Politics
Texas politicos launch full-court press against Harris ahead of her border state campaign rally: 'Apologize'
FIRST ON FOX: More than a dozen Texas Republicans, from the governor to members of the U.S. House, slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’ planned visit to the border state Friday, telling Fox News Digital the visit is “one of the dumbest political decisions” they’ve seen.
“‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris can come all the way to Houston where Jocelyn Nungaray was killed by Tren de Aragua gang members that she let into the country, yet she can’t be bothered to visit Jocelyn’s family or even say her name. Kamala Harris and her open border policies have allowed over 11 million illegal immigrants and dangerous criminals like TdA into our country, putting every American’s life at risk,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News Digital.
“President Donald Trump has shown real leadership on the border, with successful border policies that decreased illegal immigration to the lowest level in decades. While Kamala Harris refuses to take real action on this crisis, Texas will continue to step up with our historic border mission until we have a partner in the White House to make America secure again.”
Harris will travel to the red state just 10 days ahead of Election Day, and she is expected to speak about the state’s abortion policies after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortion is a hallmark of the Harris campaign, including Harris saying she supports eliminating the filibuster in an effort to pass a law restoring abortion access nationwide.
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slammed Harris’ trip to Texas as “one of the dumbest political decisions I’ve ever seen.”
“Kamala Harris coming to Texas for a rally is one of the dumbest political decisions I’ve ever seen. She and Colin Allred are not going to win in Texas. I’m glad she is spending the day in Texas instead of campaigning in a swing state with only a few days left in the election. I hope she stays longer. Donald Trump is going to be the next president because the voters are fed up with the Harris-Biden regime and the chaos they’ve created,” Patrick said.
Harris will be joined by Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred, who is making a long shot run to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Cruz slammed his Senate opponent in comments to Fox Digital, saying Allred and Harris share the same “radical policies.”
“Colin Allred is Kamala Harris. They have spent the last four years working hand-in-hand against Texans and the American people with their radical policies, whether those be pushing to allow boys in girls’ sports, allowing dangerous illegal aliens to come into our country or trying to destroy the oil and gas industry in Texas,” Cruz said.
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“Colin and Kamala share an agenda, and now they’ll share a stage for all Texans to see.”
“I’m glad she is spending the day in Texas instead of campaigning in a swing state with only a few days left in the election. I hope she stays longer.” — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
As illegal immigration spiraled in 2021, the Biden-Harris administration’s first year in office, President Biden announced Harris would lead the effort to determine the “root causes” of immigration. The administration pointed to issues such as climate change, poverty and violence driving migrants to the U.S.
The media and Republicans dubbed Harris the “border czar” shortly after, with the White House rejecting the title. The title, however, has continued years later, including Texas Republicans this week using the title to slam Harris ahead of her visit.
“Millions of migrants have illegally entered our country on Border Czar Kamala Harris’ watch, so it’s no surprise that she’d rather talk about anything but her abysmal track record on the border. If she can’t control the border, how can she run the country? We’ve never had a more secure border than under President Trump, and he will put a stop to this when he takes office. Nov. 5 can’t come soon enough,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn said.
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This aerial picture taken Dec. 8, 2023, shows the US-Mexico border wall in Sasabe, Ariz. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images))
“Harris’ last-ditch effort to appear serious on border security is more than laughable, it’s dangerous. If she were serious, she would’ve acted as a legitimate ‘Border Czar.’ Instead, she imported over 20 million illegals into our communities where they’re rewarded with government benefits, leaving U.S. citizens to be raped and murdered by violent illegal criminals,” Rep. Ronny Jackson said.
“Harris admitted that she’s pro-mass amnesty and has gone so far as to support taxpayer-funded transition surgeries for detained illegals. She is the ultimate panderer, and, if elected, will continue her open-border policies. Texans, including our incredible Latino community, do not trust her, which is why they’re projected to turn out in record numbers to vote for Trump.”
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Texas politicians respond to Kamala Harris’ Texas visit. (Getty Images)
Nineteen Texas leaders submitted comments to Fox News Digital slamming Harris’ planned visit, with a handful citing girls and women who have been murdered in recent years, allegedly at the hands of illegal immigrants.
“Harris should visit Houston, but not to campaign. She should come to apologize for purposefully allowing Texas border counties to be overrun and allowing young Houstonians like Jocelyn Nungaray to be murdered by the people she allowed in,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw said.
Twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was sexually assaulted and murdered by strangulation when two illegal immigrants in their 20s allegedly lured the young girl under a bridge before killing her in June.
Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, was found strangled to death in a Houston creek. (Fox Houston courtesy of the Nungaray family)
“Instead of coming to Texas to ask for our votes, Kamala should be asking for our forgiveness. Especially from the family of Jocelyn Nungaray and the countless others devastated by her administration’s open border policies. For four years, she has ignored Texans and the deadly crisis she has created at our southern border,” Rep. Roger Williams said.
“Her negligence as Border Czar contributed to the tragic deaths of Americans, including Jocelyn Nungaray, who was killed by two illegal aliens from Venezuela. Young women like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray and Rachel Morin would be alive today if Kamala Harris had taken her responsibilities seriously,” Rep. Wesley Hunt added.
Harris’ event will kick off Friday evening in Houston, with reports surfacing that she will be joined by musician Beyoncé, who is originally from Houston.
“If she wanted a secure border, why did I have to sue her administration dozens of times to force them to follow federal immigration laws?” — Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the Texas Republicans’ comments on her upcoming visit. The campaign also did not respond to a request for confirmation regarding whether Beyoncé will join the rally.
Harris joined a CNN town hall Wednesday evening outside Philadelphia, where moderator Anderson Cooper pressed the vice president about her border policies, including whether she supports a border wall after calling the wall “stupid” when it was championed by Trump during his administration.
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“Let’s talk about this compromise bill that you want to pass if you are elected. You said that’s going to be a priority. It includes $650 million in funding for the border wall. That’s something Republicans wanted, that was part of the compromise. Under Donald Trump, you criticized the wall more than 50 times. You called it ‘stupid, useless, and a medieval vanity project.’ Is a border wall stupid?,” Cooper asked Harris.
“Let’s talk about Donald Trump and that border wall,” Harris said while laughing. “So, remember, Donald Trump said Mexico would pay for it. Come on, they didn’t. How much of that wall did he build? I think the last number I saw was about 2%. And then when it came time for him to do a photo op, you know where he did it? In the part of the wall that President Obama built.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, speaks as CNN moderator Anderson Cooper looks on during a presidential town hall at Sun Center Studios Oct. 23, 2024, in Aston, Pa. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“But you agreed to a bill that would earmark $650 million to continue building that wall,” Cooper pressed.
“I pledge that I am going to bring forward that bipartisan bill to further strengthen and secure our border. Yes, I am, and I’m going to work across the aisle to pass a comprehensive bill that deals with a broken immigration system,” Harris responded.
“So you don’t think it’s stupid anymore?” Cooper continued.
“I think what he did and how he did it was … did not make much sense because he actually didn’t do much of anything. I just talked about that wall, right? We just talked about it. He didn’t actually do much of anything,” she responded.
“Young women like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray and Rachel Morin would be alive today if Kamala Harris had taken her responsibilities seriously.” — Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton railed against Harris in comments to Fox Digital ahead of her visit, saying she and Biden “intentionally dismantled every successful Trump border policy to let in as many aliens as possible” starting on their first day in office.
“Now, Kamala wants to come to Texas and talk about border security after four years of destroying American communities. If she wanted a secure border, why did I have to sue her administration dozens of times to force them to follow federal immigration laws? We’re fighting Kamala’s destructive open borders doctrine in the courts because she has unlawfully weaponized power to make our country more dangerous instead of keeping Americans safe,” Paxton said.
U.S. military forces stopped and boarded a second sanctioned tanker carrying oil from Iran in the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon said on Thursday, ramping up pressure on Tehran as the Trump administration seeks to resume negotiations to end the war.
A naval boarding team roped down from hovering helicopters and fanned out on the vessel, the M/T Majestic X, according to a Pentagon statement that included a 17-second video of the operation.
The military said the boarding was part of a “global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate.”
Earlier this week, Navy SEALS boarded another ship in the Indian Ocean, the M/T Tifani, after the Pentagon said it was carrying oil from Iran.
Navy destroyers are also shadowing several other Iranian vessels, including the Dorena and Sevin, which had left from the Iranian port of Chabahar before the U.S.-imposed blockade began on April 13, a U.S. military official said. The Navy is directing those ships to return to an Iranian port, the official said.
With the M/T Tifani and M/T Majestic X now at least temporarily in the custody of the military, a U.S. military official said it was up to the White House to decide what to do with the sanctioned vessels and their cargo. The administration previously seized several tankers carrying illicit oil from Venezuela after a U.S. commando raid there in January that seized Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president.
“International waters cannot be used as a shield by sanctioned actors,” the Pentagon said in its statement on Thursday, adding that the department would “continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain.”
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hinted last week that the U.S. military would likely commence boarding operations like the ones this week. He said that U.S. military commanders elsewhere in the world, and especially in the Indo-Pacific region, would “actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran.”
The U.S. Navy has turned back at least 31 ships trying to enter or exit Iranian ports since an American blockade outside the contested Strait of Hormuz began about a week ago, U.S. Central Command said late Wednesday.
Last Sunday, a Navy destroyer disabled and seized the Touska, an Iranian cargo ship, after it tried to evade the blockade. It was the first time a vessel was reported to have tried to evade the U.S.-imposed blockade on any ship entering or exiting Iranian ports since it took effect last week.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained why President Donald Trump does not consider Iran’s seizure of two ships in the Strait of Hormuz a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Leavitt made the statement during an interview with Fox News’ Martha McCallum on Wednesday just hours after Iran captured the Greek and Mediterranean-flagged vessels.
“Does the seizure of two ships — as we said, they were Greek and Mediterranean-owned ships with cargo on them, and the reports are that Iran basically seized them and then moved them into Iranian waters. We don’t know what’s going to happen to these crews. We’re not sure where all of this is going. Does the president view that as a violation of the ceasefire?” McCallum asked.
“No, because these were not U.S. ships. These were not Israeli ships. These were two international vessels,” Leavitt responded.
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Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, conducts a press briefing. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“And for the American media, who are sort of blowing this out of proportion to discredit the president’s facts that he has completely obliterated Iran’s conventional Navy, these two ships were taken by speedy gunboats. Iran has gone from having the most lethal Navy in the Middle East to now acting like a bunch of pirates. They don’t have control over the strait,” she continued.
“This is piracy that we are seeing on display. And the naval blockade that the United States has imposed continues to be incredibly effective. And, to be clear, the blockade is on ships going to and from Iranian ports. And the point of this is the economic leverage that we maintain over Iran now. While there’s a ceasefire with respect to the military and kinetic strikes, Operation Economic Fury continues, and the crux of that is this naval blockade,” she added.
The Iranian made ‘Seraj’ a high-speed missile-launching assault boat on display in Tehran on August 23, 2010, as Iran kicked off mass production of two high-speed missile-launching assault boats the ‘Seraj’ (Lamp) and ‘Zolfaqar’ (named after Shiite Imam Ali’s sword) speedboats which will be manufactured at the marine industries complex of the ministry of defense. (YALDA MOAIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said the vessels, identified as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas, were operating without proper authorization and had tampered with navigation systems, accusations that could not be independently verified. The ships had earlier reported coming under fire near the strait, underscoring the increasingly volatile conditions in one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.
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The Guard attacked a third ship, identified as the Euphoria, which had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, Iranian media reported. It did not seize that vessel.
Ships and tankers in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, April 18, 2026. (Reuters)
Both the U.S. and Iranian sides have targeted commercial and cargo vessels as part of a broader pressure campaign tied to stalled negotiations. U.S. forces have also moved to seize at least one Iranian-linked vessel in the region, with each side accusing the other of violating the terms of a fragile ceasefire.
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The Strait of Hormuz is a vital artery for global oil shipments, with roughly 20% of the world’s supply passing through it. Traffic has slowed dramatically as ships reroute or avoid the area amid gunfire, seizures and conflicting directives from both militaries.
Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger met privately with President Trump and administration officials Wednesday to press for federal support and yet-unpaid wildfire recovery funding as the region continues to rebuild from the 2025 fires.
“This afternoon we met with President Trump and Administration officials to advocate for families who lost everything,” Bass and Barger said in a statement. “We had a very positive discussion about FEMA and other rebuilding funds as well as the support of the President to continue joining us in pressuring the insurance companies to pay what they owe — and for the big banks to step up to ease the financial pressure on L.A. families.”
Barger said the two leaders had a “high-level discussion” with the president in the Oval Office, sharing stories about what fire survivors are experiencing day to day. She added that “we left details behind with the President,” but did not specify whether Trump made any funding or policy promises during the meeting.
“First and foremost, today’s meeting was to thank the President for his initial support of infusing federal resources to expedite debris removal, as well as his recent tweet about insurance companies, which have already proven fruitful,” she said in a statement provided to The Times.
Bass was similarly reserved about the discussions, telling reporters that “we will follow up with the details,” but signaled progress is being made on federal support.
“I think what’s important is that we certainly got the president’s support in terms of, you know, what is needed, and then the appropriate people were in the room for us to follow up. And that was Russ Vought, who is the head of the Office of Management and budget,” Bass told KNX on Wednesday.
The meeting comes on the heels of a yearlong standoff between California leaders and the Trump administration over wildfire recovery funding, disaster response and whether the federal government should have a say in local rebuilding permitting.
California leaders, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, have accused the Trump administration of withholding billions in critical wildfire aid, prompting a lawsuit over stalled recovery funds. Officials allege political bias in the delay of billions of dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Newsom visited Washington in December. When he made his rounds on Capitol Hill, he met with five lawmakers, including three who serve on the Senate and House appropriations committees, to renew calls for $33.9 billion in federal aid for Los Angeles County fire recovery.
But the governor said he was denied a meeting with FEMA and would not say whether he had attempted to meet with Trump to discuss the issue.
Bass, meanwhile, appears to have found a path to the president on a subject that has been paramount for her community.
The fruitful meeting comes after Trump lobbed insults at the mayor at a news conference earlier this year, where he called her “incompetent” for how she handled last year’s wildfire recovery efforts. He alleged that under Bass’ leadership, the city’s delay in issuing local building permits will take years when it should have taken “two or three days.”
California officials, including Newsom, have urged the Trump administration to send Congress a formal request for the $33.9 billion in recovery aid needed to rebuild homes, schools, utilities and other critical infrastructure destroyed or damaged when the fires tore through neighborhoods more than 15 months ago.
What Bass and Barger’s meeting with the president ultimately produces remains to be seen.
The billions in recovery aid have not yet materialized, but the meeting could potentially give those discussions new momentum.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment about the meeting.
Earlier this month, Trump criticized insurance provider State Farm on Truth Social for its handling of the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires. He accused the insurance giant of abandoning its policyholders when tragedy struck.
“It was brought to my attention that the Insurance Companies, in particular, State Farm, have been absolutely horrible to people that have been paying them large Premiums for years, only to find that when tragedy struck, these horrendous Companies were not there to help!” Trump wrote.
But the rebuke didn’t come out of the blue. It stemmed from a controversial February visit to Los Angeles by Trump administration officials.
Trump tapped Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in an effort to strip California state and local governments of their authority to permit the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires.
Within the week, Zeldin was in Los Angeles, bashing Newsom and Los Angeles officials at a roundtable with fire victims and reporters, saying that residents were suffering from “bureaucratic, red tape delays and incompetency” and that leadership was “denying them … the ability to rebuild their lives”.
During the trip, officials heard direct complaints from local leaders and fire victims about insurers being slow, restrictive and insufficient with their claim payouts.
After these meetings, Trump directed Zeldin to investigate the insurers’ responses. State Farm, facing roughly $7 billion in fire-related claims, is also under formal investigation by California’s insurance commissioner over its handling of the crisis.
Despite tensions with the administration, Bass and Barger appeared confident that progress was being made on the insurance and funding issues.
“Our job is to fight for our communities,” their joint statement concluded. “When it comes to this recovery, our federal partners are essential, and we are grateful for the support of the President.”
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