Politics
Harris, Walz emphasize 'freedom,' 'joy' and press attacks on Trump, Vance in raucous first rally
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris introduced running mate Tim Walz at a rally Tuesday evening in Philadelphia, where the Democratic duo pledged to restore freedom and hope they contend would be stripped away if former President Trump wins a second term in the White House.
The Minnesota governor, little known nationally before his selection Tuesday as Harris’ No. 2, told a raucous partisan audience that he is the product of small-town America, who believes in old-fashioned values.
“I was born in West Point, Neb., and lived in Butte, a small town of 400 where community was a way of life,” said Walz, 60. “Growing up, I spent summers working on the family farm. My mom and dad taught us to show generosity toward your neighbors and to work for the common good.”
Walz said communal strength loomed large in Minnesota, the state where he has governed since 2019 and that he planned to bring that culture to the White House.
“Minnesota’s strength comes from our values,” Walz said, “our commitment to working together, to seeing past our differences, to lending a helping hand. “
In introducing Walz, Harris pictured her running mate as the kind, common sense alternative to Republican policies that she said had stripped away fundamental rights.
“We fight for a future where we defend our most fundamental freedoms,” Harris said. “We fight freedom to vote, freedom to be safe from gun violence, freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body, not having the government tell her what to do.”
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz attends a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
(Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
Democrats have been buoyed by Harris’ entry into the race two weeks ago, after President Biden’s withdrawal. Polls have shown a narrowing of an already tight race. The candidate’s campaign reported that she had collected more than $300 million in campaign donations, with a spokesperson saying an additional $20 million poured in after Harris announced on social media Tuesday morning that Walz would join her on the ticket.
The Democratic duo plans to visit battleground states in the Midwest, before flying west to campaign in Arizona and Nevada. Those states are expected to hold the key to victory in the election along with the swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia.
Harris, 59, whipped through the resume of her new political partner, depicting him as an everyman who understood the travails of regular Americans. She described his youth on a family farm in Nebraska, his two decades as a high school social studies teacher and work as an assistant coach for a state champion high school football team.
She noted that Walz simultaneously coached linebackers on the West Mankato High School football team and supported students who wanted to start a gay-straight alliance.
“At a time when acceptance was difficult to find for LGBTQ students, Tim knew the signal that it would send to have a football coach get involved,” Harris said. “So he signed up to be the group’s faculty adviser. Students have said he made the school a safe place for everybody.”
It was that supportive stance that led to students voting Walz as the most inspirational faculty member, Harris said.
“We both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down,” Harris said. “When we look at folks, our fellow Americans, we see neighbors not enemies.”
Walz said more than once that Harris had brought “joy” back to America’s public arena, but the folksy politician showed he also wasn’t above throwing a punch.
He chided his vice presidential rival, noting that Republican JD Vance’s rural roots grew into a much different life than one he recognized from Middle America.
“Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community,” Walz said, before throwing his arms wide and chiding: “Come on! That’s not what Middle-America is.”
Walz drew knowing laughter from the crowd at the Liacouras Center arena at Temple University when he reprised one of his first attacks on the Republican ticket, saying Trump and Vance “are creepy and, yes, just weird as hell.”
He found another punchline in the multiple criminal cases against Trump, saying of the former president: “He froze in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground and make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump.” After a round of applause, Walz added: “That’s not even counting the crimes he committed.”
Saying he welcomed a chance to debate Vance, Walz then made a thinly veiled reference to a prurient, and unfounded, rumor about Vance’s purported fixation with living room furniture.
“I can’t wait to debate the guy — if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up!” Walz said.
Harris and Walz both suggested that a second Trump term would strike a crippling blow against progressive government programs. They said he would try to gut the Affordable Care Act, the law that brought health care coverage to millions of Americans; “gut” Social Security and Medicare; .and continue to crack down on abortion, a procedure that became much harder to obtain after Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices helped reverse the Roe v. Wade decision.
“Today in America, one out of three women live in a state with a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said. “Some of those bans go back to 1800s, before women had a right to vote. We have a message for Trump and those who want to turn back our freedoms: We’re not going back!”
That led to a prolonged chant from the crowd: “Not going back!”
Habitual marijuana users cannot be barred from owning guns, Supreme Court rules
Fox News host Sean Hannity reports the Supreme Court unanimously limits a federal gun law, ruling habitual marijuana users cannot be banned from owning guns. Legal Analyst Gregg Jarrett explains the 9-0 decision, distinguishing between recreational use and serious addiction, contrasting it with Hunter Biden’s crack cocaine and gun charges.
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FIRST ON FOX: A powerful House committee is escalating its probe into the Biden administration for alleged collusion with gun control activists.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is demanding that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the federal agency responsible for enforcing gun laws, hand over documents detailing Biden aides’ communications with Everytown for Gun Safety, an influential gun control group founded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
Comer’s panel has argued that a now-defunct Biden office may have collaborated with Everytown to help facilitate its lawsuit with the city of Chicago against the gunmaker Glock Inc.
“These records will inform the Committee as to whether the Biden Administration and Everytown colluded to attack private gun manufacturing companies through lawfare to circumvent Second Amendment rights,” Comer wrote in a letter Wednesday to the ATF that was reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Rep. James Comer arrives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2026. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images)
CITY OF CHICAGO SUES GLOCK INC. OVER ‘FACILITATING’ ILLEGAL GUN CONVERSIONS
Chicago’s lawsuit, listing Everytown’s legal arm as the plaintiff’s counsel, was filed in March 2024 and alleges Glock sold pistols that the firearms manufacturer knew could be easily modified to fire like machine guns.
“Glock knows that it takes little effort to convert its pistols into illegal machine guns and that criminals frequently do so,” the lawsuit alleged. “Glock also knows it could fix the problem, but has chosen not to, putting profits over public safety and violating the law.”
In the letter, Comer cited a 2023 meeting between the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention (WHOGVP) and representatives from Glock, during which Biden officials pressed the gun manufacturer to modify its pistol designs.
When Chicago sued Glock three months later, John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, wrote on X, “Federal officials recently contacted Glock to discuss implementing new ways to modify Glock pistols to make it harder for Glock switches to be installed. Rather than help, Glock has falsely insisted there is nothing they can do.”
Comer argues Feinblatt “appears to have had insider information regarding the WHOGVP’s private meeting with Glock, which raises questions about whether the Biden Administration colluded with Everytown to initiate their lawsuit against Glock,” according to the letter.
The lawsuit is still moving through the court system, with a Cook County judge denying Glock’s motion to dismiss the case in September 2025.
Members of Everytown for Gun Safety rally outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 26, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
STATES’ TOP COPS GANG UP ON LETITIA JAMES IN CRUSADE WITH POTENTIAL NATIONWIDE CONSEQUENCES
The Kentucky lawmaker has also highlighted close ties between the Biden White House and Everytown. The letter notes that Biden aide Rob Wilcox worked at Everytown for eight years prior to his employment with the WHOGVP.
Biden also headlined Everytown action fund’s annual training conference, known as Gun Sense University, in June 2024, during which he reiterated his support for a nationwide ban on so-called assault weapons.
Wednesday’s letter comes after the GOP-led panel asked the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in April for communications between the Biden White House and Everytown.
House Oversight Republicans previously subpoenaed the Biden ATF and Everytown for all communications related to their “potential collaboration efforts,” but neither party complied with the request.
President Joe Biden speaks about gun safety at Everytown’s Gun Sense University at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., on June 11, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP)
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Comer has also argued that the committee’s probe will help lawmakers evaluate whether new legislation is needed to combat officials violating recordkeeping requirements or using their roles to leak private information to politically aligned third parties.
A spokesperson for the ATF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The June 16 appearance by Vance gave the program its most-watched episode since November 2024.
The first appearance by Vice President JD Vance on ABC’s “The View” delivered the most-watched edition of the talk show since November 2024.
The June 16 program averaged 3.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. The figure was well above the average of 2.6 million viewers for “The View” in the 2025-26 season.
Vance appeared on the liberal-leaning program to promote his new book on his decision to become a Catholic. While the co-hosts mostly questioned him on the Trump administration’s policies on immigration and race, the discussion was cordial.
The panel of co-hosts — Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin — did not ask Vance to address the program’s ongoing tension with the Federal Communications Commission.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has questioned whether “The View” should have the status of news programs, which are exempt from giving equal time to the opponents of political candidates who appear as guests.
ABC has asked the FCC to rule on the status of “The View,” which received an exemption from the rarely enforced equal time provision in 2002. ABC has maintained that “The View” books politicians based on newsworthiness and not partisanship.
The FCC is currently taking comments from the public on the matter. ABC is running on-air spots urging viewers to support the program.
“‘The View’ has welcomed your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years,” the spot says. “Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee submitted comments Monday, asserting that “The View” takes advantage of its exemption and favors Democratic candidates and permits “only rare appearances by Republican-aligned figures.”
ABC has told the FCC that “The View” has invited politicians from both sides of the aisle to appear on “The View,” including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of State Marco Rubio and entrepreneur Elon Musk. They have declined the invitation as did Vance before his appearance last week.
The letter from the GOP committees also cited the ideological leanings of the co-hosts, saying they are “not selected for their journalistic talent or excellence in commentary, but for their partisan tilt.”
Over the last two decades, “The View” has used five liberal hosts and filled one seat designated for a conservative voice. The right-leaning co-host role has had the most turnover.
“The View” has been the most-watched daytime program for the last nine years. As a live, topical program, it has remained an important media platform while the rest of the talk show genre has largely faded due to diminishing audiences.
Carr’s targeting of “The View” is part of his ongoing criticism of broadcast platforms that annoy President Trump, who has urged that TV station licenses be pulled when he’s been unhappy with coverage.
Politics
Trump to kick off Great American State Fair as 250th anniversary celebrations take over National Mall
Washington DC to host Great American State Fair for America250
Ambassador Monica Crowley discusses the Great American State Fair, set to transform the National Mall in Washington D.C. from June 25 to July 10. Celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, the 16-day event will feature pavilions from all 50 states and six territories, a 110-foot Ferris wheel, traditional games, and rodeo competitions, aiming to unite the country.
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President Donald Trump will kick off the Great American State Fair Wednesday evening as part of celebrations surrounding the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“President Trump promised the greatest 250th birthday celebration in American history, and Freedom 250 is proud to help deliver it for the American people,” Freedom 250 CEO Keith Kranch told Fox News Digital.
“This celebration is about what makes America exceptional—our freedom, our faith, our optimism, and our people. We are honored to welcome President Trump as he helps kick off these historic festivities tomorrow and begin a nationwide celebration of our Nation’s 250th birthday,” Krach added.
The fair brings together all 50 states and six U.S. territories for a national celebration stretching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument featuring military flyovers, musical performances and civic programming. Trump announced he will deliver remarks after a handful of musical artists pulled out of their musical performances, turning the bash into a “Make America Great Again Rally.”
TRUMP FLOATS REPLACING 250TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT WITH MASSIVE MAGA RALLY AFTER ARTISTS PULL OUT
Organizers describe the Great American State Fair as a modern-day World’s Fair celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The event is scheduled to run from June 25 through July 10, 2026, celebrating patriotism to bring together the nation for a celebration of unity.
TRUMP’S DC BEAUTIFICATION PUSH WINS RARE DEM PRAISE AS PRESIDENT SNAPS LANDMARKS BACK TO LIFE
U.S. President Donald J. Trump watches the UFC lightweight championship fight during the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn at the White House on June 14, 2026 in Washington, DC (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Trump’s anticipated remarks follow his signature last week on a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, launching a 60-day negotiating period aimed at preventing Tehran from ever obtaining nuclear weapons capability.
The world’s fair-scale event will have pavilions touching on five national themes: Made in America, American Heartland, American Innovates, The American Canvas, and Faith & Family.
There will also be a 110-foot Ferris wheel and the refurbished Smithsonian carousel for families to enjoy.
Rending of 110-foot ferris wheel coming to National Mall for “Great American State Fair.” (Freedom250)
The U.S. has hosted over two dozen variations of the world’s fair since first hosted in Philadelphia in 1876, according to the State Department.
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Freedom250, the nonpartisan group helping coordinate the broader America250 effort, said the fair will feature food, games, exhibits and themed attractions designed to showcase the country’s culture, history and innovation.
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