighter.”

CUBA’S MEDDLING IN US ELECTIONS A ‘BADGE OF HONOR’ TO SOME TARGETED CRITICS

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a former City of Miami fire chief, in uniform. (Office of Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla.)

“I was the youngest one and the first Hispanic chief – I was very fortunate to be a firefighter and it’s also shaped the way I see things and how I deal with things.”

Gimenez said that when “firefighters do well, America does well,” and that as a “first responder,” they understand urgency in key situations.

As for whether the IAFF may be primed to make a 180 and endorse Trump, Gimenez said the union tends to follow its affiliate in the AFL-CIO, which typically endorses Democrats.

“Ever since I’ve been a firefighter, they tend to go Democrat. Hopefully, we can break the trend today.”

Gimenez expressed hope in that regard, given they did not swiftly endorse Harris as they had for Biden in 2020.

“It’s not a slam dunk for Democrats this time around,” Gimenez said of some union endorsements, despite Biden self-identifying as the most “pro-union” president in history.

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Notably, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien became the first such official to speak at the Republican National Convention, but was reportedly not invited to speak to the Democratic National Convention this year.

Unions aside, Gimenez said firefighters don’t care about political affiliation while on-the-job. 

“Every time the bell rings, we get on the truck or we get on the rescue [vehicle] and we answer the call. We’re going to help – that’s what’s great about [firefighters].”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign and IAFF for comment.

Then-Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris did not rule out potentially packing the Supreme Court in 2019 when she sought the party’s nod to face then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. 

The now-vice president and Democratic nominee for president in 2024 reiterated several times during her previous campaign that she wasn’t opposed to a Supreme Court expansion, which would theoretically allow liberal justices to take on a majority role through new appointments. 

“I’m open to this conversation about increasing the number of people on the United States Supreme Court,” Harris told voters in Nashua, New Hampshire, after a question was posed to her about adding up to four seats to the high court, Bloomberg reported at the time.

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

Kamala Harris previously claimed to be open to packing the Supreme Court. (Reuters)

Her interest in court-packing was not limited to a one-off remark. Harris made it clear, reiterating during her primary campaign in 2019 to both the New York Times and Politico that she was open-minded when it came to adding more seats to the court. 

Harris claimed to Politico at the time that “everything is on the table” to restore confidence in the Supreme Court, including court-packing. 

She was asked by The New York Times whether she wished to elaborate on being “open” to court-packing, to which she declined. 

“I’m just open to it,” she said. 

BIDEN-HARRIS HHS SECRETARY SIDESTEPS BACKING ANY LIMIT ON LATE-TERM ABORTION

The U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Judicial Branch of government. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

Harris’ campaign did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication. It was asked whether Harris was still open to court-packing. 

Last month, Biden and Harris’ administration rolled out a slate of policies to overhaul the Supreme Court. In their proposal, they called for term limits for Supreme Court justices, who currently serve lifetime appointments, an enforceable ethics code for justices, and an amendment to the Constitution to overturn the high court’s ruling that former presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office. 

The overhaul also included a form of packing the court, according to the analysis of former Trump administration lawyer Mark Paoletta. Stealthily included under the term limit proposal, Biden and Harris’ plan outlines a system in which the president appoints a new Supreme Court justice “every two years to spend eighteen years in active service on the Supreme Court.”

DEM LAWMAKERS’ VOTING RECORDS WITH BIDEN-HARRIS IN SPOTLIGHT AHEAD OF TIGHT RACES

Biden and Harris’ administration recently revealed a proposed Supreme Court overhaul. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Even though Joe Biden caved to radicals and recently endorsed court packing, Harris is even further to the left of him on this thoroughly discredited idea,” Paoletta said in a statement to Fox News Digital. He notably worked on the confirmation efforts for Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Harris’ past statements and refusal to comment further on the subject suggest that her administration could undertake not only the Supreme Court expansion apparently outlined in the administration’s desired overhaul, but an even more drastic version. 

Paoletta pointed to a recent claim from Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who said Harris’ campaign told him his Supreme Court legislation is “precisely aligned with what we are talking about,” the Dispatch reported.

“According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse—who is the single most malignant figure in America trying to undermine the independence of the Supreme Court—Harris supports his court-packing legislation that would disqualify the senior-most Justices from active service, which just so happen to be Justice Thomas, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justice Alito,” Paoletta explained. 

NEWSOM DODGES QUESTION ON HARRIS PRICE CONTROLS: ‘SHE HASN’T PUT OUT THE DETAILS’

Democrats have slammed the Court’s conservative majority. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

He claimed Whitehouse’s plans, which Harris has purportedly expressed agreement with, are “far more nefarious” than the “court packing scheme” under former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

As Paoletta noted, legislation authored by Whitehouse laid out a similar structure to Biden and Harris’ latest proposal, outlining appointments of justices every two years. Under the bill, only the most recently appointed nine justices would oversee appellate jurisdiction cases. It further states that “all” justices are to preside over original jurisdiction cases, without specifying a number. 

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Prior to the latest overhaul proposal, Biden had held off supporting packing the court, despite calls from other Democrats. He once warned that Democrats would “live to rue” taking such action. 

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

The U.S. Army says a staff member was “abruptly pushed aside” during a ceremony attended by former President Trump and his campaign during a Monday ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, but that the campaign member will not face charges.

The incident took place at a ceremony honoring the 13 U.S. soldiers who were killed in an attack on the Kabul airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The Army confirmed reports of an altercation between at least one Trump campaign official and a cemetery staff member.

“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside,” the Army said in a statement.

“Consistent with the decorum expected at ANC, this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption. The incident was reported to the JBM-HH police department, but the employee subsequently decided not to press charges. Therefore, the Army considers this matter closed,” the statement continued.

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

The U.S. Army says a staff member was “abruptly pushed aside” by a member of former President Trump’s campaign during a Monday ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. (Getty Images )

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve,” the Army added.

The cemetery has a long-standing federal ban on the use of its property by any political campaigns, and cemetery staff had warned that campaign staff could not use the event to take photographs or video.

‘YOU’RE FIRED’: TRUMP VOWS PINK SLIPS ON DAY 1 FOR EVERY OFFICIAL RESPONSIBLE FOR ‘AFGHANISTAN CALAMITY’

Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on the third-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the Afghanistan withdrawal. (Pool)

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung argued that the staffer who blocked the campaign photographers appeared to be having a “mental health episode.” He also specified that the campaign was granted approval to bring a photographer.

38 DAYS: VP REFUSES TO REVEAL POLICY POSITIONS

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and, for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” he said.

Trump attended the event at the invitation of relatives of the fallen soldiers, who thanked him for his attendance. (Pool)

Trump attended the event at the invitation of relatives of the fallen soldiers, who thanked him for his attendance in a statement.

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“We are deeply grateful to the president for taking the time to honor our children and for standing alongside us in our grief, offering his unwavering support during such a difficult time,” five of the family members wrote after the event. “His compassion and respect meant more than words can express.”

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is joining the wave of critics going after Vice President Kamala Harris for holding her first 2024 campaign interview alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that the first and ONLY interview from Kamala Harris, the anointed Democrat nominee for President of the United States, is done jointly with Tim Walz,” Stefanik said on Thursday.

“It is offensive to ALL women that Kamala has refused to sit for a solo interview when she is running to be commander-in-chief.”

KAMALA HARRIS GRANTS FIRST INTERVIEW TO CNN AFTER WEEKS OF AVOIDING PRESS, TO BE JOINED BY TIM WALZ

Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are getting heat for choosing to do their first interviews together. (Getty Images)

Harris and Walz are sitting down with CNN host Dana Bash for a pre-taped interview Thursday set to air at 9 p.m. ET. It will be both of their first interviews since becoming the Democrats’ presidential ticket. 

It will be Harris’ first formal interview since replacing President Biden at the top of the ticket 39 days ago. 

It comes after growing pressure on Harris to participate in an unscripted, on-the-record media event or press conference – something she has not done since becoming the nominee, save for a notable but brief gaggle with reporters earlier this month. 

Republicans have seized on her decision to have her first sit-down alongside Walz, arguing it shows Harris is not capable of defending her platform on her own.

CNN ANCHOR: DID HARRIS ‘WAIT TOO LONG’ TO SCHEDULE HER FIRST INTERVIEW?

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., was among the Republicans piling on Harris. (Faith and Freedom Coalition )

Stefanik also accused the media of complicity, continuing her statement, “The Democrats’ stenographers in the mainstream media just blindly regurgitate the talking points provided to them directly by the Kamala Harris campaign.”

“Kamala Harris and her entire campaign is an affront to the American people,” she said.

Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt responded to Stefanik’s statement, saying, “For at least 20 years, every ticket, Republican and Democrat, sat for a joint interview. The only exception was when Donald Trump walked out of his joint interview four years ago with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, because he couldn’t handle her holding him accountable on his extreme, unpopular record.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for a response.

AP PANNED FOR SAYING HARRIS IS ‘HAVING IT BOTH WAYS’ AS A SITTING VP, CHANGE CANDIDATE: ‘YOU’RE LETTING HER’

The Harris campaign responded with a shot at former President Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Meanwhile, some journalists are also skeptical of the campaign’s decision. 

Former CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller wrote on X, “Should CNN have insisted on a one-on-one interview with Harris and turned down a joint interview with Harris and Walz? Too tough to walk away from. But first question to Harris ought to be why [she] couldn’t appear solo.”

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It’s not unusual for presidential candidates and their running mates to do joint interviews – a fact that Harris allies have repeatedly utilized in her defense.

Politico Playbook quoted a campaign official who responded to the uproar with a list of joint interviews by a presidential ticket going back two decades, telling the outlet, “Obviously she will do solo interviews, too.”

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is reportedly riddled with “internal worries about cohesiveness,” as those loyal to the vice president and former Obama staffers come together to form an “at times unwieldy” team working on what not long ago had been President Biden’s re-election campaign. 

The main architect of Biden’s campaign messaging, Mike Donilon, has gone back to the White House, but Harris has kept most of Biden’s other campaign staffers, Axios reported, citing six people involved in the campaign. The vice president also has tapped her own staffers and prominent aides from former President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, resulting in a “Frankenstein” team with competing power centers. 

It contrasts with Biden’s insular campaign team that had a few longtime aides calling the shots. The Harris team’s attempt to avoid making Biden staffers feel cast aside has resulted in confusion about who is in charge, according to the report. One person involved told Axios there isn’t “as much tension at the very, very top, where the question is more: ‘Who is the first among equals with the vice president?'”

HERITAGE RIPS HARRIS’ ‘DANGEROUSLY LIBERAL’ POLICY RECORD WITH NEW WEBSITE, 6-FIGURE OUTREACH TO INDEPENDENTS

Vice President Kamala Harris and vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the final day of the Democratic National Convention. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“The entanglement of these different entities has led to many people feeling a real lack of role clarity,” another person involved in the campaign told Axios, citing more confusion “two or three rungs down.” 

Biden’s campaign had parted ways with prominent election lawyer Marc Elias over his strategy last year. Harris has brought Elias, who is close to former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder, back to work on her campaign to help vet vice presidential running mates and now focus on Democrats’ recount strategy. 

The short timetable of just 68 days until Election Day seems to have deterred major tension, the report says. 

Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, disembark from their campaign bus in Savannah, Aug. 28, 2024, as they travel across Georgia for a two-day campaign bus tour. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

RFK JR. CANNOT REMOVE NAME FROM BALLOTS IN 2 KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES

“It’s just a mad dash,” one person involved told Axios. “Things are colliding occasionally, but it’s not malicious.”

Some of the Biden campaign aides told Axios they thought the former Obama staffers had been second-guessing their moves for months, as some were involved in pushing Biden to exit the race. 

Though some on Biden’s team believe Harris is more electable than the president after his June debate performance against former President Trump, and welcome the “burst of enthusiasm,” some are disappointed they have to defend Harris for her past progressive stances on “Medicare-for-all” and banning fracking. Her positions on those issues, along with those of other Democrats, in part contributed to Biden’s 2020 nomination win. 

Kamala Harris greets patrons at Sandfly Bar-B-Q restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, Aug. 28, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Instead of changing the makeup of Biden’s campaign team, Axios noted, the vice president instead shifted her messaging from Biden’s focus on “democracy” to Harris’ new push for “freedom” and “future.” 

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. 

A U.S. veteran and former member of the Presidential Honor Guard defended former President Trump’s appearance at Arlington National Cemetery this week amid reports of an altercation between Arlington staff and the Trump campaign.

The veteran, Lucas O’Hara, said on social media that he worked at Arlington for three years during his time in the military, and he lauded Trump’s composure at the event. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is facing criticism following reports that cemetery staff warned them not to take photographs at the Monday event.

“I have witnessed over 75 wreath laying ceremonies performed by politicians and conducted 524 funerals in this cemetery during the time I served in the Presidential Honor Guard for three years. What I got to witness yesterday was the most respectful and solemn ceremony I have seen,” O’Hara wrote. 

“There were no speeches, no angles, no weird photo ops just our elected officials and the 45th President respectfully and solemnly honoring the fallen and their families,” he added.

38 DAYS: VP REFUSES TO REVEAL POLICY POSITIONS

A U.S. veteran and former member of the Presidential Honor Guard defended former President Trump’s appearance at Arlington National Cemetery this week amid reports of an altercation between Arlington staff and the Trump campaign.

The Monday event honored the 13 U.S. service members who were killed while defending the Kabul airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Several parents of the service members released a statement saying they had approved a Trump campaign photographer to record the event.

A report from NPR says two Trump campaign staff members “verbally abused and pushed” a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and taking photos. A defense official also told The Associated Press that the campaign was warned by cemetery staff not to take photographs at the event.

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

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” a cemetery official said in a statement. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

Members of former President Trump’s campaign got into an altercation with staff at the Arlington National Cemetery. (Getty Images )

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung argued that the staffer who blocked the campaign photographers appeared to be having a “mental health episode.” He also specified that the campaign was granted approval to bring a photographer.

‘YOU’RE FIRED’: TRUMP VOWS PINK SLIPS ON DAY 1 FOR EVERY OFFICIAL RESPONSIBLE FOR ‘AFGHANISTAN CALAMITY’

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and, for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” he said.

Former President Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on the third-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the Afghanistan withdrawal. (Pool)

Trump attended the event at the invitation of family members of the soldiers who were killed in the Kabul bombing.

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“We are deeply grateful to the president for taking the time to honor our children and for standing alongside us in our grief, offering his unwavering support during such a difficult time,” five of the family members wrote after the event. “His compassion and respect meant more than words can express.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A lawsuit against the New York Times brought by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been resurrected by a federal court.

Palin, a former Republican vice presidential candidate, sued the outlet after it published a 2017 editorial claiming her campaign had encouraged the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords. The editorial in question was published on the day of a mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice game.

No such encouragement of connection to the shooting was ever produced — Palin filed suit against the newspaper, alleging staff had intentionally published false information in an attempt to smear her and damage her reputation.

NEW YORK TIMES FOUND NOT LIABLE IN SARAH PALIN DEFAMATION CASE

Then-US House of Representatives candidate Sarah Palin speaks on stage during a “Save America” rally before former US President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the lawsuit in February 2022 in the middle of jury deliberations. He allowed the jurors to finish deliberating and give a verdict, which ultimately favored the New York Times, but lawyers pointed out that individuals on the jury received notifications from the outlet mid-deliberation announcing the judge’s dismissal.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Wednesday overturned that dismissal and verdict, finding that Rakoff made a series of errors that qualify the lawsuit for a retrial.

“We have no difficulty concluding that an average jury’s verdict would be affected if several jurors knew that the judge had already ruled for one of the parties on the very claims the jurors were charged with deciding,” 2nd Circuit Judge John Walker Jr. said regarding the dismissal.

SARAH PALIN SUES NY TIMES OVER EDITORIAL TYING HER TO GIFFORDS SHOOTING

“We think a jury’s verdict reached with the knowledge of the judge’s already-announced disposition of the case will rarely be untainted, no matter what the jurors say upon subsequent inquiry,” Walker said, addressing claims from jurors that the dismissal and subsequent notifications did not affect their decision.

Vehicles drive past the New York Times building in New York City. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

The court noted several other issues with how Palin’s lawsuit was handled, including restrictions on her claim that editorial page editor James Bennet allowed the unsubstantiated claims against her to politically aid his brother, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Palin’s legal team called the ruling “a significant step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public in general.”

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“The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that is ‘provided with relevant proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law,’” lawyer Shane Vogt added.

The New York Times called the ruling “disappointing,” but said it is confident the lawsuit will be dismissed again in a retrial.

Importantly, the appeals court did not find Rakoff biased against Palin and therefore still eligible to preside over the retrial.

Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are scheduled to sit for their first campaign interview on Thursday night with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Atlanta.

For the prior 38 days, Harris has been lambasted for failing to take substantive questions from the press or take part in such an event.

By contrast, former President Trump has held at least two press conferences and participated in interviews across the spectrum, including with Fox News Channel.

Trump and Harris are scheduled to meet for a Sept. 10 televised debate.

38 DAYS: VP REFUSES TO REVEAL POLICY POSITIONS

Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File)

As the interview approaches, viewers have been reminded of prior appearances, including a 2021 discussion with NBC’s Lester Holt in which Harris was criticized for her response to a question about not visiting the Mexican border.

“And I haven’t been to Europe, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border,” Harris told Holt in a moment that went viral on the Republican side of the aisle.

After Harris’ speech at the convention, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote that the presentation was “confident, optimistic, [but] mostly devoid of policy substance.”

“Whether she can keep this up, unexplained and unexposed, for the next 12 weeks will determine whether she becomes America’s 47th President,” the editorial board wrote. 

In recent days, however, Harris has garnered some high-profile surrogates on the campaign trail.

KERRY KENNEDY HITS THE STUMP FOR HARRIS AFTER BROTHER RFK JR JOINS TEAM TRUMP

After former independent candidate and Democrat scion Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped his bid for president and endorsed Trump, the Harris campaign announced a spate of joint appearances with Kerry Kennedy, who is Kennedy Jr.’s sister and a particularly vocal critic of her brother’s politicking.

In Arizona, Kennedy appeared with labor activist Dolores Huerta, who spoke onstage with Robert F. Kennedy Sr. the night he was assassinated on the campaign trail in Los Angeles in 1968.

On Aug. 7, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, told reporters he was having a “bit of fun” when he found himself on the same tarmac as Air Force Two in Eau Claire, Wis.

Vance approached Harris’ ride and told reporters, “I just wanted to check out my future plane,” adding that he wanted to see about greeting Harris and asking her why she “refuse[s] to answer questions from the media.”

“I at least have enough respect for you all and for the American people to come and talk to you and answer questions.”

While Thursday will mark her first interview, the inclusion of Walz led to the announcement being critiqued on X.

“Kamala Harris is doing a joint interview with Tim Walz on Thursday. She legit can’t do an interview by herself,” said OutKick founder Clay Travis.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Republican strategist Dustin Grage surmised that Walz is a “better communicator than Kamala Harris” and posted a clip of Walz sitting for an interview with a CBS affiliate.

“This is why he will be her support animal in Thursday’s interview with CNN. But there is also a reason it will be pre-recorded, because even in softball interviews, it’s hard to remember all of those lies on the spot.”

Ahead of her interview, Harris and Walz embarked on a South Georgia bus tour that begins and ends in Savannah. While Chatham County – where the city is located – is safely in Democrat hands, the campaign hopes the stops on the stump will bring more voters into the Harris-Walz fold.

South Georgia writ large leans Republican. In southwest Georgia, longtime Democrat Rep. Sanford Bishop’s Warner Robins-Albany seat is seen as a potential but borderline pickup for Republicans if they have a good year at the polls.

Reps. Buddy Carter and Austin Scott’s GOP seats in the region remain safely Republican, according to Cook PVI ratings.

“[The bus tour offers the] opportunity to get to places we don’t usually go [and] make sure we’re competing in all communities,” said Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler.

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Vice President Harris (AP Photo/John Bazemore/File)

Tyler told the Associated Press that Harris retained President Biden’s custom of taking part in informal get-togethers but that the venues have changed, pointing to a recent pit stop in Aliquippa, Pa., where they visited a high school football practice.

Walz is a former teacher and football coach.

Georgia has also been a contentious state for both parties. Democrats flipped both U.S. Senate seats in recent years, while Trump has warred with otherwise popular GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

The Republican nominee’s tone reportedly changed in recent times, as the governor was lauded by his longtime critic for his “help and support” in the Peach State.

“A win [here] is so important to the success of our party and most importantly our country,” Trump said on X.

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

SAVANNAH, GA. – Vice President Kamala Harris wakes up Thursday in this historic coastal city in Georgia, a crucial presidential election battleground that’s one of seven states that will likely determine the winner of her 2024 face off with former President Trump.

The vice president on Wednesday kicked off a two-day bus swing in southeastern Georgia, accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visiting with faculty and students at a high school before stopping by a barbecue joint.

On Thursday, Harris and Walz will sit for their first major interview before the vice president holds what’s expected to be a large rally in Savannah.

By choosing the Peach State for her first campaign trail swing following last week’s Democratic National Convention, Harris is making a statement – that Georgia is once again in play in November’s election.

NEW FOX NEWS POLL NUMBERS IN FOUR KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES 

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris talks as she visits SandFly Bar-B-Q in Savannah, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Georgia had long been a reliably red state in White House elections until President Biden narrowly edged then-President Trump in 2020 to become the first Democrat in nearly three decades to capture the state.

Fast-forward to this year’s election, and Trump saw his slight edge in the polls in Georgia over Biden jump to a solid single-digit lead after the president’s disastrous performance in their one debate, a late June showdown in Atlanta.

THIS POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR SAYS HIS STATE’S A MUST WIN FOR TRUMP

But in the 5½ weeks since the vice president replaced her boss atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, polls indicate that it’s once again a margin-of-error race in the Peach State.

A Fox News poll conducted August 23-26 in Georgia and released on Wednesday indicated Harris with a razor-thin 50%-48% edge over Trump among registered voters. The most recent Fox News survey in Georgia before Biden dropped out of the race indicated Trump topping the president by six points, 51%-45%.

Georgia’s popular two-term conservative governor agrees that his state’s very competitive.

“Certainly this is a battleground state,” Gov. Brian Kemp emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on Tuesday.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia is interviewed by Fox News Digital, on June 3, 2024 in Chalmette, Louisiana.  (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

“I’ve been saying for a long time that the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia. And there’s no path for former President Trump to win, or any Republican … to get to 270 without Georgia,” Kemp said.

But he added that Georgia “should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November.”

2024 COUNTDOWN: TRUMP CRISSCROSSING CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH 10 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY

So are the Democrats.

“The Georgia Democratic coordinated campaign is running the largest in-state operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle, with over 190 Democratic coordinated campaign staff in 24 coordinated offices across the state,” the Harris campaign touted hours ahead of the vice president’s arrival in Savannah.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, poses for a photo with students from Savannah State University, at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Ga., Aug. 28, 2024.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

This is Harris’ second stop in Georgia since taking over for Biden as the party’s standard-bearer. She previously hosted a large rally in downtown Atlanta.

But this time around, Harris is barnstorming through the southern part of the state, far from Atlanta and its growing suburbs, which make up nearly 60% of Georgia’s population. The traditional route for Democrats to win statewide in Georgia is to concentrate on metropolitan Atlanta. 

But Quentin Fulks, who was principal deputy campaign manager under Biden and has remained in that role with Harris, is following the playbook from two years ago when he steered Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s narrow re-election victory over GOP challenger Hershel Walker. The strategy is to not only win big in Atlanta and its suburbs, but also to stay competitive in the rest of the state.

“We have to make sure that we are competing everywhere across the state,” Fulks said Tuesday in an interview on MSNBC. “We’re going to continue to run in rural counties. …. We have to be statewide in that state and even compete in counties that Democrats don’t traditionally go. That is how you win statewide in Georgia.”

WASH, RINSE, REPEAT: WHY JD VANCE IS CONCENTRATING ON THESE 3 STATES

The Harris campaign noted that “campaigning in Southeast Georgia is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban and urban Georgians — with a large proportion of Black voters and working-class families.”

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to marching band members at Liberty County High School in Hinesville, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The first stop for Harris and Walz was Liberty County High School in Hinesville, where they met with the school’s administrators, faculty, students and stopped in on the school’s marching band rehearsal.

“We wanted to come by just to let you know that our country is counting on you. All of you,” Harris told the students. “We’re so proud of you. Your generation, all that you guys stand for … is what is going to propel our country into the next era of what we can do and what we can be.”

The vice president told the students that she was in band when she was in high school, according to a pool report.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee took aim at Harris as her bus tour got underway.

“The Trump campaign is fighting and winning in Georgia by building a broad coalition of support from those fed up with her four years of failure in the White House,” senior adviser Brian Hughes told Fox News.

And RNC spokesperson Morgan Ackley argued that “while our highly engaged and energetic operation in Georgia is focused on turning out votes across the entire state, Democrats in Georgia are finally learning an important lesson…there is more to Georgia than just Atlanta.”

Ackley emphasized that “Republicans from Catoosa to Camden County and everywhere in between are fired up and ready to re-elect President Donald J. Trump because his message of putting America first again resonates with Americans of all backgrounds.”

But the Harris campaign appears to enjoy a large organizational advantage over Trump’s team in Georgia. And Republican strategists agreed that to recapture Georgia, Trump will need assistance from Kemp’s well-oiled and funded political machine to turn out GOP voters.

Former President Trump, right, is joined by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, during at a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

For two years after his 2020 election defeat to Biden, which included a razor-thin loss in Georgia, Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state. 

Trump toned down the criticism in 2022 after Kemp crushed Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary.

Then, earlier this month, Trump went on a 10-minute tirade against Kemp at a rally in Atlanta just blocks from the Georgia State Capitol. Trump blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count but also for not stopping a county prosecutor from indicting the former president for his attempts to reverse the results.

But last week, in a major change of tune, Trump aimed to patch up his differences with Kemp by praising the governor in a social media post.

Kemp told Fox News Digital that “I’ve been consistent for really the last couple of years that I was going to support the ticket, whoever our nominee was, in Georgia. That’s exactly what I’m doing, what I have been doing.”

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Kemp on Thursday will join his wife, Georgia first lady Marty Kemp, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served in the Trump administration, to headline a fundraiser in Atlanta for the former president.

“It’s my belief that we cannot afford four more years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, which I think would probably be worse than even Biden and Harris were,” the governor argued.

“I believe Republicans need to stay focused on litigating Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s record. … We need to be telling people why they should vote for us, what we’re going to do to make things better than they are right now.”

Another sign of how important Georgia is in deciding the White House race – the massive amount of money being spent by both the Harris and Trump campaigns to run ads in the state.

The Trump campaign is dishing out nearly $33 million to reserve ad time on Georgia airwaves for the final stretch, with the Harris campaign spending over $42 million.

Spotlighting the stakes, veteran Georgia-based Republican consultant Stephen Lawson noted that “from the Trump-Kemp détente to Harris campaigning in rural Georgia to the massive spending, just continues to underscore that the road to the White House runs through Georgia.”

“That was true in 2020. It’s why Joe Biden is in office right now,” Lawson highlighted.

And looking ahead to this autumn’s presidential election, he added that “I think it will be very, very, difficult for either Harris or Trump to win the White House without winning Georgia.”

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

The Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has released a report that indicates “multiple” agency officials were at odds with the Biden administration over its decision to build a humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza.

The office released the report on Tuesday, indicating that “multiple USAID staff” initially expressed concern that implementing the pier could potentially undercut broader efforts to persuade Israel to open “more efficient” land corridors that are “proven methods” for transporting aid. However, the report pointed out, “once the President issued the directive, the Agency’s focus was to use [the pier] as effectively as possible.”

Construction of the $230 million pier came at a time when the U.S. was facing pressure from critics to send aid to those living in Gaza due to concerns that famine was setting in. Although aid was being delivered by air, President Biden aimed to enhance support by giving the green light to the pier project. It was a joint effort between Biden’s Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is tasked with distributing foreign aid for the federal government.

But after just about a week of being up and running, the pier began facing issues. Heavy winds and rough sea waters repeatedly broke the pier apart, and officials working to distribute aid faced hostile actors seeking to loot incoming shipments. Ultimately, the pier operated for 20 days before it was shut down on July 17.

BIDEN’S $230 MILLION GAZA PIER QUIETLY SHUTS DOWN; US SENATOR LABELS PROJECT ‘NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT’

This image shows the floating pier after it was damaged by rough weather in May. (Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Even before the pier was operational, critics worried there were more efficient and cheaper alternatives to both air drops and the pier. Meanwhile, Republicans blasted the move to build the pier as an effort by Biden to win back support from his progressive base.

“I think he’s worried about losing Michigan in November, so he wants to throw [something] … to Muslim-American voters, particularly in Michigan,” Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Digital in March, the same month Biden announced plans for the pier. Meanwhile, other Republican critics blasted the move for putting American troops in harm’s way.

Anti-Israel protesters march near the United Center in Chicago during the recent Democratic National Convention. (Fox News Digital/File)

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Fox News Digital reached out to USAID for comment but did not receive a response.

A spokesperson for Biden’s National Security Council, Sean Savett, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the temporary pier – despite all its shortcomings – “had a real impact” and was “part of a comprehensive response to the dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza.”

Savett noted that prior to being shut down, the pier delivered roughly 20 million pounds of food and water that otherwise would not have made it to the war-torn region, which he insisted was “the highest volume of humanitarian assistance that DOD has ever been able to deliver in the Middle East.”

“From the beginning, we said this would not be easy,” Savett said. “We were honest and transparent about the challenges. But the bottom line is that, given how dire the humanitarian situation in Gaza is, the United States has left no stone unturned in our efforts to get more aid in, and the pier played a key role at a critical time in advancing that goal.”

EXCLUSIVE — Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp insists “the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia” and said he is focused on the future, downplaying former President Donald Trump’s tirade against him earlier this month as a “small distraction that’s in the past.”

Kemp, the popular two-term conservative governor of the crucial southeastern battleground state, emphasized in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital that “there’s no path for former President Trump to win or any Republican … to get to 270 [electoral votes] without Georgia.”

Kemp, interviewed Tuesday on the eve of Vice President Harris’ two-day bus swing through Georgia, said his state “should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out.”

“It’s my belief that we cannot afford four more years of [President] Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz, which I think would probably be worse than even Biden and Harris were,” Kemp said.

2024 COUNTDOWN: TRUMP CRISSCROSSING CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH 10 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia is interviewed by Fox News Digital on June 3, 2024, in Chalmette, La. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

The governor was interviewed a couple of days after Trump praised Kemp in a social media post “for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country.”

“I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the Republican presidential nominee added.

The comments from Trump were a major change of tune when it comes to Georgia’s governor.

For two years after his 2020 election defeat to President Biden, which included a razor-thin loss in Georgia, Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state. 

WASH, RINSE, REPEAT: WHY JD VANCE IS CONCENTRATING ON THESE 3 STATES

Trump toned down the criticism in 2022 after Kemp crushed Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary.

Earlier this month, Trump went on a 10-minute tirade against Kemp at a rally in Atlanta just blocks from the Georgia State Capitol. Trump blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count but also for not stopping a county prosecutor from indicting the former president for his attempts to reverse the results.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio greets former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, during a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta on Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump said. “Little Brian. Little Brian Kemp. Bad guy.”

Kemp told Fox News, “I’m not sure exactly what happened going into the rally. I’ve seen a lot of different stories and people’s explanations of what happened.”

“To me, that was a small distraction that’s in the past,” Kemp added.

And Kemp said Republicans “need to stay focused on the future. … We need to be telling people why they should vote for us, what we’re going to do to make things better than they are right now. And there’s a host of issues that I think you could contrast Kamala Harris and her record.

“To me, that’s what we need to stay focused on, not some dustup from two or three weeks ago.”

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING IN 2024 ELECTION

Asked about Trump’s reversal last Thursday, Kemp said, “You have to ask him those questions. I’ve been consistent for really the last couple of years that I was going to support the ticket, whoever our nominee was, in Georgia. That’s exactly what I’m doing, what I have been doing.”

But Trump’s statement came moments after Kemp appeared on Fox News Channel and reiterated to host Sean Hannity that “we need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”

Asked Tuesday if he and Trump had connected since last week, Kemp said, “I haven’t talked to him.”

“I’ve talked to a lot of other folks, and I think everybody has a good understanding of where everybody is and understands my position has not changed,” Kemp said. “I have been supporting him and the whole ticket in Georgia, and I’m still doing that and will continue to do that through November.”

Republican strategists agree that to recapture Georgia, Trump will need assistance from Kemp’s well-oiled and funded political machine to turn out GOP voters.

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Kemp said he’s “working hard” to “turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November.”

“How that looks and how that goes will really be up to kind of how things play out and what states are in play and who’s going where and when,” Kemp added.

“I’ve got other responsibilities in my duties with the Republican Governors Association, traveling around the country helping to raise money to win North Carolina and hold New Hampshire in our column and also helping our legislative races here.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, right, joins fellow GOP governors at a Republican Governors Association news conference at an oil refinery in Chalmette, La., on June 3, 2024. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

Kemp also acknowledged that he’s asked for legal advice from the state attorney general on whether he can remove from the state election board three conservative members on the five-person panel who championed and passed a controversial set of new rules that mandate extra requirements for county election boards to certify their results.

“We’ve asked the attorney general for an opinion on that on whether this would be an official complaint, if you will, and I’m waiting to hear back. So, I really wouldn’t be able to comment too much on that since we’re asking for legal advice,” Kemp told Fox News.

Trump, who has been charged in Fulton County, Georgia, with election interference, praised the three members for pushing for the new rules and called them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”

Georgia Democrats call the new rules a “concerted effort to subvert democracy” and have challenged them, arguing they could delay election certification and spark major disputes.

Max Flugrath, a spokesman for Fair Fight, a Georgia-based voting rights organization founded by 2018 and 2022 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, argued that “Gov. Kemp is trying to pass the buck on protecting the integrity of Georgia elections from the illegal actions of the Election Board members.”

“Georgia law does not state what would be a considered a formal complaint in this instance — Kemp is quibbling with language instead of defending Georgia’s voters,” Flugrath claimed.

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

FIRST ON FOX – Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts on Wednesday unveiled a new website created by the conservative think tank that aims to inform Americans about Vice President Kamala Harris’ “dangerously liberal” policy record, as well as a six-figure text campaign targeting independent voters in key swing states. 

The website, dangerouslyliberal.com, summarizes the Biden-Harris administration’s history of what the organization calls “failed liberal policies” on the border, the economy and inflation, energy, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), education and parental rights, “government weaponization,” health care and crime. As Roberts explained to Fox News Digital, the website serves as a resource to fill the gap as the Harris-Walz campaign still has yet to roll out a policy website of their own.

“It tells us everything we need to know about the policy record of the vice president, when her campaign is running away from posting any policy prescriptions on their campaign website,” Roberts told Fox News Digital. “And the reason that the vice president is running away from that policy record is because it’s awful. I thought that I would never live through another presidency as disastrous to Americans as Jimmy Carter’s. But the Biden-Harris administration has been even worse, particularly on the economy, on inflation, on energy, on the border, on foreign policy. Our website calls the balls and strikes. It gives Americans sort of the report card on the vice president’s policy record. And the reason she doesn’t want to talk about it is because that policy record is why Americans are suffering.” 

“The best description, just speaking philosophically, of Vice President Harris’s policy record is dangerously liberal. I actually can’t think of a better phrase to describe it,” he added. 

RFK JR. CANNOT REMOVE NAME FROM BALLOTS IN 2 KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES

Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on the final day of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 22, 2024 in Chicago. ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The Harris-Walz campaign, meanwhile, is reportedly planning to roll out an ad blitz Wednesday that will run until Election Day in an attempt to tie former President Donald Trump to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. The project has been billed by the conservative think tank as a blueprint for a future Republican administration to restructure many parts of the U.S. government. The Trump campaign has stressed that it is not affiliated with the project, and Trump himself has gone on record saying he does not agree with all of their positions.

Roberts rejected “mischaracterizations” by the Harris-Walz campaign, which he says has been lacking “a real focus on policy, substance.” The Harris campaign website, which includes pages to buy merchandise, donate and get to know the candidate’s background, remains devoid of any policy plans more than a month after she became the Democratic presidential nominee. 

“Taking a step back from our own ideological perspective, we know that Americans on the political left want to have that conversation, too. And even though we might disagree, in fact we do disagree with many Americans on some of these issues, I think what the American republic needs right now is a real policy conversation,” Roberts told Fox News Digital. “So we were sitting back this summer thinking about all the mischaracterizations by the Harris campaign, by the radical left on our policy projects. And while we welcome an intellectually honest conversation, we also know that that hasn’t been happening.”

“So we decided to launch this website, dangerouslyliberal.com, to focus on the vice president’s policy record. And I think that Americans will really welcome that conversation, because they trust the credibility of the Heritage Foundation and calling balls and strikes about what the vice president has done in her position the last few years, and also what people down ballot might do and for U.S. Senate and U.S. House races.” 

The website, which Fox News Digital accessed before its public roll-out, opens on a message, “The Biden-Harris Administration’s policies have resulted in a wide-open southern border, increased illegal immigration, skyrocketing inflation, higher taxes, lower wages, aggressively woke ‘DEI,’ and much more.” 

The Heritage Foundation said the million-dollar effort aims to provide “fact-based, concise, and informational content to educate millions of Americans to shape policy and share ideas.” 

It outlines the president and vice president’s “extreme policy positions related to the unsecured border, mass amnesty and sanctuary policies for illegals, the Green New Deal energy agenda, disastrous economic stances, Medicare For All, and the desire to advance the left’s DEI and CRT schemes,” the think tank said. 

The Heritage Foundation building on July 30, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The Heritage Foundation said it will also run two six-figure text message and advertising campaigns across multiple platforms to drive website engagement and “further educate the public on the impact of the Biden-Harris Administration’s radical policy and societal viewpoint for America.” The push to appeal to independent votes comes also as independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, once a dynastic Democrat, announced Friday he was discontinuing his White House bid and endorsing Trump. Kennedy is unable to remove himself from the ballot, however, in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin. 

PROJECT 2025 LEADER STEPS DOWN AMID CRITICISM FROM TRUMP

“It’s fascinating to me that in the span of about 48 hours, the radical left went from trying to keep Mr. Kennedy off the ballot to now fighting to keep him on the ballot and act because of that, and because he does have a real draw, across the spectrum from the center left to the center right. We’ve seen that at Heritage,” Roberts told Fox News Digital. “Heritage really exists to plug that kind of gap, the gap that exists between what DC elites in power tell you that they’re going to do versus what the American people surmise they have done.” 

“And I think the credibility that we have just in terms of being the policy umpire, which we’re often called in DC and pairing that with this dissemination of this website in the swing states will have a real effect on the knowledge base that voters have to make their decision,” he added. “They will make their decision. Ultimately, they’re the ones. The American voters are the ones who will influence the outcome of the election, to state the obvious. This website can be, I think, a very helpful tool as they sit down and look at all of the resources, all of the information at their disposal, to make an informed decision.”

The website includes an explanation and key statistics about Harris’ record on key issues, including how inflation “has grown by 20% since the Biden-Harris administration took office in 2021.” Heritage assesses that Americans have lost an average of $10,000 per household due to high energy costs since the Biden-Harris administration took office. On the border security and illegal immigration, the website states, “Under Border Czar Harris, there have been over 10.3 million total inadmissible alien encounters recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol, and over 85% of these illegal aliens have been released into the United States.” 

Democratic Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow holds up a Project 2025 book during the DNC in Chicago on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It also provides examples of Harris’ past statements supporting the think tank’s claim that Harris “has been a long-time supporter of letting biological men compete in female sports” and highlights how the Biden-Harris administration’s changes to Title IX added “gender identity” to the list of sex-based protections in federal law, “consequently allowing men into women’s private spaces, athletics, and educational opportunities.” 

“We have to stay woke,” Harris once said, as the site notes. “Like everybody needs to be woke. And you can talk about if you’re the wokest or woker, but just stay more woke than less woke.”

When Project 2025’s leader, Paul Dans, stepped down in June, the Trump campaign released a statement saying, “reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed,” as the then-Biden campaign tried to use the 900-page conservative plan to steer voters away from another Trump administration. Despite this, Democrats at their national convention in Chicago this month further tried to tie Trump to Project 2025. 

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“His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy,” Harris told the DNC of Trump. “His explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens. Consider, consider the power he will have, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.

“We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers,” she said. “Its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back.” 

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is issuing a subpoena for information on the political work conducted by the daughter of New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.

Jordan sent a letter to Michael Nellis, the founder and CEO of Authentic Campaigns — a company that’s done political work for top Democratic clients like President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — accusing him of failing to comply with House investigators’ demands for any and all documents related to the prosecution of former President Trump.

The committee wrote to Loren Merchan, the company’s president and Judge Merchan’s daughter, earlier this month requesting documents in its probe into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump.

Jordan pointed out in his Wednesday letter that Nellis himself rejected that request as well as a subsequent one later in the month.

JORDAN INVESTIGATES DAUGHTER OF JUDGE IN NY V. TRUMP CASE OVER HER WORK FOR KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATS

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is issuing a subpoena in his probe of Trump prosecutions. (Getty Images)

“As such, the Committee is left with no choice but to resort to compulsory process,” Jordan wrote. “Popularly elected prosecutors, such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have engaged in an unprecedented abuse of authority by prosecuting a former President of the United States and current nominee for that office. Of relevance to the Committee’s oversight is the impartiality of Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding trial judge, due to his refusal to recuse himself from the case in light of his apparent conflicts of interest and biases.

“One such conflict is Ms. Merchan’s — daughter of Judge Merchan and President of Authentic Campaigns — work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the possible financial benefit that Ms. Merchan and Authentic Campaigns received from the prosecution and conviction of President Trump.”

Jordan said public reports indicated to him that both Nellis and Loren Merchan were “closely involved in the presidential campaigns of both President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’: TRUMP LAWYERS CALL FOR DELAYED SENTENCING IN BRAGG CASE

Judge Juan Merchan’s image imposed over a courtroom. (AP)

“During Ms. Merchan’s employment with the Harris campaign, Authentic Campaigns received over $7 million in compensation for its services. You also worked for then-presidential candidate Harris and it appears you continue to do so. Authentic Campaigns conducted work for the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign and, according to public records, was paid just over $2 million in a one-month period for its work,” he wrote.

The subpoena is narrower in scope than Jordan’s previous request for information. His Aug. 1 letter demanded Loren Merchan hand over documents related to any work for Biden and Harris, in addition to any work that refers to Trump’s prosecution or indictment.

Jordan is giving Nellis until Sept. 13 to comply, according to the subpoena viewed by Fox News Digital.

BRAGG DOES ‘NOT OPPOSE’ TRUMP REQUEST TO DELAY SENTENCING; AWAITS JUDGE MERCHAN’S APPROVAL

Nellis reacted to the subpoena in a post on X on Wednesday afternoon, saying the company was “thoroughly reviewing the subpoena with our legal team and will provide updates as soon as we have more information.”

“Let us be clear: these allegations against our company are completely false and purely politically motivated,” Nellis wrote. “This is a blatant attempt to intimidate us and divert attention from Donald Trump’s conviction. We refuse to be bullied, and we will not allow House Republicans or MAGA extremists to spread lies about our work. We remain steadfast in our mission and are deeply grateful for the unwavering support of our friends and family during this time.”

Loren Merchan did work for Vice President Harris, according to Jordan. (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

Republicans have accused Judge Merchan of political bias over his daughter’s political work. Trump’s legal team asked Merchan to recuse himself before the trial began, which he did not.

A New York state ethics panel backed Merchan’s decision in a June 2023 decision.

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Jordan argued in his letter, however, “Judge Merchan’s conflicts of interest and biases in the case against President Trump, the Republican nominee in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, implicate serious federal interests.”

“Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former presidents, especially in venues in which real or perceived biases exist. Among other things, if state or local prosecutors are able to engage in politically motivated prosecutions of Presidents of the United States (current or former) for personal acts, this could have a profound effect on how presidents choose to exercise their powers while in office,” the letter said.

Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to claims he paid an adult film actress to keep quiet about their affair — which the ex-president has denied. His lawyers are appealing that ruling in light of the Supreme Court’s July decision fleshing out presidential immunity. 

His sentencing hearing is currently scheduled for Sept. 18.

Fox News Digital reached out to Authentic Campaigns for comment.

Only days after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped his presidential bid to join forces with former President Donald Trump, Kerry Kennedy announced she will be publicly stumping against the ticket her brother is party to in a key swing state.

Kerry Kennedy has been one of the most outspoken Camelot brethren against RFK Jr’s political quest, calling his endorsement of Trump “set[ting] fire to [their] father’s memory.”

Kerry Kennedy, who was previously married to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for 15 years, will be stumping for the Harris-Walz ticket in Arizona.

She plans to join with Dolores Huerta at several appearances in that particular swing state, according to published reports.

RFK JR RESPONDS TO KENNEDY FAMILY DRAMA FOLLOWING ENDORSEMENT OF TRUMP

From left to right, Kerry Kennedy, Andrew M. Cuomo, Ethel Kennedy and Rory Kennedy. (Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage via Getty)

Huerta, a labor leader credited with the phrase “Si, se puede [Yes, we can]”, had notably joined former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Sr. onstage at his tragic June 5, 1968 Los Angeles campaign event; the night he was assassinated.

After meeting with “Republicans for Harris-Walz” in Arizona on Tuesday, Kerry Kennedy called the presidential race “the most consequential election in our lifetimes.”

“Like we’ve known from day one of this race, this will be decided on the margins, and it’s more important than ever to get everyone engaged, not just Democrats, but Republicans and independents, to work together and elect Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz to move this country forward,” she said.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Kerry Kennedy via her organization, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, for further comment.

The Harris campaign directed Fox News Digital to a release announcing an Arizona event with Kerry Kennedy.

In a statement, an official for “Arizona Republicans for Harris” said the group welcomed Kerry Kennedy and highlighted her “commitment to bipartisan collaboration and building a better America for all.”

RFK JR WANTS TO QUESTION BIDEN, TRUMP ON $14T DEBT

Kerry Kennedy looks on as President Biden speaks during a campaign event at Martin Luther King Recreation Center on April 18, 2024 in Philadelphia.

Another high-profile Kennedy, Jack Schlossberg – grandson of former President John F. Kennedy – said he has not been surprised by his cousin’s political behavior.

“RFK JR is for sale [and] works for Trump,” Schlossberg wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Kamala Harris is for the people.”

Other prominent family members, including U.S. Envoy to Northern Ireland Joe Kennedy III and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend, have also denounced RFK Jr.’s move to Team Trump.

Amid RFK Jr.’s presidential run earlier this year, brother Joseph Kennedy II said, “we cannot do anything that in any way strips even one vote from President Biden,” according to the New York Post.

“You put the name ‘Kennedy’ on the ballot and Democrats are going to feel torn.”

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, and former President Donald Trump shake hands during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

The Kennedy family did, however, briefly put politics aside and join together in April to celebrate matriarch Ethel’s 96th birthday.

For his part, RFK Jr. has said he understands some of his family opposes his political moves. 

He told “Fox News Sunday” he is grateful to his actress wife Cheryl Hines for continuing to support him despite commenting his Trump endorsement made her “uncomfortable.”

“I wish this also for the country — love and unity even in the face of disagreement. We will need that in coming times,” he said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

A police motorcycle escorting Vice President Harris’s motorcade in Savannah, Georgia crashed shortly after departing a restaurant on Wednesday.

In an email by a reporter from The Christian Science Monitor who was part of the vice-presidential pool, the reporter wrote that the motorcade slowed and went around a police motorcycle that had crashed.

One person was on the ground where blood was visible.

“At least one other person was tending to the person on the ground,” the reporter wrote. “There were two motorcycles stopped and one on the ground. It looked like the single motorcycle had lost control, not collided with something else.”

HARRIS LAUNCHES 2-DAY SWING THROUGH CRUCIAL STATE HYPED BY GOP GOVERNOR AS MUST-WIN FOR TRUMP

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at the Hendrick Center for Automotive Excellence on the Scott Northern Wake Campus of Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina, on August 16, 2024.  (ALLISON JOYCE/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News received a report from the pool saying, “At 1917 ET, our van drove by what appeared to be a police officer or trooper who sustained a motorcycle injury [,] and another officer or trooper attending to the victim on the ground.”

According to the pool reporter, the motorcade stopped on the highway at 7:20 p.m. and started rolling again at 7:23 p.m., passing a white bus that was part of the motorcade but had since parked on the side of the road.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and Harris’s campaign team for additional information, including the status of the officer involved.

THIS POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR SAYS HIS STATE’S A MUST WIN FOR TRUMP

US Vice President Kamala Harris exits her motorcade to board Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. (Photo by KEVIN LAMARQUE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Just before the incident, Harris and her running mate, Wisconsin Gov. Tim Walz made a stop at Sandfly BBQ in Savannah, Georgia, where they greeted the owner of the restaurant, employees and some locals.

On Wednesday, Harris and Walz kicked off a two-day bus swing through the southeastern portion of the key battleground state.

The vice president’s message is that Georgia is once again in play in November’s election.

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Georgia has long been a reliably red state in White House elections, and Joe Biden narrowly edged then-President Trump in 2020 to become the first Democrat in nearly three decades to capture Georgia.

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

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

What’s happening…

-Biden may revive fraudulent asylum program

-Kamala gains on Trump in two key polls

-RFK can’t remove his name from ballots in two key states

What’s the Daughter Up to?

FIRST ON FOX: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is issuing a subpoena for information on the political work conducted by the daughter of New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.

Jordan sent a letter to Michael Nellis, the founder and CEO of Authentic Campaigns – a company that’s done political work for top Democratic clients like President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris – accusing him of failing to comply with House investigators’ demands for any and all documents related to the prosecution of former President Trump.

The committee wrote to Loren Merchan, the company’s president and Judge Merchan’s daughter, earlier this month requesting documents in its probe into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump.

Jordan pointed out in his Wednesday letter that Nellis himself rejected that request as well as a subsequent one later in the month.

“As such, the Committee is left with no choice but to resort to compulsory process,” Jordan wrote. “Popularly elected prosecutors, such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have engaged in an unprecedented abuse of authority by prosecuting a former President of the United States and current nominee for that office. Of relevance to the Committee’s oversight is the impartiality of Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding trial judge, due to his refusal to recuse himself from the case in light of his apparent conflicts of interest and biases.” …Read more

Former President Donald J. Trump and Rep. Jim Jordan (Getty Images)

White House

RED FLAGS: Biden admin may revive asylum program shut down after ‘mass fraud’ …Read more

Capitol Hill

‘HEINOUS’: GOP lawmaker sounds alarm on key reasons why Walz agenda is ‘not good’ for the country …Read more

‘UNDERMINING SAFETY’: Cruz says radical Biden-Harris policy is weakening airport security …Read more

Tales from the Trail

CLOSER THAN EVER: Kamala gains on Trump on two key issues: poll …Read more

TOO LATE: RFK Jr. can’t remove name from ballots in 2 key states, despite backing Trump …Read more

LOOMING: With 9 days until voting starts, ‘election season’ kicks off sooner than you think …Read more

‘HAS TO BE EARNED’: Major pro-life activist warns Trump needs to change ‘his tune’ on abortion …Read more

RATINGS SHIFT: Harris-Trump showdown: top political handicapper shifts ratings in key states …Read more

CAMELOT FRACTURES: Kerry Kennedy stumps for Harris after RFK joins Trump …Read more

Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Ted. Cruz. (Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Across America

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCKED: Migrant influx leads to MA controversy …Read more

BRING ON THE HEAT: Tim Walz addresses firefighters union …Read more

NEW DETAILS: FBI provides updated timeline of would-be Trump assassin’s activity …Read more

‘DANGEROUSLY LIBERAL’: Heritage Foundation rips Harris policy record with new website, six-figure outreach to independents …Read more

‘SICK AND TIRED’: Florida sheriff blasts DC over border security after illegal immigrants allegedly steal 9K pounds of berries …Read more

‘DEMILITARIZING OUR SCHOOLS’: Harris called for removing cops from schools ahead of 2020’s violence …Read more

‘NATIONWIDE PROBLEM’: Sanctuary city’s policies push violent migrant gang into suburbs …Read more

‘IT WILL COME TO LIGHT’: Trump shooting victims with life-altering injuries seek accountability …Read more

‘VEIL OF SECRECY’: Blue state’s GOP demands transparency from Dem leaders on cost of migrant crisis …Read more

DREAM ON: California Dream for All passes state senate, gives illegal immigrants home purchasing funds …Read more

Subscribe now to get the Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox.

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

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be making a statement by choosing Georgia for her first campaign trail swing following last week’s Democratic National Convention.

Harris on Wednesday kicked off a two-day bus swing through the southeastern part of the key battleground state accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Walz will head off to North Carolina for a Thursday evening fundraiser while Harris plans on “energizing thousands of Georgians at a rally in Savannah,” according to her campaign.

The vice president’s message is that Georgia is once again in play in November’s election.

THIS POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR SAYS HIS STATE’S A MUST WIN FOR TRUMP

Vice President Kamala Harris greets the crowd during her presidential campaign rally in Atlanta July 30, 2024. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Georgia has long been a reliably red state in White House elections, and Joe Biden narrowly edged then-President Trump in 2020 to become the first Democrat in nearly three decades to capture Georgia.

Fast-forward to this year’s election, and Trump saw his slight edge in the polls in Georgia over Biden grow to a solid single-digit lead after the president’s disastrous performance in their one debate, a late June showdown in Atlanta.

But in the 5½ weeks since the vice president replaced her boss atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, polls indicate that it’s once again a margin-of-error race in the Peach State.

A Fox News poll conducted August 23-26 in Georgia indicates Harris with a razor-thin 50%-48% edge over Trump among registered voters. The most recent Fox News poll in Georgia before Biden dropped out of the race indicated Trump topping the president by six points, 51%-45%.

NEW FOX NEWS POLL NUMBERS IN FOUR KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES 

Georgia’s popular two-term conservative governor agrees that his state’s competitive.

“Certainly this is a battleground state,” Gov. Brian Kemp emphasized in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview Tuesday.

“I’ve been saying for a long time that the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia. And there’s no path for former President Trump to win, or any Republican … to get to 270 without Georgia,” Kemp said.

But he added that Georgia “should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November.”

2024 COUNTDOWN: TRUMP CRISSCROSSING CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH 10 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY

So are the Democrats.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, poses for a photo with supporters at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Ga., Aug. 28, 2024.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“The Georgia Democratic coordinated campaign is running the largest in-state operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle, with over 190 Democratic coordinated campaign staff in 24 coordinated offices across the state,” the Harris campaign touted hours ahead of the vice president’s arrival in Savannah.

This is Harris’ second stop in Georgia since taking over for Biden as the party’s standard-bearer. She previously hosted a large rally in downtown Atlanta.

But this time around, Harris is barnstorming through the southern part of the state, far from Atlanta and its growing suburbs, which make up nearly 60% of Georgia’s population. The traditional route for Democrats to win statewide in Georgia is to concentrate on metropolitan Atlanta. 

But Quentin Fulks, who was principal deputy campaign manager under Biden and has remained in that role with Harris, is following the playbook from two years ago when he steered Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s narrow re-election victory over GOP challenger Hershel Walker. The strategy is to not only win big in Atlanta and its suburbs, but also to stay competitive in the rest of the state.

“We have to make sure that we are competing everywhere across the state,” Fulks said Tuesday in an interview on MSNBC. “We’re going to continue to run in rural counties. …. We have to be statewide in that state and even compete in counties that Democrats don’t traditionally go. That is how you win statewide in Georgia.”

WASH, RINSE, REPEAT: WHY JD VANCE IS CONCENTRATING ON THESE 3 STATES

The Harris campaign noted that “campaigning in Southeast Georgia is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban and urban Georgians — with a large proportion of Black voters and working-class families.”

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to marching band members at Liberty County High School in Hinesville, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The first stop for Harris and Walz was Liberty County High School in Hinesville, where they met with the school’s administrators, faculty, students and stopped in on the school’s marching band rehearsal.

The vice president said she was in band when she was in high school, according to a pool report,  adding “all that practice makes for beautiful music … and that is a metaphor for everything that you will do in your lives”

The Republican National Committee took aim at Harris as her bus tour got underway.

“While our highly engaged and energetic operation in Georgia is focused on turning out votes across the entire state, Democrats in Georgia are finally learning an important lesson…there is more to Georgia than just Atlanta,” RNC spokesperson Morgan Ackley said.

Ackley emphasized that “Republicans from Catoosa to Camden County and everywhere in between are fired up and ready to re-elect President Donald J. Trump because his message of putting America first again resonates with Americans of all backgrounds.”

But the Harris campaign appears to enjoy a large organizational advantage over Trump’s team in Georgia. And Republican strategists agreed that to recapture Georgia, Trump will need assistance from Kemp’s well-oiled and funded political machine to turn out GOP voters.

Former President Trump, right, is joined by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, during at a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Trump last week praised Kemp as he worked to patch up differences he’s had with the Georgia governor dating back to the 2020 election.

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Kemp on Thursday will join his wife, Georgia first lady Marty Kemp, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served in the Trump administration, to headline a fundraiser in Atlanta for the former president.

“It’s my belief that we cannot afford four more years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, which I think would probably be worse than even Biden and Harris were,” the governor argued.

“I believe Republicans need to stay focused on litigating Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s record. … We need to be telling people why they should vote for us, what we’re going to do to make things better than they are right now.”

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

Longtime multi-generational California resident Faith Lersey, her husband and four kids packed up and moved to South Carolina to become first-time home buyers in May. The cost of owning a home in California was unattainable, so they set their sights elsewhere.

Now, the Golden State’s progressive legislature is advancing a bill that would give illegal immigrants up to $150,000 in first-time homeownership loans — a bill that, if passed and signed into law, would give first-time homebuyers up to 20% of a home’s value or up to $150,000 as down payment assistance.

“That just, that just seems asinine to me,” Lersey, who moved from Los Angeles County, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

CALIFORNIA CLOSE TO APPROVING $150K LOANS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO HELP PURCHASE HOMES

California Gov. Gavin Newsom looks on during day one of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19. (Alyssa Pointer/Reuters)

“Why would you assist a population that is undocumented to attain homeownership in a place where citizens who, like me, had been in an area for a long time, a generational history, they are having enough trouble achieving that milestone,” Lersey said. “It just that really makes me want to question where is the motive coming from for that, whose interest is at heart there, and what is the long-term play?”

Lersey added her current home in South Carolina is three times less expensive than the homes she and her husband were contemplating in California. 

CALIFORNIA WOMAN HEAD NEARLY $500K WORTH OF STOLEN GOOD FROM DRUG STORES: POLICE

A view of the California state capitol building in Sacramento on March 13. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for National Urban League)

The bill, AB 1840, would require the California Housing Finance Authority’s home purchase assistance program, or California Dream for All Program, to include illegal immigrants’ applications.

The bill cleared the state Senate on Tuesday.

The California Dream for All program passed despite funds running out just 11 days after being instituted in June, which awarded 1,700 first-time homebuyers at the time. Finding more funding for the program was the prime concern in floor debate this week.

Meanwhile, California remains in billions of dollars of debt, and droves of residents have left the state in the last four years, citing a high cost of living.

5 CALIFORNIA TAXES KAMALA HARRIS COULD USE TO CRUSH THE MIDDLE CLASS

A mover moving boxes. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

A spokesman for California’s Department of Finance confirmed to KCRA 3 on Tuesday that the California Dream for All has no money left to supply the program.

The measure comes amid the backdrop of a national election in which immigration has taken center stage, the report notes, with the Trump campaign attempting to tie Vice President Kamala Harris to Biden administration border policies that have proven unpopular with voters.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been one of President Biden’s and now Harris’ top surrogates on the campaign trail, has not said whether he will sign the bill into law if it clears the legislature before the Aug. 31 deadline.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Michael Lee contributed to this report.