Politics
Pro-Palestinian protesters taunt Harris rallygoers as veep supporter hits back: What ‘About Hamas?’
WILKES-BARRE, PA. – A supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris shouted back at several pro-Palestinian protesters who appeared outside the throng lined up to see the Democratic presidential nominee at Wilkes University on Friday.
“Did I hear something about Hamas?” a Harris supporter who later identified himself as Frank from Stroudsburg, Pa., hollered back at a man waving a Palestinian flag and criticizing the protesters. The man was joined by a female protester, whose own remarks preceded his, and about five other people.
“You are a bull—- spreader,” the male pro-Palestinian protester shot back. “You are the cowardly one here. Come show your muscle… Let the people live; that’s what we want.”
The woman had been shouting at the crowd, trying to make the case that there is little daylight between Harris and former President Trump on the issue of the Israel-Gaza conflict and the Jerusalem government’s response to the October 7 terror attack.
KAMALA HARRIS: WE NEED A ‘CEASE-FIRE’ AND CHART A COURSE FOR A ‘TWO-STATE SOLUTION’
Frank told Fox News Digital after the kerfuffle that he effectively had had enough of the protesters’ invective and had to say something.
“Everybody agrees that the war [in Gaza] is horrible… but they’re complaining about Kamala, who has called for a cease fire.
“[The protesters] are representing the Palestinians, which is fine, but they say nothing about Hamas and the horror that started this whole thing,” Frank added.
“And they don’t say anything about how Hamas uses the Palestinians as human shields. So, you know, United States has been trying to negotiate a cease fire here for months and months. And the problem is Netanyahu and the right wing of the Israeli government — they don’t even want a two-state solution.”
Frank criticize Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has and will continue engage in indiscriminate bombings of Gazan territory – while underlining additionally that the U.S. made a promise to Israel and should uphold it:
“[America] has a commitment, a long-standing commitment since the year I was born to defend Israel’s right to exist. Hamas’s stated purpose is to end Israel as a state,” he said.
REPORTS OF BIDEN WHITE HOUSE KEEPING ‘SENSITIVE’ HAMAS INTEL FROM ISRAEL DRAWS OUTRAGE
Frank from Stroudsburg, a support of Vice President Harris, pushed back on pro-Palestinian protesters deriding the rally crowd. (Charlie Creitz/Fox News)
“You know, look, these guys have a perfect right to say whatever they want to say, but it’s a very narrow view of everything; what’s really going on here. And virtually everybody wants peace.”
“Kamala Harris is on record as advocating for a cease fire. So, you know, aim your anger where it might do some good.”
After speaking with Frank, Fox News Digital also caught up with Loai, the male protester who had been jawing with the Harris supporter.
Loai said he was born in Palestinian territory but now lives locally in the Wyoming Valley.
When asked why he and his group are protesting the Harris rally, Loai said the vice president supports “Zionists [and is] supporting Israel.”
Loai added that both Harris and Trump are “essentially” the same on the matter. When asked who he prefers if he had to choose, Loai quipped, “let’s see who is less smelly.”
Loai, one of the pro-Palestinian protesters, said he hails from Palestinian territory but now lives locally in the Wyoming Valley. He and rallygoer Frank engaged in a back and forth, yelling across the street in front of a Harris rally site. (Charlie Creitz/Fox News)
“We want to see the genocide stop,” he added.
Loai said he also “doesn’t care” about Israel – and personally is not calling for its demise, as other protesters have shouted “from the river to the sea” – a phrase connected to calls for the destruction of Israel.
“We don’t care about Israel; that they exist or not. That’s not our business. We are American here. We want this genocide to be stopped. – Wherever they go, they just [need] to get the Hell out of [the Palestinian territory].”
Fox News Digital’s Matteo Cina contributed to this report.
President Biden’s deliberations with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain about whether to allow Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range Western weapons were fresh evidence that the president remains deeply fearful of setting off a dangerous, wider conflict.
But the decision now facing Mr. Biden after Friday’s closed-door meeting at the White House — whether to sign off on the use of long-range missiles made by Britain and France — could be far more consequential than previous concessions by the president that delivered largely defensive weapons to Ukraine during the past two and a half years.
In remarks at the start of his meeting with Mr. Starmer, the president underscored his support for helping Ukraine defend itself but did not say whether he was willing to do more to allow for long-range strikes deep into Russia.
“We’re going to discuss that now,” the president told reporters.
For his part, the prime minister noted that “the next few weeks and months could be crucial — very, very important that we support Ukraine in this vital war of freedom.”
European officials said earlier in the week that Mr. Biden appeared ready to approve the use of British and French long-range missiles, a move that Mr. Starmer and officials in France have said they want to provide a united front in the conflict with Russia. But Mr. Biden has hesitated to allow Ukraine to use arms provided by the United States in the same way over fears that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would see it as a major escalation.
On Thursday, Mr. Putin responded to reports that America and its allies were considering such a move by declaring that it would “mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia,” according to a report by the Kremlin.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Starmer offered little insight on Friday into the actions they planned to take. But officials on both sides of the Atlantic said they did not expect any announcement immediately after the White House meeting. In the past, Western countries have begun providing new military equipment to Ukraine without announcing the decision publicly.
“This wasn’t about a particular decision that we’ll obviously pick up again in UNGA in just a few days’ time with a wider group of individuals,” Mr. Starmer told reporters after the meeting, referring to the annual meeting in New York of the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month.
But he also hinted that he expected a decision about the missiles to come soon.
“I think if you look at both the Ukrainian situation and the Middle East, it is obvious that in the coming weeks and months there are really important potential developments, whatever timetable is going on in other countries,” he said.
John F. Kirby, the national security spokesman at the White House, said Friday that the Biden administration takes Mr. Putin’s threats seriously because he has proved himself capable of “aggression” and “escalation.” But Mr. Kirby added that there had been no change in Mr. Biden’s opposition to letting Ukraine use U.S. missiles to strike deep inside Russia.
“There is no change to our view on the provision of long-range strike capabilities for Ukraine to use inside Russia, and I wouldn’t expect any sort of major announcement in that regard coming out of the discussions, certainly not from our side,” he said.
Mr. Kirby’s comments came just hours before the two leaders met for their first lengthy conversation since Mr. Starmer became prime minister in early July.
The question of whether to let Ukraine use the long-range weapons that can travel 150 to 200 miles has been a rare point of disagreement between British and American officials, who have largely been in lock step on strategy over the past 30 months of fighting.
British officials have argued that Ukraine cannot be expected to fight effectively unless it can attack the military sites that Russia is using to shoot missiles or the airplanes that deliver “glide bombs.” And they believe that Mr. Putin, for all his nuclear threats warning that war between Russia and European forces could be coming, is largely bluffing. Mr. Putin, they say, has shown he does not want to bring NATO directly into the fighting.
Mr. Biden’s view has been far more cautious.
He has hesitated at every major decision point, starting with shipping HIMARS artillery, then through debates on whether to send M1 Abrams tanks, F-16 fighters, and short- and long-range ATACMS, a missile system critical to American preparations to defend both Europe and the Korean Peninsula.
But those decisions have primarily helped Ukraine’s military defend its territory and try to repel the Russian invasion. Over time, his aides say, they have discovered that Mr. Putin was less sensitive to the introduction of new weapons into the battlefield than they had thought. So they have gradually approved more capable, longer-range arms for Ukraine.
The questions of how Mr. Putin would react to the use of American weapons by Ukraine to strike deep inside Russian territory, officials say, could lead to a very different outcome.
“When he starts brandishing the nuclear sword, for instance, yeah, we take that seriously, and we constantly monitor that kind of activity,” Mr. Kirby said. “We have our own calculus for what we decide to provide to Ukraine and what not.”
The American concerns are twofold. The first has been rooted in Mr. Biden’s concern that the war not escalate; time and again he has told members of his staff that their No. 1 priority was to “avoid World War III.”
The second American concern is a practical one: Pentagon officials do not believe Ukraine has enough of the ATACMS, the British Storm Shadow and the French SCALP missiles to make a strategic difference on the battlefield. The reach of the missiles, they note, is well known — and Russia has already moved its most valuable aircraft beyond the range the missiles can fly.
Moreover, the U.S. officials say, they simply cannot supply many more to Ukraine. The Pentagon has warned that it must keep a healthy reserve of weapons in case of an outbreak of fighting in either Europe or Asia. And the missiles are so expensive that they contend Ukraine could get more firepower putting that money into drones.
So in the American telling of events, the decisions being debated by Mr. Biden and Mr. Starmer are more symbolic than substantive.
Looming over this is the American election.
In the debate against Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, former President Donald J. Trump declined several opportunities to say he was committed to Ukraine’s victory. Instead, he talked of striking a deal, one that Ukraine may be coerced to sign.
While Ms. Harris is likely to continue the outlines of the American strategy, providing more arms and aid to Ukraine as long as Congress keeps the spigot open, Mr. Trump has made clear he is uninterested in continuing to spend heavily. And while Europe has stepped up, it does not have enough of an arsenal to make much of a difference.
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Here’s what’s happening…
– Trump and Vance have had 48 interviews combined since last month, only eight for Harris and Walz
– Mexican government buses migrants to US border
– Putin warns that the US, NATO risk war with Russia if long-range strike bans are lifted for Ukraine
‘The suffering is real’
Two Springfield, Ohio pastors spoke to Fox News Digital about the ministry challenges facing their town that has been thrust into the national spotlight after viral videos of residents complaining of disturbing behavior from Haitian refugees who have settled in the area.
“I think the biggest change that we’ve seen happen has just been sort of a breakdown in the trust of the community and some basic civility has also broken down a little bit,” BJ Newman, a pastor in Springfield, Ohio, told Fox News Digital from Springfield’s Snyder Park on Thursday. “I think the reason for that is because there have been so many changes so quickly… In the 2020 census, there was about 50,000, a little north of that, residents here, now we have, numbers I have been reading, between 15,000 and 20,000 additional immigrants have arrived.”
“I think there’s a larger narrative… that says the only compassionate response in a situation like this is you accept all of these immigrants and shut up. Any sense of raising our hand and saying ‘wait a second, we weren’t considered, we’re suffering her too.’ And the response is something like… you’re racist or you’re a bigot, why are you so anti-immigrant,” Newman said.
Pastors speak out on the situation concerning migrants in Springfield, OH. (Fox News)
“There’s tension in the community, much like the ways that tension has arisen in the past when there have been new members to move into an established area,” the Rev. Adam Banks of First Baptist Church told Fox News Digital, adding that his experience with migrants has been generally positive.
“They have joined right in helping with the sound system, sharing special music, sharing their lovely voices, reading scripture, providing leadership in various capacities in the congregation,” Banks said, adding that he will continue to “welcome” people who “want to celebrate the gift that each person brings and magnify God.” …Read more
Capitol Hill
BLOCKED: House GOP rolling out bill to block China, American adversaries from accessing US ports …Read more
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Tales from the Trail
34 TO 1: Trump-Vance ticket has done combined 48 interviews since last month compared to only eight for Harris-Walz …Read more
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump shake hands during their debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Getty Images)
‘ONLY OPTION’: Trump adviser Alina Habba hits campaign trail to attract Arab American support in swing state Michigan …Read more
Across America
COMMUNITY ‘UPENDED’: ‘It’ll upend the community’: PA town roiled by talk of migrant housing in Civil War-era orphanage building …Read more
NO ME GUSTA: Half of Latinos haven’t heard of ‘Latinx’ term, overwhelming majority don’t like it: poll …Read more
DEFIANT FANI: Fani Willis likely to defy Georgia state Senate subpoena ahead of Friday hearing, chairman says …Read more
TOUGH ON CRIME?: Gov. Newsom signs bill to resume harsh penalties for smash-and-grab robberies in California …Read more
Video of a shocking smash and grab robbery shows the moment a Sunnyvale jewelry store is overwhelmed by suspects armed with tools and hammers. (KTVU)
LIKE ‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’: Springfield resident says roads are like ‘Escape from New York’ after Haitian migrants overrun rural town …Read more
Around the World
‘GRAY’ AREA: Lawmakers crack down on CCP influence in US government tech, warn of potential ‘devastating’ cyber attack …Read more
BORDER BATTLE: Mexican government buses migrants to US border as illegal immigration becomes top issue …Read more
A glide bomb is seen under the wing of a Su-34 bomber of the Russian air force during a combat mission in Ukraine. Ukraine is imploring the West to allow it to use ATACMS to strike inside Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
BAD WORDS: New online ‘misinformation’ bill slammed as ‘biggest attack’ on freedoms in Australia …Read more
PUTIN’S RED LINE: Putin warns US, NATO risk war with Russia if long-range strike bans lifted for Ukraine …Read more
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States voting on abortion
Voters in a record 10 states will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions this fall. In Nebraska, voters face two measures: one favoring abortion rights and another that would ban abortion after the first trimester.
Supporters of abortion rights hope to continue their winning streak in both blue and red states, after a successful run of measures since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Opponents have been working to keep these measures off the ballot or make them hard to pass.
How the measures would amend state constitutions
Of the abortion rights measures, most would recreate the standard set by Roe, which protected abortion until “viability” — the point at which a fetus could survive outside the uterus, or around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion ballot measures in 2024
Ban on abortion after the first trimester
Notes: In Nebraska, a measure needs a simple majority to pass and the number of supportive votes must be at least 35 percent of all votes cast in the election. In Nevada, a winning measure would have to pass again in the next general election before it could be added to the state’s Constitution.
In Nebraska, where two abortion ballot measures take opposite stances, state officials have said that the measure with the most supportive votes would take effect.
The New York proposal does not explicitly mention abortion, but proponents say it would prevent abortion restrictions by stopping discrimination based on pregnancy outcomes or reproductive health choices.
How the measures could change the legal landscape
Twenty-two states currently ban or restrict abortion, and the procedure is broadly legal in the rest of the country.
If every abortion rights measure is successful this fall, five states would see big changes in abortion access in the months after Election Day. Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota have existing bans and restrictions, and the ballot measures would make abortion broadly legal again.
Where ballot measures would lift abortion bans
South Dakota’s amendment would prevent abortion restrictions only in the first trimester, and the State Legislature is likely to pass new restrictions after that point.
In Colorado, Maryland, Montana and New York, abortion is already legal and winning measures would enshrine its status. Colorado’s measure would further expand abortion access by allowing the use of public funds to pay for the procedure.
If all of the measures fail, abortion laws in each state would be unchanged — at least for now. Legislatures in states like Arizona, Florida and Nebraska could restrict abortions further than they already do.
If the anti-abortion measure in Nebraska passes, it would enshrine restrictions after the first trimester, which is similar to the state’s current law.
What the polls say
A majority of U.S. adults say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to recent national polling from the Pew Research Center. State-level polling of abortion attitudes is rarer, but a 2023 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute showed majority support for abortion rights in every state where the issue will be on the ballot this fall, except for South Dakota.
Polls that ask specifically about this year’s abortion rights ballot measures show broad support for the proposals, but experts say such polls should be interpreted with caution. Ballot measure language can be complex and confusing for the public and therefore difficult to poll. In addition, many of these polls are run by partisan groups that may have an agenda.
Still, polls from varied organizations reveal that a majority of people would support the abortion rights measures on the ballot in Arizona, Missouri, New York and South Dakota. But in Florida, where the abortion ballot measure must reach 60 percent support to pass, some polls have shown it falling short of that threshold.
Where voters have already backed abortion rights
Voters in seven states, including Republican-led Kentucky and Ohio, have sided with abortion rights supporters when voting on ballot measures since Roe was overturned in 2022.
Ohio Nov. 7, 2023
Right to reproductive freedom
Vermont Nov. 8, 2022
Right to reproductive freedom California Nov. 8, 2022
Right to reproductive freedom
Michigan Nov. 8, 2022 Right to reproductive freedom
Montana Nov. 8, 2022
Medical care requirements for “infants born alive” Kentucky Nov. 8, 2022
Remove abortion rights protections
Kansas Aug. 2, 2022
Remove abortion rights protectionsAbortion ballot measures since 2022
The winning measures cemented abortion rights in California, Michigan and Vermont, and tossed out restrictions on the procedure in Ohio. Voters in Kansas, Kentucky and Montana rejected efforts to restrict abortion.
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