US presidential candidate Donald Trump falsely accused election rival Kamala Harris of being an anti-Semite who plans to allow the murder of newborn babies, in a speech meant to rally religious supporters Friday that quickly went off the rails. The vice president, who is married to a Jewish man, has gained ground on Trump in polling since she replaced Joe Biden on the top of the Democratic ticket just days ago. Former Republican president Trump dedicated much of his address at a religious convention in southern Florida to assailing Harris's record as a senator and as Biden's number two, but many of his attacks were smears untethered to reality.
Explaining why 59-year-old Harris had skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau's speech to the US Congress on Wednesday to instead honor a prior commitment, Trump accused her, baselessly, of anti-Semitism. "She doesn't like Jewish people. She doesn't like Israel.
That's the way it is, and that's the way it's always going to be. She's not going to change," he said. The remark -- coupled with his claim that Harris "is totally against the Jewish people" in North Carolina on Wednesday -- marked an escalation in Trump's incendiary rhetoric, days after his campaign said an attempt on his life had given him a focus on unity.
The hour-long Friday speech, hosted by hard-right Turning Point Action, raised legitimate questions over Harris's previous statements on policing, immigration and the environment that placed her to the left of current Biden administration policy. But it was marked by hyperbole and falsehood. - 'Execute the baby' - Trump -- a convicted felon who is fighting multiple further indictments -- suggested baselessly that the Justice Department and FBI were "rounding up" Christians and anti-abortion activists and throwing them in jail for their "religious beliefs.
" He also called Biden's decision to exit the election campaign a "coup" by Democrats and said America was a "laughing stock." But he saved his darkest vitriol for Harris, calling her a "bum" and a failed vice president who had rejected federal judges for being Catholic and would appoint "hardcore Marxists" to the Supreme Court . He also accused her falsely of wanting to force doctors to give chemical castration drugs to children and suggested she might cheat to win in November.
"If Kamala Harris has her way, they will have a federal law for abortion, to rip the baby out of the womb in the eighth, ninth month and even after birth -- execute the baby after birth," he claimed, in perhaps his most egregious calumny. 78-year-old Trump, now the oldest major-party nominee in history, is scrambling to reorient an election against someone two decades his junior, having expected to face an 81-year-old incumbent Biden beset by concerns over infirmity. Just last week, the former reality TV star was in cruise control as he accepted a hero's welcome -- and the official presidential nomination -- at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
- Crowning glory - His crowning glory came a week after a gunman nearly killed him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania -- an extraordinary incident that Trump vowed Friday to commemorate with "a big and beautiful" new rally in the town, although he did not give a date. Seeking to become the first female president in US history, Harris is tasked with rapidly assembling a campaign against an opponent who has been in near permanent reelection mode since he became president in 2016. Trump's predecessor Barack Obama pledged support for Harris earlier Friday, as polls showed her closing the gap that Trump had built over Biden to make the race a statistical tie.
A top California prosecutor and senator before being elected the country's first female and first Black and South Asian vice president, Harris has highlighted Trump's criminal conviction and what she said Thursday is a Republican attack on "hard-fought freedoms" in US society. Democrats leapt on a Trump campaign announcement late Thursday that cast into doubt whether he will debate Harris. "It shows that he's afraid," Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a major Harris campaign advocate, told MSNBC.
"It shows that he knows that if the two of them are on a stage together, it's not going to end well for him." An attorney for Justin Timberlake asked a judge to dismiss drunk driving charges against the US pop singer Friday, saying his client was "not intoxicated" when he was arrested last month. On June 18, the 43-year-old entertainer had been pulled over in the town of Sag Harbor, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City, after police observed his BMW drive through a stop sign and struggle to stay within street lanes.
Timberlake had been en route to a friend's house after getting dinner at a local hotel's restaurant. Officers arrested him on suspicion of drunk driving. Timberlake, who is currently on tour in Europe, did not attend Friday's court hearing in New York.
He was ordered to attend the next proceedings on August 2, though will be allowed to do so via videoconference. Judge Carl Irace agreed to review a motion filed by Timberlake's attorney, Edward Burke, which sought to dismiss the case, alleging the complaint filed by the arresting officer was defective. "The police made a number of very significant errors in this case," Burke said in a statement after the hearing.
"The most important fact to know about this case is that Justin was not intoxicated and should not have been arrested." The "Selfish" singer is currently on the European leg of his "The Forget Tomorrow World Tour" to promote his latest album, "Everything I Thought It Was." CONTINUE READING Show less All-conquering Chinese divers Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen bagged the first Olympic gold of their careers on Saturday with a superb victory in the women's synchronised three-meter springboard final.
Chang and Chen have been unbeatable in global diving events in recent years, winning gold at three straight world championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024. They extended that run of dominance into the Olympic arena on Saturday, romping to victory with a total of 337.68 points.
That left them comfortably ahead of the American duo of Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook, who took silver with 314.64pts. Britain's Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen won bronze with a final total of 302.
28. Chang and Chen's victory launched China's bid for a potential sweep of Olympic diving golds. Chinese divers won seven out of eight gold medals in Tokyo three years ago.
The diving powerhouse has ruled the 3m springboard synchronised event since its introduction at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, winning gold on six out of seven occasions. © 2024 AFP CONTINUE READING Show less Republican candidates seeking to tap into the energy that Donald Trump brings to his public appearances are finding it near impossible to emulate his style, leaving them scrambling for new ways to engage voters . According to a report from Politico's Calder McHugh, Donald Trump's speeches are larded with riffs, jokes, barbs and applause lines that hit the mark with his MAGA fans and immediately go viral.
GOP candidates are quickly finding out that what works for Trump, a natural showman after years on TV, looks easier to do than it actually is. "Throughout the hundreds of rallies in the Trump era, the former president honed a style that is perfectly pitched to his supporters: a wink and a nod at some of his more outlandish ideas, sandwiched between humor and charisma to soften his rhetoric," the report from Politico before adding, " Even many of his harshest critics will admit that he’s funny. His imitators are not.
" Case in point: his new running mate, Sen. J.D.
Vance (R-OH) who replaced former VP Mike Pence (R-IN) on the ticket this go-around. ALSO READ: Boebert, MTG and far-fight friends derail Speaker Mike Johnson’s summer plans Vance's curious attempt to make a joke this week about racism out of his drinking Diet Mountain Dew not only fell flat with the crowd, but became fodder for late-night comedians and social media critics who noted his extreme awkwardness. And things have not gotten better for him since.
As McHugh wrote, "But what’s striking about the moment — and much of the rest of the rally, in which Vance clumsily tried to joke about local Middletown hot spots before launching into various grievances against Democrats — is how much it sounded like a cheap imitation of a Trump rally." The report notes that Vance is not alone, citing Gov. Ron DeSantis' humiliating bid to unseat Trump as the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee that exposed him nationally as a horrible speaker on the stump which led to his campaign crashing and burning after blowing through millions in campaign donations.
"But what’s distinct about the Trump imitators is that without the humor, all that’s left is the grievance politics, which turns off at least some voters," Politico's McHugh wrote before adding, "It’s an interesting puzzle." "Many of Trump’s ideas are largely unpopular with voters; without his charisma, his ideological allies are left with policy positions like abortion bans that most Americans don’t really like. It’s Trump’s personality that keeps him happily ensconced at the head of the party.
The result is that candidates like Vance up and down state ballots try to build on Trump’s political legacy without being able to capture his personal one," the report adds. You can read more here . CONTINUE READING Show less.
