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Five things to know about the $6 billion Iran deal now back in spotlight
Around 2,300 lives have been lost as of Wednesday evening in Israel and Gaza in a sequence of horrific events that began with a surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday.
The bloodshed has commanded the world’s attention.
But it has also returned focus to a recent deal between the Biden administration and Iran.
Critics say it provided a massive cash infusion to a key American adversary and may even have contributed to the Hamas attack.
Defenders say the two issues are separate and that the administration did the right thing.
Here’s what to know.
What was the deal?
The core of the controversy is a deal the Biden administration reached with Iran to secure the release of five Americans.
The outlines of that deal were announced in August, and the five Americans were freed in mid-September.
The Biden administration considered all five Americans to have been wrongfully detained.
Two of the five were not publicly identified. The others were Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi.
“Five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home,” President Biden said at the time.
In return, five Iranians held in the United States were also allowed to leave and — crucially — $6 billion in previously frozen Iranian assets was freed up.
The money had been in South Korea, and banks were reluctant to transfer it for fear of running afoul of sanctions.
Under the deal, the money was transferred to Doha, Qatar, where it can be used by Iran for certain approved purchases.
The deal came under criticism at the time, and it is now back in the spotlight because of Iran’s long-standing support of Hamas.
So America gave Iran $6 billion?
No.
The $6 billion was always Iranian money. Some critics have described the money as coming from American taxpayers. It did not.
In addition, Iran is not at liberty to do whatever it pleases with the money.
Its use is supposed to be tightly limited to humanitarian purposes and the purchase of food or medicine.
Put simply, the money in Qatar functions like credit. The Iranians can place orders for humanitarian goods. Those goods will then be delivered to Iran, and the purchase price will be transferred from the accounts in Qatar to the vendor.
“The facts of this arrangement are when this money arrives in these accounts in Qatar, it will be held there under strict oversight by the United States Treasury Department and the money can only be used for humanitarian purposes,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a Sept. 12 press briefing. “We will remain vigilant in watching the spending of those funds and have the ability to freeze them again if we need to.”
Administration officials have also said none of the money has been spent yet.
For all these reasons, they push back against the accusation that the deal has facilitated Iran’s funding of Hamas or other comparable groups such as Hezbollah.
What do critics say?
In big-picture terms, there are two main criticisms — one about the money itself and the other about the ethics of the deal.
Regarding the money, opponents of the deal think the White House’s focus on the specific terms and conditions is disingenuous.
They argue that the bottom line is simple: Iran has access to $6 billion that it did not have access to three months ago.
Whether or not the specific account in Qatar is confined to humanitarian use is irrelevant, they contend. If all those funds were used tomorrow for needed medicine, for example, Tehran would have $6 billion in its regular coffers that it hadn’t had to spend. Therefore, some or all of that money would be freed up, possibly to be used for nefarious purposes.
“To think that they are not moving money around is irresponsible. … They are moving money around to threaten those they hate. They hate Israel; they hate America; they are going to continue to use this,” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on social media in the aftermath of Hamas’s initial attack that “Iran has helped fund this war against Israel and Joe Biden’s policies that have gone easy on Iran have helped fill their coffers.”
Former President Trump has repeatedly hit out at the deal in recent days.
“Crooked Joe Biden must take back and freeze the 6 billion dollars right now, before it is too late,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “How could anyone be so incompetent and stupid?”
The other argument from critics is an age-old one — namely, that doing deals for the return of American citizens incentivizes hostage-taking.
At the time the deal first emerged, former Vice President Mike Pence wrote on social media that it amounted to “the largest ransom payment in American history.”
The ethical quandary over hostages affects other nations as well as the United States — including Israel.
Back in 2011, Israel agreed to the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners — including more than 200 who were serving life sentences — to secure the release of a member of the Israel Defense Forces, Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas for five years.
But was Iran behind the Hamas attack?
It depends how you see it.
Iran’s support of Hamas is so pivotal that Tehran can fairly be seen as complicit in all the group’s activities.
In addition, a Wall Street Journal story soon after the attack reported that Iranian officials had given “the green light” for the attack at a recent meeting in Lebanon.
However, no other news organization has confirmed the Journal’s report.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration and — crucially — the Israeli government have each said they have no specific evidence so far that Iran planned the Hamas attack.
Beyond condemnation, can Republicans do anything?
They can try.
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a bill to refreeze the Iranian money.
The text of the bill runs to just two pages and, at its core, it simply states that the release of funds to Iran under the deal “is hereby prohibited.”
McConnell said: “The civilized world must re-impose serious consequences on the regime that aids and abets murderous evil against innocent Israelis. The United States must lead that effort by our example, and freezing Iranian assets is an important first step.”
It’s too early to gauge how much congressional support the move has, and of course a decision by the Biden administration to refreeze the funds would render the question moot.
One argument against the refreezing of the funds is that it could possibly make future hostage negotiations harder — suggesting to adversaries that the U.S. could renege on any commitments made.
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Secretary of State Blinken arrives in Israel in show of solidarity following Hamas terrorist attacks
Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel Thursday morning as a show of support for the longtime ally following Hamas’ terrorist attacks on the country on Saturday.
Blinken was greeted by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and other officials after departing the plane at the Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, which is on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
BLINKEN TO VISIT ISRAEL TO MEET WITH OFFICIALS IN SHOW OF SUPPORT AFTER HAMAS ATTACK
Blinken will meet with senior Israeli officials and “reiterate his condolences for the victims of the terrorist attacks against Israel and condemn those attacks in the strongest terms,” a statement from his office said Tuesday.
“ The Secretary will also reaffirm the United States’ solidarity with the government and people of Israel,” the statement said. “ He will also discuss measures to bolster Israel’s security and underscore the United States’ unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself.”
According to the Secretary of State website, Blinken is also scheduled to travel to Jordan before his scheduled departure on Friday, Oct. 13.
Israel has launched a counteroffensive and bombarded the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas, with airstrikes in what many believe will precede a ground operation.
In addition to military aid, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on Sunday that the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group was moving to the Eastern Mediterranean was moving to the Mediterranean to reinforce deterrence in the region.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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Future uncertain for speaker nominee Scalise in divided Republican caucus
House Republicans are likely to meet behind closed doors on Thursday to try and hash out their differences ahead of a chamber-wide vote to elect the next speaker.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., won a closed-door conference vote on Wednesday afternoon to become the Republican majority’s next candidate for speaker.
But any confidence in a quick House vote to seal the deal dissipated quickly as several GOP lawmakers publicly announced they would not support him in a chamber-wide vote.
“They knew I was with [Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio] in the room, and I thought I might go with Scalise if everybody was gonna get behind Scalise, that was fine, but it’s just not that way,” said Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., after emerging from a meeting with the hardline-right House Freedom Caucus. “There’s just people that are not on his team.”
HOUSE REPUBLICANS CHOOSE SCALISE AS THEIR CANDIDATE FOR SPEAKER AFTER MCCARTHY’S OUSTER
Scalise netted 113 Republican votes on Wednesday while Jordan won 99.
Some members said they were frustrated by Scalise allies voting down an earlier measure aimed at raising the threshold to elect a speaker candidate to 217 — a majority of the House.
“I put the amendment forward this morning to say, let’s figure this out, because I can count votes. I’m not a whip, but I can count votes,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who led the amendment that was backed by a significant number of GOP lawmakers.
‘UNMITIGATED S—SHOW’: HOUSE REPUBLICANS FUME OVER SPEAKER VACANCY AMID ISRAEL CRISIS
“I was just making it very clear that if you rush this to the floor, I’m a hard no. So we’ll go now have some conversations and go figure out where we’re gonna go.”
“But I did not want this to go to the floor before we’re united, and we should have done that this morning,” Roy said.
The tension among the fractured GOP caucus was palpable. When leaving a meeting with GOP leaders, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., the pragmatic leader of the Main Street Caucus, said the discord “does not look good for the House or for the country.”
“Frankly, I think it would be easier in a political environment where people understood that governing requires some give and take,” Johnson said. ” I never get everything I want in any negotiation. There are a lot of people around here who don’t understand that, and it makes it hard to govern. It is not a problem unique to the Republican Party, but it is on full display in our party today.”
Asked if Republicans need to huddle together in a room to settle their differences, Johnson joked: “I would like to be able to have the power to lock some people in some places, for sure.”
With the current makeup of the House, a GOP speaker candidate can afford to lose only four votes to win the gavel without Democratic support. As of Wednesday evening, at least 11 Republicans have said they will not vote for Scalise.
It’s likely that Scalise allies will look to hold a vote as soon as viably possible — but it’s not immediately clear how soon that will be.
One Republican lawmaker who spoke with Fox News Digital said “Seems like we are a long ways off” when asked if a vote could be expected Thursday.
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Jake Sullivan’s foreign policy blunders resurface after hyping up Middle East peace days before Hamas attacks
A top adviser to President Biden is facing criticism over a comment he made shortly before the Hamas attacks on Israel.
Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the Middle East was the calmest it has been in decades, bringing to the forefront other controversial foreign policy decisions the Biden adviser has been involved with over the last decade.
“What we said is want to depressurize, de-escalate, and ultimately integrate the Middle East region,” Sullivan said at “The Atlantic Festival” on September 29.
“The war in Yemen is in its 19th month of truce, for now the Iranian attacks against U.S. forces have stopped, our presence in Iraq is stable, I emphasize for now because all of that can change and the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades,” he said.
Eight days later, Hamas launched an attack on Israel that killed at least 1,200 Israelis causing many conservatives to blast Sullivan’s comments on social media.
DEMOCRATS JOIN REPUBLICAN PUSH FOR BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO REFREEZE $6B IRANIAN ASSETS
“We are less safe with this Biden team,” former Trump Acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Richard Grenell posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to Sullivan’s comment.
Matthew Brodsky, senior fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, wrote on X that Sullivan’s comment was an “outright lie at the time he said it.”
Sullivan has been at the center of several controversies in recent years, many of which have been brought up by conservatives on social media in light of his Middle East comment, including the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In the days following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Sullivan and the State Department were criticized for being unable to say exactly how many Americans had been left behind.
WHITE HOUSE SAYS ’20 OR MORE’ AMERICANS ARE MISSING IN ISRAEL AMID HAMAS ATTACKS
On August 22, 2021, more than a week after frenzied scenes of evacuating Afghans at the Kabul airport began to surface, Sullivan admitted that the administration did not know how many Americans were still in Afghanistan.
“We cannot give you a precise number,” Sullivan told CNN. “We believe it is several thousand Americans who we are working with now to try to get safely out of the country.”
At one point, it was believed that nearly 450 Americans were still stuck in the country two months after the U.S. withdrawal.
Sullivan said on August 16 that “the president did not think it was inevitable that the Taliban were going to take control of Afghanistan” and that the situation devolved at “unexpected speed.”
REPUBLICANS SEND LETTER TO JAKE SULLIVAN DEMANDING ‘TOTAL FIGURES’ FOR UKRAINE AID
“He should’ve lost his job after the botched Afghanistan withdrawal,” Abigail Jackson, press secretary for GOP Senator Josh Hawley, posted on X on Sunday.
In 2021, the top oversight Republican in Congress called for the removal of Sullivan from his position due to his position at the “epicenter” of failed foreign policy decisions over the last ten years including the Benghazi terror attack that killed 3 American contractors and a U.S. Ambassador.
Sullivan served as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff and policy adviser at the State Department during the 2012 attack on U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
“From Benghazi to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Jake Sullivan has been at the epicenter of the worst foreign policy crises and decisions over the past decade,” Ranking Member on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, told Fox News Digital at the time. “Given this administration’s tendency to create self-inflicted crises, it’s no surprise Jake Sullivan has been given a top post at the Biden White House.”
A source involved in Libya policy in Washington throughout Clinton’s tenure, speaking on background, told Fox News Digital in 2020 that Sullivan was a prominent — albeit quiet — player in the controversial U.S. overthrow of Libya with Clinton’s unflinching support.
Republicans also raised questions about Sullivan this past summer, Fox News Digital reported, after it was revealed that Sullivan served with Hunter Biden on the board of the Truman National Security Project, a liberal foreign policy think tank, for roughly two years before Sullivan joined the Biden campaign in 2020.
During the Clinton presidential campaign, Sullivan also notoriously pushed the Trump-Russia collusion narrative to reporters. He told members of the House Intelligence committee in a December 2017 interview that prior to the 2016 election he briefed reporters on his suspicions.
“[B]asically we sat with them and walked through what we understood to be the case from — in terms of the DNC hack and leak, what we believed to be the case with respect to Russian involvement,” Sullivan said, “and then what we thought the upshot of this was, which is you now have the start of a much more aggressive phase of an intelligence-led operation by foreign power, and there’s likely to be more as we go forward, and people should really pay attention to this.”
“Jake Sullivan has a lot to answer for,” GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital earlier this year.
“He has repeatedly lied for perceived political gain – whether that be about the Russia Collusion hoax or the Hunter Biden laptop. And now he’s Biden’s national security adviser? He should resign immediately.”
Sullivan was recently accused by former White House official Mike McCormick of being a “conspirator” in the Biden family’s “kickback scheme” in Ukraine when Biden was vice president.
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Sullivan denied the allegations, telling reporters that he had nothing to do with such an operation.
Sullivan has also been criticized in the past for his involvement in the U.S. foreign policy dealings in Syria and Myanmar.
During a 2019 interview with the New Yorker, Sullivan said it was “a great regret of mine” that “we were not able to more effectively play a role in stopping hundreds of thousands of people from dying in Syria and millions and millions more losing their homes.”
The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital’s Cameron Cawthorne and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
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Trump endorsement fails with surprise GOP speaker pick of Scalise over Jordan
Former President Trump’s endorsement for the new House speaker failed on Wednesday when the GOP picked House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., as their nominee for top House lawmaker.
Trump endorsed House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to be the new House speaker last week, which many expected could push Jordan over the finish line.
Jordan received a lot of public support and endorsements from his House colleagues, but any expectations that he would cruise to the nomination over Scalise were dashed on Wednesday.
JORDAN URGES SUPPORTERS TO BACK SCALISE FOR SPEAKER AS HOUSE GOES INTO RECESS
Scalise took the nomination over Jordan in a secret ballot, drawing questions about the strength of the former president’s endorsement.
Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota — a moderate member — told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that he thinks “on the surface” the pick of Scalise over Jordan “seems like a pretty clear repudiation of Trump, and a fairly public one.”
Phillips said he thinks “supporters of Mr. Scalise would probably have to think twice about [that] before they actually make that vote for reasons” that people would “understand.”
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, seemed to dismiss the idea that Scalise’s victory was a repudiation of Trump’s endorsement.
“Well, you got some people in the conference that obviously have some issues with Donald Trump,” Nehls told reporters after the GOP conference. “But I would probably say to those in the Republican conference that have problems with Donald Trump, get over yourself, because Donald Trump is the leader of our party. Make no mistake.”
When pressed on what it means that Trump’s preferred candidate failed to win a majority of the GOP votes, Nehls said: “But he also got 99 votes. Jim Jordan did get 99. That’s a significant number.”
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Since the nomination, Jordan said he plans to vote for Scalise for speaker and is even expected to give a nominating speech on the House floor whenever a vote is held.
Jordan has also been encouraging his supporters to back Scalise once the nomination hits the House floor for a vote.
Some Republicans, including Reps. Chip Roy and Marjorie Taylor Greene have said they will not vote for Scalise.
The news comes as Republicans look to mint a new House speaker after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster last week.
McCarthy has since backed Scalise, his former number two, for the speakership.
Fox News’s Elizabeth Elkind and Kelly Phares contributed reporting.
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2024 Divide: Republican presidential candidates spar over Israel-Hamas conflict
The sneak attack by Hamas on Israel — the deadliest assault on the Jewish State in decades — instantly rocked the 2024 White House race, altering the conversation on the presidential campaign trail.
While the Republican presidential candidates have tried to one-up each other in placing blame with President Biden for the horrific attack and showcasing their support for Israel, the Hamas assault has also quickly become a wedge issue in the GOP nomination fight.
Hours after Hamas militants swarmed into Israel, former Vice President Mike Pence took aim at Biden, decrying what he called American’s “retreat on the world stage.”
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But the former vice president, on the campaign trail in Iowa, seemed to save his most scathing rebuke for three of his rivals for the nomination.
Pence pointed fingers at “voices of appeasement like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis that I believe have run contrary to the tradition in our party that America is the leader of the free world.”
The growing schism in the Republican Party over America’s role policing the world — evident in GOP fight over continued support for Ukraine in its year and a half long war against Russian aggression — may be spreading to Israel, where Republicans have long showcased their unyielding support for Jerusalem.
MIDDLE EAST BATTLE INSTANTLY ROCKS 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
It’s no surprise that Pence was the first to take aim at other GOP White House hopefuls and has repeatedly criticized some of his rivals, including his former running mate, over their lack of support for Kyiv.
“This is also what happens when you have leaders in the Republican Party signaling retreat on the world stage,” Pence argued. Evoking the late President Ronald Reagan, as he often does, Pence emphasized that “it’s time to get back to peace through strength.”
Another part of the rift in the Republican presidential primary between the GOP’s growing isolationist wing and more traditional conservatives pushing for a muscular U.S. role overseas, could be seen in a speech Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina delivered Tuesday afternoon at a think tank in Washington D.C., and in an ensuing interview on the Fox News Channel.
While blasting Biden for having “blood on his hands,” and claiming that the president’s weakness “invited the attack” by Hamas, which was supported by Iran, Scott targeted DeSantis and Ramaswamy.
“Vivek Ramaswamy has said that the definition of success is reducing America’s support for Israel,” Scott argued. He accused the multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur and first-time candidate of proposing “that we surrender Taiwan to the Chinese Communist Party as long as we’ve relocated some factories.”
WATCH FOX NEWS LIVE COVERAGE OF THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Scott also blasted the Florida governor, noting that “DeSantis once dismissed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as just some ‘territorial dispute.’”
“The last thing we need is a Joe Biden wing of the Republican Party on foreign policy,” he argued.
Scott, who has been running a positive and uplifting conservative campaign, for months avoided criticizing his rivals, including Trump — the commanding front-runner for the GOP nomination as he makes this third straight White House run.
But the senator has turned up the volume against his rivals in recent weeks, as his standing in polls has flat lined.
DeSantis, campaigning in Iowa on Monday ahead of the Scott speech, pushed back at Pence.
“If Mike Pence wants to blame me for what’s happening, I think that most people would just laugh at that. What a joke,” DeSantis told reporters.
And on Tuesday, the Ramaswamy campaign fired back at Scott.
“We understand Tim Scott is attempting to gain some semblance of relevance in this race, but lying in the face of these barbaric atrocities isn’t an effective way to do so,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement. “Vivek has offered a clear, rational response that supports Israel while avoiding another U.S.-led disaster in the Middle East.”
Ramaswamy also fired away at former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the first two years of the Trump administration.
Haley, who knocked the 38-year-old Ramaswamy at the first Republican presidential nomination debate in August by arguing “you have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” urged earlier this week that Israel “needs to eliminate Hamas without question” during an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
Ramaswamy on Tuesday emphasized that “I am disappointed and deeply concerned by the remarks of certain presidential candidates including Nikki Haley who have irresponsibly called the Hamas attack an ‘attack on America’ and rabidly shout ‘FINISH THEM!!’ repeatedly without offering a pragmatic path forward.”
Doug Heye, a veteran Republican strategist and communicator, offered that blowup of warfare in the Mideast was an unexpected development on the campaign trail.
“I think that there’s sort of a figuring it out as we go along part of this because clearly what happened this weekend was a surprise to everyone,” Heye, who’s neutral in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, said.
Heye noted that the “candidates can take swipes at each other, but this is an opportunity for them to demonstrate leadership as well.”
“I look at this as an opportunity for candidates with foreign policy experience to shine,” he said. And Heye pointed to Haley and Pence “as the two obvious examples.”
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GOP challenger roasts red-state Dem governor over Biden support as Election Day draws near: ‘No surprise’
The Democrat governor of one red state is taking heat from his Republican challenger over his continued support for President Biden just weeks ahead of what could be the most consequential Election Day of the off-year campaign cycle.
The criticism comes after a local Kentucky outlet reported that the state’s Democrat governor, Andy Beshear, reiterated his support for Biden, who is wildly unpopular with Kentuckians, in an interview published on Tuesday.
“It should come as no surprise that Andy Beshear is endorsing Joe Biden. Andy has been doing Biden’s bidding his entire time in office. As a result, Kentuckians are struggling to make ends meet, our streets are full of crime and drugs, and our kids face historic learning loss,” Kentucky’s Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron told Fox News Digital after the report’s publishing.
Sean Southard, the spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky and a Cameron campaign surrogate, added to that, pointing to what he said was Biden “bankrolling” Beshear’s political operation.
“Kentuckians don’t want four more years of Joe Biden’s failures,” he said. “Andy’s endorsement of Biden shows he is out-of-touch on inflation, crime, and the border. Biden is bankrolling Beshear’s campaign. That’s why Andy will always put Biden ahead of Kentucky. Daniel Cameron will always put Kentucky first.”
Southard’s “bankrolling” accusation was in reference to Federal Election Commission data showing the Kentucky Democrat Party was raising money through the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee authorized by the Biden-Harris re-election campaign, and in turn transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to Beshear’s campaign.
In his Tuesday interview, Beshear said that commercials trying to tie him to Biden were being run by the Cameron campaign and groups supporting his gubernatorial bid because “they don’t have an agenda to run on, and they can’t win if this race is about us in Kentucky.”
“Every governor’s race is about that state, is about what’s going on in the economy, yet the ads you’re seeing from them are trying to convince you that this race is about Washington, D.C., and I believe that they are dishonest as I believe a number of the ads are. They are meant to confuse, and they are meant to stir up anger and fear and sometimes even hatred,” Beshear said.
A spokesperson for Beshear’s campaign, told Fox, “Daniel Cameron knows he can’t win this race if it’s about the record economic development, tens of thousands of new jobs and historic investments in our infrastructure made under Andy Beshear. He’s desperate to make this race about Washington, DC instead of what’s happening here in Kentucky to improve our families lives every day.”
The spokesperson also pointed out that this isn’t a new position for Beshear as suggested by the Cameron campaign, and that “it shows just how desperate the Cameron campaign is that they think a Democratic governor supporting a Democratic president for reelection is interesting.”
In terms of his own presidential preference, Cameron told Fox he was “proud to support and to be endorsed by President Trump,” before adding that voters in Kentucky were “looking forward to November 7, when we can fire Andy Beshear.”
The race between Beshear and Cameron is the among the most closely watched election of 2023 and is being largely viewed as a bellwether for the 2024 elections. A Beshear victory could spell trouble for Republicans hoping to capitalize on the unpopularity of Biden and Democrats in Congress.
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