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Mullen on Blinken’s reaction to Biden calling Xi a dictator: ‘Wincing is accurate’

Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s reaction to President Biden calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator was “accurate,” adding that the president should not be calling Xi any names. 

“I think the wincing is accurate and I actually think we need to stay away from name-calling at that level. It doesn’t help in any way. One of the things I’ve learned across the globe is people like to be treated with respect. And you need to do that, particularly at that level,” Mullen said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Biden once again called Xi a “dictator” last week after meeting with the Chinese leader for hours, in which he said they made agreements on resuming military to military communication and dealing with the influx of fentanyl into the U.S. A video circulating on social media showed Blinken reacting to the remarks, where he appears to wince at Biden’s off-the-cuff response to a question as he was exiting a press conference. 

“Look, he is,” Biden said when asked if he would still refer to Xi as a dictator. “He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different than ours.” 

China pushed back on Biden calling Xi a dictator last week, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning telling reporters Thursday it “strongly opposes” the comments. Biden previously called Xi a dictator who got upset when the Chinese spy balloon was shot down in February because he didn’t know about it. in June. 

The meeting came as tensions between China and the U.S. have been rising for months. Biden said that  he was “blunt” with Xi on some of the more fraught issues between the two countries while still boasting about other areas of cooperation with Xi. 

Mullen praised Biden for the meeting in California last week but warned that the relationship between the two countries could still be “difficult” in the future. 

“Well, I think it really is important because we shouldn’t underestimate how bad the relationship has been, how difficult it is not just now, but I think in the future,” he said.

“So I think it’s a — the meeting was a big deal, and in particular, as we’ve talked about how bad the military to military communications issue was, now that it’s re-established, to me, that’s a big accomplishment,” he added. 

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

Dem champions possible Israel-Hamas hostage deal ahead of Thanksgiving, but staunchly rejects cease-fire calls

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., championed news of a possible deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas ahead of Thanksgiving, but rejected calls for a cease-fire in Gaza. 

Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made clear that there is a difference a cease-fire in Gaza and humanitarian pauses. 

“Well, let’s draw a distinction here,” Coons told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream, “between a cease-fire – some folks are calling for a cease-fire and protests across Europe and in our country, by which they mean Israel should stop fighting Hamas, should end their campaign in Gaza – or a pause that has been negotiated between Israel and Hamas to allow the release of hostages, Israeli and American and other nationality hostages, and allow them food and fuel and medicine to get into Gaza. A negotiated brief pause in the fighting, I think would be a good thing, and I would strongly support. A cease-fire, meaning an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas. I don’t support and neither does the president.” 

DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CONFRONTED BY LEFT-WING REPORTER ON AMTRAK: ‘YOU ARE BOTHERING ME’

“News of a potential hostage deal, Shannon, is great news just before Thanksgiving for the 10 American families whose loved ones are being held hostage and the more than 230 others. I’ve met with those families, Shannon, in Tel Aviv, and in Washington, and it’s heartbreaking to be with parents who don’t know how their children are doing and who believe they are being held in tunnels… beneath Gaza,” he said. “This is a good development today.” 

The Washington Post first reported Saturday that the United States, Israel and Hamas had reached a tentative agreement to release an initial 50 or more hostages in smaller groups every 24 hours. The release could begin within the next several days, according to reports. 

In an op-ed in The Post published on Saturday, President Biden vowed that at the time of his writing, “my team and I are working hour by hour, doing everything we can to get the hostages released.” In the piece, titled, “The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas,” Biden also declared, “Every innocent Palestinian life lost is a tragedy that rips apart families and communities,” and vowed, “Gaza must never again be used as a platform for terrorism.” 

NETANYAHU WAR CABINET STIFLES REVOLT FROM FAR RIGHT OVER SENDING GAZANS FUEL WITHOUT HOSTAGE DEAL: REPORT

“As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a cease-fire is not peace,” Biden wrote. “To Hamas’ members, every cease-fire is time they exploit to rebuild their stockpile of rockets, reposition fighters and restart the killing by attacking innocents again. An outcome that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would once more perpetuate its hate and deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves.”

The U.S. is providing weapons and intelligence support to Israel as it mounts an offensive into Gaza with the goal of rooting out Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 people. Biden has spoken repeatedly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and says he is working for the release of Hamas-held hostages, which include Americans.

At least 11,400 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza have staged protests around the country, including clashing this week with police outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Coons himself was confronted on camera while riding on a train by an activist demanding the senator agree to a cease-fire. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Go to Source: Latest Political News on Fox News

Voting begins in Argentina’s presidential runoff, may send Trump-admiring populist Milei into presidency

Voters in Argentina were heading to the polls Sunday in a presidential runoff election that will determine whether South America’s second-largest economy will take a rightward shift.

Populist Javier Milei, an upstart candidate who got his start as a television talking head, has frequently been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump. He faces Economy Minister Sergio Massa of the Peronist party, which has been a leading force in Argentine politics for decades.

On Massa’s watch, inflation has soared to more than 140% and poverty has increased. Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, proposes to slash the size of the state and rein in inflation, while Massa has warned people about the negative impacts of such policies.

The highly polarizing election is forcing many to decide which of the two they consider to be the least bad option.

ARGENTINA’S JAVIER MILEI COPIES TRUMP’S PLAYBOOK TO BECOME COUNTRY’S BIGGEST PRIMARY ELECTION VOTE-GETTER

“Whatever happens in this election will be incredible,” said Lucas Romero, director of local political consultancy Synopsis. “It would be incredible for Massa to win in this economic context or for Milei to win facing a candidate as professional as Massa.”

Voting stations opened at 8 a.m. (1100 GMT) and close 10 hours later. Voting is conducted with paper ballots, making the count unpredictable, but initial results were expected around three hours after polls close.

Milei went from blasting the country’s “political caste” on TV to winning a lawmaker seat two years ago. The economist’s screeds resonated widely with Argentines angered by their struggle to make ends meet, particularly young men.

“Money covers less and less each day. I’m a qualified individual, and my salary isn’t enough for anything,” Esteban Medina, a 26-year-old physical therapist from Ezeiza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a Milei rally earlier this week.

Massa, as one of the most prominent figures in a deeply unpopular administration, was once seen as having little chance of victory. But he managed to mobilize the networks of his Peronist party and clinched a decisive first-place finish in the first round of voting.

His campaign has cautioned Argentines that his libertarian opponent’s plan to eliminate key ministries and otherwise sharply curtail the state would threaten public services, including health and education, and welfare programs many rely on. Massa has also drawn attention to his opponent’s often aggressive rhetoric and has openly questioned his mental acuity; ahead of the first round, Milei sometimes carried a revving chainsaw at rallies.

FORMER ROCKER NICKNAMED ‘ARGENTINE TRUMP’ GAINS ELECTION STEAM WITH ANTI-SOCIALIST MESSAGE

Massa’s “only chance to win this election when people want change … is to make this election a referendum on whether Milei is fit to be president or not,” said Ana Iparraguirre, partner at pollster GBAO Strategies.

Milei has accused Massa and his allies of running a “campaign of fear” and he has walked back some of his most controversial proposals, such as loosening gun control. In his final campaign ad, Milei looks at the camera and assures voters he has no plans to privatize education or health care.

Most pre-election polls, which have been notoriously wrong at every step of this year’s campaign, show a statistical tie between the two candidates. Voters for first-round candidates who didn’t make the runoff will be key. Patricia Bullrich, who placed third, has endorsed Milei.

Javier Rojas, a 36-year-old pediatrician who voted for Bullrich in October, told The Associated Press he’s leaning toward Milei, then added: “Well, to be honest, it’s more of a vote against the other side than anything else.”

Underscoring the bitter division this campaign has brought to the fore, Milei received both jeers and cheers on Friday night at the legendary Colón Theater in Buenos Aires.

The vote takes place amid Milei’s allegations of possible electoral fraud, reminiscent of those from Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Without providing evidence, Milei claimed that the first round of the presidential election was plagued by irregularities that affected the result. Experts say such irregularities cannot swing an election, and that his assertions are partly aimed at firing up his base and motivating his supporters to become monitors of voting stations.

Such claims spread widely on social media and, at Milei’s rally in Ezeiza earlier this week, all those interviewed told the AP they were concerned about the integrity of the vote.

“You don’t need to show statistically significant errors,” Fernanda Buril, of the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems, said in an e-mail. “If you draw enough attention to one problem in one polling station which likely doesn’t affect the results in any meaningful way, people are likely to overestimate the frequency and impact of that and other problems in the elections more generally.”

Go to Source: Latest Political News on Fox News

US, Israeli officials say deal to release dozens of hostages could be near in coming days

U.S. and Israeli officials said Sunday that a deal to release dozens of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza could be closing in the coming days after news broke Saturday night that indicated such a plan was crystalizing.

Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer said on ABC’s “This Week” that “more than dozens” of hostages could be released as part of a potential deal brokered by the U.S., Israel and Hamas via intermediaries in Qatar. Finer reiterated that while officials are closing in on a deal, the discussions “have clearly reached a very sensitive stage.”

He also did not disclose the details of the potential deal but reiterated the notion that what remains are mostly logistical and practical hurdles.

“But we are not finished – there is not yet a deal in place. And I think it would be premature to conclude that this is inevitable given how close we have come in the past,” he said. “And I think one thing that I won’t do is go through all the outstanding areas in which there are still negotiations. We don’t negotiate these things in public. But it is a very high priority to try to get this done.”

He also said that the U.S. believes that a “majority” of hostages are still alive and that a “significant number” could be released as part of the deal. When pressed on how many could be released, he said “certainly more than dozens.”

Finer made similar comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, where he said  “considerably more than 12” hostages could be released. 

Militant group Hamas took approximately 240 people as hostages, including Israelis, Americans and other foreign nationals, during its initial Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which left more than 1,200 people dead. Since then, only a handful of hostages have been released.

For more than a month, U.S. officials have said they are prioritizing getting the hostages out of Gaza. In the latest round of negotiations, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog said Sunday that a deal could be closed in the next few days. 

“We are hopeful that we can get a significant number of hostages freed in the coming days. I don’t want to go into the details of these talks. They are obviously very sensitive,” Herzog said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The less we’re going to the details, the better the chances of such a deal. But they are very serious efforts and I’m hopeful that we can have the deal in the coming days.”

Herzog also said they are discussing “a pause in the fighting for a few days” so that the hostages could be released.

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

Kristen Welker presses Biden official over Israel following international law

NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer on Sunday over whether the U.S. is confident that Israel is following international law when it comes to its operations in Gaza with the Biden administration official appearing to dodge answering the question.

Welker pointed to comments made by the Qatari prime minister who said that Israel’s actions at the al-Shifa Hospital were a “crime.” This comes almost a week after Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) revealed it was going through with an operation at the hospital, claiming that it was a base for Hamas — the militant group that launched its deadly surprise attack on Israel early last month.

When asked if the U.S. stood by Israel’s assessment that Hamas is headquartered underneath the hospital and whether they were following international law, Finer reiterated that U.S. intelligence supported that notion.

“We have been equally clear that our intelligence, US intelligence information, not just Israeli intelligence information, suggests that Hamas is used al-Shifa in an unconscionable way as a command and control facility for the planning of terrorist attacks and the execution of service attacks and continues to do,” Finer said on “Meet the Press.”

“That does not, in our view, mean that Israel should conduct airstrikes on the hospital or ground assaults on the hospital,” he added. “We’ve been equally clear about that. But Hamas has put these people in severe jeopardy by the way in which it’s conducting this war. So this is a microcosm of the real challenge associated with this entire conflict and we’ve laid out our position.”

Welker then asked again: “And are you confident Israel is following international law, Jon? Just yes or no there.”

“We are confident that it is our position that it needs to. When we have seen issues that are raised. Based on incidents on the ground we raised them privately and directly with the government of Israel –” Finer said, before Welker interjected again and they began talking over each other.

“John, let me just – so you’re saying you’re saying that Israel will –” Welker said.

“– but we’re not going in real time to play judge and jury on this question,” Finer said to which Welker again pressed him on the question of international law.

“What I can say is it is not our position, certainly my position, as a policymaker to play real time judge and jury on the question of any particular incident,” Finer said.

“When we see things that concern us, we raise them. We have done that during the course of this conflict. We will continue to do that. And again, just to restate, it is our position that all countries including Israel, including the United States, need to adhere to laws of armed conflict,” he added. 

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

National security official says hostage deal is ‘closer’ than they’ve been since the start of the war

Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer said Sunday that they are “closer” than ever in closing a deal to secure the release of some hostages being held by militant group Hamas. 

NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Finer on “Meet the Press” about reports that officials are close to securing a deal among the U.S., Israel and Hamas to release some of the 240 hostages its militants kidnapped on Oct. 7. Finer, who did not offer many details of the potential deal, said that it is not finalized yet but that they are getting closer. 

“What I can say at this point is that some of the outstanding areas of disagreement, very complicated, very sensitive negotiation has been narrowed,” Finer said. “That I believe we are closer than we have been in quite some time, maybe closer than we have been since the beginning of this process to getting this deal done and we are following it minute by minute, hour by hour and have been for a number of weeks.”

Despite expressing optimism for a deal to be closed soon, Finer warned that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” in terms of the potential deal. When pressed further on how many hostages can potentially be released, he said they are talking “considerably more than 12,” but did not offer much more detail. 

When asked whether these potentially released hostages are women and children, Finer declined to answer. He explained that “it would not be helpful to the completition of the deal” to discuss more specifics. 

He also declined to say whether a prisoner exchange was being discussed to get the hostages released. 

“We believe is not actually helpful to getting this deal across the line,” he said. “But these are exactly the topics that are under discussion. I just want to leave it to them and give them the space and the privacy to be able to work this out and get the deal completed.”

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

A divide in Biden world over how to address what everyone sees as his biggest vulnerability

At the Democratic National Committee’s September fundraiser retreat, a donor pressed Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, about one of the more oft-discussed topics in party circles: the president’s age.

How, the person asked during a question-and-answer session on the 2024 campaign, should donors handle the stream of concerns they’ve heard about it?

Fulks acknowledged the obvious: You can’t change the age of the president, who will turn 81 on Monday. Instead, he advised the donor to focus on Biden’s historic accomplishments.

Fulks’ response, which was described by four people who attended the session, was well-received by those who see his age as a mark of his deep experience — and met with disagreement by others, who fear not enough is being done to remind voters that former President Donald Trump is just three-and-a-half years younger. All told, it highlighted a larger dynamic currently facing the party: Not everyone is sure what the right playbook is for handling the president’s most sensitive vulnerability.

Interviews with more than a dozen Biden donors and fundraisers, Democratic strategists and party officials, many of whom were granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, revealed deep concerns that the campaign’s approach to his age isn’t enough to quell voters’ fears about it. Many donors are directly urging top campaign aides to go on offense, leaning even harder into Biden’s age as proof of his wisdom in turbulent times. They are pushing for more humor about “Grandpa Joe.”

“I think everyone knows it’s an issue, and we have to address it,” said Ron Klain, who served as Biden’s chief of staff for his first two years in the White House. He added that it’s important to “emphasize [that] it gives him more wisdom and experience, how he’s navigated this difficult problem in Ukraine.”

“He’ll keep on doing the job, campaigning with vigor and demonstrating to the American people his energy level, which is quite robust,” Klain said.

But others fret that not enough has been done to place a similarly harsh spotlight on the fact that Trump himself is 77.

“Neither are going to get any younger on their next birthdays, but yet Biden seems to get, on a continuing basis, knocked for his age while Trump does not,” said Alan Kessler, a Democratic donor and Biden bundler. “No one brings up the age thing with [Trump]. That double standard is troubling.”

Biden and his team have deployed a number of responses. The president has been making light of his age for months, particularly at fundraisers, and his campaign has increasingly blasted out Trump’s own mental lapses on social media. In recent days, his campaign aides and surrogates have stressed that this “is not a time for rookies,” as Fulks said in a CNN interview earlier this month.

But nothing has seemed to move the president’s numbers. Seventy percent of likely voters in six battleground states said Biden is “too old to be an effective president,” according to The New York Times-Siena College poll released earlier this month. Only 39 percent of those battleground voters said Trump was too old. That’s virtually unchanged from April, when a Reuters/Ipsos poll found 73 percent of adults believed Biden is too old to be in office.

Even those in Biden’s inner circle, including family members, worry about the optics of age. Those close allies believe that Biden is mentally up for the job, but some acknowledge that the president can at times appear frail, according to two people involved in the conversations but not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations.

One example: As noted on his recent physical, Biden’s gait has stiffened following foot fractures he suffered playing with his dog in late 2020. People close to the president have discussed having him walk shorter distances while on camera. They’ve also advocated, at times, trading in formal shoes for more comfortable ones — both to make his stride seem less stiff, but also to reduce the risk of falls.

Some Democrats argue that Biden’s team has been too dismissive of the idea that the president’s age could hurt him in the election. They have pushed for a more offensive strategy, nudging Biden aides to showcase his younger, diverse cabinet.

Another Biden donor said they recently raised concerns about the president’s age with DNC officials, but “they just refused to even acknowledge it was a problem.”

“I think the strategy is not to even address it, to consider questions like that stupid or silly,” said the donor. “Literally everyone is talking about it, even amongst donors. But the response is always: ‘What are you going to do?’”

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Biden “has used his deep experience to deliver unprecedented benefits.” He noted legislation to lower drug prices, invest in infrastructure and change gun laws, along with the president’s foreign policy portfolio, among the achievements.

“President Biden is fighting every day to add to those results for families, while Republican officials fight with each other and quadruple down on criticisms of him that failed in 2020, 2022 and 2023,” Bates added. For good measure, he shared a May 2023 story headlined: “After Calling Joe Biden Senile, Republicans Complain He Outsmarted Them.”

Biden is America’s oldest president ever, a distinction that even some in his own party are using against him. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) launched his longshot presidential primary bid calling for a generational change and urging in one of his campaign ads that Biden should “hand the torch” to the next generation.

Those concerns — which are voiced privately by others in the party — have made Biden’s team particularly sensitive, even defensive, to the issue, some Democratic strategists and insiders said.

“They bristle in ways that aren’t helpful,” said one Democratic operative close to Biden’s team.

Current and former White House aides and campaign staffers insist that Biden is as sharp as ever, drilling staffers on the finer points of policy issues and maintaining a busy travel schedule, including visits to two active war zones in the last year. Former National Economic Council deputy director Bharat Ramamurti posted on X that reporters questioning Biden’s acuity “couldn’t survive a ten minute policy briefing with the President.”

John Morgan, a Biden bundler and Florida attorney, said he has urged the president’s team to further lean into the argument that he is wise. He believes that his campaign will.

“You cannot roll back time. There’s nothing that can be done to make him younger,” Morgan said. “I believe that what’s going to carry the day for Joe Biden is the word ‘wisdom.’ We want wise men. And what I would say to everybody who has a problem with his age, I would just tell them that if you had stopped investing with Warren Buffett when he was 80, you would have missed out on 12 years of record returns.”

Biden advisers feel there’s a double standard and that Biden’s age has been covered much more than Trump’s. They are fond of noting that if Trump were to win next year, he would become the oldest person ever elected president, moving past Biden from 2020.

Some in Biden's camp fret that not enough has been done to place a similarly harsh spotlight on the fact that Donald Trump himself is 77.

At the same time, they insist they know that it is an issue that they have to confront, but they believe they can neutralize it. They argue that voters don’t make their decisions about who to support based on age, and are instead more concerned about a candidate’s values and accomplishments.

Biden’s advisers also make the case that he was slammed by Trump and his GOP allies over his age and mental fitness during the 2020 campaign, and that they overcame those attacks in part by pointing to his experience. Now, they said, they can note point to major legislative victories as part of an updated plan.

“When I look at his age, I see wisdom and experience,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board who his team suggested for an interview. “I think most voters are going to see the same.”

Ultimately, Biden’s aides believe age will not be a major factor next November precisely because the election will likely come down to a binary choice between the president and Trump, said a Democratic donor who has spoken with Biden campaign officials. Should that be the case, not all Biden donors think the campaign even needs to take a different approach on age — or any approach at all. Philadelphia attorney Stephen Cozen, a Biden bundler, said he has advised some on the reelection team to not worry about the issue.

“What I told campaign officials is forget about the goddamn age question. Go after Trump,” he said. “Most of them agree with me.”

Go to Source: Politico

AIDS conspiracies to anti-Semitism: Inside Bin Laden’s deranged letter picking up new support online

Usama bin Laden, the Islamic jihadist who organized the 9/11 attacks against Americans over 20 years ago, has been back in the headlines this week after his “Letter to America” picked up attention on social media.

But those promoting it appear to be glossing over the deranged conspiracy theories and threats that the terror honcho pushes in the diatribe.

The two-decades-old piece of jihadist propaganda was wiped from The Guardian’s website earlier this week due to a surge in attention — “without full context” — it was getting after some influencers on TikTok began talking about it. Some users said it changed their worldviews. Others went as far as to say they realized bin Laden “was right.” 

Part of bin Laden’s letter blamed America for supporting the “Israeli oppression of the Palestinians” and “the occupation” in the Holy Land. 

GOP LAWMAKERS RENEW CALLS TO BAN TIKTOK AFTER USAMA BIN LADEN’S ‘LETTER TO AMERICA’ WENT VIRAL 

After the trend gained some traction on TikTok, with 274 videos posted under the hashtag from Tuesday to Wednesday, a compilation of videos was uploaded again to X and gained over 35 million views, surpassing the 1.85 million views originally gained on TikTok. 

TikTok said the number of videos promoting the content is small and “reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate.” The company said it was proactively and aggressively removing content and investigating how it got onto the platform. 

But the letter, unsurprisingly for something penned by a terrorist mastermind, is packed with extremist rhetoric, threats of violence, anti-Semitism and other language that would typically fall afoul of left-leaning online communities.

In the rambling tirade, bin Laden justifies al-Qaeda’s attacks against the U.S. because “you attacked us” and “You attacked us in Palestine.”

“The blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged,” he threatens, before accusing the U.S. of occupying “our countries” and starving Muslims.

Asking rhetorically “what do we want from you?” he answers: “The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam” before excoriating America for not being an Islamic theocracy.

“You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator.”

“It is the religion of Jihad in the way of Allah so that Allah’s Word and religion reign Supreme,” he claims. 

He also calls for the end of “immortality and debauchery.”

“We call you…to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling’s [sic], and trading with interest.”

The now-deceased terrorist dives headfirst into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, alleging that “the Jews” control “your policies, media and economy.”

USAMA BIN LADEN’S INFAMOUS ‘LETTER TO AMERICA’ AFTER 9/11 PROMOTED BY TIKTOK INFLUENCERS, GOES VIRAL 

“As a result of this, in all its different forms and guises, the Jews have taken control of your economy, through which they have then taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense,” he says.

Soon after, he accuses the U.S. of trading “sex in all its forms” before tapping into fringe conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS: “Go ahead and boast to the nations of man, that you brought them AIDS as a Satanic American Invention.”

He issues an exhaustive list of demands in terms of global policies and reducing the American footprint abroad, before threatening the U.S. in no uncertain terms.

“If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight [sic] with the Islamic Nation,” he said.

Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 in May 2011.

While the online influencers calling on Americans to “read” the letter have expressed how it changed the way they view the world, few if any have addressed the actual content of the terrorist propaganda they are urging people to read.

Charles Cooke, a senior editor at National Review, was one of many who were critical of the revisionism Bin Laden’s work is being given — saying that “one would have thought that at least some of it ought to have been reflexively, presumptively, self-evidently abhorrent to the nobody-purer-than-me TikTok crowd.” 

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“What is it about those ideas being expressed by someone foreign — someone who can plausibly (albeit stupidly) be cast as a victim — that causes otherwise exquisitely sensitive people to completely gloss over them?” he asked.

“In quotidian American politics, the most inconsequential of sentiments are routinely cast as being a part of the ‘white, male, cisgendered hegemony.’ But Osama bin Laden starts talking about the evils of homosexuality and fornication, about the fusing of church and state, and about ‘complete submission to His Law,’ and it’s just…ignored,” he said. 

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

Go to Source: Latest Political News on Fox News

2024 battle for Senate majority: These five seats held by Democrats are most likely to flip

It was the announcement Senate Democrats were dreading.

When it came, it appeared to strike a major blow to their hopes of holding their razor-thin Senate majority in the 2024 elections.

“I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate,” Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced earlier this month.

Manchin, a moderate Democrat and former governor, won over 60% of the vote in his 2012 re-election, but his margin of victory fell to just three points in 2018.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2024 POWER RANKINGS 

The consensus was that Manchin was the only Democrat who could win in West Virginia next year after his state shifted dramatically to the right over the past decade. Former President Donald Trump carried West Virginia by nearly 40 points in the 2020 election.

Democrats control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map in 2024, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states that Trump carried in 2020 — West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.

Five other blue-held seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020 — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

WITH NINE WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE FIRST VOTES, THIS CANDIDATE REMAINS THE COMMANDING FRONT-RUNNER IN THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE

“Democrats have multiple pathways to protect and strengthen our Senate majority and are in a strong position to achieve this goal,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein argued in a statement after Manchin’s announcement.

“In addition to defending our battle-tested incumbents, we’ve already expanded the battleground map to Texas and Florida,” Berstein added, pointing to what he called “unpopular Republican incumbents.”

Texas and Florida, where incumbent senators Ted Cruz and Rick Scott are seeking re-election, appear to be the only potentially competitive GOP-held seats up for grabs next year. 

Here’s a look at the five seats most likely to flip in 2024.

With Manchin not seeking re-election, National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman Sen. Steve Daines said, “We like our odds in West Virginia.”

Right now, the main action is in the Republican Senate primary, where popular Democrat-turned-Republican Gov. Jim Justice has the backing of the NRSC and Trump.

Justice has rasied more money than his main rival, conservative Rep. Alex Mooney, who enjoys the support of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth.

The first Democrat to jump into the race following Manchin’s departure is 32-year-old Zachary Shrewsbury, a native West Virginian and Marine Corps veteran.

Democrats breathed a sigh of relief when Sen. Jon Tester of Montana announced earlier this year that he would seek re-election in 2024 in a state that Trump carried by 16 points three years ago. The Democratic incumbent has hauled in a formidable $15 million in fundraising so far this year.

Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and Purple Heart recipient who notched more than 200 missions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere around the globe, launched a Republican Senate bid in late June.

Sheehy, the CEO of Bridger Aerospace, a Montana-based aerial firefighting and wildfire surveillance services company, enjoys the NRSC’s backing.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, a hard-right congressman, is seriously mulling a bid. Rosendale narrowly lost to Tester in the 2018 Senate election.

Longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is the only member of his party to win a non-judicial, statewide election in Ohio in the past decade. As Brown runs in 2024 for a fourth six-year term representing Ohio, he will be heavily targeted by Republicans in a state that was once a premier general election battleground but has shifted red over the past six years.

Trump carried Ohio by eight points in his 2016 presidential election victory and his 2020 re-election defeat. Last year, Trump’s handpicked Senate candidate in Ohio — Sen. JD Vance — topped longtime Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan by six points despite Ryan running what political experts considered a nearly flawless campaign.

Brown, who has served as a congressman, state lawmaker and Ohio secretary of state during his nearly half century career in elective politics, is well known across the Buckeye State. The senator, known as a champion for populist causes, raked in $3.6 million in contributions during the first three months of this year.

Two Republicans who ran unsuccessfully for the 2022 GOP Senate nomination in Ohio are already in the race to oust Brown.

State Sen. Matt Dolan, a former top county prosecutor and Ohio assistant attorney general, launched his campaign in January. Dolan, whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, shelled out millions of his own money to run ads for his 2022 Senate bid. 

He surged near the end of the primary race, finishing third in a crowded field of Republican contenders, winning nearly a quarter of the vote.

Last month, Bernie Moreno, a successful Cleveland-based businessman and luxury auto dealership giant, declared his candidacy. Moreno, an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. legally from Colombia with his family as a 5-year-old boy, also shelled out millions of his own money to run TV commercials to try and boost his first Senate bid.

But he suspended his campaign in February 2022 after requesting and holding a private meeting with Trump.

In July, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose joined the race, launching a much-anticipated Senate campaign.

With Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema appearing to gear up for a re-election campaign — even though she hasn’t officially announced a campaign — the Senate race in battleground Arizona could be the most complicated of the 2024 cycle.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is already running on the left and has raised more money than Sinema, although the incumbent enjoys a healthy $1 million cash-on-hand advantage.

Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb recently became the first major GOP contender to launch a campaign.

But 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake instantly became the Republican front-runner when she jumped into the race in October. Lake, a former TV news anchor and strong Trump ally, narrowly lost last year’s election for governor but refused to concede.

The Keystone State, which is a perennial general election battleground, will likely live up to its reputation once again in 2024 as it holds what will arguably be one of the most competitive and expensive Senate races across the country.

Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who served a decade as the state’s auditor general and then treasurer before first winning election to the Senate in 2006, is seeking a fourth six-year term in office.

Casey, who’s not expected to face any serious Democratic primary challenge, is the son of a popular former governor.

Republicans appear mostly united behind Dave McCormick, who’s making his second straight Senate run.

McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s administration, was endorsed by the Pennsylvania GOP in late September, soon after he entered the race.

McCormick had been courted by national and state Republicans to run, and his candidacy gives the GOP a high-profile candidate with the ability to finance his own race that’s expected to be one of the most expensive in the country.

The Pennsylvania GOP’s endorsement will likely help McCormick avoid a crowded and combustible battle for the 2024 GOP Senate nomination like the one he faced last year. McCormick ended up losing the nomination by a razor-thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election last November to Democrat John Fetterman.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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