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The House Democrats on the Foreign Affairs Committee released their own memo on President Biden’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan after committee Republicans released a report criticizing the president for what went down at the time.

Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee, released a GOP-led report disputing Biden’s claims that his hands were tied to the agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021. It also said State Department officials had no plan for helping Americans and allies out while there were still troops in the region to protect them.

McCaul’s report also noted the failure to adequately respond to terror threats ahead of the ISIS-K bombing at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghan civilians, and that the Taliban likely had access after the withdrawal to $7 billion in abandoned U.S. weapons and up to $57 million in U.S. funds that were initially given to the Afghan government.

But New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the Democrat ranking member of the committee, released a dueling report in response to the GOP-led report, accusing Republicans of criticizing the Biden administration for the withdrawal for political purposes and failing to offer feasible alternatives.

HOUSE GOP RELEASES SCATHING REPORT ON BIDEN’S WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN

A U.S. Marine grabs an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at then-Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 19, 2021. (Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)

Meeks also said Republicans did not involve Democrat members in their report and stressed that plans for withdrawing from Afghanistan began under the Trump administration.

He said in the memo’s summary that Republicans sought to avoid facts involving Trump, including “his committing the United States to a full, date-specific withdrawal in a deal he negotiated with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government or any reference to the rights of Afghan women and girls.”

The ranking member also knocked Trump’s “unilateral announcements to withdraw troops, often a surprise to many of his own senior officials, which undercut U.S. leverage because those announcements were divorced from Taliban compliance with the deal; and his forcing the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters back to the battlefield before a final Taliban offensive ultimately took Kabul.”

“When former President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan,” Meeks wrote. “Days before leaving office, the former President ordered a further reduction to 2,500. President Trump initiated a withdrawal that was irreversible without sending significantly more American troops to Afghanistan to face renewed combat with the Taliban.”

Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024.  (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

“All witnesses who testified on this issue agreed that the United States would have faced renewed combat with the Taliban had we not continued the withdrawal,” he added. “Rather than send more Americans to fight a war in Afghanistan, President Biden decided to end it.”

Addressing the Abbey Gate bombing. Meeks said Republicans “knew for months that the attack was not preventable and that, even though a witness told our Committee he thought he had the ISIS-K bomber in his sights, he did not.”

Republicans, Meeks said, made partisan attempts to garner headlines rather than acknowledge the full facts and substance of their investigation during the height of the election cycle. He also said Republicans attempted to tie Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democrats’ presidential nominee, to the withdrawal even though she is referenced only three times in 3,288 pages of the committee’s interview transcripts.

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS BLINKEN OVER AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command, assist with security at an Evacuation Control Checkpoint (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26. ((U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla) )

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“American taxpayers have funded this Committee’s oversight, and the American people deserve the truth,” Meeks said. “We owe it to them to highlight the facts elicited in this investigation without undue spin and with respect for the seriousness of the subject and the witnesses who have voluntarily testified to us about it.”

“It strikes me now as it did during that hearing that many of those critical of the withdrawal effort simply have a fundamental objection to President Biden fulfilling his pledge to be the last Commander-in-Chief to preside over the war in Afghanistan,” he added. “They are masking their displeasure with criticisms but have failed to offer feasible alternatives. We must continue to wrestle with these matters not to rewrite the past or assign partisan blame, but to identify lessons that can help us better fight and end wars in the future.”

Former President George W. Bush does not plan to reveal whom he will vote for in the upcoming 2024 election.

“No,” the former president’s office said when asked by NBC News whether he or former First Lady Laura Bush would endorse a candidate publicly. “President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago.”

Bush’s refusal to make a public endorsement comes just a day after his former vice president, Dick Cheney, announced that he would go against his party’s candidate and support Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

HARRIS CAMPAIGN AGREES TO ABC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RULES WITH SOME ‘ASSURANCES’: REPORT

Former U.S. President George W. Bush looks on before kickoff between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants at AT&T Stadium on November 12, 2023, in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said in a statement. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”

Trump responded to Cheney’s endorsement by calling the former vice president “an irrelevant RINO” in a Truth Social post shortly after Cheney’s announcement.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Harris said she was “honored” to have Cheney’s endorsement, adding that it “really reinforces for them that we love our country, and we have more in common than what separates.”

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on Bush’s silence.

Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, August 29, 2024. Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz (Reuters)

TRUMP SLAMS ABC AHEAD OF PIVOTAL NETWORK-HOSTED DEBATE: ‘THEY’RE THE WORST, THEY’RE THE NASTIEST’

While Bush’s office argued the former president “retired from presidential politics years ago,” he has made endorsements of Republican presidential candidates in the past. In 2008, he supported then-Senator John McCain’s bid against former President Barack Obama and also threw his weight behind the 2012 candidacy of Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.

Bush’s stance on presidential politics seemingly changed with the emergence of former President Donald Trump in 2016, whom Bush avoided commenting on. Bush instead focused on supporting Republican senators. In November, his office said that he and the former first lady did not vote for either major party candidate in the 2016 election.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally held with Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance, in Atlanta, Georgia, August 3, 2024. Reuters/Megan Varner

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After Trump’s failed bid for re-election in 2020, Bush said that he had written in former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in that year’s race. 

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

Tren de Aragua, a violent street gang that has emerged from Venezuela, has been tied to a number of crimes across the country and is picking up national attention as a result, amid reports that it has taken over apartment buildings in Colorado.

Who are they?

The gang is believed to have originated in Venezuelan prisons and moved north over the last decade. But its reputation within the U.S. has grown this year, in part due to a number of high-profile crimes linked to the gang, with many believed to have arrived by coming across the southern border as part of the sharp increase in migration in recent years.

A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bulletin in March alerted agents to tattoos and other identifiers of the gang. Federal authorities had previously warned that the gang was trying to establish itself in the U.S, and could potentially team up with the violent MS-13 gang.

AFTER VIDEO OF ARMED VENEZUELAN GANG SHARED BY LOCAL OFFICIAL GOES VIRAL, COLORADO CITY TAKES ACTION

Alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang have overtaken an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, charging rent in exchange for protection. (Edward Romero/ Council member Danielle Jurinsky)

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in an interview this year that the gang “has unleashed violence across Central and South America.”

“Now, we’re seeing more people coming across the border illegally with ties to Tren de Aragua. Until we get the border crisis under control, more and more bad actors will take advantage of the loopholes in our immigration system,” he said.

What have they done?

In February, New York officials linked the gang to more than 62 robberies in the city, and two suspected members of the gang were arrested in connection with a shocking assault of two NYPD officers.

The brother of the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley has ties to the gang, and in Texas 10 migrants affiliated with the gang were arrested earlier in May.

“Keep your eye on this gang,” Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said at that time. “Their criminal activities represent a serious threat to our communities!”

What’s happening in Colorado?

FBI FEARS VENEZUELA MIGRANT GANG MEMBERS COULD POTENTIALLY TEAM UP WITH MS-13 KILLERS

The gang has established a significant presence in parts of Colorado. Fox News Digital reported in July that TdA members have been given a “green light” to fire on or attack law enforcement in Denver.

More recently, reports have emerged of the gang taking over at least two apartment buildings in Aurora, with surveillance video showing heavily armed men kicking down an apartment door. The Aurora mayor said on Fox News that there are “several buildings actually under the same ownership, out of state ownership, that have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs.”

These images from a CBP intelligence bulletin, show tattoos and other identifiers for Tren De Aragua.

The city, however, has said there is only a “small” presence in Aurora, and that media “have conflated and considerably exaggerated incidents that are isolated to a handful of problem properties alone.”

A spokesman for Aurora Police recently told The Denver Post that “it’s still too soon to quantify TdA’s presence in Aurora one way or another.” In a statement, the city said the police “continue to identify criminals and make arrests” and also noted that residents have cited poor living conditions rather than a takeover in those properties.

Meanwhile, ICE confirmed to Fox News last week that four known or suspected gang members arrested by police in Aurora this week connected to a shooting in July are illegal immigrants who were caught and released at the border.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

What is the federal government doing?

The Biden administration announced significant action against the gang in July when the Treasury designated Tren de Aragua a “significant transnational criminal organization.” That move blocks all property and assets owned by the gang in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the State Department offered up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest of three of the gang’s leaders. The administration also stressed that it is working to disrupt the gang and has increased vetting.

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Senior border officials told Fox News this week that the gang is a priority. But pressure is likely only to grow as former President Donald Trump highlighted the issue at a Fox News town hall this week.

“Take a look at Aurora, in Colorado, where Venezuelans are taking over the whole town. They’re taking over buildings. The whole town,” he said.

Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a scathing report that took a fine-toothed comb to the military’s botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and highlighted areas of serious mismanagement. 

The Republican-led report opens by harkening back to President Joe Biden’s urgency to withdraw from the Vietnam War as a senator in the 1970s. That, along with the Afghanistan withdrawal, demonstrates a “pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners,” according to the report.

The report also disputed Biden’s assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and it revealed how state officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them. 

A U.S. Marine grabs an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at then-Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 19, 2021. (Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)

Here’s a roundup of the findings of the 600-page report, comprised of tens of thousands of pages of documents and interviews with high-level officials that spanned much of the last two years: 

Biden was not bound by deadlines in Trump’s Doha agreement with Taliban

The report found that Biden and Vice President Harris were advised by top leaders that the Taliban were already in violation of the conditions of the Doha agreement and, therefore, the U.S. was not obligated to leave. 

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS BLINKEN OVER AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

The committee also found NATO allies had expressed their vehement opposition to the U.S. decision to withdraw. The British Chief of the Defense staff warned that “withdrawal under these circumstances would be perceived as a strategic victory for the Taliban.”

Biden kept on Zalmay Khalilzad, a Trump appointee who negotiated the agreement, as special representative to Afghanistan – a signal that the new administration endorsed the deal. 

At the Taliban’s demand, Khalilzad had shut out the Afghan government from the talks – a major blow to President Ashraf Ghani’s government. 

When Trump left office, some 2,500 U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan. Biden himself was determined to draw that number to zero no matter what, according to Col. Seth Krummrich, chief of staff for Special Operations Command, who told the committee, “The president decided we’re going to leave, and he’s not listening to anybody.”

Then-State Dept. spokesperson Ned Price admitted in testimony the Doha agreement was “immaterial” to Biden’s decision to withdraw. 

Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan in Kabul last month. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

The withdrawal: State Department built up personnel, failed to hatch escape plan as it became clear Kabul would fall

The report also details numerous warning signs the State Department received to draw down its embassy footprint as it became clear Afghanistan would quickly fall to the Taliban. It refused to do so. At the time of the withdrawal, it was one of the largest embassies in the world. 

In the end, Americans and U.S. allies were left stranded as the military was ordered to withdraw before the embassy had shuttered.

In one meeting, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon rejected military officials’ warnings, saying “we at the State Department have a much higher risk tolerance than you guys.”

Gen. Austin Miler, the longest-serving commander in Afghanistan, confirmed McKeon’s comments and explained that the State Department did not have a higher risk tolerance but instead exhibited “a lack of understanding of the risk” in Afghanistan.

Asked why McKeon would make such statements, the officer explained, “The State Department and the president were saying it. Consequently, [Wilson] and others start saying it, thinking that they will make it work.” 

The report lays blame on former Afghanistan Ambassador Ross Wilson, who instead of shrinking, grew the embassy’s presence as the security situation deteriorated.

Revealing little sense of urgency, Wilson was on a two-week vacation on the last week of July and the first week of August 2021. 

The Taliban Virtue and Vice Ministry on May 7, 2022, said women in public must wear all-encompassing robes and cover their faces, except for their eyes. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

An NEO, a noncombatant evacuation operation to get personnel out, was not ordered until Aug. 15 as the Taliban marched into Kabul. 

There weren’t enough troops present to begin the NEO until Aug. 19, and the first public message from the embassy in Kabul urging Americans to evacuate wasn’t sent until Aug. 7. 

And while there weren’t enough military planes to handle the evacuations, it took the Transportation Department until Aug. 20 to allow foreign planes to assist. 

Wilson fled the embassy ahead of his entire embassy staff, the report found. He reportedly had COVID-19 at the time but got a foreign service officer to take his test for him so that he could flee the country. 

Acting Under Secretary Carol Perez told the committee the embassy’s evacuation plan was “still in the works” when the Taliban took over, despite months of warning.

Those left behind: Americans and allies turned away while unvetted Afghans got on flights

Wilson testified that he was “comfortable” with holding off on the NEO until Aug. 15, while Gen. Frank McKenzie described it as the “fatal flaw that created what happened in August.”

As the Taliban surrounded Kabul on Aug. 14, notes obtained by the committee from a National Security Counsel (NSC) meeting reveal the U.S. government still had not determined who would be eligible for evacuation nor had they identified third countries to serve as transit points for an evacuation.

Fewer cases for special immigrant visas (SIVs) to evacuate Afghan U.S. military allies like interpreters were processed in June, July and August – the lead-up to the takeover – than the four months prior. 

When the last U.S. military flight departed Kabul, around 1,000 Americans were left on the ground, as were more than 90% of SIV-eligible Afghans.

The report found that local embassy employees had been de-prioritized for evacuation, with many turned away from the embassy and airport in tears. On the day of the Taliban takeover, the U.S.’ only guidance for those who might be eligible for evacuation was to “not travel to the airport until you have been informed by email that departure options exist.”

And since the NSC did not send over guidelines for who was eligible for evacuation and who to prioritize because they were “at risk,” the State Department processed thousands of evacuees with no documentation. 

The U.S. government had “no idea if people being evacuated were threats,” one State Department employee told the committee.

After the final troops left Afghanistan, volunteer groups helped at least 314 American citizens and 266 lawful permanent residents evacuate the country.

Scenes at Abbey Gate: Terror threat warnings unheeded before bombing

And as the Taliban whipped groups of desperate Afghans at the airport, burned young women and executed civilians, U.S. troops were forbidden from intervening. 

Consul General Jim DeHart described the scene as “apocalyptic.” 

U.S. intelligence, meanwhile, was tracking multiple threat streams, including “a potential VBIED or suicide vest IED as part of a complex attack,” by Aug. 23.  By Aug. 26, the threat was specifically narrowed down to Abbey Gate. It was so serious that diplomatic security pulled back state employees from the gate.

Brig. Gen. Farrell Sullivan ultimately decided to keep the gate open in the face of the threats due to requests made by the Brits.

AFGHAN GENERAL SAYS HIS COUNTRY HAS ONCE AGAIN BECOME ‘CRUCIBLE OF TERRORISM’

And on Aug. 26, two bombs planted by terror group ISIS-K exploded at the airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans. CENTCOM records revealed the same ISIS-K terror cell that conducted the Abbey Gate attack “established a base of operations located six kilometers to the west” of the airport in a neighborhood previously used by them as a staging area for an attack on the airport in December 2020. But the U.S. did not strike this cell before the bombing. 

Two weeks later, an airstrike intending to kill those behind the ISIS-K instead killed 10 civilians. The administration initially touted the strike as a success of over-the-horizon capabilities before acknowledging a family of civilians had been killed. 

The U.S. has not struck ISIS-K in Afghanistan since – in stark contrast to the 313 operations carried out by CENTCOM against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2022.

U.S. service members assist the Department of State with a non-combatant evacuation operation in Afghanistan. (Department of Defense)

The long-term consequences 

In addition to the $7 billion in abandoned U.S. weapons, the Taliban likely gained access to up to $57 million in U.S. funds that were initially given to the Afghan government. 

The Taliban’s interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, proclaimed in February 2024 that relations with the rest of the world, especially the U.S., are “irrelevant” to its policymaking.

A NATO report written by the Defence Education Enhancement Programme found the Taliban was using U.S. military biometric devices and databases to hunt down U.S. Afghan allies.

And in the first six months of Taliban power, “nearly 500 former government officials and members of the Afghan security forces were killed or forcibly disappeared,” according to the report. 

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Some 118 girls have been sold as child brides since the takeover and 116 families are waiting for a buyer. Women are now banned from speaking or showing their faces in public. 

In June 2024, the Department of Homeland Security identified more than 400 persons of interest from Central Asia who had illegally crossed the U.S. southern border with the help of an ISIS-related smuggling network. The U.S. has since arrested more than 150 of these individuals. On June 11, 2024, the FBI arrested eight people with ties to ISIS-K who had crossed through the southern border.

Former President Donald Trump is maintaining his lead nationally, seemingly shrugging off a burst of enthusiasm for Democrats after Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race.

Trump garnered the support of 48% of likely voters, compared to 47% who indicated support for Harris, according to the latest results of the New York Times/Siena poll released on Sunday.

The results are essentially identical to the last time the New York Times/Siena poll asked voters for their preference in the aftermath of President Biden dropping out of the race in late July, with that poll also showing Trump with a 48-47 lead.

HARRIS CAMPAIGN AGREES TO ABC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RULES WITH SOME ‘ASSURANCES’: REPORT

Former President Trump and vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, appear on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 15, 2024.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The poll comes after weeks of increased enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket after Harris took over for Biden, though the New York Times argued that it appears Trump’s support is “remarkably resilient” to the stunning changes to the election landscape.

The poll found that Harris has yet to sell voters on her vision for the country, with 28% of respondents indicating that they felt like they needed to know more about her in order for her to earn their support. In contrast, only 9% indicated similar concerns about Trump.

“I don’t know what Kamala’s plans are,” said Dawn Conley, a 48-year-old small-business owner in Knoxville, Tenn., who is leaning toward Trump, told the New York Times.

Former president Donald Trump speaks from the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, laying out his vision for the economy if he wins a second term.

TRUMP SLAMS ABC AHEAD OF PIVOTAL NETWORK-HOSTED DEBATE: ‘THEY’RE THE WORST, THEY’RE THE NASTIEST’

The poll also found that while Harris has made gains with key demographics to the Democratic coalition after Biden’s decision to drop out, she is still falling short of traditional Democratic strength among groups such as women and Latino voters.

Also working against Harris is the voters’ preference for change, with 60% indicating they would like to see a major change from the policies of Biden. Only 25% of respondents said Harris would represent that kind of change, while 53% believe that Trump would.

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Enmarket Arena August 29, 2024, in Savannah, Georgia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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But the poll’s news wasn’t all bad for Harris, who may hold the critical enthusiasm lead over Trump as November quickly approaches. The poll found that 91% of Democrats were enthusiastic about voting, while 85% of Republicans indicated the same.

The New York Times/Siena poll surveyed 1,695 registered voters between September 3 and September 6 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

The Democratic Party is pushing away the religious vote with “anti-Christian” policies as former President Donald Trump works to court Catholics and other Christians, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said. 

“They’re anti-Christian, and it’s driving people out,” Donohue said in a phone interview of Democrats, citing similar comments from former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who recently endorsed Trump. “And the guys I’m talking to, it’s not even so much abortion. It’s just they feel like they don’t speak their language anymore. This whole idea of letting men compete against women in sports abuses the bathrooms, they think they’ve just gone off the deep end.”

Donohue spoke to Fox News Digital about the Trump campaign launching the “Catholics for Trump” coalition, which aims to build “a nation where the rights of every individual to practice their faith freely is protected.” 

“Kamala Harris hates Catholics and everything we hold sacred. We can’t pretend otherwise. Our institutions, families, culture and belief in the sanctity of all human life are the antithesis of her vision for America. Donald Trump and JD Vance — and now RFK — are the antidote to the ruling class that has destroyed our country,” Brian Burch, president of conservative non-profit, CatholicVote, said in the Trump campaign’s press release. 

TRUMP APPLAUDS CATHOLIC GROUP’S MULTI-MILLION ANTI-HARRIS CAMPAIGN APPEALING TO CHURCH FAITHFUL

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall with Sean Hannity at the New Holland Arena on September 4, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Trump on Sunday even wished the Virgin Mary a happy birthday. The Catholic Church recognizes the birthday of Jesus’ mother on Sept. 8, which falls nine months after the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8 each year. 

President Biden, who is Catholic, dropped out of the presidential race at the end of July. Donohue said that Biden exiting the race likely won’t affect the Catholic vote overall, beyond perhaps benefiting Harris due to voters not being as familiar with her policies. 

“I would suspect that in terms of Biden dropping out, it might help Harris a little bit, if only because she’s less well known. But once people find out that her views are indistinguishable from that of Biden’s, including born alive protection laws … when the baby is born as a result of a botched abortion, the Democrats – for most of them, not all, most of them –say that the doctor has no obligation to rescue the child. You can just let the child die at the table. Most Americans are opposed to that,” Donohue said. 

PRIEST AT TRUMP RALLY WHO GAVE BENEDICTION WARNED OF ‘PEOPLE WHO WANT TO SHOOT’ FORMER PRESIDENT

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024, in Houston, Texas. The American Federation of Teachers is the first labor union to endorse Harris for president since announcing her campaign.  (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

Harris voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that would have penalized health care workers who fail to help care for babies born alive after a failed abortion, in 2020 when she served as a California senator. Harris is an ardent supporter of abortion access overall and made history alongside her future 2024 running mate when she visited a Minnesota Planned Parenthood earlier this year – in what was seen as the first time a sitting U.S. vice president has ever visited an abortion provider. 

An abortion-rights demonstrator holds a sign during a rally, May 14, 2022, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (AP)

Trump secured the majority of the Catholic vote in his successful 2016 election cycle against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at 52% to Clinton’s 45%, Pew Research data show. In 2020, 52% of all Catholic voters cast their ballots for Biden, and 47% for Trump, according to Gallup. 

Donohue noted that there’s a vast difference between how practicing Catholics vote, versus baptized Catholics who no longer practice their faith, explaining that religious Catholics “have almost nothing in common” with secular Catholics, who more frequently vote for Democrats. He added that the same is often true for religious Jews versus cultural Jews, and evangelical protestants versus mainline protestants. 

BIDEN ‘DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE CATHOLIC FAITH,’ BISHOP SAYS: ‘I’M NOT ANGRY AT HIM, HE’S JUST STUPID’

In addition to the Catholics for Trump coalition, the campaign launched the “Believers for Trump” coalition, which works with various religious communities to end the Biden-Harris administration’s “anti-faith agenda for good,” according to its website. 

“The Democrat Party and the Harris-Biden Administration have waged war on Christianity with their support for abortion up until birth, the Department of Justice targeting and imprisoning pro-life activists, and the FBI plotting to infiltrate Catholic masses to spy on attendees,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. 

“Kamala and Biden also shamefully declared the Holiest Day on the Christian Calendar as ‘Trans Visibility Day’ and allowed a transgender activist to take off their shirt and expose themselves on the White House South Lawn. President Trump will restore the Christian conservative values of faith, family, and freedom, end the Harris-Biden Administration’s discrimination against Christians, and stand up for religious freedom, as he did in his first term.”

Donohue added that the Catholic vote historically supported Democrats until the 1960s. 

“Everybody was a Democrat. All Catholics were Democrats. That didn’t shift until really late ‘60s, early ’70s, certainly by the time ‘72, when McGovern was running against Nixon. And people said, ‘wait a minute.’ But then Catholics felt homeless, because the Republicans never wanted the Catholics. The Republicans were always the party of abortion,” he said. 

George McGovern ran against President Nixon as a Democrat in the 1972 presidential election and was billed as the candidate who supported “amnesty, abortion and acid,” just a year ahead of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision. 

Pope Francis holds a thurible of incense as he celebrates a mass for the Virgin of Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) in St. Peters Basilica on December 12, 2018, at the Vatican. (Photo by Filippo Monteforte / AFP via Getty Images)        (Getty Images)

Fast-forward to current times, the GOP has become the pro-life party. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with Trump praising the decision and now campaigning on a platform where abortion laws are left to the individual states. 

TRUMP PROMISES ‘CHRISTIAN VISIBILITY DAY’

“Since Dobbs, abortion has been more of a monkey on the back of Republicans. They’ve lost because some of the pro-life extremists in the Republican Party tried to go for all or nothing, but that’s a fool’s proposition. We always lose on that. You have to make exceptions, the proverbial exceptions everybody accepts. And you know, later into the term, there’s less tolerance for abortion. So you have to play off of that. So Trump was advised, I think correctly, to get the abortion issue off your back, because it’s a loser for Republicans. And just simply say, ‘Listen, the goal was to get rid of Roe v. Wade so that it’s up to the states to decide what they want to do,'” Donohue said. 

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is embraced by U.S. President Joe Biden during a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 on September 2, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden joined Vice President Harris for her second Labor Day event, for the first time on the campaign trail since he departed the Democratic ticket and Harris was confirmed as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election against Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump. The event was attended by members of the IBEW, United Steelworkers, AFSCME and other unions. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Trump did spark the condemnation of some pro-life conservatives for the GOP’s more muted language on abortion this election cycle, and for saying last month that Florida’s six-week abortion ban “is too short.” He has since said that he will vote against a Florida amendment that would legalize abortion through the 9th month of pregnancy, and has doubled down that abortion laws and issues should be left up to the states to decide. 

TRUMP ENDORSES TEN COMMANDMENTS IN LOUISIANA SCHOOLS: ‘REVIVAL OF RELIGION’

St. Peter’s Square during the Holy Mass with the College of Cardinals for the Opening of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on October 4, 2023, in Vatican City. The Solemn Mass for the Opening of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops began with a modern version of the traditional Laudes Regiae hymn, invoking God’s protection and blessing on the Church, on Pope Francis and the Bishops and the flock entrusted to him, and on civil leaders and all women and men. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Anti-Catholic attacks have meanwhile increased in recent years, most notably after the Dobbs decision, when radicals attacked Catholic churches, and when reports of an anti-Catholic FBI memo that targeted traditional Catholics as potential “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” made national headlines. The DOJ absolved the FBI of wrongdoing earlier this year in an Inspector General review that found the agency did not intentionally target traditional Catholics.

“A lot of Catholics do feel alienated,” Donohue said, while commending Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan for his work investigating anti-Catholic bias in the federal government. 

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“Many of them have found a new anchor with the Republicans. And listen, the guys that I hang out with in my Irish Pub,” Donohue said. “Every one of these guys are union guys, and many of them are retired. They’re all lifelong Democrats, and every single one of them are voting for Trump. Every single one of them are voting for Trump, because they say the Democrats have abandoned them.” 

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

Tech billionaire Elon Musk did not mince words when declaring his support for the Second Amendment on Sunday. 

“The right to bear arms is there to protect free speech and stop a tyrannical government from taking your rights away! That’s why the first thing that all tyrants do is disarm the people, just like Chavez did when he was first elected. After that, no more real elections in Venezuela,” Musk posted to his X account on Sunday. 

Musk was responding to an interview clip of Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock joining NBC News on Sunday, when he was asked whether Vice President Kamala Harris should support a mandatory gun buyback program. 

Buyback programs are government initiatives to purchase privately owned firearms in order to reduce the number of guns in circulation. Harris supported such mandatory programs during her failed 2020 run for the Oval Office and has since backed away from actively supporting mandatory buyback initiatives. 

TRUMP SAYS HE’LL ASK ELON MUSK TO LEAD GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY COMMISSION IF HE WINS ELECTION

“Should she also be, in your opinion, supporting a mandatory gun buyback program,” NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Warnock, just days after the tragic Georgia school shooting that killed four people. 

“We’re not going to be able to get where we need to go without action in Congress. We’ve got to pass some laws to deal with this. Now, I was heartened by the fact that two years ago, we finally did a gun safety law — the Safer Communities Act. And it was the first gun safety law we passed in 30 years, 30 years. And it was modest, but it did save lives, but clearly, in the wake of what happened just the other day in Winder, Georgia, is not enough,” Warnock responded. 

Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X Holdings Corp., speaks at the Milken Institutes Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, on May 6, 2024, in Beverly Hills, California. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

Musk, who has described himself as a “historically moderate Democrat,” endorsed former President Donald Trump for president earlier this year and has previously pledged his support for the Second Amendment. 

TRUMP-MUSK INTERVIEW: 5 BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TO THE US BORDER CRISIS 

Former first lady Melania Trump joins Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump on stage after he officially accepted the Republican presidential nomination on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  ( (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images))

“I strongly believe that the right to bear arms is an important safeguard against potential tyranny of government. Historically, maintaining their power over the people is why those in power did not allow public ownership of guns,” Musk told CNBC in 2022. 

His latest statement supporting Americans’ rights to bear arms has garnered praise from conservatives and those in the 2A community. 

TRUMP IMPERSONATES ELON MUSK TALKING ABOUT ROCKETS: ‘I’M DOING A NEW STAINLESS STEEL HUB’

Trump said last week that if he wins the election in November, he will appoint Musk to lead a government efficiency commission. 

“I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government,” Trump said in a speech Thursday at the Economic Club of New York.

The comment comes after Musk suggested the creation of a government efficiency commission last month during a conversation he hosted with Trump on X.  

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“I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises. No pay, no title, no recognition is needed,” Musk posted on X after Trump said he would follow through on Musk’s idea of establishing such a commission if he wins in November. 

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

Nikki Haley broke with former President Trump’s stance regarding IVF treatment, but still said she was “on standby” to campaign for the Republican nominee. 

Haley, who was the last Republican presidential candidate to drop from the GOP race before Trump became the nominee, said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that she had spoken with Trump in June and that “he’s aware that I’m ready if he ever needs me” to campaign for him. 

With this election, Haley said, “there’s a lot at stake” with two administrations asking to be re-elected. Her main concerns, she says, are her children, with the cost of living and housing so high, the cost of goods up 20%, immigration and safety “with foreign entities coming in and the threats we could face,” and energy.

“And so there’s just a lot going on,” Haley told CBS host Margaret Brennan. “To me, the stark contrast between a Trump and Harris administration are what led me to say, yes, I need to, you know, I’m going to be voting with Trump, and I’m going to speak at the convention. And so that’s what I did.” 

EARLY VOTING MEANS ‘ELECTION SEASON’ MAY BEGIN VERY SOON

Nikki Haley said she was on “standby” to campaign for former rival, Trump.  (Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Haley noted that Trump’s team has not asked her to campaign, and that she has not been advising him for debate prep.

“He can, you know, whatever he decides to do with his campaign, he can do that. But when I called him back in June, I told him I was supportive. I think the teams have talked to each other a little bit, but there hasn’t been an ask as of yet. But you know, should he ask, I’m happy to be helpful.”

While voicing her overall support for Trump, Haley said she disagreed with his recent pledge to mandate that either the government or insurance companies pay for in vitro fertilization, or IVF treatment, for women. 

“It’s not a policy I support any more than it’s a policy of Kamala Harris to remove private health insurance, or Medicare for All,” Haley said. 

Brennan interjected saying that Trump is head of the Republican Party, but Haley shot back that “you also have to talk about the head of the Democrat Party.”

“When you talk about Medicare for All, when you talk about removing private health insurance, you might as well be Canada. You might as well look at socialist health care,” Haley said. “We never want to get to that point, because you’re not going to get IVF or anything else, cancer drugs or anything else when it comes to that.” 

Haley said both of her children are results of fertility treatment. 

Former President Donald Trump departing a campaign event held at the Central Wisconsin Airport on Sept. 7, 2024 in Mosinee, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“We want that option to be available to everyone. But the way you do it is, you don’t mandate coverage. Instead, you go and you make sure that coverage is accessible, and you make sure that you’re doing everything you can to make it affordable. That comes with regulations,” Haley added. “Kamala has put down – her and Biden put down a lot of regulations on a lot of things. Trump has relieved those regulations so that we need to have more of an important policy conversation than sound bites. And I do think this election has become about sound bites, and I think we have to get to the substance of it.”

FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE NIKKI HALEY LANDS NEW JOB

Brennan cited CBS polling as indicating that support among female voters has grown to a double-digit lead for Vice President Harris over Trump since Biden stepped out of the race, clearing her to become the Democratic presidential nominee. She asked Haley whether Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is contributing to the divide after remarks resurfaced last week of him highlighting how the head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country does not have a child of her own. 

Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, speaks in front of the border wall with Mexico on Sept. 6, 2024, in San Diego, California.  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Vance’s criticism was directed at Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, during a forum held by the Center for Christian Virtue in October 2021 when he was running for Senate. In the resurfaced clip, Vance stated that “if she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”

“He continues to say things that certainly are highlighted as being offensive to women,” Brennan offered to Haley on Sunday. “That is going to hurt, won’t it, with female voters?” 

“It’s not helpful. It’s not helpful,” Haley responded. “Look, you can either look at style, or you can look at substance. I choose as a voter to look at substance,” she added. 

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“The substance is cutting taxes, making housing more affordable, immigration, national security, that’s the substance,” Haley elaborated. “The style is – no, it is not helpful to talk about whether women have children or whether they don’t. It’s not helpful to say any of those things that are personality-driven or anything else. I have said that, and I will continue to say to Republicans, ‘Stop it.’ That’s not helpful. You know, if you want to talk about things, stick with policy. Americans are smart. They don’t need all of this other noise to distract them.” 

Sen. John Fetterman on Sunday acknowledged that both former President Trump and Vice President Harris can hold their own in a debate, saying that whatever happens during the ABC News Presidential Debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, “it will be close.”

Fetterman, D-Penn., made the remarks during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” while responding to a question about what Harris must do during the debate to win over key voters in battleground state Pennsylvania.

“I also want to just say that it’s going to be a straight-up debate,” Fetterman said. “She’s going to do great, of course, but Donald Trump will be good, too. I mean, we can all remember he wrecked all of the Republicans. He’s a good debater. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe this debate’s going to be definitive because it’s going to come down to this choice, and it’s going to be close.”

Fetterman said Pennsylvania “is always going to be close” in terms of votes during the presidential election, and thinks that the focus of voters will be on “order” versus “chaos.”

TRUMP SLAMS ABC AHEAD OF PIVOTAL NETWORK-HOSTED DEBATE: ‘THEY’RE THE WORST, THEY’RE THE NASTIEST’

Fetterman said both Trump and Harris are great debaters, and believes the result of the debate won’t determine who wins the election. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images, File)

“I think a majority of Pennsylvanians are going to decide, ‘Hey, I want four years of order and fairness and unity and a different way forward.’ And I don’t think they want the kinds of dark days and chaos that Donald Trump provided for our nation,” the senator said.

Trump holds a narrow lead over Harris nationally in a New York Times/Siena poll released on Sunday. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images, File)

TRUMP CLAIMS NO ‘LIFTS’ OR ‘STANDS’ WILL BE ALLOWED AT DEBATE WITH KAMALA HARRIS

Heading into what may be the only debate between the two candidates, a new poll finds Trump is maintaining his lead nationally over Harris.

Harris gained a burst of support from Democrats after entering the presidential race. (Reuters, File)

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The latest results of the New York Times/Siena poll released on Sunday shows Trump garnering 48% of likely voters compared to 47% who indicated support for Harris.

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

More voters report that Vice President Kamala Harris is “too liberal or progressive” on key policy issues than they considered former President Donald Trump as “too conservative,” according to a New York Times poll. 

The New York Times/Sienna College poll published Sunday found Trump with a narrow lead over Harris, at 48% to Harris’ 47%, signaling her political boost from the DNC after replacing President Biden on the ticket might be dwindling as the election comes down to its final stages.

Among the data compiled in the poll, it found that nearly the majority of voters reported Trump is “not too far” to the left or right on key issues, while only around one-third of voters said he’s “too conservative,” the New York Times poll found. 

On the other hand, nearly half of voters surveyed, at 44%, reported that Harris is “too liberal and progressive,” and 42% found that she’s “not too far either way.”

FOX NEWS POLL: NEW MATCHUP, SAME RESULT — TRUMP BESTS HARRIS BY ONE POINT

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 04: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall with Sean Hannity at the New Holland Arena on September 04, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump and Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris continue to campaign across swing states as polls show a tight race prior to next week’s presidential debate in Philadelphia. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) DETROIT, MICHIGAN – SEPTEMBER 02: Flanked by labor union leaders, Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to union workers during a campaign event on September 02, 2024 at Northwestern High School in Detroit, Michigan. Harris is scheduled to host another event in Pennsylvania later in the day. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

The New York Times reported that Trump’s lead over Harris as a more centrist candidate is one of his “overlooked advantages.” 

CNN DATA GURU DECLARES TRUMP WILL WIN WHITE HOUSE IF HE OUTPERFORMS CURRENT POLLING BY ONE POINT

“Yes, he’s outside of the political mainstream in many respects — he denied the result of the 2020 election. And yes, he does have conservative views on many issues, like immigration. But he’s also taken many positions that would have been likelier to be held by a Democrat than a Republican a decade ago, like opposition to cutting entitlements, support for a cooperative relationship with Russia or opposition to free trade. It’s a reputation he’s careful to protect, from saying he doesn’t support Project 2025 to his cagey position on additional measures to restrict abortion,” the Times reported. 

Guests attend a campaign event with Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump on September 07, 2024 in Mosinee, Wisconsin.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The poll also found that 11% of voters believe Trump is “not conservative enough,” compared to 9% of voters who reported Harris is “not liberal or progressive enough.”

The poll follows one released in late July, when Biden dropped out of the race amid mounting concern over his mental acuity, which also found Trump in a 48-47 lead. 

POLLSTER NATE SILVER PREDICTS TRUMP POISED TO WIN ELECTORAL COLLEGE AMID ‘MEDIOCRE’ HARRIS POLLING

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

The poll Sunday also found that 28% of voters feel like they need to know more about Harris to throw their support behind her, compared to 9% who said the same about Trump.

EX-OBAMA ADVISER WARNS ‘IT’S VERY POSSIBLE’ TRUMP WOULD WIN ELECTION IF HELD TODAY, SAYS REPORTERS TOO COCKY

Harris held her first sit-down interview with the media late last month, joining CNN’s Dana Bash for a joint interview with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but has otherwise mostly avoided the media. As of Sunday, Harris has gone 49 days as the presumptive, and now, official Democratic nominee for president without holding an official press conference.

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

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The poll released Sunday was conducted between Sept. 3 to 6 and based on telephone surveys with 1,695 registered voters across the country. 

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

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

The Trump campaign slammed reports that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign told Arab American leaders in Detroit that if she’s elected on Nov. 5, she would likely name left-wing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison as the U.S.’ top cop. 

“Keith Ellison would be a natural fit in a Kamala Harris administration. Both are radical liberals who support ending cash bail and releasing violent criminals into American neighborhoods. The good news for the American people is that it’s never going to happen, because President Trump is going to win on November 5,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. 

Over the weekend, reports surfaced that the Harris campaign allegedly told Arab American community leaders in Detroit that Ellison is on Harris’ short list of potential attorneys general. Ellison has since denied the report. 

“Arab American leaders in Detroit have been told by the Kamala campaign that @keithellison is on the short list to be Attorney General if she should win,” former acting director of National Intelligence under the Trump administration, Richard Grenell, posted to X on Saturday. 

ABANDON BIDEN CAMPAIGN RELAUNCHES, TARGETS HARRIS IN KEY SWING STATES

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison arrives to speak on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

The Harris campaign directed Fox Digital to a post on Ellison’s X account denying the report when approached for comment. 

“This is a lie designed to trigger the Muslim-haters,” Ellison posted in response to Grenell’s social media post. 

MINN AG KEITH ELLISON COMPARES JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS TO HOUSE SLAVE CHARACTER IN BLOCKBUSTER HIT

Ellison currently serves as Minnesota’s attorney general, a left-wing Democrat who served as a U.S. congressman representing the Gopher State between 2007 and 2019. Ellison was elected as the first Muslim to Congress in U.S. history. 

Ellison has long come under fire from conservatives, including last year when he compared Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the slave character in Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 film “Django Unchained,” pinning blame for skyrocketing auto theft on car manufacturers, his handling of spiraling crime in the state during and after the 2020 George Floyd riots, and accusing the Republican Party during his DNC speech last month of thinking “they’re above the law.”

MINNESOTA AG KEITH ELLISON WARNS TARGET ABOUT THEIR ‘OBLIGATIONS’ TO THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY

“No one is above the law, and no one is beneath it. In the Republican Party, everyone thinks they’re above the law. Hell, nearly a dozen of their own lawyers are facing serious charges. Even their lawyers need lawyers,” Ellison said during the DNC, when Harris officially accepted her nomination after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race amid mounting concern over his mental acuity. 

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is embraced by U.S. President Joe Biden during a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 on September 2, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden joined Vice President Harris for her second Labor Day event, for the first time on the campaign trail since he departed the Democratic ticket, and Harris was confirmed as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election against the Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump. The event was attended by members of the IBEW, United Steelworkers, AFSCME, and other unions. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Social media critics and conservatives sounded off this weekend over the report that the Harris campaign is considering Ellison as a top contender for U.S. AG. 

DEM AG SLAMMED FOR COMPARING JUSTICE THOMAS TO ‘DJANGO UNCHAINED’ CHARACTER: ‘RAGE POLITICS’

The media has speculated that Harris’ attorney general shortlist likely includes current deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco, former U.S. associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, and Obama-era deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Conservative political commentator and journalist Julie Kelly said last month the Harris campaign could also tap Jan. 6 attorney Matthew Graves as AG, if Harris were to win. Graves serves as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and is the chief prosecutor of Trump supporters who breached the U.S. Capitol in 2021. 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison arrives to speak on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

The report that Ellison is on Harris’ AG short list comes as Harris faces backlash from both Muslim and Jewish voters over her stance on the ongoing war in Israel, which has continued since Oct. 7. 

First known as the “Abandon Biden” campaign, Muslim American voters in Michigan revamped their mission last month to rally support against the Harris ticket. The Abandon Biden campaign first surfaced earlier this year in the heavily Muslim populated city of Dearborn, as voters denouced Biden for his continued support of Israel.

CHALLENGER TO ‘RECKLESS’ KEITH ELLISON SAYS FAR-LEFT ATTORNEY GENERAL AN ‘ABSOLUTE DISGRACE’ ON HANDLING CRIME

“This action is a direct response to Kamala Harris’ support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the Abandon Harris campaign said in the release.

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Enmarket Arena August 29, 2024, in Savannah, Georgia. Harris has campaigned in southeast Georgia for the past two days.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Simultaneously, former President Donald Trump is courting the Jewish vote, predicting that he could win 50% of the demographic. A poll last month found Trump leading Harris among Jewish voters in typically liberal New York. 

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Ellison’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment on Sunday. 

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

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

LAS VEGAS – Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, the chair of the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee, for the first time is definitively saying his party will recapture control of the chamber in November’s elections.

“We will win the Senate majority” the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chair said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

“Fifty-one is the number that we want to get to. Clearly, there’s an opportunity to get beyond that, but 51 is the number we’ve got to get to,” Daines added, as he spoke along the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting on Thursday in Las Vegas.

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

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

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

Additionally, in Daines’ home state of Montana and in Ohio, two states Trump comfortably carried four years ago, Republicans are aiming to defeat Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown.

REPUBLICAN AIMING TO FLIP DEMOCRAT HELD SENATE SEAT IN RED STATE MAKING GAINS 

Five more Democratic-held seats are up for grabs this year in crucial presidential-election battleground states.

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

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, chair of teh National Republican Senatorial Committee,  speaks on Sept. 5, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting  (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Minutes after speaking with Fox News, Daines made his pitch to top dollar donors and influential conservative activists in order to remedy the cash disparity between GOP campaigns and those of Democrats.

“We need your help to close the fundraising gap,” Daines emphasized as he addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition crowd. “We have the right candidates. Let’s get them the resources they need to win.”

In his interview, Daines pointed to the GOP’s fundraising gap and acknowledged, “it’s a concern of mine.”

“There are winnable races right now that we may not be able to bring across the finish line because of lack of resources. We are literally two months away from the most consequential election of my lifetime,” Daines emphasized. “That’s why we’re working very, very hard to make sure we’re ringing that alarm bell to get to donors.”

Democrats have outraised and outspent their Republican counterparts in the 2024 battle for the Senate majority, and looking forward, they have dished out more money for ad reservations for the final two months leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5.

Senate Democrats and outside groups supporting them have made significantly larger post-Labor Day ad reservations in four of the seven key Senate battlegrounds, per AdImpact. In Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona each, Democratic ad reservation spending is at least double that of their respective Republican opponents, presenting a stark obstacle for GOP candidates, some of whom already face name recognition issues and the hurdle of taking on an incumbent. 

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Overall, Democrats have an advantage over their Republican Senate foes with nearly $348 million in planned spending in pivotal races across the country ahead of election day, compared to Republicans’ over $255 million. 

The relatively small GOP expenditures in Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona appear to be a result of massive prioritized pro-Republican Senate ad buys in Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Republicans are managing to outspend Democrats in these states, but their opponents have still boasted similarly large planned spending. In Ohio, while Republicans had $81.9 million reserved, Democratic future spending wasn’t far behind at $78.3 million, according to AdImpact. 

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

Fueling the financial disparity, the surge in Democratic Party enthusiasm and fundraising in the month and a half since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Biden at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket in the White House race against former President Donald Trump.

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“You just saw in the last 48 hours Kamala Harris announce she’s directing $25 million of her presidential campaign dollars down-ballot including $10 million for Senate Democrats,” Daines spotlighted. “There’s not many things Kamala Harris does well but one thing she does well is raise money. So this does have us concerned.”

However, Daines said there is a silver lining when it comes to Harris replacing the 81-year-old Biden in the White House race.

“What it does is it helps us take the age issue off the table because that was one of the reasons that Biden did so poorly. It was more about his age than anything else,” Daines said. “This now gets us laser focused on policy. This is going to be a policy contrast election….For the first time in decades, we have the results of two different administrations to run against – President Trump’s four years and Kamala Harris’ four years. Two very different administrations – very different outcomes. That contrast, we think will be very helpful for us in the key Senate races.”

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

Elton John is speaking out about what he thinks of former President Trump nicknaming North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” after one of the singer’s hit songs.

The “Tiny Dancer” singer told Variety in an interview at the Toronto Film Festival last week that he thought Trump’s nickname for the dictator was “hilarious” and made him laugh.

“I laughed, I thought that was brilliant,” John said. “I just thought, ‘Good on you, Donald.’ … Donald’s always been a fan of mine, and he’s been to my concerts many, many times. So, I mean, I’ve always been friendly toward him, and I thank him for his support. When he did that, I just thought it was hilarious. It made me laugh.”

In 2017, Trump and Kim traded threats of destruction as North Korea carried out a slew of high-profile weapons tests aimed at acquiring an ability to launch nuclear strikes on the U.S. mainland. Trump said he would rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and derided Kim as “Little Rocket Man,” while Kim questioned Trump’s sanity and said he would “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

FRIENDLY RELATIONSHIP WITH KIM JONG UN IS ‘NOT A BAD THING,’ TRUMP SAYS

Elton John arrives for the premiere of “Elton John: Never Too Late” at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Friday. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP)

Their relationship seemed to thaw in 2019 when Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a dictator of North Korea. The former president has since described their relationship as friendly.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump meet inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the South and North Korea in Panmunjom, South Korea, in 2019. (Handout photo by Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images/Getty Images)

“I got along with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. Remember I walked over […] the first person to ever walk over from this country,” the former president said to a crowd during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last week.

2024 SHOWDOWN: ANTI-TRUMP REPUBLICAN LIZ CHENEY SAYS SHE’S BACKING KAMALA HARRIS

John also weighed in on the upcoming U.S. presidential election, telling Variety that he won’t use his stage to tell concertgoers who to vote for this fall.

The “Rocket Man” singer said he wants people to vote for “things that are just.” (Michael Campanella/Redferns, File)

“I don’t go on stage and say to people, ‘You must vote for the Republicans, you must vote for the Democrats.’ It’s none of my business how they vote. They come to see me, and I’m so grateful they have,” John said. “What I want by saying that last night … there is a danger, as Dick Cheney said the other day. America is in a very volatile position. And it’s a country I love, and I’ve always loved, and I’m so thankful that it made me who I am.”

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“I just want people to vote for things that are just, things that are important to people: the right to choose, the right to be who you are, and not let anybody else tell you who to be. And that goes all the way up to the Supreme Court,” the “Your Song” singer continued.

A seemingly unlikely duo is pushing for Congress to do something about ballooning college debt that’s plaguing millions of Americans.

Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., introduced a bill to cap federal student loan interest at 3% this week, and Luna told Fox News Digital that she’s already gearing up to lobby Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for a House-wide vote.

“I actually fully anticipate having that conversation in person when we return next week,” Luna said.

TRUMP AND HARRIS IN TOSS-UP RACES IN KEY SWING STATES PENNSYLVANIA, GEORGIA, NEVADA: POLL

Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Jared Moskowitz are engaged in serious bipartisan talks to get a bill to limit federal student loan debt interest. (Getty Images)

She wants Johnson to fast-track the bill under a procedure known as “suspension of the rules,” which allows legislation to bypass the normal committee process in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds – which both Luna and Moskowitz anticipated the bill would see.

“I think this would pass if you put this to the floor. In fact, if you bypass committee, I think this would probably get two-thirds. I mean, I think it would pass overwhelmingly,” Moskowitz told Fox News Digital.

Luna similarly said, “I think it would be really hard for any member to vote against it.”

She also suggested creating a discharge petition for the bill – a measure that would force a piece of legislation up for a vote if the petition got a majority of House lawmakers’ signatures. 

KAMALA HARRIS GOES VIRAL WITH ‘CRINGE’ NEW ACCENT AT DETROIT RALLY, SPARKS ‘FOGHORN LEGHORN’ COMPARISONS  

Discharge petitions rarely, if ever, succeed in forcing a House-wide vote themselves, but Luna said that just the creation of one could be enough to pressure leadership into action.

“I talk to people that are just like, ‘I am literally paying off loans from 15, 20 years ago, and because the interest rate is so high, we’re not even able to make a dent,” Luna said. “It’s turning Americans into indentured servants.”

President Biden has tried to implement broad student loan forgiveness multiple times. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

It comes after the Biden-Harris administration’s multiple attempts at mass student loan forgiveness keep getting blocked by GOP-led states and even the conservative-leaning Supreme Court. President Biden has managed to implement more narrowly targeted forgiveness measures, however.

And while Luna and Moskowitz’s opinions on Biden’s initiative differ, both said they have heard people on both sides of the aisle express a need for reform to the student debt system.

“Quite frankly, we both, we both were working on this issue in a silo, and then in a conversation one day, we both brought it up,” Moskowitz said of how their partnership on the issue came about. 

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

“Everybody knows it’s a problem. . . . Let’s start here, where we have some common ground, where people who can’t afford an education can go get a loan, but they won’t be saddled with debt for the rest of their lives.”

Both also dismissed concerns about giving each other’s side a win during the hyper-partisan environment of an election year.

“I can’t be concerned about that, because at the end of the day, if we’re going to make progress for the American family, I’m not interested in this credit nonsense,” Moskowitz said. “If I’m out there criticizing Republicans who wanted to deny Joe Biden a win on something, I can’t then partake in that behavior myself, right?”

Both lawmakers said college and university debt is a bipartisan issue. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Luna said, “Ultimately, we as a country will take a win.”

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“I know that we’re in an election year, and I will say that I wish, and I hope that [Democrats] will look at this legislation not like it’s being drawn from, and passed by, the Republican body, but that, you know, it’s something that would be a net positive,” she said.

At of the end of 2023, roughly 43 million Americans shared the burden of some $1.6 trillion student loan debt in the country, according to federal data.

Nearly 95% of that debt is in federal loans, according to the Education Data Initiative, which also cited the average federal student loan interest rate as 5.99%.

Kamala Harris made a campaign stop on Saturday at a spice shop known to openly discriminate against Republicans while calling for an end to political “divison.”

The spice shop, Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, welcomed the Democrat nominee to browse the store and meet some supporters.

While facing a gaggle of reporters, Harris claimed, “It’s time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together, chart a new way forward.”

HARRIS WILL HAVE TO ‘FACE OFF’ AGAINST BIDEN, HIS LEGACY IN DEBATE AGAINST TRUMP: NYT COLUMNIST

“A lot of what I think is happening, and I was just talking with some folks here in Pittsburgh about it, is that people are exhausted about the division and the attempts to kind of divide us as Americans,” said Harris. “And, them stepping up to make this public statement, I think is, courageous.” 

“But also for people like the folks I was just talking with, it really reinforces for them that we love our country, and we have more in common than what separates us,” asserted Harris in the spice shop.

US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris greets people during a campaign stop at Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 7, 2024. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Penzeys Spices has an entire “About Republicans” page on their website with a staggering 842-word essay bashing the political party.

For contrast, the “About Us” page on the Penzeys website features only 461 words, including “We are trying to make the world a better place.”

HARRIS FLIPS ON ANOTHER POLICY POSITION: BANNING PLASTIC STRAWS

Part of the “About Republicans” page on their site, penned by CEO Bill Penzey, informs Republicans they can shop elsewhere: “Going forward we would still be glad to have you as customers, but we’re done pretending the Republican Party’s embrace of cruelty, racism, Covid lies, climate change denial, and threats to democracy are anything other than the risks they legitimately are.” 

“If you need us to pretend you are not creating the hurt you are creating in order for you to continue to be our customer, I’m sad to say you might be happier elsewhere,” reads the Penzeys Spices website.

US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris answers questions from reporters during a campaign stop at Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 7, 2024. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Penzeys recently launched an advertisement campaign for their “Justice” spice blend directed at former President Donald Trump, saying “Re-Indicted and it Feels So Good!”

“Sorry Kamala, ‘Scary Spice’ is already taken!” said Former President Trump’s campaign in response to Kamala’s visit.

Penzeys Spices CEO Bill Penzey is no stranger to controversy. In 2022, he came under fire for renaming Martin Luther King Jr. Day to “Republicans Are Racist Weekend!”

The spice brand lost 40,000 subscribers in January 2022 according to the Penzeys Spices Facebook page for the stunt, but did not offer an apology.

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Penzeys Spices did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Former President Trump painted a gloomy picture of a potential Harris presidency during a campaign speech on Saturday, claiming that Israel would be “doomed” under Harris’ watch and that the upcoming November election “may be our last.”

Speaking to a crowd in Mosinee, Wisconsin, Trump promised to “prevent World War III,” after speaking to the crowd about topics ranging from Social Security reform to implementing tariffs. 

“I will end the chaos in the Middle East and I will prevent World War III,” Trump said at the podium. “And I’m the only one that can do it. I will prevent World War III.”

“And if I don’t win this election, Israel, with comrade Kamala Harris at the helm of the United States, is doomed.” he continued. “Israel is doomed.”

HARRIS CAMPAIGN AGREES TO ABC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RULES WITH SOME ‘ASSURANCES’: REPORT

Donald Trump claimed that Israel may cease to exist under a Harris presidential administration. (Associated Press)

Acknowledging that the claim was a “tough statement,” the Republican nominee expanded on his argument and said that Americans “may have no country left,” if Israel were to be defeated.

“Israel will be gone,” Trump added. “One year, two years. Israel will no longer exist. I better win, I better win, or you’re going to have problems like we’ve never had.”

“We may have no country left. It may be our last election.”

TRUMP SLAMS ABC AHEAD OF PIVOTAL NETWORK-HOSTED DEBATE: ‘THEY’RE THE WORST, THEY’RE THE NASTIEST’

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures as he departs a campaign event at Central Wisconsin Airport, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Mosinee, Wis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Harris has also accused Trump of threatening democracy in the past. Last month, Harris said that Trump “wants to be an autocrat.”

“I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-Un, who are rooting for Trump because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors,” the Democratic nominee claimed.

“They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable – because he wants to be an autocrat.”

Guests attend a campaign event with Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump on September 07, 2024 in Mosinee, Wisconsin.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has flipped on another policy — banning plastic straws.

Harris’ campaign has abandoned the vice president’s previous position from the 2020 Democratic primary in which she stated unequivocally that plastic straws should be banned due to environmental considerations.

“She doesn’t support banning plastic straws,” a campaign official told Axios on Wednesday.

KAMALA HARRIS SAYS SHE SUPPORTS PLASTIC STRAW BAN DURING CNN CLIMATE CHANGE MARATHON

Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia. (Reuters)

Harris was asked whether she would support a ban on “single use plastics” during a CNN town hall marathon in 2019, and specifically whether she would ban plastic straws.

“I think we should, yes,” Harris responded. 

“Look, I’m going to be honest… It’s really difficult to drink out of a paper straw,” she joked. “So we kinda have to perfect that a little bit more.”

The campaign emphasized that the policy change does not lower the priority of environmental reforms for the vice president.

JD VANCE RIPS KAMALA HARRIS FOR ‘FLIP-FLOPPING’ DURING CNN INTERVIEW: ‘IMPORTANT FOR US NOT TO BUY THIS’

“She cast the tie-breaking vote on the most consequential legislation to combat climate change and create clean energy jobs in history, and as President, she is going to be focused on expanding on that progress,” the campaign told Axios.

It’s the latest in a long series of position flips the Harris campaign has undertaken as the vice president seeks to succeed President Biden in the November election.

Plastic straws wrapped in paper and plastic forks are seen at a food hall in Washington DC. Harris previously expressed support for a government ban on plastic straws during the 2020 Democratic primary, but her campaign walked this position back in a statement to Axios this week. (ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)

Harris has been accused by voters, political pundits and the Trump campaign of flip-flopping on key policies since emerging as the Democratic Party’s nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race last month. 

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On fracking, for example, Harris’ campaign announced last month that the vice president did not support a ban on the oil extraction technique that enjoys broad support in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

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

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

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

A foreign minister who served under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called on the Biden administration to condemn his country’s ban on social media platform X, saying the U.S. has a ‘responsibility’ to speak up.

 Ernesto Araújo, who served as foreign minister under Bolsonaro from 2019 to 2021, said the U.S. has a ‘responsibility to be the reference point for democracy, for rule of law, for freedom in the hemisphere.’ But the White House has been silent for too long, he said, and it’s hesitation to advocate for free speech predates the ban on X, he said.

“The Biden administration is not living up to that – have not lived up to that for a long time – and about what is happening in Brazil, because the banning of X is not something out of the blue,” Araújo told Fox News Digital. “It’s one more step, after many steps, of curtailing basic rights and destroying the rule of law, destroying democracy in Brazil, something perpetrated by the Supreme Court, by a good portion of the political class, and the administration never did anything.”

ELON MUSK GETS SURPRISING DEFENDER AFTER X WAS BANNED IN BRAZIL: THE WASHINGTON POST

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes last week banned X after the company failed to appoint a legal representative in the country, leading to the “immediate, complete and total suspension of X’s operations” in Brazil. 

Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo offers a press conference at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia on March 2, 2021.  (Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images)

The ban will remain in place “until all court orders . . . are complied with, fines are duly paid and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country,” according to The Guardian. 

X, under outspoken owner Elon Musk, has refused to comply following Moraes’s order to ban several accounts related to individuals involved in an alleged attempted coup last year. The powerful judge alleged that these accounts have spread misinformation and represent a threat. 

NFL DEBUT IN BRAZIL MARRED BY CONCERNS OVER SAFETY, STREAMING, SOCIAL MEDIA BAN AND THE COLOR GREEN

Musk accused the judge, an ally of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of attacking free speech and said the order violates the Brazilian constitution. He further alleged in a post on X that the judge had targeted his platform “for political reasons.” 

US President Joe Biden meets with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 20, 2023.  (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

The White House has remained silent on the issue, and it declined a Fox News Digital request for comment. The U.S. State Department has also not issued any comments regarding the decision. 

“I think the U.S. has this kind of international responsibility in the world – in the hemisphere, for sure,” Araújo said. “It should be an ally of those who are trying to protect freedom and not those who are destroying freedom.”

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, left, gives U.S. President Donald Trump, a soccer jersey during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. Trump said he is “very inclined” to make Brazil an official U.S. ally, a status that would provide the country with preferential access to U.S. military equipment and technology.  (Chris Kleponis/Pool via Bloomberg)

“So I see a lot of sympathy from the Biden administration, from the Democratic Party, for the wrong people in Latin America,” he added. “It’s not a question of right or left, it’s a question of those who just claim to be for democracy.” 

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR DEPLOYS BIZARRE DISTRACTION AS COUNTRY REMAINS IN TURMOIL AFTER ELECTION

The order has not gone over well in Brazil, with the country heavily divided over the resulting ban. Many users have jumped ship to other platforms – mainly rivals Bluesky and Threads. 

The Brazilian user base for X is one-fifth and one-sixth that of Instagram and TikTok, respectively, but the platform has served as a major nexus for news agencies and political and thought leaders, giving it an outsized influence. 

Elon Musk is seen during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.  (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Izabela Patriota, the director of development of the Ladies of Liberty Alliance and head of its Brazil section, told FOX Business that protests would materialize on Saturday, which coincides with Brazil’s Independence Day celebrations. 

While many Brazilians have found alternative social media outlets, former officials and allies of Bolsonaro argue that the ban sets the stage for further bans. Patriota fears that the courts could eventually take similar actions against the other platforms and services should the justices determine they also posed a threat. Musk also owns Starlink, a satellite internet service which has been targeted by de Moraes.

ELON MUSK CALLS OUT VP HARRIS FOR OLD POST SAYING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AREN’T CRIMINALS

“Where X is just another platform, and so many Brazilians are already migrating to different platforms, Starlink is providing access to many, many, many communities in the Amazon areas that they wouldn’t have without Starlink,” Patriota said. 

Araújo also worried about the international trajectory for his country, noting that Brazil has continued to build ties with “the territorial block of China, Russia, Iran.” 

“It’s basically, playing a game,” Araújo said. “Lula wants to play this game . . . he’s really, for everything that matters, is allying Brazil with the enemies of freedom, with the enemies of the United States.”

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“I think it’s in the hands of some people in the State Department or Democratic Party who think that Lula is their friend who also – I don’t know if it’s for specific interest or they’re just not smart enough to know what’s happening – who think that Lula is the good guy, and the Right is the bad guys in Brazil.” 

The White House did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by time of publication. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik has filed an ethics complaint against New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan “for his illegal conflict of interest in the sham Manhattan trial against President Trump,” alleging the Harris campaign has a “newly active financial relationship” with a company led in part by his daughter.

The filing with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct came on the same day that Merchan decided to postpone Trump’s sentencing in New York v. Trump until after the November presidential election.  

Trump was found guilty in an unprecedented criminal trial on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, following a six-week trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation.  

However, Stefanik, R-N.Y., is now asking the Commission to launch a “fresh inquiry concerning Justice Merchan’s conflict and take any appropriate action resulting from it.” 

JUDGE MERCHAN DELAYS TRUMP SENTENCING UNTIL AFTER ELECTION 

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has filed an ethics complaint against Judge Juan Merchan. (Leon Neal/Getty Images/AP/Seth Wenig)

“On August 20, 2024, Vice President Harris’s campaign submitted its first Federal Election Commission (FEC) report that documented expenses and donations through July 31, 2024. In the report… a July 30, 2024, disbursement appears in the amount of $468.00 from Vice President Harris’s campaign to Authentic Campaigns Inc. (Authentic) for web hosting services,” Stefanik wrote in her complaint. “This indicates that one of the very first things that Harris did upon taking over the Biden campaign infrastructure is to hire this firm, Authentic. 

READ THE LETTER BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

“Authentic is a digital consulting and marketing firm that services Democrat candidates. Loren Merchan, Justice Merchan’s daughter, is its president,” Stefanik added. “Vice President Harris changed web hosting companies from AWS to Authentic immediately after becoming the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee. 

“This is merely the beginning of a new contract with a new campaign, regardless of the amount reimbursed. Sure, there’s an immediate benefit, but this is a play at a potential larger benefit for Authentic and Merchan down the road,” Stefanik said in her complaint. 

JUDGE MERCHAN SUED FOR FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES AMID CONCERNS OF DAUGHTER’S DEMOCRAT WORK

Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for his hush money trial on May 30 in New York City. Sentencing in that case, in which Trump was found guilty, has been delayed until November. (Steven Hirsch/Getty Images)

Stefanik continued by saying that the code of conduct “dictates that a judge must recuse from a case where a relative up to and including the sixth degree has a financial interest in the outcome of the case.” 

“Ms. Merchan is related to Justice Merchan in the first degree. Authentic has a newly active financial relationship with Vice President Harris’s campaign,” Stefanik concluded.  

Stefanik says Authentic, a company run by Merchan’s daughter, “has a newly active financial relationship with Vice President Harris’s campaign.” (Reuters)

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The Harris campaign and the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct did not immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Former President Donald Trump claims that the upcoming presidential debate will not allow for adjustments to the nominees’ height behind the podium.

Trump made the comment in a Saturday post on his proprietary social media platform Truth Social.

“No boxes or artificial lifts will be allowed to stand on [sic] during my upcoming debate with Comrade Kamala Harris,” Trump wrote. “We had this out previously with former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he was in a debate, and he was not allowed a “lift.”

HARRIS CAMPAIGN AGREES TO ABC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RULES WITH SOME ‘ASSURANCES’: REPORT

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak about national security during a campaign rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro, North Carolina. (PETER ZAY/AFP via Getty Images)

“It would be a form of cheating, and the Democrats cheat enough,” the former president added. “‘You are who you are,’ it was determined!”

It is not immediately clear if Trump was relaying the outcome of discussions with ABC ahead of the debate or was speculating.

The post references Trump’s past feud with the former New York City mayor, who the former president taunted as “Mini Mike Bloomberg” during his 2020 Democratic nomination bid.

TRUMP SLAMS ABC AHEAD OF PIVOTAL NETWORK-HOSTED DEBATE: ‘THEY’RE THE WORST, THEY’RE THE NASTIEST’

Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg attends the 2024 Paley Honors at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.  ((Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images))

Trump repeatedly claimed Bloomberg requested to stand on a box behind his podium during his Democratic primary debate — but this claim was never substantiated that the former mayor ever made such a request.

“The president is lying,” a spokesperson for Bloomberg’s 2020 campaign fired back at the time. “He is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan.”

Harris clarified her own height during an interview with “Today” host Katie Couric earlier this year, correcting the interviewer when she claimed the vice president is 5’2″.

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

“I am 5’4″ and a quarter — sometimes 5’4″ and a half,” Harris told Couric. “And with heels — which I always wear — I’m 5’7’ and a half, thank you very much.”

Trump’ own height has been variously reported as 6’2″ and 6’3″.