Politics
Trump reveals 'very first actions' he'll take as president during Ohio rally, hammers Biden's border policies
Former President Trump visited Ohio on Saturday, where he barnstormed for businessman Bernie Moreno, a Republican seeking to win his state’s primary to run against Democrat Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate.
During his rally in the Dayton suburb of Vandalia, Trump repeatedly mentioned illegal migrants surging across the border, violent migrant crime, and the death of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
“Not one more American life should be lost to migrant crime. We can’t have another Laken,” the 2024 Republican presumptive nominee said in his remarks, in which he also repeatedly blamed President Biden’s policies for allowing millions of migrants, including, “violent gang members and gangsters” into the U.S. “When I’m President of the United States, we will demand justice for Laken on day one. My administration will terminate every open border policy of the Biden administration.”
He added: “The fastest way to reverse every single Biden disaster is to very simply just put me back in office.”
TRUMP HEADING TO OHIO WITH HIS GOP CLOUT ON THE LINE IN CONTENTIOUS REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY
Trump’s trip comes three days before Tuesday’s GOP Senate primary, when Moreno will face state Sen. Matt Dolan, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
On the Ohio Senate race, Trump called Moreno a “hero” and “a winner” and urged voters to elect him to replace the “radical left Democrat Sherrod Brown.”
“Ohio needs to defeat your horrendous radical left, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who pretends he’s my best friend. He pretends he’s my best friend, then he goes radical left all the time,” Trump said before a large crowd. “If you listen to his commercials, he sounds like he’s running with Trump. He’s not. He’s not with me.”
The U.S.-Mexico border was a focus of Trump’s Ohio speech, as was Biden’s border policies which he criticized as allowing violent migrants to enter the U.S.
“We’re going to fix it again,” Trump said of the border. “Among my very first actions will be to stop the invasion of our country and send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home.”
6 KEY SENATE SEATS REPUBLICANS AIM TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER
Trump also took issue with Biden apologizing last week for using the word “illegal” to describe Riley’s alleged killer during the State of the Union speech.
“They have a new term for people coming into our country,” the former president said of the Biden administration. “They call them ‘neighbors.’”
The line was an apparent reference to a recent White House handout that referred to illegal immigrants as “newcomers.”
“One week ago, I met with the family of a 22-year-old nursing student, Laken Riley, who was brutally murdered in Georgia last month while out on a morning run,” the former president said Saturday. “She was so badly beaten up, unrecognizable. Laken’s killer was set loose into the United States through Joe Biden’s program of releasing military-age males into our community after they’ve illegally crossed our southern border.”
He added: “Laken Riley would be alive today if Biden had not unleashed his savage attack on America. And that’s what he’s done. But instead of apologizing to Laken’s family, Joe Biden apologized to the killer for calling him illegal. He shouldn’t have done that.”
“We believe that Laken’s killer is an illegal alien criminal. He is an illegal monster. He should never have been in our country,” Trump said.
He also specifically addressed members of the notoriously violent MS-13 Mexican gang, who have crossed into the U.S.
“If you can [even] call them people. I don’t know if you call them people. In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say,” Trump chided.
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Trump’s speech also took repeated swipes at Biden, who the former president called “a great threat to our democracy.”
“Remember this, Joe Biden is a great threat to our democracy,” Trump told the thunderous Dayton crowd. “He’s a tremendous threat to our democracy. His incompetence is the number one reason. Also, he uses the Justice Department, the FBI, to go after his political opponent, which happens to be me.”
“There’s never been a president so bad,” Trump said of Biden. “There’s never been anything like it. He’s incompetent, he’s crooked.”
REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS FIGHT FOR OHIO AS FORMER SWING STATE’S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE SHIFTS
The former president urged people to go out and vote Tuesday, and again in November to elect him and other Republicans.
“But with your vote, we’re going to take back the Senate. We’re going to win Ohio in November. We’re going to win by a lot,” Trump said.
During the speech, Trump had a notable issue with the wind affecting his teleprompters. He used the moment to swipe Biden again.
“We can give a non-teleprompter speech,” he persisted. “Isn’t it nice to have a president that doesn’t need to use a teleprompter?”
Trump then summarized his 2024 campaign pitch with four priorities: Seal the border, stop inflation, drill for oil, and prevent World War III.
Moreno, an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. legally from Colombia, and later became a successful Cleveland-based businessman and luxury auto dealership giant, was endorsed by Trump in December.
The winner of the GOP primary will face off in November against Brown, who is the only Democrat to win statewide in Ohio over the past decade. The seat is contested as Republicans seek to win a majority in the U.S. Senate.
Democrats control a slim 51-49 majority, but Republicans have a favorable Senate map in 2024, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Politics
Video: Biden Pokes Fun at Trump During Annual Roast
new video loaded: Biden Pokes Fun at Trump During Annual Roast
transcript
transcript
Biden Pokes Fun at Trump During Annual Roast
President Biden joked about former President Donald J. Trump’s age — and his own — among other topics at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Outside the event, outrage over Mr. Biden’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza was evident.
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“The 2024 election is in full swing. And yes, age is an issue. I’m a grown man running against a 6-year-old. Age is the only thing we have in common. My vice president actually endorses me. [laughter] I had a great stretch since the State of the Union, but Donald has had a few tough days lately. You might call it stormy weather.” “I hope that tonight will be a night to remember, for most of us. And I would like to point out — it’s after 10 p.m., sleepy Joe is still awake. My Weekend Update co-anchor, Michael Che was going to join me here tonight. But in solidarity with President Biden, I decided to lose all my black support. Che told me to say that, and I’m just realizing I was set up.” “Shame, shame, shame on you.” “Shame on you!” “Shame, shame, shame, shame.”
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Politics
Fetterman blasts ‘germ of antisemitism’ in college protests, ‘living in a pup tent for Hamas’ not helpful
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., in a new interview, blasted the “germ of antisemitism” seen in anti-Israel protests unfolding on American college campuses.
“It’s a great American value to protest, but I don’t believe living in a pup tent for Hamas is really helpful,” Fetterman said on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
“I want to be clear, there is a germ of antisemitism in these protests, and sometimes it flares up. And again, including one of the leaders in Columbia who said some just awful things, talking about ‘Well, they’re lucky we’re not killing Zionists’ and things like that, and he defends himself by saying, ‘Well, those were taken out of context.’”
“And I’m like, that’s very similar to the way the college presidents, the same kind of language, and those kind of monocultures that create situations and that replicates. And now it’s not a surprise when you’re kind of seeing this manifest itself in a campus like this,” Fetterman said.
FETTERMAN HAMMERS ‘A–HOLE’ ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS, SLAMS OWN PARTY FOR RESPONSE TO IRANIAN ATTACK: ‘CRAZY’
The senator seemed to be referencing Khymani James, a Columbia protest leader who went viral online for suggesting the murder of Zionists, whom he likened to “White supremacists” and “Nazis.”
Fetterman reiterated support for Israel’s right to defend itself as a nation, going further to say the Jewish state also has the right “to go after and eliminate Hamas, or at least force them to surrender.”
“I’m confused why we’re not talking about that more,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said. “And if you are going to protest, why aren’t we protesting… I can’t end that war, Joe Biden can’t end that war, Netanyahu can’t end that war, but Hamas could end it right now, immediately. They could release the last hostages, and they could surrender.”
FETTERMAN HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR ‘SAFE, PURE, TAXED’ MARIJUANA IN 4/20 PUSH TO LEGALIZE WEED
“And all of the misery and the death and destruction ends right there, too. So, for true peace, you cannot allow Hamas to function,” he added. “It’s very reasonable to make sure that Hamas needs to be neutralized.”
Fetterman recalled how before the primaries he said, “I support peace and I support a two-state solution, but if the stuff hits the fan, I’m going to lean in on Israel, and that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
Since enduring a stroke, Fetterman said he’s become more empathetic, especially when it comes to people with disabilities. The senator used a speech-to-text app on a tablet sitting on the studio table to better comprehend questions during the interview.
Nodding to newfound support from some Republicans, Fetterman added, “I’ve been saying that for years… I really don’t identify myself as progressive. It’s not that I’ve changed, but that that word has changed.”
Politics
Opinion: MAGA Mike sings a chorus of 'Kumbaya' with the Democrats, but for how long?
No one could have predicted that the worst Congress in memory would morph into the Kumbaya Congress. Or that Mike Johnson, the accidental House speaker from Louisiana, would transform from Trump puppet to statesman.
The two developments are related, of course. Congress was able to veer from the dangerous, dead-end course that the Republican-run House had it on for the past 16 months only once Johnson very belatedly took the keys from his MAGA allies and started driving events himself. Recognizing that he had no choice but to deal with the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Biden, Johnson helped pass overdue government funding last month and, in recent days, green-lighted votes reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and — finally! — approving aid to Ukraine to help it defend itself and the rest of Europe from a rapacious Russia.
So, yes, we have a functioning Congress. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because it probably won’t exist after November’s election.
Opinion Columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
What we have for now is something remarkable, even historic: a coalition government in the House in which both parties are cooperating to enact crucial legislation. But a coalition government has never been the natural order of business in our two-party system, certainly not in these polarized times.
Usually when control of the White House, Senate and House is divided between the parties, Democrats and Republicans firmly exercise their respective levers of power, until one side relents or both compromise. When a House majority is united, it can run over the minority, and maximize its leverage against the Senate or White House.
But House Republicans aren’t united; they are a majority in name only. So lately, under Johnson, they have all but forfeited key powers and in effect shared governance with Democrats, whose votes are what keep the place running. Republicans simply can’t pass critical legislation on their own.
Their paper-thin House majority is so riven — antigovernment hardliners squaring off against more moderate legislators, isolationist America Firsters versus Reaganesque internationalists — that it was dysfunctional from its start, in January 2023. It took Republicans an unprecedented 15 votes to elect a speaker, and 10 months later they ousted that leader and finally settled on the novice Johnson.
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s sin in his tormentors’ view, aside from being utterly distrusted by them and Democrats alike, was to rely on Democrats’ votes to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and fund the government, averting defaults and shutdowns. Even so, McCarthy stuck with the usual divided-government playbook, compromising as little as possible with Democrats and poking them in the eye when he could, not least by opening a groundless impeachment inquiry against Biden.
Predictably, Johnson also has had to turn to Democrats for help. Yet Republican extremists, egged on by Donald Trump, are so emboldened after dumping McCarthy that they’ve become even more rebellious. Their cudgel over Johnson has been the rule that McCarthy unwisely acquiesced to in order to get the gavel: A single member can force a vote to unseat the speaker.
Here’s the crazy irony: The only way to actually sack the speaker is to rely on Democrats’ votes. Eight Republican mutineers ousted McCarthy thanks to the votes of all 208 Democrats present that October day; 210 Republicans voted to retain him.
Got that? The nuts oppose their speaker passing bills with Democrats’ support. Yet to dump him, they need Democrats’ support.
But now Democrats, fed up with the dysfunction, are willing to disarm the extremists. They detested McCarthy, but they don’t dislike Johnson. And now that Johnson has finally let Congress approve Biden’s request for aid to a desperate Ukraine (as well as Israel, Gaza and Taiwan), Democrats are poised to provide the votes to prevent his defenestration.
No less than former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Politico, “He was courageous. I can’t imagine that he won’t continue to be speaker.”
That Democrats would save a Republican speaker is almost inconceivable, and it’s the ultimate evidence that we’ve got a coalition government in the House.
There are other hugely significant breaks with historical practice. Traditionally, the majority tightly controls which important bills get to the floor for a vote and sets restrictive rules for debate. Majority party members learn on Day 1 that they must vote for rules, because the minority always opposes them. For more than two decades, the majority complied, but in the past year Republican rebels have killed seven of their leadership’s rules, blocking the bills and humiliating first McCarthy and then Johnson.
Lately, to foil them, Johnson and Democrats have done one of two things, both of them previously unthinkable. Johnson has resorted to a fast-track procedure that allows a bill to pass without a rule if it can get a two-thirds vote, and Democrats provide the needed votes. (That’s how the government got funded.) Or Democrats have supported the majority’s rule, offsetting Republican defections. (That’s how the Ukraine aid bill passed.)
The upshot is that Democrats are empowered like no House minority in memory. Republicans can pass all the red-meat bills for the MAGA base they want, like punitive measures on immigration or transgender issues, but the bills will die in the Senate. However, Democrats are in control when it comes to bills that must become law, such as on annual spending and debt increases, or should become law, such as aid to Ukraine.
Only by continuing this unorthodox bipartisanship will the House be able to, for example, fund the government for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and avoid a pre-election shutdown. But it likely won’t persist after the election because either the more unified Democrats will win a majority, or more hard-line Republicans will be elected — and perhaps Trump, too — and the party will revert to obstructionist form.
For voters, the response should be obvious: Just elect more Democrats in November, and put them fully in charge.
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