Democrats trying to block Palestine-supporting Jill Stein’s party from key US swing state: Report

Democrats trying to block Palestine-supporting Jill Stein’s party from key US swing state: Report
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speaks at a Pro-Palestinian protest in front of the White House on June 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
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Updated 15 August 2024
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Democrats trying to block Palestine-supporting Jill Stein’s party from key US swing state: Report

Democrats trying to block Palestine-supporting Jill Stein’s party from key US swing state: Report
  • Complaint alleges Green Party is ineligible in Wisconsin
  • Stein emerging as top choice for Arab-American voters

RIYADH: The Green Party’s nominee for the upcoming US presidential election, Jill Stein, who is emerging as the most-favored candidate of Arab Americans, is reportedly being targeted by allies of Vice President Kamala Harris.

An employee of the Democratic National Committee, David Strange, filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to remove Stein from the ballot in the key state of Wisconsin, arguing that the party was ineligible, The Associated Press reported on Thursday.

It is the “latest move by the DNC to block third-party candidates from the ballot,” said the report, noting that Democrats are also seeking to stop independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in several states.

The report was carried by various media outlets in the US.

Stein, known for her vocal support of Palestinian rights, has emerged as the top choice among Arab-American voters for the Nov. 5 elections, according to a poll conducted late last month by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Stein, a physician and environmentalist, received support from more than 45.3 percent of the respondents, while Harris received 27.5 percent.

Republican candidate Donald Trump polled only 2 percent, while 17.9 percent were undecided.

The Green Party’s appearance on the presidential ballot could make a difference in the swing state of Wisconsin, where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 and 23,000 votes, the AP report said.

Stein is expected to become the Green Party’s presidential nominee at its national convention, which begins Thursday. The party has yet to respond to the DNC’s move.

Why Jill Stein?

Arab-American voters have increasingly gravitated toward Stein owing to her advocacy for Palestinian rights and her opposition to the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza since October, the ADC’s national executive director Abed Ayoub explained earlier in a post on X.

The latest survey showed a big jump in backing since the ADC’s last opinion poll in May, where she led with 25 percent support. In that poll, President Joe Biden, who was still the presumptive Democratic candidate before he withdrew from the race in July, got 7 percent of the Arab-American vote.

Trump polled only 2 percent.

Chris Habiby, the national government affairs and advocacy director for the ADC, said Stein’s support for a two-state solution and an end to Israel’s brutal military offensive in the Gaza Strip is driving her popularity among Arab- and Muslim-American voters.

Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip has killed over 40,000 civilians, most of them women and children.

“Dr. Jill Stein has been very clear and emphatic in her anti-genocide message,” Habiby said on The Ray Hanania Radio Show, as reported earlier in Arab News.

In his column in Arab News, Hanania noted that while the poll numbers for Harris was much better compared to Biden’s, her scornful response to a handful of Detroit protesters calling on her to press for a ceasefire in Gaza may not augur well for her campaign.

Hanania said her response was “a major political blunder that has sparked robust debate in many swing states.” This was where Arabs and Muslims showed during the Democratic primary elections, over the past six months, that “they can deflect thousands of votes away from Biden.”

This had erased his slim margin of victory in 2020 over Trump, wrote Hanania.

“The Democrats are afraid to acknowledge the anti-Biden vote, and the likelihood that it will grow if Harris refuses to take the Arab and Muslim community seriously,” Hanania added.

 

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)

Veteran pollster John Zogby, president and founder of the polling company John Zogby Strategies, noted that Harris was currently leading the upward trendline mainly because she was enjoying a short honeymoon driven by her newness as a candidate.

However, this popularity could change, he said, noting that Arab and Muslim voters have more influence today than they have ever had since first settling in this country, and that the issue driving their vote was Gaza.

In 2022, 2.2 million people in the US reported having Arab ancestry in that year’s Arab Community Survey. The majority are native-born, and 85 percent in the US are citizens.

While the community traces its roots to every Arab country, the majority have ancestral ties in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Iraq. The top four states by Arab-American population size are California, Florida, Minnesota and Michigan.

DNC’s ‘Strange’ argument

The last time Stein was on the ballot in Wisconsin for the Green Party was in 2016, when she got just over 31,000 votes — more than Trump’s winning margin that year of just under 23,000 votes.

Some Democrats blamed Stein for helping Trump win the state and the presidency, the AP report said.




Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speaks at a Pro-Palestinian protest in front of the White House on June 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)

The bipartisan elections commission in February unanimously approved ballot access for the Green Party’s presidential nominee this year because the party won more than 1 percent of the vote in a statewide race in 2022.

Green Party candidate Sharyl McFarland got nearly 1.6 percent of the vote in a four-way race for secretary of state, coming in last.

But the complaint filed with the commission by Strange, deputy operations director in Wisconsin for the DNC, alleges that the Green Party cannot nominate presidential electors in Wisconsin, and without them they are forbidden from having a presidential candidate on the ballot.

State law requires that those who nominate electors in October be state officers, which includes members of the legislature, judges and others. They could also be candidates for the legislature.

The Green Party does not have anyone who qualifies to be a nominator, and therefore cannot legally name a slate of presidential electors as required by law, the complaint alleges.

Because the Green Party could have mounted write-in campaigns for legislative candidates in Tuesday’s primary, but did not, the complaint could not have been brought any sooner than Wednesday, the filing alleges.

“We take the nomination process for President and Vice President very seriously and believe every candidate should follow the rules,“ Adrienne Watson, senior adviser to the DNC, said in a statement.

“Because the Wisconsin Green Party hasn’t fielded candidates for legislative or statewide office and doesn’t have any current incumbent legislative or statewide office holders, it cannot nominate candidates and should not be on the ballot in November.”

This is not the first time the Green Party’s ballot status has been challenged.

In 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court kept the Green Party presidential candidate off the ballot after it upheld a deadlocked Wisconsin Elections Commission, which could not agree on whether the candidates filed proper paperwork.

This year, in addition to the Republican, Democratic and Green parties, the Constitution and Libertarian parties also have ballot access.

The commission is meeting on Aug. 27 to determine whether four independent candidates for president, including Kennedy and Cornel West, meet the requirements to appear on the ballot.

The DNC member, Strange, has asked that the commission also consider its complaint at that meeting.

The AP report stated that there “are signs in some swing states, including Wisconsin, that those behind third-party candidates are trying to affect the outcome of the presidential race by using deceptive means — and in most cases in ways that would benefit Trump.

“Their aim is to offer left-leaning, third-party alternatives who could siphon off a few thousand protest votes.”

The latest Marquette University Law School poll conducted July 24 through Aug. 1 showed the presidential contest in Wisconsin between Democrat Harris and Trump to be about even among likely voters.

Stein barely registered, with about 1 percent support, while Kennedy had 6 percent.


Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights

Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights
Updated 15 September 2024
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Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights

Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights
  • The march in solidarity with the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement was attended by Benjamin Briere and Louis Arnaud, two Frenchmen who were arrested and arbitrarily detained in Iran

PARIS: Hundreds of people marched through Paris on Sunday in support of women’s rights and the opposition in Iran, two years after the death of Mahsa Amini sparked protests against the country’s religious authorities.
A 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, Amini died in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
The march, organized by around 20 human rights associations, took place as 34 women began a hunger strike in a Tehran prison to mark the two-year anniversary of her death.
Chirinne Ardakani, a Franco-Iranian lawyer and member of the “Iran Justice” collective, said that the “sacrifices” made by Iranians opposed to the regime were “not in vain.”
“Everything has changed in Iran,” Ardakani told AFP.
“We’ve gone from an absolutely patriarchal culture, where there was no question of women being able to reveal themselves in the street, to massive support for these women,” the lawyer and activist added.
The march in solidarity with the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement was attended by Benjamin Briere and Louis Arnaud, two Frenchmen who were arrested and arbitrarily detained in Iran.
Iran is accused of arresting Westerners without cause and using them as bargaining chips in state-to-state negotiations, with French diplomats describing these prisoners as “state hostages.”
Briere was eventually released in May 2023, while Arnaud was let go the month after.
“Yes, I was in prison, but it is an immense honor to have been able to live among you, freedom fighters, who shared my suffering,” Arnaud told the crowd, in his first public address since his release.
Three other French nationals are still being held in Iran.
After Amini died in custody on September 16, 2022, the women-led protests which erupted rattled Iran’s leadership that autumn and winter.
But the demonstrations were then crushed by the authorities, with rights group Amnesty International saying security forces used assault rifles and shotguns in the crackdown.
Human rights groups say at least 551 people were killed. Thousands more were arrested, according to the United Nations.

 


Russian bomb strikes Kharkiv apartment building, 41 injured, official says

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday.
Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday.
Updated 15 September 2024
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Russian bomb strikes Kharkiv apartment building, 41 injured, official says

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday.
  • Zelensky said 3 other guided bombs had struck villages in Kharkiv region, where population centers have been a frequent target of Russian attacks near Russian border

KYIV: A Russian-guided bomb struck a multi-story apartment building on Sunday in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, triggering a fire and injuring at least 41 people, the region’s governor said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest attack underscored the need for Ukraine’s Western partners to provide weapons and air defense systems and permission to use weaponry on targets deep inside Russia to save lives.
Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, said on Telegram that rescue operations were proceeding, with 12 people in hospital, three in serious condition. He said residents could be trapped under rubble.
Syniehubov posted photos of heavy damage to the top four of five storys of the building, with smoke and fire billowing out of blown-out windows.
Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said three other guided bombs had struck villages in Kharkiv region, where population centers have been a frequent target of Russian attacks near the Russian border.
Russia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the apartment building but has denied intentionally targeting civilians despite having killed thousands of them since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Zelensky called for rapid decisions on long-range strikes “in order to destroy Russian military aviation right where it is based. These are obvious, logical decisions.
“Every Russian strike of this nature, every instance of Russian terror, like today in Kharkiv...this proves that there must be long-range capability and it must be sufficient.”
He said appropriate decisions were expected in the first instance from the United States, France, Germany and Italy, “those whose decisiveness can help save lives.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles.


Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says

 Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says
Updated 29 min 14 sec ago
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Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says

 Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says
  • US Secret Service opened fire at a man pointing an AK-style rifle into the club as Trump was on the course, officials said
  • An AK-style firearm was recovered at the scene near Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach later

WASHINGTON: The FBI said Sunday it was investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination” of Donald Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life. Trump said he was safe and well.
The US Secret Service opened fire at a man pointing an AK-style rifle into the club as Trump was on the course, three law enforcement officials said. The person dropped the weapon and fled in an SUV, and was later taken into custody in a neighboring county. The officials were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
An AK-style firearm was recovered at the scene near Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach, two of the officials said. And no injuries were reported.
The incident was the latest jarring moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval. It occurred roughly two months after Trump was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear. Only a week later, President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.
In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”
“Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!” the former president said.

The golf course was partially shut down for Trump as he played, and agents were a few holes ahead of him when they noticed the person with the firearm, the officials said. There are several areas around the perimeter of the property where golfers are visible from the fence line. Secret Service agents and officers in golf carts and on ATVs generally secure the area several holes ahead and behind Trump when he golfs. Agents also usually bring an armored vehicle onto the course to quickly shelter Trump should a threat arise.
Trump had returned to Florida this weekend from a West Coast swing that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a Utah fundraiser. His campaign had not advised Trump’s plans for Sunday. He often spends the morning playing golf, before having lunch at the club, one of three he owns in the state.
The former president has had a stepped-up security footprint since the assassination attempt in July. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, a lineup of dump trucks have parked in a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind an enclosure of bulletproof glass.
Trump was returned safely after the incident to his private Mar-a-Lago club, where he resides in neighboring Palm Beach, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The White House said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, had both been briefed and would be kept updated on the investigation. The White House added they were “relieved” to know Trump is safe.
Harris, in a statement said she was “glad” Trump was safe, adding that “violence has no place in America.”
In an X post, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, one of Trump’s top congressional allies, said he had spoken with Trump after the incident and that Trump was in “good spirits” and was “one of the strongest people I’ve ever known.”
Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said the suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or “be on the lookout” alert” detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and occupant description.
Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.
“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”
Snyder told WPTV that the suspect “was not armed when we took him out of the car.”
The man had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped by police, Snyder said, saying the suspect did not question why he was being pulled over.
“He never asked, ‘what is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been briefed on the situation and is receiving regular updates about it, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.
The post by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office indicated the suspect was apprehended near Palm City, Florida, about a 45-mile drive north of Trump’s golf course. Northbound lanes of I-95 were shut down, the sheriff’s office said.
A message sent to campaign officials seeking information on the security status and location of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, was not immediately returned.
Max Egusquiza, of Palm Beach, described the emergency response outside Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.
“From what I saw 5 black unmarked SUVs blocked in a grey Mercedes in front of the golf course. There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” he said.
Trump is supposed to speak about cryptocurrency live Monday night on the social media site X for the launch of his sons’ crypto platform. He’s expected to do that from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The former president is scheduled to return to the campaign trail on Tuesday for a town hall in Flint, Michigan with his former press secretary, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, followed by a campaign rally in New York on Long Island on Wednesday.


Vance defends pet-eating story, a claim Democrats call ‘dangerous’

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance.
Updated 15 September 2024
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Vance defends pet-eating story, a claim Democrats call ‘dangerous’

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance.
  • Trump amplified the claim during his debate Tuesday with Democrat Kamala Harris, provoking widespread mockery at home and abroad

WASHINGTON: The Republican vice presidential nominee defended Sunday his claim that immigrants are eating people’s pet animals in an Ohio town, a claim multiple officials say is “dangerous” and unfounded.
Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance had made the surprising claim earlier this month — saying Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio — were eating people’s pet cats and dogs. Vance is a US senator who represents Ohio.
Trump amplified the claim during his debate Tuesday with Democrat Kamala Harris, provoking widespread mockery at home and abroad — but also prompting a series of threats that forced some Springfield schools and hospitals to close.
“My constituents are telling me firsthand that they’re seeing these things,” an unapologetic Vance said on CNN.
Vance denied any responsibility for the recent spate of threats against Springfield, blaming them on “psychopaths” and “losers.”
Springfield’s mayor, a local sheriff and the state’s Republican governor have said they have no evidence to back up Vance’s claims.
“These discussions about Haitians eating dogs and cats and other things need to stop,” Governor Mike DeWine said on ABC.
“What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work (and)...they are very good workers.”
Thousands of Haitians have settled in Springfield in recent years, most of them under a federal program granting them temporary protected status.
Governor Josh Shapiro of the neighboring state of Pennsylvania, a Democrat once touted as a possible Harris running mate, on Sunday accused Vance of recklessly fanning the flames of rumor.
“When they go out and they lie about this stuff, they put their fellow Americans at risk,” he told CNN interviewer Dana Bash. “JD Vance should be ashamed of himself. ... This is dangerous stuff.”
Vance denied his remarks had any connection to the threats against Springfield.
“The violence is disgusting,” he said. “We condemn it.” But he repeatedly blamed the problems in places like Springfield on the border policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump, like Vance, has doubled down on his attacks on migrants.
Campaigning Friday in California, Trump vowed there would be “large deportations” from Springfield if elected. He has promised to deport millions of undocumented migrants nationwide.
Harris, meantime, appeared Friday in Shapiro’s state of Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial of the swing states expected to decide the November election.
“I offer a new generation of leadership,” said the 59-year-old Democrat, underlining the contrast to Trump, who is 78.


Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
Updated 15 September 2024
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Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
  • Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party quickly rose to mainstream politics

NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he will resign as chief minister of the Delhi regional government, a day after he was released from prison on bail in a graft case. Kejriwal was granted bail on Friday by India’s Supreme Court and left prison on Saturday almost six months after being detained in relation to alleged irregularities in the capital city’s liquor policy.
Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics, although its clout is relatively small compared to older opposition parties.
AAP had expected that Kejriwal’s release from prison would allow him to campaign as a chief minister in regional elections next month in the northern state of Haryana, and in Delhi early next year.
Kejriwal, announcing his resignation as chief minister at a meeting with AAP workers, said he would only return to the post if people certify his honesty by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi election. He called on the Election Commission to bring forward the Delhi election to November, from February 2025.
“I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections, I demand the elections be held immediately,” Kejriwal said.
He was first taken into custody in March by India’s financial crime-fighting agency, weeks before the country’s national elections, in relation to Delhi’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in detention due to his arrest the previous month by the federal police in another graft case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and AAP deny the allegations and say the cases are “politically motivated.”