Trump is making his 2024 campaign about Harris’ race, whether Republicans want him to or not

Trump is making his 2024 campaign about Harris’ race, whether Republicans want him to or not
Donald Trump. (AFP)
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Updated 04 August 2024
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Trump is making his 2024 campaign about Harris’ race, whether Republicans want him to or not

Trump is making his 2024 campaign about Harris’ race, whether Republicans want him to or not

NEW YORK: Donald Trump has found tremendous success from the very first moment he stepped onto the presidential stage by stoking racial animus.
Democrats expressed new outrage this week at the former president’s derisive and false charge that Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage, only recently “turned Black” for political gain. Some Republicans — even from within Trump’s own campaign — seemed to distance themselves from the comment.
But Trump’s rhetoric this week, and his record on race since he entered politics nearly a decade ago, indicate that divisive attacks on race may emerge as a core GOP argument in the three-month sprint to Election Day — whether his allies want them to or not.
A Trump adviser, granted anonymity Thursday to discuss internal strategy, said the campaign doesn’t need to focus on “identity politics” because the case against Harris is that she is “so liberal it’s dangerous.” The adviser pointed to Harris’ record on the Southern border, crime, the economy and foreign policy.
In a sign that Trump may not be coordinating his message with his own team, the Republican presidential nominee doubled down on the same day with a new attack on Harris’ racial identity. He posted on his social media site a picture of Harris donning traditional Indian attire in a family photo.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican who has endorsed Trump, was among a number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill who said Thursday that the rhetoric around race and identity is not “helpful to anyone” this election cycle.
“People’s skin color doesn’t matter one iota,” Lummis said in an interview.
Trump turned to an old tactic against Harris
It’s been less than two weeks after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris. Trump has had to pivot from campaigning against an 81-year-old white president showing signs of decline to facing a 59-year-old biracial vice president who is drawing much larger crowds and new enthusiasm from Democratic donors.
Trump went to the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Wednesday. In an appearance carried live on cable news and shared widely online, he falsely suggested Harris misled voters about her race.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said Wednesday.
At a Pennsylvania rally hours later, Trump’s team displayed years-old news headlines describing Harris as the “first Indian-American senator” on the big screen in the arena. And Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, told reporters traveling with him that Harris was a “chameleon” who changed her identity when convenient.
Harris attended Howard University, the historically Black institution where she pledged the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and has often talked throughout her career about being both about being Black and Indian American.
Some Republicans argued that Trump’s message on race is part of a broader pitch that may appeal to some Black voters.
“We’re focused on policy and how we can actually make waves and changes in the Black community. Economics, education, inflation, lowering costs. That’s what the message is,” said Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation, which supports Trump’s efforts to win over more Black voters and hosted him at a gala in February.
Veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz said he explored the issue during a Wednesday focus group with swing voters almost immediately after Trump’s interview. He found that Harris may be vulnerable to criticism based on her gender, but race-based attacks could hurt Trump among the voters that matter most this fall.
Much has changed, Luntz said, since Trump rose to prominence by questioning the citizenship of Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president.
“Trump seems to think that he can criticize her for how she’s dealt with her race. Well, no one’s listening to that criticism. It simply doesn’t matter,” Luntz said. “If it’s racially driven, it will backfire.”
Eugene Craig, the former vice chair of the Maryland Republican Party, said that Trump “got what he wanted” at the NABJ convention but that the substance of his argument risked being more offensive than appealing.
“The one thing that Black folks will never tolerate is disrespecting Blackness, and that goes for Black Republicans too,” said Craig, who is Black and worked as a staffer for conservative pundit Dan Bongino’s 2012 Senate campaign. He is now supporting Harris.
Trump has a long history of racist attacks
Trump has frequently used race to go after his opponents since he stepped into presidential politics nearly a decade ago.
Trump was perhaps the most famous member of the so-called “birther” movement questioning where Obama was born. He kicked off his first campaign by casting Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and drug traffickers and later questioned whether a US federal judge of Mexican heritage could be fair to him.
While in the White House, Trump defended a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, and suggested that the US stop accepting immigrants from “shithole” countries including Haiti and parts of Africa. In August 2020, he suggested Harris, who was born in California, might not meet the Constitution’s eligibility requirements to be vice president.
And just two weeks after formally entering the 2024 campaign, he dined with notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Trump won in 2016 but lost reelection in 2020 to Biden by close margins in several swing states. He swept the 2024 Republican primary even while facing a raft of criminal charges.
Some Trump critics worried that his racial strategy might resonate with a significant portion of the electorate anyway. Voters will decide in November whether to send a Black woman to the Oval Office for the first time in the nation’s nearly 250-year history.
“I hope Trump’s attacks on Harris are just him flailing about ineffectively. But put together Trump’s shamelessness, his willingness to lie, his demagogic talent, and the issue of race — and a certain amount of liberal complacency that Trump is just foolish — and I’m concerned,” Bill Kristol, a leading conservative anti-Trump voice, posted on social media Thursday.
The Harris campaign thinks there’s little upside for Trump
A Harris adviser described the moment as an opportunity to remind voters of the chaos and division that Trump breeds. But the adviser, granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, said it would be a mistake for Democrats to engage with Trump’s attacks on race at the expense of the campaign’s broader focus on key policies.
So long as the campaign does not get distracted, the adviser said, Harris’ team believes there is little political upside for Trump to continue attacking Harris’ racial identity.
Harris told a gathering of a historically Black sorority on Wednesday that Trump’s attack was “the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect.”
On the ground in at least one swing state, however, there were signs that Trump’s approach may be resonating — at least among the former president’s white male base.
Jim Abel, a 65-year-old retiree who attended a rally for Vance in Arizona on Wednesday, said he agreed with Trump’s focus on Harris’ racial identity.
“She’s not Black,” Abel said. “I’ve seen her parents. I’ve pictures of her and her family and she’s not Black. She’s looking for the Black vote.”
But several high-profile Republican voices disagreed.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro posted on X a picture of a road sign with two directions. One led to, “Attack Kamala’s record, lies and radicalism,” while the other, “Is she really black?”
“I dunno guys, I just think that maybe winning the 2024 election might be more important than having this silly and meaningless conversation,” Shapiro wrote.         


Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying

Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying
Updated 23 sec ago
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Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying

Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying
  • Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, presented the council with evidence of Russian special services’ ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement

KYIV: Ukraine has banned use of the Telegram messaging app on official devices used by government officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes its enemy Russia can spy on both messages and users, a top security body said on Friday.
The National Security and Defense Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, presented the council with evidence of Russian special services’ ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement.
But Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council’s center on countering disinformation, posted on Telegram that the restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones.
Telegram is heavily used in both Ukraine and Russia and has become a critical source of information since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But Ukrainian security officials have repeatedly voiced concerns about its use during the war.
Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he has sold.
Durov was arrested upon landing in France in August as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on Telegram.
The Security Council statement said Budanov had provided evidence that Russian special services could access Telegram messages, including deleted ones, as well as users’ personal data.
“I have always supported and continue to support freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security,” Budanov said in his own statement.
After the decision was announced, Telegram issued a statement saying it had never disclosed anyone’s data or the contents of any message.
“Telegram has never provided any messaging data to any country, including Russia. Deleted messages are deleted forever and are technically impossible to recover,” Telegram said.
It said every instance of what it described as “leaked messages” had been proven to be “the result of a compromised device, whether through confiscation or malware.”
According to the Telemetrio database, about 33,000 Telegram channels are active in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who sits on the security council, as well as military commanders and regional and city officials all regularly publish updates on the war and report important decisions on Telegram.
Ukrainian media have estimated that 75 percent of Ukrainians use the app for communication and found that 72 percent saw it as a key source of information as of the end of last year.

 


Hezbollah ‘financier’ pleads guilty to evading US sanctions

Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi. (Credit: rewardsforjustice)
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi. (Credit: rewardsforjustice)
Updated 21 September 2024
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Hezbollah ‘financier’ pleads guilty to evading US sanctions

Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi. (Credit: rewardsforjustice)
  • The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has said Bazzi “has provided millions of dollars to Hezbollah over the years, generated from his business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout West Africa”

NEW YORK: A former Lebanese diplomat accused of being a financier for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement pleaded guilty Friday to evading US financial sanctions against him and his organization, branded as “terrorist” by the US government.
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 60, who holds Lebanese, British and Belgian citizenship, pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York to conspiracy to conduct unlawful transactions with an international terrorist, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.
Bazzi had “accepted responsibility for his role in conspiring to secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon in violation of sanctions placed on him for assisting the terrorist group Hezbollah,” US prosecutor Breon Peace said.
Bazzi faces up to 20 years imprisonment, as well as deportation and forfeiture of the $828,528 involved in illegal transactions.
No sentencing date has been set.
The State Department in May 2018 had declared Bazzi to be a “specially designated global terrorist” and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has said Bazzi “has provided millions of dollars to Hezbollah over the years, generated from his business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout West Africa.”
In February 2023, he was arrested in Romania and extradited to the US.
The US attorney’s statement said Bazzi had worked with an accomplice, Talal Chahine, who remains on the loose in Lebanon.
It said the two men attempted to launder their transactions through purchases and fictitious loans of equipment for a restaurant in China, a property in Lebanon and a family loan to Kuwait.
According to investigative journalism outlet ProPublica, Bazzi was appointed honorary consul in Lebanon by the government of Gambia in 2005. The volunteer diplomat role helped him access unique connections and benefits, which can be ripe for abuse.
The United States has declared Hezbollah as a terrorist organization over its attacks on American military members, government employees and civilians abroad.
The militant group has been in Israel’s crosshairs amid the war in Gaza, with the commander of an elite Hezbollah unit killed in a Beirut strike on Friday.
It also followed two waves of explosions, on Tuesday and Wednesday, of communication devices used by Hezbollah members, which Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

 


Biden opens home to ‘Quad’ leaders for farewell summit

Biden opens home to ‘Quad’ leaders for farewell summit
Updated 21 September 2024
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Biden opens home to ‘Quad’ leaders for farewell summit

Biden opens home to ‘Quad’ leaders for farewell summit

WILMINGTON, US: US President Joe Biden hosted Australia’s prime minister at his Delaware home Friday, at the start of a weekend summit with the so-called “Quad” group he has pushed as a counterweight to China.
Biden chose his hometown of Wilmington for a summit of leaders from Australia, India and Japan — the last of his presidency after he dropped out of the 2024 election against Donald Trump and handed the Democratic campaign reins to Kamala Harris.
After a one-on-one meeting at his property with Australia’s Anthony Albanese on Friday night, he will welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at his beloved house on Saturday.
Biden will then host an “intimate” dinner and full four-way summit that day at his former high school in the city.
“This will be President Biden’s first time hosting foreign leaders in Wilmington as president — a reflection of his deep personal relationships with each of the Quad Leaders,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Vice President Harris will not be attending, the White House said.
The Quad grouping dates back to 2007, but Biden has strongly pushed it as part of an emphasis on international alliances after the isolationist Trump years.
China was expected to feature heavily in their discussions amid tensions with Beijing, particularly a series of recent confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea.
“It will certainly be high on the agenda,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, adding that the four leaders had a “common understanding about the challenges that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is posing.”
The White House, however, faced criticism for giving only limited access to the press throughout the weekend, with reporters questioning whether it was at the request of the notoriously media-shy Modi.
The Hindu nationalist was coaxed to take two questions during a state visit to the White House in 2023, but had not held an open press conference at home in his previous nine years in power.
The White House insisted Biden would not shy away from addressing rights issues with Modi, who has faced accusations of growing authoritarianism.
“There’s not a conversation that he has with foreign leaders where he doesn’t talk about the importance of respecting human and civil rights, and that includes with Prime Minister Modi,” Kirby said.
India is due to host the next Quad summit in 2025.
Biden is famously proud of his home in Wilmington, around 110 miles (176 kilometers) from Washington, and he frequently spends weekends there away from the confines of the White House.
It hit the headlines when classified documents were found in its garage, next to his Corvette sports car, in 2022. Biden was not charged.


Russia detains two dozen over deadly Moscow shootout

Russia detains two dozen over deadly Moscow shootout
Updated 21 September 2024
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Russia detains two dozen over deadly Moscow shootout

Russia detains two dozen over deadly Moscow shootout
  • The shootout involved the camps of Russia's richest woman Tatyana Bakalchuk and her estranged husband over control of retail giant Wildberries
  • The chaotic shooting just a few streets from the Kremlin evoked memories of the 1990s in Russia, where corporate disputes were sometimes settled through violence

MOSCOW: Russia authorities ordered the detention of two dozen people including a Chechen mixed martial arts fighter on Friday over a shootout in central Moscow that left two people dead.
A group of men turned up at the offices of Russian retail giant Wildberries on Wednesday, in what CEO Tatyana Bakalchuk described as an armed takeover attempt by her estranged husband and two disgruntled former executives.
Bakalchuk — Russia’s richest woman — and her husband had for months been locked in a bitter dispute over a company merger deal that President Vladimir Putin had personally approved but which Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov denounced as an illegal seizure.
Among the men remanded into custody on Friday was Umar Chichaev, a mixed martial arts fighter and deputy commander of a national guard unit linked to Kadyrov, according to Russian news agencies.
“The court granted the petition of law enforcement agencies and remanded Chichaev in custody for one month and 30 days,” Moscow’s Basmanny court ruled, according to the state-owned TASS news agency.
The shootout came just over six weeks after Wildberries finalized its merger deal with Russ, a Russian advertising firm that is several times smaller than the corporate giant.
Bakalchuk’s husband Vladislav denounced the merger as a huge mistake, and enlisted the help of Kadyrov in July to stop the deal.

Two security guards were killed in the shootout, which injured seven others.
Tatyana released a tearful video message on Wednesday accusing her husband of organizing the attack.
Bakalchuk founded Wildberries in 2004 while on maternity leave, selling clothes out of her Moscow apartment with her then-IT technician husband Vladislav.
The business has since become an industry leader and made Bakalchuk a billionaire, although her fortune took a hit from the recent merger, according to Forbes.
In July, she announced she had separated from Vladislav and was getting a divorce.
In total, 30 people have been detained over two days in connection with Wednesday’s shooting, state media reported.
Vladislav’s lawyers said on Thursday he had been arrested on suspicion of murder and other crimes.
But late Friday, he released a cryptic video on Telegram saying that he was at home and would continue to fight for his “family business.”
“The truth is on my side. May justice prevail,” he said in a message accompanying the video.
The chaotic shooting just a few streets from the Kremlin evoked memories of the 1990s in Russia, where corporate disputes were sometimes settled through violent turf wars and criminal means.
 


Ghana’s VP and former president among 13 candidates for election

Ghana’s opposition supporters take part in a protest in Accra. (Reuters)
Ghana’s opposition supporters take part in a protest in Accra. (Reuters)
Updated 20 September 2024
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Ghana’s VP and former president among 13 candidates for election

Ghana’s opposition supporters take part in a protest in Accra. (Reuters)
  • No party has won more than two consecutive terms in government in Ghana’s democratic history

ACCRA: Ghana’s Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia and ex-President John Dramani Mahama are among 13 candidates approved for the 2024 presidential poll, the electoral commission said on Friday.
Voters in the West African gold- and cocoa-producing nation head to the polls on Dec. 7 to elect a successor to President Nana Akufo-Addo, who will step down in January after serving the constitutionally mandated eight years.
Former President Mahama, 65, represents the main opposition National Democratic Congress, or NDC, party. Bawumia, a 60-year-old economist and former central banker, was picked by Akufo-Addo’s ruling New Patriotic Party as its candidate.
No party has won more than two consecutive terms in government in Ghana’s democratic history.
The commission said it had also accepted the candidacies of Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, a former trade and industry minister who resigned from the ruling party to stand as an independent, Nana Kwame Bediako, a businessman competing for the first time for the top job, and Nana Akosua Frimpomaa, one of two women in the race.
On Tuesday, Mahama’s NDC party held nationwide protests against alleged irregularities, saying the electoral commission had illegally transferred voters to different voting stations without their knowledge.
The electoral commission said it would review a petition submitted by the party at the end of the demonstrations and provide a response in the coming days.
The allegations dent the electoral authority’s image when public confidence is low.
A July survey by pan-African research group Afrobarometer showed trust in Ghana’s electoral commission at a historic low since confidence polls started in 1999.