Michele Tafoya, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Minnesota and a former broadcaster, aggressively sought to put her opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, on the defensive during a debate Friday afternoon over the billion-dollar fraud schemes that drew national attention to the state earlier this year.
Early in the debate, Tafoya pressed Flanagan on her qualifications for federal office, pointing to her record as lieutenant governor.
"My opponent has been second in command in this state for eight years, drawing a taxpayer-funded paycheck. And what do we have to show for that? We have massive fraud, historic fraud. We have test scores down. We have crime spiking. We have a massive surplus turned into a deficit," Tafoya said.
Local and federal investigators have uncovered myriad fraud schemes involving daycare centers, food programs, health clinics and other operations accused of defrauding the state of Minnesota up to $9 billion. Investigators say fraudsters either inflated the number of people they allegedly helped or fabricated their services altogether — all while receiving government dollars.
When the issue resurfaced later in the debate, the moderator asked Flanagan directly whether, in her view, she had "any ownership over the fraud."
Flanagan sought to distance herself from the issue, pointing to Walz's acknowledgment that responsibility for oversight rested with him.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Leo Briceno.
President Donald Trump brought his signature humor and patriotic flair to a Saturday rally in Highland Heights, Kentucky, celebrating his "Gulf of America" and "Lake America" renamings while urging Republicans to deliver a historic midterm victory.
"So I'm not on the ballot, but I am on the ballot," Trump told supporters. "This is the most important midterm in the history of our country because we've gotten more things done and they can undo them."
The president then revisited his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, joking about how his relationship with Google has changed between his terms.
"Google wouldn't have taken my call in the first. Now they kiss my a--," Trump quipped.
Trump also celebrated his August executive order renaming Lake Ontario, which borders New York and Canada, as "Lake America" for U.S. federal purposes.
"Well, I also changed the name of a lake in Canada to the Lake America, right? Lake America," Trump said.
The president's latest remarks came just 17 days before Election Day as he rallies support for Republican candidates seeking to protect the GOP's congressional majorities.
President Donald Trump blasted the Democratic opponents of Republican congressional candidates in some of the highest-profile races in the country during a Saturday barrage on Truth Social.
"The great state of Michigan, which I won decisively in the last election, is looking seriously, I guess, at a man named Mohammad Abdul El-Sayed, who is absolutely Muslim Brotherhood," Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social account Saturday.
"The last thing we need is Muslim Brotherhood in the United States Senate," he continued, adding "it doesn't represent the values of Michigan and it doesn't represent the values of the United States of America."
In the video, Trump endorsed former Michigan congressman Mike Rogers, El-Sayed's Republican opponent, who Trump said has "my complete and total endorsement."
"You cannot even think about putting Mohammad El-Sayed in that position, he's a disaster and he hates our country," Trump said.
Trump also bashed the Democrat's candidate for Senate in Texas, state Rep. James Talarico.
"James TalaFREAKO is a Radical Left Lunatic and Vegan who is the ANTITHESIS of Texas Values," he wrote in a Truth Social post.
"It's an embarrassment to one of the great states, maybe our greatest state, it's an embarrassment to have a guy like that representing you in Washington, D.C.," Trump said in a video attached to the post.
"He never had meat in his life, now he's trying to stuff meat down his throat and it's not working. He get's sick every time he eats meat," Trump said.
"But instead of just saying 'hey I'm a vegan, I like eating vegetables, I like eating a piece of lettuce instead of a steak, he doesn't say that," Trump continued.
"And then he disappeared for 12 days with perhaps the longest flu ever recorded. He's lying about that, he was in some very bad situation, and you're gonna find out what it is some day," Trump added.
Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General, Talarico's Republican opponent, calling him "one of the very very best attorney generals in our country."
Additionally, Trump offered endorsements for Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., who is running to retain the Senate seat she was appointed to after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster tapped her to fill the seat of her late brother Lindsey Graham.
Trump also endorsed Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C.
{{#rendered}}Texas GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton received a swell of cheers from a crowd in Rockwall, Texas, as he touted his record taking on big pharma, including suing Pfizer for claims about its COVID-19 vaccine.
"I sued Pfizer for lying about the vaccine. And lie they did," he said. "They argue that they were 95% effective, and we learned that they were less than 1%."
In a 2023 lawsuit, Paxton challenged Pfizer’s 95% COVID vaccine efficacy claim, arguing absolute risk reduction was 0.84%. A federal judge dismissed the case, citing Pfizer’s immunity under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. Paxton appealed to the Fifth Circuit, where the case remains pending.
During the Saturday rally, the first stop of Paxton's 17-day tour before he faces off against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, Paxton also touted some of his other crusades as Texas attorney general.
"The people who caused the catastrophic opioid epidemic, I didn't just sue them, I made them pay," he said, referring to a settlement Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family — who owns the company — agreed to after Texas sued them.
"$286 million from Purdue and the Sackler family, and more than $3 billion total recovered from those that caused the opioid crisis," he added. "I secured more than $1 billion from Meta recently to protect our kids online. So just because I'm on the campaign trail, we haven't stopped working.
"And that's on top of the nearly $3 billion I already made Meta and Google Pay for violating your privacy. I sued Netflix, TikTok, and Snapchat for letting our kids get taken advantage online and for violating our children's privacy. And when when corrupt Joe Biden came after the Lone Star State, I went after him. I took him to court and sued him 107 times, and I won."
Texas Republicans slammed Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico's far-left record Saturday during a rally for Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will face off against Talarico for the state's open Senate seat in November.
Lawmakers and other candidates speaking before Paxton was set to take the stage put Talarico's record under the microscope, lambasting his positions on gender ideology and criticizing his voting record on various issues.
"Even though James Talarico claims that he's against biological men invading our daughters' safe spaces, do you know that James Talarico voted in order to keep men inside your daughters' locker rooms?" former Texas Rep. Nate Schatzline asked the crowd.
Schatzline pointed out that Paxton was in favor of Texas' Senate Bill 14 — which banned gender assignment for minors — while Talarico voted against it.
"You might see some confusing commercials out there saying that James Talarico is against gender assignment reassignment surgeries for minors. Let me be clear. James Talarico voted for children to be mutilated against their parents will. But thank God we banned gender reassignment surgeries for minors," Schatzline, who is also a Christian pastor, told the crowd.
Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Tex., took the criticisms further, claiming Talarico is lying about his record, calling him a "soy boy" and mocking the way he speaks.
Fallon also criticized Talarico's voting record.
"When he was in the legislature, he could have voted to ban gender mutilation for minors. Did he? No. He could have said, you know what, we're not going to let the Chinese Communist Party purchase land in Texas. Did he do that? No. He literally voted for China over Texas. That's a fact," Fallon told the crowd.
"James Talarico I'm not quite sure he has a heart or a soul, but we'll pray for him. But we ain't going to vote for him," Fallon concluded.
From delivering pizzas to running for an Iowa House seat, 22-year-old Dillon Fillion hopes to make history in his swing district and inspire Gen Z to embrace conservatism, which he says he's already seeing on the ground.
Fillion, believed to be the youngest candidate ever to seek office in Scott County, spoke to Fox News Digital about his ambitions to cut property taxes, boost police funding, give parents more say in their children’s education and draw Gen Z to the polls.
"I think people are very excited that a young person is running because they see a lot of these old people running for office, no offense to them, but people wanna see some fresh new faces and I think it's time for my generation to step up," Fillion said.
Before launching his bid for the Iowa House, Fillion decided to take a gap year from Scott Community College, where he is pursuing a criminal justice degree. He currently works as a Domino’s delivery driver while hitting the campaign trail, which he described as juggling "two full-time jobs."
"Basically, I do a full-time job as well as campaigning," he said.
But campaigning wasn’t always Fillion’s vision. A lifelong hockey fan, he said his initial dream was to play professionally before stepping into politics.
Fillion said he became interested in politics in 2019 after seeing Democrats accuse President Donald Trump of colluding with Russia, saying he found it "weird" they were "calling our president a lot of weird, untrue things." From there, he said he went down a "rabbit hole" researching what he described as corruption within the Democratic Party, which he found "baffling and shocking."
"I just couldn't stand back and just watch all this stuff happen, and I decided to get involved," he said.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Kiera McDonald and Andrew Mark Miller.
{{#rendered}}A Texas Democratic congressional candidate's campaign reported more than $4,300 in spending on cookies, Mexican restaurant purchases and beer and wine earlier this year, according to federal election records.
Katy Padilla Stout, the Democratic nominee for Texas' 23rd Congressional District, reported expenditures totaling $4,338.14 in five transactions in March and April, according to spending details cited in an August report by RedState and records attributed to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The reported purchases included $675 for cookies for a campaign event, $1,289.22 at Total Wine and $2,373.92 at Las Guitarras Cocina Mexicana.
According to the spending details, the campaign reported a $675 payment dated March 30 with the stated purpose "COOKIES FOR EVENT." Herrera's website identifies the payee as Denise Gamboa Zelle and categorizes the expense as a campaign event expenditure.
Additional transactions included $1,089.08 at Total Wine on April 21 and $200.14 the following day, both described as "BEER AND WINE."
The campaign also reported payments of $2,027.52 and $346.40 to Las Guitarras Cocina Mexicana on April 27 and April 28, respectively, according to the transaction details.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Stout said the disbursements "were for campaign and fundraising events which were attended by our supporters."
"Sugar cookies, particularly Texas-shaped ones, hold a special place in Texan culture," she said. "We bought ours at a local bakery because we believe in supporting small businesses."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Jasmine Baehr.
Michele Tafoya, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Minnesota and a former broadcaster, said noncitizens accused of defrauding Americans “must leave” the U.S. amid fallout from billion-dollar fraud schemes uncovered in the state.
Tafoya laid out her own proposals for combating fraud during a debate Friday that focused on the schemes that drew national attention to the state earlier this year.
"No. 1, if you're a guest of this country, and you defraud Americans, you must leave. You must leave, and you should have no pathway back," she said.
"No. 2, if you're an American and you defraud your fellow Americans, we should be talking about mandatory prison minimums. Tough sentences, not an easygoing slap on the wrist.
"And No. 3, if you're a state like Minnesota who cannot keep your financial house in order, why would the federal government release billions and billions of dollars to you, only to see it go to fraud?"
Tafoya faces Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the state’s general election on Nov. 3.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Leo Briceno.
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