In an interview on Thursday with the rightwing network Real America’s Voice, Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, joined Donald Trump in trying to use the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas to attack former president Barack Obama.
On Wednesday night, Trump made the wildly false claim that Obama had emails from the attacker describing his plans in advance but chose not to stop him.
Speaking on Thursday to the far-right influencer Jack Posobiec, who helped spread the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory to smear Democrats in 2016, the defense secretary announced that Nidal Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who killed 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood, would be executed by firing squad later this year.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, then falsely claimed that Obama had downplayed the attack.
“It was a radical Islamist terror attack,” Hegseth said. “Remember what Obama called it? ‘Workplace violence,’” the defense secretary said, falsely, as Posobiec nodded vigorously.
“I mean, that’s what we’re up against. That’s the worldview we’re up against, it’s ‘workplace violence,’” the supposedly nonpartisan defense secretary continued, referring, incorrectly, to a controversy over how the US military categorized the deaths of the 12 active-duty soldiers killed by Hasan at the time.
Relatives of those killed in the attack by a Muslim service member who later called it revenge for US military operations against Muslim countries, were enraged that the military refused to classify those killed as victims of combat or terrorism, since they were not deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at the time.
The families sued in federal court, claiming that “the Army has refused to deem the soldiers killed and wounded in the attack eligible for a Purple Heart decoration, with its attendant recognition and medical and retirement benefits.” The suit, which criticized Obama for failing to call the attack terrorism, was dismissed in 2019.
In 2015, during Obama’s second term in office, the military did award the victims and survivors of the Fort Hood attack with Purple Hearts and other medals after Congress changed the definition of who was eligible for the military award to include victims of an attacker who “was in communication with the foreign terrorist organization before the attack” and “the attack was inspired or motivated by the foreign terrorist organization.” Hasan, the army major, did send messages to Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Hasan worshiped who went on to become a radical cleric and an al-Qaida propagandist. Awlaki was killed in Yemen in 2011 in a drone strike ordered by Obama.
While some experts, including the political philosopher Michael Walzer, have argued that the definition of terrorism should be reserved for attacks on civilians, and exclude soldiers, Republicans continued to criticize Obama for not describing the attack as an act of terrorism, even though he appeared to do so in a 2013 speech at the National Defense University.
After describing the threat from foreign groups that plot “acts of terror” in that address, Obama said, “we face a real threat from radicalized individuals here in the United States.”
“Deranged or alienated individuals – often US citizens or legal residents – can do enormous damage, particularly when inspired by larger notions of violent jihad,” Obama added. “And that pull towards extremism appears to have led to the shooting at Fort Hood and the bombing of the Boston Marathon.”
This concludes our live coverage of what the second Trump administration has wrought for the day. Here are the latest developments:
Speaking to far-right influencer Jack Posobiec, who helped spread the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Nidal Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who killed 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood in 2009, would be executed by firing squad. Hegseth then falsely claimed that former president Barack Obama had downplayed that attack, calling it merely “workplace violence” instead of terrorism.
In a televised Maine Senate debate Democrat Troy Jackson said that, in addition to Brett Kavanaugh, Republican Susan Collins has voted to confirm dozens of anti-abortion judges.
Republican Mike Rogers continually used Islamophobic attacks on Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in a Michigan Senate debate, accusing the Mslim candidate of being “bought off by Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida”.
Donald Trump claimed that the US will not strike Iran “at any time prior” to the midterm elections on 3 November.
After the Michigan Senate debate on Thursday, Justin Amash, a former Republican congressman from Michigan who served in the House at the same time as Mike Rogers, now the Republican candidate for Senate wrote on social media that Rogers was “one of the chief architects of the modern surveillance state.”
“In Congress, he opposed every substantive effort to protect Americans’ privacy and worked hand in hand with the NSA, FBI, and intelligence agencies to bypass and erode the Fourth Amendment,” Amash added.
On social media after the Michigan Senate debate on Thursday night, Dr Rob Davidson, an emergency room physician in West Michigan and executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, made the case for his fellow physician, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, and against the Republican, former congressman Mike Rogers.
“My takeaway is, you know, I’m looking at this through a healthcare lens, for sure,” Davidson said in an Instagram video recorded outside the debate hall in Grand Rapids.
“Listen, with Mike Rogers, you’re going to get more of the same Donald Trump and Republican policies that cut $1tn from Medicaid, only to give tax cuts to billionaires and large corporations,” Davidson continued.
“Mike Rogers when he was in Congress, voted against the Affordable Care Act. He voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Mike Rogers in Congress voted against Medicare negotiating drug prices, and voted against Americans being able to buy cheaper drugs from Canada. Now he’s trying to tell us in the last month of the campaign that somehow he’s going to bring down costs for people.”
“On the other hand, we have Doctor Abdul El-Sayed, who understands the lived experience of people, of the communities that he’s served in public health, understands that people can’t afford their prescription drugs, cannot afford to go to the hospital,” he went on. “A doctor understands that the North Star for all of us, has to be and should be universal health care.”
In a televised Maine Senate debate on Thursday, Democrat Troy Jackson said that, in addition to Brett Kavanaugh, Republican Susan Collins has voted to confirm dozens of anti-abortion judges.
“I’m sure senator Collins is going to bring this up, but our records have changed: mine has gotten better, hers has gotten worse,” Jackson said, acknowledging that he was once an abortion opponent before becoming pro-choice.
“I think she’s put 55 anti-abortion judges on to the courts, including Brett Kavanaugh, that she knew that he was anti-abortion and that was what he was going to do,” he continued.
“Then, after she voted to put him on there, and she was the deciding vote, he took away Roe v Wade,” he added.
Collins did later argue that Jackson was previously “an extremist when it comes to abortion,” to which the Democrat, who voted to protect abortion access as a state lawmaker after changing his stance, countered: “Was I voting the wrong way? Yeah, and I’ve said that consistently .., the fact of the matter is: I can admit when I was wrong; senator Collins can’t. She still won’t admit that she was wrong in putting Brett Kavanaugh on”.
The Maine Democratic party released a list of 24 anti-choice judges Collins voted to confirm in recent months.
Heated barbs closed out the contentious debate between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night.
Rogers ended on the Islamophobic note he sounded repeatedly throughout the debate, accusing El-Sayed of being “bought off by Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida”.
“We cannot afford Abdul, and we cannot risk his ideology,” Rogers said.
El-Sayed ended on affordability, closing with his central campaign theme of “money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All”.
“I told you what this debate was going to be: him pointing at me and saying all kinds of foreign names, or him talking about himself,” El-Sayed said.
“And I told you, I’m interested in you. I understand that gas is too expensive. Groceries are unaffordable. I understand that it’s really hard to see a doctor and I want to solve that. And the reason we haven’t is because we’ve got corporate politicians who are going to do the bidding of people like Donald Trump. The war in Iran, the tariff war, all the money he’s taken from pharma, ask yourself if that’s helped you.”
In an interview on Thursday with the rightwing network Real America’s Voice, Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, joined Donald Trump in trying to use the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas to attack former president Barack Obama.
On Wednesday night, Trump made the wildly false claim that Obama had emails from the attacker describing his plans in advance but chose not to stop him.
Speaking on Thursday to the far-right influencer Jack Posobiec, who helped spread the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory to smear Democrats in 2016, the defense secretary announced that Nidal Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who killed 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood, would be executed by firing squad later this year.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, then falsely claimed that Obama had downplayed the attack.
“It was a radical Islamist terror attack,” Hegseth said. “Remember what Obama called it? ‘Workplace violence,’” the defense secretary said, falsely, as Posobiec nodded vigorously.
“I mean, that’s what we’re up against. That’s the worldview we’re up against, it’s ‘workplace violence,’” the supposedly nonpartisan defense secretary continued, referring, incorrectly, to a controversy over how the US military categorized the deaths of the 12 active-duty soldiers killed by Hasan at the time.
Relatives of those killed in the attack by a Muslim service member who later called it revenge for US military operations against Muslim countries, were enraged that the military refused to classify those killed as victims of combat or terrorism, since they were not deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at the time.
The families sued in federal court, claiming that “the Army has refused to deem the soldiers killed and wounded in the attack eligible for a Purple Heart decoration, with its attendant recognition and medical and retirement benefits.” The suit, which criticized Obama for failing to call the attack terrorism, was dismissed in 2019.
In 2015, during Obama’s second term in office, the military did award the victims and survivors of the Fort Hood attack with Purple Hearts and other medals after Congress changed the definition of who was eligible for the military award to include victims of an attacker who “was in communication with the foreign terrorist organization before the attack” and “the attack was inspired or motivated by the foreign terrorist organization.” Hasan, the army major, did send messages to Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Hasan worshiped who went on to become a radical cleric and an al-Qaida propagandist. Awlaki was killed in Yemen in 2011 in a drone strike ordered by Obama.
While some experts, including the political philosopher Michael Walzer, have argued that the definition of terrorism should be reserved for attacks on civilians, and exclude soldiers, Republicans continued to criticize Obama for not describing the attack as an act of terrorism, even though he appeared to do so in a 2013 speech at the National Defense University.
After describing the threat from foreign groups that plot “acts of terror” in that address, Obama said, “we face a real threat from radicalized individuals here in the United States.”
“Deranged or alienated individuals – often US citizens or legal residents – can do enormous damage, particularly when inspired by larger notions of violent jihad,” Obama added. “And that pull towards extremism appears to have led to the shooting at Fort Hood and the bombing of the Boston Marathon.”
Mike Rogers has continually leaned into Islamophobic rhetoric against Abdul El-Sayed, attempting to tie him to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. The two are repeatedly sparring, with the moderator struggling to keep them on track.
Rogers claimed El-Sayed has refused to condemn a terrorist attack in Michigan earlier this year or the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks in Gaza, though El-Sayed noted he has condemned both.
But, El-Sayed added: “I’m not somebody who tries to make political theater out of other people’s pain.”
He also retorted to Rogers: “Did you sell your yachts?” Rogers responded: “I never owned a yacht in Florida, brother.”
After a 30-second commercial break, moderator Rick Albin said that in his 30 years of doing debates, he’d never seen the sparring continue during the commercial break, but tonight, it did.
The televised Michigan Senate debate, between Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Michigan, and Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate, quickly moved on to the topic of tariffs, particularly those on imports from Canada, which affect Michigan as a US-Canada border state. Rogers this week backtracked on previous support for Trump’s tariffs on Canada, saying in a campaign ad that “Canada is not our enemy” and that the “tariff war” needed to end now.
During the debate, Rogers said he called the commerce secretary this week to advocate for a deal between the two countries. He said there are tariffs in place that are “too high and not helpful for us”.
“I’d like to see it end. I think we need to end it,” Rogers said.
El-Sayed said he supports targeted, logical tariffs that protect Michigan manufacturing, but nothing like the “ham-fisted, chaotic, self-serving” tariffs Trump put in place. He called out Rogers for “flip-flopping” on the issue, saying he only is reversing his stance because of “sagging poll numbers”.
“He’s doing an ad drinking a Labatt and talking about the Red Wings, pretending like he was not for this the entire time,” El-Sayed said. “Be serious, my guy. Like, just be serious.”
Dr Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, is now debating his Republican opponent, former congressman Mike Rogers, for the first time.
The debate is being streamed live by the NBC affiliate WOOD TV.
Several recent polls show El-Sayed, a former public health official, leading by a slim margin over Rogers.
The tight race has drawn national attention as Republicans fight to keep control of Congress. Questions have swirled over whether the progressive El-Sayed can prevail in a state that elected Donald Trump in 2024.
If El-Sayed were to win the contest, he would make history as the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. His opponents have targeted El-Sayed’s faith and sharp criticism of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
In a thinly veiled attack on his faith, Trump incorrectly referred to the Democrat as “Mohammed El-Sayed” and a “Terrorist Sympathizer,” in a social media tirade on Wednesday.
“He knows my name is Abdul,” El-Sayed replied. “He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office.”
Rogers, a former chair of the House intelligence committee, has misled supporters by exaggerating his role in US counter-terrorism operations during that time. As the Guardian reported, Rogers falsely claimed to have seen “the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes,” when, in fact, he merely looked at a photograph of the Qaida leader’s body and only supported the US mission by providing funding as a congressman.
In a brief news conference on Thursday afternoon, Captain Dan Keeler, the USS Abraham Lincoln’s commanding officer, addressed widespread reports of mental health challenges faced by his crew during their long deployment.
“For most of my sailors, that this was their first time away from home, their first deployment, their first experience with combat,” Keeler said. “I understand the anxiety that that might have caused, but I can tell you this: our team of professionals on the ship led every single one of those sailors through that experience, and the great majority responded like sailors always do – with honor, courage, and commitment.”
“They are fantastic, fantastic sailors and marines, and they’re going to be cared for continuously on the next coming few months,” he added. “I deployed with five chaplains and a very well staffed mental health team. We got our sailors any care they needed and got them back in the fight when it was appropriate.”
Near the end of the news conference one reporter asked: “Were there some sailors who did try to commit suicide or jump overboard?”
“The key number that I like to focus on is zero; there were no suicides on board. There were no lost lives on on board,” Keeler replied.
“The suicide attempt number,” he went on. “You know, the secretary of the navy put out a number that encompassed the entirety of the strike group,” Keeler said, referring to a letter to Congress from acting navy secretary Hung Cao last month in which he wrote that there had been a total of eight suicide attempts across all the ships in the strike group led by the Lincoln.
“I think that key point has been lost when he, the secretary of the navy, put out the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, that encompasses several thousand more sailors than what’s on board behind me,” Keeler added.
“We want the suicide attempt number to be zero. Having done this many, many times with the demographics that I have on board and the, you know, the stressful mission that we conduct, that’s unrealistic,” he continued. “That’s why I go to sea with a very, very well staffed mental health team. And when we had acute mental health cases, they immediately get seen by that mental health team and evaluated.”
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
