Former President Donald Trump obliquely confirmed in an interview published over the weekend that he would appear on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast.

The former president was responding to a question during an interview on the “Full Send” podcast.

“You’re doing a lot of podcasts recently. One that I would love to see you on, I think Joe Rogan has to have you on. Would you do that?” host Kyle Forgeard asked him.

“I think I’m doing it, actually,” Trump said in a clip from the podcast, slated to be published on Oct. 14. It’s not clear when Trump will appear on Rogan’s show.

“Joe Rogan’s the best in the game for sure,” Forgeard said. “He’s an honest guy too.”

“He is. Good guy,” the former president said in response. “He’s got a good voice; that’s important.”

Neither Rogan nor the podcast has confirmed if Trump will appear on the program. However, Rogan’s X account for his podcast asked its followers whether Trump should appear on the show.

X owner Elon Musk, who now publicly backs Trump, wrote on the platform on Oct. 12 that the Trump–Rogan interview “will happen,” responding to a post that Rogan has 25 days to interview the former president before the election.

Rogan has publicly supported and praised former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the race weeks ago and endorsed Trump. The podcast host and comedian has not publicly endorsed any candidate.

It’s not clear whether Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for president, will appear on Rogan’s podcast.

Harris has recently appeared for several interviews with celebrities on social media, television, and on podcasts after several weeks of not doing any media interviews.

She appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” program, ranked as the No. 1 podcast on Spotify, earlier this month. Rogan’s podcast is ranked No. 2, according to Spotify.

Trump has appeared on Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” and Andrew Schulz’s “Flagrant” podcasts in recent days.

Both Harris and Trump appeared at campaign events over the weekend, with the former president appearing at California’s Coachella festival and Harris appearing at an event near Phoenix.

Harris traveled to Nevada and Arizona from Oct. 9 through Oct. 11 in a southwestern campaign swing. During the trip she participated in events including a Univision town hall in Las Vegas, a meeting with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, and a campaign rally in Phoenix.

Nevada and Arizona are both considered key battleground states in the election.

While at Coachella, Trump made reference to California’s history.

“Through generations of American history California stood as a beacon of what our country aspired to become,” Trump said at the event. “It had everything. It had the weather. It had the water. The state had the best schools, the safest communities, and a booming middle class.”

Now, he said, the Golden State “has the highest inflation, the highest taxes, the highest gas prices, the highest cost of living, the most regulations, the most expensive utilities, the most homelessness, the most crime, the most decay, and the most illegal aliens.”

“Other than that I think you’re doing quite well,” Trump said.

The proof of Tren de Aragua’s violence in Aurora, Colo., is written in blood.

A fed-up landlord in the Denver suburb has shared a bloody photo of one of its workers after the man was allegedly beaten to a pulp by members of the brutal Venezuelan prison gang for refusing to let them stay in a vacant apartment they had taken over.

The Brooklyn-based company claimed that the gang effectively stole entire apartment complexes out from under it by threatening employees and tried to extort it for a cut of the rent in exchange for being allowed to keep operating the properties.

Local cops and the FBI were asked to help stop the extortion but refused to step in, CBZ Management said.

“Gangs have taken control of several of our properties in Aurora, Colorado,” the company wrote in a thread on X last week.

“In an attempt to discredit this fact for political purposes and avoid governmental accountability, some have spread false information about our situation.”

The company, which owns and had managed the properties, posted multiple surveillance videos from its apartment complexes — including the footage of the beating of the employee late last year — that it said prove the gang has a foothold in Aurora.

“In an attempt to discredit this fact for political purposes and avoid governmental accountability, some have spread false information about our situation.”

The company, which owns and had managed the properties, posted multiple surveillance videos from its apartment complexes — including the footage of the beating of the employee late last year — that it said prove the gang has a foothold in Aurora.

The firm said that as a result of the criminal behavior and threats, it has had no choice but to pull its workers back from its apartment complexes in the city of 390,000.

NEW: Aurora apartment worker was brutally beaten by the Tren de Aragua gang after he refused to allow them to occupy a vacant unit

A Brooklyn-based company says a gang stole entire apartment complexes by threatening employees and trying to extort rent

CBZ Management claims… pic.twitter.com/HtXM1l57o3

— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) October 14, 2024

“Despite clear evidence, many still deny the reality of the situation, sometimes using us as scapegoats. That’s why we are no longer staying silent,” the company wrote.

“We will continue to counter falsehoods with simple facts and evidence. Yes, gangs did take control of our apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, and the government did nothing. That is the real story.”

The Post was the first to bring national attention to the issue of Tren de Aragua’s takeover of apartments and neighborhoods in Aurora. On Friday, former President Donald Trump visited the city and attempted to link the problems in Aurora to the Harris-Biden administration’s border policies.

Meanwhile, the issue also has a deeper local angle. CBZ Management has a history of citations dating back to 2020, before the gang’s arrival in Aurora. Violations span from mice infestations to ceiling damage to dozens of unlawful parked cars, according to Denver7.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman has labeled the company “slumlords” for failing to clean up the properties.

Zev Baumgarten, who is described as CBZ’s owner in court documents, agreed earlier this year to sell or otherwise give up control of one of the blighted apartment complexes after lengthy legal proceedings against him and his company, according to the Denver Gazette.

CBZ Management accused the city of covering up the presence of the foreign gang, saying it “instead drummed up ‘code violations’ ” to shift the blame.

The company claimed that it “received a perfect inspection in 2022 and 2023” and that any violations were “dealt with.

“The only violations that weren’t dealt with were when the gangs took over and we didn’t want our 6 on-site staff working there – for their safety,” the company said.

Despite the local dispute over the condition of the apartments, residents and local officials interviewed by The Post said Tren de Aragua’s presence in the buildings is clear.

According to CBZ, the company took ownership of the apartments in 2019, hoping to renovate the units over a few years. The company said it was able to renovate nearly every unit in the Edge at Lowry apartments, the site of recent viral footage taken of six armed gangbangers forcing their way into a unit.

CBZ also moved an employee from New York to help manage the ambitious project, according to the post on X.

But the company said it soon observed “a rise in crime and tenant complaints.”

That’s when the employee was attacked. He was inspecting a recently vacated unit, where he found a group of male squatters who tried to bribe him with $500 “to overlook the situation,” CBZ Management’s post said.

When the employee refused the bribe, the group beat him so brutally that he had to be treated at the hospital.

The problem didn’t stop there. The employee began receiving threats over text, which even revealed his home address and spouse’s name, according to CBZ.

The problem only continued to escalate. Squads of Tren de Aragua members continued to take over vacated units — including one belonging to a tenant who had only left for vacation, forcing him to find a new home when he returned, the company said.

The gang started moving migrants into the units. The new tenants claimed to have paid rent, but the company soon realized they had actually been paying the gang.

CBZ said company managers later met with the FBI. Agents said Tren de Aragua was behind the texts and building takeovers but that the issue was “a blip on the radar” because of the gang’s nationwide presence, according to the company.

The on-site manager of the apartment was then confronted by the gang, which threatened to seize control of the apartments if the company didn’t agree to split the rental profits, the firm said.

“For the safety of our management team and their families, we withdrew them from the properties and focused on seeking help from government agencies,” the company said.

Mayor Coffman has previously dismissed the claims by the landlord that the company’s problems were due to Tren de Aragua — especially with regards to the building that the company agreed to give up.

“It’s a little late to play the Venezuelan gang card,” Coffman said at the time. “Certainly, there are other parts of the city that we’re looking at, that we’re concerned about that. But the problems in this building certainly precede any problems with Venezuelan gangs.”

Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance went off on ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz Sunday after she tried to fact-check the senator from Ohio about the presence of Venezuelan migrant gangs in Aurora, Colo.

Former President Donald Trump, 78, stumped in the Denver suburb Friday and vented that the Tren de Aragua (TdA) crime syndicate had “overrun” the city.

“The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes — apartment complexes and the mayor said, ‘Our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns,’” Raddatz, 71, told Vance on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Martha, do you hear yourself?” asked Vance, 40, seemingly taken aback by the reporter’s objection. “Only ‘a handful of apartment complexes’ in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open border?

“Americans are so fed up with what’s going on,” Vance went on, “and they have every right to be and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting, because you seem to be more focused [on] nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.”

Raddatz later tried again, saying TdA “did not invade or take over the city, as Donald Trump said.”

“A few apartment complexes, no big deal,” Vance fired back.

At least 10 individuals with ties to TdA were arrested in September after gang members gained a “stranglehold” on the Whispering Pines Apartments complex and engaged in extortion, child prostitution and other criminal acts, according to a Denver law firm that investigated the situation.

TdA is estimated to have some 5,000 members between the US and Venezuela.

“We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again,” Vance said Sunday. “And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are, you’re going to have problems like this.”

JD Vance destroys Martha Raddatz after she attempts to justify Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment complexes in the United States.

You don’t hate the media enough. pic.twitter.com/WsJqZCu9eh

— Right On News (@RightOnNewsX) October 13, 2024

During his rally last Friday, Trump vowed to crack down hard on gangs, pledging: “We will send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers to arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country.”

Raddatz’s fact-check referenced Republican Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman’s rebuke of the former president’s comments.

“The city and state have not been ‘taken over’ or ‘invaded’ or ‘occupied’ by migrant gangs,” Coffman said following Friday’s rally. “The incidents that have occurred in Aurora, a city of 400,000 people, have been limited to a handful of specific apartment complexes, and our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns and will continue to do so.”

Former President Bill Clinton said this week that the poorly secured U.S. southern border led to the death of 26-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley who was murdered by a criminal illegal alien who came into the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration.

While campaigning in Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, Clinton acknowledged the lack of vetting at the border is a serious issue that has resulted in the deaths of innocent Americans.

“You had a case in Georgia not very long ago, didn’t you?” Clinton asked the crowd. “They made an ad about it, a young woman who had been killed by an immigrant. Yeah, well, if they’d all been properly vetted that probably wouldn’t have happened.”

“And America isn’t having enough babies to keep our populations up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work – there wouldn’t be a problem,” he added.

Clinton tried to pin blame on former President Donald Trump for allegedly tanking the border bill that was proposed earlier this year.

The claim that Trump stopped the border bill from being passed is false, as it was already facing widespread pushback from Republicans who noted that it was weak and would make the problem worse in many respects.

Clinton’s suggestion that Riley was killed because the bill was not passed is also false, because the timeline does not match up as she was killed before the bill failed to advance.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has also had a Republican-supported bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives sitting on his desk for nearly two years on which he has refused to hold a vote — largely because the bill actually secures the border.

In an attempt to signal who would rein in the border issue, the National Border Patrol Council has endorsed Trump for president.

“On behalf of the 16,000 men and women represented by the National Border Patrol Council, we strongly support and endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States,” the organization said.

Watch:

“If they’d all be properly vetted, that probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Bill Clinton, stating the obvious that the Harris open border policy led to the death of Laken Riley (and others he didn’t mention).

Clinton is supposed to be helping Harris!
pic.twitter.com/gnDgCtQLNB

— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 14, 2024

President Biden reportedly instructed his National Security Council to make clear to Iran that any attempt on former President Trump’s life would be viewed as an act of war.

The stark warning comes as the Trump team has been briefed on specific attempts on Trump’s life, and they’ve made an unusual request for military aircraft in the waning days of the campaign.

The U.S. has gone to unprecedented lengths to protect the former president from retaliation from Iran for the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Some $150 million a year has gone to protecting officials like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, former head of U.S. Central Command, according to Politico.

The Trump campaign recently requested military aircraft capable of shooting down missiles to tote the former president around in the weeks before the election.

When pressed by Fox News Digital last month, the White House declined to say whether Biden believed killing Trump would be an act of war, but promised to keep the Trump team in the loop on the threat assessment from Iran.

“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savitt said. He confirmed that Iran had long sought revenge on Trump for killing Soleimani.

“We have ensured that appropriate agencies are continuously and promptly providing the former president’s security detail with evolving threat information. Additionally, President Biden has reiterated his directive that the United States Secret Service should receive every resource, capability and protective measure required to address those evolving threats to the former president.”

Both Trump and his high-level officials who ordered the strike in 2020 have faced death threats from Iran, which also recently hacked Trump’s campaign and tried to peddle information to Democrats and the media.

Trump prodded Biden to tell Iran it would be “blown to smithereens” if a U.S. politician was harmed.

“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens,” he reiterated.

Trump survived one assassination attempt at a rally in July – and the Secret Service thwarted another one at his Florida golf course in September. Trump has surmised that the attempts may be linked to Iran, claims that have not been verified by authorities.

In addition to a military plane, the Trump campaign has asked for armored vehicles typically reserved for sitting presidents, more flight restrictions over his rallies and residences, reimbursements for decoy aircraft and more money for Secret Service and local law enforcement to protect him.

Biden told reporters on Friday he would be happy to offer Trump military aircraft in the final stages of his campaign, “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.”

“Look, what I’ve told the department is to give him every single thing he needs for his – as if he were a sitting president,” he said. “Give him all that he needs. If it fits within that category, that’s fine.”

Iran has made no secret of its intent to kill Trump. In 2022, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, circulated an animated clip of a drone firing on Trump at his golf course. That video resurfaced online recently.

In June, undercover FBI agents met with a Pakistani man who was looking to hire hit men to assassinate a U.S. politician, according to documents unsealed in August. They arrested the man, Asif Merchant, 46, on July 12, the day before Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.

In 2022, the Justice Department charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps with attempting to kill former national security adviser John Bolton.

U.S. officials are coming to a troubling realization about Iran’s repeated threats to kill Donald Trump and some of his former top generals and national security strategists: Tehran isn’t bluffing — and it isn’t giving up anytime soon.

Iran has been openly threatening Trump and those who oversaw his national security strategy since January 2020, when Trump ordered a drone strike killing Qassem Soleimani, then Iran’s most powerful military general. Tehran has put out videos depicting the future deaths of Trump and others who helped orchestrate the Soleimani attack, pushed for their arrest and extradition and issued menacing statements promising revenge.

U.S. intelligence community officials briefed the Trump campaign last month about assassination threats against the former president from Iran, with the Trump campaign saying they were warned the threat has “heightened in the past few months.” The briefing followed a pair of assassination efforts on Trump this summer. No evidence has been presented to link those to Tehran.

But Iran’s efforts to kill Trump and former senior officials it has blamed for the Soleimani strike are even more extensive and aggressive than previously reported, according to a dozen officials familiar with the Iranian assassination threat.

“This is extraordinarily serious,” said Matt Olsen, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security. “Iran has made it very clear that they are determined to seek retaliation against former officials in connection with the Soleimani strike.”

And, while the government has gone to unprecedented lengths to protect many of these officials, some who experience similar threats receive no government protection.

POLITICO spoke with 24 people with direct knowledge of the Soleimani strike or the ensuing assassination threat, including current and former U.S. lawmakers, Secret Service agents, congressional aides and senior U.S. officials. Some were granted anonymity due to ongoing threats against them or the sensitivity of their work.

They collectively painted a picture of a pervasive assassination threat that is much more concrete than the graphic videos, brash proclamations and menacing social media posts that have found their way into the public eye. They detailed hacking and digital surveillance efforts against the former officials and their family members, a drumbeat of personal FBI warnings about new threats from Iran, increasingly tense discussions about how to protect individuals amid ongoing plots, and efforts by suspected Iranian operatives to trail a U.S. official during a trip abroad.

Many who spoke with POLITICO argue the U.S. government is still coming to grips with the Iranian threat and hasn’t yet found a sustainable way to to protect all those who are at risk for as long as they need — creating an opening for Tehran to make good on its threats.

“There were a number — not a huge number — but a number of people who would probably be considered pretty significant targets who were not getting pretty much any support,” said Megan Reiss, a former national security policy adviser to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who worked on the threats from Iran while in Congress.

Lawmakers have recently ponied up more money to help the Defense and State departments up an already unprecedented degree of protection for some of the former agency officials whom Iran is seeking to kill, costing the federal government close to $150 million per year.

But former National Security Council officials who some say are also on Iran’s hit list are largely on their own. Since they worked for the White House, they believe they should draw their protection from the Secret Service. The beleaguered agency has stepped up — but only in part. One former National Security Council official had a government security detail withdrawn without explanation. A second had to push to get that protection, and the others never got any support to begin with.

Some of those officials are now spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on security for themselves and their families.

Sean Savett, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said the Biden administration considers Iran’s threats a “national and homeland security matter of the highest priority.” Savett also said Iran will face “severe consequences” if it attacks any U.S. citizens, including those who served the government.

Even the assassination of a lower-profile official than the former president could thrust the two nations into a crisis.

“The U.S. would regard it as an act of war,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. “Now, how we would respond to that, I don’t know, but it would not be a pleasant day for the Iranian regime.”

The gamble on Soleimani

The Trump administration knew the killing of Soleimani risked bitter retaliation.

As the head of Iran’s elite paramilitary arm, the Quds Force, Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s proxy wars across the Middle East. He was also a close personal confidante of the most powerful man in Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Soleimani was almost like a son to the Supreme Leader,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran specialist at the International Crisis Group.

The Pentagon assessed under Trump that Soleimani was responsible for the death or maiming of thousands of Americans during the U.S. war in Iraq. It claimed the Trump administration’s 2020 drone strike against him and nine other Iran-backed militants stopped “active plans” to kill more.

The Iranian government and some legal scholars have questioned just how imminent those plans really were. In any case, Vaez described the strike as an exceptional breach of sovereignty in the eyes of Iran.

While the U.S. considers the Quds force a terrorist organization, it is viewed internally as a formal part of Tehran’s military. “From their perspective, you can’t let the killing of your most senior military leader go unpunished,” Vaez said.

Despite fears of an all-out war, Iran’s immediate response to the strike was relatively muted: a ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces stationed in Iraq, which failed to kill a single U.S. soldier.

That led Trump and many who supported the strike to take something of a victory lap, thinking Iran had stood down.

But Iranian proxies would launch a steady drumbeat of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq for months after, at one point leading then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to threaten a pull-out of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

At the same time, Iran began laying the groundwork to go after specific officials.

The idea that Iran would seek to assassinate a U.S. official in retaliation for the Soleimani strike was not something U.S. intelligence agencies had anticipated beforehand, many told POLITICO.

But U.S. spies assessed that Iran was serious about taking that extraordinary step almost immediately after the strike, drawing their conclusions from both classified intelligence and public statements. “It was pretty fast,” said a former senior national security official with direct knowledge of the Soleimani strike.

Over time, those threats became less subtle.

“Those who ordered the murder of General Soleimani as well as those who carried this out should be punished,” Khamenei posted on his social media account nearly a year later, in December 2020. “This revenge will certainly happen at the right time.”

‘A fatwa for life’

Many who spoke with POLITICO cautioned that Iran lacks sophisticated hit teams and likely could not pull off a hit against a well-defended individual inside the United States.

But the two assassination attempts against Trump this summer have reopened questions about the government’s ability to protect even its senior-most former officials. And, some argued, the machinery of the U.S. government is only adjusting slowly to an insidious new threat from a foreign state.

“This is historic, and different and new,” said a former senior Trump administration official with knowledge of the Soleimani killing. “We’ve never had former senior national security officials, a Cabinet member, that have had this risk profile from a foreign adversary.”

Those who spoke to POLITICO, including some directly under threat from Iran, described near-constant Iranian surveillance efforts — largely but not exclusively online — against a shortlist of more than a half-dozen former officials. That includes attempts to access travel schedules and understand the target’s daily habits, that same official said.

Those who Iran is targeting have also received a steady cadence of “duty to warn” briefings in which FBI agents have reached out to inform them individually of discrete threats to their life.

“Sometimes it can be fairly specific. They know where you are, they know your pattern of life,” a former senior Pentagon official with direct knowledge of the assassination efforts said about the FBI warnings. “And sometimes they’re wildly inaccurate.”

“The Iranians are not good but they’re very enthusiastic,” the former Pentagon official said. “And of course, they’ve only got to get lucky once.”

It is unclear, however, when or how Iran might seek retribution.

Four people who spoke with POLITICO cited the example of Salman Rushdie, the Nobel Prize winning author. Thirty-four years after Iran’s supreme leader ordered Rushdie’s killing over a novel he claimed insulted Islam, a would-be assassin stabbed Rushie 15 times onstage at an event in New York.

“When they put these fatwas out, they’re like for life,” said the first senior national security official.

Going on defense

More than four years after the Soleimani strike, the shadow of that decision still looms large over the national security establishment in Washington.
In addition to Trump, who receives Secret Service protection as the former president, at least seven former generals, diplomats and civilian policy advisers from his White House receive a 24/7 government security detail, according to the people who spoke to POLITICO. Sometimes a single security detail includes roughly a half-dozen people.

The list is dominated by those with direct ties to the Soleimani killing or high-up in the Trump administration: Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense; Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Paul Nakasone, head of NSA and U.S. Cyber Command; Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command; Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State; and Brian Hook, the State Department’s Special Representative for Iran. Milley did not respond to requests for comment. The others declined to comment.

The ongoing and round-the-clock security details represent an unprecedented precaution for former national security officials.

It still may not be sufficient.

Iran slapped largely symbolic financial sanctions on a broader list of more than 50 former Trump administration officials, including those who now receive protection, and has issued Interpol “red notices” for their arrest.

Some believe the threat is significant for a subset of those officials whose pictures appeared alongside Trump’s in a propaganda video from an IRGC-linked social media account in January 2023 that promised vengeance for “the perpetrators of the general Soleimani martyrdom.”

Two of the officials in that video remain in government and three have retired but are among those who now receive security details. The remaining four receive no government protection, even though they were singled out in the video and have received at least two FBI duty-to-warn briefings about threats from Iran, they told POLITICO.

The common denominator for those four is where they worked: the National Security Council.

Most of the officials who have protection worked for the Defense and State departments, both of which have received additional funding from Congress in recent years to ramp up their ability to stymie Iran’s assassination plots.

Lawmakers recently set aside $40 million for the State Department to protect Hook and Pompeo. And Congress last year boosted the Pentagon’s ability to reimburse former officials who need protection or extend it so long as there is an active threat. Its efforts now cost roughly $100 million per year, one congressional aide estimated.

Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough said the Defense Department “does not disclose details regarding security measures for current or former officials.” A State Department spokesperson said the agency cannot discuss details of its protective operations per longstanding security practice.

The once-famed presidential protection agency, meanwhile, is on life support, having suffered a spate of scandals that culminated in the two attempts on Trump’s life this summer.

The Secret Service was “stretched really, really thin,” said Reiss, the former Romney aide.

Some argue that Iran would only be satisfied with killing someone they view as a rough equivalent to Soleimani, and that not every official who has received a threat should fear for their life.

“It seems that Iran has two groups: the people for whom their assassination would be proportional revenge for Soleimani. And then there’s everybody else,” said another former national security official.

Not just ‘idle internet chatter’

The lack of protection for former National Security Council officials is particularly alarming because former White House officials have had some of the closest encounters with Tehran.

The most public and earliest indication of Iran’s willingness to try to kill a former Trump official was against someone who left office before the Soleiman strike: John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser.

Bolton has been one of the most outspoken U.S. policymakers about the need to take a hard line on Iran, often staking out hawkish positions and blasting them out through cable news appearances.

It is clear the Ayatollahs aren’t fans.

Bolton said he received his first FBI duty to warn briefing about Iranian threats against him around late 2020 or early 2021, followed by a succession of such warnings in 2021 that escalated in “in specificity and level of concern.”

Bolton did not have a government security detail at the time. But he felt he needed one. During a meeting with more than 15 FBI, Justice Department and Secret Service officials the week before Thanksgiving 2021, he asked for some type of help. “Well, I appreciate you’re telling me this, but what are you going to do about it?” he remembers saying.

Secret Service agents raised the idea of asking for a dedicated security detail, Bolton said, and he pushed the Justice Department to make a pitch to the White House, since he thought it would look more credible coming from them.

The Justice Department complied, and the Biden administration extended a Secret Service security detail to Bolton in December 2021.

It was almost too late.

A member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps began soliciting hitmen to kill Bolton in the United States in early November of that year, when he did not have protection, according to a criminal complaint later filed by the Justice Department.

The case shows this isn’t “idle internet chatter” or “some nut-case sitting in his mother’s basement,” argued Bolton, who said he is willing to speak publicly about the threats against him, unlike others, because his name is already in public charging documents.

He also called a $300,000 bounty that Iran put on his head “insultingly low.”

Bolton is not the only former national security adviser who appears to have had a close brush with Iran’s hitmen.

Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser at the time of the Soleimani strike, traveled to Paris in June 2022 to receive an award from the French government. The Secret Service detail assigned to protect O’Brien at the time spotted two Middle Eastern individuals trailing O’Brien throughout the city, according to one former Secret Service agent and two people familiar with the matter.

The final time they spotted the two men, the detail reacted with alarm, pulling O’Brien out of a meeting at the Ritz and hustling him back to his hotel room, the people said.

It is not clear if the threat against O’Brien has diminished since then — even though he no longer receives government protection.

In a letter sent to O’Brien in June 2023 informing him of the decision not to renew his detail, then-Secret Service Director Kimbery Cheatle told him the agency would give him 60 days to “make alternate security arrangements, if you elect to do so,” according to a copy of the letter viewed by POLITICO. The letter did not provide another explanation for the decision.

Some Republican lawmakers — including Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chair of the House Intelligence Committee — believe the threat against O’Brien remains as great as any of the other former officials.

“It is a dangerous precedent to set, to not extend a former national security adviser’s protective detail while there are active threats against his life,” Turner wrote in a letter to national security adviser Jake Sullivan last January, a copy of which was viewed by POLITICO.

Some argue that the risk to Trump from Iran is also increasing.

This July the FBI arrested an Iranian operative who had entered the U.S. in an effort to arrange the assassination of “a political person” in retaliation for Soleimani’s death, the Justice Department has said. The individual, a Pakistani national, even remotely scouted a Trump rally.

“Let there be no doubt, the threat of the Iranian regime targeting [Trump] is more real than ever,” Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

On Friday, the Trump campaign requested military aircraft, flight restrictions around his rallies and residences, and other protections in light of the Iranian assassination threat.

Savett, the NSC spokesperson, said “President Biden has reiterated his directive that the United States Secret Service should receive every resource, capability and protective measure required to address those evolving threats to the former president.”

The Biden administration says it has also sent warnings to Tehran to cease all plotting against Trump and former U.S. officials.

Paying out of pocket

The Secret Service told O’Brien to provide for his own security. It turns out it’s not cheap to fend off a nation-state.

O’Brien is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for private security, including a personal bodyguard; advanced home alarm systems, cameras and ballistics; and digital counter-surveillance, according to three people familiar with the matter.

O’Brien defenses are robust, those officials insist, but he shouldn’t have to shoulder the burden himself. O’Brien was listed second on the Iran sanctions list after Milley and second in the January 2023 propaganda video. He has received four separate duty-to-warn briefings from the FBI, one of the three people said.

“Security should be based on need,” said Jason Chaffetz, a former Republican lawmaker from Utah and a close friend of O’Brien’s. “They keep telling him he’s on the top of, or near the top of the list of ongoing threats. So do we believe the intelligence community or not?”

The three other National Security Council officials who featured in the January 2023 propaganda video find themselves in a similar predicament as O’Brien: worried that Iran is coming for them — and with no agency who has their back.

The officials worked directly under O’Brien: Matt Pottinger, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, and two senior National Security Council officials who oversaw the Iran portfolio: Victoria Coates and Robert Greenway.

Greenway, Pottinger and Coates have all received at least two duty-to-warn briefings from the FBI since leaving office, and they collectively spend hundreds thousand of dollars each year on physical and digital security, they told POLITICO.

All three said they believe the threats against them warrant some government protection — though not on the scale that people like Pompeo or McKenzie get. They worry Iran will view them as easy targets if the government doesn’t step up for them.

“If you are a thief and you see five houses with ADT and one that doesn’t, it doesn’t take a big leap of the imagination to realize which one will get robbed,” Greenway said.

They are urging the government to do more to protect them — or better yet, deter Iran outright. The trio wrote to the Department of Justice in July 2023 to ask for some basic protections, such as cybersecurity support.

The Justice Department never responded directly, the trio say, but it did respond to Rubio, who took up their case on their behalf. In a June 2023 letter to him about the threats to the three officials, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Slade Bond told Rubio the department was “aware of and deeply concerned about this category of threats.” Bond also said the DOJ was forwarding Rubio’s letter to “appropriate government agencies” who make determinations about who deserves protection.

The White House, which determines who the Secret Service protects, did not respond to questions specifically about O’Brien and the other officials lacking protection.

Both Coates and Greenway said Iran hacked their emails at least once since the Soleimani strike, and the FBI recently told Pottinger that hackers for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard had targeted him. In Coates’ case, the personal email accounts of her two children were also hacked at the same time. A digital forensic firm who she hired with her own money determined Iran was behind the activity, she said.

“I can take care of myself, but they’re not used to this,” Coates said about her kids.

For his part, Pottinger said he was not actually involved in the planning of the Soleimani strike, and Iran appears to have tied him to the incident based on a 2021 news article that falsely claimed he was.

Still, he thinks many Americans are not taking Iran’s efforts seriously enough because of their disdain for Trump. “It could just as easily be the Biden guys,” said Pottinger, who argued the Solemani strike was a deliberate and responsible decision that saved American lives.

Pottinger’s worry is that China, Russia or Sunni and Shia terrorist groups will feel emboldened by the Biden administration’s feeble response to the assassination threat, and target individual American officials in a bid to cow them against policies they dislike.

“We don’t want national security officials who are chicken shit,” he said.

FOX News Channel’s (FNC) chief political anchor Bret Baier will conduct an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday, October 16th.

This week’s appearance marks her first formal sit-down interview on the network ever and will air during Special Report with Bret Baier at 6 PM/ET on October 16th. Baier will be anchoring Special Report from Pennsylvania that evening.

FNC’s chief political anchor and anchor and executive editor of cable news’ most-watched newscast Special Report with Bret Baier (weekdays, 6- 7PM/ET), is home to the largest and most politically diverse audience in cable news, averaging 2.3 million viewers and 233,000 in A25-54 with more Democrats and Independents tuning in to Baier than any show in its timeslot.

Additionally, FOX News outrates CNN and MSNBC in every swing state, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. This election cycle, Baier created the popular Common Ground segment which features political leaders from across the aisle discussing the issues of the day with the goal of finding middle ground. He is also host of FOX News Audio’s “The Bret Baier Podcast” which includes Common Ground and The All-Star Panel.

Since joining FNC in 1998 as an Atlanta-based reporter, Baier has played an integral role in coverage of every major political event. Most recently, Baier co-led the network’s special Democracy 2024 coverage of the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention, among numerous political events which have consistently ranked number one in all of television, outpacing cable news and broadcast coverage.

During recent cycles, Baier has moderated Republican presidential primary debates and town halls with candidates across the political spectrum, including former President Donald Trump as well as then-candidates former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and former mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Baier has also interviewed world leaders, including Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bi Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, then-President Barack Obama, then-President George W. Bush, then-Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among other international newsmakers. A six-time New York Times bestselling author, Baier is the recipient of the 2024 Horatio Alger award and the 2017 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

The National Rifle Association’s new boss was involved in the brutal torture and killing of a cat when he was a fraternity brother in college.

Douglas Hamlin, who was appointed NRA CEO this year, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty in the vile killing of his fraternity’s cat, BK, in 1980.

Hamlin was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor when he and four of his Alpha Delta Phi brothers were accused of capturing the cat, cutting its paws off, stringing it up and setting it on fire.

The students killed the cat because they were angry it was not using its litterbox, according to local news reports from the time uncovered by The Guardian.

The animal’s killing, which happened in December, 1979, sparked fury in the community at the time and all five students were expelled from the fraternity, including Hamlin who was the group’s president at the time.

District court judge SJ Elden singled Hamlin out during the case, saying he could have stopped the ‘unconscionable and heinous’ killing as the president of the fraternity.

Judge Elden also suggested the fraternity tried to cover up the crime to protect its members.

One of the frat brothers involved in the killing told The Guardian the incident was ‘regrettable’ and ‘not a good chapter for anybody.’

The fraternity’s cook Earl Carl resigned following the killing, as reported by Michigan Daily, and filed a lawsuit claiming members of the group tried silencing him.

Carl said Hamlin initiated an attempted coverup.

The five men had their records expunged after they each completed 200 hours of animal-related community service.

Hamlin told DailyMail.com on Monday that he wasn’t directly involved in the cat’s killing.

‘I do not in any way condone the actions that took place more than 44 years ago,’ Hamlin said.

‘I took responsibility for this regrettable incident as chapter president although I wasn’t directly involved. Since that time I served my country, raised a family, volunteered in my community, started a business, worked with Gold Star families, and raised millions of dollars for charity. I’ve endeavored to live my life in a manner beyond reproach.

‘My focus now is on protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.’

Hamlin, who served in the Marines after college, previously served as the NRA’s executive director of its publications division.

He was elected as executive vice president and CEO in May after former NRAS boss Wayne LaPierre was found liable in February at a civil trial in New York of wrongly using millions of dollars of the organization’s money to pay for an extravagant lifestyle.

Vice President Kamala Harris has lost steam and her edge against former President Donald Trump has slipped in three major polls with less than a month to go until Election Day — yet another blow to Democrats who were already starting to panic about November.

Harris has lost six percentage points on Trump in a single month in the NBC News poll, giving the former president the slimmest lead of 47% to 46% among registered voters — with third-party contenders included.

Last month, Harris scored 47% to Trump’s 41% in the same poll.

A separate survey from ABC News/Ipsos also showed voters moving in Trump’s direction nationally, with Harris still up among likely voters 50% to 48%.

But that’s a significant tightening from the 6-point edge Harris had scored in the poll last month among likely voters (52% to 46%).

Lastly, a CBS News/YouGov poll found Harris ahead of Trump nationally by 51% to 48% and up in the battleground state average of 50% to 49% among likely voters.

That poll had Trump gaining just one percentage in the national matchup from where he was in the September poll which had Harris up 52% to 48%. The battleground state average is identical.

With the fresh batch of polling, Harris’ lead in the RealClearPolitics aggregate of recent multi-candidate national polling has also slipped and now sits at 1.4 percentage points, down from 2.2 points on Saturday.

Trump is also up in the RCP no-tossup map of swing state contests.

Taken together, this is bad news for Harris. Most experts think she needs a five to six-point national polling advantage to win — a nod to past elections showing that Trump supporters tend not to respond to polls and that Republicans have an inherent advantage in the electoral college.

Even before these surveys, frustrated Democrats were sharing internal polling that showed Harris losing in swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan — states that will help determine the outcome of the November election.

And many GOP insiders have been all but ready to declare victory.

“There are lots of Republicans — I say lots — a not insignificant number of Republicans, who say the race is effectively over,” longtime political journalist Mark Halperin said last week on 2WAY’s “Morning Meeting” program.

He later said “there are a lot of really worried Democrats and there are really no worried Republicans, including at Mar-a-Lago.”

Underpinning the apparent shift in the poll appears to be Harris’ favorability slipping, according to the NBC News survey — with the vice president clocking in at 43% positive to 49% negative, falling particularly among younger and independent voters.

On issues, the NBC poll mirrored a myriad of prior polling showing Trump ahead with respect to the economy (46% to 38%), inflation (44% to 37%), immigration (46% to 36%) and dealing with the conflict in the Middle East (42% to 34%).

Harris got the lead on abortion (47% to 32%), looking out for the middle class (42% to 32%) and safeguarding democracy (44% to 38%).

The man arrested outside Donald Trump’s Coachella rally has broken his silence, confirming he’s a supporter of the former president and denied he was attempting to shoot him.

Vem Miller, 49, is a registered Republican who allegedly tried to present fake VIP credentials at a Trump rally on Saturday and then found himself arrested on illegal firearms charges.

Miller said he told law enforcement about the guns as a courtesy, in an interview with The Press-Enterprise.

The 49-year-old said he received a special invitation to the Coachella Valley rally from the head of Clark County’s Republican Party.

Mr Miller claimed he had his vehicle was “ransacked” after he alerted officers to the guns. He alleged he bought the firearms in 2022 for protection after receiving death threats.

He added that he had never fired them and claimed he was unfamiliar with the difference between gun laws in Nevada and California

The assassination plot suspect also denied claims he presented a press pass at the checkpoint, alleging that he told security he had a  “special entry pass”.

When asked by Fox News about his political beliefs, he confirmed: ‘Yes, I’m 100% a Trump supporter.’

He added that while he’d supported Democrat Barack Obama in the past, thinking he would ‘save us from needless wars and censorship,’ he’s drifted rightward to libertarianism.

‘I’m certainly more Republican now,’ he said, claiming that he’s been ‘all-in’ on Trump since 2018.

Miller said that he briefly flirted with supporting Bernie Sanders ‘without realizing the implications of socialism’ but has come to see Trump as ‘a visual example of freedom of speech.’

‘This is a man that I deeply admire, because I was a closet individual in terms of my beliefs, because I worked in Hollywood. As my politics started to change, I realized that Hollywood is a homogenous community,’ he added.

Miller also says that there are no falsified IDs on his person, that there was confusion because he’s Armenian and some use his full birth name and others don’t to avoid potential anti-Armenian sentiment around the world.

His 2021 court documents list his name as ‘Vem Vim Yenovkian’, also known as ‘Vem Miller Yenovkian’.

Miller filed in Clark County, Nevada to change his name to Vem Miller in 2022. The court appears to have granted the request.

He further denied accusations made by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco that he was a part of an anti-government ‘sovereign citizens’ movement.

‘That’s a nonsensical statement. I don’t think there’s such a thing,’ he said, calling it equally ‘nonsensical’ that Bianco saw him as ‘far right.’

‘Government is an inanimate object, it’s the individuals within government that matter, so no, I’m not a part of any of that. They’re saying that I’m part of these right-wing anti-government groups? Why aren’t they naming these groups? Because it doesn’t exist.’

Miller does have a somewhat checkered past, according to files obtained by DailyMail.

He married Sonia Gulian, 46, and had two children with her – but appears to have divorced and sued her in federal court in 2021 claiming she ‘kidnapped’ the kids and took them to the UK while he was working in Canada.

‘My ex wife Sonia Helen Gulian and her parents Zvart Gulian and Shahe Gulian kidnapped my American Children, who are born and raised in Los Angeles, California, while I was working in Toronto, Canada on a brief 2 year contract,’ he wrote in the legal complaint.

‘I am from LA, where I have lived since I was 15 years old, for nearly 30 years.’

He claimed he successfully fought a 22-month legal case in Canada and got his kids back, but a ‘corrupt judge’ returned them to the UK after three months

The judge dismissed the case as ‘frivolous due to lack of subject-matter jurisdiction’ two days after Miller filed his complaint.

UK company records list Gulian as a director of a Christian organization in Berkshire, England, appointed in February this year.

In an unsuccessful appeal in June 2021, he claimed that he had no income and only $4,000 in a checking account and a 2018 Kia Optima to his name.

However, property records show that he purchased a house in Henderson, Nevada for $240,000 in 2015, and previously owned a property in Studio City, Los Angeles.

‘All my costs of living are currently being paid by a 501C3 non profit corporation that is helping me with this legal process,’ he wrote in the filing, adding that the nonprofit was based in Las Vegas, though not naming the organization.

In another bizarre legal complaint filed in Los Angeles in 2013, Miller claimed a company he was working with on a reality TV show had ‘planted a kilogram of white powder in [Miller’s] office, caused a private investigator to “find” the material and falsely accused [Miller] of drug possession.’

A friend and business partner of Miller told DailyMail earlier Sunday he is a full-blown Trump supporter and slammed police for ‘not understanding he’s one of us’.

Right-wing documentarian Mindy Robinson said Miller has been a MAGA activist for years, had no intention of killing the former president, and said she has been to several pro-Trump events with him.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Robinson described Miller as a journalist and documentarian.

The two set up an independent news site AmericaHappens.com after repeatedly getting kicked off YouTube for their stories promoting conspiracy theories, including that the deadly 2017 Las Vegas shooting was a ‘cover up’ with ‘multiple shooters.’

‘He’s a big, huge Trump supporter. It’s what we’ve been doing for years,’ Robinson said. ‘He’s my friend, we work together.’

That backs up what federal agencies have been saying about the arrest.

Secret Service sources told the New York Post they doubt Miller was going to try to kill Trump and the FBI is not investigating the incident as an assassination attempt.

Miller reportedly called the idea of going after Trump ‘complete bulls***.’

‘He had no intention to kill Trump,’ Robinson added. ‘It’s ridiculous. To me it feels like a setup, or really inadequate police work. A sh***y excuse to get in a car and try to find something wrong with a Trump supporter or something.’

Robinson slammed Riverside County cops, who stopped Miller at a checkpoint on Saturday, where he allegedly presented them with a fake press and VIP pass for the Coachella Trump rally, then searched his car and found illegal guns.

‘It sounds like it was an excuse to get in the car, look at his sh** mess of a car, and that’s when they found a gun. But every gun is illegal in California, it’s stupid,’ she said, referring to California’s stricter gun laws compared to some other states.

‘I couldn’t go because I was having some minor surgery. Thank God, because we probably would have carpooled and it’d be a hot mess.

‘Someone definitely jumped the gun. And the way they released it wasn’t the right way to do that either.’

She pointed to Miller’s swift release on $10,000 bail as a sign that law enforcement, and the Trump campaign, did not see him as an active threat.

‘It doesn’t make sense. Look at his social media. It goes back years, of the same politics not changing,’ she said.

Miller’s social media posts include videos at Republican events and selfies with pro-Trump media personalities popular among the right, including Vivek Ramaswamy, Steven Bannon and Roger Stone. He even got up close to Donald Trump Jr. at one GOP event.

Four Israeli soldiers have been killed and more than 60 people injured in a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central-northern Israel, according to first responders and the Israeli military.

The incident late Sunday local time is one of the bloodiest attacks on Israel since the beginning of the war last October.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, launched by Hezbollah hit an army base adjacent to Binyamina, a town north of Tel Aviv that lies some 40 miles from the Lebanese border.

In addition to the four soldiers killed, seven soldiers suffered severe injuries, the IDF said.

According to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service, a total of 61 people were wounded in the attack.

The news comes after Hezbollah said Sunday it had fired a swarm of attack drones on an Israeli infantry training camp in Binyamina.

The Lebanon-based militant group said the attack was in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon Thursday that killed 22 people and injured 117, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Hezbollah said it had targeted the Golani Brigade, an infantry unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that has been deployed in southern Lebanon. The claim of responsibility for the attack came shortly after the militant group released an audio message from its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah calling on its members to “defend your people, your family, your nation, your values and your dignity.”

Earlier on Sunday, the IDF said it had intercepted a Lebanon-launched UAV without specifying where. It was not immediately clear whether this was the same incident that led to the injuries.

Israeli air defence systems tend to be very reliable, but on Sunday, there were no reports of alerts in the Binyamina area at the time of the attack, raising questions of how the drone was able to penetrate so deep into the Israeli territory without being spotted.

Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets toward the northern Israeli towns of Nahariya and Acre to engage Israel’s air defense systems, while simultaneously launching the drone swarm.

“These drones broke through the Israel defense radars without detection and reached its target at the training camp of the elite Golani Brigade in Binyamina,” Hezbollah said.

The IDF’s top spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the military would investigate how the drone got through without raising an alarm at the base.

“We will learn from and investigate the incident,” he said in a video statement from the base. “The threat of UAVs is a threat we are dealing with since the beginning of the war. We need an improvement to our defense,” he added.

‘Very difficult scene’

The Binyamina attack comes almost two weeks after Israel launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon. The IDF has insisted the operation is “localized” and “limited” – even though the reality on the ground suggests it might be preparing for a wider invasion.

The IDF has issued evacuation orders for a quarter of Lebanon’s territory and deployed units from four different IDF divisions to the border area, while also continuing an intense bombardment campaign.

More than 1,500 people have been killed and more than 8,000 injured in Lebanon since September 16, when Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah, according to a CNN tally of Lebanese health ministry statements.

Tensions rose again on Sunday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon to withdraw from the area following several incidents involving the IDF that left five members of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) injured.

The 40 countries whose soldiers serve as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon issued a statement on Sunday “strongly condemning” these attacks.

At the same time, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would not allow Hezbollah to return to border villages in southern Lebanon after Israeli troops leave the area.

Despite the ground operation targeting its infrastructure, Hezbollah continues to fire dozens of rockets into Israel on daily basis.

The attack on Sunday also raises concerns over Hezbollah’s ability to use longer-range drones against Israel, as it comes just two days after another attack in which the IDF said two drones were launched from Lebanon.

The Israeli military said Friday it had intercepted one of those drones, but did not specify what happened to the other one. In the attack Friday, warning sirens had activated and while a nursing home in the coastal city of Herzliya, central Israel, was damaged, no casualties were no reported.

Magen David Adom said it declared a mass casualty event on Sunday evening and had evacuated 61 injured people from the scene. It said three people were in serious condition and 18 suffered moderate injuries.

A statement from the emergency service quoted a paramedic at the site as saying it “was a very difficult scene.”

“We declared it a mass casualty event and treated patients suffering from blast injuries and shrapnel. The injuries were severe, and we evacuated the injured to hospitals as quickly as possible for further medical treatment,” Rafi Sheva said in the statement.

Those injured in Binyamina were transported to eight different hospitals across Israel, according to Magen David Adom.

The Laniado Hospital in north-central Israel treated several of the people who suffered light injuries.

Its spokesperson Asahel Shahaf said that one man who was brought into the emergency room had a lucky escape when shrapnel from the drone lodged into his kippah, a head covering worn by Jewish men.

“The shrapnel did not scratch the wounded man,” Shahaf said, calling the incident “a small (big!!!) miracle.”

The son of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) will spend no time behind bars after he was arrested earlier this year on multiple charges related to identity theft following a string of car break-ins.

Instead, a judge in Garfield County offered the teen a sweetheart deal in exchange for a guilty plea on a single felony charge.

Tyler Boebert, 19, was arrested in Rifle, Colorado, in February and accused of what police at the time called a “recent string of vehicle trespass and property thefts” wherein the teen sought to obtain documents to commit financial fraud.

The then-18-year-old and the eldest child of the congresswoman was charged with multiple felonies and numerous misdemeanors, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced. Colorado Public Radio reported:

Rifle police began getting reports of a series of break-ins and thefts last week. The affidavit detailed the accounts of four victims who had various items stolen, including debit cards, social security cards, and driver’s licenses. The victims said their credit and debit cards racked up several unauthorized charges. One attempted charge, which was denied, was for $717 on SHEIN, a fast fashion online retailer.

The arresting officer wrote that he was able to use financial statements to track down the suspects. The officer reviewed footage at a gas station and recognized Tyler Boebert from previous interactions, who was wearing a hoodie adorned with branding from his mother’s former restaurant, Shooters Grill. He was accompanied by three other people in the video.

The teen faced up to 18 months in prison and a $100,000 fine but Friday was sentenced to 80 hours of community service and ordered to pay court costs. FOX 31 in Denver reported:

At the Garfield County Courthouse, Boebert – whose family was in attendance which included his mom – pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft with the intent to obtain an item of value. All other charges he faced were dropped as part of the plea agreement. In addition to the deferred sentence, Boebert will have to complete 80 hours of community service within the first year and pay court costs.

If the 19-year-old completes his deferred sentence without another run-in with police in the coming year, his felony conviction will be removed from his record.

Tyler Boebert was initially charged with 19 crimes – four felonies and 15 misdemeanors.

New York Times reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro made repeated attempts to bait Senator JD Vance (R-OH), vice-presidential running mate to former President Donald Trump, but Vance made it clear early on that he was not having it.

Vance sat for the interview last week, and several clips made their way to X on Friday — including one in which Garcia-Navarro pressured Vance five times to say that Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election.

Watch:

WATCH: @JDVance flips the script on a New York Times reporter by pointing out that the government, media, and Big Tech rigged the 2020 election by teaming up to censor the Hunter Biden laptop, costing President Trump millions of votes.🔥 pic.twitter.com/2EO9Tl3v0a

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 11, 2024

“In the debate, you were asked to clarify if you believe Trump lost the 2020 election,” she began. “Do you believe he lost the 2020 election?”

“I think that Donald Trump and I have both raised a number of issues with the 2020 election, but we’re focused on the future,” Vance replied. “I think there’s an obsession here with focusing on 2020. I’m much more worried about what happened after 2020, which is a wide-open border, groceries that are unaffordable, and look, Lulu —”

“Senator, yes or no,” Garcia-Navarro interrupted. “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”

“Let me ask you a question,” Vance pushed back. “Is it okay that big technology companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, which independent analyses have said cost Donald Trump millions of votes?”

Garcia-Navarro ignored Vance’s question, saying instead, “Senator Vance, I’m going to ask you again. Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”

“Did big technology companies censor a story that independent studies have suggested would have cost Trump millions of votes?” Vance refused to budge. “That’s the question.”

“Senator Vance, I’m going to ask you again,” Garcia-Navarro repeated. “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”

“And I’ve answered your question with another question,” Vance shot back. “You answer my question, then I’ll answer yours.”

“I’ve asked this question repeatedly. This is something that is very important for the American people to know,” Garcia-Navarro insisted. “There is no proof, legal or otherwise, that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election.”

“You’re repeating a slogan rather than engaging with what I’m saying,” Vance protested, arguing that it was irresponsible to answer her question without acknowledging the context that complicated either answer. “I’m worried about Americans who feel like there were problems in 2020, I’m not worried about this slogan that people throw out — ‘Well, every court case went this way — I’m talking about something very discrete: a problem of censorship in this country that I do think affected things in 2020, and more importantly, that led to Kamala Harris’ governance which has screwed this country up in a big way.”

In a second clip, Garcia-Navarro attempted to separate the housing crisis in the United States from the massive influx of illegal immigrants under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and Vance was not having that either.

Watch:

JD Vance puts on an absolute masterclass in a NYT interview where the host tries to gaslight him on America’s housing crisis and illegal immigration problem 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Ygf76R4OXc

— CartierFamily (@cartierfamilyZ) October 13, 2024

“One thing that everyone agrees on is that more housing is necessary in this country, right? The reason that there is a housing crisis is that not enough houses have been built — Garcia-Navarro said, but Vane interrupted.

“And that we have 25 million people who shouldn’t be here. I think it’s both,” he said.

Garcia-Navarro went on to suggest that the housing crisis would get worse if illegal immigrants were deported because, she argued, they composed a large percentage of the labor force in the construction industry.

“Well, I think it’s a fair question because we know that back in the 1960s, when we had very low levels of illegal immigration, Americans didn’t build houses,” Vance dead-panned. “But, of course they did. And I’m being sarcastic in service of a point, Lulu: the assumption that because a large number of homebuilders now are using undocumented labor, that that’s the only way to build homes, I think again betrays a fundamental —”

“The country is much bigger. The need is much bigger,” Garcia-Navarro protested. “I’m not arguing in favor of illegal immigration. I’m asking how you would deal with the knock-on effect of your proposal to remove millions of people who work in a critical part of the economy.”

“Well, I think that what you would do is you would take, let’s say for example, the seven million prime-age men who have dropped out of the labor force, and you have a smaller number of women, but still millions of women, prime age, who have dropped out of the labor force. You absolutely could re-engage folks into the American labor market,” Vance replied.

Garcia-Navarro floated the argument that illegal immigrants had to be allowed to stay because Americans wouldn’t do those jobs.

“People say, well, Americans won’t do those jobs. Americans won’t do those jobs for below-the-table wages. They won’t do those jobs for non-living wages. But people will do those jobs, they will just do those jobs at certain wages,” Vance argued. “We cannot have an entire American business community that is giving up on American workers and then importing millions of illegal laborers. That is what we have thanks to Kamala Harris’s border policies. I think it’s one of the biggest drivers of inequality.”

The relationship between Kamala Harris’ team and Joe Biden’s White House has been increasingly fraught in the final weeks before Election Day, 10 people familiar with the situation tell Axios.

Biden’s team wants Harris to win the election, but many senior Biden aides remain wounded by the president being pushed out of his re-election bid and are still adjusting to being in a supporting role on the campaign trail.

“They’re too much in their feelings,” one close Harris ally said of the president’s team — a sentiment shared even by some White House aides.

Some on the Harris team say that top White House aides aren’t sufficiently coordinating Biden’s messaging and schedule to align with what’s best for the vice president’s campaign.

Biden gave an impromptu press conference in the White House briefing room Friday just as Harris was about to do an event in Michigan, ensuring that her event would get less TV coverage than it otherwise would have.

Earlier in the week, Harris criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for not taking her call about the recent hurricanes, only for Biden to praise DeSantis soon after for being “gracious” and “cooperative.”

Biden has been eager to boast about a robust jobs report, helping to end the strike by the longshoremen’s union and other perceived victories recently. Harris has been trying to focus on voters’ pocketbook concerns, including inflation.

One person involved with Harris’ campaign told Axios: “The White House is lacking someone in the room thinking first and foremost about how things would affect the campaign.”

The tensions have played out on the staff level, too.

Harris’ team has been trying to add staff to the vice president’s official office to handle the bigger workload. It’s been frustrated at the White House’s pace in getting people detailed for that, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The White House has been working to help Harris’ team but has been frustrated by some of the rules about who can be detailed and when.

Several Biden aides have joined Harris’ campaign, but some feel like they’ve been labeled as disloyal by Biden’s team for leaving or even considering it.

A White House official told Axios: “Everyone from the president on down knows how important the election is, and we always anticipated a number of staff would want to transition from the administration to the campaign for the final stretch.”

On Harris’ campaign, there’s also awkwardness between some who were on Biden’s original campaign staff and the Harris allies who’ve been installed in recent weeks.

In the weeks after Harris became the Democratic nominee, there were squabbles about whether Biden’s main surrogates on television would continue in those roles or if new faces would emerge, two people familiar with the matter told Axios.

Harris’ team prevailed and new surrogates began appearing frequently.

Some on Harris’ team are wary of the Biden campaign crew they’re now working with.

After all, Biden’s team publicly argued that Harris was less electable than Biden in the weeks after the president’s disastrous debate in June.

“At the end of the day, we’d switch to candidates who would, according to polls, be less likely to win than Joe Biden — the only person ever to defeat Donald Trump,” deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty wrote in a letter to supporters after the debate, citing polling data.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Axios: “President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris immediately after leaving the race, rejecting other approaches that would divide the party, and has attested to her leadership abilities and continually made clear his support for her.”

He added: “While ensuring that all critical White House functions are fully staffed, we have made significant changes to guarantee the vice president’s team has all of the support and resources that they need.”

A White House spokesperson added that Harris’ leadership team has been invited to strategic scheduling meetings.

Tensions between the Biden and Harris teams were likely inevitable.

Beyond Democratic leaders’ historic push for Biden to step aside so late in the campaign, every sitting vice president running for the White House has had staff infighting with the current Oval Office occupant.

This often-uncomfortable dynamic — a vice president running to replace the president they’ve served — also was evident with Al Gore and Bill Clinton in 2000, and George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in 1988.

Despite the sore feelings among some Biden aides, much of the president’s staff is actively rooting for and trying to work toward a Harris victory.

There is frustration about coordination among senior staffers on both sides, but much of the mid-level staff is working well together, people familiar with the dynamic told Axios.

The White House denied there’s tension among senior staffers.

An Arkansas father was arrested after allegedly shooting and killing a man who was found in a vehicle with the father’s missing 14-year-old daughter.

Aaron Spencer, 36, reported his daughter missing on Tuesday, and Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to his home.

But as deputies were on their way to the residence, they learned that Spencer had found his daughter in a vehicle with Michael Fosler, 67. A confrontation ensued between the two men before Spencer allegedly shot and killed Fosler.

Deputies arrested Spencer on a preliminary charge of first-degree murder, a Class Y felony. He was booked into the Lonoke County Detention Center before being released the next day after posting bail.

Sheriff John Staley said in a video on Facebook that Spencer has not been formally charged yet and that the District Attorney’s Office will decide which charges to file.

“This is a tragic situation and my thoughts and prayers are with all involved,” Staley said.

Spencer’s wife, Heather, said on Facebook that Fosler had a “no contact order” with her daughter for stalking and raping the 14-year-old over the summer and that she and her husband feared he might kill her. She said that she and her husband were unaware Fosler was again in contact with her child.

“We absolutely called 911 during the entire event,” she wrote. “We had no idea this man was in contact with our child again. He was waiting 6-9 felonies for what he did, not 2. He was looking at the rest of his pathetic life in jail, and our daughter was the only witness.”

“Some things we will never know, but we know that the police department afforded this predator privacy they did not give our family,” she continued. “Including posting our home address. I’m deeply offended by the way this was handled by the county [sheriff’s] office.”

The woman added: “At the end of the day, our daughter is a victim and we have a long road of recovery for everyone. We are so thankful for all the calls, messages and prayers.”

Fosler had been arrested by another law enforcement agency in July and booked for internet stalking of a child and sexual assault, Staley told Usa Today.

“I absolutely do not support predators,” he said. I’m a daddy. “I have three daughters. I know she’s hurt right now, but there’s absolutely nobody I would put ahead of our children, their children, my children.”

The sheriff said deputies are looking into what happened leading up to the shooting.

“When we get on scene and there’s a homicide, it means one person took the life of another,” Staley said. “It’s either justified or not justified. That’s what the fact finding, that’s what the investigation is going to find out.”

The child’s mother had set up a GoFundMe to pay for her husband’s legal fees, but GoFundMe removed the fundraiser and returned the money to donors. GoFundMe’s terms of service prohibit fundraisers from raising money for the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime.

Because of this, the woman is now accepting money on Venmo and Cash App.

“My husband is a hero and we are so thankful to have him home with us for now,” The woman wrote in a Thursday Facebook post. “We want to do everything possible to ensure he can continue to be here to protect us.”

She also thanked other victims who reached out to her with allegations that Fosler attacked them.

“We have gotten a clear picture of a predator who continuously worked with children and preyed on young girls,” she wrote. “This man was Chief of police in Indiana and resource officer, giving us a better idea of why the Lonoke county courts have been protecting him and going after my husband.”

The incident remains under investigation.

ANigerian pirate injured in a 2021 gunfight with Danish sailors is now receiving a taxpayer-funded prosthetic leg after being granted asylum in Denmark, a decision that has brought significant public debate.

Lucky Frances was involved in a firefight with the Danish frigate Esbern Snare in the Gulf of Guinea, a region once notorious for piracy. A Danish Navy Seahawk helicopter took off from the frigate in response to information that a vessel with pirates was approaching several commercial ships.

The clash resulted in the deaths of four of his companions, while Frances suffered severe injuries that required the amputation of his leg. The Danes took care of the injured man, who was first admitted to a Ghana hospital, and his leg was amputated. He was later brought to Denmark for medical treatment.

During his stay in Denmark, Frances applied for asylum, citing his health condition as a reason to remain in the country. After a lengthy legal battle, he was eventually granted a prosthetic leg, according to B.T., a Danish news outlet.

His case quickly became a focus of Danish media, drawing widespread attention and criticism. Many politicians see it as a source of embarrassment for the Danish government, which has traditionally taken a tough stance on migration and asylum.

“I cannot defend this decision,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has faced mounting pressure over the matter. Her administration has consistently maintained a hard line against asylum seekers, making this case particularly controversial.

Despite being found guilty of endangering the lives of Danish soldiers, Frances did not serve a prison sentence. After his asylum request was approved, he was granted an education plan, job counseling and an “integration contract” to help him become a contributing member of Danish society.

As part of the integration process, Frances must sign an “integration contract” that outlines specific goals he must achieve to remain eligible for self-support and repatriation benefits. This plan also includes language lessons to help him become fluent in Danish and assistance in finding a job suitable for an amputee. Additionally, he will receive a stipend to help cover the costs of his prosthetic leg.

The Danish People’s Party (DF), a right-wing opposition party, has been particularly vocal in its criticism. Mikkel Bjørn, the DF’s integration spokesman, said, “This is absolutely absurd. That man should never have been in Denmark, and to imagine that he can now be meaningfully integrated into Danish society is completely beyond the pale.”

Initially, Frances expressed a desire to return to Nigeria after recovering from his injuries. However, he later decided to apply for asylum in Denmark, saying in a 2023 interview, “Going back to Africa will not be good for me.”

His lawyer, Emma Ring Damgaard of the Danish firm Storm Thygesen, defended the decision, emphasizing the complexity of his situation. “This makes good sense,” she said. “There is a long and painful rehabilitation program ahead. You can’t just send him back to Nigeria.”

The Gulf of Guinea is one of the world’s most dangerous waterways, with regular kidnappings. In 2019, the region accounted for more than 90 percent of global crew member abductions.

So far, Frances’ case has cost Danish taxpayers an estimated 4.2 million Danish kroner (approximately $615,000), including medical expenses, according to DR, a Danish broadcaster.

A man was arrested outside of a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Southern California, and multiple guns were illegally in his possession, according to authorities.

The arrest took place at a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive in Coachella at 4:59 p.m. on Saturday, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said.

The rally was scheduled to start at 5 p.m.

The driver of a black SUV, who was later identified as 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas, was found to be in illegal possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine.

Miller was then taken into custody and booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center on suspicion of possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine.

According to the Riverside County Inmate Information System, Miller was released from the detention center Sunday on $5,000 bail.

From social media photos it appears that Vem Miller is a Trump supporter:

The Sheriff’s Office said the incident had no impact on the safety of rally attendees or former President Trump.

No additional details were immediately made available.

Officials didn’t say where the guns were located in his SUV at the time of the arrest.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a noted supporter of Trump, said the incident was “probably” a third assassination attempt on the former President, according to the Southern California News Group.

Bianco told the news organization that Miller presented fake VIP and press passes at the checkpoint, which is what led to the search.

“We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Bianco told SCNG.

Miller is a registered Republican. He filed to run for Nevada’s state assembly in 2022.

As of Sunday afternoon, Trump hadn’t publicly commented on the incident.

The arrest comes as multiple high-profile attempts of violence against the former President have taken place during the heated election cycle.

On July 13, Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet coming from the gun of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. Crooks was shot and killed by a member of the Secret Service.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is currently being prosecuted on gun charges after he hid out near a Florida golf course in an alleged attempt to have a clean shot at the former President and current Republican presidential nominee on Sept. 15.

This article was updated.

Facing an election integrity outcry, Texas’ top election official issued new guidance Friday night to election officials who encounter voters who try to get a ballot by presenting drivers licenses issued to non-citizens.

Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued the new guidance after an earlier memo sent out Tuesday created an outcry from Congress to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Critics were concerned the new guidance might allow non-citizens to vote.

The new guidance said that if a voter presented a non-citizen drivers license, he or she must also provide proof of citizenship before they could cast their ballot.

“The Secretary of State sought a formal legal opinion from the Office of the Attorney General on this important issue. In the absence of a response from the Attorney General, the Secretary issues this amended advisory,” Nelson wrote in the new memo.

“Election workers have an obligation under state criminal law not to facilitate illegal voting by non-citizens…. When an individual attempts to vote by presenting a temporary or limited-term driver’s license (which federal regulations say must be issued only to non-citizens who are lawfully present in this country) election workers must require that the individual produce a naturalization card or naturalization certificate demonstrating U.S. citizenship to receive a regular ballot,” she added.

Nelson’s office had issued guidance Tuesday authorizing using non-citizen driver’s licenses as voter ID if the individual is already registered to vote.

“It is possible for a noncitizen who was previously issued a limited-term driver’s license or ID card to subsequently become a naturalized citizen and then fail to obtain an updated, permanent driver’s license or ID card,” the advisory said.

“But when an individual presents a limited-term driver’s license or ID card to vote, the only thing that can be known for certain is that at some time—whether in the past or the present—the individual was a noncitizen who was not eligible to vote. Accordingly, our office has consistently made it clear that Texans should not use this type of license to participate in elections, even if it otherwise constitutes a valid form of ID,” the guidance continues.

The advisory explained that if a person is on the voter rolls and “possesses a limited-term driver’s license or identification card but also possesses another acceptable form of photo identification,” then “it is recommended that the individual present the other form of photo identification because the limited-term driver’s license or identification card necessarily denotes that the person was not a United States citizen at the time of its issuance,” according to the guidance.

If a person “with a limited-term driver’s license or identification card appears to vote and is listed as registered voter,” then an “election judge or clerk should inform the individual that the identification presented suggests that the individual is not a United States citizen. The election judge or clerk should then inform the individual as to the eligibility requirements to vote in the State of Texas,” the advisory stated.

The guidance also statesd that a person with a limited-term driver’s license or identification card can vote if they are listed on the voter rolls.

“If the individual does not have further questions or concerns and wishes to proceed to vote, the individual should be offered a regular ballot. Please note that it is possible the individual became a naturalized United States citizen after the limited-term license or identification card was issued and has not updated his or her Texas driver’s license or identification card since becoming naturalized.”

But if the person is not on the voter rolls and has a non-citizens driver’s license or ID, then they may vote by provisional ballot.

“In a situation where a person with a non-citizens driver’s license or ID tries to vote “and the election judge or clerk has reason to believe that the voter is not a United States citizen, the election judge or clerk may bring this to the attention of the county voter registrar,” the earlier guidance said.

Unidentified drones spotted flying over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia have baffled US military officials who are not sure whether it is the work of hostile powers or hobbyists.

Airspace over Langley is restricted and the breach in December, first reported by the War Zone website, and which was reported to president Joe Biden, has triggered alarm among military experts.

The flights lasted 17 days, with the drones flying over the base about an hour after sunset.

In a statement, the US Air Force confirmed the breaches, but played down the potential threat.

“The number of UASs [uncrewed aerial systems] fluctuated and they ranged in size/configuration.

“None of the incursions appeared to exhibit hostile intent but anything flying in our restricted airspace can pose a threat to flight safety. The FAA was made aware of the UAS incursions.”

The parade of drones was witnessed by General Mark Kelly, from the US Air Force, the Wall Street Journal reported.

They were flying at around 100mph at 3,000 to 4,000 feet with witnesses saying they sounded like a parade of lawnmowers.

The incursion triggered two weeks of meetings at the White House involving officials from the Pentagon, including staff from its UFO office and the FBI.

Under federal law, the military is only allowed to shoot down drones over military bases if they pose a direct threat.

If they are suspected of snooping, although that is illegal, it does not mean they can be brought down, and members of Congress have called for powers to be strengthened.

In February last year, China triggered a security alert after a suspected surveillance balloon was shot down by the US Air Force.

Experts at the time believed the balloon, which flew over a major US missile silo, was a show of force rather than a serious attempt to gather information.

The latest reports are not the first time the alarm has been raised in the West by the use of drones.

Two years ago, Norway sent warships and fighter jets to patrol offshore oil platforms after drones, believed to be from Russia, were seen buzzing overhead.

Last month, Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, announced an expansion of its Replicator programme which has been developing attack drones to be used against China.

The drones will also be used to defend US bases at home and abroad to fight off attacks by explosive-laden drones from Iran-linked groups, which have been responsible for the deaths of several American soldiers in the Middle East.

Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) appeared to have trouble managing his own personal firearm when he went pheasant hunting on opening day in his home state of Minnesota on Saturday, participating in the 12th annual Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener.

Walz, who is vying for the vice presidency alongside current Vice President Kamala Harris, brought along staffers and reporters as part of an eleventh-hour media blitz geared primarily toward shoring up support among men for the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket.

The Trump War Room shared video from MSNBC’s coverage of Walz’s outing, pointing out that even the reporter saw it for the political play that it was.

“MSNBC implies that Tim Walz going pheasant hunting is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make up ground with male voters. Sorry Tim, men aren’t voting for a gun grabber.”

MSNBC implies that Tim Walz going pheasant hunting is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make up ground with male voters.

Sorry Tim, men aren’t voting for a gun grabber. pic.twitter.com/Asvq38ObkM

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 12, 2024

When the photos began to circulate on X, however, all anyone really noticed was just how often everyone involved in the pheasant hunt was pictured without a firearm of any kind — Walz included.

“Tim Walz goes ‘pheasant hunting’ to try to appeal to men by showing he’s a regular dude. Only problem? No shotguns. Anywhere in sight,” Monica Crowley posted.

Tim Walz goes “pheasant hunting” to try to appeal to men by showing he’s a regular dude.

Only problem?

No shotguns. Anywhere in sight.

pic.twitter.com/f7NZLVnV0x

— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) October 12, 2024

“Totally authentic. Walz just happened to have a camera crew and staff with him while pheasant hunting, in a sad, desperate attempt to appeal to male voters. Even MSNBC called him out on it lol,” Sara Rose posted.

Totally authentic.
Walz just happened to have a camera crew and staff with him while pheasant hunting, in a sad, desperate attempt to appeal to male voters.

Even MSNBC called him out on it lol. pic.twitter.com/YWzWGXRMhh

— Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹 (@saras76) October 12, 2024

“What’s @Tim_Walz hunting for, anyway? Bargains?” Jim Treacher asked.

What’s @Tim_Walz hunting for, anyway? Bargains?pic.twitter.com/wVlPdiLjvK

— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) October 12, 2024

“It’s strange to go hunting without a gun. Maybe Walz is just counting on Doug Emhoff to punch the pheasants to death,” Daily Wire host Michael Knowles added.

It’s strange to go hunting without a gun. Maybe Walz is just counting on Doug Emhoff to punch the pheasants to death. https://t.co/xd8y3VNN3R

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) October 12, 2024

“Tampon Tim Walz did a lot of posing for the cameras during his ‘hunting’ photo op today. He didn’t fire his gun and shot exactly zero pheasants. It’s all fake,” the Trump War Room posted.

Tampon Tim Walz did a lot of posing for the cameras during his “hunting” photo op today.

He didn’t fire his gun and shot exactly zero pheasants.

It’s all fake. pic.twitter.com/84LxOE6SW0

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 12, 2024

The one video that did show Walz with a firearm — his own personal Beretta — only made things worse as he appeared to struggle to operate it.

CBS campaign reporter Shawna Mizelle posted, “@Tim_Walz is out hunting pheasants for the season opener in MN. The Harris Walz campaign recently announced the hunters, gun owners & anglers coalition. Walz often says he supports the 2nd Amndmt but advocates for ‘common sense’ legislation. & we know Harris owns a Glock.”

Tim Walz brought his own gun, a beretta, to hunt for pheasants, he tells me. “

I bought it when I was we shooting a lot of trap,” the Minnesota governor said. pic.twitter.com/K1zGkWYEPY

— Shawna Mizelle (@shawnamizelle) October 12, 2024

Mizelle followed several photos with video of Walz attempting to operate his firearm and complaining, “It never fits quite right, it’s not quite right.”

“Watch Tim Walz struggle to load his shotgun and then complain that the kick usually hurts his shoulder. Men everywhere are in awe,” Amber Duke commented.

Watch Tim Walz struggle to load his shotgun and then complain that the kick usually hurts his shoulder. Men everywhere are in awe. https://t.co/sGu5IIBvN2

— Amber Duke (@ambermarieduke) October 12, 2024

“I remember my first time holding a shotgun, too,” The Federalist’s Sean Davis added.

I remember my first time holding a shotgun, too. https://t.co/adCkz6Hlw2

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 12, 2024

At one point, according to Fox News reporter Aishah Hasnie, Walz asked whether former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance — who make up the Republican presidential ticket — ever hunted. Someone responded by suggesting that if they did, they would hunt endangered species.

Gov WALZ was on a pheasant hunt today.

According to the pooler —

At one point someone brought up JD Vance & Walz asked do “those guys” hunt?

The person responded maybe endangered species.

//

Yikes.

— Aishah Hasnie (@aishahhasnie) October 12, 2024