Saturday, October 05, 2024

JD Vance praises Marjorie Taylor Greene hours after she suggested Hurricane Helene was man-made

Graig Graziosi
Fri, October 4, 2024

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial Republican Congresswoman, was mentioned by JD Vance as he toured the damage left by Hurricane Helene (Associated Press)

Senator JD Vance had kind words for Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — just hours after she suggested that a mysterious “they” can control the weather and inflicted Hurricane Helene on Republican voters in Georgia and North Carolina.

Greene is well known for repeating nonsense conspiracy theories. She’s voiced her belief in “Jewish space lasers”and has been cozy with QAnon ideas both before and during her time in office.

She made her latest bizarre claim on X, this time concerning the weather.




“Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done,” Greene wrote.

Before making the claim that the weather can be controlled, she shared an image of the areas most affected by Hurricane Helene overlayed with an electoral map.

She wasn’t clear who “they” were but the map’s implication is that Democrats were somehow responsible for a hurricane to hurt Republican voters.

Those affected by Hurricane Helene are still recovering from the deadly storm.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife Usha Vance, center front, visits areas impacted by Hurricane Helene in Damascus, Va., Thursday Oct. 3, 2024 (AP)

Despite her absurd claim, Vance heaped praise on Greene during a recent campaign rally in Greene’s district.

“We have got another great, strong, woman leader in Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene,” he said. “Now you may not know this, but one of the very first endorsements … I got when I was running in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio a few years ago was from Marjorie Taylor Greene, so she’s been a great friend of mine.”

He went on call Greene a “loyal person” and a “hell of a Congresswoman.”

Democrats were quick to condemn Vance for praising Greene. In a statement sent on Friday, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd called Greene a “wildly out-of-touch conspiracy theorist and election-denying extremist who is as toxic to voters as the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda.”

“JD Vance took time in Georgia today to shout out his ‘great friend’ right after she finished spreading fresh conspiracy theories about how ‘they’ can control the weather while Georgia is still recovering from Hurricane Helene,” he wrote. “And that’s just another reason why we’re sure that Vance will have plenty more free time to spend with his ‘great friend’ after this November.”

Opinion

Marjore Taylor Greene Pushes Dumbest Hurricane Helene Conspiracy Yet

Edith Olmsted
Fri, October 4, 2024 

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene pushed a preposterous conspiracy theory Thursday that someone at the very top created Hurricane Helene.

While many Republicans, like Donald Trump, have been quick to criticize the federal response to Hurricane Helene, Greene has started pointing fingers as to who could possibly be behind the weather event, which most normal people would understand to be caused by hot air and cold air.


“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote in a post on X. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Many online were disturbed by Greene’s vague use of “they,” because outlandish accusations about controlling the climate are typically antisemitic conspiracy theories—to which Greene is no stranger.

Earlier that evening, Greene posted a photograph in an attempt to further push conspiracy theories about the area impacted by the deadly Category 4 storm.


“This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,” she wrote.



Twitter screenshot Marjorie Taylor Greene ���� @mtgreenee: This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election. (with map highlighting blue and red portions of the southeast)

It seems that Greene believes that Democrats somehow created the storm to try and harm Republican voters. This is a significant, and grotesque escalation from Trump’s already wild theory that the Biden administration purposefully neglected Republican areas in its federal response to the storm.


Of course, the only person who had ever done something like that is Trump himself, who reportedly withheld aid to California after the deadly wildfires in 2018, until his team could provide polling that people there had in fact voted for him.




MTG Implies Dems Created Hurricane Helene: ‘They Can Control the Weather’

Nikki McCann Ramirez
Fri, October 4, 2024


Some things in this world that are inevitable: death, sunrise, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) responding to tragedies with pure insanity.

At least 215 people have been killed by Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that tore through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia last weekend. Thousands remain without power and access to critical necessities as the federal government works to provide relief in the aftermath of the deadliest storm in the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina. But in the wastelands of social media, some are attempting to use the tragedy as fodder for political conspiracy theories.

“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote on X Thursday night. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

It’s unclear who the “they” are that Greene is referring to in this scenario. If one of her posts earlier on Thursday is any indication, she’s talking about Democrats. Greene shared a map of the states affected by Helene with an overlay of their political leanings by county. “This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,” she wrote.



In case you missed middle school science class, hurricanes are large, powerful storms formed over warm tropical waters when evaporation rises into the atmosphere — condensing into storm systems — and creating a low-pressure zone that wind rushes into. As water continues to evaporate from the ocean surface, the cycle can create a large spinning vortex of powerful rains and strong winds known as a tropical cyclone. If this phenomenon forms in the Atlantic (and becomes powerful enough) it is referred to as a hurricane.

Hurricanes can be incredibly devastating, but they are not a man-made phenomenon, or something that can be plausibly controlled through human intervention. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which conducted research on various ways to divert or dispel tropical cyclones in the 1960s, potential methods “fall short of the mark because they fail to appreciate the size and power of tropical cyclones.”

In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s destruction, there has been a large-scale federal and state-level mobilization to provide aid to communities affected by the storm. The effort has been bipartisan and widely lauded by the governors of affected states. MAGA land, however, has rushed to politicize the tragedy in service of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Earlier this week, Trump baselessly claimed that “the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of [North Carolina are] going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” ahead of a visit to a disaster zone in Valdosta, Georgia.

Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — who has claimed the government has “weather weapons” that can engineer floods, tornados, and hurricanes — falsely asserted on Thursday that “Biden has ordered a stand-down of over a thousand military helicopter crews in the south.”

“The hurricane conveniently destroyed the reddest areas in four southern states so that votes cannot be cast by Trump voters in the upcoming election! Now the Democrats don’t want the rural areas of the state brought back on line to ensure the blue city’s can steal it again,” Jones wrote.

Other conspiracy theories have circulated on TikTok, with some users claiming that the hurricane was intentionally engineered to level out the area in order to bolster lithium mining operations. “Let’s be clear, Hurricane Helene was a weather modified storm to displace the residents of western N. Carolina so a land grab can take place,” one video with over 100,000 views claims.

Natural disasters are traumatic events that often force mankind to reckon with how — despite centuries of technological advance and societal development — we are often powerless in the face of nature. They are the perfect breeding ground for conspiracies that attempt to ascribe a human cause to an inhuman tragedy, and Helene is by no means the first instance.

Greene, ever the shit-stirrer, has been a prolific voice in spreading such conspiracies. Who among us can forget when she blamed Jewish space lasers for the deadly 2018 California Camp wildfire?

Rolling Stone




People Truly Can't Believe Marjorie Taylor Greene's Latest Conspiracy Theory, And They Are Absolutely Roasting Her Over It

Matt Stopera
Fri, October 4, 2024 

As you all know, Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the south last week.

Melissa Sue Gerrits / Getty Images

Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a map showing an overlay of an electoral map by political party compared to hurricane-affected areas.


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For small cities across Alabama with Haitian populations, Springfield is a cautionary tale

SAFIYAH RIDDLE
Sat, October 5, 2024




Congregants attend Eglise Porte Etroite, a Creole-language church which has gone from seven attendees to close to 300 in under 15 years, in Albertville, Ala., Sept. 29, 2024. 
(AP Photo/Safiyah Riddle)

ENTERPRISE, Ala. (AP) — The transition from the bustling Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to a small Alabama city on the southernmost tip of the Appalachian mountain range was challenging for Sarah Jacques.

But, over the course of a year, the 22-year-old got used to the quiet and settled in. Jacques got a job at a manufacturing plant that makes car seats, found a Creole-language church and came to appreciate the ease and security of life in Albertville after the political turmoil and violence that's plagued her home country.

Recently, though, as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate began promoting debunked misinformation about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, causing crime and “eating pets,” Jacques said there have been new, unforeseen challenges.


“When I first got here, people would wave at us, say hello to us, but now it’s not the same,” Jacques said in Creole through a translator. “When people see you, they kind of look at you like they’re very quiet with you or afraid of you.”

Amid this mounting tension, a bipartisan group of local religious leaders, law enforcement officials and residents across Alabama see the fallout in Springfield as a cautionary tale — and have been taking steps to help integrate the state's Haitian population in the small cities where they live.

As political turmoil and violence intensify in Haiti, Haitian migrants have embraced a program established by President Joe Biden in 2023 that allows the U.S. to accept up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela for two years and offers work authorization. The Biden administration recently announced the program could allow an estimated 300,000 Haitians to remain in the U.S. at least through February 2026.

In 2023, there were 2,370 people of Haitian ancestry in Alabama, according to census data. There is no official count of the increase in the Haitian population in Alabama since the program was implemented.

The immigration debate is not new to Albertville, where migrant populations have been growing for three decades, said Robin Lathan, executive assistant to the Albertville mayor. Lathan said the city doesn't track how many Haitians have moved to the city in recent years but said “it seems there has been an increase over the last year, in particular.”

A representative from Albertville's school system said that, in the last school year, 34% of the district’s 5,800 students were learning English as a second language — compared to only 17% in 2017.

In August, weeks before Springfield made national headlines, a Facebook post of men getting off a bus to work at a poultry plant led some residents to speculate that the plant was hiring people living in the country illegally.

Representatives for the poultry plant said in an email to The Associated Press that all its employees are legally allowed to work in the U.S.

The uproar culminated in a public meeting where some residents sought clarity about the federal program that allowed Haitians to work in Alabama legally, while others called for landlords to “cut off the housing” for Haitians and suggested that the migrants have a “smell to them,” according to audio recordings.

To Unique Dunson, a 27-year-old lifelong Albertville resident and community activist, these sentiments felt familiar.

“Every time Albertville gets a new influx of people who are not white, there seems to be a problem,” Dunson said.

Dunson runs a store offering free supplies to the community. After tensions boiled over across the country, she put up multiple billboards across town that read, in English, Spanish and Creole, “welcome neighbor glad you came.”

Dunston said the billboards are a way to “push back” against the notion that migrants are unwelcome.

When Pastor John Pierre-Charles first arrived in Albertville in 2006, he said the only other Haitians he knew in the area were his family members.

In 14 years of operation, the congregation at his Creole-language church, Eglise Porte Etroite, has gone from just seven members in 2010 to approximately 300 congregants. He is now annexing classrooms to the church building for English language classes and drivers' education classes, as well as a podcast studio to accommodate the burgeoning community.

Still, Pierre-Charles describes the last months as “the worst period” for the Haitian community in all his time in Albertville.

“I can see some people in Albertville who are really scared right now because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Pierre-Charles. “Some are scared because they think they may be sent back to Haiti. But some of them are scared because they don’t know how people are going to react to them.”

After the fallout from the initial public meetings in August, Pierre-Charles sent a letter to city leadership calling for more resources for housing and food to ensure his growing community could safely acclimate, both economically and culturally.

“That’s what I’m trying to do, to be a bridge,” said Pierre-Charles.

He is not working alone.

In August, Gerilynn Hanson, 54, helped organize the initial meetings in Albertville because she said many residents had legitimate questions about how migration was affecting the city.

Now, Hanson said she is adjusting her strategy, “focusing on the human level."

In September, Hanson, an electrical contractor and Trump supporter, formed a nonprofit with Pierre-Charles and other Haitian community leaders to offer more stable housing and English language classes to meet the growing demand.

“We can look at (Springfield) and become them in a year,” Hanson said, referring to the animosity that’s taken hold in the Ohio city, which has been inundated with threats. “We can sit back and do nothing and let it unfold under our eyes. Or we can try to counteract some of that and make it to where everyone is productive and can speak to each other.”

Similar debates have proliferated in public meetings across the state — even in places where Haitian residents make up less than 0.5% of the entire population.

In Sylacauga, videos from numerous public meetings show residents questioning the impact of the alleged rise in Haitian migrants. Officials said there are only 60 Haitian migrants in the town of about 12,000 people southeast of Birmingham.

In Enterprise, not far from the Alabama-Florida border, cars packed the parking lot of Open Door Baptist Church in September for an event that promised answers about how the growing Haitian population was affecting the city.

After the event, James Wright, the chief of the Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe, was sympathetic to the reasons Haitians were fleeing their home but said he worried migrants would affect Enterprise's local “political culture” and “community values.”

Other attendees echoed fears and misinformation about Haitian migrants being “lawless” and “dangerous.”

But some came to try to ease mounting anxieties about the migrant community.

Enterprise police Chief Michael Moore said he shared statistics from his department that show no measurable increase in crimes as the Haitian population has grown.

“I think there was quite a few people there that were more concerned about the fearmongering than the migrants,” Moore told the AP.

Moore said his department had received reports of Haitian migrants living in houses that violated city code, but when he reached out to the people in question, the issues were quickly resolved. Since then, his department hasn't heard any credible complaints about crimes caused by migrants.

“I completely understand that some people don’t like what I say because it doesn’t fit their own personal thought process,” said Moore. “But those are the facts.”

___

Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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U.S. teachers face language barriers, student trauma as record migration reaches classrooms

Ted Hesson, Kristina Cooke and M.B.Pell
Sat, October 5, 2024 






U.S. teachers face language barriers, student trauma as record migration reaches classrooms

U.S. schools faced with rising numbers of migrant students

CHARLEROI, Pennsylvania - Dana Smith had been teaching first grade at the public school in the small Pennsylvania town of Charleroi for more than 16 years when she found herself confronting a new challenge last year: a sharp rise in students from Haiti who did not speak English.

She started using a phone app to translate lessons, but the constant pauses for translation frustrated her. She wondered if she was hindering the learning of American students who knew some of the basics she was reviewing, a complaint raised by a vocal segment of parents in the district.

"It was very stressful," she said. "We never know when we're going to get new ones coming in, where their levels are, how adjusted they are to this culture. The unexpected."

More than half a million school-age migrant children have arrived in the U.S. since 2022, according to immigration court records collected by Syracuse University, exacerbating overcrowding in some classrooms; compounding teacher and budget shortfalls; forcing teachers to grapple with language barriers and inflaming social tensions in places unaccustomed to educating immigrant students.

To gauge the impact of immigration on public schools across the U.S., Reuters sent a survey to more than 10,000 school districts. Of the 75 school districts that responded, serving a total of 2.3 million children or about 5% of the public school population, a third said the increase in immigrant children had had a "significant" impact on their school district.

While not exhaustive, the Reuters' survey, the first by a media organization, offers the most extensive view to date of how U.S. public schools are grappling with record migrant arrivals across the southern border.

The responses spanned school districts across 23 states, from Texas to Alaska, and include the largest urban district of New York City as well as the tiny and rural Hot Springs Elementary School District in southern California, with just 16 pupils.

Forty-two districts said they had hired more English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and consultants. Fifteen districts described difficulties communicating with parents or a lack of interpreter services.

"Textbooks are not in their language. Resources are not easily available. Google Translate does not work that great," the Springfield City school district in Ohio said in its response to the survey conducted between late August and late September.

Republican candidate Donald Trump has made immigration a top talking point in the Nov. 5 presidential election, blaming his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for record numbers of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during President Joe Biden’s administration.

Trump also faults Harris for a Biden program launched in late 2022 that allowed legal entry to 530,000 Haitians and others with U.S. sponsors.

At a rally in Arizona last month, Trump used Charleroi, a town an hour south of Pittsburgh, as an example of the negative impacts of immigration.

About 2,000 immigrants, including about 700 Haitians, live in the town with many arriving in the last few years, according to Charleroi Borough Manager Joe Manning, swelling a population that declined from over 11,000 a century ago to 4,200 in the 2020 census.

"Charleroi, what a beautiful name, but it's not so beautiful now," Trump told supporters. "The schools are scrambling to hire translators for the influx of students who don't speak, not a word of English, costing local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Washington County, where Charleroi is located, backed Trump over Biden in 2020 by 23 percentage points, symbolizing a part of the rural vote that could help Trump win Pennsylvania, the most important of the election battleground states that could decide control of the White House.

The vast majority of Haitians arriving in the U.S. since 2023 entered legally or are eligible to remain and seek work permits through the Temporary Protected Status program.

While Trump has derided a wide range of immigrant groups throughout his political career, he has taken particular aim at Haitians, questioning while president in 2018 why the U.S. would accept Haitians and immigrants from 'shithole countries' in Africa.

He thrust immigration to the forefront of a Sept. 10 debate with Harris when he repeated a false rumor that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Public schools and other city buildings in Springfield received bomb threats after the debate.

Amy Nelson, an assistant principal in the Charleroi school district, said the school has not received direct threats but she is concerned about anti-Haitian posts in a local Facebook group, including a re-post of a purported Ku Klux Klan group describing Haitians in Springfield in derogatory terms and calling on Americans to "stand against forced immigration."

In response to a Reuters request for comment about the effects of migration on schools, a campaign spokesperson pointed to Trump remarks at a Sept. 23 rally in Pennsylvania.

"It takes centuries to build the unique character of each state," Trump said at the time. "Reckless migration policy can change it very quickly."

The Harris campaign touted $130 billion directed to schools under Biden's 2021 economic stimulus package. Harris “will build on those investments and continue fighting until every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive,” Harris campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement to Reuters.

White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said the Biden administration has increased funding to address teacher shortages and requested $50 million in new funding to support English language learning.

In the Reuters survey, 17 districts said they requested additional state funds to help immigrant students. Twelve of these districts reported receiving additional funds - including a district in New Jersey that said it still wasn't enough to hire an ESL supervisor.

Ten districts said their teachers were not well-trained or received no training to meet the needs of new immigrant students, and 42 said they would welcome more training for teachers and administrators. The training requests included how to teach kids who don't speak English, how to approach different cultural norms and how to help kids recover from trauma.

"Anytime you have an unpredictable pattern of student enrollment all at once, the strain it creates on the system is tremendous," Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero wrote in his response. Denver has seen a huge increase in migrant arrivals since 2023, in large part due to the state of Texas busing 19,200 people from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Democratic-run city.

In addition to the language barriers and differences in educational backgrounds, the jump in arrivals "required our system to stand up processes across the city to not only communicate with families but also support them in getting their basic needs met in order to have students coming to school ready to learn," Marrero wrote.

Still, 11 respondents said - unprompted - that the newcomers had enriched the school community, bringing new perspectives and resilience that other children could learn from.

SIGNS OF STRAIN

On a rainy Wednesday morning at Charleroi High School, students shuffled between classes in small groups. "Hello, my Haitian friends," one American student said as he passed Haitian girls walking in the opposite direction.

Julnise Telorge, an 18-year-old from Haiti in her final year of high school, said she feels safe in Charleroi - despite the time last school year when a white student bumped into her in the hallway and made a derogatory comment.

Telorge said the comment upset her and that she did not know why someone would say that. "I think because she doesn't like Blacks," she said.

School district officials said they were unaware of the incident.

The number of non-English speaking students in the 1,450-student Charleroi Area School District shot up to 220 currently from just 12 in the 2021-2022 school year, according to the district administrators. About 80% percent of those students are of Haitian descent, Superintendent Ed Zelich said.

Like many of the Haitians arriving in Charleroi, the Telorge family were attracted by job openings at Fourth Street Foods, a plant packaging frozen breakfast foods located on a hill just below the school complex.

Telorge's father, Julis, works at the plant where he earns $15 an hour, he said. He is applying for asylum.

About a third of the plant's 1,000 workers are Haitian, according to its owner Dave Barbe, who said that there are not enough Americans in the area to do the work.

The school district has hired five new staff members, including three teachers specializing in English for non-native speakers, as well as a part-time interpreter, Zelich, the superintendent, said.

He estimated the cost at $400,000 a year, a fraction of the district's $30.7 million budget, but a cost the district has covered while it waits for possible reimbursement by the state.

And there are additional costs.

After parents of 37 children pulled their kids out of the school district this year to send them to the local charter school, the district was legally required to pay an additional $500,000 for transportation and the higher charter school tuition, Zelich said.

Beth Pellegrini, who attended Charleroi public schools herself as a child and served on the Parent Teacher Association, said she decided this year to send her three children to the charter school in part because teachers were too busy trying to communicate with non-English speaking students to give them enough attention.

Her 7-year-old daughter was struggling with math while her sons, who are older, have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

"My kids were all falling behind," Pellegrini said. "It wasn't just the immigrants, but it felt like the teachers didn't have the time to dedicate to them."

Joseph Gudac, the Charleroi school district business manager, said he expected the local school tax there would need to increase if the number of non-English speaking students keeps rising.

MAKING PROGRESS

The new dynamic in some American classrooms has challenged teachers to adapt, but it hasn't been without strains.

In the United States, all children, regardless of their immigration status, have a right to a free public education. But the federal government pays for only a small fraction of newcomer educational services.

Smith, the Charleroi first-grade teacher, workshopped ideas with her colleagues on how to cope. She paired Haitian students with more advanced English skills with beginners, she said. She used more physical cues, pointing to get students to sit in their seats.

She incorporated repetition into her lessons, particularly around language.

Yet when the school offered to pay for teacher training, Smith did not want to take on another work assignment on top of her day job.

"That's just one more thing that I have on my plate that I would rather not have," she said, noting that she planned to retire in a few years. "They should be wanting to learn our language, learn our culture."

Despite the challenges, Smith said the situation has improved. While she has six English language learners out of 17 students in her classroom this year, they all attended kindergarten at the school and have a good working knowledge of the language.

During a class last month, she started the day with basics: roll call, sharpening pencils, reviewing the days of the week, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag in the back corner of her colorful classroom.

The students followed the lesson and responded to cues.

"They have already had a year under their belt," she said. "So I can see that their progression has made a big difference."

One Haitian girl in Smith's class went from speaking no English when she entered school last year to receiving an award for academic excellence, according to Nelson, the assistant principal.

The girl's mother died of breast cancer last year and Nelson and her husband are trying to adopt her.

"She is so resilient," Nelson said.

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

When Haitian students at Charleroi's high school need to talk to a teacher, they often go to Bridget DeFazio.

DeFazio, 40, started teaching French at the school in 2008. Her language skills suddenly became more sought after as dozens of Haitians, many of whom understood or spoke French, enrolled in the middle school and high school.

DeFazio and another teacher paid out of pocket for an ESL certification last year and she now teaches ESL classes in addition to French.

"Yeah, it has been challenging, but for me, a good challenge," she said. "I mean, I've been here 17 years, so it was almost like a breath of fresh air for me, something new that I can try."

When students walked into her ESL class last week, she greeted them in Haitian Creole.

The 10 students in her class took notes and answered questions as she ran through adjectives - smart, dumb, funny, happy, sad, shy - in a booming voice that filled the room.

"I've never seen kids more eager to learn," DeFazio said. "At the end of the day, they are teenagers. They're going to get into trouble, they're going to be late for class, they're going to test the limits. But when I pull them aside and talk to them, it's, 'OK, madame, we get it.'"

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, Kristina Cooke in San Francisco, and M.B. Pell in New York; Story editing by Suzanne Goldenberg and Mary Milliken; Data editing by Benjamin Lesser; Photography and video by Carlos Barria; Video production by Olivia Zollino and Grace Lee; Story design by Jillian Kumagai.)
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Tim Walz to Muslim voters in push before election: ‘Our hearts are broken’

Melissa Hellmann
Thu, October 3, 2024 

Tim Walz, delivers remarks at an election campaign event in Superior, Wisconsin.Photograph: Erica Dischino/Reuters


In a final push to engage Muslim voters ahead of the election, Tim Walz called for the end of the war in Gaza and pledged that, if elected, the Harris administration would work “side by side” with Muslim Americans.

The Democratic vice-presidential candidate joined Muslim advocacy group Emgage Action’s Million Muslim Votes: A Way Forward virtual summit the day after the vice-presidential debate.

During his speech, Kamala Harris’s running mate acknowledged a collective grief among Muslim and Arab American communities due to Israel’s war on Gaza, where more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. “Our hearts are broken,” Walz said.

“The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is staggering and devastating. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed, families fleeing for safety over and over again. We all know on here, this war must end and it must end now. The vice-president’s working everyday to ensure that, to make sure Israel is secure, the hostages are home, the suffering in Gaza ends now. And the Palestinian people realize the right to dignity, freedom and self determination.”

In the online meeting, the governor of Minnesota also highlighted his connection to the Muslim community in his state.

“Here in Minnesota, I’ve got the privilege to represent an incredible and vibrant Muslim community,” Walz said as light streamed through a large window behind him. He shared that he and his wife, Gwen, held the first iftar, the fast-breaking evening meal during Ramadan, at the Minnesota governor’s residence in 2019. And last year, Walz also passed interest-free down payment assistance for first-generation homebuyers to increase homeownership among Muslim Americans.

The virtual event came shortly after Emgage Action endorsed Harris and Walz. It was not an easy decision for the organization to make, said Nada Al-Hanooti, Emgage Action’s national organizing deputy director, while adding that a third-party vote was tantamount to a vote for Donald Trump: “We don’t have time to punish the Democratic party.”

Emgage Action also endorsed Harris and Walz to help advance their anti-war objectives, said the group’s CEO, Wa’el Alzayat. “Our endorsement is a clear-eyed guidance to our voters on election day, when either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will be elected to become commander in chief,” said Alzayat. “This endorsement is not acquiescence to the status quo. On the contrary, we believe that the most effective way to advance our anti-war goals is to block Trump’s fascism and push for the change we want to see.”

In a tight run-up to the election, Muslim and Arab American voters will play a critical role in its outcome. During the last presidential election, Joe Biden won Michigan, home to 278,000 Arab Americans, by 154,000 votes. A survey of 1,200 Muslim American voters after the Democratic national convention found that respondents supported Harris and Jill Stein equally at 29% each, according to the Muslim civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations.

During the summit on Thursday, politicians and Muslim American leaders also warned of the dangers of a second Donald Trump presidency. During a June debate with Biden, Trump urged him to let Israel “finish the job” in its war on Gaza.

“We also have to recognize in this election, Donald Trump has made it clear where he stands with his anti-Muslim bigotry, with his threats to a Muslim ban,” Walz continued in his speech. “Vice-President Harris and I are committed that this White House will stand up to it, will continue to condemn in all forms anti-Islam, anti Arab sentiments being led by Donald Trump. But more importantly, a commitment that Muslims will be engaged in this administration and serve side by side.”

Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, the first Muslim American to be elected to Congress in 2006, also spoke at Thursday’s event, affirming his support for Harris and Walz, “because I believe this is the best way to stop the violence in Gaza and in Lebanon”, Ellison said. “Politics, friends, is really not about picking the person who’s already 100% on what you believe is right. So often, politics is about getting the person in office who you believe you can push. I know we cannot push Trump.”

Along with Ellison, several Muslim leaders have endorsed Harris and Walz in recent months, including the Black Muslim Leadership Council and the US representative Ilhan Omar. The group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz disbanded when the DNC denied a Palestinian American speaker, but later reaffirmed their support for the Democratic candidate.

The push to court Muslim voters 32 days before the election comes after months of criticism from Arab and Muslim American communities that the Democratic candidates – first Biden and then Harris – have failed to effectively engage them. Two weeks ago the Uncommitted National Movement, which mobilized more than 700,000 citizens to vote “uncommitted” or its equivalent in Democratic primaries throughout the nation, declined to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket. The Uncommitted National Movement said that Harris failed to meet a 15 September deadline to meet with Palestinian families and engage in discussions about a ceasefire deal.

Still, Thursday’s event served as a call to action for Emgage Action: “The Muslim American community must turn out in record numbers,” said Alzayat. “We are asking Muslim voters to also consider the human impact of a second Trump presidency, not just on us here in the United States … On the very people abroad we seek to help.”


Tim Walz makes direct appeal to conflicted Muslim voters

Alex Seitz-Wald
Thu, October 3, 2024 

Tim Walz in York, Pa., on Wednesday.


Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz addressed a Democratic Muslim voter group Thursday night as the Harris campaign works to engage a group of voters who threaten to defect in large numbers over the Biden administration’s handling of the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.

The virtual event, organized by Emgage Action, which endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris last week, was the most direct pitch yet to conflicted Muslim and Arab voters from her or Walz.

The appearance, which coincided with the launch of a group called Arab Americans for Harris-Walz, comes after Harris' top national security adviser met with Arab and Muslim community leaders.

Separately, administration officials had a series of meetings in Washington with Lebanese American leaders about evacuating U.S. citizens from southern Lebanon, where at least one American was killed this week during Israel’s military campaign there.

Some speakers on Thursday's call with Walz made it clear that their support for Harris comes with reservations, with one prominent Muslim Democrat saying voting for her was the “least bad thing.”

Walz, the governor of Minnesota, who is generally well-regarded among his state’s large Muslim population, vowed that a Harris-Walz administration would always have an open door, even if there's disagreement.

“As-Salaam-Alaikum,” Walz said on the call, using the Arabic greeting, before he turned to the war on many Arab and Muslim voters’ minds.

“I know the pain of this community is deep. Our hearts are broken,” he said of Israel’s war in Gaza and its recent attacks on Lebanon. “This war must end, and it must end now. The vice president’s working every day to ensure that, to make sure Israel secures itself, the hostages are home, the suffering in Gaza ends now, and the Palestinian people realize the right to dignity, freedom and self-determination.”

Walz warned about former President Donald Trump’s so-called Muslim ban and pledged that a Harris-Walz administration would combat Islamophobia and make a “commitment that Muslims will be engaged in this administration and serve side by side.”

Arab and Muslim voters have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in recent elections. But President Joe Biden’s support for Israel and the perceived lack of outreach and policy concessions from the Harris campaign have led many Muslim and Arab voters to say they’re not sure they can support Harris in November.

Low turnout or support from the demographic could have an impact in battleground states with large Muslim and Arab populations, especially Michigan, which is seen as a must-win for Harris.

At the Democratic National Convention in August, party officials denied a request from anti-war delegates elected on the Uncommitted slate to have a Palestinian American speak about the suffering in Gaza, leaving activists fuming. Some Muslim activists and elected officials they say are disappointed to have heard little from the Harris campaign since then.

During the campaign, some disaffected Muslim and Arab voters have flocked to third-party candidates like Jill Stein and Cornel West, both of whom picked Muslim running mates and have courted pro-Palestinian voters. Others say they will stay home on Election Day. A smaller number have endorsed Trump to punish Democrats, including the mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan — the first U.S. city to elect an all-Muslim government.

“We understand that some Muslim voters, any voter, may feel a moral dilemma voting for [Harris]. I do. My family does,” said Wa’el Alzayat, the CEO of Emgage Action. “But a vote for a third-party candidate is the road to victory for Donald Trump.”

Emgage’s national organizing director, Mohamed Gula, said he understood that some on the call might be offended by the group's decision to support Harris.

“We knew when we made the decision that we made that it would not be a popular decision,” he said. “There were days where we questioned [it] — and even up to today, we’re still struggling with it, with every conversation we have, with every text, with every door, with every call, with everything.”

But all the speakers said that despite their conflicted feelings, Trump would be worse for Palestinians and all the other issues Democrats care about.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who was the first Muslim elected to Congress, drew a distinction between Harris and Biden that Harris has been reluctant to draw herself.

“Kamala Harris is not the president of the United States. She cannot decide for President Biden” he said, noting her limited powers under the Constitution.

Harris has made some comments seen as more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than Biden has, but so far she has declined to show any distance from him on policy.

“We have to convince our friends and relatives that the best chance for peace is with Harris-Walz,” Ellison said, adding that Harris is a good listener who is "able to change her mind."

“We have to do what is the least bad thing or the best thing for our community," he said as he concluded his remarks.

Former Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich. — who said this may be the first time in his career that he has done a public event during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year — offered to give his cellphone number to anyone who needs convincing to vote for Harris.

“We cannot assume that she’s going to be great on this,” he said of Harris' Middle East policy. “So we’re going to have to fight for justice for Palestine, but we have solid ground to stand on if we’re fighting for it with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the White House, and we’re just in quicksand if Donald Trump [wins].”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who has criticized the Biden White House’s handling of Israel, was more pointed.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump will give carte blanche to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Khanna said. “The Palestinian people will be a complete afterthought.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com


Tim Walz appeals to Muslim voters in final push before election

Ashley Soriano
Sat, October 5, 2024 


Tim Walz appeals to Muslim voters in final push before election


(NewsNation) — Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz called for an end to the war in Gaza in his final push to appeal to Muslim voters before the November election.

Walz, currently the governor of Minnesota, was the headline speaker at the “Milion Muslim Votes 2024 Summit: Finding the Way Forward” on Thursday. Emgage Action, a Muslim-American advocacy group, hosted the webinar.

In a three-minute speech, Walz expressed his support for the Muslim and Arab communities amid the Middle East warfare, calling the destruction in Gaza “staggering and devastating.”

“This war must end and it must end now,” Walz said. “The Vice President is working every day to make sure of that.”

How war in Gaza could affect votes in swing states

U.S. support of Israel’s war in Gaza could prove to be a significant driver of how swing state voters show up at the polls this November.

Frustrated by President Joe Biden’s support of Israel, some voters opposing his policy pushed back against the president when he was running as the Democratic nominee.

However, with Vice President Kamala Harris taking over the Democratic Party, some political experts say she could have an opportunity to smooth over those voters.

Voters who disapprove of the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza may be the much-needed margin Harris and Walz need. Walz said the deaths and destruction are on his and Harris’ minds daily.

“Our hearts are broken,” Walz said.

DHS warns of risks around Oct. 7, November election in annual threat assessment

The organization’s CEO, Wa’el Alzayat, called Walz “a champion of American working families.”

“We know he’ll do all he can to make sure the next administration serves all of us,” Alzayat said.

Emgage Action posted to X, formerly Twitter, promoting the summit — the organization’s first post on the platform since February 2020 when they endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.



Walz touted his running mate’s efforts in uplifting the Muslim American community, pointing to Harris’ meeting with the mother of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who was stabbed to death last October.

“We unequivocally condemn hate and Islamophobia and stand with the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim American communities. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue working to protect our communities against hate and senseless violence,” Harris wrote in an Oct. 16, 2023, news release from the White House.

Walz has also recognized Muslim holidays throughout his tenure as Minnesota’s governor, hosting Iftar with his wife Gwen at the governor’s residence in 2019. Iftar is the meal eaten after sunset during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. In his appearance at Emgage Action’s summit, Walz said he was proud to have hosted the first-ever Iftar at the governor’s residence.



Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for this year’s presidential election, did not escape a mention by Walz, who called his past rhetoric “anti-Muslim bigotry.”

“It means the world to us for your endorsement because we stand side-by-side on those principles. As the Vice President says, ‘When we fight we win,’ and we’re glad to be in this fight alongside Emgage,” Walz said in his closing statement.

Walz’s remarks from his home in Minnesota, wherein he took no questions, came nearly one year after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Other elected officials, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17), participated in the summit.

NewsNation’s Safia Samee Ali contributed to this report.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Walz promises Muslims an equal role in Harris administration

Stephanie Kelly
Thu, October 3, 2024



By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tim Walz, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris's running mate, on Thursday promised Muslim Americans an equal role in their administration should they win the election, as Democrats scramble to win back Muslim backing that has eroded over U.S. support for Israel.

Vice President Harris and Walz, the governor of Minnesota, are trying to woo Muslim voters furious over President Joe Biden's administration's staunch backing of Israel during its year-old war in Gaza against Hamas.

Harris has pledged continued support for Israel while emphasizing her push for a ceasefire, words Walz echoed on Thursday, while promising a role for Muslims.

"Vice President Harris and I are committed that this White House... will continue to condemn in all forms anti-Islam, anti-Arab sentiments being led by Donald Trump, but more importantly, a commitment that Muslims will be engaged in this administration and serve side by side," Walz said during an online meeting organized by Emgage Action, a Muslim American advocacy group that recently endorsed Harris.

The Nov. 5 election between Harris and Republican Trump is expected to be tight, especially in battleground states like Michigan, home to a large Muslim American population. The U.S. continues to back Israel as it targets Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Though Emgage has endorsed Harris, other Muslim groups have urged supporters not to back her in the election, especially after Democrats rejected requests for a Palestinian speaker at the party convention in August.

Harris has offered no substantive policy differences on Israel from Biden, who stepped aside as presidential candidate in July.

Trump has said he would reinstate a "travel ban" he imposed as president restricting the entry into the United States of people from a list of largely Muslim-dominant countries. Biden rolled back the ban shortly after taking office in 2021.

"The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is staggering and devastating," Walz said. Harris is working to ensure "the suffering in Gaza ends now, and the Palestinian people realize the right to dignity, freedom and self determination."

The Israeli military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say. Israel was responding to an incursion by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7, 2023, which Israel says killed around 1,200 people and abducted about 250 hostages.

Gaza has suffered a humanitarian crisis with nearly all its 2 million people displaced and widespread hunger in the enclave.

Other speakers at the event included Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who both suggested that Harris could represent a shift from Biden's approach in the Middle East.

"I know she is a listener. She is able to change her mind," Ellison said, adding Harris was not born in the 1940s, as Biden and Trump were.

"I'm not promising you a rose garden" if Harris is elected, Ellison said. "But we'll be pushing on a door that's not locked."

It was unclear whether Walz, the first speaker, remained on the Zoom call to listen to other remarks. He took no questions.

While other Muslim groups have not supported Republican candidate Donald Trump, some are backing Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Heather Timmons and William Mallard)


Georgia's Muslim voters withdraw support from Harris, trump over Middle East stance


Eric Mock
Fri, October 4, 2024 


ATLANTA - A growing group of Muslim voters in Georgia say they won’t support Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, citing both candidates' vocal support of Israel in the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

In Georgia, where every vote is expected to count, the decision could significantly impact both campaigns. According to a recent poll by the Arab American Institute, Muslim voters in the nationa are almost evenly split between Harris and Trump. Losing support from this key group could prove costly for both.

Kristen Truitt, a Muslim American voter in Atlanta, has historically voted for Democrats but says he’s now breaking ranks over the party’s stance on Israel. "Just to give unlimited funds and access to Israel, I think that is totally ridiculous," Truitt said.

He’s part of a nationwide movement of Muslim voters who have decided not to vote for either major party candidate, citing frustration over U.S. support of Israel’s war in Gaza, which is now expanding into Lebanon. "What we're trying to say is we should really do away with the logic of voting for the quote unquote, lesser of two evils," said Kareem Rosshandler, Georgia co-chair of the "Abandon Harris" campaign.

Rosshandler's group is encouraging Muslim voters to go third-party, aiming to send a message to both Republicans and Democrats. "I think the main one is to say that the Muslim community in the United States won't be taken for granted," he added.

However, experts say the loss of Muslim voters may not affect both parties equally. "That would essentially have a greater adverse impact on the Harris-Waltz ticket than it would on Trump-Vance," said Alicia Hughes, assistant professor of law at Emory University and a voting expert. "Trump historically has not been able to count on those votes."

Rosshandler claims his group has already secured commitments from more than 10,000 Muslim voters to support third-party candidates. Yet Hughes warns that taking a stronger stance on Israel might not be a winning strategy for either side. "There's a great possibility that you would lose more from the change than you would actually gain," she said.

Both the Trump and Harris campaigns have been contacted for comment but have yet to respond.




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In Michigan, Harris doesn’t get hoped-for firefighters endorsement amid shifting labor loyalties


Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during an event at the Redford Township Fire Department North Station in Michigan on Friday.
(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

By Chris Megerian and Will Weissert
Oct. 4, 2024 


REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. —

It was the perfect place to welcome the endorsement of the firefighters union — a gleaming new firehouse in a blue-collar town just outside of Detroit in the key battleground state of Michigan.

But by the time Vice President Kamala Harris showed up in Redford Township on Friday, there was no endorsement waiting for her.

By a slim margin, the International Assn. of Firefighters declined to back any candidate, a reminder of the Democratic nominee’s struggle to lock down the same support from organized labor that President Biden won four years ago. The Teamsters also balked at an endorsement last month.

Harris is still gaining more endorsements than she’s losing. National teachers unions, building trade unions, the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers backed the vice president shortly after Biden ended his run for a second term. And the leader of the Michigan firefighters union, Matthew Sahr, showed up for Harris in Redford Township — although not to bestow the endorsement.

“We could have chosen to stay away. But what kind of message would that send?” Sahr said.

A spokesman for the union declined Friday to comment beyond a previously released statement that said there would be no endorsement for Harris or her opponent, former President Trump.

“The vice president is proud to have the support of organized labor, including firefighters across key battlegrounds like those who joined her in Michigan Friday,” said Harris campaign spokesman Brian Fallon. “She is the only candidate in this race who always stands with workers and has fought to protect overtime pay, worker pensions, and the right to organize.”

What unfolded nonetheless reflects the shifting loyalties in American politics as Harris vies with Trump for support among working-class voters who for years could be more solidly counted on to support Democrats.

Still, Harris didn’t mince words when she spoke at the firehouse, saying Trump “has been a union-buster his entire career” and would launch a “full-on attack” against organized labor.

Harris said Trump supports “right-to-work” laws that often make it more difficult to unionize, and said he had weakened federal employees’ unions. While he was president, Trump used a series of 2018 executive orders designed to reduce those unions’ powers to collectively bargain.

He has expressed support for right-to-work since his initial run for president in 2016 — while also making comments more generally supportive of labor rights when speaking to union audiences since then.

Harris also accused the former president of “making the same empty promises to the people of Michigan that he did before, hoping you will forget how he let you down.”

Her remarks followed U.S. dockworkers suspending their strike in hopes of reaching a new contract, sparing the country a damaging episode of labor unrest that could have rattled the economy. A tentative agreement that has been hailed by Harris was reached to raise salaries, although other issues still need to be resolved.

The vice president later addressed an evening rally in Flint. She spoke after basketball legend Magic Johnson, who said “nobody is going to outwork her,” and UAW President Shawn Fain, who described Trump as “a scab.”

Harris said that, unlike what Trump says about the Biden administration’s rules on electric vehicles, “I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.”

“But here’s what I will do, I will invest in communities like Flint,” she said.

Harris also criticized Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, after Vance, while campaigning in Michigan on Wednesday, refused to commit to continue federal support going to a GM plant in Lansing, Michigan’s state capital.

“Donald Trump’s running mate suggested that if Trump wins, he might let the Grand River Assembly Plant in Lansing close down,” Harris said as the crowd booed.

She said that, by contrast, the Biden administration had fought to keep the plant open, adding, “Michigan, we, together, fought hard for those jobs and you deserve a president who won’t put them at risk.”

Questions remain, though, about whether Harris can cement backing from most rank-and-file union members.

Justin Pomerville, the business manager at UA Local 85 in Michigan, said 70% of his members’ work hours are tied to the CHIPS and Science Act, which the Biden administration championed, pumping billions of dollars into semiconductor manufacturing.

The workers lay complex networks of pipes that carry exhaust, water and chemicals through high-tech facilities. However, Pomerville said some members aren’t aware of the connection between their jobs and the legislation.

“Unless someone tells them they’re working because of that, they don’t know,” he said.

The Democrats, meanwhile, have increased their support among white-collar professionals while Republicans try to make inroads among voters who didn’t attend college.

During a rally in Saginaw, Mich., on Thursday, Trump said Republicans are now “the party of the American worker,” glossing over his anti-union record as president.

The former president also made a trip to Flint last month in an event billed as focusing on the auto industry, a pillar of the battleground state. The two candidates have been in the same cities — and in some cases the exact same venues — within days or weeks of each other.

Trump spent Friday in Georgia with Gov. Brian Kemp, the latest sign that he’s patched up his rocky relationship with the top Republican in a key battleground state. The former president and the governor appeared in Evans, Ga., standing before pallets of goods including bottled water, diapers and paper towels.

“I have no doubt that whatever can be done is going to be done,” Trump said. “It’s a lot of effort. It’s a very heartbreaking situation.”

Later Friday, he held a town hall in Fayetteville in another storm-ravaged state, North Carolina. Speaking to an audience composed largely of people with military connections, he pledged to change the name of nearby Ft. Liberty back to its prior name, Ft. Bragg. The base, one of the U.S. military’s largest, was rechristened in 2022 in a push to rename military installations named for Confederate service members.

Trump repeated his promise to fire “woke generals,” blasted the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and said he’d make it easier for veterans to seek medical care outside the Veterans Administration healthcare system.

One man, introduced as a Vietnam War veteran named Dwight, gave Trump the Purple Heart he was awarded for injuries sustained while serving. He referenced the bullet that grazed Trump’s ear during a rally in Pennsylvania and Trump’s response.

“I couldn’t think of anybody more deserving to have a Purple Heart,” Dwight said to Trump. “You took it, you laid down there, you got back up and the first words out of your mouth were ‘fight, fight, fight.’ You didn’t even have anything to shoot back at him.”

Trump got a series of deferments to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, including one obtained with a physician’s letter saying he had bone spurs in his feet. In the 1990s, he said trying to avoid sexually transmitted infections was “my personal Vietnam.”

Megerian and Weissert write for the Associated Press. Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Fayetteville, N.C., and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.




Trump jokes about dead firefighter’s widow in leaked recording after Butler rally tragedy: ‘I handed her…’

ByAditi Srivastava
Oct 05, 2024 

In leaked audio, Donald Trump made a distasteful joke about Corey Comperatore and her widow at a high-profile dinner.

Donald Trump was heard making a controversial joke about the widow of firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed during a shooting at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally in an alleged leaked audio recording. The Guardian reported, how the Republican nominee recounted his conversation with Comperatore’s wife during a private dinner on August 10 in Aspen, where he handed her a monetary gift.

Trump showed the audience what he claimed to be a million-dollar cheque for Comperatore's family as well as for the two victims who were seriously injured in the incident.(X)

He then went on to make an inappropriate remark about the situation. The dinner, which featured several high-profile attendees, has drawn backlash.

Trump jokes about Corey Comperatore and his wife

On July 13, Donald Trump was addressing a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he became the target of a failed assassination attempt, which was aborted at the last minute by the Secret Service.

While the former president was unharmed, the rally tragically saw the loss of a brave firefighter who was shot dead after diving to protect his family as Thomas Crooks opened fire. The 12 min recording obtained by The Guardian was from a dinner held at the $38 million home of art collectors and investors John and Amy Phelan on August 10 in Aspen, Colorado.

“So they’re going to get millions of dollars but the woman, the wife, this beautiful woman, I handed her the check—we handed her the check,” the Republican party candidate said recalling his meeting with Helen Comperatore. “and she said, ‘This is so nice, and I appreciate it, but I’d much rather have my husband.’ Now I know some of the women in this room wouldn’t say the same. 

He quipped "I know at least four couples. There are four couples, Governor [Abbott], that I know and you’re not one of them. At least four couples here would have been thrilled, actually.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Rep. Lauren Boebert, Steve Wynn, and billionaire Thomas Peterffy were among the guests at the event, which required couples to contribute $500,000 to join the host committee or at least $25,000 to attend.

Trump ranted about migrants

During the dinner attended by approximately 100 guests, with Trump arriving in his private jet at the venue previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein, The Guardian reported that the former president unleashed a profanity-laden tirade against undocumented migrants, a topic he never forgets to bring up, especially in the days leading up to the November presidential election.

Also read: Male A-lister in Diddy Sex tape ‘horrified’ by leak in media: ‘If this footage gets out…’

He criticised certain politically savvy leaders for allegedly planning the entry of convicted criminals into the U.S. to undermine the country. Trump also recounted an alleged false incident involving over 20 individuals who traveled to the U.S. after being released from prison in a Central African nation.


“We said, ‘Where do you come from?’ They said, ‘Prison.’ ‘What did you do?’ ‘None of your f---ing business what we did,’” he reportedly narrated an exchange between an alleged migrant and an unnamed official. “You know why? Because they’re murderers.”

In the recording, Trump appeared to acknowledge that he may have gone too far with his language, stating, “I hate to use that foul language.” He then characterized the individuals entering the U.S. as tough, mentioning they were coming from various regions, including Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, suggesting they were worse than American criminals.

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