Israel-UN relations sink to new depths

Israel-UN relations sink to new depths
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 27, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel-UN relations sink to new depths

Israel-UN relations sink to new depths
  • The past year has seen repeated accusations from within the UN system that Israel is committing “genocide” in its war in Gaza

Geneva: Israel’s long-contentious relationship with the United Nations has since October 7 spiralled to new depths, amid insults and accusations and even a questioning of the country’s continued UN membership.
Addressing the UN General Assembly on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the world body of treating his country unfairly.
“Until this anti-Semitic swamp is drained, the UN will be viewed by fair-minded people everywhere as nothing more than a contemptuous farce,” he thundered.
The past year has seen repeated accusations from within the UN system that Israel is committing “genocide” in its war in Gaza, while Israeli officials have made charges of bias and have even accused the UN chief of being “an accomplice to terror.”
The heat has been turned way up in a war of words that has raged between Israel and various UN bodies for decades.
And temperatures have risen further in recent days amid Israel’s escalating strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“There has been a great deterioration” in the relationship, said Cyrus Schayegh, an international history and politics professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
“It has gone from fairly bad to really bad.”
Since Hamas’s deadly attack inside Israel nearly a year ago, UN-linked courts, councils, agencies and staff have unleashed a barrage of condemnation and criticism of Israel’s devastating retaliatory operation in Gaza.
“We feel the UN has betrayed Israel,” the country’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva Daniel Meron told AFP.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 41,500 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
Israel has especially taken aim at UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, but its ire has been felt across the UN system, and up to the UN chief.
Israeli calls for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to resign began just weeks after October 7, when he asserted that the attack “did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
Even before October 7, Israel complained of UN bias, pointing for instance to the towering number of resolutions targeting the country.
Since the creation of the UN Human Rights Council in 2006, more than a third of the over 300 condemnatory resolutions have targeted Israel, Meron pointed out, describing this as “mind-boggling.”
Critics meanwhile highlight that from the time a General Assembly vote paved the way for Israel’s establishment in 1948, the country has ignored numerous UN resolutions and international court rulings, without consequences.
Israel has always snubbed resolution 194, which guarantees the Palestinians expelled in 1948 from the territory Israel conquered the right to return or to compensation.
It has also ignored rulings condemning its forceful acquisition of territory and the annexation of East Jerusalem after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and the continuing and expanding settlement policy in the West Bank, among others.
By allowing Israel to remain in “non-compliance with international law, the West has been basically making the Israelis believe that they are above international law,” Geneva Graduate Institute political sociology professor Riccardo Bocco told AFP.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, also said a lack of accountability in the Middle East crisis appeared to have made “the parties to the conflict more brazen.”
“We rang the alarm bells multiple times and now there is the impression that impunity reigns,” she told AFP, lamenting increasing attacks on UN bodies and staff expressing concern over the situation.
“This is unacceptable.”
UNRWA has faced the harshest attacks.
It saw a series of funding cuts after Israel accused more than a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack.
Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini has accused Israel of conducting “a concerted effort to dismantle UNRWA,” which has suffered dramatic human and material losses in Gaza, with more than 220 staff killed.
Netanyahu demanded earlier this year that UNRWA, which he said “perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem (and) whose schools indoctrinate Palestinian children with genocide and terror ... be replaced by responsible aid agencies.”
Francesca Albanese, the UN independent rights expert on the Palestinian territories, who has faced harsh criticism and calls for her ousting from Israel amid her repeated accusation it is committing “genocide” in Gaza, recently suggested the country was becoming a “pariah.”
“Should there be a consideration of its membership as part of this organization, which Israel seems to have zero respect for?” she rhetorically asked journalists last week.
Meron slammed Albanese as “anti-Semitic and really an embarrassment to the UN.”
Other experts warned that Israel’s disregard for the UN was threatening the broader respect for the organization.
Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN expert on the right to drinking water, warned of the consequences when UN bodies “make decisions and nothing is respected.”
“We are blowing up the United Nations if we don’t react.”


Supplies are rushed to North Carolina communities left isolated after Helene

Supplies are rushed to North Carolina communities left isolated after Helene
Updated 1 min 12 sec ago
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Supplies are rushed to North Carolina communities left isolated after Helene

Supplies are rushed to North Carolina communities left isolated after Helene
PERRY: North Carolina officials pledged to get more water and other supplies to flood-stricken areas by Monday after Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across the US Southeast and the death toll from the storm rose to nearly 100.
At least 91 people across several states were killed. A North Carolina county that includes the mountain city of Asheville reported 30 people killed.
Gov. Roy Cooper predicted the toll would rise as rescuers and other emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding.
Supplies were being airlifted to the region around the isolated city of Asheville. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder pledged that she would have food and water to the city by Monday.
“We hear you. We need food and we need water,” Pinder said on a Sunday call with reporters. “My staff has been making every request possible to the state for support and we’ve been working with every single organization that has reached out. What I promise you is that we are very close.”
Officials warned that rebuilding from the widespread loss of homes and property would be lengthy and difficult. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast. Deaths also were reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.
Cooper implored residents in western North Carolina to avoid travel, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. More than 50 search teams spread throughout the region in search of stranded people.
One rescue effort involved saving 41 people north of Asheville. Another mission focused on saving a single infant. The teams found people through both 911 calls and social media messages, North Carolina National Guard Adjutant General Todd Hunt said.
President Joe Biden described the impact of the storm as “stunning” and said he would visit the area this week as long as it does not disrupt rescues or recovery work.
In a brief exchange with reporters, he described the impact of the storm as “stunning” and said that the administration is giving states “everything we have” to help with their response to the storm.
Hurricane Helene roared ashore late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph (225 kph) winds. A weakened Helene quickly moved through Georgia, then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded creeks and rivers and strained dams.
There have been hundreds of water rescues, including in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop Friday.
More than 2 million homeowners and other utility customers were still without power Sunday night. South Carolina had the most outages and Gov. Henry McMaster asked for patience as crews dealt with widespread snapped power poles.
“We want people to remain calm. Help is on the way, it is just going to take time,” McMaster told reporters outside the airport in Aiken County.
Begging for help in North Carolina as that help is slow to arrive
The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. One community, Spruce Pine, was doused with over 2 feet (61 centimeters) of rain from Tuesday through Saturday.
Jessica Drye Turner in Texas had begged for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville amid rising floodwaters. “They are watching 18-wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post on Friday.
But in a follow-up message Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her 6-year-old nephew. The roof collapsed and the three drowned.
“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are going through,” she wrote.
The state was sending water supplies and other items toward Buncombe County and Asheville, but mudslides blocking Interstate 40 and other highways prevented supplies from making it. The county’s own water supplies were on the other side of the Swannanoa River, away from where most of the 270,000 people in Buncombe County live, officials said.
Law enforcement was making plans to send officers to places that still had water, food or gas because of reports of arguments and threats of violence, the county sheriff said.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell toured south Georgia on Sunday and planned to be in North Carolina Monday.
“It’s still very much an active search and rescue mission” in western North Carolina, Criswell said. “And we know that there’s many communities that are cut off just because of the geography” of the mountains, where damage to roads and bridges have cut off certain areas.
Biden on Saturday pledged federal government help for Helene’s “overwhelming” devastation. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funding available for affected individuals.
Storm-battered Florida digs out, residents gather for church
In Florida’s Big Bend, some lost nearly everything they own. With sanctuaries still darkened as of Sunday morning, some churches canceled regular services while others like Faith Baptist Church in Perry opted to worship outside.
Standing water and tree debris still covers the grounds of Faith Baptist Church. The church called on parishioners to come “pray for our community” in a message posted to the congregation’s Facebook page.
“We have power. We don’t have electricity,” Immaculate Conception Catholic Church parishioner Marie Ruttinger said. “Our God has power. That’s for sure.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it looked “like a bomb went off” after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air.
In eastern Georgia near the border with South Carolina, officials notified Augusta residents Sunday morning that water service would be shut off for 24 to 48 hours in the city and surrounding Richmond County.
A news release said trash and debris from the storm “blocked our ability to pump water.” Officials were distributing bottled water.
With at least 25 killed in South Carolina, Helene was the deadliest tropical cyclone for the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.
Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.
Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes within hours.
New tropical depression in Atlantic could become strong hurricane, forecasters say
A new tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic Ocean could become a “formidable hurricane” later this week, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. The depression had sustained 35 mph (55kph) winds and was located about 630 miles (1,015 kilometers) west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands, the center said. It could become a hurricane by Wednesday.

Death toll soars to 93 in US from storm Helene, North Carolina reeling

Death toll soars to 93 in US from storm Helene, North Carolina reeling
Updated 30 September 2024
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Death toll soars to 93 in US from storm Helene, North Carolina reeling

Death toll soars to 93 in US from storm Helene, North Carolina reeling
  • Helene blew into Florida’s northern Gulf shore as a huge Category Four hurricane with winds of 225 kph
  • High winds and torrential rain pummeled towns and cities across five southeastern states, causing massive destruction

VALDOSTA, United States: The death toll from powerful storm Helene jumped to at least 93 on Sunday, with one county in North Carolina alone reporting 30 deaths, authorities said, as rescuers battled to reach people in need across the southeastern United States.
The storm response took on a political tinge after President Joe Biden and the two candidates vying to replace him, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, announced plans to soon visit hard-hit areas, some of them in key battleground states in the November election.
High winds and torrential rain pummeled towns and cities across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Homes were destroyed, roads flooded out and power cut off to millions.
“We’re hearing (of) significant infrastructure damage to water systems, communication, roads, critical transportation routes, as well as several homes that have been just destroyed by this,” the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, said Sunday.
At least 93 people were killed in the extreme weather — 37 in North Carolina, 25 in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, two in Tennessee and one in Virginia, according to tallies from local authorities compiled by AFP. That total was expected to rise.
“We have another devastating update. We now have 30 confirmed losses due to the storm,” Quentin Miller, the sheriff in North Carolina’s Buncombe County, which includes the tourist city of Asheville, told a briefing.
Flood warnings remained in effect in parts of western North Carolina, amid fears of potential dam failures.
Conditions were expected to improve in the affected areas by around Tuesday, National Weather Service director Ken Graham said.
Nearly 2.2 million households remained without power on Sunday, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
US Department of Energy official Matt Targuagno said that crews were working hard to restore electricity but warned it would be “a complex, multi-day response.”
Thousands of people continued to seek assistance in shelters run by the American Red Cross, organization official Jennifer Pipa said.

Helene blew into Florida’s northern Gulf shore as a huge Category Four hurricane with winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour.
Even as it weakened, it wreaked havoc.
North Carolina saw some of the worst of the flooding, with Governor Roy Cooper saying rescuers were being forced to airlift supplies in some areas due to damaged or flooded roads.
“I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding and landslides that they are experiencing right now,” Criswell said on CBS, adding that more search and rescue teams were being deployed.
William Ray, director of the state’s emergency management department, warned that conditions were still extremely dangerous.
Hundreds of roads across the region remained closed, with several bridges washed away by floodwaters.
Four major interstate highways were closed across North Carolina and Tennessee, with “multiple” bridges still out, said Kristin White of the US Department of Transportation.
Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina each had more than 100 road closures, she added.
In the Georgia city of Valdosta, the storm ripped the roofs off buildings, and left road intersections a tangle of felled utility poles and trees.
“The wind started really hitting, like, felt branches and pieces of the roof hitting the side of the building and hitting the windows,” said Valdosta resident Steven Mauro.
“And then we were looking out and then literally this whole street, just everything went black.”
Trump, the Republican former president seeking another term, will visit Valdosta on Monday for a briefing on the disaster, his campaign said.
Biden, who has approved federal aid for several states in the wake of the disaster, intends to travel to hard-hit areas this week, “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations,” the White House said Sunday, later adding that Harris would do the same.
“We will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild,” Harris said Sunday evening at a campaign rally in Las Vegas.
Biden was scheduled to speak about the post-storm response from the White House on Monday.


Harris trolls Trump at an LA fundraiser full of celebrities, says her crowds ‘are pretty big’

Harris trolls Trump at an LA fundraiser full of celebrities, says her crowds ‘are pretty big’
Updated 30 September 2024
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Harris trolls Trump at an LA fundraiser full of celebrities, says her crowds ‘are pretty big’

Harris trolls Trump at an LA fundraiser full of celebrities, says her crowds ‘are pretty big’
  • The LA fundraiser was full of celebrities and one a day earlier in San Francisco raised a combined $55 million for Harris’ campaign
  • For his part, Trump spent two days railing about the vice president during his rallies, upping his personal attacks against her

LOS ANGELES: Vice President Kamala Harris poked at Republican Donald Trump during a fancy fundraiser on Sunday, telling donors that as she campaigns around the country her “crowds are pretty big” — before heading to Nevada for a rally at the same venue where the GOP nominee appeared two weeks ago.
During the presidential debate, Harris appeared to get under Trump’s skin when she said people were leaving his rallies early because of his rambling speeches. And she’s kept it up on the campaign trail.
She also has moved into what Trump considers his terrain — immigration — with a Friday visit to the border town of Douglas, Arizona. It was her first trip to the US-Mexico border since taking over for President Joe Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket.
Harris’ four-day West Coast trip has been crafted with dual purposes: She was opening and closing with stops in Sun Belt battlegrounds — Arizona and Nevada — where the vice president is trying to shore up support as Trump pounds her relentlessly over illegal migration. And her mid-stay in California was devoted to hauling in campaign contributions from donors in her blue home state.
Harris’ border visit in Arizona seemed to irk Trump. The GOP leader has spent two days railing about the vice president during his rallies, upping his personal attacks against her, claiming she was responsible for a border “invasion,” and stirring up unfounded fears that she’d usher in lawlessness if elected.
Harris gave the same response she usually does to his insults, even despite Trump calling her “mentally impaired.”
“We just see the same old tired show from the same old tired playbook,” she told a Los Angeles crowd of donors, some who shouted “boring!” in response.
Harris has warned the race is as close as it could possibly be, a “margin-of-error” race. But on Sunday in Los Angeles, she added: “The election is here and let me be clear. We are going to win.”
The fundraiser was full of celebrities: Stevie Wonder, Keegan Michael-Key, Sterling K. Brown, Demi Lovato, Jessica Alba and Lily Tomlin. Performing for the crowd: Halle Bailey and Alanis Morissette.
The Los Angeles fundraiser and one a day earlier in San Francisco raised a combined $55 million for Harris’ campaign.
The vice president is continuing to notch Republican support. Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake became the latest to endorse her. He credited Harris with a “fine character and love of country” and said he wants a president who does not treat political adversaries as enemies or try to subvert the will of voters.
Flake, a longtime critic of the former president, joins a list of anti-Trump Republicans who have said they will vote for the Democratic ticket, including Dick Cheney, the deeply conservative former vice president, and his daughter, Liz.
But Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan, a former Republican governor and a sharp critic of Trump, said Harris has yet to earn his vote, though Trump won’t get it.
In Nevada, where Harris was holding a rally Sunday night, all voters automatically receive ballots by mail unless they opt out — a pandemic-era change that was set in state law. That means most ballots could start going out in a matter of weeks.
Harris will be back in Las Vegas on Oct. 10 for a town hall with Hispanic voters. Both she and Trump have campaigned frequently in the city, highlighting the critical role that Nevada’s six electoral votes could play in deciding an election expected to be exceedingly close.
Trump held his own Las Vegas rally on Sept. 13 at the Expo World Market Center, where Harris was to speak on Sunday. She’s also held events at the same venues that Trump used in Milwaukee, Atlanta and suburban Phoenix.
During a campaign stop in Las Vegas in June, Trump promised to eliminate taxes on tips received by waiters, hotel workers and thousands of other service industry employees. Harris used her own Las Vegas rally in August to make the same promise.
Fully doing away with federal taxes on tips would probably require an act of Congress. Still, Nevada’s Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, has endorsed Harris.
Ted Pappageorge, the culinary union’s secretary-treasurer, said the difference between the dueling no-taxes-on-tips proposals is that Harris has also pledged to tackle what his union calls “sub-minimum wage,” where employers pay service industry workers small salaries and meet minimum wage thresholds by expecting employees to supplement those with tips.
“That shows us she’s serious,” Pappageorge said.
 


Russia launches several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says

Russia launches several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says
Updated 30 September 2024
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Russia launches several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says

Russia launches several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says
  • The attack followed Sunday's strikes targetting civilian homes in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, killing at least 11 people

KYIV: Russia launched several waves of drone attacks targeting Kyiv early on Monday, with air defense units engaged in repelling the strikes for several hours, Ukraine’s military said.
Reuters’ witnesses heard numerous blasts in Kyiv in what sounded like air defense systems in operation and saw objects being hit in the air.
Kyiv, its surrounding region and all eastern part of Ukraine have been under air raid alerts since around 1 a.m. on Monday (2200 GMT on Sunday).
“Several enemy UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) are over and near the capital,” Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s air force said earlier on Telegram that several groups of Russian drone attacks were heading toward Kyiv and Ukraine’s west. It also said it detected the launch of several guided bombs from Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine at around 04:40 a.m. (0140 GMT).
There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which has launched multiple air attacks on Kyiv and Ukraine throughout September, targeting Ukraine’s energy, military and transport infrastructure in which dozens of civilians have died.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties as a result of the attacks.


‘Angry’ Trump escalates attacks on Harris’ mental fitness and suggests she should be prosecuted

‘Angry’ Trump escalates attacks on Harris’ mental fitness and suggests she should be prosecuted
Updated 30 September 2024
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‘Angry’ Trump escalates attacks on Harris’ mental fitness and suggests she should be prosecuted

‘Angry’ Trump escalates attacks on Harris’ mental fitness and suggests she should be prosecuted
  • Trump, who has lost his composure when Harris became the Democratic nominee, said he is "very angry at Harris" because of "what she’s done to the country”
  • The Republican nominee has brushed aside concerns raised by his partymates to just stick to issues and avoid personal insults

ERIE, Pennsylvania: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump escalated his personal attacks on his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, on Sunday by repeating an insult that she was “mentally impaired” while also saying she should be “impeached and prosecuted.”
Trump’s rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, took on similar themes as an event one day earlier that he himself described as a “dark speech.” He told a cheering crowd Sunday that Harris was responsible for an “invasion” at the US-Mexico border and “she should be impeached and prosecuted for her actions.”
“Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” he added. “Sad. But lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way. There’s something wrong with Kamala. And I just don’t know what it is, but there is definitely something missing. And you know what, everybody knows it.”
With just over a month until the election, Trump is intensifying his use of personal and offensive attacks, even as some Republicans say he’d be better off sticking to the issues.
His suggestions that political enemies be prosecuted are particularly notable for their departure from norms in the US in which the justice system is supposed to be protected from political influence. In recent weeks, Trump has threatened prosecutions of Google for allegedly giving priority to “good stories” about Harris and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Trump has long threatened legal action against his rivals, including President Joe Biden and his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton. This month he vowed to jail those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, including election workers, lawyers, political operatives, donors, and voters, yet again attempting to sow doubt about the integrity of the election.
But he also has many legal problems of his own. He was convicted in May of falsifying business records in a hush money case in New York, with a sentencing scheduled for Nov. 26. Two other cases are pending — a federal case for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, and a state case in Georgia for his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss there to Biden. Prosecutors are appealing a federal judge’s dismissal of a case involving his handling of classified documents.
Trump argues federal and state prosecutors are targeting him for political reasons, though there is no evidence to suggest that is true. If he wins the election, Trump could potentially pardon himself on the federal cases or order the Justice Department to shut down their investigations of him.
On Sunday, he acknowledged he might lose in November: “If she wins, it’s not going to be so pleasant for me, but I don’t care.”
Trump has derided Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to lead a major party ticket, as “stupid,” “weak,” “dumb as a rock” and “lazy.” His allies have pushed him publicly and privately to talk instead about the economy, immigration and other issues.
“I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when asked about Trump’s comments. “They’re crazy liberal.”
When asked whether he approved of the personal attacks on Harris, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minnesota, sidestepped during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I think Kamala Harris is the wrong choice for America,” said Emmer, who is helping Trump’s running mate JD Vance prepare for Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. “I think Kamala Harris is actually as bad or worse as the administration that we’ve witnessed for the last four years.”
When pressed, Emmer said: “I think we should stick to the issues. The issues are, Donald Trump fixed it once. They broke it. He’s going to fix it again. Those are the issues.”
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, running for the Senate as a moderate Republican, brought up Trump’s false claims that Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, had previously played down her Black heritage. Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black institution, and has identified as both Black and South Asian consistently throughout her political career.
“I’ve already called him out when he had the one interview where he was questioning her racial identity, and now he’s questioning her mental competence,” Hogan told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And I think that’s insulting not only to the vice president but to people who actually do have mental disabilities.”
Harris has not commented on Trump’s recent attacks but has said when asked about other comments that it was the ” same old show. The same tired playbook we’ve heard for years with no plan on on how he would address the needs of the American people.”
Ahead of the rally on Sunday, some of Trump’s supporters said he often makes offensive remarks. Still, they support his proposals to restrict immigration and said he would have a better handle on the economy.
“He says what’s on his mind, and again, sometimes how he says it isn’t appropriate,” said Jeffrey Balogh, 56, who attended the rally with two friends. “But he did the job. He did very well at it.”
Tamara Molnar said she thinks Trump is very strong on immigration. As for his insults, Molnar said: “I think everybody has to have some decorum when speaking about other candidates, and I don’t think either side is necessarily innocent on that. There’s a lot of slinging both ways.”
At the rally in Erie, Trump said the “invasion” would end and deportations would begin if he took office.
“Thousands of migrants from the most dangerous countries are destroying the character of small towns and leaving local communities in anguish and in despair,” he said, talking about communities in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Last month, the GOP leader said he was “entitled” to personal attacks against Harris.
“As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country,” he told a news conference then. “I’m very angry at her that she would weaponize the justice system against me and other people, very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks.”