Reuters

Harris promises tougher immigration, fentanyl controls at border

Published

4 months ago

September 28, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

By Trevor Hunnicutt

September 28, 20248:35 AM GMT+6Updated 16 hours ago

Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. VP Kamala Harris visits US-Mexico border

Item 1 of 4 Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris tours the border wall with Border Patrol agents and other personnel (not pictured), near Tucson, Arizona, U.S., September 27, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

[1/4]Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris tours the border wall with Border Patrol agents and other personnel (not pictured), near Tucson, Arizona, U.S., September 27, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Purchase Licensing Rights

DOUGLAS, Arizona, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time in her 2024 presidential campaign on Friday, calling for tighter asylum restrictions and vowing to make stopping fentanyl from entering the U.S. a “top priority.”

Harris outlined her plans to fix “our broken immigration system” in Douglas, Arizona, a border town of fewer than 17,000 people, while accusing her Republican rival Donald Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” over the impact of immigrants on American life.

Some 7 million migrants have been arrested crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to government data, a record high number that has fueled criticism of Biden and Harris from Trump and his fellow Republicans.

Immigration is a top issue for voters. Arizona is a closely contested election state, with a high population of Latino voters sought by both parties. The nation’s porous southern border remains a source of fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States.

Harris called for more punitive measures for people crossing the border illegally, following an asylum ban for those entering illegally, a move Biden took this year that has sharply reduced illegal crossings.

“I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry. Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from re-entering for five years,” Harris said.Seen in recent storms like Eidalia that hit, and certainly Debbie.00:2100:44

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.668.1_en.html#goog_773300814

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.668.1_en.html#goog_773300815

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.668.1_en.html#goog_773300816

“We will pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators, and if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum,” she said.

Harris emphasized her goal of a “humane” immigration program, saying she would with Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers” – hundreds of thousands of people brought into the U.S. illegally as children. They were a priority for Democrats for a decade but were left out of a failed immigration bill that Biden had backed.

“I reject the false choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly and humane,” Harris said. “We can and we must do both.”

In Douglas, Harris spoke to Customs and Border Protection officials and viewed part of a border barrier built between 2011 and 2012 during the administration of Democrat Barack Obama, the White House said.

She also received a briefing on the CBP’s drug enforcement operations and viewed inspection technology used to seize illegal drugs, including fentanyl, the campaign said, noting that border officials stopped more fentanyl at ports of entry in 2022 and 2023 than in the previous five fiscal years combined.

Harris was introduced by Theresa Guerrero, whose 31-year-old son Jacob Guerrero died from fentanyl poisoning. She accused Trump of blocking the bipartisan border security bill aimed at stemming the flow of fentanyl. The bill was blocked by the Senate in February, after Trump pressed Republicans to reject any compromise.

Biden and Harris accuse Trump of killing the measure to keep immigration alive as a campaign issue.

Harris said she would revive the legislation, which would add 1,500 Border Patrol agents and other personnel, 4,300 asylum officers, 100 immigration judges and new drug detection technology.

The vice president said she would target the “entire global fentanyl supply chain.” She said China was starting to crack down on fentanyl precursor chemicals but needed to do more.

Fentanyl overdoses have surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. Over 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2023.

Harris pledged to double funding for the prosecution of trans-national criminal organizations and cartels, and modernize U.S. screening and vetting infrastructure.

IMMIGRATION TOP ISSUE

Trump and his running mate JD Vance have increased their criticism of immigrants in recent weeks, repeating falsehoods about legal Haitian immigrants in Vance’s home state of Ohio and suggesting that immigrants are committing crimes and stealing jobs from U.S. citizens.

On Friday, Trump blamed Harris for the rising trend of irregular migration.

“The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris,” Trump said at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border. We would merely ask, Why didn’t she do it four years ago? It’s a very simple question.”

He also accused Harris of turning small towns in the U.S. into “blighted refugee camps.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that 43% of voters favored Trump on the issue of immigration and 33% favored Harris, while 24% either did not know, chose someone else or did not answer.

Harris, a former prosecutor, was California’s attorney general before being elected to the U.S. Senate and then vice president. Her California remit included targeting gangs that operate on both sides of the border and traffic in drugs, guns and people.

Biden tasked Harris with dealing with the root causes of migration from Central America, a diplomatic issue on which her record is mixed.

Emigration from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia to the United States has created unease among voters concerned about what the trend means for the U.S. economy, crime rates and culture. The share of American residents born abroad rose by nearly a fifth to 47.8 million from 2010 to 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; additional reporting by Steve Holland and Kristina Cooke; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons, Miral Fahmy, Rosalba O’Brien, Leslie Adler and William Mallard

Reuters

Podcaster Joe Rogan endorses Donald Trump for president

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

By Kanishka Singh

November 5, 20249:16 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago

Item 1 of 2 Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Joe Rogan talks to fans in the paddock at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images/File Photo

[1/2]Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Joe Rogan talks to fans in the paddock at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently interviewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for nearly three hours, said on Monday he has endorsed the former president in the race to the White House.

Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 U.S. election in what polls show to be a tight race. Harris has got multiple celebrity endorsements.

“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump,” Rogan said on X while posting a clip of his interview with billionaire Elon Musk, who has also endorsed Trump. Rogan said in his post that Musk made the “most compelling case for Trump.”

Trump’s recent interview with Rogan lasted about 3 hours and was released on YouTube and Spotify in late October. The two discussed a range of topics and the interview got over 45 million views on YouTube.

The former president criticized Rogan in August on Truth Social, his social media platform, after the podcaster praised then-independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. Kennedy has since pulled out of the race and endorsed Trump. Trump later called Rogan a “good guy.”

Trump and Harris have courted voters with appearances on podcasts, in addition to more traditional rallies and media interviews.

Spotify (SPOT.N), opens new tab said in March “The Joe Rogan Experience” had 14.5 million followers, almost triple the platform’s second most popular program. Rogan also has more than 19 million followers on Instagram and 18 million followers on YouTube.

A poll by YouGov last year found that 81% of his listeners are male and 56% are under 35 years old, a demographic that tends to support Trump over Harris.

Harris’ team had been in touch with Rogan’s program about a possible appearance but her campaign said in late October she will not appear on his podcast.

Rogan joins a list of celebrities like Musk and wrestler Hulk Hogan to have endorsed Trump.

Harris has a much bigger list of celebrity endorsements – ranging from basketball superstar Lebron James and actress Meryl Streep to comedian Chris Rock and former talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Superstar singers Beyonce and Taylor Swift have also endorsed her.

Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan

Reuters

Musk and X are epicenter of US election misinformation, experts say

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

By Kanishka Singh and Sheila Dang

November 5, 20249:52 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago

Rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, in New York

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – False or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the U.S. election have amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report, opens new tab by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate.

The platform is also playing a central role in enabling the spread of false information about the critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential race, election and misinformation experts said on Monday.

A spokesperson for X said the company’s Community Notes feature, which lets users add additional context to posts, is more effective at helping people identify misleading content than traditional warning flags on posts.

Since taking over the company formerly known as Twitter, Musk has curtailed content moderation and laid off thousands of employees. He has thrown his support behind former President Donald Trump, who is locked in an exceptionally close race against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Musk’s massive reach with nearly 203 million followers helps enable “network effects” in which content on X can jump to other social media and messaging platforms such as Reddit and Telegram, said Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and expert on disinformation. “X is a conduit from one platform to another,” she said.

At least 87 of Musk’s posts this year have promoted claims about the U.S. election that fact-checkers have rated as false or misleading, amassing 2 billion views, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s report.

In Pennsylvania, one of the seven key swing states, some X users have seized on instances of local election administrators flagging incomplete voter registration forms that would not be processed, falsely casting the events as examples of election interference, said Philip Hensley-Robin, Pennsylvania executive director at Common Cause, during a press briefing on Monday.

Common Cause is a nonpartisan organization that promotes accountable government and voting rights.

Some X accounts implied “that there was voter fraud, when in fact, we know very clearly that election officials and election administrators in all of our counties were following the rules and … therefore only eligible voters are voting,” Hensley-Robin said.

Cyabra, a firm that uses AI to detect online disinformation, said on Monday that an X account with 117,000 followers played a key role in helping spread a fake video purporting to show Pennsylvania mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed.

X’s spokesperson said the platform took action against many accounts that shared the video.

Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Sheila Dang in Austin; Additional reporting by Stephanie Burnett; Editing by Lincoln Feast

Georgia

Georgia top court won’t extend ballot deadline in win for Trump

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

By Reuters

November 5, 20244:36 AM GMT+6Updated 9 hours ago

Georgians turned out a day after the battleground state opened early voting

A person picks up a sticker while voters head to a polling station as Georgians turned out a day after the battleground state opened early voting, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., October 16, 2024. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – The top court in the battleground state of Georgia ruled on Monday that Cobb County cannot extend the deadline for counting about 3,000 absentee ballots that were sent out shortly before Election Day, handing a victory to the Republican National Committee and presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Siding with the RNC, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned a judge’s ruling extending the deadline until Friday in Cobb County, located in suburban Atlanta. The court decided that only absentee ballots that arrive by 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday (0000 GMT Wednesday) can be counted.

Civil rights groups had sued last week seeking to extend the deadline, arguing that the county violated state law by failing to promptly send out about 3,000 absentee ballots. County officials said they were overwhelmed by a surge in requests.

The Republican National Committee had argued that extending the deadline would violate state law.

“Election Day is Election Day – not the week after,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley wrote in a post on social media.

Cobb County is a large and racially diverse area in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. The county voted for Democrat Joe Biden over Trump by 14 percentage points in the 2020 election. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia in 2020.

A spokesperson for Cobb County did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state high court ordered that ballots received after Election Day be separated from other ballots and set aside. Voters who did not receive an absentee ballot or did not have enough time to mail it can vote in person on Tuesday.

Georgia is one of seven closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of the race between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham