Hegseth resists when pushed to explain Trump's Air Force One deal
At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday — where Hegseth was grilled on the Defense Department's budget for the upcoming fiscal year and its approach to global conflicts — Democrats were intently focused on the plane that Trump has claimed would be a 'gift' to the United States. The Pentagon said last month that it had taken possession of the jetliner, even though legal teams representing the two countries have not finalized an agreement that would allow such a transfer.
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Vance leans into DC crime fight in Georgia
Vice President JD Vance on Thursday took the White House's fiery crime crackdown on the road, casting another Black-led city in apocalyptic terms on a trip that was designed to tout tax cuts and other administration policies. Vance was in Peachtree City, Georgia, a purple Atlanta suburb, to sell the White House's One Big Beautiful Bill — since rebranded the Working Families Tax Cut — as a win for the working-class. Speaking from a refrigeration equipment manufacturer whose products end up in Chick-fil-A restaurants, the vice president extolled the GOP's marquee legislation for slashing taxes on tips and overtime and bolstering American manufacturing — the same messaging he's used during similar events this summer at a machine shop in Pennsylvania and a steel facility in Ohio, but now with a new name. But in the firehose of President Donald Trump's Washington, the megalaw — which Trump signed on July 4 — was no longer the story of the summer. Attention has since shifted to Trump's takeover of Washington, which the president celebrated by visiting National Guard troops and federal officers the same day his vice president was in Georgia. Vance decided to lean in. 'I want you to be able to go shopping, or go and get a nice meal with your family, without the fear that you're going to get mugged or even worse because you had the audacity to take your family out for a day in one of our great American cities,' Vance said. Trump and Vance have long described the country's urban centers — which tend to be deeply Democratic and ethnically diverse — as sites of danger, deviance and decay. Trump has referred to New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago — America's three most populous cities — as 'warzones.' And last week, when the president announced his crackdown on Washington, he put Baltimore, Maryland, and Oakland, California, on notice, saying 'they're so far gone.' 'We're not going to lose our cities over this,' Trump said. 'And this will go further. We're starting very strongly with D.C.' On Thursday, in Peachtree City, about 30 miles outside Atlanta, Vance painted the southern city as a place where families cower in fear of criminals and 'cross the street' to 'avoid a crazy person yelling.' 'Those are your streets, paid for with your tax dollars, and you ought to be able to use them like any other citizen of this country,' Vance said. The vice president acknowledged that the administration has focused on Washington because of Trump's unique power over it as a federal city, but said, 'We certainly hope, whether it's Atlanta or anywhere else, people are gonna look around and say, 'We don't have to live like this.'' Critics say Trump and Vance's rhetoric about urban crime has racial undertones, and the six cities he named explicitly in his news conference last week are led by Black mayors. But the White House is attempting to defend its position by slamming detractors for being white. When Vance, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and top White House aide Stephen Miller, were heckled by protesters Wednesday in Union Station, the vice president said they were 'old, primarily white people' who have 'never felt danger in their entire lives.' Vance continued that tactic Thursday. Bashing the racial justice protests in 2020, which led to major anti-police sentiment in the Democratic Party, Vance said it was 'disproportionately Black Atlantans who suffer the most from high violent crime.' Asked about the historical pain associated with homeless people who were swept off Atlanta's streets in preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics, Vance first reminded the local reporter that he had been 12 years old at the time. 'I was worried about football and fishing,' he said. But, the vice president added, 'the question betrays the question of what we're trying to do, and what is the nature of true compassion.' 'Why have we convinced ourselves that it's compassionate to allow a person who's obviously a schizophrenic or suffering from some other mental illness, why is it compassionate to let that person fester in the streets?' he said. The 'compassionate thing to do,' Vance continued, was to 'get them in treatment, not to let them sit on the streets and yell at our people while they're walking by.' The vice president has spoken before about compassion in policy. He argued in January that 'your compassion belongs first to your fellow citizens,' citing an ancient Catholic concept called ordo amoris. The late Pope Francis later took issue with Vance's understanding of the concept in an unusual public rebuke of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Vance on Thursday appeared to blend his conception of compassion, passion for nativism and suggestion that people with generational roots in the country have a greater claim over its privileges of citizenship to sell a greater crime crackdown. 'This country was built by your grandparents, by your parents, by your forebearers — you ought to have the right to live a good life in this country,' he said. He added: 'The people who built Atlanta did not build it so that you would not be able to walk down the streets of Atlanta safely at night. They built it so you could enjoy it.'
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State DFL strips Omar Fateh of Minneapolis DFL endorsement
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has revoked the Minneapolis DFL's endorsement of mayoral candidate and state senator Omar Fateh, who is challenging Mayor Jacob Frey in this year's election. Fateh, a democratic socialist, won the endorsement on July 19 at a Minneapolis DFL convention marked by difficulties and delays with the party's electronic voting system. A review by the state party found that those flaws with the voting system warranted nullifying the convention's results. Frey, a Democrat, filed a complaint about the voting process at the convention, and the state party decided to review the process. His campaign claimed only 578 votes were counted on the first mayoral ballot, even though there were more than 1,000 delegates and alternates present. 'After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention's voting process on July 19th, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention,' Minnesota DFL Chair Richard Carlbom said in an announcement of the decision. Complaints about the process included allegations that the electronic voting system was flawed, leading to candidates getting dropped from the ballot early in the process, even though they likely had enough votes to remain, according to the review. The DFL found the convention failed to count 176 votes, which resulted in candidate DeWayne Davis' removal from the ballot in the first round of voting, even though he had above the minimum 20% support needed to move forward. After an evening of difficulties with the electronic voting system, the convention suspended its rules and voted by a show of hands. A draft report from the state DFL's rules committee, set to be released in full later this week, also found that the Minneapolis DFL didn't secure its delegate credential spreadsheets, allowing them to be accessed by campaigns. They also lost the entire Ward 5 credentials book, meaning delegates have to reestablish their status, the report said. As part of the state party committee decision, the Minneapolis DFL is barred from holding another mayoral endorsement convention in 2025 and won't be able to endorse a candidate through its central committee. The state party also placed the city party on probation for two years and ordered it to submit an improvement plan. In response to the decision, Fateh accused the DFL of 'insider games' and 'backroom decisions.' '28 party insiders met privately and voted to overturn our endorsement,' Fateh said in a post on BlueSky. 'Let me be clear, we're still in this fight. And we're going to win.' Frey praised the decision in a statement. 'I am proud to be a member of a party that believes in correcting our mistakes, and I am glad this inaccurate and obviously flawed process was set aside,' he said. 'I look forward to having a full and honest debate with Senator Fateh about our city's future.' Election Day is Nov. 5. Related Articles St. Paul man pleads guilty in 100 mph deadly crash off I-94 in Minneapolis Man fatally shot in St. Paul ID'd as 26-year-old from Minneapolis MN Rep. Cedrick Frazier announces campaign for Hennepin County attorney Minneapolis man charged with shooting gun inside St. Anthony Cub store Pohlads end search for Twins buyer, will add limited partners Play Farm Merge Valley
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Trump joins police, military in DC as he pushes deployments in more cities
President Donald Trump met with police and military in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to oversee the surge in federal law enforcement and National Guard, who are responding to what he says is a crime emergency in the district. Trump visited the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility in Southeast D.C., which is serving as the gathering point for all the agencies involved in the operation, thanking officers and members of the military and delivering hamburgers from the White House and pizza. Trump left the White House in the presidential limousine -- nicknamed "the Beast" -- with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller Thursday afternoon to visit the facility. "I just want to thank everybody very much for being here," Trump said. "I wanted to do this. We've had some incredible results that have come out, and it's like a different place. It's like a different city. It's the capital. It's going to be the best in the world." The president spoke for several minutes, touting his anti-crime push. "You got to be strong, you got to be tough," Trump urged the group. "You got to do your job. Whatever it takes to do your job." In a radio interview earlier Thursday, Trump said he would be "going out tonight" with the law enforcement and military, but he returned to the White House after the visit to the facility. The president mobilized the National Guard one week ago to assist the police, claiming crime was out of control. Officials have said Guard personnel are not making arrests, only helping to detain people briefly if necessary before handing them off to law enforcement. MORE: Protesters heckle Vance, Hegseth at photo op to thank National Guard troops in DC Violent crime levels have decreased compared to years prior, down 26% since 2024, a 30-year low, according to crime stats released by the city's Metropolitan Police Department. Trump told radio host Todd Starnes on Thursday that the D.C. deployment was "sort of a test" and indicated that they would copy the model in other cities around America. "It's working unbelievably, much faster than we thought. We've arrested hundreds of criminals, hardline criminals, people that will never be any good," the president said. The president said that he would put Memphis "early" on the list of next cities to patrol. "And, you know, unfortunately, we have a lot of cities like that. But I love Tennessee. You know, I won Tennessee by many, many, many points. So it was a landslide, far greater than even, you know, the Republican. Republicans do good in Tennessee, but, I mean, my number was like 35 points, and I'm glad you tell me that I can put that early on a list, and I'm sure that people would love it," he added. In June, Trump deployed the California National Guard to Los Angeles amid protests against immigration raids carried out by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the administration, alleging that it violated the Posse Comitatus Act -- an 1878 law that prevented the president from using the military as a domestic police force. A ruling has not been issued in the case. Trump went on to say that he "straightened out crime in four days in DC." The president also rebuffed criticism about his actions in the nation's capital. "And all I do, all they do is they say 'He's a dictator, he's a dictator' -- the place, people are getting mugged all over the place, and they give you phony records, like, it's wonderful and it's worse than it ever was, but we've got it going. People are so happy. They're going out to restaurants again," he claimed. Trump's remarks came a day after Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller visited the National Guard at Union Station, where they were drowned out by boos from protesters. Nearly 2,000 guardsmen from D.C. and six states have been mobilized to support Trump's mission at the nation's capital. They remain unarmed at this time, but officials have said they expect that to change. The troops have been stationed outside many tourist hot spots, including the National Mall and Union Station, where crime incidents are known to be lower than other parts of the city. Trump and other officials have not given a timetable of when the troop deployment will end. Vance on Wednesday dismissed crime statistics that showed incidents were lower in Union Station. He claimed that they do not report the full scope of crime in D.C. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday criticized the Trump administration's federal police surge in the nation's capital, calling it politically motivated and disconnected from crime in the city. "This doesn't make sense. The numbers on the ground and the district don't support 1,000 people from other states coming to Washington, D.C.," Bowser said. ABC News' Luis Martinez and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report. Play Farm Merge Valley
