Feed aggregator

19″There is a lot of energy in this room just like there is a lot of energy in this country,” Hillary Clinton said at the DNC.

Watch her speech:

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro denied rumors that his Jewish faith was a factor in being passed over as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate for the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket. The denial came after former President Donald Trump suggested that Harris rejected Shapiro due to concerns that his Jewish identity might alienate Muslim voters in swing states like Michigan, especially amid the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict. Speaking to reporters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Shapiro called Trump “the least credible person” to speak on antisemitism, accusing the former president of attempting to exploit the issue to divide Americans. “Trump is trying to use me and trying to use other Jews to divide Americans further,” Shapiro said. Shapiro was widely considered a potential vice-presidential pick due to his popularity as the governor of a critical swing state. However, Harris ultimately selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Many have speculated that Shapiro’s staunch support of Israel made him a controversial choice for the ticket in light of anti-Israel criticism from radical factions within the Democratic Party. Despite the speculation, Shapiro asserted that antisemitism “played absolutely no role” in his conversations with Harris. He did, however, acknowledge antisemitism in parts of the country and within his own party, stressing the need to confront it. “We have to stand up and speak out against that,” he added. As a vocal supporter of Israel, Shapiro has been outspoken in his condemnation of Hamas following the group’s attack on Israel on October 7. He ordered flags to be flown at half-mast at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in honor of the victims and delivered a speech at a local synagogue. Shapiro has also condemned antisemitic protests in Pennsylvania and has resisted calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, comparing anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses to the Ku Klux Klan. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A difficult rescue mission is underway at the site where a luxury yacht was sunk by a tornado. Multiple people are still missing, including British billionaire Mike Lynch.

Federal safety officials are requiring inspections of cockpit seats on Boeing 787 Dreamliners after one of the jets went into a dive when the captain’s seat lurched forward without warning and disconnected the plane’s autopilot system. Boeing also has stopped test flights of a new version of its 777 jetliner after discovering a damaged structural part between the engine and the rest of the plane. The new model has not yet been approved by regulators. The Federal Aviation Administration said in an order scheduled to be published Wednesday that it will require operators of 787s to inspect both pilot seats for missing or cracked caps that cover a switch used to move the seats. During a March flight by Chile-based Latam Airlines, the captain’s seat moved forward and hit a switch that disconnected the autopilot system. The plane, flying from Australia to New Zealand, rapidly dropped about 400 feet (120 meters) before the co-pilot regained control, according to a preliminary report by Chilean authorities. Several dozen passengers were injured, according to news reports. Within days of the incident, Boeing recommended that airlines look at the cockpit seats on 787s for loose caps on the switches and told them how to turn off power to the motorized seats. The FAA said it has received four other reports from Boeing of cockpit seats moving when not intended to, including one in June. The FAA said its safety order will affect 158 planes registered in the United States. Separately, the FAA published a final rule requiring airlines to inspect inlets around ducts in engine anti-ice systems on 787s for signs of heat damage. The agency proposed the rule in February after a report of damage to “multiple” engine inlets caused by missing or “degraded” seals around the ducts. Boeing identified the inlet issue in bulletins sent to airlines last year. Meanwhile, Boeing suffered a setback in its effort to win FAA certification of the 777-9, a new, long-range addition to its lineup of 777 jets. The plane might be most noteworthy for its folding wingtips, which would allow the larger model to fit at airport gates designed for other 777s. Boeing said Tuesday it has stopped flights after one of four test planes was found to have cracks on a part called a thrust link that helps balance load between the engines and the aircraft. The issue surfaced after a test flight returned to Hawaii. “During scheduled maintenance, we identified a component that did not perform as designed,” Boeing said in a statement. “Our team is replacing the part and capturing any learnings from the component and will resume flight testing when ready.” Boeing said there are four thrust links on each 777-9 — two on each engine for redundancy. The company said the component is new to the 777-9 and is not used on existing 777s or other planes. Boeing, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, said it was keeping the FAA and airlines informed about the issue. (AP)

Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee joined ‘The Faulkner Focus’ to discuss Biden’s response to anti-Israel protests outside the DNC and Biden disputing claims he was pushed out of the 2024 race.

WATCH:

Hezbollah has confirmed the deaths of four of its members, referring to them as martyrs “on the road to Jerusalem,” a phrase the group uses to describe those killed by Israeli forces. The announcement follows an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah cell in a building located in Matmoura, southern Lebanon, earlier today. These recent casualties bring the total number of Hezbollah members killed since the onset of the Gaza conflict to at least 419.

In a report from the land of Chelm, State Attorney Amit Isman is at it again – this time recommending the opening of a criminal investigation against Likud MK Keti Shetrit for inciting violence against the “innocent” civilians of Gaza. As YWN reported on Monday, Isman previously recommended probes against Israeli singers Eyal Golan and Kobi Peretz as well as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for alleged incitement against Gazans. Kan News reported on Monday evening that Isman recommended a probe against Shetrit based on a statement she made to Channel 14 weeks after the October 7 massacre. Shetrit said at the time: “If you ask me on a personal level, not as a Knesset member – I say to flatten Gaza. I have no sympathy, there’s no difference between the murderers of women and children.” In Isman’s opinion, Shetrit can be investigated despite her immunity as a Knesset member. There is a consensus among Israelis of the ridiculousness of the State Attorney’s views on the issue, with social media users quoting numerous well-known figures who expressed similar views about “wiping out Gaza” and many wondering aloud why Isman recommended probes only against right-wing Sephardim when many Ashkenazi and left-wing figures expressed the same sentiments. Social media user David Oppenheim stated: “The days were after the most brutal massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Everyone’s blood is boiling. Half the residents of Israel are calling for the obliteration of Gaza in one way or another. The host of the most watched news program in Israel, Danny Kushmaro, calls to starve Gaza: ‘Don’t allow in even a teaspoon of water,’ he said.” “Walla journalist David Wertheim calls to turn Gaza into a slaughterhouse. Channel 12 and Maariv journalist Ben Caspit called for the Gaza Strip to be obliterated. Yaron London called for it to be flattened. Ofira Asayag said the same thing.” “Like I said – half the country. Millions of Israeli citizens whose eyes were flooded with tears from sights reminiscent of what we thought we left behind in Europe of the last century. Children shivering in an attic as armed Nazis searched for them…one of the most horrific things I remember was a video in which two Hamas-Nazis entered a house in a kibbutz looking for Jews. They hear someone moving and whispering on the second floor. Sounds like a woman. In response, they imitate a child’s soft voice and say in Hebrew: ‘Ima.'” “What Jews can see such things and not think – at least while seeing it – that the people, the culture, the city that produced such monsters and largely supports them to this day should be obliterated?” “What Jew can watch the mutilated body of Shani Louk, H’yd, being dragged into a van into Gaza when everyone around her is jubilant with happiness, including children and teens, when we don’t see even one person covering their mouth in shock?” “The entire country thought the same thing. Half of it wrote it publicly.” “Isman truly wants to carry out an investigation? He needs to investigate half the country. He wants to show the Hague as if he’s carrying out an investigation? Let him summon Ben Caspit and Danny Kushmaro to the interrogation room.” Journalist Shai Golden responded to Isman by saying: “If you prosecute […]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Former President Donald Trump in her speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

WATCH:

Footage shows a Hezbollah site in eastern Lebanon exploding after being struck by the Israeli Air Force.

Ukrainian forces have either destroyed or damaged all three of the bridges over the Seym River in western Russia, according to Russian sources, as Kyiv’s incursion into western Russia entered its third week Tuesday. Kyiv’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is changing the trajectory of the war and boosting morale among Ukraine’s war-weary population, though the ultimate outcome of the incursion — the first attack on Russia since World War II — remains impossible to predict. Even as Ukraine hails its success on Russian territory, the Russian push in eastern Ukraine is poised to claim another key center, the city of Pokrovsk. Ukraine’s attacks on the three bridges over the Seym River in Kursk could potentially trap Russian forces between the river, the Ukrainian advance and the Ukrainian border. Already they appear to be slowing down Russia’s response to the Kursk incursion, which Ukraine launched on Aug. 6. Over the weekend, Ukraine’s Air Force commander posted two videos of bridges over the Seym being hit, and satellite photos by Planet Labs PBC analyzed Tuesday by The Associated Press confirmed that a bridge in the town of Glushkovo had been destroyed. A Russian military investigator confirmed Monday that Ukraine had “totally destroyed” one bridge and damaged two others in the area. The full extent of the damage remained unclear. “As a result of targeted shelling with the use of rocket and artillery weapons against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in the Karyzh village … a third bridge over the Seym River was damaged,” the unnamed representative for Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a video published on the Telegram channel of Russian state TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov. Russian military bloggers Vladimir Romanov and Yuri Podolyaka and several high-profile pro-war Telegram channels in Russia also claimed that the third bridge had been targeted and damaged. Podolyaka’s post was shared by Roman Alekhin, an advisor to Kursk’s acting regional governor. Since the incursion into the Kursk region began, the Ukrainian army has captured 1,263 square kilometers (488 square miles) and 93 settlements, Ukraine’s top military commander said Tuesday — up from 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) a week ago. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi made the remarks while meeting with local officials. Following a meeting with Syrskyi later Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that the Ukrainian army was achieving “set goals” in Kursk. Zelenskyy said in recent days that the operation is aimed at creating a buffer zone that can prevent future attacks on his nation from across the border, and that Ukraine is capturing a large number of Russian prisoners of war that it hopes to exchange for captured Ukrainians. TASS, a Russian state news agency, reported that 17 people have died and 140 have been injured in Ukraine’s incursion, citing an unnamed source in the Russian medical service. Of 75 people hospitalized, four are children. Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said Tuesday afternoon that more than 500 people had left dangerous areas in the Kursk region over the past 24 hours. In total, more than 122,000 people have been resettled since the Ukrainian attack began, it said. In another example of Ukraine taking the war to Russian soil, a massive fire burned for the third consecutive day after an oil depot was hit by Ukrainian drones. The fire […]

TRUMP: “I bet inside [Kamala] was laughing last night when she saw the way Joe Biden left…That was a coup. It was a vicious, violent overthrow of a President of the United States.”

He was supposed to have the primetime slot…

President Biden’s “passing of the torch” might not have been watched by many Americans on Monday night as the outgoing Commander-in-Chief’s remarks were pushed out of the primetime slot on Day One of the Democratic National Convention.

 

Joe’s speech didn’t conclude until well after midnight.

“America, I love you!” said Biden, 81, after being introduced by daughter Ashley.

But does America love him back? How about top Democratic Party elites?

“If Biden is pushed back past prime time, it will be treated as a) a major story of the first night and b) a serious slight to the President,” said ABC News political analyst Jeff Greenfield.

Former CBS News White House corresponded Mark Knoller posted: “They took the nomination away from him and now booted him out of prime time.”

“They should have gone straight from Hillary to Biden,” said TIME reporter Charlotte Alter. “Pushing Biden out of primetime is a huge mistake.”

“It’s unconscionable to have President Biden’s address occur at midnight ET,” said Democrat Christopher Hale. “We should postpone some upcoming folks and put the president up there soon.”

“It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president. And I love the job, but I love my country more,” Biden told the DNC crowd. “And all this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, it’s not true.”

Really, Joe?

Convention officials defended the decision to push Biden out of primetime, saying “Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people. We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off the stage.”

More over at The New York Post:

 

Israel Police’s Tel Aviv District Commander, Deputy Commissioner Peretz Amar, said on Monday evening that the suicide bomber whose device detonated prematurely on Sunday evening likely intended to target the Rashbi shul, where Maariv was taking place with at least 80 mispallelim along with dozens of bochurim and avreichim who were learning in the Beis Medrash. “It was an attack involving a large explosive device, which, had it not exploded outside, would have caused major damage,” he said. “If the terrorist had entered the shul, it could have been a horrible tragedy.” Amar added that the terrorist, a resident of Shechem, had no criminal record. “We identified the terrorist, who is from the Palestinian territories. The explosive device was likely manufactured where he lived.” “We estimate the terrorist was supposed to reach a certain location and apparently noticed the shul on his way. He decided to stop for a moment to arm the device but apparently pressed something else and activated it. A clear picture will develop in a few days and we’ll hold those responsible accountable.” Amar urged the public to remain vigilant. “Anyone who looks strange – report to the police. Anyone wearing more than a short-sleeved shirt in this hot summer weather is hiding something. Someone who’s carrying a heavy bag, isn’t behaving naturally, is furtively looking around – those are suspicious signs.” “I’m sure there will be false reports but I’d rather run for a false alarm than arrive at an incident that the public didn’t report. Ultimately, it was truly a neis.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan spoke to i24NEWS [in Hebrew] as he ended his term at the UN this week and prepared to return to Israel and the Likud party. Expressing his disgust with the “crooked and distorted behavior” of the UN, Erdan said that the “UN should be closed and its building should be wiped off the face of the earth.” “To that extent?” the interviewer asked. “Yes, to that extent,” Erdan replied. “This is the building I’ve come to every day for the past four years. This building may look beautiful from the outside but it is crooked and distorted.” Regarding his future, Erdan said: “I know I have a mission. I see myself in the future leading the Likud after the Netanyahu era.” On Monday, Erdan published a video showing the fulfillment of his promise to the head of the Shomron Regional Council that he would put up a mezuzah in the shape of the entire Eretz Yisrael on the doorpost of the new UN ambassador’s office. Erdan in the “crooked” UN building: Danny Danon, who previously served as the UN ambassador from 2015-2020, is taking over Erdan’s position: (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

During the presidency of Barack Obama, Thomas Nides attended foreign-policy meetings as U.S. deputy secretary of state for management and resources. Just as he saw Obama include Joe Biden, then-vice president, Nides has seen President Biden consult with his vice president, Kamala Harris.

“I sat in the Situation Room for hundreds of meetings with President Obama and the vice president, and the vice president was included in almost every major foreign policy decision,” Nides told JNS on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.

“Joe Biden has done the same thing with Kamala Harris,” said Nides, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2021 to 2023. “She’s the last person in the room. She’s involved in every decision.”

Harris has been involved actively in White House discussions about Israel—“what has been clearly, next to the Ukraine war, the most difficult foreign-policy issue that this administration has been to deal with,” Nides told JNS.

The vice president, who is now running for president, has faced criticism over her experience with foreign policy. “Kamala Harris has zero foreign-policy experience aside from supporting Joe Biden’s weak agenda that has emboldened our adversaries, led to war in Ukraine and enabled Iranian-backed terrorists to attack Israel,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, told The Washington Post.

William Barr, a former U.S. attorney general, told Sky News Australia earlier this month that “I think she doesn’t have much experience in foreign policy, and from what I’ve seen … she’s ineffective in foreign policy councils.”

Harris also drew criticism for issuing a statement after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu last month at the White House, which many, including those in Netanyahu’s inner circle, viewed as critical of the way the prime minister was handling the ceasefire negotiations.

In addition to his view that Harris has extensive foreign-policy experience, Nides told JNS that he disagrees with the assessment that she snubbed Netanyahu.

“She said, ‘I stand fully in support of the security of the state of Israel.’ She has said that over and over and over again,” Nides said. “She also said exactly the same thing that Joe Biden has said, which is, ‘I want a hostage deal. Israelis want a hostage deal. The families want a hostage deal.’ We want this war to end. I don’t think that’s unusual.”

The Biden administration, including Harris, is “probably the most pro-Israel administration that one could have ever imagined,” Nides added.

The former U.S. envoy, who served briefly as vice chairman for Wells Fargo after his diplomatic tenure in Jerusalem, told JNS that Harris, contrary to widespread belief and reporting in The New York Times, isn’t open to discussing an arms embargo on the Jewish state.

After leaders of the so-called “uncommitted” movement, which discourages Democrats from voting for candidates who support Israel, told the Times that Harris agreed during a Detroit rally to meet with them about an embargo, Harris’s national security adviser denied that she was open to the possibility of a weapons ban on the Jewish state.

“OK, can I be clear?” Nides told JNS. “The vice president does not support an embargo. You know that, and I know that. There’s no question about that.”

“If you’re walking in a photo line and someone says, ‘Will you meet with me,’ What, do you turn to him and say ‘No, I’m not meeting with you.’ Come on, everybody,” he said.

“She’s been very clear. She’s not supporting an arms embargo. Does President Biden support an arms embargo? Does the Democratic platform support an arms embargo?” Nides added. “We’re not having an arms embargo, full stop.”

Nides told JNS that he thinks that Netanyahu “cares deeply about the security of the State of Israel.”

“Do I agree and disagree with him? Yes,” the former envoy said. “But the Israeli people will have to decide—long term—is the prime minister good or bad for Israel?”

Nides pivoted from politics to topography and sociology, and broader statements about the Jewish state.

“My view is that this is Israel. It’s a beautiful place with beautiful people, who are unbelievably resilient. They’ll get through this,” he said. “But this is the most painful thing that the State of Israel has gone through since its creation 75 years ago, and my heart bleeds for them every day.”

During his tenure in Israel, Nides emphasized dealing directly with Palestinians. On the sidelines of the DNC in Chicago, he demurred when JNS asked who could lead Ramallah in the wake of Hamas’s destruction and in what appears to be the closing period of Mahmoud Abbas’s long tenure as leader of the Palestinian Authority, most of which he has done by decree.

“First of all, there’s plenty of people who could be part of the leadership, and the Palestinian people will have to make the decision,” Nides said.

The Palestinian Authority “will have to be involved in governance of some level” in a post-Hamas Gaza, according to Nides.

“In Gaza, they’re the only ones who can really do it—with the help of the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians,” he said. “But they’ll be part of it.”

Citing Hamas’s use of human shields, Nides said that the U.S.-designated terror group “doesn’t care about the Palestinian people.”

“The fact of the matter is their view—and they’ve articulated it—the more innocent Palestinians die, the better because it’s about martyrdom,” he said. “That’s sick.”

(JNS)

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, was transferred to a federal prison in Texas almost nine months after he was stabbed in a different facility, the federal Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Chauvin, 47, is now housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, a low-security prison. He was previously held in Arizona at FCI Tucson in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22 1/2-year state sentence for second-degree murder. The transfer comes nearly nine months after Chauvin was stabbed 22 times in prison by a former gang leader and one-time FBI informant. Another former Minneapolis officer, Thomas Lane, who held down Floyd’s legs as the man struggled to breathe, was released from federal prison in Colorado on Tuesday, the Bureau of Prisons said. Lane, 41, was serving a three year sentence for aiding and abetting manslaughter. When Lane pleaded guilty, he admitted that he intentionally helped restrain Floyd in a way that he knew created an unreasonable risk and caused his death. He admitted that he heard Floyd say he couldn’t breathe, knew Floyd fell silent, had no pulse and appeared to have lost consciousness. Floyd, 46, died in May 2020 after Chauvin, who is white, pinned him to the ground with a knee on Floyd’s neck as the Black man repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. Lane, who is white, held down Floyd’s legs. J. Alexander Kueng, who is Black, knelt on Floyd’s back, and Tou Thao, who is Hmong American, kept bystanders from intervening during the 9 1/2-minute restraint. Kueng and Thao are both set to be released in 2025. Kueng is detained at a federal prison in Ohio and Thao at a facility in Kentucky, according to Bureau of Prisons records. The killing, captured on bystander video, sparked protests in 2020 as part of a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice. Lane is the first of the four officers convicted of crimes related to Floyd’s killing to be released from prison. He served time for a federal sentence alongside his state sentence after being convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Chauvin is making a longshot bid to overturn his federal guilty plea, claiming new evidence shows he didn’t cause Floyd’s death. If he is unsuccessful, he would not be released until 2038. John Turscak, who is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes committed while a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, attacked Chauvin on Nov. 24, 2023. He told investigators he targeted the ex-Minneapolis police officer because of his notoriety for killing Floyd. FCI Tucson, a medium-security prison, has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. Chauvin’s lawyer at the time, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of the general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he would be a target. Turscak, who was charged with attempted murder, told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not responded so quickly. (AP)

National Basketball Association legend Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal this past weekend sent a heartfelt video message in English and Hebrew to survivors of the Oct. 7 massacre and bereaved families.

The 52-year-old, whose trophy shelf includes three titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Miami Heat, delivered the greeting to Timberlane Camp in Toronto, which is hosting young people who went through the Hamas-led attack on the northwestern Negev and families affected by the tragedy.

The California-based pro-Israel organization Creative Community for Peace and Canadian charity organization OneFamily, which assists Israeli victims of terrorism, are supporting the initiative.

“Camp Timberlane! Hello! Shalom! This is Shaquille O’Neal. I just wanted to give you guys a shout out and let you know I love you. To all the amazing children from the OneFamily, I know you came from far, far away. Hope you’re having a good time. We love you so very much. Thank you for coming, and we’ll talk to you soon. All right.” O’Neal said, before switching to Hebrew.

“Shalom. Baruch Hashem [Praise God]. L’Shanah Tovah [Have a happy new year]. Shabbat Shalom.”

WATCH:

JNS

The first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention featured many attacks on former president Donald Trump, including some false and misleading attacks. Here’s a roundup of some claims that caught attention, in the order in which they were made.

– – –

“We tried to expand Social Security and Medicare. Donald Trump tried to cut them year after year after year.”

-Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.)

This is false. The Harris-Walz campaign’s social media also posted a version of this claim.

On Medicare, virtually all anticipated savings sought by Trump would have been wrung from health providers, not Medicare beneficiaries, as a way of holding down costs and improving the solvency of the old-age health program. Trump, in fact, borrowed many proposals from Barack Obama, who had failed to get them through Congress.

Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which seeks to lower the budget deficit, closely studied the Trump proposals each year.

“The basic argument here is quite ridiculous,” he said of the Harris-Walz campaign post. Goldwein noted that the Inflation Reduction Act, in which Harris cast the tiebreaking vote for passage, also reduced health-care costs for Medicare, such as through inflation caps. “By the same logic, you could say Joe Biden cut Medicare.”

As for Social Security, Trump kept his promise not to touch retirement benefits, bucking longtime efforts by Republicans to raise the retirement age. But Trump did seek, without success, to reduce spending for Social Security Disability Insurance as well as Supplemental Security Income, which is administered by the Social Security Administration.

Goldwein said that the reductions generally were intended to make the programs more efficient, such as eliminating double payments of both unemployment insurance and disability (also sought by Obama). He also said the proposals were relatively small.

Trump has insisted he will not cut benefits for Medicare or Social Security if he is elected president again.

– – –

“He [Trump] told us to inject bleach into our bodies.”

-Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.)

This is exaggerated. Trump did not say people should inject bleach into their bodies. Instead, at a pandemic briefing in 2020, he spoke confusingly of an “injection inside” of lungs with a disinfectant. He made the remarks after an aide presented a study showing how bleach could kill the virus when it remained on surfaces. Trump later claimed he was speaking “sarcastically,” though he seemed serious at the time.

Readers can judge for themselves. Here are his full remarks on April 23 that year: “I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me.”

– – –

“When Donald Trump was president, corporate America ran wild. Donald Trump did not bring back the auto industry. When Donald Trump was president, auto plants closed. Trump did nothing.”

-Shawn Fain, United Auto Workers president

This is exaggerated. There were some new auto-plants built during the Trump presidency. Until the pandemic, Trump’s overall record on auto industry jobs was pretty good. From February 2017 to February 2020, just before the pandemic crashed the U.S. economy, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows a gain of 34,100 auto manufacturing jobs and 36,400 auto retail jobs – for a total of more than 70,000 jobs in three years.

– – –

“She [Kamala Harris] won’t be sending love letters to dictators.”

-Former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton

There is no evidence that Trump sent such letters. Clinton is making a bit of a leap to suggest that Trump has written “love letters” to dictators.

Clinton appears to be referring to a 2018 comment from Trump about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un: “We fell in love, okay? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”

That’s certainly an unusual statement, but he’s referring to letters written by Kim. We do not know what Trump wrote to Kim – or other dictators, for that matter.

Former national security adviser John Bolton, in his tell-all memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” described one of Kim’s letters as “pure puffery, written probably by some clerk in North Korea’s agitprop bureau, but Trump loved it.” After another such letter, Trump even mused that he wanted to invite Kim to the White House – what Bolton called a “potential disaster of enormous magnitude.”

– – –

“It has to be some form of punishment for the woman. Yeah, there has to be some form.”

-Trump, quoted in a DNC video

Trump quickly walked back this statement. This March 3, 2016, quote from Trump pops up in the video as a woman, Amanda Zurawski, describes how she was not able to seek an abortion in Texas after her water broke early and her pregnancy was no longer viable. “I was punished for three days, having to wait for either my baby to die or me to die, or both. I was stuck in this horrific hell of both, wanting to hear her heartbeat and also hoping I wouldn’t,” Zurawski said.

The juxtaposition might leave the impression that Trump still believes this. But he walked back the statement the same day he made it in a town hall.

“If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman,” Trump said in a statement. “The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb.”

– – –

“I ran for president in 2020 because of what I saw in Charlottesville in August of 2017 … When the president was asked what he thought had happened, Donald Trump said, and I quote, ‘there are very fine people on both sides.’ My God, that’s what he said. That is what he said and what he meant.”

-President Joe Biden

This topic has been heavily disputed. President Trump’s response to the march in Charlottesville was a central event of his presidency. Over the course of several days, Trump made a number of contradictory remarks, permitting both his supporters and foes to create their own version of what happened.

Biden has frequently claimed that Trump said the white supremacists were “very fine people.” But the reality is more complicated. Trump was initially criticized for not speaking more forcefully against the white nationalists on the day of the clashes, Aug. 12. Then, in an Aug. 14 statement, Trump actually condemned right-wing hate groups – “those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

But Trump muddied the waters on Aug. 15, a day later, by also saying: “You had people – and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists – because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.” It was in this news conference that he said: “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

Trump added: “There were people in that rally – and I looked the night before – if you look, there were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. I’m sure in that group there were some bad ones.”

The problem for Trump is that there was no evidence of anyone other than neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the Friday night rally on Aug. 11. He asserted there were people who were not alt-right who were “very quietly” protesting the removal of Lee’s statue.

It’s possible Trump became confused and was really referring to the Saturday rallies. But that’s also wrong. A Fact Checker examination of videos and testimony about the Saturday rallies found that there were white supremacists, there were counterprotesters – and there were heavily armed anti-government militias who showed up on Saturday.

The evidence shows there were no quiet protesters against removing the statue that weekend.

– – –

“[We’re] removing every lead pipe from schools and homes so every child can drink clean water.”

-Biden

This is very exaggerated. Biden secured $15 billion through the bipartisan infrastructure law for lead pipe replacement. But the Environmental Protection Agency has projected that replacing the nearly 10 million lead pipes that supply U.S. homes with drinking water could cost at least $45 billion.

– – –

“More children in America are killed by a gunshot than any other cause in the United States – more die from a bullet than cancer, accidents or anything else in the United States of America.”

-Biden

This is misleading. Biden is using a statistic on gun deaths of “children and teens,” meaning it includes deaths of 18- and 19-year-olds, who are legally considered adults in most states. When you focus only on children – 17 and younger – motor vehicle deaths (broadly defined) still rank No. 1, as they have for six decades, though the gap is rapidly closing. Deaths of children from gun violence have increased about 50 percent from 2019 to 2021, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.

– – –

“We know from his own chief of staff, four-star General John Kelly, that Trump while in Europe would not go to the gravesites in France of the brave service members who gave their lives in this country, he called them ‘suckers and losers.’ ”

-Biden

This has been vehemently denied by Trump. For his part, John F. Kelly, Trump’s White House chief of staff in 2018 put out a statement in 2023 which blasted Trump for “rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.”

However it is important to note what his statement did not say, which is the reason Trump did not visit the cemetery was because he thought the fallen soldiers were “losers,” and not any other reason for not visiting.

– – –

“We have a thousand billionaires in America. You know what is their average tax rate they pay? 8.2 percent.”

-Biden

This is very misleading, as Biden is comparing apples and oranges.

The “lower tax rate” refers to a 2021 White House study concluding that the 400 wealthiest taxpayers paid an effective tax rate of 8 percent. But that estimate included unrealized gains in the income calculation. That’s not how the tax laws work. People are taxed on capital gains when they sell their stocks or other assets. So this is only a figure for a hypothetical tax system.

According to IRS data on the top 0.001 percent – 1,475 taxpayers with at least $77 million in adjusted gross income in 2020 – the average tax rate was 23.7 percent. The top 1 percent of taxpayers (income of at least $548,000) paid nearly 26 percent.

– – –

“Donald Trump says he will refuse to accept the election result if he loses again … He’s probably seeing a bloodbath if he loses – in his words.”

-Biden

Biden is quoting a Trump comment from a different topic, and misleadingly applying it here.

Biden suggests Trump said there would be a “bloodbath” if he lost the election. But in a March 16 rally, Trump used the word when talking about the impact of Chinese electric vehicles on the U.S. auto industry.

“China now is building a couple of massive plants where they’re going to build the cars in Mexico and think, they think, that they’re going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border,” Trump said. “We’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars. If I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath, for the whole – that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.”

The Trump campaign noted that one of the definitions of “bloodbath,” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “a major economic disaster.” It also means “a notably fierce, violent, or destructive contest or struggle.”

(c) Washington Post

*My name is Yisrael Fried, Ruti’s father.* Our baby is now fighting for her life. While most of you are enjoying quality time with your families, going out on trips, and spending these warm summer days together, we are living our worst nightmare. Instead of planning Ruti’s first summer vacation, *we are battling a vicious cancer that has attacked her small body.* Each passing day brings new pain and greater fear. The doctors say that only urgent treatment in Boston can save her life, but the costs are beyond our means. I am begging you—help us save Ruti. *Every donation,* can be the hope that gives her the chance to grow up, *Please don’t leave us alone in this fight.*  Donate now