The horrific assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk Wednesday is the latest entry in a grim and growing tally of conservative figures and institutions being targeted for violence, vandalism and murder.

The fatal shooting follows a lengthy recent history of conservatives and Republicans facing violence, a Fox News Digital review of the last four years found, including two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump in a roughly two-month span in 2024. 

Kirk was speaking at Utah Valley University as part of his ‘American Comeback Tour’ when shots rang out and he collapsed on stage. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.  

The 31-year-old husband and father was a staunch ally of President Donald Trump’s, and toured the nation promoting right-of-center ideology to youths, most notably on college campuses. He founded his conservative group more than a dozen years ago.

Conservatives and pro-life nonprofits have been targeted with shootings, arson, and vandalism in just the past four years.

Trump himself has faced two assassination attempts, including on July 13, 2024, when he was shot in the ear while joining a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooting rocked the election cycle as Trump rose, bleeding and defiant, and urged the crowd to ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ The assassination attempt came just two days before the Republican National Convention was set to kick off in Milwaukee. 

Trump appeared at the convention while wearing a bandage on his ear, and noted how he ‘had God on my side’ during the attempt. The motive of the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper, remains unclear. The FBI has pointed to a complex web of personal grievances, mental health issues and a desire for notoriety as leading to the act, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Just weeks later on Sept. 15, 2024, Trump was rushed off of his golf course in Florida when shots rang out. The suspect in that assassination attempt case, Ryan Routh, posted prolifically about Trump, the 2024 election and politics in the lead up to the attempt, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Routh is going on trial Thursday over the case, and described the president as an ‘insecure ego idiot-mad fool’ in court documents in September, the New York Post reported. 

Attacks on conservatives have unfolded at the grassroots level, as well, including this year when the New Mexico Republican Party’s headquarters faced an arson attack. The attack destroyed the entrance to the headquarters, while graffiti reading ‘ICE=KKK’ scrawled on the building. 

The suspect in that case, who also allegedly attacked a Tesla Albuquerque Showroom, was hit with federal charges as Attorney General Pam Bondi pointed to the incident as a disturbing case of political violence.

TPUSA chapters around the nation have also faced other incidents of violence this year, including when a group of students with Turning Point USA at UC Davis were attacked by masked individuals in April, Fox Digital reported at the time. 

The conservative group was in the midst of hosting a ‘Prove me Wrong’ event with a guest speaker when protesters destroyed camera gear, a tent, event signage, flipped tables, and assaulted group staff, TPUSA said at the time. 

Looking back at 2023, former NCAA swimmer and conservative political activist Riley Gaines was also attacked and barricaded in a room at San Francisco State University following a speech to students promoting a ban on biological males from playing in women’s sports. The event was part of a Turning Point USA and Leadership Institute forum on campus. 

Churches and pro-life groups have also faced dozens upon dozens of attacks beginning in 2022 in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which effectively ended the recognition of abortion as a constitutional right. 

The attacks included a pro-life center that was ‘firebombed’ in Buffalo, New York, in 2022, Catholic churches that were vandalized and set on fire, and pro-choice protesters interrupting church services and Catholic masses. The attacks followed a radical pro-choice group declaring in a public letter that it was ‘open season’ on pro-lifers.

In 2017, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot along with three others when James Hodgkinson, a deranged supporter of Bernie Sanders, sprayed an Alexandria, Virginia, baseball field with gunfire as Republican lawmakers practiced for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. Scalise nearly died, but recovered and remains in office.

The fatal shooting of Kirk on Wednesday has not yet yielded a suspect, with the FBI and ATF on the ground and investigating, according to Bondi. 

Trump, as well as members of his Cabinet, have offered an outpouring of support to Kirk’s family following the tragedy. 

‘The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,’ Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday. ‘No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!’

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano, Stepheny Price, and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is trying to force Senate Republicans to go on record about releasing the ‘Epstein files.’

Schumer announced on the Senate floor on Wednesday that he planned to file an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would require Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all the files and documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.

He later told reporters that his amendment was effectively the same as the discharge petition in the House being pushed by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

‘There’s been so much lying, obfuscation, cover-ups,’ Schumer said. ‘The American people need to see everything that’s in the Epstein files. And my amendment would make that happen.’

The Epstein drama that has gripped the House has so far been more muted in the Senate, with only a pair of dust-ups between Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., in late July, plus a push from Senate Democrats to eat away floor time last month.

But Schumer’s surprise move to file an amendment and force a vote on it comes as Republicans and Democrats are negotiating the annual defense bill, and further, trying to find a middle ground on a government funding extension ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline.

A Senate Republican source told Fox News Digital that Schumer’s move was ‘an extremely hostile act.’

‘We were actively involved in bipartisan negotiations and this could jeopardize that,’ the source said.

The Epstein fervor reignited, however, when a card from the late pedophile’s ‘birthday book’ was revealed earlier this week that was allegedly sent by President Donald Trump.

The card, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, featured a message and drawing and has what appears to be Trump’s signature at the bottom, and it was sent to the House Oversight Committee by the Epstein estate.

The White House has vehemently denied the veracity of the card and also disputed that it was Trump’s signature.

When asked why Democrats never released the files when former President Joe Biden was in power, Schumer pivoted back to Trump.

‘Look, the bottom line is the American people need to see this,’ Schumer said. ‘Donald Trump has lied about this. There was no picture. There was no drawing. There have been so many lies, so much prevarication, so much cover-up.’

‘The American people, Democrats, Independents, Republicans are demanding it be made public,’ he continued. ‘And it should be. We hope Republicans will vote for it. They should.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears will receive a big boost from a top national conservative figure in her quest to succeed Gov. Glenn Youngkin in November, Fox News Digital has learned exclusively.

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the original ‘DOGE’ leaders in President Donald Trump’s circle, plans to rally with and endorse her at an event in Chesterfield next week.

Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital that Earle-Sears will ‘lead Virginia to new heights.’

‘Winning in 2024 was the first step, but soon it’s going to be up to the states to lead the way,’ Ramaswamy said.

‘I look forward to leading Ohio soon, and we want a coalition of strong states to join us in reviving a new American Dream.’

Earle-Sears, who will join Ramaswamy in the Richmond suburb on September 19, said she is ‘honored’ to have the entrepreneur join her in the commonwealth.

‘Vivek and I share a deep belief in the promise of America, that with hard work, faith, and freedom, every family can thrive,’ she said.

Earle-Sears called Ramaswamy a ‘strong voice for freedom, opportunity, and common sense.’

‘I’m grateful for his friendship and partnership in this fight. It means so much to welcome him to Virginia as we stand shoulder to shoulder, working to deliver a brighter, safer, and stronger future for every Virginian family.’

The Republican nominee, locked in a close fight with former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who leads by a handful of points, has also received key endorsements from figures like Youngkin, while pledging to continue the economic successes of the current administration.

Earle-Sears also has made her personal story a hallmark of her campaign – often quipping that she might seem like she should be the stereotypical Democrat, though she is anything but.

‘I look like the kind of people who really do normally vote Democratic, and I’m not. And so I’m appealing to all voters,’ she said in a recent interview.

‘My message is a common-sense message that no matter where you came from in life, no matter what color you are, no matter what country you came from, when you came to America and you tried and here you are succeeding, that’s what we need.’

‘Here I stand, second-in-command in the former capital of the Confederacy,’ Earle-Sears, who is Black and an immigrant from Jamaica, added. ‘Don’t tell me America hasn’t changed.’

The Ramaswamy event will be held in the home district of state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in the 2025 race.

Chesterfield County, outside Petersburg, is considered a bellwether in statewide contests. Once reliably Republican for decades, it has trended Democratic since the 2000s with an influx of younger and more diverse voters from the Richmond-Petersburg metro.

Hillary Clinton lost it by about one percentage point in 2016. Former President Joe Biden then flipped the county in 2020 – but Youngkin won it in 2021, before former Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump there by about nine points in 2024.

The area is best known as the namesake of a historic cigarette brand, and home of several athletes, including New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor, basketball player Moses Malone, and NASCAR star Denny Hamlin.

In Ramaswamy’s own race, he recently received the endorsement of the Ohio Republican Party, which led Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to drop out of the primary.

Current Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel – a retired coaching icon at Ohio State University – is also considering jumping in on the Republican side.

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown elected to pursue his old Senate seat rather than focus on Columbus, and former Rep. Tim Ryan is also considering a run against current Democratic primary candidate, ex-Ohio Health Director Amy Acton.

Recent polling trends showed Ramaswamy leading both Acton and Ryan in the general election – should the latter jump into the fray.

It was reckless to allow former President Joe Biden to run for re-election last year, former Vice President Kamala Harris admitted in her new book, ‘107 Days.’

This time last year, Harris was in the thick of her short-lived presidential campaign. With some distance from Washington, D.C., and in retrospect, Harris doesn’t hold back in the first preview of her new book that is set to hit shelves later this month. 

”It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision,’ Harris said in the excerpt released by The Atlantic on Wednesday morning. 

While Harris publicly defended Biden throughout his presidency, in the first excerpt of Harris’ highly anticipated account of the shortest presidential campaign in history, the former vice president described how she was often scapegoated by the Biden administration. And for the first time, she admitted that, ‘perhaps,’ she should have told Biden to ‘consider not running.’

During her brief presidential campaign, Harris often walked a fine line in trying to defend Biden, for whom she remained his vice president, while also differentiating herself from his unflattering record. 

‘There is not a thing that comes to mind,’ Harris infamously said on ‘The View,’ when asked what she would have done differently than Biden. The clip was an instant attack ad for Republican candidates up and down the ballot to pit Biden’s shortcomings on Harris. 

Harris later told Fox News’ Bret Baier that her presidency would ‘not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,’ as she sought to distance herself from Biden’s stances on the economy and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. 

‘And of all the people in the White House, I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out,’ Harris said in the ‘107 Days’ excerpt. ‘I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps as poisonous disloyalty, even if my only message was: Don’t let the other guy win.’

Harris said she rationalized her decision to stay quiet by telling herself, ‘the American people had chosen him before in the same matchup,’ and maybe he was ‘right to believe’ he could defeat President Donald Trump again. 

‘I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country,’ Harris said in the book.

But as described in ‘Original Sin,’ one of several books this year to pull back the curtain on the reality of the Biden administration, loyalty to Biden was wielded as a weapon in the White House. 

‘Because I’d gone after him over busing in the 2019 primary debate, I came into the White House with what we lawyers call a ‘rebuttable presumption.’ I had to prove my loyalty, time and time again,’ Harris said in the book. 

In the excerpt, Harris goes on to describe how the ‘White House rarely pushed back,’ when she was criticized for her ‘gaffes’ or when ‘Republicans mischaracterized my role as ‘border czar.’’

Harris explained how she often had to prove her loyalty to Biden, yet Biden’s inner circle ‘seemed glad’ to let her dominate headlines. 

‘Their thinking was zero-sum: If she’s shining, he’s dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well. That, given the concerns about his age, my visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands. My success was important for him,’ the former vice president argued in the ‘107 Days’ excerpt. 

‘His team didn’t get it,’ Harris said. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth held his first call with his Chinese counterpart, Adm. Dong Jun, on Sept. 9, in a conversation that comes as Beijing deepens ties with Moscow and Pyongyang while showcasing its own military might.

Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said Hegseth ‘forthrightly relayed that the U.S. has vital interests in the Asia-Pacific, the priority theater, and will resolutely protect those interests.’

‘Hegseth made clear that the United States does not seek conflict with China nor is it pursuing regime change or strangulation of the PRC.’

Parnell said the call, which occurred on Tuesday but was made public Wednesday, was ‘candid and constructive,’ and the defense chiefs agreed to further discussions. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Chinese embassy for comment on the call. 

Last week, China hosted a military parade where President Xi Jinping showcased his regional alliances in public appearances with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Xi at the time hinted at his ambitions toward Taiwan, saying that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would ‘resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.’

Xi has repeatedly set 2027, the 100th anniversary of the PLA, as a deadline for military modernization — a timeline U.S. officials warn could coincide with preparations for an invasion of Taiwan.

During the parade, China showcased its full nuclear triad, hypersonic missiles and new stealth drones. 

The show of force came two months after the U.S. hosted its own military parade to coincide with the Army’s 250th birthday. 

In recent years, Beijing has deepened its security partnerships with Pyongyang and Moscow through arms transfers and military technology exchanges.

The U.S. has accused North Korea of supplying munitions to Russia for its war in Ukraine, while Chinese firms have been sanctioned for helping Russia skirt Western export controls.

President Donald Trump, however, has suggested he may meet with Xi in the future as trade negotiations drag on. 

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is traveling to Israel following the Jewish state’s strike in Qatar, a strike he argued was part of Israel’s ‘singular purpose’ to eradicate Hamas.

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) announced the strike, which was intended to target senior-level leadership in Hamas, on Tuesday. However, the attack took place over 1,300 miles away in Doha, Qatar.

The Qatari government has been a key player at the negotiation table in the quest for a ceasefire and return of hostages in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas following the group’s brutal attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel’s targets were top negotiators in Hamas’ political bureau, who were mulling the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal.

So far, Qatari officials have condemned the strike, and the White House has taken a rare step against Israel in the aftermath.

Daines, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, likened Hamas to ‘a cancer’ that Israel needed to eradicate. He put the Jewish state’s situation into perspective of, if the U.S. were in Israel’s position and ‘1,200 innocent Americans [were] slaughtered by terrorists 40 miles from Washington, D.C.,’ then the ‘United States would do everything within its power to eradicate the threat.’

‘The Israelis, as we’ve seen, whether it’s with Iran or Hezbollah, sometimes doesn’t matter where these leaders are,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘They’re going to come after them, not unlike the United States did when we went after Usama bin Laden in Pakistan. We didn’t ask Pakistan for permission.’

Following the attack, President Donald Trump told reporters that he was ‘not thrilled’ about the situation.

‘I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect. And we got to get the hostages back, but I was very unhappy about the way that went down,’ Trump said.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and panned Israel’s move as a ‘criminal attack’ that constituted ‘a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents of Qatar.’

Daines’ plan to head to the Jewish state came before the strike and was initially meant to celebrate the excavation of ancient stone steps and a pathway, known as the Pilgrimage Road, which Jesus is believed to have walked, leading from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount.

The lawmaker previously went to Israel to commemorate progress of the ongoing archaeological dig in 2023, a couple of months before Hamas’ blitz on Israel.

Now, his planned trip, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are expected to attend, is likely to take a different tenor.

Daines said he had just spoken with the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. on Monday and hoped that his schedule could line up for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also noted that he had yet to see an assessment of the strike, which hit a residential complex in Doha.

When asked if he was worried that the strike could derail ceasefire talks, Daines noted that he had appreciated Qatar’s cooperation and pointed out the U.S. has its largest military base in the Middle East there. But, he added that ‘Hamas, clearly, is trying to evade the reach of the Israeli government.’

‘And as we say, ‘Sometimes you can run, but you can’t hide,’ and Israel had to make a decision, knowing that, like they did with Iran, where they took out military leadership, they took out their nuclear scientists, because they could not allow Iran to get into their bomb,’ Daines said.

‘Similarly, with Hamas, they would have to take out their command and control structure, leadership. And they have a singular mission, and Israel will do what it needs to do to protect herself,’ he continued.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump called for Decarlos Brown Jr. to face the death penalty for the alleged murder of Iryna Zarutska on Wednesday.

Trump made the statement on social media, saying the trial for suspect Decarlos Brown Jr. should be ‘quick.’ 

‘The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a ‘Quick’ (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY,’ Trump posted on Truth Social. ‘There can be no other option!’

Zarutska’s slaying has brought about heavy criticism of Democrats, who critics accuse of adopting soft-on-crime laws that allow violent criminals to roam the streets. Trump argued Monday that the victim’s ‘blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail.’

Trump also placed blame for Zarutska’s killing on former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is now running for the Senate in battleground North Carolina in a crucial 2026 showdown that may determine if Republicans keep control of the chamber.

The Charlotte killing came amid Trump’s focus this summer on spotlighting horrific crimes in Democrat-controlled cities as he moves federal law enforcement into urban areas.

Brown, who is Black, was arrested soon after the stabbing and charged with first-degree murder. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice charged Brown with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

Records obtained by Fox News Digital showed that Brown has a history of arrests going back more than a decade, including convictions for felony larceny and felony breaking and entering in 2013, and a 2015 conviction for robbery with a dangerous weapon that sent him to prison for more than six years. He was released in 2020 but remained on parole until 2021, and subsequent charges against him included communicating threats and misuse of the 911 system earlier this year.

On Monday, Trump noted other recent killings in the U.S., saying that actions, like his administration’s push to end cashless bail, must be taken.

‘This cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon and, in many cases, going out and killing again, cashless bail,’ Trump said.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report

Jury selection is expected to wrap up Wednesday in the federal trial of Ryan Routh, the 59-year-old North Carolina man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last year. 

The court is working through its third and final panel of prospective jurors, aiming to seat 12 jurors and four alternates before opening statements begin Thursday morning.

By the end of Tuesday, the court had already dismissed more than 70 of the initial 180 prospective jurors, many citing strong opinions about Trump, connections to law enforcement, or concerns about impartiality in a highly politicized case. 

All eyes will be on how quickly the court can seat a full panel and whether Routh continues to test the boundaries of self-representation. Trump-appointee Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the case, repeatedly clashed with the defendant as she struck down a list of off-topic and politically charged questions Routh posed to prospective jurors during selection.

Routh inquired how potential jurors felt about Ukraine and the war in Gaza and threw in an oddball question about how they might react to finding a turtle in the road, prompting Cannon to remind him that ‘pro se’ status does not excuse him from courtroom procedure. His adult children were present in court, with one son, Oran, listed as a character witness despite currently being jailed on unrelated charges.

Routh also attempted to strike a potential juror who revealed he had once had breakfast with the president and first lady while interviewing for a golf course superintendent job 25 years ago. The man told the court he respected Trump and found him ‘very nice,’ but insisted he could still be fair. Cannon denied Routh’s request, noting the decades-old interaction did not disqualify him.

Tuesday also saw Cannon remove 23 jurors from a third pool of 60, leaving a pool of roughly 110 prospective jurors still under consideration. Among those dismissed earlier were a man who said he was present at Routh’s arrest, another who received a voicemail from him two days before, and a woman who stood up during questioning to declare, ‘I am MAGA… This is our president,’ before admitting she could not presume Routh’s innocence.

Routh himself moved to have a juror excused for racist comments in a questionnaire, which the court granted.

Routh has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer. Prosecutors say he was armed with an AK-style rifle when Secret Service agents stopped him near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach in September 2024.

Opening statements are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 11, if the panel is seated on time.

The trial is expected to last several weeks, but Cannon urged both sides to keep proceedings efficient.

House Republicans are having early talks about cracking down on crime nationwide, the No. 2 GOP lawmaker suggested on Tuesday.

‘There are discussions about addressing some of these problems at a more federal level, but right now, we’re focused on D.C.,’ House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital.

‘The president’s been very effectively reducing crime in D.C., and he’s got some limitations right now with a lot of these ordinances, and that’s what we’re focused on cleaning up.’

He added, however, ‘But we’re not done.’

It comes after President Donald Trump federalized the Washington, D.C., police force and deployed federal troops to the capital city in a bid to end violent crime. He’s now eyeing National Guard deployments in other cities across the country, though the idea has been met with criticism by Democrats.

The House Oversight Committee is slated to advance several bills dealing with D.C. criminal sentencing this week, which will likely get full House votes in the coming months.

Scalise’s comments suggest that while lawmakers are currently focused on overhauling Washington, D.C.’s criminal policies, it’s possible they could turn to the rest of the country at some point as well.

Trump similarly signaled last month that he wanted to see a bill dealing with crime across the U.S.

‘Speaker Mike Johnson, and Leader John Thune, are working with me, and other Republicans, on a Comprehensive Crime Bill. It’s what our Country needs,’ he wrote on Truth Social.

House GOP leaders also railed against crime in Democrat-run cities and states during their weekly press briefing on Tuesday – specifically their leaders’ opposition to National Guard deployments.

Such moves by the federal government could risk court battles with Democrat-run states and cities, as was the case when Trump sent the National Guard into Los Angeles earlier this year over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

‘I mean, these mayors in these big blue cities have to ask this question – and I think their voters and the residents and the law-abiding citizens in all these cities should be asking local leadership, ‘How long are you going to put up with this? When are you going to put your foot down and do the right thing?’’ Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., posed.

‘This is common sense. And I cannot, for the life of me, understand how the Democrats think this is some sort of winning political message. Yield, man. Let the troops come into your city, and show how crime can be reduced.’

Scalise, meanwhile, said at the press conference that Democrats ‘want crime to continue.’

‘They want to continue defunding the police and try to have it both ways. And President Trump is tired of that game, because he’s tired of watching people be hurt. There’s no reason for this violent crime wave that we see in so many cities,’ Scalise said. 

‘So we’re going to continue to have the president’s back and, frankly, have the American people’s back, regardless of their party, regardless of what city they live in. Everybody deserves to be safe, and Republicans are going to continue to push policies to help put that in place.’

Former Vice President Kamala Harris admits that former President Joe Biden got ‘tired’ while in office, but she insists there was no ‘big conspiracy’ to cover up his decline.

Harris made the claims in a newly released excerpt from her upcoming book, ‘107 Days,’ which details her experience running for president with frequent throwbacks to her time as number two in the White House. The excerpt, published by The Atlantic, focuses on her relationship with Biden and her frustration with how she was treated in the Biden-Harris administration.

‘Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity. Here is the truth as I lived it. Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president,’ Harris wrote. ‘On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best. But at 81, Joe got tired.’

‘That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country,’ she added.

Harris went on to complain that Biden’s staff didn’t give her the support she felt was necessary as vice president, on issues from foreign policy to illegal immigration.

She complained that getting the White House press office, including then-press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, to defend her was ‘almost impossible.’

‘Worse, I often learned that the president’s staff was adding fuel to negative narratives that sprang up around me. One narrative that took a stubborn hold was that I had a ‘chaotic’ office and unusually high staff turnover during my first year,’ Harris wrote, going on to say that some people just can’t hack it in a White House role.

‘Their thinking was zero-sum: If she’s shining, he’s dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well,’  she added regarding Biden’s staff. ‘That given the concerns about his age, my visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands. My success was important for him.

The former vice president also said Democrats across the board should have been more aggressive in pushing Biden not to run, saying it was ‘reckless’ to leave the decision in his hands for so long.

”It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision,’ Harris wrote.