Ethel Kennedy, matriarch of the Kennedy dynasty and widow of former United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, has died at the age of 96.

The sister-in-law of the late President John F. Kennedy had suffered a stroke in her sleep last week and was rushed to hospital.

She was one of the last links to the ‘Camelot’ era of JFK’s presidency.

The third of her 11 children – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – ran a high-profile campaign for president in 2024 as an independent candidate, before endorsing Donald Trump in August.

His campaign, and his views on vaccines, led to division in the Kennedy clan. Some other members denounced him and threw their support behind the Democratic nominee.

However, Ethel Kennedy never commented publicly on her son’s actions.

Ethel Kennedy was widowed at the age of 40 when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.

She was by her husband’s side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just after winning the Democratic presidential primary in California.

She was pregnant with their youngest child at the time.

It was among a series of devastating tragedies for her family.

Ethel’s brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, had been assassinated in Dallas less than five years earlier.

Her parents were killed in a plane crash in 1955, and her brother died in a 1966 crash. Her son David Kennedy later died of a drug overdose, son Michael Kennedy in a skiing accident, and nephew John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash.

Following her husband’s assassination she never remarried and dedicated the rest of her life to philanthropy and issues including gun control.

She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and worked tirelessly for world peace.

She spent her summers on Cape Cod in the family’s storied compound in Hyannis Port, but largely stayed out of public life.

Her death was announced by former Rep. Joe Kennedy III – a grandchild – who now serves as the U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland under President Joe Biden.

‘It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy,’ Joe Kennedy said on X. ‘She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week.’

‘Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren, and 24 great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly,’ he said.

‘She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant, and we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie,’ Joe Kennedy said. ‘Please keep her in your hearts and prayers.’

It was in 1945 when a 17-year-old Ethel became friends and roommates with Jean Kennedy at the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart.

The same year, she was introduced to Jean’s brother Robert during a skiing trip in Quebec, Canada.

At the time, Robert was dating Ethel’s sister Patricia. But when that relationship came to an end, she and Robert started seeing each other.

In 2012, she appeared in a documentary about her life directed by her youngest child, Rory.

In 2014, then-President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States for ‘advancing the cause of social justice, human rights, environmental protection, and poverty reduction.’

During the ceremony, he said she has ‘touched the lives of countless people around the world with her generosity and grace.’

In 2021, she released a rare public statement opposing the release of her husband’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan.

The California parole board recommended he be freed, but the move was blocked by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In April, Ethel Kennedy celebrated her 96th birthday surrounded by her family including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

As the presidential election heated up the public row between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some of her other children also gathered steam.

When he endorsed the Republican nominee, Trump, in August he was denounced in a statement by five of his siblings.

They wrote: ‘Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.’

Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, where it knocked out power to more than 3 million customers and whipped up 150 tornadoes. The storm caused at least four deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.

The system tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. Damage was widespread, and water levels may continue to rise for days, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario.”

The deadly storm surge feared for Tampa never materialized, though the storm dumped up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) of rain in some areas, the governor said. The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) — lower than in the worst place during Helene.

“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got more to do, but we will absolutely get through this.”

As dawn broke Thursday, storm-surge warnings were still posted for much of the east-central Florida coast and north into Georgia. Tropical storm warnings were in place along the coast into South Carolina. Officials in the hard-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

“We’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, said on Facebook.

Just inland from Tampa, the flooding in Plant City was “absolutely staggering,” according to City Manager Bill McDaniel. Emergency crews rescued 35 people overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the city received 13.5 inches (34 cm) of rain.

“We have flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community for my entire life,” he said in a video posted online Thursday morning.

The tiny barrier island of Matlacha, just off Fort Myers, got hit by both a tornado and a surge, with many of the colorful buildings in the fishing and tourist village sustaining serious damage. Tom Reynolds, 90, spent the morning sweeping out four feet of mud and water and collecting chunks of aluminum siding torn off by a twister that also picked up a car and threw it across the road.

Elsewhere on the island, a house was blown into a street, temporarily blocking it. Some structures caught fire. Reynolds said he planned to repair the home he built three decades ago.

“What else am I going to do?” he said.

In contrast, city workers on Anna Maria Island were grateful not to be wading through floodwaters as they picked up debris Thursday morning, two weeks after Helene battered buildings and blew in piles of sand up to 6 feet (1.8 m) high. Those piles may have helped shield homes from further damage, said Jeremi Roberts of the State Emergency Response Team.

“I’m shocked it’s not more,” city worker Kati Sands said as she cleared the streets of siding and broken lights. “We lost so much with Helene, there wasn’t much left.”

The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than 3.4 million homes and businesses without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

The fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field — home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg — was ripped to shreds by fierce winds. Debris littered the field, but no injuries were reported. Before the storm hit, first responders were moved from a staging area there.

St. Petersburg residents could no longer get water from their household taps because a water main break led the city to shut down service. Mayor Ken Welch had told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.

State officials said they completed more than 40 rescues overnight and crews would be going door to door in some areas Thursday. In Tampa, police said they rescued 15 people from a single-story home damaged by a fallen tree.

“We are laser-focused on search-and-rescue operations today,” said Col. Mark Thieme, executive director of the Florida State Guard.

Among the scores of tornadoes, one twister touched down in the lightly populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75. Another apparent tornado hit in Fort Myers, snapping tree limbs and tearing a gas station’s canopy to shreds.

The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and at least four people killed in tornadoes, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said.

Before the hurricane arrived, about 125 homes were destroyed, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By early Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph (135 kph) and leaving the state near Cape Canaveral.

The storm slammed into a region still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.

Officials had issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.

Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay at home in Sarasota, just north of where the storm made landfall. She and her husband started packing Monday to evacuate, but they struggled to find available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.

With a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: Where would they sleep? Would they be able to fill their gas tank? And could they even find a safe route out of the state?

“The thing is it’s so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula,” she said ahead of the storm. “In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida, there are only so many roads that take you north or south.”

Video taken during the storm showed howling winds and sheets of rain lashing their glass-enclosed swimming pool as their son and dog watched. Trees shook violently.

On Thursday morning, she reported that the family was without power but safe.

About 80,000 people spent the night in shelters and thousands of others fled after authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people.

In Orlando, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and Sea World remained closed Thursday. The Tampa airport, which took minimal damage, was expected to reopen no later than Friday, DeSantis said.

Crossing the bridge from the mainland to Anna Maria Island early Thursday, Police Chief John Cosby breathed a sigh of relief. Nearly all residents had evacuated, there were no injuries or deaths and the projected storm surge never happened. After fearing that his police department would be under water, it remained dry.

“It’s nice to have a place to come back to,” he said.

Arizona State University student Kaci Sloan, who is accused of stabbing a fellow student twice in a Glendale classroom last month in an apparently random attack, entered a not-guilty plea in Maricopa County on Wednesday after two of her four charges were dismissed last week.

Maricopa County authorities initially charged Sloan, 19, with four counts, including first-degree attempted murder, in connection with the attack against student Mara Daffron. After a preliminary hearing on Sept. 30, Sloan now faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct, according to court records.

Judge Ashley Rahaman also gave Sloan a cash bail of $250,000 and listed the conditions of her release should she be able to post bail in full.

Sloan allegedly walked up to her classmate, Daffron, on Sept. 19 and stabbed her “multiple times,” according to an affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital citing multiple witness accounts.

Matthew McCormick, a student who witnessed the attack unfolding in the classroom, took swift action to stop the alleged stabbing, potentially saving Daffron’s life, according to FOX 10 Phoenix.

“In that moment, I didn’t really have a thought going through my head, I just knew that I felt compelled to do something,” McCormick told the outlet.

Approximately 13 witnesses present during the attack, including a professor, recounted the incident to police, who wrote in a probable cause affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital that the stabbing occurred “without any provocation or any words spoken.”

Police corroborated McCormick’s account in their report, stating that one of the witnesses “was able to disarm the defendant by pulling the knife away from the defendant’s right hand and threw it away from them.” Another witness then “kicked the knife to the back of the classroom.”

“Another witness described the defendant was sitting in the classroom at a desk and suddenly got up and ran at the victim as the victim entered the classroom and stabbed her multiple times,” the affidavit states.

Detectives found a handwritten note inside Sloan’s backpack that apparently referenced an act she was “about to commit,” but it did “not specifically state what she was referring to.”

Sloan also allegedly expressed the desire to “hurt somebody” in class that day in an interview with detectives after the incident and targeted Daffron because she was “an easier target” than the other person she apparently considered attacking, who she referred to as “a veteran.”

Authorities quickly arrived at the scene and took Daffron to a nearby hospital, where she received treatment.

“ASU Police continue to investigate a Sept. 19 on-campus stabbing of a student. Kaci Sloan was immediately detained and arrested on suspicion of first-degree attempted murder; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; interfering with an educational institution; and disorderly conduct. She is being held on a $250,000 cash only bond,” an ASU spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. “ASU and the entire ASU West Valley community are deeply saddened by what happened. ASU West Valley is a close-knit campus of students, faculty and staff. Counseling support is available to all.”

Sloan has an initial pretrial conference scheduled for Nov. 21.

Sean “Diddy” Combs is set to make his first appearance before the judge who is expected to preside over the hip-hop powerbroker’s trial on sex trafficking charges.

Combs will be brought to Manhattan federal court from a Brooklyn jail for a Thursday afternoon appearance before Judge Arun Subramanian.

The hearing is expected to result in deadlines being set for lawyers on each side to submit arguments that will establish the boundaries for a trial that Combs’ lawyers want to start in April or May. Prosecutors have not expressed a preference for when the trial might occur.

The judge was assigned to the case after another judge recused himself based on his past associations with lawyers in the case.

Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to charges lodged against him last month. Those charges included racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking based on allegations that go back to 2008.

An indictment alleges Combs coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violent acts including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.

His lawyers have been trying unsuccessfully to get the founder of Bad Boy Records freed on bail since his Sept. 16 arrest.

Two judges have concluded that Combs is a danger to the community if he is freed. At a bail hearing three weeks ago, a judge rejected a $50 million bail package, including home detention and electronic monitoring, after concluding that Combs was a threat to tamper with witnesses and obstruct a continuing investigation.

In an appeal of the bail rulings to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for Combs on Tuesday asked a panel of judges to reverse the bail findings, saying the proposed bail package “would plainly stop him from posing a danger to anyone or contacting any witnesses.”

They urged the appeals court to reject the findings of a lower-court judge who they said had “endorsed the government’s exaggerated rhetoric and ordered Mr. Combs detained.”

A crumbling economy and porous border, or the scary Project 2025 and loss of “reproductive rights”; those are the messages both parties are inundating Americans with as election day rapidly approaches.

But if Republicans hope to reach the estimated 10 million gun owners not registered to vote, hunting and pro-gun organizations alike know traditional messaging won’t do it. A coalition of pro-gun organizations believe those non-voters could swing the election, and are using hunting and firearm influencers, social media and messaging catered specifically towards gun owners to engage them.

“Bill Clinton acknowledged, as did Clinton’s campaign, the White House spokesman Joel Lockhart admitted, that the gun vote cost Al Gore the White House. It cost John Kerry the White House. It cost the Democrats control of Congress in 1994 after they passed the Clinton gun ban, and we believe it can be a determinative factor in this election in places where there’s high gun ownership, in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, Arizona, Nevada,” Larry Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told the Daily Caller.

“We believe [gun owners] will be a determinant factor, particularly when the contrast is so stark. You have a candidate on the Democrat side who was coronated and wants to literally, wants to send the police to your home to see how you store your guns, and wants to confiscate firearms,” Keane added.

Former President Donald Trump himself believes gun owners can sway the election. Speaking at a recent rally, he said that the National Rifle Association had shown him numbers about how infrequently gun owners vote.

“If you would vote, nobody would beat us,” Trump said.

No matter your reason for owning a firearm — whether for hunting, self-defense, or just as an exercise of your Constitutional right — law-abiding gun owners have a clear choice this fall if they hope to preserve their Second Amendment rights. https://t.co/IisqXxUbb5

— NRA (@NRA) October 4, 2024

According to Vote4America, more than 10 million gun owners across the country are not registered to vote. 515,277 are in Pennsylvania and about 370,000 each are in Michigan and North Carolina, according to data obtained by the New York Post.

In Georgia, Wisconsin, Missouri and Virginia, more than half a million gun owners are not registered to vote, and another 133,000 are not registered in Arizona.

For Republicans, these figures can be perplexing, but gun owners explained to the Caller that there is skepticism towards voting and politics as a whole in the community. Some believe that because they don’t want the government in their business, then they shouldn’t get involved by voting.

“I think that we as conservatives and gun owners rest on our laurels because we feel like we have the Constitution and we have the truth on our side, and that we don’t really see the threat for what it is. If you even peek behind the curtain of the gun control lobby, you’ll see that it’s starting to expose itself now that they are willing to usurp or destroy the Constitution in order to get their New World way. So I just think it’s a little bit of ignorance and a little bit of apathy that they don’t think that it’s going to happen here,” Dianna Muller, founder of Women for Gun Rights, told the Caller.

Muller explained that she believes many gun owners don’t trust the integrity of the election process, which also may drive some away from voting.

To combat this skepticism, pro-gun organizations have recognized that their messaging can’t mirror traditional political ads. At Hunter Nation, Keith Mark, a self-described traditional Democrat, told the Caller that it starts with identifying gun owners that have the “traditional, conservative values of God, family, country, the Constitution and the hunting lifestyle” and focusing on them ahead of the election. But the secret, he said, are the platforms the organization uses to carry its message to those voters.

“It’s not only the message, it’s how we deliver it and who delivers it, and so we rely very heavily on hunting influencers and hunting celebrities,” Mark told the Caller.

“Instead of selling a product, we’re selling freedom. We’re selling their lifestyle. We’re selling the ability to be independent and not hassled by your government, because these people that hunt when we poll them, it’s just like, ‘hey, I don’t want the government in my business, and so I’m not going to go get in their business.’ Well, we figured out how to message them and let them know that, ‘hey, listen, they’re going to come into your business. They’re going to take over your business if you don’t go vote once a year.’”

“So it’s like, basically, guys, you need to get off your tree stands and out of the duck marshes, and out of the deer woods and pheasant fields and go vote,” Mark said, adding that the group never pushes the demographic to vote for a specific candidate.

Kick your fellow real American hunters to vote!
Go to https://t.co/MLcuQUPzNG

Join me for full on truth logic and commonsense on my @realamericasvoice Spirit Campfire:https://t.co/3xSbZaP8SB#truth #logic #commonsense pic.twitter.com/TNj3J4SBxV

— Ted Nugent (@TedNugent) October 7, 2024

To carry its message, Hunter Nation, alongside the NRA, has partnered with celebrities such as Ted Nugent, Donald Trump Jr. (a prominent hunting enthusiast) and the Duck Dynasty organization, Mark told the Caller. Similarly, Vote4America has teamed up with pro-gun personalities like Brooke Ence, Shawn Ryan, Andy Stumpf, Andy Frisella, Dan Hollaway, Shermichael Singleton, and Jason Alden to encourage gun owners to vote, senior adviser Baker Leavitt told the Caller.

Mark expects these types of partnerships to pay off in a big way.

In Wisconsin, according to Hunter Nation’s data, 416,085 gun owners are low-propensity, at risk or newly-registered voters. Of that total, the organization expects to turn out 54,196, Mark said. Biden won the state in 2020 by 20,600 votes.

In Michigan, the number of those potential voters is 452,471. The organization is estimating that it will turn out 70,142 in the 2024 election. Biden won the state in 2020 by 154,000 votes.

The organization also expects to have a big impact in Georgia, where Biden won by about 11,000 votes in 2020. Hunter Nation hopes to turn out 122,913 of the state’s more than 825,000 low-propensity or newly-registered gun owners, Mark said.

In perhaps the election’s most critical state, Pennsylvania, which Biden previously won by about 80,000 votes, the hunting group says their campaign projects to turn out at least 58,000 low-propensity gun owners.

Are you registered to vote?
.
John Bingaman, PA state director, was out with his kiddos on Sunday. We want to make sure you and your friends,family, and everyone you know get out and vote in less than 40 days! 40% of hunters don’t vote.

Register here https://t.co/dPQkJGvGTi pic.twitter.com/ZJdiAPtOIC

— Hunter Nation (@HunterNation) September 27, 2024

“What people miss about firearm ownership, and gun owners specifically, is they’re not super partisan, and they’re not necessarily overly political. I think we have a tendency in the political space, as pundits or as operatives to think of this being like a really polarizing, divisive issue, and the reality is it just isn’t for a majority of gun owners. They own firearms. They have them in their house. They grow up with them. They hunt with them. They have them for self-defense, and it’s just a part in a way of life,” Katie Pointer Baney, the executive director for the United States Concealed Carry Association for Saving Lives Action Fund told the Caller of their GOTV efforts. She added that as a part of the group’s messaging they are telling gun owners to keep exercising their freedoms, they need to be involved in the political process.

Hunter Nation is not alone in its work in Pennsylvania. Scott Presler and his organization Early Vote Action are barnstorming gun shows and ranges across the state to register gun owners to vote.

“This year, I can tell you, we went to the great American Outdoor Show, and then that week, we registered 319 voters just at that show alone. We’ve also been to the Monroeville gun show several times. We’ve been to the Philly Expo Center several times, and I can confidently say that we have registered thousands of second amendment-supporting folks at these gun shows just this year alone,” Presler told the Caller. Presler previously told the Caller that his organization is in communication with the Republican National Committee and Trump campaign regarding their get-out-the-vote efforts in the state.

While some organizations are hitting gun shows and utilizing hunting personalities, others are banking on their large membership and resources to help mobilize more pro-gun voters.

“We are working to reach unregistered gun owners in the battleground states that will decide the outcome of the election, and we have reached eight figures, let’s say, in unregistered voters with messages urging them to get registered to vote, helping to provide them with information to our gunvote.org website, to find out where they can get registered, how they get registered, where their polling place is, and then we try to communicate information to those individuals and others,” Keane told the Caller.

And while most groups are barred from working with the campaign because of nonprofit laws, a senior Trump campaign official told the Caller that they have been doing outreach with Gun Owners of America. Erich Pratt, the senior vice president of Gun Owner of America, told the Caller that they have a network of nearly two million gun owners who they are targeting ahead of the election through newsletters and their national convention.

On its own, the senior Trump official told the Caller that the campaign is focusing on using mail and text campaigns to target gun owners through state parties to help “highlight what a gun-grabber Harris has been throughout her entire career.” In May, the Trump team launched a “Gun Owners for Trump” coalition that is led by over 50 Olympic athletes, firearm industry leaders and public advocates.

The groups’ efforts could all come down to one thing: whether gun owners trust the election process.

Almost all the gun organizations the Caller spoke to said that the gun owning demographic’s low propensity to vote can, in part, be attributed to their lack of trust in the voting process. It’s a problem the Trump campaign is directly trying to address with its election integrity efforts.

A senior Trump campaign official explained to the Caller that the GOP has heavily focused on election integrity in the 2024 cycle, filing more than 100 lawsuits, securing many legal wins in swing states and hiring a coalition of tens of thousands of poll watchers to help be a “giant human intelligence operation” that will identify any issues and notify the party of such. The party was previously under a consent decree for nearly 40 years, until 2018, that prohibited them from truly launching an election integrity effort.

“The voter roles are much cleaner broadly, and we just have a much bigger, organizational effort that knows what to look for and is prepared. There’s many less drop boxes. There’s cameras on drop boxes, things that didn’t exist four years ago,” the official told the Caller.

“All of that should give people a great degree of confidence that what happened last time is not going to happen this time. And there’s the whole eyes of the world on it this time as well,” they added.

Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz said on Tuesday that the “Electoral College needs to go,” forcing the Kamala Harris campaign to release a statement saying it does not support abolishing the Constitutional mechanism for presidential elections.

At two campaign fundraisers on the West Coast, Walz called for abolishing the Electoral College, arguing that it forces candidates to focus too much attention on a handful of battleground states, The New York Times reported.

“I think all of us know, the Electoral College needs to go. We need a national popular vote,” Walz told donors at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s home in Sacramento. “So we need to win Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win.”

At an event earlier on Tuesday, Walz told supporters that he is “a national popular vote guy, but that’s not the world we live in.”

Following the Minnesota governor’s call for the Electoral College to be abolished, the the Harris campaign said in a statement, “Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket.”

“He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts,” the statement added.

The Electoral College was established in Article II and the 12th Amendment of the Constitution, which calls for “Electors” to “meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President.” The system requires presidential candidates to gain support from voters across the U.S. instead of focusing on states and cities with the largest populations.

As governor, Walz has pushed for presidents to be elected by popular vote instead of through the Electoral College. In May of 2023, Walz signed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact into law, making Minnesota the 17th state to agree to award its electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote.

Walz is not the only Democrat pushing for the end of the Electoral College. After losing the 2016 election to former President Donald Trump, Democrat Hillary Clinton argued for electing presidents through a national popular vote. While Clinton won the popular vote against Trump, she lost to the Republican nominee in the Electoral College 227 to 304.

During the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) all called for abolishing the Electoral College while on the campaign trail. Harris said in 2019 that she was “open to the discussion” of abolishing the Electoral College.

“I mean, there’s no question that the popular vote has been diminished in terms of making the final decision about who’s the president of the United States and we need to deal with that,” Harris said.

Hillary Clinton can’t catch a break, the poor thing. It’s been almost eight years since the hot-sauce-in-the-purse lady hosted a “victory” party under a giant glass ceiling and primed confetti cannons to blast out shards of symbolism to celebrate her historic election as president. Instead we got her longtime goon John Podesta fighting back tears and telling everyone to go home for the night.

As a consolation prize, the powers that be touted the hell out of the memoir Hillary wrote after that disastrous and terribly funny occasion. Her publisher bragged rather pathetically that the 2017 book, What Happened, sold more copies in its first week (167,000) than any “hardcover nonfiction title published since 2012.”

Knowing the Clintons, there were presumably a lot of shady Democratic donors with warehouses full of those books, at least until they could sell them at a modest discount to some third-world orphanage.

Hillary has just written another memoir about how unfair it was that she lost to Donald Trump and why you still owe her an apology for being right about everything.

Released last month, Something Lost, Something Gained: Lessons on Life, Love, and Liberty is a tedious slog through familiar grievances and blatant lies about her “thicker skin” and “stiffer spine.” She lauds herself as “the first woman to win a presidential primary, the nomination of a major party, and the national popular vote.”

She remembers the good times when she “flew on Air Force One, dined with kings and queens, and was constantly surrounded by armed guards.” She refuses to go away or accept the fact that no one cares.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that sales of her second angsty screed about losing the 2016 election are much lower this time around.

Something Lost, Something Gained sold just 27,000 copies in its first week, according to an industry source. That’s less than 20 percent of her “record-breaking” haul during the Trump administration, when trauma-brained MSNBC viewers were particularly ravenous for #Resistance slop.

That’s still an alarming number of copies—more than eight times the week-one sales for Extremely Online (2023), the fawning history of teen influencers by disgraced reporter Taylor Lorenz. But the trend line is promising.

The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus.

The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.

Excluding food and energy, core prices increased 0.3% on the month, putting the annual rate at 3.3%. Both core readings also were 0.1 percentage point above forecast.

A separate report Thursday showed weekly jobless claims hitting a 14-month high, indicating potential softness in the labor market despite the big jump in nonfarm payrolls in September. However, most the surge could be tied to the hurricane and strike.

Much of the inflation increase — more than three-quarter of the move higher — came from a 0.4% jump in food prices and a 0.2% gain in shelter costs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in the release. That offset a 1.9% fall in energy prices.

Other items contributing to the gain included a 0.3% increase in used vehicle costs and a 0.2% rise in new vehicles. Medical care services were up 0.7% and apparel prices surged 1.1%.

Stock market futures moved lower following the report while Treasury yields were mixed.

The release comes as the Federal Reserve has begun to lower benchmark interest rates. After a half percentage point reduction in September, the central bank is expected to continue cutting, though the pace and degree remain in question.

Fed officials have become more confident that inflation is easing back toward their 2% goal while expressing some concern over the state of the labor market.

“The overall trend is what’s important, not the day to day fluctuations,” Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” following the release. “The overall trend over 12, 18 months is clearly that inflation has come down a lot, and the job market has cooled to a level which is around where we think full employment is.”

While the CPI is not the Fed’s official inflation barometer, it is part of the dashboard central bank policymakers use when making decisions. Several of its key components filter directly into the Fed’s key personal consumption expenditures price index.

Though the inflation reading was higher than expected, traders in futures markets increased their bets that the Fed would lower rates by a quarter percentage point at their Nov. 6-7 policy meeting, to about 86%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge.

Goolsbee said the data is largely in line with Fed expectations and shouldn’t be viewed in isolation as having an outsized influence on policy.

“I just want to caution everybody, let’s settle down when one one month numbers come in,” he said. “That’s not what we should be basing the monetary policy on. We should be basing it on the long part.”

In recent days, policymakers have said they see rising risks in the labor market, and another data point Thursday helped buttress that point.

Initial filings for unemployment benefits took an unexpected turn higher, hitting as seasonally adjusted 258,000 for the week ended Oct. 5. That was the highest total since Aug. 5, 2023, a gain of 33,000 from the previous week and well above the forecast for 230,000.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, rose to 1.861 million, a rise of 42,000.

The jobless claims figures follow the damage from Hurricane Helene, which struck Sept. 26 and impacted a large swath of the Southeast. Florida and North Carolina, two of the hardest-hit states, posted a combined increase of 12,376, according to unadjusted data.

A strike by 33,000 Boeing workers also could be hitting the numbers. Michigan had the largest gain in claims, up 9,490 on the week.

On the inflation side, rising prices across a variety of food categories showed that it is proving sticky.

Egg prices leaped 8.4% higher, putting the 12-month unadjusted gain at 39.6%. Butter was up 2.8% on the month and 7.8% from a year ago.

However, shelter costs, which have held higher than Fed officials anticipated this year, were up 4.9% year over year, a step down that could indicate an easing of broader price pressures ahead. The category makes up more than one-third of the total weighting in calculating the CPI.

PENNSYLVANIA: Harris 49%, Trump 46%, other candidates 2%

MICHIGAN: Trump 50%, Harris 47%, other candidates 2%

WISCONSIN: Trump 48%, Harris 46%, other candidates 2%

Less than a month until Election Day, the so-called Blue Wall battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin show a tight presidential race where neither Vice President Kamala Harris nor former President Donald Trump is winning as all three states are too close to call, according to Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh- pea-ack) University polls of likely voters in each of the states released today.

In Quinnipiac University’s September 18 poll, Harris held a lead in Pennsylvania, a slight lead in Michigan, and the race was essentially tied in Wisconsin.

Harris vs. Trump: The Issues

Likely voters were asked who they think would do a better job handling seven issues…

The economy:

PA: 49 percent say Trump, while 47 percent say Harris;
MI: 53 percent say Trump, while 45 percent say Harris;
WI: 53 percent say Trump, while 44 percent say Harris.

Immigration:

PA: 50 percent say Trump, while 46 percent say Harris;
MI: 53 percent say Trump, while 44 percent say Harris;
WI: 52 percent say Trump, while 44 percent say Harris.

Preserving democracy in the United States:

PA: 44 percent say Trump, while 50 percent say Harris;
MI: 49 percent say Trump, while 48 percent say Harris;
WI: 47 percent say Trump, while 48 percent say Harris.

Abortion:

PA: 37 percent say Trump, while 55 percent say Harris;
MI: 40 percent say Trump, while 52 percent say Harris;
WI: 39 percent say Trump, while 53 percent say Harris.

The conflict in the Middle East:

PA: 47 percent say Trump, while 46 percent say Harris;
MI: 53 percent say Trump, while 43 percent say Harris;
WI: 51 percent say Trump, while 44 percent say Harris.

As Commander in Chief of the U.S. military:

PA: 48 percent say Trump, while 48 percent say Harris;
MI: 52 percent say Trump, while 46 percent say Harris;
WI: 51 percent say Trump, while 45 percent say Harris.

A crisis that put the country at great risk:

PA: 46 percent say Trump, while 49 percent say Harris;
MI: 52 percent say Trump, while 46 percent say Harris;
WI: 49 percent say Trump, while 47 percent say Harris.

Pennsylvania: Presidential Race

In Pennsylvania, 49 percent of likely voters support Harris, 46 percent support Trump, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver each receive 1 percent support.

This compares to September when Harris led with 51 percent support, Trump received 45 percent support, and Stein and Oliver each received 1 percent support.

In today’s poll, Democrats 94 – 4 percent support Harris, while Republicans 90 – 9 percent support Trump. Among independents, 47 percent support Trump, 43 percent support Harris, and 3 percent support third- party candidates (2 percent support Stein and 1 percent support Oliver).

In a hypothetical two-way race, Harris receives 49 percent support and Trump receives 47 percent support.

Michigan: Presidential Race

In Michigan, 50 percent of likely voters support Trump, 47 percent support Harris, and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver and independent candidate Cornel West each receive 1 percent support.

This compares to September when Harris received 50 percent support, Trump received 45 percent support, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein received 2 percent support.

In today’s poll, Republicans 96 – 3 percent back Trump, while Democrats 98 – 1 percent back Harris. Independents are divided, with 48 percent supporting Trump, 46 percent supporting Harris, and 3 percent supporting independent or third-party candidates (2 percent support West and 1 percent support Oliver).

In a hypothetical two-way race, Trump receives 51 percent support and Harris receives 47 percent support.

Wisconsin: Presidential Race

In Wisconsin, 48 percent of likely voters support Trump, 46 percent support Harris, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver each receive 1 percent support.

This compares to September when Harris received 48 percent support, Trump received 47 percent support, and Stein received 1 percent support.

In today’s poll, Republicans 95 – 4 percent support Trump, while Democrats 98 – 2 percent support Harris. Independents are split, with 47 percent supporting Trump, 43 percent supporting Harris, and 3 percent supporting third-party candidates (2 percent support Stein and 1 percent support Oliver).

In a hypothetical two-way race, Trump receives 49 percent support and Harris receives 47 percent support.

From October 3rd – 7th, the Quinnipiac University Poll surveyed:

• 1,412 likely voters in Pennsylvania with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points;
• 1,007 likely voters in Michigan with a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points;
• 1,073 likely voters in Wisconsin with a margin of error of +/- 3.0 percentage points.

Hurricane Milton is expected to be a “dangerous major hurricane” when it reaches Florida’s west-central coast Wednesday night as the storm remains on track for a potentially calamitous landfall near or just south of Tampa Bay.

The storm track is looking likely to slip just south of Tampa Bay to a point between there and Sarasota. Where the peak surge hits will cause widespread, potentially “catastrophic” destruction, the National Weather Service warned.

The National Hurricane Center has lowered Tampa Bay’s storm surge projections slightly, to a still-record-setting 8- to 12-foot surge above ground level.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center forecast would bring the full wrath of the storm ashore near or just north of Sarasota, Siesta Key and Punta Gorda, with a “catastrophic” 9- to 13-foot surge. This forecast may still be adjusted slightly.

The storm will also bring flooding rains and punishing winds along and to the north of its track. These rains could total 6 to 12 inches, with as much as 18 inches in some spots.

The Weather Prediction Center has issued a rare “High Risk” of excessive rainfall from Tampa through Orlando.

In addition, Hurricane Milton is expected to bring hurricane-force wind gusts well inland, across the peninsula to the east coast as it exits over the Atlantic on Thursday, according to NHC.

Winds will be particularly strong on the northwestern, or back, side of the storm, NHC warned.

Tropical storm-force winds have already started overspreading the west coast of Florida, with a wind gust in St. Petersburg to 55 mph.

Multiple tornadoes have already occurred in southern Florida, with the tornado outbreak likely to spread north today into central Florida.

While the storm lost some of its record-setting intensity from Monday night and again Tuesday night, it still had 125 mph maximum sustained winds as of late Wednesday morning, making it a Category 3 storm.

Milton was moving northeast at 17 mph from a position of about 100 miles southwest of Tampa.

“Weather conditions will steadily deteriorate across portions of the Florida Gulf Coast throughout the day,” NHC said, with landfall sometime on Wednesday night or early Thursday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared an emergency for 51 counties.

“The time to prepare, including evacuate if told to do so, is quickly coming to an end along the Florida west coast,” NHC warned Wednesday at 11am ET.

Milton twice entered the top 5 list of strongest Atlantic hurricanes as measured by their minimum central air pressure readings.

It took second place, behind Hurricane Wilma, for the strongest storm so late in the season.

Hurricane Milton is expected to be a large and intense Category 3 or borderline Category 4 storm at landfall.

The NHC noted Wednesday its wind field is expanding in size as it closes in on the coast. This would increase the storm surge magnitude and area.

It will also increase the storm’s reach. Hurricane and tropical storm warnings are in effect for portions of the east coast of Florida, all the way to Georgia.

Human-caused climate change is among several factors that conspired to propel Hurricane Milton’s rarely seen “explosive” intensification.

Sea level rise tied to climate change makes this storm potentially more destructive today than it would have been even a few decades ago.

Global warming is leading to more instances of rapid intensification. The trend was seen as recently as two weeks ago, when Hurricane Helene rapidly intensified before hitting Florida’s less-populated Big Bend region.

Milton was over record-warm waters for this time of year when it intensified so quickly.

Climate change made those ocean temperatures up to 800 times more likely today than in a preindustrial climate with lower greenhouse gases in the air, according to Climate Central, a research nonprofit.

It will pass more extremely warm waters prior to making landfall, but another round of rapid intensification is not expected.

“There is high confidence that Milton will remain a very dangerous hurricane when it reaches Florida, and maintain hurricane status as it moves across the state,” NHC stated Wednesday morning.

“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” NHC stated.

The storm is locked in on a landfall between Tampa Bay and Sarasota, but a track difference of just a few miles will make a vast difference in impacts, particularly storm surge heights.

A sprawling investigation into the online fundraising platform ActBlue has expanded into 19 states, as attorneys general across the country press the company on its security practices and whether Democrats might be using the platform to cheat on election donations.

An investigation that began with a few states and a House committee has now spread across nearly half the country as chief state investigators are endeavoring to determine whether Democrats have used the ActBlue to launder foreign money or craft donations in people’s names without their permission, a practice known as “straw donations.”

In a letter sent last week to ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones, the state attorneys general highlighted potential security issues with the online fundraising platform that could be allowing donations made in people’s names who didn’t donate.

“Recent reporting suggests that that [sic] there may be donors across the country who are identified in filings with the Federal Election Commission as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities), but who did not actually make those donations,” the attorneys general wrote.

“Smurfing”

“That raises a host of concerns about whether ActBlue’s platform is being used to facilitate ‘smurfing’––a type of money laundering in which donors break up large donations and submit them under different names to disguise who the money comes from and thereby skirt contribution limits in violation of state and federal law,” the letter continued.

“Independent investigations have shown that there are donors across the country who show up on FEC filings as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities) but deny having made those donations. Given the prominent role it plays in our elections, it is incumbent on ActBlue to address the serious questions created by apparent irregularities in ActBlue’s FEC filings,” the attorneys general added.

“ActBlue is one of the largest fundraising platforms for election-related donations. Already during the 2024 election cycle ActBlue has raised billions of dollars. But there are concerns about where those dollars came from. It is essential that we know whether political donations—particularly in such large volumes—are being solicited, made, and processed consistent with campaign finance, consumer protection, and other state and federal laws.”

ActBlue has denied any wrongdoing but said it is cooperating with investigators.

The letter from the attorneys general comes as other investigations are developing on both the civil and criminal side. Just the News has confirmed some Americans who believe their names have been misused to make donations for others are contemplating a private lawsuit while Congress is trying to determine whether federally regulating financial institutions have reported any suspicious transactions flowing through ActBlue’s platform or its clients.

Security protocols

The states’ top law enforcement officials asked Wallace-Jones to verify ActBlue’s security protocols and ensure that donors are who they claim to be.

The state attorneys general for Iowa and Indiana led the letter, which also included attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The attorneys general asked Wallace-Jones to respond by Oct. 23.

Following the release of the letter, an ActBlue spokesperson told The Des Moines Register that it has been a trusted digital fundraising platform for the last two decades and legally contributes donations to candidates and organizations.

“We rigorously protect donors’ information by maintaining a robust security program and strict fraud prevention measures — often beyond what is required by law,” the spokesperson’s statement said. “We are aware of recent attempts to spread misinformation about our platform. Facts are essential so that voters and donors are not misled. For accurate information, please visit actblue.com.”

Amid his investigation into ActBlue, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., made referrals last month to the attorneys general in Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Florida regarding the fundraising platform. Steil said a massive computer analysis conducted by his committee uncovered a suspicious pattern of donations from individuals with net worths too small to donate what has been credited to them via ActBlue reports to the Federal Election Commission.

“This investigation focused on potential unlawful exploitation of unwitting ‘straw donors,’ whose identities may have been used to channel illicit funds into campaigns in your state,” Steil wrote to the state officials.

“The final analysis produced a set of anomalous donor profiles, ranked by the severity of the inconsistencies. In reviewing this analysis, it became clear there is suspicious activity occurring that warrants further review,” he added.

“Straw donors” are donors who are either given money by others to donate to federal candidates or whose identity is misused by others to make donations to evade federal campaign contribution limits.

Last December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) opened an investigation into ActBlue after alleging that the organization was conducting fraudulent activity regarding donations. In August of this year, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) also demanded answers from ActBlue after allegations of fraud were impacting Virginia.

In August, Paxton announced he reached an agreement in which ActBlue would begin using CVV codes when accepting all donations. CVVs are the three-digit security number on the back of credit and debit cards, and are key security provisions for preventing fraud.

Steil has been pushing H.R. 9488, called the SHIELD Act, which would require the disclosure of the card verification value and increase safeguards for online campaign donations.

The legislation also prohibits “aiding or abetting” making campaign contributions in the name of someone else.

Steil told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show in August, “The real big concern here is that because these donations are made online, they could be coming from anywhere across the globe. Gone are the days where individuals would engage in illegal behavior with cash. Now we can do this online.

“My concern is that individuals are outside the jurisdiction of the United States who may be engaged in this,” he added.

Private Harris campaign polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris is in a lot of trouble, political analyst Mark Halperin said on The Morning Meeting with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine.

Despite Harris being up three points nationally according to the New York Times poll, Halperin said he sees her support as precarious.

While highlighting key states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where Harris’s polling deteriorated, Halperin explained that the Wall Street Journal reported that Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) campaign shared negative polling with the paper, indicating broader implications for Democratic candidates in Senate races linked to Harris’s performance.

The consensus was that Harris faces significant risks in multiple battleground states, complicating her path to victory, Halperin explained:

Can you win a short campaign with an untested candidate? And what I’m telling you is happening in private polling is she’s got a problem … So the new New York Times poll shows her up three nationally. We all know that three is like the bubble point, right? If she’s up three, she’s got a chance to win the Electoral College, but they’d rather be at four, and they don’t want to be at two. So three is right at the bubble. I’m not saying this Times poll’s right. But it’s in line with international polls … Wall Street Journal has a story about Democrats really worried about the three Rust Belt states. We all know from our contacts in both campaigns that Pennsylvania is tough for her right now. And with that Pennsylvania, there are paths, but there aren’t many. There’s no path with that Wisconsin. So you see here, Tammy Baldwin’s Senate campaign poll shows Harris down three in Wisconsin. We all said yesterday, Wisconsin and Michigan are looking worse for Harris than before. Baldwin has Harris down three … Why is the Baldwin campaign sharing its polling with the Wall Street Journal? Good question.

…

If you want to go watch MSNBC primetime and hear how great things are going for the Harris campaign, you’re welcome to do that. But if you want to understand what’s actually happening, we’re here to tell you. I just saw some new private polling today that’s very robust private polling. She’s in a lot of trouble. Here’s how I framed it this morning in my newsletter: The conversation I’m having with with Trump people and Democrats with data are extremely bullish on Trump’s chances in the last 48 hours, extremely bullish. You think of the seven battleground states, which ones is Harris in danger of losing? I would say Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia. I’m not saying she’ll lose all six, but she’s in danger. The only one that the Democrats say she’s not in danger of losing is the one I never say the name of because I can’t pronounce it, but it’s where Las Vegas is, right? You guys agree with me. She could lose any of those six, right? I mean, she could lose all seven, but Democrats will tell you they’re worried about those six, they’re less worried about the seventh. I don’t know any Trump person who says they’re worried about losing any of the seven. They don’t think they’re the favorite in Michigan and Wisconsin, but they’re not worried about losing them. You don’t hear from them, ‘Oh my goodness.’ What you hear is we’re moving up. What the three of us are hearing, we’re moving up in those two and we’re going to win. We’re going to win at the three sunbelt states. And we’re stronger in Pennsylvania than she is. That to me, if the whole thing’s about the Electoral College, you take any of the — any of the Sun or the Rust Belt states away from her, it’s very difficult for her to win, very difficult. It’s not mathematically impossible, but it probably won’t happen if she loses any of them. Could she replace Pennsylvania with either Georgia or North Carolina and then one other of the Sunbelt state? If she wins, if she loses Pennsylvania and she wins either Georgia or North Carolina, then she just needs one of the other three and that’s not impossible. But what I’m telling you today is, things are not moving right for her.

HALPERIN: Private polling shows Kamala Harris is in a lot of trouble

pic.twitter.com/6f552xvCVE

— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) October 9, 2024

The Georgia State Election Board voted to subpoena Fulton County’s 2020 election records amid a legal fight over election monitors.

The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday to subpoena all election records from the 2020 election in Fulton County, the Associated Press reported.

The vote came a day after Fulton County filed a lawsuit claiming that the board does not have the authority to make the county “accept, and Fulton County to pay for, additional monitors for the 2024 election that have been hand-picked by certain State Election Board members.”

In May, the board decided that an agreement between itself and the county must be reached by August for election monitors for this election cycle, as a result of issues the county had in the 2020 election.

However, an agreement was not reached and the county hired its own team without the board’s approval. The board had proposed a different election monitor team that the county rejected.

Board member Janice Johnston on Tuesday said that Fulton County appeared to not be cooperating and proposed to subpoena 2020 election documents, which the two other Republican members also voted with her to approve.

“Consolidated return sheets, opening and closing tapes, daily recap sheets from early voting, poll pad recap sheets, absentee ballot recap sheets, ballot images, log files, tabulation files, a numbered voter list, absentee numbered list of voters, absentee ballot oath envelopes, security verification forms, and chain of custody forms of the poll manager and technician. And Fulton County must appear at the next meeting,” Liz Harrington, former Trump campaign spokesperson, posted on X on Tuesday.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) is not endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Tuesday, Romney reaffirmed his longtime distaste for former President Donald Trump without saying he would support the Democratic ticket this year. Neither he nor former House Speaker Paul Ryan, his running mate in the 2012 presidential election, will support the top of the Republican ticket this election.

“I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States,” Romney said at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah.

Romney said the Republican Party would likely need “to be rebuilt or reoriented” no matter what happens in the election, noting that he would like to “have a voice” in the party following the election.

“I believe I will have more influence in the party by virtue of saying it as I’ve said it,” he said. “I’m not planning on changing the way I’ve described it.”

In the 2016 election, Romney wrote in the name of his wife, Ann, for president, and in 2020, he said he did not vote for Trump but would not say if he voted for Joe Biden instead.

“All of those now pro-Kamala voices will not be allowed back in,” Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, told the New York Times. “But there will be a GOP post-Trump, and there should be some sane people remaining to fix that.”

Romney has expressed his distaste for Trump over the years, telling MSNBC, “When someone has been determined by a jury to have committed sexual assault, that is not someone who I want my kids and grandkids to see as president of the United States.” On Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), he said, “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more.”

Still, Romney will not join the long list of Republicans who have backed Harris’s candidacy. More than 200 Republicans who worked for Romney, 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, and former President George W. Bush endorsed Harris in an August letter.

Harris has also received endorsements from high-profile Republican figures such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Rep. Liz Cheney, and former Sen. Jeff Flake. Sarah Palin is the only living former Republican presidential or vice presidential candidate who has endorsed Trump this year.

Bush said he would not endorse a candidate in this election.

The severed head of a newly elected mayor in southern Mexico was found on top of his vehicle just six days into his tenure. Footage of the gruesome scene was shared on X, highlighting Mexico as a lawless narco-state run by ultra-violent cartels.

On Sept. 30, Alejandro Arcos was sworn in as the mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital and second-largest city of the Mexican state of Guerrero. The newly elected mayor didn’t even last a week because, on Sunday, he was assassinated, with his head severed and placed on the top of the vehicle as a reminder to local government officials that cartels run the show.

Story📌 https://t.co/OPKNxQ0tTM

— Trending Explained (@TrendingEx) October 7, 2024

Arcos represented an opposition coalition that included the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

His party took to social media, calling the assassination of the mayor a “cowardly crime.” PRI called for justice early this week.

“Enough of violence and impunity! The people of Guerrero do not deserve to live in fear,” PRI wrote on X.

Just three days before Arcos’ killing, another city official, Francisco Tapia, was killed, according to PRI president Alejandro Moreno.

Leftist Mexico is a lawless narco-state. The ultra-violent cartels effectively run the nation. RIP Alejandro Arcos & Francisco Tapia.

“Mexican mayor assassinated days after taking office

Alejandro Arcos was killed just 6 days after he took office as mayor of the city of… https://t.co/HpYkJaMd2D pic.twitter.com/I0ezwBTFq8

— Prodigal (@ProdigalThe3rd) October 8, 2024

“They had been in office less than a week,” Moreno wrote on social media, adding, “They were young and honest public servants who were seeking progress for their community.”

Guerrero is a cartel hellhole and one of the deadliest states in Mexico. Cartels fight each other for control of drug production and human trafficking. This is one of the deadliest areas for elected public officials and journalists.

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration’s open southern borders have not just sparked the worst border crisis in American history but also empowered and enriched cartels that control massive human trafficking networks.

The US Justice Department is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off parts of its business in what would be a historic breakup of one of the world’s biggest tech companies.

Antitrust enforcers are weighing a breakup to mitigate the Alphabet Inc. business’s dominance in search, the agency said in a court filing on Tuesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Judge Amit Mehta could also order Google to provide access to the underlying data it uses to build its search results and artificial intelligence products, it said.

The Justice Department “is considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features,” the agency said.

The 32-page document lays out a framework of potential options for the judge to consider as the case moves to the remedy phase. The agency said it will provide a fuller proposal on remedies next month and then begin gathering additional documents and evidence from Google for a two-week remedies hearing in April. Mehta said he will rule on the remedies by August 2025.

The effort is the most significant move to rein in a major tech company over illegal monopolization since Washington unsuccessfully sought to break up Microsoft Corp. two decades ago. The Justice Department and the US Federal Trade Commission have targeted Big Tech dominance, scrutinizing deals and investments and accusing some of the country’s most powerful companies of illegally dominating markets.

Google shares fell as much as 2.8% Wednesday and were down 1.6% to $162.98 at 10:22 am in New York trading.

Antitrust pressure from multiple cases is building against Google. Mehta ruled this summer that Google broke antitrust laws in both online search and search text ads markets. Google has already said it plans to appeal Mehta’s decision, but must wait until he finalizes a remedy before doing so.

A breakup of the company “is unlikely at this point despite the antitrust swirls,” said Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Google will battle this in the courts for years.”

The case is part of a larger US crackdown on technology giants. The Justice Department earlier this year sued Apple Inc. for thwarting innovation by blocking rivals from accessing its hardware and software features. The FTC sent inquiries to Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc. about their investments in AI startups as part of a study on how these partnerships are impacting competition.

The DOJ said in the filing that Google gained scale and data benefits from its illegal distribution agreements with other tech companies that made its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers. Google’s Android business encompasses the operating system used on smartphones and devices as well as apps.

The Justice Department also said it may seek a requirement that Google allow websites more ability to opt out of its artificial intelligence products. The agency said it’s considering proposals related to Google’s dominance over search text ads, such as requirements that the company provide more information and control to advertisers over where their ads appear. The department may also request that Google be restricted from investing in search competitors or potential rivals.

Google criticized the Justice Department’s filing as “radical,” saying it would have “significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness.”

The DOJ’s proposals go “well beyond the legal scope of the Court’s decision about Search distribution contracts,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote in a blog post.

European Union watchdogs similarly touted the option of a breakup of Google’s business in order to appease antitrust concerns last year. The bloc’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager said that “divestiture is the only way” to settle worries over how the company favors its own services to the detriment of ad tech rivals, advertisers and online publishers. That EU case – which could come to a final decision by the end of this year – marked the latest escalation in a long-running saga that’s already led to a trio of EU penalties totaling more than €8 billion ($8.8 billion) for abuses across other Google services.

A group of US states that sued Google over its search monopoly separately from the Justice Department said they may seek to have the tech giant pay for a public education campaign about how to switch search engines.

On Monday, a different federal judge ordered Google to open up its app store for the next three years to resolve a separate antitrust case brought by Epic Games Inc. related to its dominance of app distribution on Android smartphones. US District Judge James Donato issued an injunction that takes effect Nov. 1 which bars Google for three years from paying developers to exclusively use its app store or prohibit them from telling customers about how to directly download apps. Google also cannot force developers to use its billing features during that time. The company also plans to appeal that decision.

Last month, the Justice Department and Google faced off in a third antitrust suit focused on the company’s dominance over the technology used to buy and sell online display ads. Closing arguments in that lawsuit are scheduled for late November and Judge Leonie Brinkema, who oversaw that case, said she plans to rule by the end of the year. Antitrust enforcers have said they plan to seek to force Google to sell off parts of its ad tech business if the court finds the company monopolized that market.

The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization to plot an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month.

He and a juvenile co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

Tawhedi, who entered the U.S. in 2021 on a special immigrant visa, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles.

He liquidated his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.

‘Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,’ FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.

After he was arrested, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators he had planned an attack for Election Day that would target large gatherings of people.

Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization.

He faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for providing support to ISIS and 15 years for obtaining a firearm to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism.

An FBI affidavit does not reveal precisely how Tawhedi came onto investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months showing his determination in planning an attack.

A photograph from July included in the affidavit depicts a man investigators identified as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, ‘a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.’

‘As charged, the Justice Department foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semi-automatic weapons and commit a violent attack in the name of ISIS on U.S. soil on Election Day,’ said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

‘We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that ISIS and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorize the American people,’ he continued.

‘I am deeply grateful to the public servants of the FBI, National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma for their work to disrupt this attack and for the work they do every day to protect our country.’

According to the criminal complaint, Tawhedi entered the United States on September 9, 2021 on a special immigrant visa.

It said an FBI ‘confidential human source’ contacted Tawhedi after he recently advertised the sale of his family’s personal property on Facebook.

The FBI source said he needed a computer for a gun business he was starting and Tawhedi expressed interest in purchasing two AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition, according to the complaint.

On Monday, Tawhedi and the juvenile met with ‘FBI assets’ at a rural location in Oklahoma and purchased two AK-47 assault rifles, 10 magazines, and 500 rounds of ammunition, it said.

They were immediately arrested.

It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. A message was left with the federal public defender´s office in Oklahoma City and no telephone numbers were listed for Tawhedi or his relatives in public records.

Tawhedi entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa, a program that permits eligible Afghans who helped Americans despite great personal risk to themselves and their loved ones to apply for entry into America with their families.

Eligible Afghans include interpreters for the U.S. military as well as individuals integral to the American embassy in Kabul. While the program has existed since 2009, the number of applicants skyrocketed after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign insisted Tuesday that CBS News release an “unedited transcript” of Vice President Kamala Harris’ entire “60 Minutes” interview after her “word salad” about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was cut from Monday’s broadcast.

The dramatic edit was made after “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker noted that “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.”

The 59-year-old Democratic nominee’s response in the Monday night show was completely different and far more coherent than her rambling answer showcased in a preview clip released Sunday.

“Well, Bill … the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris said in the clip shared by “60 Minutes” on X over the weekend.

However, in the prime-time broadcast, Harris answered, “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

Watch:

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— Steven Miller, MD, PhD (@SageListener) October 8, 2024

A Trump campaign spokeswoman “60 Minutes” of “deceptively” editing out Harris’ “idiotic response” to Whitaker.

“On Sunday, 60 Minutes teased Kamala’s highly-anticipated sit-down interview with this epic word salad that received significant criticism on social media,” Trump 2024 national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Post. “During the full interview on Monday evening, the word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response.”

Leavitt added that she was left wondering what else was left on the cutting room floor.

“Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?” she said.

“The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview,” Leavitt continued. “We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?”

Trump, 78, refused to participate in the show’s presidential election special despite the campaign previously telling “60 Minutes” producers that he would take part, correspondent Scott Pelley claimed on Monday’s broadcast.

The Trump campaign has denied that any appearance was nailed down, and the former president said last week that he won’t do an interview with “60 Minutes” until the show apologizes for dismissing The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 campaign.

Former President Trump’s campaign is rejecting accounts in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book that the Republican presidential nominee has held multiple phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office in January 2021.

Woodward also wrote in his book, “War,” that Trump agreed to secretly send Putin COVID-19 testing equipment.

Steven Cheung, the communications director for the Trump campaign, told The Hill in a statement that “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true” and said Trump gave no access to the journalist for the latest book, as Trump had for past books.

Cheung said Woodward “suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

The spokesperson further pointed to Trump’s lawsuit against Woodward, in which the former president is seeking $50 million from the veteran journalist over his publication of tapes of interviews he conducted with Trump while he was in office between December 2019 and August 2020, which featured in the 2020 book “Rage.”

Woodward and his publisher filed to get the case dismissed in September 2023.

Cheung’s comments came in response to a CNN report on Woodward’s new book “War,” detailing that, in 2020, Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”

Putin told Trump to not tell anybody, according to Woodward, with Trump responding, “I don’t care … fine.”

Woodward wrote that, according to Trump’s aides, there have been as many as seven phone calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021, according to CNN.

Woodward also cited Trump aide Jason Miller as not being aware of any calls between Trump and Putin, but added that Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of national intelligence, did not conclusively rule out contacts between the Russian leader and the former president.

“I would not purport to be aware of all contacts with Putin. I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done,” Haines said, according to Woodward.

The United States Supreme Court, coming off of possibly its most historic and impactful term in United States history earlier this year, is set to consider a new docket of cases that could have significant impacts when the court issues a new round of rulings next year.

While most of the new cases before the high court lack the explosive political nature of —setting major precedent regarding presidential immunity (Trump v. United States), rolling back the Biden-Harris Department of Justice’s aggressive January 6 prosecutions (Fischer v. United States) or undoing decades of federal regulatory procedure (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo) several cases still carry significant legal and constitutional weight.

Before the court in its new term are cases dealing with so-called “ghost guns,” discretionary immigration actions, a Tennessee sex-change ban, and even a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government alleging U.S. gun manufacturers are trafficking firearms to cartels.

Additionally, the Court will hear a case on the constitutionality of Texas’s age verification requirements for pornographic websites. and a case regarding workplace discrimination and whether workers representative of demographic majorities have a higher bar to prove bias.

Ghost Guns.

One of the most anticipated cases of the term is Garland v. VanDerStok. The case revolves around a 2022 rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which would effectively extend licensing and serial number provisions required under the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) to so-called ghost guns—firearms produced at home often through the use of 3D printing.

The respondents in the case are challenging the agency’s regulatory authority to unilaterally redefine the definition of “frame or receiver” and “firearm” under the GCA. Garland v. VanDerStok marks the first significant challenge to federal regulatory authority after the Supreme Court struck down much of the long-standing Chevron Deference legal doctrine, which granted federal agencies broad regulatory powers, in its Loper decision earlier this year.

Immigration Visa Appeals.

A case that could have major implications for U.S. immigration policy is Bouarfa v. Mayorkas. The high court is being asked to determine whether immigration visa applicants are entitled to legal appeal and judicial review over discretionary application decisions.

The case stems from a lawsuit brought by Amina Bouarfa, a U.S. citizen, regarding her attempt to obtain an immigrant visa for her husband, Ala’a Hamayel. In 2014, Bouarfa submitted a Form I-130 seeking to classify Hamayel as her immediate relative under U.S. immigration law. While the petition was initially approved a year later, it was later revoked under the discretionary authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security after it was discovered that Hamayel had previously attempted to evade U.S. immigration laws by entering into a sham marriage.

Subsequently, Bouarfa filed suit in a Florida federal District Court challenging the Secretary’s discretionary authority. However, the court dismissed the lawsuit, claiming it had no authority to review a discretionary action by the executive branch. The U.S. Eleventh Circuit later upheld the dismissal.

Trans Surgeries for Minors.

In United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether laws enacted by Tennessee and Kentucky that restrict access to sex-change surgeries for minors constitute a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and its incorporation of due process rights. Under the 2023 laws passed by Tennesee and Kentucky, minors are prohibited from receiving puberty blockers, hormone replacement treatments, or sex-change surgeries from healthcare providers operating in either respective state.

The plaintiffs in the case contend that both state laws violate 14th Amendment protections and were initially successful in securing injections against the prohibitions from taking effect. However, the injunctions were later lifted by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals—meaning the laws have since been allowed to go into effect.

Mexico Sues Gun Makers.

In a case with international repercussions, the court will hear Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. In this case, the government of Mexico is suing U.S. gun manufacturers, alleging the companies have been complicit in trafficking firearms across the southern border to Mexican drug cartels.

The question before the court is whether the lawsuit brought by Mexico can proceed under the conditions set out by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Initially, the lawsuit was halted after a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts found the Mexican government’s legal claims against the gun makers were barred under the PLCAA. However, the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the determination on several of Mexico’s claims—citing the PLCAA’s “predicate exception.”

Justices will decide whether Mexico’s claims of arms trafficking and injury to its citizens violate U.S. law and trigger the exception to legal protection for the gun manufacturers under the PLCAA.

Texas Age Verification.

A prominent First Amendment case before the court is Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, which revolves around a Texas law requiring the implementation of age verification procedures for pornographic websites. The court is being asked to determine whether the Texas regulations violate the free speech right of pornographic websites and whether specific provisions run afoul of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

An earlier holding by a federal District Court resulted in a preliminary injunction against the Texas law. The District Court determined that Texas’s age verification requirements failed the strict scrutiny test, meaning it was not sufficiently tailored in a narrow scope to achieve the government’s compelling interest. Additionally, the lower court, in issuing the injections, held that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on First Amendment grounds against Texas upon further appeal.

However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the injunction and reversed the District Court’s holding in part, determining the rational basis review test was more appropriate for the case.

Straight Discrimination?

The most peculiar case of the Supreme Court term is Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, which revolves around a reverse discrimination claim. Last Friday, the high court granted certiorari, meaning review, regarding a federal appeals court decision rejecting a reverse discrimination claim brought by a former Ohio Department of Youth Services employee.

At the heart of the case is whether reverse discrimination lawsuits brought by those lacking status as a protected class—or demographic majorities—require a higher evidentiary burden. The lawsuit was brought by an Ohio woman who claims she was passed over for a state government job due to her heterosexual orientation.

Marlean Ames contends she was denied a promotion by her supervisor, a lesbian woman.
Instead, the job went to another lesbian woman, though Ames argues the selected applicant was unqualified. Subsequently, Ames was removed from her position and replaced by a gay man.

The plaintiff’s lawsuit was thrown out by a federal court, which found she failed to demonstrate a statistically significant pattern of discrimination against demographic majorities by her employer. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the lower court decision, resulting in the final appeal to the Supreme Court.