Major Labor Unions Make Shocking Show of Force Toward Biden on Israel

Seven major labor unions sent a letter to Joe Biden Tuesday calling on the president to “immediately halt all military aid to Israel.” This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address a joint session of Congress and speak privately with Biden, Kamala Harris, and other politicians.

The unions that signed on to the letter, which represent six million people, include the Association of Flight Attendants, or AFA, American Postal Workers Union, or APWU, International Union of Painters, National Education Association, or NEA, Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, United Auto Workers, or UAW, and United Electrical Workers.

The labor movement is concerned that a cease-fire plan is not being put into action as Palestine faces one of the bloodiest weeks since October 7.

“The time to act decisively to end this war is now. Stopping US military aid to Israel is the quickest and most sure way to do so, it is what U.S. law demands, and it will show your commitment to securing a lasting peace in the region,” wrote the signatories.

“Recent reports only underscore the urgency of our demands. Large numbers of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, continue to be killed, reportedly often with US-manufactured bombs,” reads the letter. “We have spoken directly to leaders of Palestinian trade unions who told us heart-wrenching stories of the conditions faced by working people in Gaza.”

The unions and allied groups plan to protest Netantyahu’s visit to Washington, D.C., and have a plan to symbolically issue a warrant of arrest for the prime minister.

“Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues,” said Mark Dimondstein of the APWU in a statement released alongside the letter. “Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy. We need a cease-fire now, and the best way to secure that is to shut off U.S. military aid to Israel.”

The letter comes as many other unions, including the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the SEIU, and more quickly endorsed Kamala Harris for president this week, who plans to meet privately with Netanyahu during his visit.

Some labor unions have held off, however, perhaps looking to leverage their endorsements. Those include the NEA, UAW, and AFA, who are part of the coalition, as well as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, led by Sean O’Brien.

Labor unions have been calling for a cease-fire for months. Earlier this year, U.S. labor unions launched the National Labor Network for Ceasefire, which included several of the signatories of Tuesday’s letter, as well as National Nurses United and smaller local unions. The new organization demanded an immediate and permanent cease-fire, release of the hostages, and unimpeded full access for humanitarian aid.

UAW President Shawn Fain appeared on MSNBC Monday night to say his union was “not going to rush” their Harris endorsement without the approval of the union members. In December, the UAW was one of the first major unions to call for a cease-fire after the APWU.

Donald Trump’s team is mounting a new angle of attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, and while their plan is very much connected to the campaign’s already racist rhetoric, its bigoted legacy goes back even further to the presidential election of 1988.

In the days since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris, Trump’s team has scrambled to adapt their attacks to the new presumptive nominee. Even before Biden’s decision was officially announced, Trump had started to try out a couple lame nicknames, such as “Laughing Kamala,” and most recently “‘Dumb as a Rock’ Kamala.” But, not surprisingly, none of these have really stuck.

It’s time to get serious with their mode of attack, and so Republicans are planning to take aim at Harris’s record as a district attorney in San Francisco, which she has already started to weaponize against convicted felon Trump.

One Trump adviser said the Harris cases included “several Willie Hortons,” The Bulwark reported Tuesday, referring to the racist attack ad launched against Senator Michael Dukakis during the 1988 election. The ad featured a Massachusetts inmate named Willie Horton who had stabbed a man and raped a woman while on a weekend furlough—a policy and crime for which then–Republican candidate George H.W. Bush inexplicably blamed Dukakis.

As the late, great Walter Shapiro wrote for The New Republic in 2022, “It has become a Republican cliché: When the polls look ominous, the party often conjures the image of a menacing Black man.”

The infamous Horton ads encouraged race-based politics by playing into racial stereotypes linking Black men with crime to fearmonger about a lawless Democratic presidency. Trump has been able to exploit and exacerbate this trend within the Republican Party with his own lies about immigrant crime rates. Now it seems the Republicans are plotting to launch a similar attack against Harris.

For some Republicans, it seems the racist Willie Hortonesque smack talk has already begun. During an interview on CNN Tuesday, Senator Tom Cotton called Harris a “failed San Francisco liberal that’s wrong for America,” and said there were many cases in which she had been “weak on crime” and let “thousands” of criminals walk free.

Cotton also referred to one specific Harris case, which is likely to start appearing in Republican talking points. In 2004, Harris declined to seek the death penalty for the killer of police officer Isaac Espinoza, despite a pressure campaign from several California Democrats.

Renata Espinoza, the police officer’s widow, said Harris hadn’t called her before announcing the decision. Harris had “just taken justice from us. From Isaac,” Espinoza told CNN in 2019. “She was only thinking of herself.”

The prosecution worked to paint David Hill, who was convicted of fatally shooting Espinoza and sentenced to life without parole, as a hardened gangster and even cited his own rap lyrics in their case against him.

CNN’s John Berman had reminded Cotton that when Trump ran for president in 2020, his team had attacked Harris for just the opposite: being too tough on criminals.

In August 2020, former Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson claimed Harris “fought to keep inmates locked up in overcrowded prisons so they could be used for cheap labor, she championed laws that put parents in jail for truancy and prosecuted the mentally ill.”

Now Trump’s team has decided Harris’s record is part of their “bucket of paint to define her at a time of our choosing,” Trump’s campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita told The Bulwark.

In a wild attempt to discredit Vice President Kamala Harris, Donald Trump is alleging that Harris and Biden didn’t adequately protect him, causing him to be “forced to take a bullet for Democracy.”

Trump made the claim in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, saying, “IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”

Since a gunman attempted to kill Trump at a Pennsylvania rally 10 days ago, Republicans and Democrats alike have criticized the Secret Service for failing to thwart a rooftop shooter only 400 feet away from the former president. Politicians on both sides were further critical of U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for saying it would take 60 days to compile a report on the incident.

In the end, Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, but that won’t stop Trump. Once the former president and convicted felon pushes a conspiracy theory, his followers tend to pile on and give the idea life in the right-wing media ecosystem. There will likely be continued attempts by the right to pin the shooting on the Biden administration, and Harris by extension. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has already joined in by claiming something suspicious in Biden stepping down to endorse Harris.

The right has blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion principles for the Secret Service failing to stop the shooter, and Fox News attempted to use the same right-wing dog whistle against Harris even before Biden withdrew from the race. It’s only a matter of time before Trump and right-wing media attempt to tie Harris, DEI, and the failures of the Secret Service together in one big conspiracy to attack the popular new presidential campaign.

Republicans don’t have much else to try except some exceptionally weak talking points, and Harris is already getting some shots in against Trump. But just like the QAnon and election-rigging conspiracies the right wing pushed in the last few years, this one probably won’t win over the average American either.

Donald Trump is fuming after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz slammed Republicans for being “stuck” with the former president as their presidential candidate, while the Democrats have begun mounting a new campaign around Vice President Kamala Harris.

During an interview on Fox News Tuesday morning, Walz couldn’t wipe a smile off his face as he combated Bill Hemmer’s wild suggestion that the Democrats had “leapfrogged the entire democratic system” by moving to get behind Harris in the days since Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

“Look, the process has always been there, I welcome—if … anybody wants to become a DNC delegate, you’re welcome to. But what I know is, Democrats are ready to move when the situation warrants it,” Walz said.

“Look, it doesn’t matter convictions, it doesn’t matter failed policies. Republican Party is stuck with Donald Trump. He’s yours, you got him. Welcome to it,” said Walz. “Democratic Party can make our decisions, we pick our nominee. Look, if you don’t like it, don’t vote for her in November!”

The Minnesota governor said that he knew voters would appreciate the Biden administration’s strong economic policies and its disinterest in courting foreign dictators such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán or Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“So, J.D. Vance, ‘Mind your own business,’ is what I would tell them,” Walz said. “We can manage it.”

Apparently, Trump didn’t appreciate Walz’s booking on the conservative news network.

“Why did Fox News put up Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, where I am leading?” the Republican nominee wrote on Truth Social shortly after Walz’s appearance. “They make me fight battles that I shouldn’t have to fight!”

Walz was among those reported as having received vetting materials to join Harris on the Democratic ticket in November.

While Walz wouldn’t confirm he was in contention on Fox News, he did say that he’d spoken to Harris. “We have the same values, we believe we can win in the Midwest,” he said, pledging to do “whatever’s necessary” to keep “personal freedoms” front and center in Harris’s campaign.

When pop star Charli XCX tweeted out “kamala IS brat,” she might not have imagined CNN correspondents and Democratic politicians weighing in.

“So is the idea that we are all kind of brat and that Kamala Harris is brat?” asked a confused Jake Tapper Monday evening.

While Harris’s K-Hive may have adopted their moniker from Beyoncé back in 2019, this year, it’s brat summer, named for Charli XCX’s viral new album. When BidenHQ rebranded to “KamalaHQ” following the vice president’s announcement she was taking over the Democratic ticket, a very smart member of her campaign staff added the recognizable brat-style logo to their social media.

As Grace Segers writes for The New Republic, Harris’s team seems to be embracing the memes as an attempt to appeal to younger voters.

But not all Democrats are hip to the trend: California Representative Mark Takano said he initially thought people were being negative about Kamala Harris by “calling her a brat.”

“I just saw it on Instagram.… I said, ‘What is this?’” Takano told CNN. “But it’s not that Kamala Harris is a brat, it’s she is brat, and then I started listening to music, and I said, ‘Oh wow.’”

After being informed by his team that it was a term of endearment, Takano joined in on the fun.

As did Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.

Still confused? In a TikTok interview, Charli XCX defined “brat” as: “You are just that girl who is a little messy and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but parties through it. It is honest, blunt, and a little bit volatile. That’s Brat.”

Perhaps brat can be a way for Harris to punch back at Republican lawmakers who want to attack her over her laugh or just for being plain “weird.”

“I will aspire to be brat,” said Tapper on Monday. Us too, Jake.

Speaker Mike Johnson is doubling down on threats to arrest anyone who interrupts or protests Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress Wednesday, including members of Congress themselves.

He told fellow Republicans Tuesday that protests would not be tolerated, and he plans to send a “Dear Colleague” letter warning other members of Congress about protesting.

Tuesday’s message reiterates Johnson’s warning last week to arrest any Democratic lawmakers who seek to interrupt or disrupt the speech. He called for “extra sergeants at arms on the floor” to deal with and arrest any dissenters, whether from the House floor or the gallery. Several Democrats have said they plan to boycott the speech or protest.

Congress’s invitation to Netanyahu comes at a time when the Israeli prime minister is facing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court along with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and top Hamas leaders over accusations of war crimes in Gaza. A meeting with President Joe Biden was pushed to Thursday after briefly being up in the air. Vice President Kamala Harris won’t be presiding over Netanyahu’s address to Congress, and will instead be campaigning in Indianapolis while planning to meet privately with the Israeli prime minister later.

Netanyahu isn’t getting the red-carpet treatment that he has gotten in years past in Washington, D.C., because of the brutality of his war in Gaza. His willingness to drag out the war for more than nine months with a staggering civilian death toll has contributed to Biden’s drop in popularity among young people and communities of color. It seems that Johnson’s invitation to speak and the loads of laundry washed on his behalf may be the only major benefits Netanyahu gets from his U.S. visit.

A new report from CNN reveals more evidence that Trump vice presidential pick J.D. Vance once believed accusations of sexual assault against his running mate.

Earlier this month, Mediaite reported that, in a 2016 MSNBC appearance, Vance said he believed Jessica Leeds’s accusation that Trump groped her. Sarcastically noting Trump’s tendency to lie, he said, “This is sort of he said/she said, right? And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump who always tells the truth? Just kidding, or do you believe that woman on the tape?”

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Vance repeatedly expressed similar sentiments online.

In October 2016, after the Access Hollywood tapes were released, Vance tweeted a since-deleted post asking, “What percentage of the American population has @realDonaldTrump sexually assaulted?”

Vance also reportedly liked tweets that read, “Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault,” and, “I wish there was a 2nd Vice Presidential debate just to see [Mike Pence] deny that Trump said he grabbed p*ssy.”

On Facebook, he shared a Washington Post op-ed by a Southern Baptist Convention leader who condemned conservative religious leaders’ support of then-presidential candidate Trump “following the disclosure of his sexually predatory recorded comments.” Vance posted an excerpt of the article that read, in part, “[Trump] has reaffirmed who he is over and over again, even during this campaign—from misogynistic statements to racist invective to crazed conspiracy theorizing.”

Vance’s team told CNN that the posts in question “from nearly a decade ago are old news that have been addressed numerous times since he entered the political world. They don’t reflect his views on President Trump today and haven’t for many years.” Indeed, after Trump was found liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, Vance quickly said he believed his “friend” Trump.

The unearthed social media activity—piling atop a mountain of examples of Vance once railing against his current running mate—has fueled ongoing conversations questioning his convictions and speculating that Trump may be regretting his vice presidential pick.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will resign Tuesday following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump earlier this month.

Cheatle’s official announcement is expected later in the day, but two law enforcement officials have confirmed her exit to NBC News. Her ouster comes amid widespread criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over security failures at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

In her resignation letter, which NBC obtained from a senior official who received it, Cheatle wrote that she takes “full responsibility for the security lapse,” and that “scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson called Cheatle’s decision “overdue” after hearing the news. “She should have done this at least a week ago. I’m happy to see that,” he said, according to Politico.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said he was grateful for Cheatle’s decades of public service. “The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions,” Biden said. “We all know what happened that day can never happen again.” He added that he plans to appoint a new director soon.

Cheatle’s resignation comes one day after she appeared before the House Oversight Committee, where she failed to give satisfying answers about the shooting, which killed one rallygoer and critically injured two others. Trump’s ear was also wounded, although his official medical report has not been released.

Lawmakers demanded answers for how the shooter was able to get to his vantage point, but Cheatle offered little insight. She revealed that she believed “there was some sort of communication” about a suspicious individual between two and five times, and said that the Secret Service was not aware that the gunman was armed when it allowed Trump to take the stage.

When it came to Cheatle’s vague responses, the typically polarized committee found itself in agreement, for once.

“This committee is not known for … its model of bipartisanship, but I think today we came together unanimously in our disappointment in your lack of answers,” James Comer told Cheatle, according to Politico.

MAGA Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was predictably fierce when defending her beloved leader, but even Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez said that the timeline for an initial report on the shooting, which Cheatle said would take 60 days, was “simply not acceptable.”

“It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States, regardless of party. There need to be answers,” said Ocasio-Cortez. The clip of the New York progressive lawmaker went viral, with many Republican social media users astonished they actually agreed with her.

This story has been updated.

Within 36 hours of being handed the reins of the Democratic Party, Vice President Kamala Harris has already begun to send out vetting materials to possible running mates. But for now, she appears to have skipped over one name that has gotten a lot of early buzz.

Vetting materials have been distributed to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from The Wall Street Journal’s White House reporter Ken Thomas.

Notably missing from Harris’s list of potential vice presidential candidates was Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he had not received any materials from the Harris campaign.

Not only is Beshear one of the most popular governors in America, who has gained wide appeal despite being a Democratic leader in a red state, but ever since Harris was endorsed by President Joe Biden on Sunday, Beshear has repeatedly voiced his support for the new presumptive nominee and begun mounting attacks against Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.

Beshear appeared on CNN Monday night, launching an informal audition to go head-to-head with Vance. Beshear specifically went after Vance for his “phony” opioid charity, and touted his own record as an attorney general who was tough on opioid companies.

“We need folks that have substance; we need folks that are up for the job. And J.D. Vance certainly isn’t, and never will be,” Beshear said.

The Kentucky governor claimed that any of the names that have been floated for Harris’s vice president would “eat J.D.’s lunch every day on a debate stage leading up to November.”

“Listen, J.D. Vance is a phony. He’s fake. I mean, he first said that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he’s acting like he’s Lincoln. I mean, the problem with J.D. Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34,” Beshear said.

Beshear had started bright and early on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday, when he lauded Harris’s character, as well as her record, and began attacking Vance’s harsh anti-abortion stance, one of the Trump pick’s weakest spots with voters. He also called him a phony.

Vance had responded to some of Beshear’s attacks by calling it “weird” for Beshear to call him fake, when Beshear had “inherited” the governorship from his father, Steve Beshear, who served as Kentucky governor from 2007 to 2015.

Beshear was quick to hit back Monday night. “Well, what was weird was him joking about racism today, and talking about diet Mountain Dew. But in all seriousness, he ain’t from here. He is not from Kentucky,” Beshear said.

He criticized Vance for profiting off his writing about people in eastern Kentucky, while being raised in Ohio. “He called them ‘lazy,’ acting like he understands our culture, and he’s one of us; he’s not,” Beshear said. “This is a guy who went out to Silicon Valley, that’s trying to be an everyman. He ain’t one of us.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has only been running for president since Sunday, and she’s started off her campaign with a shot at Donald Trump.

At Biden campaign headquarters in Delaware Monday, Harris spoke about her record before politics, when she “was a courtroom prosecutor.”

“In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” Harris said to cheers and applause.

This could signal the tone for how Harris’s campaign for president will go. Contrasting her prosecutorial background against Trump’s many legal cases will keep Trump on the defense. Trump and the GOP are already having trouble coming up with talking points against Harris, and the former president and convicted felon is already trying to back out of debating her.

Harris’s campaign is off to a great start, immediately setting a fundraising record on just her first day, while Trump’s campaign is wondering if making J.D. Vance the vice presidential candidate was a mistake. Trump is looking weaker, and the new Harris campaign will have to press their advantage to turn around the sagging poll numbers inherited from Joe Biden.