Politics (RSS)

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is giving himself a "pat-on-the-back" after a nearly 20-year-old clip of himself asking a presidential hopeful why someone with "the least political experience" should earn his vote went viral.  During an October 2003 MSNBC town hall ahead of the 2004 election, the then-Harvard student posed a question to then-Democratic candidate Rev. Al Sharpton on his lack of office holding, noting that Sharpton's sit-down with "Hardball" host Chris Matthews had followed two Democratic rivals, then-sitting Senators John Edwards and John Kerry, the latter who ultimately won the nomination but lost in the general election to President George W. Bush. "Of all the Democratic candidates out there, why should I vote for the one with the least political experience?" the 18-year-old Ramaswamy asked.  CNN, POLITICO JOURNALISTS REPORTEDLY SAID VIVEK RAMASWAMY ‘COULD BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT’ "Well, you shouldn’t, because I have the most political experience," Sharpton responded, sparking laughs and applause from the audience. "I got involved in the political movement when I was 12 years old. And I’ve been involved in social policy for the last 30 years, so don’t confuse people that have a job with political experience." "As we have seen with the present occupant in the White House, George Bush was a governor and clearly has shown he doesn't have political experience," Sharpton later quipped.  VIVEK RAMASWAMY WAS THE MOST GOOGLE-SEARCHED CANDIDATE AT THE GOP DEBATE Ramaswamy reacted to the viral clip.  "I’ll give the 18-year-old version of myself a pat-on-the-back for eliciting the most sensible words ever to come from that man’s mouth," Ramaswamy wrote on Monday, swiping the now-MSNBC host Sharpton.  He added, "20 years later, it’s funny how the tables have turned." The clip, which went viral on Monday, first resurfaced after Ramaswamy referred to his exchange with Sharpton in an interview published in Time magazine earlier this month.  Ramaswamy recently acknowledged that he voted for the libertarian candidate in the 2004 election after previously claiming he had not voted until 2020, when he supported former President Trump over President Biden.  RAMASWAMY SAYS HE EMBRACES THE MEDIA HEAT AHEAD OF FIRST GOP DEBATE: ‘IT MAKES ME STRONGER AS A CANDIDATE’ Ramaswamy himself took plenty of slings and arrows during the first Republican presidential debate, particularly over his youth and non-political background. Former Vice President Mike Pence knocked Ramaswamy as a "rookie," while former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called him an "amateur" and compared him to Barack Obama.  According to the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, Ramaswamy is placing third with 7.5% behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 13% and former President Trump, who continues to dominate the GOP field with 53%.

EXCLUSIVE — A conservative watchdog group has unearthed a striking four medical malpractice cases that have been filed against Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, who is President Biden's nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Researchers with the American Accountability Foundation say that the cases uncovered are not nuisance lawsuits and, viewed together, raise "serious questions about her medical abilities, supervisory skills, and temperament."  Biden nominated Bertagnolli to be the next NIH director on May 15. She currently serves as the director of the National Cancer Institute, a role she has held since October 2022. The White House has praised Bertagnolli as a world-renowned surgical oncologist, cancer researcher, educator and physician-leader who is well-suited to the task of leading NIH. If confirmed by the Senate, Bertagnolli would be only the second woman to lead the agency.  However, AAF has identified four medical malpractice lawsuits filed against Bertagnolli that the group argues must be scrutinized ahead of her Senate confirmation hearings. Among those is a 1999 New York case that went to trial, after which Bertagnolli was found liable for a botched hernia surgery and ordered to pay nearly half a million dollars in damages, and an ongoing lawsuit in Massachusetts involving the wrongful death of a 34-year-old mother.  BERNIE SANDERS TO BLOCK ALL BIDEN HEALTH NOMINEES UNTIL ADMIN DELIVERS PLAN TO LOWER DRUG PRICES: REPORT Bertagnolli did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In 1999, Bertagnolli was sued for malpractice in New York. A jury ultimately found her liable and ordered her to pay $450,000 in damages for pain and suffering caused to the plaintiff.  The case is unusual because it went to trial. According to Department of Justice data, only about 7% of medical malpractice lawsuits end in trial, and plaintiffs only win about a quarter of those trials.  This case concerned a hernia repair Bertagnolli performed in 1996 on a patient named Iva Falcon. Following the procedure, Falcon developed complications that required her to go through two additional surgeries.  CHIP ROY, GOP COLLEAGUES SOUND ALARM OVER CCP-LINKED MONEY REPORTEDLY GOING TO NIH EMPLOYEES The issue was that Bertagnolli repaired Falcon's hernia using sutures instead of mesh. Falcon alleged her hernia should have been repaired using a mesh, and expert witness testimony supported Falcon's claim that using sutures was a gross deviation from standard medical practice.  During the trial in 2001, Falcon testified about the moment Bertagnolli realized she had forgotten to use mesh during a follow-up visit after Falcon's surgery. "She asked me didn't I put mesh inside of you, and I told her you are the doctor, I was asleep," Falcon said, according to trial transcripts. "She then left the office, came back in, ran her hands through her hair, said how could I have forgotten to put mesh inside of you."  Summarizing the case on Dec. 17, 2001, Falcon's attorney Linda Roth called Bertagnolli "an arrogant surgeon" whose "selfish existence" made her unable "to admit what [she] did was wrong."  NIH GAVE ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE MONEY FOR RISKY CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH WITHOUT PROPER OVERSITGHT, WATCHDOG FINDS The jury unanimously decided that Bertagnolli departed from the "good and accepted standards of medical care and practice" before awarding Falcon $450,000 in damages.  The ongoing lawsuit in Massachusetts, Estate of Jazmine Sneed et. Al v. Monica Bertagnolli MD, began as a medical malpractice case amended in 2019 to a wrongful death suit. The plaintiff, Jazmine Sneed, died on July 22, 2019, at the age of 34. She was a wife and mother of one daughter who worked as a radiology technician at Bringham & Women's Hospital. Sneed's estate accuses Bertagnolli of incompetence and negligence concerning a fifteen-month delay in accurately diagnosing Sneed with cancer. A medical malpractice tribunal tasked with weeding out frivolous malpractice lawsuits held in July 2021 that the complaint presents evidence that "if properly substantiated is sufficient to raise a legitimate question of liability appropriate for judicial inquiry."  A third lawsuit filed in New York City in 2000 alleged that Bertagnolli failed to diagnose the plaintiff's colon cancer. The case was discontinued with prejudice against Bertagnoli in August 2004, potentially indicating a settlement.  NIH STUDY RECRUITING 18-YEAR-OLDS TO LEARN ‘UNKNOWN’ SIDE EFFECTS OF TESTICLE REMOVAL FOR GENDER DYSPHORIA The fourth lawsuit of concern is Falbourn v. New York Hospital et Al., a 1999 medical malpractice lawsuit in which Bertagnolli is listed as a co-defendant. Plaintiff Donna Faulborn alleged "negligent performance" of her surgery for paravaginal repair and other conditions caused "severe and permanent injuries" that resulted in "the inability of Mrs. Faulborn to have sexual relations, urinary incontinence, as well as the necessity of two additional surgeries to correct her condition."  The lawsuit did not list specific allegations against Bertagnolli, but AAF argued that in light of the three other cases, it serves as yet another example of Bertagnolli being the subject of troubling allegations of carelessness. The case was dismissed with prejudice against Bertagnolli in May 2002, again likely indicating settlement.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  "We're told Monica Bertagnolli should lead NIH based on her medical bone fides, but this information raises serious questions about her competence as a doctor," AAF Founder Tom Jones told Fox News Digital in a statement. "Our health bureaucracies should be led by experts who do not have a history of poor patient care. How can we trust her to lead the NIH when she keeps getting sued for malpractice? The evidence clearly indicates that Bertagnolli is a bad doctor." Fox News' Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

Democrats criticize governor’s comments after shooting that left three Black people dead and say ‘this type of hatred isn’t random’ The booing that greeted Ron DeSantis as he showed up to a vigil in Jacksonville on Sunday for three Black people murdered by a white supremacist told quite a story. Nobody contradicted the Republican governor and presidential hopeful’s assertion that the killer was “a scumbag”, or that the racist killings were “totally unacceptable”. Yet his comments raised eyebrows because of DeSantis’s previous attitude – indifference in the minds of many – to Nazis in the state rallying in his name; and his promotion of a succession of legislation designed to disenfranchise Black voters, and recast Florida’s racial history to teach forced labor as beneficial to the enslaved. Continue reading...

Trade deals have brought cheaper goods. They’ve also destroyed millions of US jobs and caused US wages to stagnate President Joe Biden is making a break with decades of free trade deals and embarking on an industrial policy designed to revive American manufacturing. This has caused consternation among free-traders, including some of my former colleagues from the Clinton and Obama administrations. Continue reading...

No one may have been more surprised by the decisive moment in last week's first GOP presidential debate than Desmond Meade.

President Joe Biden will host Costa Rica's President Rodrigo Chaves Robles Tuesday at a critical time for a region grappling with a record number of migrants heading to the United States.

Eminem has asked Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to stop using his music after the GOP hopeful performed a rendition of "Lose Yourself" while on the campaign trail.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows rolled the dice on Monday with his opening move in the sprawling Fulton County election subversion trial: he took the stand himself.

Justin Jones was forced to stay quiet for the rest of a session after breaking a new rule. It sparked an angry crowed reaction.

Infighting between Trump acolytes and traditionalists has driven away donors and voters. Can the Michigan Republican Party rebuild in time for the presidential election?

Kristina Karamo pledged to bring in a new donor class when she was named co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, but they never materialized.

With much of his racial equity agenda thwarted by Congress or the courts, President Biden is trying to close an enthusiasm gap among the voters who helped deliver him to the White House.

Maeia Corbett had been banking on President Biden’s promise to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers.

State faces poverty, poor education and insufficient healthcare, but lawmakers are funding renovations to event center Louisiana lawmakers have faced backlash for using some of their spring legislative session’s final moments not to address some of their state’s myriad needs – but instead to grant the multimillion-dollar wish of the state flagship university’s championship-winning women’s basketball coach. Poverty, poor education and insufficient healthcare have loomed over Louisiana for decades and have earned the state the country’s lowest rankings in each category, according to the US News and World Report. Louisiana ranks 50th – dead last – in crime and economy, 49th in infrastructure and 46th in education when compared to the rest of the nation, the report says. Continue reading...

Wisconsin Republicans are moving to fire the state's nonpartisan elections director ahead of the upcoming presidential primary in the state, casting a shadow of uncertainty over 2024 elections.

The state Senate is set to hold a hearing Tuesday on Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the first step in what is likely an attempt to remove her from her position. Democrats say Republicans want to drive Wolfe out of office as retribution for decisions the commission made in 2020.

The brawl over Wolfe illustrates how, nearly three years after then-President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election in 2020, election misinformation still has a grip on arguably the most important swing state on the map — with Trump potentially on the ticket again.

“I think that it's largely out of a desire to find an explanation for Donald Trump's loss other than fewer people voted for him than Joe Biden,” Ann S. Jacobs, one of the Democratic commissioners on the WEC, said of the machinations to remove Wolfe. “She is the chief elections officer, she offers a face to the conspiracy theories.”

The margin between Biden and Trump in Wisconsin in 2020 was extremely narrow, and Republicans have fixated on a handful of decisions the bipartisan, six-member WEC board of commissioners approved, including how absentee voting was handled in nursing homes during the pandemic.

Heightening the discord is state House leaders tapping former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman as a “special counsel” to review the election in the summer of 2021. Gableman embraced fringe conspiracy theories and targeted state and local election officials. He lambasted grants from a nonprofit funded by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg that went to election offices across the state. Beyond that, he mocked Wolfe on personal terms by deriding her physical appearance.

Gableman was dismissed a bit over a year later after he turned on Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, arguably the most powerful Republican in the state, with Vos saying Gableman went “off the rails.”

But some of the underlying attacks against Wolfe stuck.

“It’s clear that enough legislators have fallen prey to false information about my work and the work of this agency that my role here is at risk,” Wolfe wrote in a letter to Wisconsin clerks in June.

Wolfe said during a commission meeting earlier this month to discuss appearing in front of the state Senate that she's in “a really difficult spot. ... I feel like I am being put in an absolutely impossible, untenable spot either way.” Wolfe said in a statement last week that she would not appear at Tuesday’s hearing.

A WEC spokesperson declined to make Wolfe available for an interview. But her supporters say she is unfairly being targeted for pandemic-era decisions that only became an issue for Republicans after Trump lost.

Wolfe was merely “implementing bipartisan votes from the commission itself,” said Democratic state Sen. Mark Spreitzer, who serves on the Senate election committee. “Even if you disagree with the Commission's decisions, I don't think it's fair to take it out on Meagan.”

Sen. Dan Knodl, who chairs the committee holding the hearing on Tuesday, declined an interview request through a spokesperson.

Wolfe, who is widely respected among her peers working on running elections, has the support of election officials in both parties from Wisconsin. Election clerks are expected to speak in support of her on Tuesday, and bipartisan WEC commissioners have said Wolfe should remain in her role.

“She’s qualified, she’s carried out the dictates of the commission, and frankly I don’t think that we will find anyone else who would take the job who would be qualified,” said WEC Chair Don Millis, a Republican appointed to the commission by Vos. “It’s a very difficult position, she’s under fire. I feel sorry for her for all the things she has to go through.”

But the fight over Wolfe’s service as the state’s chief election official seems headed to the courts — with Democrats in the state arguing that legislative Republicans don’t have the authority to take a vote to expel her.

That's because Wolfe was never officially renominated for the role in the first place. Democratic WEC commissioners strategically abstained from a vote doing so because they feared Republicans in the state Senate would vote to remove her if her nomination came before the full chamber.

Willis, the GOP chair of the commission, said that while he supports Wolfe, he believed Democrats on the commission were making a grave mistake by not officially voting to approve her nomination — which could exacerbate the fight around her role. “I think the members of the Senate felt it was an insult,” he said.

In a letter to the state Senate last week, Democratic Attorney General Joshua Kaul argued that the Senate had no right to vote on Wolfe’s appointment.

“This is not a close question under state law,” he wrote, arguing that the commission had not officially nominated her to serve another term. As long as Wolfe is a “holdover appointee,” he continued, she can remain in the job.

Wolfe “may legally remain in office following the expiration” of her term, Kaul argued — citing a recent state Supreme Court decision where a Republican appointee was allowed to stay in office following the expiration of his term to a state board.

Should Senate Republicans continue to push ahead with Wolfe's vote, Spreitzer, the Democratic state senator, said this will almost assuredly head to the courts.

“If Republicans take it that far and take that vote … we end up in court,” he said. “And who sues who first, I have no idea.”

The margin between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in Wisconsin in 2020 was extremely narrow, and Republicans have fixated on several decisions the bipartisan, six-member Wisconsin Elections Commission approved.

Two courtroom dramas 700 miles apart arising from Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the last election conjured a preview of the most tortured campaign season of modern times next year.

President Joe Biden will travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, on September 10 following the Group of 20 summit in India to meet with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other leaders, according to the White House.

Gina Raimondo, who is in China this week, has said banning TikTok could “lose every voter under 35, forever.”

TikTok creators gathered for a news conference about the app on Capitol Hill in March. Efforts to ban or regulate it in Washington have not yet borne fruit.

“To the American people’s chagrin, we will have to leave the rapping to the real Slim Shady,” Mr. Ramaswamy’s spokesman said after the campaign received a cease-and-desist letter.

Vivek Ramaswamy’s impromptu rap at the Iowa State Fair caught Eminem’s attention.

Nikki Haley, fresh off a strong debate performance last week, was back on the trail and took a moment to condemn the weekend shooting in Jacksonville, Fla.

“Do not fall into the narrative that this is a racist country,” Nikki Haley said on Monday at a town hall in South Carolina.

The other 18 co-defendants, who include former President Trump, are scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 6.

Anthony Michael Kreis, assistant professor of law at Georgia State University, was in the courtroom during Mark Meadows' key hearing in the Fulton County election interference case and shares his experience to CNN's Erica Hill.

Ramaswamy was seen passionately rapping along​ to the song in mid-August while campaigning at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

A pair of bills signed into law by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson in June went into effect on Monday, restricting transgender youth access to sex-reassignment health care and school sports. In one law, the state prohibits minors from starting puberty blockers and hormones and makes gender surgeries for youths illegal. In the other law, student athletes from kindergarten through college are required to play sports on teams that align with their birth-assigned sex. MISSOURI GOV. MIKE PARSON SIGNS BILL BANNING TRANSGENDER HEALTH CARE FOR MINORS, COMPETITION IN SCHOOL SPORTS Both laws are scheduled to expire in 2027. Parson, a Republican, said when he signed the bill that the state was standing up "to the nonsense" and stands with women and girls who have "fought for an equal opportunity to succeed." Parson also said the bill was meant to "protect children from making life-altering decisions that they could come to regret in adulthood once they have physically and emotionally matured." ACLU, LGBT GROUPS SUE MISSOURI AG OVER GENDER TRANSITION EMERGENCY RULE LGBTQ+ advocates sued the state to overturn the healthcare law, but a judge delivered them a blow, allowing the new law to take effect while a challenge in court plays out. Under the new health care law, physicians are not allowed to provide sex reassignment health care to minors, although youth who were prescribed hormones or puberty blockers before Monday were able to continue those treatments. The care remains in place for adults, but Medicaid no longer covers the treatment. FORMER OLYMPIAN SAYS SHE WAS 'GOBSMACKED' OVER FORMER TEAM'S SCATHING REMARKS ON HER VIEWS ON TRANS POLICY In preparation for the new law, Planned Parenthood clinics across the state reportedly held pop-up clinics and offered more appointments to be able to start patients on treatments. Now that it is in place, any physician who violates the law could have their license revoked and be sued by patients. The health care law is being challenged in court by the ACLU of Missouri, Lambda Legal and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, which filed a suit in July, on behalf of physicians, LGBTQ+ organizations and three families of transgender minors. MISSOURI ENDS RULE LIMITING GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENTS FOR MINORS, SOM ADULTS The suit argues the law is discriminatory, and the filing parties requested the law be blocked temporarily as the case plays out. But a St. Louis judge disagreed with the petitioners and ruled last week that the law could take effect while the case is challenged in court. As for sports, Parson’s signed law means anyone assigned as a girl at birth or a boy at birth, must play on sports teams that align with that assignment. DYLAN MULVANEY CALLS ON BRANDS TO DEVELOP MORE TRANS PARTNERSHIPS AFTER BUD LIGHT FIGHT: ‘REALIZE’ MY ‘POWER’ The law is in place for athletes who play on K-12 and college sports teams. While boys and men are not allowed to play on female teams if there is no corresponding sports program for them, girls and women are permitted to play on teams of the opposite sex in the same situation. The law stipulates that the state education department is responsible for creating rules to enforce the law. Private and public schools could lose all state funding for violating the new law. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A veteran Los Angeles politician was sentenced Monday to 3½ years in prison for a scheme in which he sought benefits for his son in exchange for supporting lucrative government contracts with the University of Southern California School of Social Work. Mark Ridley-Thomas, most recently a city councilmember, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on seven felony convictions including conspiracy, bribery and fraud for actions while he was a member of the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Judge Dale S. Fischer also ordered Ridley-Thomas, 68, to pay a $30,000 fine. EX-OHIO SPEAKER HOUSEHOLDER BEGINS 20-YEAR FEDERAL PRISON SENTENCE IN OKLAHOMA A jury in March found that Ridley-Thomas schemed in 2017 and 2018 with Marilyn Louise Flynn, then dean of USC's School of Social Work, to funnel $100,000 from a Ridley-Thomas campaign fund through the university to a nonprofit run by his son. Prosecutors said the son also received graduate school admission, a scholarship and a paid professorship in the course of the conspiracy and bribery scheme. EX-NY POLICE CHIEF WHO LED GILGO BEACH MURDERS PROBE ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY SOLICITING SEX AT LONG ISLAND PARK Flynn, 84, pleaded guilty last year to one count of bribery and was sentenced to 1½ years of home confinement. The City Council suspended Ridley-Thomas in October 2021 after he was charged and his seat was declared vacant when he was convicted. It was a stunning fall for a once-commanding figure in LA politics, who earlier served in the state Senate and Assembly, and was known for his involvement in civil rights.

President Biden on Monday claimed to have "literally" convinced South Carolina Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Strom Thurmond to vote for the Civil Rights Act — when he was just 21 years old. Biden made the claim while speaking on the 60th anniversary on the founding of the civil rights legal group, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "Pause for just a moment," Biden said at the White House. "I thought things had changed."  BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DODGES ON RECOMMENDATION AMERICANS STOP AT TWO BEERS A WEEK "I was able to — literally, not figuratively — talk Strom Thurmond into voting for the Civil Rights Act before he died," the president continued. "And I thought, ‘well, maybe there’s real progress,'" he added. "But hate never dies, it just hides. It hides under the rocks." Biden was born on November 20, 1942. The Civil Rights Act passed the Senate on June 19, 1964. While Thurmond and Biden were contemporaries in the Senate, the president would have been 21 at the time of the landmark legislation's passing — and nowhere near the Senate seat he won at 29 years old. Additionally, Thurmond died in June 2003 — nearly four decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The president's comments came after a 21-year-old White gunman, shot and killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville. The shooting happened at Kings Road and Canal Street in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday afternoon when an unnamed male entered a Dollar General a little after 1 p.m. armed with an AR-style rifle and a handgun, according to Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters, who added the shooter was wearing a tactical vest. According to the report, a SWAT team was seen near a Dollar General in the area and working with a potential standoff involving an armed suspect who was barricaded inside the store. The shooter also killed himself. Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace and Adam Sabes contributed reporting.

Rapper sends letter to Republican presidential hopeful objecting to candidate’s use of his song The rapper Eminem has demanded that Vivek Ramaswamy cease using his music. In a letter reported by the Daily Mail, a representative for the rapper’s publisher told counsel for the Republican presidential hopeful that Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, objected to Ramaswamy’s use of his compositions and was revoking a license to use them. Continue reading...