Important Takeaways:
- Hezbollah marked President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election by firing rockets at the Israeli town of Trump Heights on Wednesday morning.
- There were no reports of damage there.
- However, a car was damaged in the town of Ra’anana, near Tel Aviv, when pieces of a Hezbollah missile that was destroyed by Israel’s missile defense system fell onto a parked car.
- Trump Heights was named for Trump in appreciation for his recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which were taken from Syria in a defensive war in 1967.
- Trump has promised to stop the war in Lebanon, while also allowing Israel to do whatever necessary to defend itself from Iranian-backed terror organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas.
- An end to the war could provide opportunities for major foreign policy wins in the early days of the new administration, including an expansion of the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia.
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Important Takeaways:
- President-elect Donald Trump addressed his supporters in the nation early Wednesday morning after earning more than 270 electoral votes, vowing he will lead the “golden age of America” after launching the “greatest political movement of all time.”
- “This was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond. And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance because we’re going to help our country heal,” Trump said just before 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
- “We’re going to help our country here. We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country and we’ve made history for a reason tonight. And the reason is going to be just that. We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,” he added to cheers from the crowd.
- “Every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you. And with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America. That’s what we have to have. This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again,” he said.
- “We will make America safe, strong, prosperous, powerful and free again. And I’m asking every citizen all across our land to join me in this noble and righteous endeavor,” Trump said.
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Important Takeaways:
- The first step in the Democrats’ plan is obviously “winning the vote.”
- That means “finding ways legally to either change the law or to just look the other way to win the vote,” Glenn explains.
- Democratic lawyer Marc Elias is geared up for another round of fighting election-related lawsuits, and Biden’s DOJ has already sued certain states for “removing noncitizens from voter rolls or switching to paper ballots.”
- Winning the vote means winning by whatever means necessary.
- The second step is “winning the count,” which is the step “everyone is worried about, says Glenn.
- “We saw it last time — all of a sudden, they just stopped counting at 10:30 at night,” which created room for “shenanigans” to happen, he explains.
- Whether it’s calling for recounts in swing states, questioning every step of the counting process, or telling Americans “we don’t know who won or lost” in order to sow seeds of doubt, we can expect the 2024 election to look a lot like 2020.
- Winning the certification is step three.
- “Each state has to certify the vote and seat electors,” but if Trump wins, “objections and accusations of ‘shady’ electoral practices will fill the headlines.”
- The fourth step in the Democrats’ diabolical plan is what Glenn calls “winning the Electoral College.”
- The Democrat-controlled media is already priming Americans for the scenario in which Trump loses and takes power anyway by using Republican support to endorse alternate electors and then send the election to the House, where the GOP holds a slim majority. According to the left’s theory, the House will select him as president even if he loses the election.
- If all else fails and Trump wins, the final step in the plan is to “disrupt, disrupt, disrupt” the transition of power, which used to be nothing more than a formality.
- We can expect protests, accusations, and anything the left can drum up to create chaos and “[set] the country on fire.”
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Important Takeaways:
- In recent years, author and radio host Eric Metaxas and other conservative Christian supporters of Donald Trump have compared themselves to the famed German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer — who was put to death, in part, for participating in a plan to assassinate Adolph Hitler.
- In a recent interview on Flashpoint, a Christian television talk show on the Victory network, both Metaxas — author of a bestselling biography of Bonhoeffer — and the show’s host called the current election a “Bonhoeffer moment” and urged Christians to rise up and oppose evil.
- That evil, in Metaxas’ eyes, is the Democrats, who, he has argued, stole the 2020 election and whom he often compares to Nazis. For him, if Democrats win the next election, it could mean the end of America as we know it. Metaxas has argued and has claimed in the past that Trump is God’s chosen candidate and that those who oppose him oppose God.
- His newest book, “Religionless Christianity” — a phrase used by Bonhoeffer — describes America’s current politics as a spiritual war and sign of the end times.
- A group of Bonhoeffer scholars — and the theologian’s descendants — have had enough. In a statement issued Friday (Oct. 18) members of the International Bonhoeffer Society called on Metaxas and others to stop comparing the current election to the rise of the Nazis. The statement, in particular, called out Metaxas for social media posts featuring a gun and a Bible and his support of Jan. 6 rioters.
- “This portrayal glorifies violence and draws inappropriate analogies between our political system and that of Nazi Germany,” the scholars said in a statement, which has been signed by more than 800 Bonhoeffer scholars and other Christian leaders. “It is a dangerous misuse of Bonhoeffer’s life and lessons, particularly in this election season in the United States.”
- The statement from the Bonhoeffer Society makes a similar point.
- “Any attempt to invoke Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his resistance against Hitler as a reason to engage in political violence in our contemporary context must be strongly opposed,” it says. “Moreover, while Bonhoeffer supported the coup, he refused to offer a Christian or theological justification for it. He understood the dangers of such a rationale.”
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Important Takeaways:
- One in four Americans fear a civil war could break out following the presidential election, a new poll has found.
- A YouGov poll of 1,266 registered voters has found that 84 percent of citizens believe America is more divided today than ten years ago.
- Of the bipartisan voters surveyed for The Times newspaper in the UK, 27 percent say they fear violence is ‘very or somewhat likely’ after ballots are cast for the next President in 11 days.
- Twelve percent of respondents claimed to know someone who ‘might take up arms’ if they believed Donald Trump is ‘cheated’ of an election victory. Five percent said they knew someone who would do the same for Kamala Harris.
- The new poll follows a bombshell prediction of a psychological catastrophe across the country if Trump beats Harris.
- Voters believe that the upcoming bid for the White House is ‘very likely’ (6 percent) or ‘somewhat likely’ (21 percent) to cause a second civil war.
- [Dr. Ben Carson] We need to understand that we are not each other’s’ enemies in this country. And it is only the political class that derives its power by creating friction. It is only the media that derives its importance by creating friction… that uses every little thing to create this chasm between people. This is not who we are.
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Important Takeaways:
- Lawmakers repeatedly questioned why the agency tasked with protecting the country’s top leaders didn’t do a better job communicating with local authorities during the July 13 rally, particularly when it came to securing the building that was widely agreed to be a security threat but that ultimately was left so unprotected that gunman Thomas Michael Crooks was able to climb up and open fire on Trump.
- The panel — comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats — has spent the last two months analyzing the security failures at the rally, conducting nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement and receiving more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service.
- Edward Lenz, commander for the Butler County Emergency Services Unit who was in charge of the local tactical units operating at the Butler rally, said his agency was never asked to put a sniper team on top of the roof and never said that they would. Lenz said the Secret Service knew their shooters were inside the AGR Building and there was no “feedback or guidance” from the Secret Service that they wanted the team anywhere else.
- Lenz also testified that Secret Service officials did not check with him or his team to make sure they were in place before Trump went on stage and that the emergency communication for July 13 had not been worked out in advance.
- Thursday’s session was the fourth congressional hearing about the Butler shooting since July.
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Important Takeaways:
- Lawmakers, legal groups urge government to release first assassination attempt documents
- A conservative legal watchdog group is heading to court to get the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to explain how gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks had been able to “fire a relatively simple shot that came within an inch of killing President Trump and struck fellow Americans.”
- In a lawsuit filed Thursday, America First Legal (AFL) alleges that the Secret Service and DHS illegally concealed government records related to the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The organization claims it submitted multiple public records requests about the incident but still has not received any documents.
- AFL requested documents pertaining to the Secret Service’s staffing shortages, hiring and employment standards and all communications to or from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and two senior DHS officials, Kristie Canegallo and Jonathan Davidson.
- According to AFL, the Secret Service said it would not process their expedited public records’ requests because there was “no threat to the life or safety of anyone” and that there was no urgency to grant their request.
- Lawmakers on Capitol Hill — both Republican and Democratic — have also been trying to obtain documents from government agencies related to the events that unfolded that day and what security lapses may have occurred.
- In light of the second attempted assassination of Trump’s life at his golf course in Florida last week, AFL said in it statement: “There is no denying that President Trump currently faces genuine threats, and AFL’s requests would help to ensure that USSS and DHS leadership are sufficiently trained and staffed to ensure the safety of President Trump.”
- “The American people and Congress need total transparency,” the group said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that former President Donald Trump’s politics of “hate and division” put the United States’ security in danger.
- Clinton said, “I’m very hopeful, and even optimistic that Americans who do not want to see a continuation of this politics of hate and division will reject Trump.”
- She continued, “The object in this case is Donald Trump, his demagoguery, his danger to our country and the world. You know, they were merciless about what they saw as President Biden’s problems in the debate and calling for him to withdraw. I believe Donald Trump has disqualified himself over and over and over again to be a presidential candidate, let alone a president.”
- Clinton added, “I do think more and more Americans are rejecting the kind of chaos that he represents. We can’t go back. That’s what the Harris campaign says all the time. We’re not going back. We’re not going back to, you know, what he failed to do to protect American lives during COVID. We’re not going back to the, you know, romance with dictators that puts innocent lives at risk and puts America’s security in danger. We can’t go back and give this very dangerous man another chance to do harm to our country and the world.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Ryan Routh, a 58-year-old man living in Hawaii, has been identified as the would-be assassin who targeted former President Donald J. Trump as he played a round of golf on Sunday at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect, currently in the custody of law enforcement, had an extensive social media presence almost entirely focused on support for the Ukrainian war effort and opposition to Israel.
- The would-be assassin appears to have been deeply involved with efforts to send Afghanistan military veterans, who fled the country after the Taliban retook power, to Ukraine to bolster the Eastern European nation’s efforts to halt the Russian invasion.
- According to his social media and two 2023 interviews with Semafor and The New York Times, Routh ran the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine and spent a great deal of time in Kiev over the past several years.
- “Most of the Ukrainian authorities do not want these soldiers,” Routh told Semafor last year. “I have had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa.”
- FOREIGN TIES.
- Even more concerning with respect to Routh’s foreign ties are the comments he made to the NYT. “We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he said regarding plans to move Afghan soldiers to Ukraine to join their fight. Routh insinuated he’d move the soldiers to Iran and, from there, fly them to Ukraine.
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Important Takeaways:
- Former President Donald Trump is “safe and unharmed” after Secret Service agents engaged with a suspect pointing a high-powered rifle at the Florida golf course where Trump was golfing Sunday afternoon, officials said. The suspect fled but was later taken into custody.
- The FBI and U.S. Secret Service are investigating the incident, which the FBI said “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
- “President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity,” Steven Cheung, Trump campaign communications director, said in a brief initial statement.
- Law enforcement officials confirmed that members of Trump’s U.S. Secret Service detail opened fire at the armed suspect after spotting him on the edge of the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, a few holes ahead of where the president was golfing. Secret Service officials said it was not clear if the suspect fired any shots.
- Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in a briefing that Trump was about 300-500 yards away from the man with the gun.
- Officials say rifle, scope, GoPro camera recovered
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