Ramaswamy calls for unity, defends Trump’s immigration plan
ABC News
Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate and ally of Donald Trump, said the president-elect would bring the country together while also defending Trump’s immigration plan for mass deportations.
Speaking to “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Ramaswamy urged Democrats to give Trump a chance in office and called on them to resist efforts to cast him as a threat to democracy.
“What you’re hearing from Donald Trump is he is going to be a president for all Americans. He is a guy who, in that first term, he had crowds chanting ‘lock her up’ for Hillary Clinton. He didn’t prosecute her. I think Donald Trump is focused on what makes people’s lives better. And actually, my message to Democrats out there, even those who didn’t vote for Donald Trump, is to give him a chance to actually make your life better,” Ramaswamy said.
“I think it’s time to turn the page on a lot of these histrionics, or Hitler comparisons,” he added, before later saying that “success is unifying. Nothing’s going to unite this country more than economic growth.”
Ramaswamy ran against the former and now president-elect in the 2024 GOP primary as a culture warrior in Trump’s image, though he ended his campaign the night of the Iowa caucuses and endorsed the former president.
On Sunday, he also defended Trump’s vow for a mass deportation force, predicting that the tougher enforcement measures will also lead to undocumented immigrants leaving the country on their own.
“Donald Trump’s campaign promise was the largest mass deportation in American history, and he’s going to keep that promise,” Ramaswamy said. “Not an iota, not a cent of government spending should go to subsidize this, not to sanctuary cities, not to federal aid to people who are in this country illegally, and we’re going to see a large number, by the millions, of self-deportations as well.”
Pressed by Karl on the fate of the so-called “Dreamers” — people who were brought to the United States as children without valid documentation — Ramaswamy declined to explicitly say how the incoming administration would approach this group of undocumented immigrants, which includes many adults who have spent most of their life in the U.S. During his first term, the Trump administration attempted to rescind the Obama-era program that allowed such migrants to stay and work in the country.
“I say this as the kid of legal immigrants to this country, as the proud child of legal immigrants to the United States of America. If your first act of entering this country broke the law, that doesn’t allow you to remain in this country,” Ramaswamy said. “One is, no migration without consent. Think about your nation like a body. Number two is that consent should only be granted, and should be granted to migrants who benefit the United States of America. But those who enter without consent must be removed.”
As a vocal Trump ally, Ramaswamy is thought of as a potential future member of the Trump administration, though he did not specify what role would interest him.
“There’s a couple great options on the table. I want to have the biggest possible impact on this country. We’re not going to sort that out in the press… we’re having some high-impact discussions.”
Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Uncommitted movement, the pro-Palestinian group critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, announced Thursday that it will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, but also does not recommend a third-party vote in November.
The group made the announcement as Harris campaigns Thursday in Michigan, home to sizable Arab American and Muslim populations that could hold outsized sway this year in the crucial swing state. The movement was founded to push voters to vote “uncommitted” on primary ballots rather than punch a ticket for Biden to register their discontent with his tight support for Israel amid the bloody war in Gaza.
The group said in a statement that “Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her.”
Still, the group added that it “opposes a Donald Trump presidency, whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing” and “is not recommending a third-party vote in the Presidential election, especially as third party votes in key swing states could help inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency given our country’s broken electoral college system.”
“We urge Uncommitted voters to register anti-Trump votes and vote up and down the ballot. Our focus remains on building a broad anti-war coalition both inside and outside the Democratic Party,” the group said.
The statement comes before Harris campaigns in Detroit, where she’ll both rally with supporters and hold an event with Oprah Winfrey.
Uncommitted has remained a thorn in the Democratic Party’s side since the war in Gaza kicked off last year following Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began.
The group repeatedly criticized Biden, and Uncommitted votes in Democratic primaries raised concerns about cracks in the president’s base of support, even before a ruinous June debate tanked his campaign. Uncommitted netted more than 100,000 votes in the primary in Michigan, where Trump won by about 11,000 votes in 2016.
The movement has demanded that Harris meet with Palestinian-American families who have lost family members in Gaza, as well as support an immediate cease-fire (which she has done) and an arms embargo on Israel (which she has said she opposes). Uncommitted activists also waged a sit-in at the Democratic National Convention after the party refused their demand to have a Palestinian speaker make an address.
The Harris campaign has said she will continue to meet with leaders from Palestinian, Muslim, Israeli and Jewish communities.
Harris, for her part, has sounded a more empathetic tone than Biden about the civilian death toll in Gaza but has insisted on Israel’s right to defend itself and refused to make the kind of policy shifts from Biden that the Uncommitted movement sought.
Harris’ campaign sounded a similar note in a statement, with a spokesperson vowing that she would “work to earn every vote, unite our country, and to be a President for all Americans” and “will continue working to bring the war in Gaza to an end in a way where Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
Uncommitted organizers have also remained vociferously opposed to Trump, who has bear-hugged Israel and used “Palestinian” as a slur.
The war in Gaza has loomed large in Michigan given its electorate and tight statewide margins.
A super PAC affiliated with Republicans is running ads in Michigan ZIP codes with heavy Muslim or Arab populations highlighting Harris’ support for Israel and second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s Judaism, a seemingly back-handed attempt to hurt support for the Democratic ticket there. Harris’ campaign is also running digital ads targeted to heavily Arab neighborhoods in and around Detroit emphasizing her statement that she “will not be silent about human suffering in Gaza.”
In a sign of how contentious the war has been, critics of the administration’s approach to Gaza have been in turn critical of each other.
“Translation: We can’t endorse Kamala, even though we’d like to, because the community we claim to represent would tear us apart. So instead, we’re going to publicly state that we don’t support her while also not endorsing any alternative, effectively helping her win,” Abandon Harris, another group that wants the U.S. to take a tougher stance in its relationship with Israel, said in a statement.
Still, Michigan Democrats touted Uncommitted’s statement, particularly urging against third-party votes, as the best-case scenario for Harris given that the policy shifts they were asking for would have been difficult for the vice president to swallow.
Jim Ananich, the former Democratic state Senate leader in Michigan, dubbed the statement “close to a win.”
Josh Hovey, a Michigan communications strategist, added that “the best case would have been a full endorsement because the margin of victory will likely be very close again this year and Harris needs to win this state if she’s going to win the Electoral College.”
But “this is the second-best scenario and sends a message to Harris that they need her to do more on this issue while also recognizing that her victory is the one that is most likely to result in the U.S. taking a stronger approach to addressing the humanitarian crisis,” Hovey added.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is denying he praised Adolf Hitler as having done “some good things,” as his former chief of staff and retired Marine general John Kelly was reported to have said this week.
“Never said it,” Trump said, answering reporter questions as he campaigned in battleground Nevada on Thursday.
Kelly told The New York Times in an extensive interview that Trump spoke positively of Hitler while in office. Kelly expressed overall concern that Trump would act more like a dictator if elected to another four years in the White House and said, in his view, the former president fit the definition of a “fascist.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly said of Trump.
Kelly’s comments came after The Atlantic reported that Trump once said he wanted generals like Hitler had.
Trump also denied saying the comments attributed to him in The Atlantic story.
“No, I never said that. I never said that. It’s a rag that’s made-up stories before. He’s done it before,” Trump said.
“Right before the election. It’s just a failing magazine,” Trump continued.
Harris pointed to Kelly’s comments as she campaigned alongside former President Barack Obama in Georgia on Thursday night.
“Take a moment to think about what that means, that Trump said, quote, ‘Hitler did some good things,’ and that Trump wished he had generals like Hitler’s, who would be loyal to Trump and not to America’s Constitution,” Harris said.
Obama also hit Trump over the reported remarks.
“The interesting thing is, he acts so crazy, and it’s become so common, that people no longer take it seriously,” Obama said of Trump. “I’m here to explain to you just because he acts goofy does not mean his presidency wouldn’t be dangerous.”
“Now, I happen to know John Kelly and Mark Milley,” Obama added (Milley was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). “They served under me when I was commander in chief. These are serious people … They are people who have never in the past even talked about politics because they believe that the military should be above politics,” he said. “But the reason they’re speaking up is because they have seen that in Donald Trump’s mind, the military does not exist to serve the Constitution or the American people.”
During a pull-aside interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump lashed out at Harris for calling him a “fascist,” saying “everyone knows that’s not true.”
“I’ve never seen anybody so inept at speaking. I mean, I thought she her performance was horrible,” he said about Harris’ CNN town hall appearance.
“But she did call me a fascist, and everyone knows that’s not true. They call me everything until, you know, something sticks,” he said.
State Department photo by Freddie Everett/Public Domain
(NEW YORK) — The United States is dealing with a “heightened threat environment,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says, as the FBI is investigating an apparent second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
It’s not only the “historic threat of foreign terrorists” that persists, but also home-grown extremists, Mayorkas said Tuesday.
“We’re now speaking of individuals radicalized to violence because of ideologies of hate, anti-government sentiment, personal narratives and other motivations propagated on online platforms,” the secretary said during the POLITICO AI & Tech Summit.
Threats from both at home and abroad are worrisome, senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and members of Congress say. FBI Director Christopher Wray has previously said he sees “blinking red lights everywhere” in terms of terror threats.
On Sunday, Ryan Wesley Routh was allegedly lying in wait for nearly 12 hours near the Republican presidential nominee’s West Palm Beach golf course before a Secret Service agent spotted him, according to a criminal complaint.
Routh did not get off a single shot, Secret Service Acting Director Ron Rowe said Monday, and at no time was the former president in the sight line of the suspect. The suspect was taken into custody and faces charges of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, prosecutors said.
The former president has the same level of security that is “quite approximate” to President Joe Biden’s, Mayorkas said Tuesday, adding that agents did their job on Sunday and “they deserve to be commended for it.”
Trump, speaking Tuesday in a phone interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, also praised the Secret Service for stopping the apparent assassination attempt.
“I’m fine. The Secret Service did a good job, actually,” he said.
Trump also spoke about the heightened threat environment, telling ABC News, “Probably always been dangerous, but it’s more so now, I think.”
In the wake of the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a bulletin to law enforcement across the country warning them that violent extremists could try to conduct “follow-on or retaliatory” attacks at events over the next few months related to the 2024 presidential election.
During a March hearing in front of Congress, the FBI director testified that threats from various groups have reached a “whole other level.”
“Even before [Hamas’ attack against Israel on] October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective — in the sense that it’s the first time I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Wray said on March 11.
“The threats from homegrown violent extremists — that is jihadist-inspired, extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations and state-sponsored terrorist organizations — all being elevated at one time since October 7, though, that threat has gone to a whole other level,” he said at the time.
In the aftermath of the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, the Secret Service said it changed the way the former president is protected. Former director Kimberly Cheadle, who came under scrutiny for the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt, also resigned.
Secretary Mayorkas appointed a new acting director — Rowe — and praised him for stepping up and leading the agency.
“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Mayorkas said at the time. “At the same time, the Secret Service must effectively carry on its expansive mission that includes providing 24/7 protection for national leaders and visiting dignitaries and securing events of national significance in this dynamic and heightened threat environment.”
During an April hearing in front of a congressional committee, the secretary said there’s been a “dramatic increase” in the number of threats facing Jewish and Muslim people in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
“We’re certainly operating in a charged political environment, and there are many reasons for that,” Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News on Monday.
“Certainly the partisanship of our country in recent years has something to do with it, easy access to buy military-style weapons also plays a role in it, and also importantly, our adversaries are purposefully trying to stoke divisions within our country between Americans through social media and other means,” he said.
The intelligence community has warned of foreign actors, mainly Russia, China and Iran, carrying out influence operations in the United States with an aim to divide the country ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department alleged that two employees of Russia Today, or RT — a Russian state-controlled media outlet, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme “to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”
“So it’s important that the Department of Justice just announced a series of actions to prosecute individuals who are involved in a Russian plot to try to divide Americans against each other politically,” said Magaziner, who’s also the ranking member on the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence.
“And we need all of our federal agencies, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, CISA [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] and others, to remain vigilant and to expose those foreign actors who are trying to turn Americans against each other,” he added.
John Sandweg, former general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security under then-President Barack Obama, agreed.
“The situation is inflamed by a multitude of factors, but I do think it is important to emphasize the role that foreign state adversaries are playing — not only with regards to their support for extremist groups abroad, or efforts to disrupt and influence the election, but also through their efforts to further divide us as a nation,” Sandweg told ABC News on Monday, adding this is an “unprecedented” threat environment.
