Hamas-Supporting DHS Agent Is Still Employed, Mayorkas Admits

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Hamas-Supporting DHS Agent Is Still Employed, Mayorkas Admits

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas admitted to Congress on Apr. 10, 2024, that an employee who was exposed as a Hamas supporter remains on the DHS payroll.

Nejwa Ali was placed on leave after it was revealed that she was celebrating the Hamas’s attack on Israel on social media, according to the Daily Wire.

“[The] individual is on administrative leave, not performing the duties and responsibilities for which she was hired,” Mayorkas said, adding that “the investigation is ongoing” and that he “cannot speak any further about it because it is an ongoing personnel matter.”

Ali was a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) who was hired by the DHS after the PLO was banned from Washington D.C.

Her job was to vet people who claimed to qualify for asylum, review evidence to “determine fraud of security concerns” and “perform credible fear interviews” that determine whether the person was fleeing persecution or lying to get into the country.

She was constantly posting on various social media platforms almost only about Israel, with her bio saying she is “Palestinian @ heart,” the news source said. Ali also shared an image glorifying the Hamas hang-gliders parachuting into a music concert with guns.

“F*** Israel and any Jew that supports Israel,” she wrote in one of her previous comments.

During her paid administrative leave, Ali was protesting in front of the Israel embassy during work hours and to dox military members there.

Additionally, she gloated on LinkedIn about Mayorkas’ refusal to fire her.

“Yes, please do!” she wrote in response to one of the comments regarding the U.S. government employing a terrorist sympathizer.

The Daily Wire also contacted Ali to ask about her initial posts, with Ali responding by doubling down on her pro-Hamas rhetoric.

“I abso-f—ing-lutely celebrate them, a–hole, f— you!” she said.

Biden White House Mourns O.J. Simpson, Silent on Victims’ Families

Luis Cornelio
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Biden White House Mourns O.J. Simpson, Silent on Victims’ Families

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The White House extended its condolences to the mourning family of infamous athlete and convicted felon O.J. Simpson, following his death on Thursday. 

Disturbingly, the White House failed to acknowledge the families and friends of his late ex-wife and friend, whom Simpson was accused of murdering. He was subsequently acquitted of any wrongdoing. 

“Our thoughts are with his families [sic] during this difficult time — obviously with his family and loved ones,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed on Thursday, according to the New York Post.

Refusing to expand on her condolences, Jean-Pierre added, “And I’ll say this, I know that they have asked for some privacy. And so we’re going to respect that. And I’ll just leave it there.” 

The White House comments came after Simpson’s family announced the former football star’s death from cancer via a social media statement. 

“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” the family wrote on Thursday morning in Twitter. “He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.”

In their statement, the Simpson family sought privacy and grace as they mourned. However, social media observers have been anything but reserved, dredging up both his convictions and acquittals. 

In 1994, Simpson was accused of brutally murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman, in what would become one of the most high-profile criminal cases of the decade. Despite the assertions of prosecutors, Simpson was acquitted of both deaths a year later. 

In 2013, over a decade later, Simpson would make headlines again after he was arrested for the theft of sports memorabilia from a casino in Las Vegas. He was charged with kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to 33 years. However, he served seven years of that sentence. 

Following his release, Simpson joined social media platforms where he posted videos on a range of topics, including sports. 

On Feb. 9, 2024, Simpson posted a video to dispel rumors that he had entered hospice care for prostate cancer.  

“Hospice? Hospice? You talking about hospice? No, no, I’m not entering any hospice, I don’t know who put that out there. Whoever put that out there, I guess s like the Donald said, ‘Can’t trust the media!’”

Biden Admin. to Spend $1M to Study ‘Latina Resistance’

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Biden Admin. to Spend $1M to Study ‘Latina Resistance’

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The Biden-controlled National Science Foundation, the government agency that is supposed to promote scientific progress, will give away over a million taxpayer dollars to DEI propaganda of “Latina resistance” and “intraminority solidarity.”

The NSF, which controls $9.9 billion of federal money and exists to “promote the progress of science,” “advance the national health” and “secure the national defense,” pledged $498,271 to a three-year study at Loyola University Maryland focused on “Latinas resistance behaviors in engineering programs at predominantly white institutions” as part of its DEI agenda, the Daily Wire reported.

Additionally, the NSF granted another $618,465 to support a study at the University of Washington centered around “promoting intraminority solidarity.” The study will especially concentrate on looking into “how different framings of racism influence Asian Americans’ intraminority solidarity with black Americans.”

The news source reported that the stated goal of the “Latina resistance” study is centered around “oppressive racist and sexist” structures in “STEM space.”

“Guided by a combination of LatCrit theory of resistance, intersectionality and cultural wealth model (CWM), the goal of this project is to investigate how Latinas choose to engage in various resistance behaviors,” the description of the federally-funded study said.

The leftists continued revealing the far-left bias of their study by writing that a bunch of woke universities started opposing non-whites.

“This project aims to investigate how Latinas choose to engage in various resistance behaviors in different engineering cultures and campus climates and how these different cultures and campus climates influence their resistance,” the description added.

Qi Shi, the Director of the university’s Center for Equity, Leadership and Social Justice in Education, was awarded the grant.

The Wire reported that the study on “intraminority solidarity” is aimed at analyzing “allyship” between minority groups — specifically between black and Asian Americans — as a result of “racism” in society.

“Understanding how different framings for intergroup conflict affect allyship from members of other minority groups is important for building a more comprehensive understanding of intergroup relations,” the project’s description said.

Sapna Cheryan, a professor at the University of Washington’s Department of Psychology, received the grant.

Andrew McCabe Acknowledges Major ‘Mistakes’ in FISA Spying of Trump Campaign

Luis Cornelio
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Andrew McCabe Acknowledges Major ‘Mistakes’ in FISA Spying of Trump Campaign

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe conceded in a Thursday appearance on CNN that significant “mistakes” occurred in the FBI’s surveillance of an adviser to the Trump campaign in 2016, as reported by the Daily Caller. 

McCabe’s remarks came as he attempted to defend the proposed reauthorization of the contentious Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, used by the FBI to monitor suspected individuals.

“We now know there were many mistakes in that FISA,” McCabe told CNN anchor Jim Acosta while speaking about former President Donald Trump’s staunch opposition to the renewal of such a spying tool. “Those are all regrettable, but that is not Section 702. Totally different thing here.” 

During the FBI’s infamous investigation into disproven allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election, federal agents made glaring omissions in their FISA warrant investigations into Page. 

For instance, in 2020, now-disgraced former FBI official Kevin Clinesmith entered a guilty plea to altering documents used in draft applications for FISA warrants, as recounted by the Caller. Despite this, McCabe called for the reauthorization of the infamous surveillance tool.

Earlier in his CNN interview, McCabe accused Trump, who has called on Congress to reject the reauthorization of Section 702, of confusing a FISA with the specific section set to expire on April 19. 

“Donald Trump is really confusing the issue. FISA is a big law. It has a lot of different sections. Part of it is used against people here in the United States,” McCabe claimed.  

He further added: “You go to the court for a warrant to enable you to do electronic surveillance. That’s not what we’re talking about. Section 702 is only used to capture the communications when people meet three criteria: you have to be a foreign person in a foreign place and the purpose of the collection has to be to get foreign intelligence.” 

McCabe alleged that the tool is used to monitor terrorists and individuals who may use weapons of destruction or countries that may use cyber tools against America. 

“It is an incredibly valuable tool, but what makes it different from regular FISA is there are no warrants,” McCabe exclaimed. “And the reason for that is you don‘t have to go to court and get a warrant because people, foreign people in foreign places, are not protected by our constitution or our Fourth Amendment, so that’s what makes it different. That’s the thing that‘s expiring on the 19th. And it is absolutely essential that we get it renewed.” 

McCabe joined CNN as a paid contributor after being fired by the FBI in 2018 when a DOJ inspector general found that he leaked information to the press. McCabe also lied about his involvement in the bureau’s handling of media requests into the Clinton Foundation in 2016, as reported by Politico.

Biden Once Again Dependent on Scripted Note Cards During Joint Press Conference

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Biden Once Again Dependent on Scripted Note Cards During Joint Press Conference

(Headline USA) President Joe Biden once again appeared heavily dependent on notecards during his press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.

Throughout the presser, the 81-year-old frequently looked down at his cheat sheets, which typically include reporters’ names, which publication they work for, and sometimes even the specific questions the White House has agreed to let them ask.

Biden also remarked that he had a “list” of reporters to call on.

“Who do I call on next? Hang on a second. I got my list here. Hang on. I apologize,” Biden said.

Earlier that day, Biden was also seen referring to his notecards while welcoming Kishida in the Oval Office.

“Well, Fumio, welcome back to the White House. Welcome back to the Oval Office. It’s good to have you here. Good to see you again. When we were here last year, we said the role being played by the United States and Japan is becoming even greater. And we… I couldn’t agree more with your assertion back then. And what we see in our joint support for Ukraine on the face of Russia’s vicious assault is just outrageous,” Biden said.

The White House has defended the president’s dependence on cheatsheets for public functions, dismissing concerns about Biden’s ability to meet with reporters and public officials without them.

Asked in March about the issue, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre snapped, “You’re upset because the president has note cards? You’re asking me a question about the president having note cards?”

Reporters, however, are not the only ones who have noticed Biden’s dependence on his notes. Even Democratic donors have expressed concern over Biden’s inability to take questions without them during private events.

“The staged Q&A sessions have left some donors wondering whether Biden can withstand the rigors of a presidential campaign, let alone potential debates with former President Trump, 77,” Axios reported earlier this year.

N.C. May Limit Lawfare Activists’ Right to Sue over Allegations of Vote Fraud

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N.C. May Limit Lawfare Activists’ Right to Sue over Allegations of Vote Fraud

(Headline USA) North Carolina’s highest court could severely restrict how politicians pursue claims of voter fraud.

The North Carolina Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Thursday morning for Bouvier v. Porter — a suit that has lingered in state courts over the past seven years. The case centers around four voters from Guilford and Brunswick County who claim they were defamed by supporters of former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in the aftermath of the 2016 election.

By a margin of 10,277 votes, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper allegedly beat McCrory in the 2016 gubernatorial election. Afterward, McCrory supporters filed election protest petitions declaring voting irregularities had occurred, including accusations from Greensboro Republican official William Porter.

The election protests accused four people of voting twice in Guilford County, according to the plaintiffs’ 2017 lawsuit. Porter’s petition against three Guilford voters was dismissed for “lack of any evidence presented” and one protest in Brunswick County was withdrawn, according to an appeals court opinion.

The plaintiffs claimed they were defamed by Porter’s petition and sought $25,000 in damages, the complaint says.

It’s not clear if the case will be decided before the 2024 election, according to one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

More defendants were named in an amended complaint later that year, including law firm Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky and the Pat McCrory Committee Legal Defense Fund. Another plaintiff from Brunswick County was also added to the case when one of the original voters voluntarily left the case, according to the amended complaint.

But the case before the N.C. Supreme Court won’t determine if the allegations defamed the voters. Instead, it focuses on whether the defendants had a form of immunity known as absolute privilege to make those claims.

Absolute privilege is a legal term used in defamation cases to outline circumstances where someone is shielded from liability for potentially defamatory statements. The privilege is typically granted in judicial and legislative proceedings.

A North Carolina appeals court gave plaintiffs a partial victory in 2021 by ruling that McCrory’s legal fund and the law firm did not have absolute privilege. They did rule, however, that Porter was granted the privilege because he operated within a “quasi-judicial election protest proceeding.”

But the defendants are arguing to the state Supreme Court bench that they should all have immunity. By not granting absolute privilege to all those involved, it prevents people concerned about elections from speaking “freely and fearlessly,” the brief read.

Bob Hunter, an attorney for the Pat McCrory Committee Legal Defense Fund, declined to comment.

The defendants didn’t function in a capacity that would grant them absolute privilege, as they “ghostwrote” the petitions for others to sign off on, plaintiff attorney and chief counsel for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice Jeff Loperfido said. If the N.C. Supreme Court sides with the defendants, he said voter fraud allegations may be used to deter voters or sow distrust in state electoral systems.

“It’s really about the fundamental right to vote and about whether individuals, North Carolina citizens, can be used as political pawns in this way and have their names tarnished without consequences,” said Loperfido, who joined the case in 2018.

Much has changed since the appeals ruling. One of the plaintiffs, Karen Niehans, died in early 2023, which caused her defamation claim to be dismissed, Loperfido said. The remaining plaintiffs are retirees, he said.

The N.C. Supreme Court’s makeup has also shifted since the appellate decision to comprise of five Republicans and two Democrats — both of whom had to recuse themselves after previously working as attorneys for the plaintiffs.

But a panel of all Republican judges doesn’t concern Loperfido because he views the case as nonpartisan.

“This could have been any losing candidate’s campaign effort to try to create enough smoke to delay certification or try to encourage the state board of election to review these protests in a certain way,” he said.

Now, both parties will await a decision after oral arguments conclude. Loperfido says that could take about six months, depending on whether the court wants to release an opinion after the 2024 election.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

China Sanctions 2 U.S. Defense Companies, Accusing Them of Arming Taiwan

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China Sanctions 2 U.S. Defense Companies, Accusing Them of Arming Taiwan

(Headline USA) China on Thursday announced rare sanctions against two U.S. defense companies over what it said is their support for arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy Beijing claims as its own territory to be recovered by force if necessary.

The announcement freezes the assets of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems held within China. It also bars the companies’ management from entering the country.

Filings show General Dynamics operates a half-dozen Gulfstream and jet aviation services operations in China, which remains heavily reliant on foreign aerospace technology even as it attempts to build its own presence in the field.

The company helps make the Abrams tank being purchased by Taiwan to replace outdated armor intended to deter or resist an invasion from China.

General Atomics produces the Predator and Reaper drones used by the U.S. military. Chinese authorities did not go into details on the company’s alleged involvement with supplying arms to Taiwan.

Beijing has long threatened such sanctions, but has rarely issued them as its economy reels from the COVID-19 pandemic, high unemployment and a sharp decline in foreign investment.

“The continued U.S. arms sales to China’s Taiwan region seriously violate the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, interfere in China’s internal affairs, and undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It insists that the mainland and the island to which Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces fled amid civil war in 1949 remain part of a single Chinese nation.

Sanctions were leveled under Beijing’s recently enacted Law of the People’s Republic of China on Countering Foreign Sanctions.

General Dynamics fully owned entities are registered in Hong Kong, the southern Chinese semi-autonomous city over which Beijing has steadily been increasing its political and economic control to the point that it faces no vocal opposition and has seen its critics silenced, imprisoned or forced into exile.

Despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties — a concession Washington made to Beijing when they established relations in 1979 — the U.S. remains Taiwan’s most important source of diplomatic support and supplier of military hardware from fighter jets to air defense systems.

Taiwan has also been investing heavily in its own defense industry, producing sophisticated missiles and submarines.

China had 14 warplanes and six navy ships operating around Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, with six of the aircraft crossing into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone — a tactic to test Taiwan’s defenses, wear down its capabilities and intimidate the population.

So far, that has had little effect, with the vast majority of the island’s 23 million people opposing political unification with China.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Mont. Senate Candidate Calls Out Wash. Post for Harassment over Hit Piece

Jacob Bruns
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Mont. Senate Candidate Calls Out Wash. Post for Harassment over Hit Piece

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Montana’s GOP senatorial candidate, Tim Sheehy, called out a Washington Post journalist who attempted to badger his friends and family into participating in a smear attack, the Daily Caller reported.

Sheehy made public a voicemail transcript showing Post writer Beth Reinhard’s repeated efforts to dig up dirt, which included reaching out to an old college acquaintance and even harassing the man’s wife.

Reinhard first reportedly tried to contact one of Sheehy’s former Naval Academy classmates, but after the unnamed former comrade ignored her messages, Reinhard cold-called the soldier’s wife, leaving a voicemail requesting that she call her back to provide details from Sheehy’s past.

“Hi this is Beth Reinhard I’m a reporter with the Washington Post,” Reinhard said according to the voicemail transcript before requesting more information about Sheehy.

“I’m working on a story about, profile, of Tim Sheehy, who knew your husband at the Naval Academy, and we just wanted to know, hoping to talk to him about his experience,” said the voicemail.

Reinhard claimed to be interested only in finding information that would “help fill out what we know about his background” for her story.

The wife sent the text of the voice message to her husband, who revealed that he, too, had been receiving calls: “Wow. Yeah do not answer. They’re putting together a hit piece on [Tim Sheehy]. I’ve been contacted twice this week.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., ridiculed the Post for its lack of integrity, cold-calling a woman after failing to contact her husband.

“The Washington Post is no longer a media outlet,” Cotton told the Daily Caller, accusing the newspaper of shamelessly backing President Joe Biden and the Democrats.

“It’s now the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party,” Cotton added. “These ‘journalists’ are smearing Tim Sheehy because they know he’ll fight for Montana values and against Biden’s policies.”

Sheehy is locked in a tight race with Democrat Jon Tester, whom many consider to be among the most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection this year. Republicans would need to flip two seats in order to regain the majority in the upper chamber.

Matt Rosendale, one of Montana’s two current congressmen in the House of Representatives, previously dropped out of the race in part at the encouragement of former President Donald Trump, who already had endorsed Sheehy.

However, Rosendale also cited as one of the main reasons for his exit the fact that he his family had received death threats and that media outlets including Politico had spread what he characterized as a defamatory story about an alleged sex scandal, which originated via a podcast interview with former Rep. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.

Reinhard, an Ivy League graduate of Columbia University’s prestigious journalism school and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, has been at the Post since 2017, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Prior to that, she spent approximately three years at the Wall Street Journal. 

According to the Federal Election Commission, a self-employed writer by the name of Elizabeth Reinhard, who resided in a posh apartment near Battery Park in Manhattan at the same time as Reinhard’s employment with the Journal, made five donations totaling $3,500 to two separate groups supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.

A person with the same name but using a different residential address made $650 more in contributions to Democrat causes in 2018 and 2019.

Headline USA was unable to verify that this was the same Beth Reinhard. After reaching out via email to Reinhard, a Washington Post spokesperson responded, denying any connection between its reporter and the Hillary Clinton donations.

“Beth Reinhard did not make the donations referenced in the story,” said the Post. “This insinuation is false and to tie Beth to another individual named ‘Elizabeth Reinhard’ is wholly inaccurate.”

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Biden’s ATF Moves to Ban Private Gun Sales

Ken Silva
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Biden’s ATF Moves to Ban Private Gun Sales

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Biden administration has finalized a regulation that could effectively ban the private sale of firearms.

The rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could effectively ban private gun sales by expanding the definition of who would be classified as a “dealer” under federal law. Dealers are required to obtain a license to become a Federal Firearms Licensee, or FFL.

Right now, people are required to become an FFL only if dealing firearms is their principal livelihood. But the ATF is changing that rule so that “even a single transaction, or offer to engage in a transaction, when combined with other evidence, may be sufficient to require a license” as an FFL.

The rule aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who don’t perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.

The rule, which was finalized this week, says that anyone who sells firearms predominantly to earn a profit must be federally licensed and conduct background checks, regardless of whether they are selling on the internet, at a gun show or at a brick-and-mortar store, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters.

However, Second Amendment advocates have warned that the regulation will potentially criminalize anyone who sells a firearm.

“Such an expansive rule that treats all private citizens the same as federal firearms licensees would circumvent the separation of powers in the Constitution, which grants ‘all legislative Powers’ to Congress while requiring that the President ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,'” Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt warned in January.

“The lessons of the Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs should make clear that attempting to enforce such an expansive regulation could endanger countless ATF field agents who are forced to serve as the face of the Biden Administration in going after private firearms owners for constitutionally-protected firearms sales,” he added.

The rule is likely to be challenged in court by gun rights activists, who have previously sued over other ATF rule changes that they argue infringe on gun rights. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, previously warned of a court challenge if the rule was finalized as written.

Biden administration officials said they are confident the rule — which drew more than 380,000 public comments — would withstand legal challenges.

Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers are demanding to know how and why the ATF decided to push for this radical regulation change.

“It appears that the Biden Administration is attempting to abuse the federal rulemaking process to circumvent Congress in order to achieve a far-left policy outcome,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and 19 other Republicans in a March letter to ATF Director Steve Dettelbach.

“This language gives Americans no certainty about the enforcement of federal law, and gives ATF blanket authority to create new presumptions with no notice.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Trump Says Ariz. Abortion Ban Goes too Far; Dems Eye Opportunity

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Trump Says Ariz. Abortion Ban Goes too Far; Dems Eye Opportunity

(Headline USA) Days after formally outlining his moderate stance on abortion, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said an Arizona Supreme Court ruling that scrapped the state’s GOP-passed 2022 law banning abortions after 15 weeks in favor of an 1864 law that imposed a near-total ban was too extreme.

Trump expressed confidence that the Republican-controlled state legislature could work with leftist Gov. Katie Hobbs to find a fix.

“It’ll be straightened out and, as you know, it’s all about states’ rights,” the former president told supporters and journalists on Wednesday after landing in Atlanta for a fundraiser. “It’ll be straightened out, and I’m sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and that’ll be taken care of, I think, very quickly.”

Democrats, however, appeared to see an opportunity to inflict political damage in the November election by stoking outrage among single-issue ‘AWFULs’ in order to maintain the swing state’s recent blue winning streak

On Wednesday, Democrats in the state legislature hijacked the legislative session and hectored their GOP counterparts, despite the fact that Republican lawmakers had nothing to do directly with the court ruling.

In fact, several Republicans, following Trump’s lead, have spoken out against the ruling, including current GOP senatorial candidate Kari Lake.

During an appearance on Steve Bannon’s WarRoom broadcast, former state attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh said the court’s decision seemed oddly timed, since it would do little more than to help mobilize leftists to vote on a referendum supporting abortion that is all but guaranteed to appear on the November ballot.

“The Democrats, in many ways, they’re ecstatic with this decision because they want to use this as a way to drive their voters out to the polls when abortion is gonna be on the ballot as a constitutional amendment,” Hamadeh said.

Trump’s decision to fully articulate his abortion stance, after having long hedged on the divisive issue, caused a stir among staunch pro-lifers.

But supporters argue that it was a political imperative to get in front of the debate, which has played a large part in helping Democrats win the past three election cycles at both the state and federal levels.

As Bannon noted in his interview with Hamadeh, the Left is determined to miscast the GOP as wanting to ban abortion at the federal level—something that many of the party’s more libertarian-aligned backers are not on board with.

Nonetheless, putting the issue in the hands of individual states is a gambit itself, fraught with political peril, since it will only motivate Democrat activists to turn their focus on state elections—including swing states that will be essential to Trump’s reelection and GOP hopes of reclaiming Congress.

Even so, Trump maintained that shifting the discussion away from a moral and religious debate into a legal and political one could help neutralize one of the Democrats’ most effective talking points.

Asked Wednesday whether he would sign a national abortion ban if elected president again, Trump shook his head in response and said “No.”

He did not elaborate on what he thought the level of restrictions and access should be in Arizona or any other state—although he, himself, supports three exceptions: in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.

Democrats tried to cast Trump as a hypocrite and a flip-flopper due to the fact that he nominated three Supreme Court justices who were instrumental in the overturn of the controversial Roe v. Wade precedent.

In 2022, the conservative-leaning court deemed the 1973 decision to have been unconstitutional since the earlier justices had overstepped their authority, applying judicial activism to create a new law rather than interpret the existing ones.

Trump “owns the suffering and chaos happening right now, including in Arizona, because he proudly overturned Roe” and has a track record of “banning abortion every chance he gets,” claimed Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler.

President Joe Biden—despite committing an awkward gaffe by getting his century incorrect at first—landed a blow during a Rose Garden news conference on Tuesday when was asked for his message to Arizona voters.

“Elect me,” the 81-year-old president said. “I’m in the 20th century … the 21st century. Not back then.”

Trump has said he is proud that the three Supreme Court justices he nominated voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. He supports allowing states to determine their own restrictions, while discouraging them from backing an outright ban due to the political toxicity.

In a stop at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta, Trump was asked whether doctors should be punished for performing abortions, and he said he would let that be up to the states.

Trump also spoke about a Florida law that bans abortions after six weeks, saying that “is probably, maybe, going to change also.”

Last week, Florida’s state Supreme Court upheld a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The ruling also cleared the way for the state to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, through yet another November ballot initiative.

“For 52 years, people have wanted to end Roe v. Wade, to get it back to the states,” Trump said.

“We did that. It was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement,” he continued. “Now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want. It’s the will of the people. So Florida is probably going to change.”

Trump ignored questions about how he plans to vote himself on Florida’s pending state constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion as a right in his home state.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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