Tim Walz defends military record after Republican attacks
Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz has spoken out against Republican attacks on his military record in his first solo outing as VP candidate.
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Tim Walz has defended his military record saying he is “damn proud” of his service during his first solo outing as the Democrat’s vice-presidential candidate.
Speaking to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union convention in Los Angeles, the 60-year-old addressed Republican attacks on the timing of his retirement.
“These guys … are even attacking me for my record of service, and I just want to say, I’m proud to have served my country, and I always will be,” he said, to loud applause.
“I’m going to say it again as clearly as I can: I am damn proud of my service to this country, and I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record,” he said.
“Anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice”.
Mr Walz, a one-time public school teacher and football coach, retired in 2005 after 24 years of service to run for Congress, shortly before his unit was deployed to Iraq.
Walz’s military record came under fire after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign acknowledged he “misspoke” during a 2018 campaign event when he said he handled assault weapons “in war.”
After the Harris campaign shared a video of the 2018 remarks last week, Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, accused Walz of “stolen valour.”
“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him,” said Mr Vance, who has been leading the attacks.
In a wide-ranging speech, the Minnesota Governor pledged he would be part of a pro-worker administration.
“The Vice President and I, we know exactly who built this country; it was nurses, it was teachers, and it was state and local government employees that built this nation,” he said.
“It’s not just a saying, it’s a fact: when unions are strong, America is strong.”
The folksy Midwesterner drew a contrast with Republican rivals Donald Trump and Vance, who he said “see the world very differently.”
“The only thing those two guys knows about working people is how to work to take advantage of them,” he said
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FBI INVESTIGATES FOREIGN HACK ATTEMPT ON HARRIS CAMPAIGN
The FBI has confirmed it is investigating foreign efforts to hack the Biden-Harris campaign before Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, NBC reports.
It comes after the bureau confirmed it was investigating a possible hack attempt by
It comes after the bureau confirmed it had opened a probe into alleged foreign hacking of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Harris’s campaign said its cybersecurity measures had prevented its systems from being hacked.
“We have robust cybersecurity measures in place, and are not aware of any security breaches of our systems resulting from those efforts,” the campaign told NBC.
MUSK ADMITS X ‘MISTAKES’ DELAYED TRUMP INTERVIEW
Elon Musk has conceded “unforced errors” and “mistakes” by X contributed to the delay of his much hyped interview with Donald Trump.
The former president was meant to join the billionaire for a virtual interview on X Spaces at 10am AEST Tuesday but the interview was delayed for 40 minutes after the platform was hit by what Musk said was a “massive DDOS attack”.
A DDOS attack is a distributed denial of service attack and it occurs when a computer is infected with special malware, known as a “botnet”, which attack a server to stop it from operating until it finally collapses.
Musk managed to get an audio feed on his platform, after a live stream was abandoned.
On Tuesday night, Musk backtracked and conceded X was partly to blame for the delays.
“Given the prominence of this conversation, there was of course a 100% probability of DDOS attacks,” Musk said in response to complaints.
“We also had some unforced errors ourselves,” he wrote on X.
He added: “But good work by the X team fending off the attacks and fixing our mistakes! All’s well that ends well”.
X has experienced technical glitches with interviews in the past, notably when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched his 2024 primary run on X.
Musk said he had “tested the system” with 8 million concurrent users before the interview with Mr Trump.
Meanwhile, Musk posted an open invitation for an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
“Happy to host Kamala on an X Spaces too,” he said in a post on X.
TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN OFFICE BROKEN INTO
Donald Trump’s campaign office was burglarised in the latest setback to the former president’s bid to return to the White House.
Police are searching for a man pictured in dark clothing and a black baseball cap during the “rare” break-in of a political campaign location.
It comes a month after a gunman attempted to assassinate the former president during a campaign rally in July.
In the four weeks since surviving a gunshot to the face, Mr Trump’s campaign has reportedly been the subject of an Iranian hack and an alleged cyber attack on his Twitter/X interview with Elon Musk.
His aeroplane was also forced to make an emergency landing for “mechanical issues” in recent days as major setbacks continue to hit Mr Trump’s re-election bid.
In the latest direct attack, a man broke into Mr Trump’s campaign office in suburban Virginia about 50km south of Washington DC.
CCTV footage showed the culprit with a full backpack strapped to the front of his chest, but it was unclear whether he broke in to leave something behind or steal something away.
“It is rare to have the office of any political campaign or party broken into,” Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said in a statement.
“We are determined to identify the suspect, investigate why it happened, and determine what may have been taken as well as what may have been left behind.”
It was the latest in a series of unusual events to befall the Trump campaign over the weekend.
On Friday, a mechanical issue forced his aeroplane “Trump Force One” to make an emergency landing on the way to a rally in Montana. Mr Trump then took a smaller private jet to West Yellowstone Airport.
On Saturday, his campaign reported that its internal communication had been hacked, which the FBI said it was investigating.
On Sunday, the mystery man broke into the campaign office, which also serves as the headquarters of the Virginia 10th District Republican Committee.
On Monday, Mr Musk claimed Twitter/X was attacked by a “massive distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack” that delayed his conversation with Mr Trump.
“Democrat hackers are shutting down X. Do you agree they should be jailed?” Mr Trump said of the alleged DDOS, which has not been independently verified as a cyber attack.
Mr Trump will hold his next in-person campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, local time.
In his interview on Twitter, Mr Trump said he would return to the venue where he survived an assassination attempt in October.
VEEP STAR TO APPEAR AT DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is teaming up with the Democratic Governors Association during the week of the Democratic National Convention to celebrate female governors.
The Emmy-winning Veep and Seinfeld star and activist will host a daytime panel on August 21 with eight Democratic women governors: Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, Maine Governor Janet Mills, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek.
The star told The Hollywood Reporter: “I’m honoured to host this conversation with America’s Democratic women governors while our party comes together to celebrate in Chicago.
“Throughout their time in office, Democratic women governors have made history, changed the conversation surrounding women in executive roles, and gotten big things done for the good people of their states. They’ve shattered marble ceilings and demonstrated excellent leadership. Their voices are essential. I’m looking forward to our conversation and the opportunity to shine the spotlight on these accomplished leaders.”
TRUMP AND MUSK HOLD WIDE-RANGING INTERVIEW
Donald Trump has vowed to build an Israeli-style “iron dome” over the US, mocked climate change and described Joe Biden as being “close to vegetable stage” in a wide-ranging interview with billionaire social media CEO Elon Musk.
The interview was delayed for 40 minutes after the X platform was hit by a massive DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack, but later drew more than one million listeners, with Mr Trump using some of his most extreme language yet to denigrate his political rivals.
He was brutal about President Jo Biden, saying he had a “very low IQ” and was “close to vegetable stage”.
“He had a low IQ 30 years ago, by the way, but now he might not even have an IQ at all,” Mr Trump said.
He also described his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, as “a San Francisco liberal” who “destroyed” California.
“She’s going to be worse than him,” Mr Trump said, referring to Joe Biden.
“She is a San Francisco liberal who destroyed San Francisco, and then as lawyer general, she destroyed California,” he said of Ms Harris, who was the city’s district attorney before becoming the state’s top prosecutor.
TRUMP BOASTS OF PUTIN, KIM FRIENDSHIP
With regards to security, Mr Trump boasted of his ability to work with both North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he described as “tough guys at the top of their game”.
“Getting along well with them is a good thing,” he said.
Mr Trump claimed he “handled” the North Korean dictator “quickly” and also advised Mr Putin against his planned invasion of Ukraine.
“I told him, ‘don’t do it. You can’t do it, Vladimir,” he said he told the Russian President.
“He said ‘no way’, and I said ‘way’,” Mr Trump said.
But he then told listeners he would put “the best iron dome” over the USA, referencing the defence system Israel has in place to shoot down incoming rockets.
“Why shouldn’t we have an Iron Dome? Israel has one,” Mr Trump said.
MUSK VOLUNTEERS FOR TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The controversial tech CEO also put himself forward for a job in a second Trump administration.
“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that (ensures) the taxpayers’ hard earned money is spent in a good way. And I’d be happy to help out on such a commission,” he said.
Mr Trump replied: “I’d love it for you. You’re the greatest cutter”, in an apparent reference to Mr Musk’s dismissal of workers who planned to unionise.
In the more than hour-long interview, Mr Trump also promised to “close up” the federal Department of Education and return education policy to the states, and revealed he was “more of a believer” in God after surviving the recent assassination attempt.
Mr Trump said his first reaction after getting shot was to ask: “how many people are killed?”
He praised the Secret Service sniper for his “extraordinary shot” to take out shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“If he didn’t do that Elon, a lot more people would have been killed,” Mr Trump said.
Asked what the shooting was like, Mr Trump said: “Not pleasant”.
FBI PROBES TRUMP HACK
The FBI is investigating alleged hacking of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the bureau has confirmed.
An FBI spokesman would not give further details but Microsoft last week said Iranian hackers from its military intelligence unit had in June broken into the email account of a “high-ranking official” involved in the election campaign.
Microsoft did not identify the campaign affected by the breach and declined to comment further.
It comes after US outlet Politico revealed it received sensitive documents from inside the former president’s re-election campaign via an AOL email account held by someone who called himself Robert.
Among the files were a 271-page report from February which detailed the vetting of Ohio senator JD Vance – including a section about his “potential vulnerabilities” – before he was named as Mr Trump’s running mate at last month’s Republican convention.
DATA ‘OBTAINED ILLEGALLY’: CAMPAIGN
Mr Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung said the files were “obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process”.
Mr Cheung did not say if he had further details to confirm Iran was to blame.
But he said: “The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House.”
“Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want,” Mr Cheung added.
US intelligence agencies have been on high alert for a repeat of Russia’s hacking operation in 2016 in which internal emails from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s team were published by WikiLeaks, in a major blow to her campaign.
TRUMP SEEKS $150 MILLION DAMAGES
Donald Trump is seeking $US100 million ($A150 million) in damages from the Justice Department over the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.
The claim, filed last week, argues the search on Mr Trump’s Florida home was done with “clear intent to engage in political persecution”.
The memo, obtained by Fox News, claims “tortious conduct by the United States” against Mr Trump.
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 as part of a federal investigation into Mr Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records.
The case was dismissed by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed and funded, citing the Appointments Clause in the Constitution.
The Justice Department has 180 days to review the claim, after which the matter could proceed in federal court.
EUROPEAN UNION THREATENS MUSK OVER TRUMP INTERVIEW
The EU’s top digital official threatened Elon Musk over “harmful content” from his interview with Donald Trump.
“With great audience comes greater responsibility,” the bloc’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X, along with the letter laying out Musk’s obligations to combat illegal content and disinformation under EU law.
The European Union has an ongoing probe into X, formerly Twitter, under its landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires digital firms to effectively police online content to protect users from harm.
“The DSA obligations apply without exceptions or discrimination to the moderation of the whole user community and content of X (including yourself as a user with over 190 million followers),” Breton wrote to Musk.
Breton said the warning was motivated by the “risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in the EU,” citing Musk’s upcoming Trump interview, and also referencing his recent inflammatory comments about far-right riots in the United Kingdom.
BIDEN REVEALS REASON FOR EXIT
US President Joe Biden, in his first TV interview since withdrawing from the election, has said he acted under pressure from fellow Democrats and out of a determination to see Donald Trump beaten.
Explaining his shock exit in new detail, Mr Biden said party colleagues standing for re-election feared he was damaging their chances as his age and mental abilities came to dominate the campaign.
Mr Biden, 81, has kept a low profile since ending his second-term bid on July 21 after his flailing debate performance against Mr Trump triggered a slow-burning Democrat revolt against him.
In the short TV interview, recorded in the White House last week and broadcast on Sunday US time, the president appeared frail but cogent, again admitting he failed in the debate but stressing that health-wise he has “no serious problem.”
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the (election) races,” he explained.
“I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic you’d be interviewing me about,” he continued.
He singled out former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a party heavyweight whose refusal to explicitly back his campaign was seen by many as pivotal.
“You’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say (something) … I thought it’d be a real distraction,” Mr Biden said.
“A critical issue for me still is – not a joke – maintaining this democracy. I have an obligation to the country to do what is the most important thing we can do, and that is – we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.”
– with AFP
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Originally published as Tim Walz defends military record after Republican attacks
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