Politics
Harris talks with Charlamagne Tha God as she tries to stem erosion of support among Black men
As Democrats work to shore up Vice President Kamala Harris’ standing among Black male voters who could be decisive in battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, the Democratic nominee was peppered by polite but pointed questions during a radio town hall hosted by Charlamagne Tha God on Tuesday.
After the comedian and author asked Harris, the former California attorney general and career prosecutor, about allegations that she purposefully imprisoned Black men over marijuana to boost her career, she called the claims misinformation and defended her work.
“I know exactly how those laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain populations, and specifically Black men,” Harris said, adding that she was “the most progressive prosecutor” in California and pointed to her proposal to decriminalize marijuana.
Harris also argued that such false claims were part of a systemic effort by the campaign of her GOP rival, former President Trump.
“They are trying to scare people away because they know that otherwise they have nothing to run on,” she said.
Harris’ hourlong appearance with Charlamagne Tha God is part of a concerted effort by her campaign to stop the erosion of support for the Democratic nominee among Black men. Even though she will overwhelmingly win their vote, polling shows that she has less support than President Biden did four years ago among this crucial Democratic constituency.
Former President Obama addressed the slippage as he campaigned for Harris last week in Pittsburgh, saying the lack of energy “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”
On Monday, Harris unveiled an “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” that includes providing fully forgivable loans to entrepreneurs; creating education, training and mentorship programs aimed at increasing job opportunities such as teaching for Black men; and creating a health equity initiative to focus on sickle cell disease, diabetes and other conditions that disproportionately affect Black men.
Her campaign also announced several new efforts to engage this voter bloc, including “Black Men Huddle Up” NFL and NCAA watch parties with celebrities and activists at Black-owned sports bars in cities such as Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta.
Later Tuesday, Harris discussed the danger a second Trump presidency poses to the nation, as well as the importance of voting, during a taped conversation with rappers Fat Joe and Too Short that aired during the BET Hip-Hop Awards .
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there that would suggest to people that their vote doesn’t matter, and as far as I’m concerned, you should never let anybody silence you,” Harris said. “Because when you vote, you actually have the ability to determine the future of our country.”
In response to Fat Joe raising the impact of misinformation on the election, Harris responded that it’s a purposeful attempt to depress the vote.
“When you tell people that they can’t trust the system, then what are they likely to do? Not participate,” she said. “And that’s why I say don’t ever let anybody take you out of the game. That’s the first step toward never being able to make a difference.”
During Harris’ town hall with Charlamagne Tha God, Solomon Kinloch Jr., a pastor at Triumph Church in Detroit, asked about allegations from the Trump campaign that she was not involved with the Black church community. Harris responded that such claims are “disinformation.”
Citing the Oakland church she attended as a child and her current pastor from the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, Harris said her Republican rival sought to “disconnect me from the people I have worked with and that I am from.”
And she turned to some of Trump’s recent merchandise.
“He’s selling $60 Bibles or tennis shoes and trying to play people as though that makes him more understanding of the Black community,” she said. “C’mon.”
Asked about the proposal of reparations to Black Americans because of slavery, the vice president repeated her previously stated position that “it has to be studied. There’s no question about that. And I’ve been very clear about that position.”
As a U.S. senator representing California, Harris supported the creation of a federal commission to study the issue.
The Trump campaign seized on the remark.
“Kamala Harris is a radical liberal,” the former president’s campaign said in a statement. “A 2020 report from NBC News noted that this “could cost the U.S. government between $10 trillion and $12 trillion.”
After Harris’ event with Charlamagne Tha God, she visited Cred Cafe, a Detroit small business owned by former NBA players Joe and Jamal Crawford. Actor Don Cheadle was among the attendees.
She noted that early voting begins in Michigan in four days after receiving a “Detroit VS Everybody” T-shirt from the brand’s founder. She said she felt a “kindred spirit” with Detroit.
Earlier in the day, she pointed to Trump’s slashing criticism of the city as what will happen to the United States if she is elected president, remarks he made there last week and reiterated Tuesday while participating in an interview with Bloomberg News in Chicago.
“Can you imagine you go to a city and say you want the votes of those people and disparage the city?” Harris said incredulously, adding that Trump tends to insult cities that have historically had majority-Black populations.
Politics
Video: Walz Drops Re-Election Bid as Minnesota Fraud Scandal Grows
new video loaded: Walz Drops Re-Election Bid as Minnesota Fraud Scandal Grows
transcript
transcript
Walz Drops Re-Election Bid as Minnesota Fraud Scandal Grows
Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota abandoned his re-election bid to focus on handling a scandal over fraud in social service programs that grew under his administration.
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“I’ve decided to step out of this race, and I’ll let others worry about the election while I focus on the work that’s in front of me for the next year.” “All right, so this is Quality Learing Center — meant to say Quality ‘Learning’ Center.” “Right now we have around 56 kids enrolled. If the children are not here, we mark absence.”
By Shawn Paik
January 6, 2026
Politics
Pelosi heir-apparent calls Trump’s Venezuela move a ‘lawless coup,’ urges impeachment, slams Netanyahu
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A San Francisco Democrat demanded the impeachment of President Donald Trump, accusing him of carrying out a “coup” against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener, seen as the likely congressional successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, also took a swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Wiener has frequently drawn national attention for his progressive positions, including his legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom designating California as a “refuge” for transgender children and remarks at a San Francisco Pride Month event referring to California children as “our kids.”
In a lengthy public statement following the Trump administration’s arrest and extradition of Maduro to New York, Wiener said the move shows the president only cares about “enriching his public donors” and “cares nothing for the human or economic cost of conquering another country.”
KAMALA HARRIS BLASTS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA’S MADURO AS ‘UNLAWFUL AND UNWISE’
California State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, speaks at a rally. (John Sciulli/Getty Images)
“This lawless coup is an invitation for China to invade Taiwan, for Russia to escalate its conquest in Ukraine, and for Netanyahu to expand the destruction of Gaza and annex the West Bank,” said Wiener, who originally hails from South Jersey.
He suggested that the Maduro operation was meant to distract from purportedly slumping poll numbers, the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents, and to essentially seize another country’s oil reserves.
“Trump is a total failure,” Wiener said. “By engaging in this reckless act, Trump is also making the entire world less safe … Trump is making clear yet again that, under this regime, there are no rules, there are no laws, there are no norms – there is only whatever Trump thinks is best for himself and his cronies at a given moment in time.”
GREENE HITS TRUMP OVER VENEZUELA STRIKES, ARGUES ACTION ‘DOESN’T SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’
In response, the White House said the administration’s actions against Maduro were “lawfully executed” and included a federal arrest warrant.”
“While Democrats take twisted stands in support of indicted drug smugglers, President Trump will always stand with victims and families who can finally receive closure thanks to this historic action,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
Supporters of the operation have pushed back on claims of “regime change” – an accusation Wiener also made – pointing to actions by Maduro-aligned courts that barred top opposition leader María Corina Machado from running, even as publicly reported results indicated her proxy, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the vote.
“Trump’s illegal invasion of Venezuela isn’t about drugs, and it isn’t about helping the people of Venezuela or restoring Venezuelan democracy,” Wiener added. “Yes, Maduro is awful, but that’s not what the invasion is about. It’s all about oil and Trump’s collapsing support at home.”
EX-ESPN STAR KEITH OLBERMANN CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT OF TRUMP OVER VENEZUELA STRIKES THAT CAPTURED MADURO
Around the country, a handful of other Democrats referenced impeachment or impeachable offenses, but did not go as far as Wiener in demanding such proceedings.
Rep. April McClain-Delaney, D-Md., who represents otherwise conservative “Mountain Maryland” in the state’s panhandle, said Monday that Democrats should “imminently consider impeachment proceedings,” according to TIME.
McClain-Delaney said Trump acted without constitutionally-prescribed congressional authorization and wrongly voiced “intention to ‘run’ the country.”
SCHUMER BLASTED TRUMP FOR FAILING TO OUST MADURO — NOW WARNS ARREST COULD LEAD TO ‘ENDLESS WAR’
One frequent Trump foil, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., cited in a statement that she has called for Trump’s impeachment in the past; blaming Republicans for letting the president “escape accountability.”
“Today, many Democrats have understandably questioned whether impeachment is possible again under the current political reality. I am reconsidering that view,” Waters said.
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“What we are witnessing is an unprecedented escalation of an unlawful invasion, the detention of foreign leaders, and a president openly asserting power far beyond what the Constitution allows,” she said, while appearing to agree with Trump that Maduro was involved in drug trafficking and “collaborat[ion] with… terrorists.”
Wiener’s upcoming primary is considered the deciding election in the D+36 district, while a handful of other lesser-known candidates have reportedly either filed FEC paperwork or declared their candidacy, including San Francisco Councilwoman Connie Chan.
Politics
California Congressman Doug LaMalfa dies, further narrowing GOP margin in Congress
California Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) has died, GOP leadership and President Trump confirmed Tuesday morning.
“Jacquie and I are devastated about the sudden loss of our friend, Congressman Doug LaMalfa. Doug was a loving father and husband, and staunch advocate for his constituents and rural America,” said Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House majority whip, in a post on X. “Our prayers are with Doug’s wife, Jill, and their children.”
LaMalfa, 65, was a fourth-generation rice farmer from Oroville and staunch Trump supporter who had represented his Northern California district for the past 12 years. His seat was one of several that was in jeopardy under the state’s redrawn districts approved by voters with Proposition 50.
Emergency personnel responded to a 911 call from LaMalfa’s residence at 6:50 p.m. Monday, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. The congressman was taken to the Enloe Medical Center in Chico, where he died while undergoing emergency surgery, authorities said.
An autopsy to determine the cause of death is planned, according to the sheriff’s office.
LaMalfa’s district — which stretches from the northern outskirts of Sacramento, through Redding at the northern end of the Central Valley and Alturas in the state’s northeast corner — is largely rural, and constituents have long said they felt underrepresented in liberal California.
LaMalfa put much of his focus on boosting federal water supplies to farmers, and seeking to reduce environmental restrictions on logging and extraction of other natural resources.
One LaMalfa’s final acts in the U.S. House was to successfully push for the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools Act, a long-standing financial aid program for schools surrounded by untaxed federal forest land, whose budgets could not depend upon property taxes, as most public schools do. Despite broad bipartisan support, Congress let it lapse in 2023.
In an interview with The Times as he was walking onto the House floor in mid-December, LaMalfa said he was frustrated with Congress’s inability to pass even a popular bill like that reauthorization.
The Secure Rural Schools Act, he said, was a victim of a Congress in which “it’s still an eternal fight over anything fiscal.” It is “annoying,” LaMalfa said, “how hard it is to get basic things done around here.”
In a statement posted on X, California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff said he considered LaMalfa “a friend and partner” and that the congressman was “deeply committed to his community and constituents, working to make life better for those he represented.”
“Doug’s life was one of great service and he will be deeply missed,” Schiff wrote.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement called LaMalfa a “devoted public servant who deeply loved his country, his state, and the communities he represented.”
“While we often approached issues from different perspectives, he fought every day for the people of California with conviction and care,” Newsom said.
Flags at the California State Capitol in Sacramento will be flown at half-staff in honor of the congressman, according to the governor.
Before his death, LaMalfa was facing a difficult reelection bid to hold his seat. After voters approved Proposition 50 in November — aimed at giving California Democrats more seats in Congress — LaMalfa was drawn into a new district that heavily favored his likely opponent, State Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat who represents the state’s northwest coast.
LaMalfa’s death puts the Republican majority in Congress in further jeopardy, with a margin of just two votes to secure passage of any bill along party lines after the resignation of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday evening.
Adding to the party’s troubles, Rep. Jim Baird, a Republican from Indiana, was hospitalized on Tuesday for a car crash described by the White House as serious. While Baird is said to be stable, the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson from Louisiana, will not be able to rely on his attendance. And he has one additional caucus member – Thomas Massie of Kentucky – who has made a habit of voting against the president, bringing their margin for error down effectively to zero.
President Trump, addressing a gathering of GOP House members at the Kennedy Center, addressed the news at the start of his remarks, expressing “tremendous sorrow at the loss of a great member” and stating his speech would be made in LaMalfa’s honor.
“He was the leader of the Western caucus – a fierce champion on California water issues. He was great on water. ‘Release the water!’ he’d scream out. And a true defender of American children.”
“You know, he voted with me 100% of the time,” Trump added.
A native of Oroville, LaMalfa attended Butte College and then earned an ag-business degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He served in the California Assembly from 2002 to 2008 and the California State Senate from 2010 to 2012. Staunchly conservative, he was an early supporter of Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in California, and he also pushed for passage of the Protection of Marriage Act, Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage in California.
While representing California’s 1st District, LaMalfa focused largely on issues affecting rural California and other western states. In 2025, Congressman he was elected as Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, which focuses on legislation affected rural areas.
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