Politics
Ohio Senate candidate rips 'depraved' politicians for Springfield migrant crisis: Citizens 'pay the price'
Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno is blasting “depraved” politicians for the migrant crisis in Springfield, Ohio, that he says shows elected Democrats have “forgotten” they “work for the American people.”
“Let’s start with we don’t even know how many Haitian immigrants have been brought into Springfield, Ohio,” businessman Bernie Moreno, running as a Republican against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, told Fox News Digital.
“That’s problem number one, and number two is why on earth are we bringing that number of people into a small community like Springfield, where they don’t have the infrastructure, they don’t have the health system, they don’t have the educational system and to get to the place where they do it would cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Moreno continued, “We have incredible priorities here in America. We have people in need, American citizens that need housing, American citizens that are struggling because of high inflation caused by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Why on earth are we taking precious resources from the American taxpayers and using it to benefit foreign nationals? That’s the real question to Springfield that’s not being answered.”
SPRINGFIELD RESIDENT SAYS ROADS ARE LIKE ‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’ AFTER HAITIAN MIGRANTS OVERRUN RURAL TOWN
Bernie Moreno is the Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio. (Fox News Digital)
Springfield, Ohio, has garnered national headlines in recent weeks over an influx of tens of thousands of Haitian migrants into the town of 60,000, where residents say the infrastructure doesn’t exist to care for them all and that crime has been an increasing issue.
“It’s like living in a dystopian nightmare,” Springfield resident Diana Daniels told “Fox & Friends“ on Thursday. “You hope you wake up and it’s 2019 again, and then you realize it’s 2024, and it’s the same thing over and over again, day after day. It’s hard sometimes to get up in the morning and hear residents that I’ve known for years struggle. This is a paycheck-to-paycheck… kind of town… working class. The citizens that depend on our social services like health care, the Rocking Horse [Community Health Center], going down to the Social Security office for benefits are waiting in line, and they’re not getting the services they need.”
Moreno told Fox News Digital that Brown and Biden, who he called “two 50-year career politicians,” have “forgotten they work for the American people.”
HAITIAN REFUGEES ‘DON’T UNDERSTAND THE LAWS,’ FORMER LAWMAKER SAYS AMID FATAL WRECK, CULTURAL CLASHES
Rose Groute Creole Restaurant in Springfield, Ohio, a popular Haitian food establishment that opened in August 2023. (Fox News)
“Elections come down to whose side you’re on and are you on the side of Haiti and Haitians and people suffering all over the world, which clearly we all empathize with, or are you on the side of Americans, American workers, American families, who are seeing their costs of health care go up dramatically, who are seeing their taxes go up, who are seeing their insurance prices go up, who are seeing their grocery bills go up, and what are you doing about that?”
Moreno added, “You’re certainly not helping by bringing 5% of the population of this poor country to America to clash two cultures together and land in a place like Springfield, Ohio, where the American citizens there are deprived of the very benefits that they’re supposed to get.“
Moreno echoed Daniels’ concerns and explained that residents who are “entitled” to use the resources they have paid into are “standing in line behind Haitian immigrants.”
SPRINGFIELD PASTORS SPEAK OUT ON HAITIAN REFUGEE CHALLENGES: ‘THE SUFFERING IS REAL’
People line up for food at the St. John’s Lutheran Church food pantry in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 13, 2024. (Fox News/Max Becall)
“They shouldn’t even be in this country in the first place,” Moreno said. “That’s ultimately what is unfolding and why this story matters so much, because this is genuinely the story of America. Do we want leaders in elected office in Washington, D.C., like President Trump, like what I’ll do, like JD Vance, who put America first? Or do you want political leaders that have been there forever? These career serial politicians put the interests of foreign nationals first. That’s ultimately what this election comes down to.”
Moreno, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia as a child, told Fox News Digital that his fellow legal immigrants are “sick and tired” of this “culture that rewards people for skipping the line” and getting “preferential treatment for whatever reason.”
“For example, temporary protected status, operative word ‘temporary,’ is supposed to be given to people who are here who have an emergency in their home country and need to stay for a few months,” Moreno said.
“Instead, we’re using that to make people stay here permanently. That skips the line from the millions of people who want to come to this country. Why are we giving preferential treatment to Haiti? There’s suffering all over the world: India, Africa, my home country of Colombia. There’s suffering everywhere. Why are we giving preferential treatment to certain countries and not others? And the answer is because you have special interest groups that pay off these politicians, that fund nonprofits, that pay huge salaries to the CEOs and it’s all about money and the people who pay the price and the citizens of the people in Springfield, Ohio.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown during votes in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 23, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Moreno also took issue with prominent Democrats and celebrities who he says have not taken the issue seriously.
“Then you have depraved politicians like Sherrod Brown that hang out with their Hollywood celebrity buddies like John Legend, who from his multimillion-dollar mansion in a bathrobe, by the way, talks about how the people in Springfield, Ohio, should be welcoming,” Moreno said.
“Why doesn’t he house them? Why don’t these migrants go to Beverly Hills and live there 16 or 18 per two-bedroom or three-bedroom-home? And why don’t his kids go to school with these migrants that don’t speak a word of English, that their culture is very different than ours because, of course, they’re the elites of this country that want the rest of us to have to live with the results of their ridiculous policies.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Brown and the White House but did not receive a response.
For the people still on the fence about whom to vote for in the 2024 presidential race, Tuesday night’s debate was an important data point. Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter for The New York Times and the host of the politics podcast “The Run-Up,” asked some undecided voters for their thoughts about Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump.
Politics
Harris mocked online for breaking out another 'new accent' at Congressional Black Caucus event
Vice President Harris was mocked online for debuting another “new accent” during a Congressional Black Caucus event Saturday night.
“Hello to all of my Divine Nine brothers and sisters,” Harris said at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. “And to all my HBCU brothers and sisters.”
The account End Wokeness shared the clip on X, writing: “BREAKING: Kamala Harris unveils a new accent at the Black Caucus Dinner.”
“New? Or is it her old fake black accent?” X user Paul A. Szypula, who has more than 232,700 followers, responded. “Either way, it’s incredibly insulting to black people. Shame on Kamala.”
“NEW: Kamala Harris brings out her new accent at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 2024 Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington D.C.,” Collin Rugg wrote to his 1.4 million followers, sharing the clip to X. “‘Hello to all my divine… brothas and sistas… am my soro…’ Kamala has brought out this new accent throughout the campaign at different times.”
“Kamala Harris accent du jor,” columnist James Hirsen wrote to his 270,500 followers on X.
KAMALA HARRIS RALLIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY REPEATING SAME SPEECH IN DIFFERENT ACCENTS
Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Other X users pointed to how Harris was raised in Canada but has broken out varying accents from around the United States depending on where she was campaigning.
Harris’ “Divine Nine” comment referenced how she was a member of a historically Black sorority while attending Howard University.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment Sunday.
The vice president was panned earlier this month when side by side clips showed her seemingly using different accents while campaigning in Detroit and Pittsburgh, hours apart.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy confronted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the issue, asking, “Since when does the vice president have what sounds like a southern accent?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jean-Pierre said from the White House podium earlier this month.
“Well she was talking about unions in Detroit using one tone of voice,” Doocy said. “She used the same line in Pittsburgh, and it sounded like she at least had some kind of a southern drawl.”
President Joe Biden, left, with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right, on stage at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
WHITE HOUSE DISMISSES QUESTIONS ABOUT KAMALA HARRIS’ NEW ‘SOUTHERN ACCENT:’ ‘JUST INSANE’
“I mean do you hear the question … I mean do you think Americans seriously think that this is an important question?” Jean-Pierre retorted. “They care – you know what they care about? They care about the economy. They care about lowering costs. They care about healthcare. That’s what Americans care about…”
Kamala Harris speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Harris is attempting to court Black voters in the coming days. Speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus dinner right before her, President Biden talked about Harris as the first Black and South Asian woman vice president, and said, “God willing, she will become the first woman president of the United States of America.”
On Tuesday, Harris will sit with members of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. On Thursday, she’ll attend a live streamed rally headlined by Oprah Winfrey and involving groups such as “Win with Black Women,” “White Women: Answer the Call,” and “South Asians for Harris,” according to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The backlash continued to mount following Vice President Kamala Harris’ televised interview Friday, with critics calling out her unwillingness to give clear and specific answers.
In her first solo sit-down TV interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris seemed to filibuster to avoid direct answers. One example came when the interviewer, Brian Taff of the Philadelphia ABC affiliate, asked for her “specific” plans to bring down prices for Americans.
“Well, I’ll start with this. I grew up a middle-class kid,” Harris responded. “My mother raised my sister and me. She worked very hard. She was able to finally save up enough money to buy our first house when I was a teenager.
“I grew up in a community of hard-working people, you know, construction workers and nurses and teachers. And I try to explain to some people who may not have had the same experience. You know, a lot of people will relate to this.”
HARRIS DODGES QUESTION ON LOWERING PRICES BY DESCRIBING ‘MIDDLE-CLASS’ ROOTS: NEIGHBORS ‘PROUD OF THEIR LAWN’
Vice President Kamala Harris went viral with her response to a question about how she’d bring down prices in an interview with Philadelphia’s 6 ABC anchor Brian Taff. (Screenshot/6 ABC Philadelphia)
Critics have slammed Harris on social media, saying she gave confusing answers to a number of questions.
“Kamala Harris did her first local sit down interview after prepping for 53 days and it was a nightmare[.] She couldn’t even name 1-2 things she would do to bring down inflation,” Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s press secretary, wrote in post on X following the interview.
California state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones told Fox News Digital if Harris becomes president, the entire nation would suffer.
“Kamala Harris has spent decades in public office, with a track record defined by rising costs and inflation. During her tenure in California, prices soared, and the affordability crisis has only worsened since she became Vice President,” Jones said. “Talk is cheap, and while she promises to lower costs, her actions have repeatedly resulted in the opposite.
“Californians struggled under her leadership, and now the entire nation is bearing the brunt. America simply can’t afford a Harris presidency.”
Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson added that Harris’s answers made no sense.
“Kamala Harris: “My focus is very much about what we need to do over the next 10-20 years to catch up to the 21st century around, again, capacity, but also challenges.” What does this even mean?” Johnson wrote in a post. on X.
Harris’ answer resembled the response she gave during the ABC News presidential debate against former President Trump Tuesday, when she was asked by moderator David Muir whether Americans are economically “better off than they were four years ago.”
“So, I was raised as a middle-class kid,” Harris told Muir. “And I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America. I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy.”
DREW BARRYMORE CALLS HER VIRAL ‘MOMALA’ HARRIS INTERVIEW THE ‘SCARIEST CONVERSATION I’VE DONE’
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Although Harris drew praise from pundits for her debate performance, her sometimes unresponsive answers there foreshadowed Friday’s sit-down, particularly on economic matters. In the debate, Harris went on to tout the same proposals without answering whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago.
“Kamala Harris was very clearly and directly asked: Are the American people better off now than they were 4 years ago? She could not say yes because the answer is no — the American people are worse off today because of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s policies,” former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard posted on X following Tuesday night’s debate.
TRUMP-VANCE TICKET HAS DONE COMBINED 49 INTERVIEWS SINCE LAST MONTH COMPARED TO ONLY 10 FOR HARRIS-WALZ
New York Times columnist Brett Stephens slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with CNN on Thursday as “vague” and “vacuous.” (AP/Stephen B. Morton)
Harris and running mate Tim Walz have only done 10 unscripted interviews for the Democratic presidential ticket thus far, while Republican presidential nominee Trump and vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have sat down for at least 49 interviews.
Harris still has not held a formal press conference since replacing President Biden as the Democratic nominee. Trump took questions at a news conference on Friday in California, his third extended presser in recent weeks.
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USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page said she believes Americans deserve to hear both candidates answer tough questions.
“I think part of the job description of being president is answering questions, not because reporters have a right to ask them, but because Americans have a right to hear them,” Page told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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