NationalWatch

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Former President Trump is back on the campaign trail Wednesday with a stop in the crucial swing state of North Carolina.

The Republican presidential nominee is facing a dramatically altered 2024 race in his first rally since President Biden’s blockbuster announcement Sunday that he was suspending his re-election bid and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer.

The president’s immediate backing of Harris ignited a surge of endorsements of Harris by Democratic governors, senators, House members and other party leaders. By Monday night, the vice president announced she’d locked up her party’s nomination by landing the backing of a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention.

IT’S A MARGIN OF ERROR RACE BETWEEN TRUMP AND HARRIS 

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, speaks at West Allis Central High School during her first campaign rally in Milwaukee July 23, 2024. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)

But Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley says even though Trump’s now facing a new opponent at the top of the Democrats’ ticket, the GOP’s strategy “does not change … at all.”

“We have been running our race, and we are going to continue to run our race,” Whatley, a former North Carolina GOP chair whom Trump installed as RNC chair in March after clinching the Republican nomination, emphasized in a Fox News interview.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR HARRIS NOW THAT SHE’S SEEMINGLY LOCKED UP THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION?

Whatley, speaking at the rally site at Charlotte’s Bojangles Coliseum, noted that Trump and the RNC will relentlessly tie Harris to Biden’s polices on border security, fighting inflation, crime and other top issues in the 2024 election.

“The Democrats not only have a messenger problem, they have a message problem. And Kamala Harris is doubling down on every single one of Joe Biden’s failed policies. It’s the Biden-Harris administration, the Biden-Harris campaign. And she is picking up that mantle,” Whatley argued.

The RNC chair emphasized Trump “has absolutely united the Republican Party in a way we haven’t had in generations. Now it’s time to unite the country around that vision of making America great again.”

The crowd inside the Bojangles Coliseum ahead of former President Trump’s appearance at a rally in Charlotte, N.C., July 24, 2024 (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

Trump narrowly won North Carolina in his 2020 election defeat to Biden, and Democrats see an opportunity to flip the state this November.

The trip by Trump to North Carolina is his second in two months. The last time Trump was in North Carolina, he was watching NASCAR in Concord over Memorial Day weekend. 

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The state is one of seven crucial battlegrounds that decided the 2020 contest and is likely to once again heavily influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

“We continue to focus on the Blue Wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — and the Sun Belt states of North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, where the Vice President’s advantages with young voters, Black voters, and Latino voters will be important to our multiple pathways to 270 electoral votes,” a memo from the Harris campaign said hours before Trump arrived in North Carolina.

Former President Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, speaks at a campaign rally July 20, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Whatley said Trump, in his speech in North Carolina, needs to “continue his conversation with every American family, talking to every single American voter about his vision for a better America. He is going to be the one who is going to restore our southern border, restore our economy, restore our standing in the world and really be the one around that vision.”

But expect Trump to also take aim at Harris. He’s amped up his verbal attacks on the vice president since Sunday in posts on this Truth Social platform.

Among other things, the former president called her “Dumb as a Rock” and “a totally failed and insignificant Vice President.”

Harris is also turning up the volume. In a tease of her argument against Trump, Harris is pointing to her law enforcement resume as she spotlights Trump’s legal controversies.

“As many of you know, before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as United States senator, I was the elected attorney general of California. Before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said Monday in a line she repeated the next day.

“Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she emphasized as she pointed to Trump’s multiple lawsuits and criminal cases, many of which are ongoing.

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

Fox News’ Jennifer Johnson contributed to this story.

The fight to avoid a government shutdown is again bringing out the fault lines within the House GOP’s razor-thin majority.

House Republican leaders sought to avoid another messy, drawn-out battle over federal funding this year by rolling out an ambitious schedule to pass all 12 individual appropriations bills before the annual August recess.

That effort has been all but derailed; rank-and-file Republicans are frustrated that GOP rebels are pushing for politically unpopular votes on measures that would likely not be in the final bills after compromising with the Democratic-held Senate. Fiscal conservatives and GOP rebels, however, accused the former of being unwilling to utilize their House majority.

Now some GOP lawmakers are accusing the latter of “political masturbation” while the rebels blast the “terrible process” that lawmakers have followed for years.

ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU TO ADDRESS CONGRESS AMID HIGH-PROFILE ABSENCES

Speaker Mike Johnson’s conference originally aimed to pass all 12 spending bills by August. (Chip Somodevilla)

“Many of the appropriators are not excited about seeing some of these amendments being voted on. So, they vote against the amendments, and they get upset with those people when they don’t vote for the full appropriations bill, so everybody’s mad,” one House Republican granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital.

A second House Republican said, “Most of them I do philosophically agree with, so it’s not that it’s tough. It’s that they’re unnecessary. We know they’re not going anywhere.”

“If you bring an amendment up that … makes me feel good … but it’s literally not going to pass a markup, or it’s not going to allow the bill to pass on the floor because the moderates are not going to like it, it’s just political masturbation at that point. So, what are we doing?” the second GOP lawmaker said.

“The rest of us can have that impact, too. We choose not to because we’re trying to get these bills passed. We’re actually trying to do our jobs here.”

GOP leaders had aimed to pass the bill funding the Justice and Commerce departments this week. But after it passed through committee absent an amendment defunding prosecutions against former President Trump and was bashed by the ex-president, lawmakers have yet to see it get a House-wide vote.

SENATOR POINTS TO ‘MISTAKE’ SECRET SERVICE MADE IN BLAME GAME OVER SWEEPING BUILDING WHERE TRUMP SHOOTER WAS

The failure of an amendment to stop Special Counsel Jack Smith and other Trump investigators appears to have derailed one spending bill. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

And on Tuesday evening, the Energy and Water appropriations bill was abruptly pulled from the House floor schedule amid worries about it passing.

“What we’re sick of is not passing the most conservative bills that we can get to be able to even start the negotiation,” Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. “What a lot of people are upset about is trying to find a bill and vote on it on the House side that will pass the Senate. And … the conservative people in our party are wanting bills that represent the conservative principles of the Republican Party as a starting point.”

House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said, “They should be bringing these things out to the floor. They should be openly debated, discussed – and amendments proposed out there on the floor in front of all 435 members and, in the end, the American people – and that’s not what’s being done, and that’s why we have this terrible process.”

It’s all but certain that Congress will have to pass a short-term extension of this year’s funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), something that fiscal hawks who voted against last year’s funding packages will likely oppose.

Punting government funding into the new year or even into December will mean the next steps are largely dependent on who wins the presidential election.

FOX NEWS POLL: ABORTION, ECONOMY, BORDER SECURITY ARE TOP DEAL-BREAKERS IN 2024 ELECTIONS

Any final deal will need to be hashed out with Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I’m disappointed that we have not been able to find a consensus to pass all the appropriations bills before the August recess. I hope we can do that in September. I think members have to be realistic about what their goals and objectives are for a CR until after the election,” said Rep. French Hill, R-Ark.

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House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., confirmed to reporters that a short-term bill would be necessary to avoid a partial government shutdown.

“I’ve always said we’d have to do a CR,” Cole said. “And then whoever wins the election will make the decision, do you want a deal by the end of the year or do you want to kick them to the next Congress? I hope, my advice to whoever wins, would be do it by the end of the year.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to Speaker Mike Johnson’s office for comment but did not hear back by press time. 

The White House communication team’s credibility surrounding knowledge of President Biden’s political future is in the national spotlight after telling the public for weeks that Biden would not drop out of the 2024 race while simultaneously battling questions from the press about mounting concerns over his health. 

“All you can do is shake your head.  No one at the White House has any credibility when it comes to Joe Biden’s health. From Vice President Harris to the White House physician to everyone in the press office, they covered up the president’s frailties. They hid the truth. It’s a scandal,” former George W. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told Fox News Digital. 

Voters and social media commenters across the nation have sounded off in recent days that the communications team was “out of the loop” as concerns mounted surrounding Biden’s health and subsequent claims that the president would exit the 2024 presidential race. 

When Biden did announce his departure from the race, only a handful of White House and campaign officials – such as Vice President Kamala Harris, chief of staff Jeff Zients and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon – were made aware ahead of the letter, while some senior officials learned of the decision in a Zoom call, and most others through Biden’s public announcement on X, media outlets reported. 

BIDEN WON’T PARDON HUNTER, WHITE HOUSE REAFFIRMS, BUT CRITICS AREN’T SO SURE

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House on Oct. 17, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The White House communications shop, which is led by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, had for weeks shut down claims Biden would drop out, while describing Biden’s health as above board and no reason for concern. 

“Absolutely not,” Jean-Pierre declared in a press briefing on July 3 when asked if Biden had any plans to exit the 2024 race. 

Jean-Pierre’s messaging had been backed up by White House spokesman Andrew Bates, who frequently issued statements to the media that Biden was in the race to win while brushing off questions about the president’s health. 

“The president told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100-days agenda to help working families,” Bates said last week in a comment to the New York Times. 

WHITE HOUSE, FAMILY OFFER CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS IF BIDEN’S HEALTH INFLUENCED DECISION TO DROP OUT

“That is not happening, period,” Bates said Friday when asked if members of the Biden family were discussing the president’s exit plan. “The individuals making those claims are not speaking for his family or his team – and they will be proven wrong. Keep the faith.”

Soon after the June 27 CNN debate, worried party leaders mounted a pressure campaign on Biden to exit the race, as dozens of elected Democrats commended the president for his service in the White House, but called on him to pass the torch to another candidate better suited to take on former President Trump. Media reports cited sources who described top Democrats such as former President Barack Obama, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as working in the background on efforts encouraging Biden to drop out. 

Although the media reports mounted that Democratic leaders were working to galvanize the party without Biden ahead of the DNC, the White House communications team continued brushing off the reports as hogwash.

TRUMP CALLS FOR NEXT PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE TO BE HELD ON FOX NEWS

Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates complained about journalists questioning Biden’s mental acuity after Special Counsel Hur’s report called out the president’s “poor memory.” (Getty Images)

Bates, for example, went on a social media campaign shooting down media reports that Biden’s exit from the race was imminent. Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre continued touting the president’s record in office on her X account, including that Biden “will continue to defend reproductive freedom” and that POTUS had “been hitting the road and meeting directly with the American people” in the days following the debate. 

Despite the full-throated denial that there were even discussions that the president should bow out, Biden ultimately stepped aside in a tweet on Sunday afternoon. 

WHAT COMES NEXT FOR DEMOCRATS AFTER BIDEN’S CAMPAIGN SUSPENSION?

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in his letter posted to X Sunday afternoon announcing his departure from the race. 

Media reports shortly following the announcement indicated White House staffers and members of the campaign were shocked by the news, learning of the decision via the X post and through a Zoom call on Sunday. 

President Biden arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on July 23, 2024, after spending nearly a week in Delaware recovering from COVID. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden had been self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after a COVID-19 diagnosis last week. He returned to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and will address the nation in more depth regarding his exit from the race on Wednesday evening from the Oval Office. 

GOP CONGRESSMAN CALLS ON HARRIS TO ‘IMMEDIATELY’ INVOKE 25TH AMENDMENT OVER BIDEN’S ‘DECLINING HEALTH’

Following his exit from the race, social media commenters sounded off that key White House communications team staffers were “out of the loop” on Biden’s plans to leave the race or mocked staffers such as Bates. 

The calls for Biden to drop out of the race were born out of his poor debate performance last month against Trump, where he stumbled over his words, lost his train of thought and appeared more subdued than his typical public demeanor. The June 27 debate opened the floodgates to traditional allies and legacy media outlets to call on him to drop out, though conservatives and critics had for years said Biden’s mental fitness was concerning. 

As questions surrounding the president’s health mounted, the White House communications team juggled an onslaught of questions regarding whether the president was suffering with an illness such as Parkinson’s disease. 

The media’s interactions with Jean-Pierre and the communications team became more heated, as reporters pressed the spokeswoman for answers on the president’s health, and called into question the team’s credibility.

Jean-Pierre was pressed by the media during a fiery exchange earlier this month to speak to whether a Parkinson’s disease expert’s eight visits to the White House were related specifically to Biden’s health. Jean-Pierre, instead, refused to confirm the doctor by name. She did confirm a neurologist had examined Biden three times for his three yearly physicals since taking office.

GOP SENATOR DEMANDS CABINET INVOKE 25TH AMENDMENT AGAINST BIDEN AFTER SUSPENDING HIS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN 

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fields questions on the NATO summit and the president’s health during the daily briefing at the White House on July 8, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

​​”They’re in the White House visitor logs. It’s public. I looked it up before I came out here. It is right there for anyone to see,” CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe said during a presser early this month when questioning the press secretary about Dr. Kevin Cannard being listed eight times on White House visitor logs. 

“I cannot from here confirm any of that because we have to keep their privacy. I think they would appreciate that too,” Jean-Pierre said. 

“The patient or the doctor?” O’Keefe asked. 

“We have to keep their privacy,” Jean-Pierre replied. 

TRUMP SAYS BIDEN ‘IS NOT FIT TO SERVE’: ‘WHO IS GOING TO BE RUNNING THE COUNTRY FOR THE NEXT 5 MONTHS?’

“It is public,” NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell jumped in to say, while O’Keefe added, “you’re going to allow this to fester longer, Karine, unless the White House just answers the question.” 

President Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sept. 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Jean-Pierre was grilled yet again in another press conference about Cannard’s visits, where she erroneously said one of the meetings this year was not related to Biden’s health. 

“Can you say whether that one meeting [between Cannard and O’Connor] was related to care for the president himself?” the Associated Press asked.

“I can say that it was not,” Jean-Pierre responded. 

The press secretary backtracked later that day, saying Cannard’s Jan. 17 meeting at the White House was in fact related to Biden’s health, specifically to the president’s yearly physical. 

Reporters also called on the White House to allow Biden’s White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to speak to them directly about the president’s health. The administration, however, argued that his written updates on Biden’s health and reports on his check-ups were sufficiently transparent. 

President Joe Biden walks along the Colonnade at the White House with his physician, Kevin O’Connor, Aug. 28, 2023. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

“The thorough summaries Dr. O’Connor puts online for the public are far more extensive than the presidential medical documentation released during the previous administration,” Bates told Fox News Digital earlier this month when asked if O’Connor would speak directly to the media. “In fact, the American people heard from Dr. O’Connor through his daily written reports on President Biden’s COVID case for over two weeks straight – a condition he had the honesty to disclose right away, unlike Trump’s physicians in office.”

O’Connor has released repeated statements and updates on the president’s health since Biden took office, including when he was diagnosed with COVID, as well as updates on Biden’s annual physicals. He has, however, not joined a press briefing to field journalists’ questions. 

“Dr. O’Connor teaches at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science, completed U.S. Army flight surgeon training, and was among the first American service members in Afghanistan and Iraq. His unique expertise is sought across the medical community, in which he is respected for his candor, attention to detail, and work ethic,” Bates continued.  

WHO IS WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN DR. KEVIN O’CONNOR AND WHAT ARE HIS CLOSE TIES TO THE BIDEN FAMILY?

The White House has said that Biden does not suffer from a disease such as Parkinson’s or dementia, or other types of degenerative illnesses. 

Jesse Waters speaks with former President Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance. (Fox News)

Following Biden’s exit from the race, members of the GOP are calling on Biden to resign from the White House altogether. 

 “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement Sunday. 

COMER REVEALS WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN WAS INVOLVED IN BIDEN FAMILY BUSINESS DEALS, DEMANDS HE TESTIFY

“If the Democrat party has deemed Joe Biden unfit to run for re-election, he’s certainly unfit to control our nuclear codes,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said Sunday. “Biden must step down from office immediately.”

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, had also called on Biden to resign in the lead-up to his bombshell announcement. 

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“If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President?” Vance posted on X hours before the announcement. “Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground.”

MILWAUKEE – Abortion and education are among the top issues for Democratic voters in key battleground state Wisconsin, as Vice President Kamala Harris takes over the helm of the Democratic Party and inches closer to securing the DNC presidential nomination next month.

In a packed high school auditorium in West Allis, raucous rallygoers told Fox News Digital that a woman’s “right to choose” is a fundamental party platform policy that has their vote locked in for Harris this November, as well as “free” public education. 

Just outside the venue, faint chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” drifted from a small counterprotest. Nearby, a solitary Trump flag waved high, epitomizing the charged battleground atmosphere.

Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris listen to her speak during a campaign rally at West Allis Central High School on July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wisconsin. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Lester Pines, a Harris supporter and attorney, told Fox News Digital in Milwaukee that what’s “important for Wisconsin voters first of all, is the right to choose.”

“And it’s a fundamental issue in this state. Because before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in state law matters, and it has to be protected federally, and commonly, Harris will protect that,” he said.

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodgriguez, another supporter of Harris at her first campaign stop as the presumptive Democratic nominee, told Fox News Digital that “reproductive rights” are at the top of the list for Democratic voters.

“You’ve probably heard that in this room, whenever she talks about [reproductive rights] people were very, very animated,” Rodriguez said. “I’m a nurse by background, I know how dangerous it is when women do not have full access to reproductive care. She’s going to fight for that for us here in Wisconsin. And people know, she’s the only one doing that.”

HARRIS REPEATS DEBUNKED CLAIM TRUMP WANTS TO ‘BAN’ ABORTION DURING FIRST CAMPAIGN RALLY SINCE BIDEN QUIT RACE

Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris gather in a high school auditorium in Milwaukee for her first rally since President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. (Fox News Digital/Jamie Joseph)

Ben Wickler, the chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told Fox News Digital at the rally that Harris is “speaking exactly to people’s greatest hopes for a country that works for everyone, that honors working people, where folks can join a union where they can expand the freedom, the freedom to vote, to make their own decisions about their own body, instead of politicians telling them what to do.”

Wickler also said it’s an opportune moment for Democrats in Wisconsin spanning across rural, suburban and urban areas to support workers’ ability to unionize, as well as protect abortion providers against charges. In Wisconsin, abortion is legal up to 22 weeks in Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan.

“And if you’re concerned about whether the government should be able to jail doctors for providing health care, if you think that workers should be able to join a union, this is a great moment because there’s tremendous hope across the country and an opportunity to move forward,” he said.

RNC DELEGATES IN MILWAUKEE REVEALED WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN WITH BIDEN OUT OF THE RACE: ‘IT DOESN’T MATTER’

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters on July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wisconsin. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images) (Jim Vondruska/Stringer)

Kat Lee, a former educator at the rally, echoed Wickler and Rodriguez, saying, “Obviously, education is the most important one to me, because the education system is upside down.”

A couple who have a college-aged daughter also told Fox News Digital that lowering tuition costs and capping loan paybacks are what they’re hoping will happen under a Harris administration.

“So many of us want to stress our kids to go to college, but who wants to pay back all of the tuitions and the funding, and you don’t have it you know,” a rallygoer said. “So I know that she’s like, ‘Mom, how I’m gonna pay back all of this?’ So those things are really important.”

Amy Turkoski, a rallygoer representing local teacher’s union Madison Teacher’s Inc., told Fox News Digital she’s concerned about funding for public, schools. 

“We need to change how we fund public school in the United States. Public schools should be free and appropriate for all students,” Turkoski said. “And the way the Republican Party and the other side of the aisle has really systematically defunded public education. Now that Kamala is running with Biden’s blessing, I feel really energized that we’ll find someone who really wants to change how we fund public education.”

DEM VOTERS AT MILWAUKEE RALLY SAY THEY’RE FIRED UP FOR HARRIS: ‘UNITED AND ENERGIZED’

VP Harris drew a large crowd Tuesday afternoon in West Allis, Wisconsin, as she takes over the helm in the Democratic Party. (Jamie Joseph/Fox News Digital)

The rally comes amid a backdrop of rearranging within the Democratic Party after Biden’s abrupt exit from the race on Sunday. Shortly after he suspended his re-election campaign amid internal party pressure, Biden endorsed Harris, saying on X that she has his “full support.”

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Concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity have been building since his disastrous debate performance against Trump last month, followed by subsequent public gaffes. Congressional Democrats raised the temperature and added to the pressure, as top leaders urged him to drop out of the race in the days leading up to his announcement.

Democrats in Wisconsin have launched a unified effort to bolster Harris’ presidential campaign, according to Brianna Johnson, the campaign’s Wisconsin communications director. The initiative includes 48 coordinated offices spread across 43 counties, employing approximately 160 full-time staffers who are actively engaged in door-to-door canvassing, phone outreach, and mobilizing community support for Harris and Democratic candidates ahead of November’s elections.

Conservatives on social media are praising a blistering ad launched by Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick linking his opponent, Sen. Bob Casey, to the policies of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

“Kamala Harris is inspiring and very capable, the more people get to know her they’re going to be particularly impressed by her ability,” a clip of Casey says at the start of the ad released by McCormick on Tuesday.

The ad then goes into a variety of clips of Harris promoting progressive policies and labeling her the “most liberal nominee ever.”

In the ad, Kamala is quoted calling for the elimination of the filibuster, banning fracking, decriminalizing illegal immigration, abolishing ICE, defunding the police, mandating a gun buyback program, and other liberal policies.

GOP SENATE CANDIDATE TIES OPPONENT TO BIDEN DEBATE: BOB CASEY KNEW

Dave McCormick released a blistering ad linking Sen. Casey to VP Harris on Tuesday,. (Getty Images)

The ad, which was viewed over 1.5 million times in 24 hours, was quickly praised by conservatives on social media. 

“Most comprehensive anti-Harris ad I’ve seen so far,” journalist Mairead Elordi posted on X.

“Wow,” American Enterprise Institute fellow and Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen posted on X.

“Attention Republicans,” conservative commentator and author Matt Walsh posted on X. “This is how you attack Kamala Harris. Here’s the blueprint.”

LETTER FROM SEN. BOB CASEY RESURFACES ON BIOLOGICAL MALES’ PARTICIPATION IN FEMALE SPORTS

Sen. Bob Casey speaks in Philadelphia on Nov. 1, 2019. (Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“The most radical presidential candidate in American history – just listen to her,” GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty posted on X. “America would never be the same if even half of these policies were carried out.”

“One of the most brutal and effective ads I’ve seen in a while,” Trump delegate Christian Ziegler posted on X. “Just play this every moment from now until November on TV. Good work by whomever cut this one.”

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Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick launches a campaign bus tour in Lititz, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 10, 2024. (Dave McCormick campaign)

“This messaging is perfect,” Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe posted on X.

“Congrats to Dave McCormick’s team… this is brilliant,” 1776 Project PAC Founder Ryan James Girdusky posted on X. “Now get it streaming online and on tv.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Bob Casey for Senate spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said, “David McCormick is desperately trying to avoid answering for his support for a dangerous abortion ban and his record of investing millions in China’s largest fentanyl producer while fentanyl trafficked from China kills thousands of Pennsylvanians.”

Casey’s seat is widely regarded as one of the best chances Republicans have to take back control of the U.S. Senate in November. The Cook Political report ranks the race as “Lean D.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has expressed mixed views on Israel over the last several years, an issue that is sure to be highlighted as she takes over at the top of the Democratic ticket at the same time as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington.

Harris has often been an advocate for Jewish causes and frequently supported the U.S. alliance with Israel since joining the Senate in 2017, but cracks in the now-vice president’s support for the Jewish state have started to show amid the country’s monthslong invasion of neighboring Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.

Shortly after taking office in 2017, Harris and husband Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, traveled to Israel. The trip was the third for Harris, according to a report from the Times of Israel, but the first for her husband, highlighting the importance of the country to a senator who had spent much of her upbringing around the Jewish community.

That same year, Harris made one of her first speeches as a senator to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the report notes, where the freshman senator boasted that she had introduced a resolution condemning the United Nations Security Council’s resolution that condemned Israel.

ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU TO ADDRESS CONGRESS AMID HIGH-PROFILE ABSENCES

Vice President Kamala Harris declined to preside over a joint address of Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Getty Images)

“I believe that a resolution to this conflict cannot be imposed. It must be agreed upon by the parties themselves. Peace can only come through a reconciliation of differences and that can only happen at the negotiating table,” Harris said during the speech. “I believe that when any organization delegitimizes Israel, we must stand up and speak out for Israel to be treated equally.”

Harris’ friendly relationship with Israel and the Jewish community continued after the election of President Biden, with the vice president encouraging her husband to be the first to install mezuzahs, which are inscribed with verses from the Torah, at the vice presidential residence.

Emhoff has since gone on to chair the Biden administration’s task force to combat antisemitism, a cause those close to Harris say the vice president has been deeply involved in.

However, supporters of Israel worry that the now-Democratic nominee’s support for the Jewish state has started to wane, arguing that Harris has seemingly distanced herself slightly from Biden since the conflict in Gaza began.

In March, Harris became the first administration official to call for an “immediate ceasefire” in the conflict. Later that month, during an interview with ABC News, Harris became the first administration official to warn that there could be “consequences” if the country went ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah.

“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” she told the outlet.

FAMILIES OF US CITIZENS HELD BY HAMAS PIN HOPES ON NETANYAHU’S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

That interview also highlighted a potentially fraying relationship between Harris and Netanyahu, with the vice president dodging questions about whether the Israeli prime minister was an “obstacle to peace.”

“I believe that we have got to continue to enforce what we know to be and should be the priorities in terms of what is happening in Gaza,” Harris said in response. “We’ve been very clear that far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. We have been very clear that Israel and the Israeli people and Palestinians are entitled to an equal amount of security and dignity.”

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at West Allis Central High School during her first campaign rally in Milwaukee on July 23, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The ABC News interview came after the vice president raised eyebrows earlier in the month for meeting with Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s wartime cabinet and a longtime rival of Netanyahu. According to a White House readout of the meeting, Harris “expressed her deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.”

According to a report from The Associated Press, Gantz made the trip despite objections from Netanyahu.

Harris has also seemingly showed sympathy for the anti-Israel student protests that broke out across the country earlier this year, despite many Jewish students complaining that the demonstrations were antisemitic.

“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” Harris said in an interview with The Nation earlier this month. “There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

REPUBLICANS SLAM HARRIS FOR OPTING OUT OF NETANYAHU ADDRESS IN FAVOR OF SORORITY SPEECH: ‘SHAMEFUL’

Critics have taken note of the subtle shift, arguing that Harris has staked out a stance less supportive of Israel than Biden.

“Biden made many mistakes regarding Israel, but he is miles ahead of Harris in terms of support for Israel,” former Trump administration Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said during an interview with the Jerusalem Post. “She is on the fringe of the progressive wing of the party, which sympathizes more with the Palestinian cause.”

The evolution of Harris’ position on Israel comes amid a backdrop of Netanyahu’s visit and the vice president’s sudden ascent to the Democratic nominee for president. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Harris would not preside over Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress on Wednesday, instead opting to honor a longstanding commitment to attend the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Grand Boule in Indianapolis.

Vice President Kamala Harris called her husband in a fit of rage after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year. (Reuters/Hannah Beier)

The vice president would typically reside over a joint address, but Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin has been tapped to fill the role in the absence of Harris.

An aide to Harris stressed that the vice president’s decision not to preside over the address should not be taken as a change of her stance on Israel, according to a Fox News Digital report Tuesday, with the aide noting that the vice president plans to meet with Netanyahu at the White House this week in a separate meeting from Biden’s.

HARRIS BOYCOTTS NETANYAHU, SNUBS ISRAELI LEADER’S WARTIME ADDRESS TO GIVE SORORITY SPEECH

The aide added Harris is expected to reiterate her stance that Israel has a right to defend itself and once again condemn the Oct. 7, 2023 attack against Israeli civilians, but will also stress the need for Israel to help improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Nevertheless, Harris’ decision to skip the event elicited immediate backlash, with one Israeli official telling the Telegraph that the vice president is “unable to distinguish between good and evil” and that declining to preside over the address is “not a way to treat an ally.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video message on Wednesday, slamming the ongoing anti-Israel protests at American college campuses. (Office of Israels Prime Minister)

The decision was also condemned by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to a report in the New York Post, who accused the vice president of abandoning an American ally.

“It is outrageous to me and inexcusable that Kamala Harris is boycotting Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech,” Johnson, who will preside over the address with Cardin, said. “The idea that Democrats are making political calculations when our ally is in such dire straits, fighting for its very survival… is unconscionable to us.”

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The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: A top grassroots group that represents Jewish Republicans is taking aim at Vice President Kamala Harris for being absent from Wednesday’s speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of a joint meeting of Congress.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), in an announcement shared first with Fox News, is launching a five-figure digital ad buy in key general election swing states that accuses the vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for “snubbing” the Israeli leader’s address to Congress.

The speaker of the House and the vice president, in the constitutional role as president of the Senate, usually preside over joint meetings and sessions of Congress.

However, Harris will be notably absent while Netanyahu is addressing Congress. The vice president will instead be attending a previously scheduled luncheon with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.

HARRIS IN INDIANA AS NETANYAHU ADDRESSES CONGRESS

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at West Allis Central High School during her first campaign rally in Milwaukee on July 23, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The vice president and President Biden will meet with Netanyahu separately on Thursday.

Harris, who is now the Democratic Party’s 2024 presumptive nominee after Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president on Sunday, is seen as slightly more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than her boss amid the nearly 10-month-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Additionally, while Haris is the most high-profile Democrat not to attend Nentayahu’s speech, she is far from alone. Many Democrats in Congress, including some top figures including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will also skip the address, as they protest the Israeli leader’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/File Photo)

“Instead of supporting America’s strongest ally by attending Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, Kamala Harris decides to go a sorority luncheon,” the narrator in the RJC’s ad says. “A sorority luncheon. She can’t be serious.”

“Kamala Harris: Her priorities are not our priorities,” the narrator concludes. 

TOP JEWISH GOP GROUP MAKES BIG MOVE TO BACK TRUMP

RJC CEO Matt Brooks told Fox News that the ads will run “in key battleground states, targeting Jewish voters utilizing the best data operation in politics.”

Brooks argued that “Vice President Kamala Harris, as President of the US Senate, should be in attendance to preside over the chamber. Harris has totally failed her first test as a candidate for President of the United States – and the RJC will hold her accountable.”

Harris is not the only member of a national ticket in the 2024 election who will be missing Netanyahu’s speech.

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Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the GOP vice presidential nominee, will also be absent. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said that the former president’s running mate had “duties to fulfill” on the campaign trail.

The RJC remained neutral in the GOP presidential nomination race. However, after Trump clinched the nomination, the RJC in May announced that it was committed to raising a minimum of $5 million — from its donors and from its RJC Victory Fund super PAC — to help elect Trump.

RJC national political director Sam Markstein highlighted at the time that this “will be the RJC’s largest effort ever to mobilize support in the Jewish community for President Trump.”

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

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is expected to be skipping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, instead giving a speech at a sorority conference on Wednesday. 

Fox News Digital confirmed on Tuesday that Harris declined to preside over a Wednesday joint address to Congress by Netanyahu because she will be in Indiana for an event that was previously scheduled, per an aide. 

According to the vice president’s public schedule available Wednesday, that event is Harris’ keynote speech at Zeta Phi Beta sorority’s Grand Boulé in Indianapolis. 

Harris, who on Monday became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president following President Biden’s campaign suspension, will not be in attendance at Netanyahu’s address before Congress on Wednesday and will not be able to assume her vice presidential duties as president of the Senate.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, will also not attend, The Hill reports, citing a Trump campaign adviser.

BLACK LIVES MATTER SAYS DEMS ARE ‘PARTY OF HYPOCRITES’ FOR ‘INSTALLING’ HARRIS SANS ‘PUBLIC VOTING PROCESS’

Vice President Kamala Harris waves before boarding Air Force Two as she departs for the campaign trail to Milwaukee on Tuesday, July 23, 2024 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. (Kevin Mohatt/Pool via AP)

With Harris’s absence, the task ordinarily would fall to Senate President pro tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., but Murray reportedly refused to do so and will instead be boycotting the address.

When Harris’ office was asked Tuesday if she would have agreed to preside over Netanyahu’s address if she were going to be in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, an aide to the vice president said they would not answer hypothetical questions. 

Netanyahu is likely to receive a warm welcome from Republican lawmakers who arranged his speech in the House chamber, an appearance making him the first foreign leader to address a joint meeting of Congress four times, surpassing Winston Churchill, according to The Associated Press. Many Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont plan to boycott Netanyahu’s appearance. 

The most notable absence will be Harris, who would traditionally sit behind any dignitary who would be speaking.

The office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., confirmed to Fox News Digital that the former House Speaker will also skip Netanyahu’s address. 

“Speaker Pelosi will not be attending today’s Joint Meeting of Congress. This morning, she will join a Members meeting with Israeli citizens whose families have suffered in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attack and kidnappings,” Pelosi’s office said. 

Republicans targeted the absence of Harris, the new Democratic front-runner for the presidency, as a sign of disloyalty to an ally, despite Vance also not attending.

KEY ENDORSEMENTS POUR IN FOR KAMALA HARRIS AS VP SELECTION NEARS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to address Congress Wednesday. (Chaim Goldberg/Pool Photo via AP, File)

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement confirming that both Harris and President Biden will meet separately with Netanyahu on Thursday. She said Biden will welcome Netanyahu to the White House, where the leaders will discuss “developments in Gaza and progress towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal and the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including countering Iran’s threats to Israel and the broader region.” She said that afterward, Biden and Netanyahu will meet together with the families of Americans held hostage by Hamas. 

“The Vice President will also meet separately with Prime Minister Netanyahu on July 25,” Jean-Pierre added. 

Outside the Capitol, demonstrators are promising massive protests against the Israeli leader amid the Jewish state’s ongoing war against the terrorist organization Hamas. In anticipation, House Speaker Mike Johnson warned of a “zero-tolerance policy” for any signs of disturbances in the Capitol building. 

A “No More Bombs for Netanyahu” mobile billboard near the Capitol building on Tuesday, July 23, 2024 in Washington. (Kevin Wolf/AP Content Services for Oxfam America)

“It is our tradition to acknowledge every guest speaker’s right to free expression even if we disagree with their viewpoint,” Johnson wrote to members Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Biden is scheduled to make an address to the nation from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. Wednesday. While self-isolating in Delaware after reportedly testing positive for COVID-19 last week, Biden announced in a letter posted to X on Sunday that he discontinued his re-election campaign and endorsed Harris for president. 

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Harris arrived in the Milwaukee area Tuesday for her first campaign rally since she jumped into the race, having seemingly locked up nomination support from Democratic delegates. She has pulled in $100 million in donations since Sunday afternoon, and on Tuesday, picked up the backing of more Democratic officials and political groups, including congressional leaders Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

Tuesday’s visit came a week after the Republican National Convention wrapped up in the city and as Harris works to sharpen her message against former President Trump with just over 100 days until Election Day.

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Legal experts are crying foul on possible plans that President Biden could support to make drastic changes to the Supreme Court. 

Before he abruptly dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the ticket, news reports indicated that Biden was considering supporting legislation that would attempt to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices and a new enforceable ethics code.

Such legislation would be a radical shift for Biden, who has historically resisted calls to expand the high court or push for any substantive changes. 

But since the Trump administration, which gave Republican appointees the majority, Biden could be shifting his views to accommodate the more extreme members of his party just months away from the presidential election. Legal experts warn, however, such congressional action “undermines democracy.”

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

Justices posing for an official photo at the Supreme Court. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

“The question of whether President Biden and his left wing could impose term limits or age limits on Supreme Court justices by statute alone and not a constitutional amendment is, at best, highly debatable and dependent on the devilish details that have not yet been released,” John Shu, a constitutional attorney and former official in both Bush White Houses, told Fox News Digital. 

“Attempting to do so definitely undermines democracy and separation of powers, as well as the Constitution’s very structure. It also tries to delegitimize the court as an institution. A constitutional amendment would be the cleanest way to impose term or age limits on Supreme Court justices, but it’s a terrible idea for many reasons,” he said. 

Shu noted that, in the past, Biden was “publicly and strongly against court-packing and placing term limits on federal judges, both of which he called ‘boneheaded.’

TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE: SUPREME COURT RULES EX-PRESIDENTS HAVE SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTION FROM PROSECUTION 

Crowds outside the Supreme Court reacting to the Dobbs ruling. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)

“It is colossally stupid and dangerous to wreck the Constitution and an entire branch of government just because certain people don’t like some of the current court’s rulings,” he added. 

Mike Davis, former chief of nominations in the Senate and president of the Article III project, said the reported proposals Biden is considering endorsing are “a radical assault on judicial independence, and a grave threat to democracy, which Biden pretends he’s protecting.”

BIDEN ‘PLAYING TO THE LEFT’ WITH SUPREME COURT REFORM REEKS OF ‘DESPERATION,’ NBC’S CHUCK TODD SAYS

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during an NCAA championship teams celebration on the South Lawn of the White House on July 22, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

It’s unclear if Biden will still pursue such an attempt to alter the court’s structure, with the legalities of such a move in question – and further, if he was considering the legislation for political reasons as the pressure was mounting for him to drop out of the race. 

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Carrie Severino, president of JCN, a conservative advocacy organization and author of “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court,” said she expects Harris and other Democratic hopefuls “to pledge fidelity to politicizing the court because they’ll be after the same dark money groups that Biden courted.”

“She will likely end up parroting the most extreme policy ideas out there.”

Speculation is mounting that President Biden will pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who was recently found guilty in a federal gun trial, despite the president and his staffers saying he will not give the first son a pass amid his legal troubles. 

“I’ve been very clear; the president is not going to pardon his son,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in December. Biden, himself, addressed the issue last month, telling ABC News that he ruled out pardoning his son and answering in the affirmative that he would accept the jury’s verdict in the case. 

The administration assured Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the president’s comments stood in regard to Hunter Biden’s pardon. However, the credibility of those press aides is in doubt after weeks of denying Biden was considering quitting the 2024 campaign. Biden ultimately bowed out of the race on Sunday afternoon in a social media post.

“The president spoke to this in his ABC interview. His comments stand,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox Digital on Tuesday when asked about any plans to pardon Hunter Biden.

HUNTER BIDEN FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN GUN TRIAL

Joe Biden and son Hunter (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Republicans have speculated the president will pardon his son, with Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz saying the odds of Biden pardoning Hunter sit at 100%. 

“I’m going to place the odds that Joe Biden pardons Hunter Biden at 100%. Hunter Biden will get a pardon as a result of this decision,” Cruz said during his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” on Monday, referring to Biden’s decision this week to drop out of the presidential race. 

HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS DAY 5 AFTER TESTIMONY FROM SISTER-IN-LAW-TURNED-GIRLFRIEND: ‘PANICKED’

“It will not happen till after Election Day. He’s not going to do it before Election Day. But he’s going to stick around. And after Election Day, I believe it is now 100% that Joe Biden will pardon Hunter,” he added. 

Hunter Biden was convicted by a federal jury on June 11 of lying about his drug use when purchasing a firearm in 2018. He was found guilty on three charges: making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

Hunter Biden had pleaded not guilty in the case. 

Hunter Biden was found guilty on all counts by a Delaware jury. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum/File)

Prosecutors worked to prove that Hunter Biden lied on a federal firearm form, known as ATF Form 4473, in October 2018, when he ticked the “No” box when asked if he is an unlawful user of substances or addicted to controlled substances. 

Hunter Biden has a long history of drug abuse, which was underscored in his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things.” The book was repeatedly referenced by both prosecutors and Biden’s defense team amid the nearly seven-day trial. The memoir walks readers through Biden’s highs and lows with addiction to crack cocaine and attempts to get sober. 

Hunter Biden’s attorneys did not deny the first son’s long history with substance abuse during the trial, instead arguing that on the day Biden bought the Cobra Colt .38, he did not consider himself an active drug addict.

BIDEN WILL ADDRESS NATION FROM OVAL OFFICE ON DECISION TO EXIT 2024 RACE

Hunter Biden has not yet been sentenced in the case.

President Biden bowed out of the presidential election on Sunday afternoon in a letter posted to X. The White House and campaign had for weeks denied Biden would withdraw from the race, claiming he was in the election to win his rematch against former President Trump. 

Biden was self-isolating in Delaware after a COVID-19 diagnosis when he announced he would no longer seek a second term. He returned to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday after testing negative for the virus. 

In the wake of his departure from the race, others speculated on social media that Biden will likely pardon Hunter Biden. 

DOJ REVEALS IT HAS BIDEN TRANSCRIPTS AT ISSUE IN CLASSIFIED DOCS CASE AFTER INITIAL DENIAL

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The gun trial was the first Hunter Biden faced this year. He is scheduled to stand trial in California in September over nine federal tax charges. The case was brought forth by special counsel David Weiss, who also oversaw the gun trial.

A veteran and high-ranking Democratic lawmaker claims she was in the dark about President Biden’s intention to resign from the 2024 presidential campaign.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters from California spoke to Politico on Monday, saying Biden dropping off the party’s ticket caught her completely off-guard after she “woke up to it on the television.”

“I was angry at first, because we’d worked so hard to give him the kind of support that would cause him to stay,” Waters told Politico. “We had been told up to the last minute that he was going to stay.”

TOP DEMS THREATENED TO FORCIBLY REMOVE BIDEN FROM OFFICE, SET HIM UP TO FAIL AT TRUMP DEBATE: SOURCES

Biden waves to press cameras alongside Waters in Los Angeles after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport. (Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

She continued, “After I calmed down, I was alright, because in doing that, he endorsed Kamala [Harris]. And I thought, well, that’s great.”

Waters was a die-hard defender of Biden following his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate that led the U.S. public to question his mental capacities. 

She consistently pushed back on any intention to replace the president with a stronger Democratic candidate and told Politico she has “seen him at his best.”

HARRIS CAMPAIGN BREAKING FUNDRAISING RECORDS IN RACE AGAINST TRUMP SINCE BIDEN BOWED OUT

Waters, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, listens during a hearing in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

However, Waters has also been a high-profile ally of Harris. The California representative told Politico that she sees Harris as a friend and didn’t hesitate to endorse her.

“I tell you that Trump, the MAGA crowd, racists — I think that they’re going to hit and they’re going to hit hard,” she said of challenges facing Harris. “They’re going to do everything that they can do to try and convince their crowd and others that she should not be the president and he will be dog whistling about a woman and a Black in ways that he knows how to do.”

Biden will address the nation on Wednesday about why he decided to exit the race and what he plans to focus on for the remaining six months of his first term. His address will be delivered from the Oval Office, the White House said. 

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Harris boards Air Force Two as she departs on campaign travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt)

The president was seen in public for the first time in six days on Tuesday at Dover Air Force as he returned to the nation’s capital from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Democrat Rep. Emilia Sykes, who is running for re-election in an Ohio district that’s vulnerable for Democrats, ignored questions about Vice President Harris’ record on immigration on Tuesday.

“Hello, Congresswoman, do you think that Kamala Harris did a good job as the border czar,” Sykes was asked in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. 

Sykes ignored the question and kept walking, which prompted a follow-up question.

“Congresswoman, do you think Kamala Harris did a good job as the border czar? Yes or no?”

KAMALA HARRIS DOESN’T ANSWER WHETHER BIDEN IS FIT FOR OFFICE

Rep. Emilia Sykes dodged questions on VP Harris’ record on Tuesday (Fox News)

Sykes responded, taking issue with the pronunciation of Harris’ name, “I don’t know who Kamala Harris is.”

“She’s the vice president,” the questioner responds before Sykes enters her office.

KAMALA HARRIS TO SKIP NETANYAHU’S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS WHILE TOP DEM SENATOR BOYCOTTS ALTOGETHER

Rep. Emilia Sykes ignored questions on Tuesday on whether VP Harris has done a good job on the border. (Fox News Digital)

“No surprise: Two days after Sykes endorsed Harris, she pretends not to know her,” former Ohio Republican state Sen. Kevin Coughlin, who is running against Sykes in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

“With Sykes’ support, Harris the Border Czar has created one of the worst humanitarian and security disasters our border has ever seen. I’d pretend not to know her too.”

Rep. Emilia Sykes (AP Photo/Paul Vernon/File)

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In a statement to Fox News Digital, DCCC Spokesperson Aidan Johnson pointed to the mispronunciation of Harris’ name.

“If Republican trackers and Kevin Coughlin are going to ask about the Vice President they should show respect and start pronouncing her name correctly,” Johnson said.

Sykes endorsed Harris for president on Sunday, pledging to work with Democrats to “unify” around her as the nominee.

Sykes, a first-term Democrat who won in 2022 by five points, is defending her seat in a district that includes parts of two counties that President Trump comfortably won in 2020. The Cook Political Report ranks the race as a “Democrat Toss Up.”

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff clapped back at former President Trump, who criticized his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, after she launched her presidential campaign.

Trump, who often coins nicknames for his political opponents, dubbed Harris “Laughin’ Kamala” and “Lyin’ Kamala” on his social media platform Truth Social.

“That’s all he’s got?” Emhoff said Tuesday when asked by reporters about the former president’s comments about his wife.

“You heard the Vice President yesterday making the case against Donald Trump,” Emhoff said. “Very clearly laid out the case, directly and in a compelling fashion. But she also laid out a vision for the future. A vision where there’s freedom. Where we’re not having to talk about these issues of today in this post Dobbs Hellscape that Donald Trump created.”

TRUMP TEAM FILES FEC COMPLAINT OVER TRANSFER OF BIDEN’S $91M TO HARRIS CAMPAIGN: ‘BRAZEN MONEY GRAB’

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff speaks at a reception alongside Vice President Kamala Harris during a reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 20, 2024, in Washington, D.C.

Harris launched her presidential campaign Sunday night after President Biden announced he was suspending his re-election campaign. Harris secured enough delegates Monday night to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination, although the party’s nominee will not formally be selected until next month’s convention in Chicago.

“We’re gonna prosecute the case against Donald Trump and his lies, his gaslighting, during COVID, the dereliction of duty, inciting an insurrection and all those other things,” Emhoff said.

“We’re gonna make that very clear,” Emhoff continued. “She’s gonna be able to make that case. We’re also gonna move on from this type of environment, this Dobbs, where freedoms are taken away, where autonomy is taken away. Where they’re telling you, you can’t read this book. They’re telling you, you can’t learn these facts. They’re telling you, you can’t vote. All that is gonna change, and it must change.”

Harris has been raking in the cash since the launch of her campaign. She raised $81 million in the first 24 hours of her campaign, the most in history that a presidential candidate has raised in 24 hours, and $100 million from when Biden dropped out Sunday afternoon through Monday night.

HARRIS HAULS IN $81 MILLION IN FIRST 24 HOURS SINCE BIDEN BOWED OUT

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff descend from Air Force Two at Delaware National Air Guard base in New Castle, Delaware, on July 22, 2024. (Getty Images)

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The campaign said more than 888,000 grassroots donors made contributions during the 24 hours, with 60% of them making their first contribution of the 2024 election cycle. The campaign also said it signed up 43,000 of those donors to make recurring donations.

The money Harris raised easily bests the nearly $53 million the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee raised back in May through their online digital fundraising platform in the first 24 hours after the former president was convicted on 34 felony counts in his criminal trial in New York City.

“You see the enthusiasm, you see the excitement,” Emhoff said. “You saw the money raised, you saw the party coalesce. You saw the broad base of support that she had in just one or two days because she’s talking about an America that we all have a place in … Kamala Harris has united the party. She’s gonna unite the country … You see that happening, and she’s gonna win this election.”

President Biden is set to address the nation on Wednesday evening from the Oval Office for the first time since he officially dropped out of the 2024 election. 

“Tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people,” Biden posted to his X account on Tuesday. 

Biden had been self-isolating in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, since last Wednesday, when he was diagnosed with COVID-19, which forced him to cancel scheduled events in Las Vegas and fly back to his home in The First State. After suffering “mild symptoms” and “general malaise” after his diagnosis, he received a negative diagnosis on Tuesday of this week and returned to the White House. 

His trip back to the nation’s capital on Tuesday marked the first time Biden was seen in public since suspending his re-election bid on Sunday and the first time since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 17. 

BIDEN ENDS BID FOR 2ND TERM IN WHITE HOUSE AS HE DROPS OUT OF HIS 2024 REMATCH WITH TRUMP

President Biden walks to Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 23, 2024. (Reuters/Ken Cedeno)

Biden’s address Wednesday is expected to shed additional light on his departure from the 2024 race after he, his campaign and the White House vowed for weeks that Biden would remain in the election cycle and was determined to win in the rematch against former President Trump. 

Since the end of World War II, there have only been three incumbent presidents, all Democrats, who turned down running for a second term: Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Biden.

The 46th president had faced mounting pressure from his Democrat allies and legacy media outlets to bow out of the race since June 27, when he delivered a botched debate performance against Trump that was riddled with garbled remarks and where the president lost his train of thought and appeared more subdued than during other recent public events. 

GOP CONGRESSMAN CALLS ON HARRIS TO ‘IMMEDIATELY’ INVOKE 25TH AMENDMENT OVER BIDEN’S ‘DECLINING HEALTH’

The debate reignited concern among conservatives and critics that Biden’s mental acuity had slipped, while it marked the beginning of a pressure campaign among Democrats to oust Biden in favor of a candidate they believed is better suited to take on Trump.

Vice President Harris delivers remarks as President Biden listens at the White House on July 26, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Dozens of members of Congress began publicly thanking Biden for his work in the White House and decades in public office while calling on him to pass the torch to another candidate. He made the announcement just more than a week after an assassination attempt on Trump’s life during a rally in Pennsylvania and just days after the Republican National Convention wrapped up in Milwaukee, where Trump was certified as the Republican Party’s nominee.

GOP SENATOR DEMANDS CABINET INVOKE 25TH AMENDMENT AGAINST BIDEN AFTER SUSPENDING HIS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, are shown at the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)

Shortly after his announcement on Sunday afternoon, Biden endorsed Vice President Harris to pick up the mantle and make a run for the party’s nomination. As of Tuesday, Harris had enough delegates to lock up the nomination, which will be certified by the DNC next month.

TRUMP SAYS BIDEN ‘IS NOT FIT TO SERVE’: ‘WHO IS GOING TO BE RUNNING THE COUNTRY FOR THE NEXT 5 MONTHS?’

Harris is hitting the campaign trail and weighing running mate options as potential contenders such as Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and others are floated by political pundits. 

Vice President Harris boards Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on July 23, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Mohatt/Pool)

Concerns over Biden’s health mounted for years among conservatives and critics, including former White House physician Ronny Jackson sounding the alarm during the 2020 election cycle, ahead of hitting a fever pitch this summer.

“As a citizen, not as a candidate running for Congress but as a citizen of this country, I’ve watched Joe Biden on the campaign trail, and I am concerned and convinced that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability, to serve as our commander in chief and our head of state,” Jackson, who is now a Republican congressman representing Texas, said in 2020. 

‘PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT’: DEMS HEAP PRAISE ON BIDEN FOR DECISION TO END 2024 CAMPAIGN

In February this year, Special Counsel Robert Hur published his report investigating the president’s handling of classified documents after his departure as vice president in the Obama administration, which fanned the flames about Biden’s health concerns. The report stated that Hur would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily press briefing on July 9, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

The Biden administration and former Biden campaign repeatedly shut down any claims that the president was suffering from a disease such as Parkinson’s or dementia as concerns mounted between the debate and Biden dropping out. The White House additionally told Fox News Digital on Monday that the president’s health did not play a role in his departure from the 2024 race. 

POTENTIAL HARRIS WHITE HOUSE MURKY AS VP ‘NEVER EXHIBITED A CORE SET OF BELIEFS’: DEM STRATEGIST

Now that the president has dropped out of the election cycle, conservative lawmakers and others have called on Biden to resign from the White House, arguing that if he is unable to run for re-election, he’s unfit to run the nation for the roughly five months left of his tenure. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (Getty Images/File)

“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement on Sunday.

“If the Democrat party has deemed Joe Biden unfit to run for re-election, he’s certainly unfit to control our nuclear codes,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., added. “Biden must step down from office immediately.”

10 DEMOCRATS VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS COULD NAME AS HER 2024 RUNNING MATE

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also called on Biden to resign hours before he officially announced he was dropping out.

“If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President? Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground,” Vance tweeted Sunday morning.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images/File)

Others have called on Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment while concerns mount over Biden’s health. Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles sent a letter to Harris on Thursday requesting she invoke the 25th Amendment, exclusively telling Fox News Digital that Biden left the race “because he isn’t up for the job of president, and everyone in America knows it.” 

“I’ve said for over a year that Biden’s ever-declining health has rendered him incapable of leading the nation. With his recent reclusion following a supposed COVID diagnosis, it is now more apparent than ever that he must resign or be forced out. Since Biden has made it clear he will not resign, it is imperative that Vice President Harris move forward with invoking the provisions of the 25th Amendment to remove him forcibly. The safety and well-being of the American people and our nation depend upon it,” Ogles said.

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Biden’s address on Wednesday will be delivered from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. ET and will focus on his withdrawal from the race and his plans for the remaining months in office.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday that his office had already had “indirect” conversations with Vice President Kamala Harris’ team and the presumptive Democratic nominee will soon release a plan on how to deal with the border crisis.

Harris was endorsed by President Biden as his successor after he announced that he would not stand for re-election on Sunday. Adams, who has been dealing with an overwhelming surge of migrants into the sanctuary city, was asked if he had been in touch with Harris.

“We’ve had indirect conversations with her team and I believe she’s going to roll out her plan on what she wants to do around this border crisis,” he said.

FEARING TRUMP VICTORY, NEW MIGRANT CARAVAN SETS OFF TOWARDS US BORDER

Migrants leave for a shelter in New York City on Sept. 27, 2022. (Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Immigration and the ongoing crisis at the southern border are likely to be top issues in the months ahead, consistently showing up as an issue of importance for voters.

Harris was tasked by Biden in 2021 with leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the “root causes” of migration in the Northern Triangle countries. It led to her being dubbed the “border czar” by Republicans, although the White House has rejected that description.

The Biden administration has pinned the blame for the crisis on Republicans in Congress for not having approved funding and reforms to what it says is a “broken” system.

 The White House said recently that since an executive order by Biden was announced in June to limit entries into the U.S., encounters overall have decreased by more than 50%, and the number of releases has decreased by 70%. Officials also say the administration has removed and returned more than 50,000 individuals to more than 100 countries.

“While the president’s action has led to significant results, it is clear that the only lasting solution to the challenges we are seeing on our border – the solution that would deliver additional authorities, resources, and personnel that we need to secure our border – is through congressional action,” an official said.

BORDER SECURITY, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TOP AGENDA AT GOP CONVENTION: ‘MASS DEPORTATION NOW!’ 

But Republicans have blamed the crisis on the administration’s “open border” policies and have recently tried to link Harris to the actions taken by the administration.

“Candidates should not be shy about aggressively tying their opponents to Kamala Harris’ extreme agenda,” a National Republican Senatorial Campaign memo said this week.

Adams has been at times critical of the administration and has called for more federal action and more funding for states and cities receiving migrants in large numbers. On Tuesday, he said the White House should resurrect a bipartisan Senate package introduced earlier this year, and also praised recent executive action taken by Biden.

‘EXTREME AGENDA’: HARRIS’ PAST RECORD ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION RESURFACES AFTER BIDEN DROPS OUT 

“I think it was a great start… some of these executive orders that have come out of the White House, they have been extremely helpful, and I think we need to brush off that bipartisan plan and say it’s time to implement it and move forward, but the most important thing we could do is let people work.”

He also had his own suggestions, including the creation of a “decompression czar” to manage migrant destinations.

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“People who are coming in for the most part are paroled into the country. At that level, there should be a decompression czar. We should identify our municipalities who are losing populations, we have places in this country who are losing population, we should identify those places, and we should tell those we are paroling in, you go there for three years, deal with those population issues, employment issues and after three years, you can travel throughout the country,” he said. 

“We can turn this crisis into an opportunity if we manage it and not allow it to manage us.”

FIRST ON FOX – Pro-life advocates, quietly despondent about the changes on abortion to the Republican Party platform, are re-energized by the Democrats’ new likely nominee-to-be, who many feel they can successfully paint as “the extremist she is” on the issue of abortion.

The politics of abortion have changed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue of abortion access to the states. Democrats seized the moment, blaming former President Trump and his allies for the decision and trying to convince voters that a vote for a Democrat is a vote to restore Roe in some capacity. 

Just before the Republican National Convention last week, the RNC softened long-standing GOP language in the party’s platform, removing references to calls for a nationwide ban on abortion to appeal to a broader group of voters. 

Pro-life groups were still quick to support the Trump ticket, believing a Republican administration would still be most favorable to their cause of installing more protection for unborn babies and pregnant mothers, despite the changes to the GOP platform. 

ELON MUSK RIPS INTO KAMALA HARRIS FOR ‘LYING’ ABOUT TRUMP’S ABORTION POSITION

Pro-life women celebrate following the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, outside the Supreme Court in Washington, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

But a new memo obtained by Fox News Digital reveals that pro-life advocates are ready to coalesce around a new objective – painting Harris as an abortion “extremist” who “can’t name any limits on abortion she supports.”

In a memo sent Tuesday to GOP candidates, leadership and officeholders and state leaders from SBA Pro-Life America, one of the leading advocacy groups in the country, SBA claims, “Everyone expected abortion to be a major issue in the 2024 elections, but it now intensifies with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.” 

The memo contrasts President Biden, an Irish Catholic who “could barely utter the word abortion and for decades supported at least some basic limits, such as limits on taxpayer-funded abortions” with Harris, SBA says, “shouts abortion – and has not once voted or voiced support for ANY limits on abortion.” 

“Harris is so committed to abortion that she can’t see anything else, including the developmental stages of children before birth or the real needs of women,” the memo states. 

The memo points to then-Sen. Harris, who voted two times against a limit on abortions at 20 weeks with exceptions, “well after science shows unborn babies can feel pain – calling it an ‘immoral’ bill.” 

KAMALA HARRIS TORN APART BY PRO-LIFERS FOR HISTORIC TRIP TO ABORTION CLINIC: ‘NORMALIZATION OF EVIL’

Pro-life crowd outside the Supreme Court reacting to the Dobbs decision. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)

“She’s also voted twice against ensuring medical care for babies who survive an abortion attempt,” the memo notes. 

The memo also references Harris’ time as California attorney general, when she backed legislation that forced pregnancy resource centers to advertise for abortion clinics – which was eventually struck down as unconstitutional at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The memo notes that in 2022, Harris supported closing down pregnancy resource centers which, in lieu of abortions, provide free medical care, baby formula, diapers and other necessities. 

Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, noted in a post on X on Monday that pro-life activists “around the country are more emboldened than any time since Roe to rally and educate Americans about [Harris’] radical record on abortion.”

“There is no doubt that there was some disappointment and concern from grassroots pro-life activists over the GOP Platform changes, but with Kamala Harris at the helm there is a renewed enthusiasm among pro-lifers to fight for the unborn this election cycle,” one Republican pro-life activist told Fox News Digital. 

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS COMPARES ABORTION FIGHT TO BLOODY SUNDAY: ‘YOU CAN’T TAKE FREEDOM’

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at her presidential campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, July 22, 2024. (Erin Schaff/Pool via Reuters)

“Harris is a stooge for Big Abortion, so much so that she even voted against legislation that called for providing health care to babies born alive from failed abortions, making it easier to paint her as the extremist she is,” the source said. 

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Another pro-life activist told Fox that with Harris as the new presidential candidate, it “should force Trump and JD Vance to lean in on this issue” to “show moderates just how radical Kamala is – abortion on demand at any time and for any reason.”

Former President Trump said on Tuesday that he wants to make at least one visit, and possibly more, to the southern border as he seeks to make the ongoing migrant crisis a central issue in his re-election campaign — and draw a contrast with “radical” Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The answer is yes. I will be taking at least another trip or two trips or three trips, whatever is necessary,” he said in response to a question about whether he will visit the border.

He said details were yet to be figured out along with other officials including former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan and former National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.

FEARING TRUMP VICTORY, NEW MIGRANT CARAVAN SETS OFF TOWARDS US BORDER

“We have a lot of knowledge of the border, I’ve been there many times,” he said.

Former President Trump speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (Paul Sancya/AP Photo)

Trump’s comments came as part of a call in which he took repeated shots at Harris for her role in the ongoing border crisis. 

Harris was tasked by President Biden in 2021 with leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the “root causes” of migration in the Northern Triangle countries. It led to her being dubbed the “border czar” by Republicans, although the White House has rejected that description. Border apprehensions from those countries have dropped from 700,000 in FY 21 to less than 500,000 in FY 23, although it is unclear the extent to which that drop is connected to those root cause strategies.

Since she has become the presumptive Democratic nominee after President Biden said he would step aside and backed Harris as his successor, Republicans have wasted no time in repeating the “border czar” title.

“Kamala Harris was appointed border czar, as you know, in March 2021, and since that time, millions and millions of illegal aliens have invaded our country, and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of American borders and laws,” Trump said on the call.

HARRIS NOT SPOKEN TO BORDER PATROL CHIEF DESPITE ONGOING MIGRANT CRISIS, ‘ROOT CAUSES’ PUSH 

Vice President Kamala Harris has been going around the country on her Economic Opportunity Tour. (Leigh Vogel/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Working together with crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris supported a radical left policy of nationwide catch and release, halting all deportations, ending remain in Mexico so important, shredding my Safe Third agreement, stopping the wall construction,” he said.

Trump contrasted his policies on border security with those of the administration. Just as the Biden administration ended many of his policies after taking office, he pledged to scrap Biden policies if he is elected.

“So I will terminate every open-border policy of the Biden Harris administration. On day one, I will seal the border, stop the invasion, and keep America safe,” he said.

The Biden administration has pinned the blame for the crisis on Republicans in Congress for not having approved funding and reforms to what it says is a “broken” system.

It has also pointed to a recent executive order by President Biden that was announced in June to limit entries into the U.S., encounters overall have decreased by more than 50%, and the number of releases has decreased by 70%. Officials also say the administration has removed and returned more than 50,000 individuals to more than 100 countries.

Announcing that order in June, Biden blamed Trump for not having supported a bipartisan Senate package.

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“He told the Republicans — it has been published widely by many of you — that he didn’t want to fix the issue; he wanted to use it to attack me. That’s what he wanted to do. It was a cynical and a…extremely cynical political move and a complete disservice to the American people, who are looking for us to — not to weaponize the border but to fix it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the back-and-forth is already having an effect on the border, A migrant caravan set off from the Mexican southern border this week, with reports that some migrants want to get to the border before a potential Trump victory in November.

Former President Trump’s allies are urging him to stick to policy attacks, rather than commentary on her character or physical traits, when facing former Vice President Kamala Harris.

It comes as some within the ex-president’s sphere have bashed Harris as a “DEI candidate” — a criticism that others within Trump’s circle worry could push away moderates and independent voters.

“I mean, it’s certainly not the rhetoric that I would focus on. I would focus on her merit to do the job,” Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, previously a top Trump 2020 campaign aide, told Fox News Digital. 

“This woman just isn’t ready to be commander-in-chief of the country. And in my opinion, that’s what Republicans should focus on, as opposed to do what Democrats do, which is to call out someone based off of their skin color or gender. This is all about merit. And so I think DEI is the wrong hole to go down.”

NEW POLL REVEALS WHAT DEMOCRATS THINK OF HARRIS AS PRESIDENT

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will likely face each other in November (Getty Images)

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served in Trump’s Cabinet, said, “I think the tone of Trump is gonna be pointing out that she was even worse than Biden on policies, and her assigned tasks are ones that resulted in failure… I don’t think he’ll be on the personal attacks.”

Trump, for his part, has signaled that border policy will be a cornerstone of his criticism of Harris. He’s holding a press call with reporters to discuss what he called “Failed Border Czar Kamala Harris’ Border Bloodbath.”

Harris announced Sunday evening that she would seek the presidency after President Biden revealed he’s dropping out of the 2024 race. 

It prompted some on the right to accuse her of only being chosen as Biden’s vice president because of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) principles, citing her low polling and pressure on Biden in 2020 to appoint a Black woman as his running mate.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., called Harris a “DEI vice president” in a post on X Monday.

BIDEN ENDS BID FOR SECOND TERM IN WHITE HOUSE AS HE DROPS OUT OF HIS 2024 REMATCH WITH TRUMP

Rep. Ryan Zinke said he anticipates Trump laying off personal attacks (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“Personal aspersions don’t work in politically successful campaigns,” another House Republican told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “So yeah, let’s knock that stuff off.”

Trump ally Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital, “I hope that Americans aren’t going to vote for people based on their race or color creed. I would think we’re beyond that… She owns every bit of the Biden-Harris administration for the last three and a half years. And that’s all you have to focus on.”

The Trump campaign’s 2024 national press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped Harris in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying she “needs to answer for her own terrible weak-on-crime record in California.”

“Kamala Harris is just as weak, failed and incompetent as Joe Biden — and she’s also dangerously liberal. Not only does Kamala need to defend her support of Joe Biden’s failed agenda over the past four years, she also needs to answer for her own terrible weak-on-crime record in California,” Leavitt said. “A vote for Kamala is a vote for more crime, inflation, open borders, high gas prices, and war around the world, and our team will make sure every American knows it.”

House GOP leaders urged their members to refrain from attacks on Harris’s personality and physical traits during a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday morning, multiple GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital. 

WHITE HOUSE, FAMILY OFFER CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS IF BIDEN’S HEALTH INFLUENCED DECISION TO DROP OUT

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, however, leaned into attacks against Harris (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., who as New York State GOP chair navigated tough elections and even tried to recruit Trump to run for governor, called those personal attacks “noise.” He said, “It’s really important to continue to talk about policy. This is an economic election. This is about the economy and the angst that, especially the middle class, has right now.”

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But not all Trump allies are in agreement — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., one of Trump’s top campaign surrogates, told Fox News Digital the day before, “I think everyone knows that.”

“She wasn’t chosen because she was truly highly ranked amongst Democratic voters throughout the country. She was chosen for a reason. And it seems to be that her, unfortunately, her gender and maybe her skin color was part of that,” Greene said, adding that she also anticipated the Trump campaign attacking Harris on policy.

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

The left-wing organization Black Lives Matter is resisting the installation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee and are calling on the Democratic National Convention “to create a process that allows for public participation in the nomination process, not just a nomination by party delegates.” 

In a statement Tuesday, the group, which rose to prominence in 2020 for organizing nationwide protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, said that “a 24-hour process of talking to party bosses is not democratic, nor is it a process Democrats should be proud of.” 

For weeks after his disastrous debate performance last month, internal party pressure mounted against President Joe Biden to drop out of the race — though he resisted those calls and insisted he was “in it to win it.” 

But abruptly, over the weekend, Biden dropped out of the race and nominated Harris to lead the top of the ticket. And overnight, the Democratic Party coalesced around her, winning enough delegate support to secure the nomination at the DNC convention in August. 

AFTER GOP SNUB, PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES RE-ENERGIZED BY KAMALA HARRIS, WHO THEY CAN LABEL ‘EXTREMIST’

A protester picks up signs during a demonstration in Beverly Hills, Calif., July 17, 2013, in reaction to the acquittal of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin.  (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

But, BLM, a group that predominantly aligns with the Democrat Party, is calling foul on the play. 

“We do not live in a dictatorship. Delegates are not oligarchs. Installing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee and an unknown vice president without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites,” the group said in a statement. 

“Black Lives Matter demands that the [DNC] immediately host an informal, virtual snap primary across the country prior to the DNC convention in August.”

“We call for the Rules Committee to create a process that allows for public participation in the nomination process, not just a nomination by party delegates. The current political landscape is unprecedented, with President Biden stepping aside in a manner never seen before. This moment calls for decisive action to protect the integrity of our democracy and the voices of Black voters,” it said.

TRUMP SAYS HE ‘WOULD BE WILLING TO DO MORE THAN ONE DEBATE’ WITH VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS

A black lives matter t-shirt during a “Hands Up, Dont Shoot” demonstration in front of the San Francisco Hall of Justice on December 18, 2014 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Democratic Party elites and billionaire donors are attempting to manipulate Black voters by anointing Kamala Harris and an unknown vice president as the new Democratic ticket without a primary vote by the public,” the group stated. 

“This blatant disregard for democratic principles is unacceptable. While the potential outcome of a Harris presidency may be historic, the process to achieve it must align with true democratic values,” it continued. 

“We have no idea where Kamala Harris stands on the issues, now that she has assumed Joe Biden’s place, and we have no idea of the record of her potential vice president because we don’t even know who it is yet.” 

HARRIS’ BACKING OF BAIL FUND DURING GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS DAMPENS TRUMP ‘PROSECUTOR’ CAMPAIGN PITCH

Shalomyah Bowers speaks onstage during the NBJC Equity March on June 15, 2024, in Washington, DC.  (Brian Stukes/Getty Images)

Shalomyah Bowers, a BLM leader, said, “This is not an attack on Kamala Harris or Black women, and right now we aren’t questioning Kamala’s qualifications or capabilities. This is about the nominating process.”

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“Those of us who care about the principles of democracy cannot be serious about installing Kamala Harris and an unknown vice president as the Democratic nominee without any semblance of a people-powered process,” Bowers said.

“Not delegates and party elites, but actually asking communities across the country if they believe this should be the democratic ticket. Anything less is unserious in the quest for democracy.”

Efforts to reach the Harris campaign for comment were unsuccessful at press time. 

Former President Trump’s campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Tuesday, accusing President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of violating campaign finance laws by transferring his $91 million in fundraising cash to her new campaign. 

Biden bowed out of the presidential race on Sunday following weeks of calls for him to leave following a shaky debate performance. 

The president endorsed the vice president to run for the Democratic ticket in his place and transferred his millions of dollars in campaign cash over to her. 

The Trump campaign argued in the complaint, first reported by The New York Times and obtained by Fox News Digital, that Harris is “seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash.”

MARGIN-OF-ERROR RACE BETWEEN HARRIS, TRUMP IN NEW POLL CONDUCTED AFTER BIDEN DROPPED

Former President Trump’s campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, accusing President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of violating campaign finance laws by transferring his $91 million in fundraising cash to her new campaign.  (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images; Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

David Warrington, who serves as general counsel for the Trump campaign, called the act “a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended.”

“Kamala Harris is in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history and she is using the Commission’s own forms to do it,” the filing concluded. “The Commission must not and cannot sit idly by while one candidate takes nearly one hundred million dollars from the authorized committee of another, in violation of the Act and the will of the donors who gave the money in the first place.”

Included in the complaint are Biden, Harris, “Biden for President (aka Harris for President) and Keana Spencer, as treasurer, for flagrantly violating the Act by making and receiving an excessive contribution of nearly one hundred million dollars, and for filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate.”

President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris to run for the Democratic ticket in his place and transferred his millions of dollars in campaign cash over to her.  (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images))

WHAT’S NEXT FOR HARRIS NOW THAT SHE’S SEEMINGLY LOCKED UP THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION?

The complaint argues that if “Kamala Harris were a candidate for something in 2024, federal law requires her to have filed a Statement of Candidacy and for her name to have appeared in the name of her authorized committee. But Kamala Harris’s name does not appear in the name of her purported authorized committee, ‘Biden for President,’ and, until Sunday, no Statement of Candidacy existed for her. Then Sunday, rather than filing her own Statement of Candidacy, she merely altered Joe Biden’s to replace his name with hers. There is no mechanism under the Act for one individual to end another’s federal candidacy by simply amending the other’s Form 2. Moreover, in that purported amended Form 2 Harris designated ‘Biden for President’ as her principal campaign committee and then renamed it. Altering a document submitted to a federal agency is a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1519.3.” 

The Harris campaign told Fox News Digital that the complaint was “baseless.”

David Warrington, who serves as general counsel for the Trump campaign, called the act “a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended.” (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Team Harris will continue to build on our more than 250 coordinated offices and more than 1,300 coordinated staffers across the battleground states – just like we built on the $240 million cash on hand that we had at launch this week, raising $100 million in our first 36 hours and signing up 58,000 volunteers,” the statement read.

“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election.”

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Harris’ team broke a record with their more than $100 million fundraising haul since Biden dropped out on Sunday and Harris launched her candidacy. Biden had seen much of his fundraising dry up following his difficult debate on June 27. 

In her first speech since Biden dropped out, Harris spoke to Biden campaign staffers on Monday, assuring them she would need the team to stay on to run her campaign with the election little more than 100 days away on Nov. 5.