Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down in her first interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket that she would not ban fracking if elected, claiming she made ‘clear’ where she stood on fracking during the 2020 election. 

‘No, and I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking,’ Harris said. 

Before Harris dropped her bid for president in 2019 and joined President Biden’s ticket, she said in a CNN town hall ‘there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking’ on her first day in office. 

‘And starting with what we can do on day one around public lands, right?’ she continued. ‘And then there has to be legislation, but, yes, that’s something I’ve taken on in California. I have a history of working on this issue and to your point we have to just acknowledge that the residual impact of fracking is enormous in terms of the health and safety of communities.’

CNN host Dana Bash asked Harris about her 2019 remarks, sparking Harris to respond that she was ‘clear’ on fracking during her run as Biden’s vice presidential pick. 

‘In 2020, I made very clear where I stand. We are in 2024, and I’ve not changed that position, although I’ve gone forward. I kept my word, and I will keep my word,’ Harris continued. 

‘Let’s be clear. My values have not changed. I believe it is very important that we take seriously what we must do to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate. And to do that, we can do what we have accomplished thus far. The Inflation Reduction Act — what we have done to invest, by my calculation, over… a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, investing in a clean energy economy. What we’ve already done: creating over 300,000 new clean energy jobs,’ she continued. 

Harris was asked about fracking during her 2020 vice presidential debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence, but did not reveal her position on fracking, instead saying Biden would not ban fracking. Fox News Digital reviewed a transcript of the 2020 vice presidential debate, and found ‘fracking’ was mentioned nine times, with Harris using the word twice. 

‘Joe Biden will not end fracking. He has been very clear about that,’ Harris said during the debate in 2020 cycle. 

‘I will repeat and the American people know that Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact,’ she added during another portion of the debate. 

Harris was joined by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the interview, which comes 68 days before Election Day. Harris has largely aovided the media since rising to the top of the ticker after Biden dropped out of the race last month. 

The CNN interview marks her first sit-down interview with the media, while she has not held a press conference in 39 days, when she first emerged as the presumptive nominee. 

Harris traveled to Chicago last week, where she formally accepted her party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention. 

Former President Trump pledged during a campaign rally in Michigan Thursday that if he wins a second term, he would mandate free in vitro fertilization treatment for women. 

‘I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,’ Trump told the crowd at Alro Steel in Potterville, Michigan. ‘Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.’

IVF treatments are notoriously expensive and can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single round. Many women require multiple rounds, and there is no guarantee of success.

‘And for the same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes,’ Trump said.  

Trump’s announcement, which was short on details, comes after the Republican nominee has faced intense scrutiny from Democrats for his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, sending the issue of abortion back to the states. 

Trump has tried to present himself as moderate on the issue, going as far as declaring himself ‘very strong on women’s reproductive rights.’

In an interview with NBC before Thursday’s rally, Trump signaled support for changing Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which limits the procedure before many women even know they are pregnant.

Trump, in the interview, did not explicitly say how he plans to vote on the ballot measure when he casts his vote this fall. But he repeated his past criticism that the measure, signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, is too restrictive.

‘I think the six weeks is too short. It has to be more time,’ he said. ‘I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.’

Trump had previously called DeSantis’ decision to sign the bill a ‘terrible mistake.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Everywhere you turn, there’s another online scam. The fraudsters always pivot where the attention is and now that’s politics and elections. 

We’re giving away a brand-new iPhone 16 (a $1,500 value!). Enter to win here.

Billions of dollars are pouring into the 2024 House, Senate, and presidential elections. I bet you’ve received a call or 10 from folks asking you to pull out your wallet. The pleas come in text form, too, plus there are videos, social media posts and DMs.

Here are a few dos and don’ts for keeping your money safe.

Do use a credit card. Checks and debit cards don’t have the same scam protections.
Don’t give payment info over the phone. Find the official website and donate there.
Don’t click links. That includes those in emails, texts or any other source. When in doubt, visit the official campaign website of the person you want to support.
Do verify it’s a real organization. Here’s a list of registered PACs maintained by the Federal Election Commission.
Do a search for the PAC name. Hey, it’s worth it to see if anything shady pops up. Some funnel money to their own advisors and marketing budget — not to the candidate they claim to support. This page is useful, too.

Social media pro tip: TikTok banned political fundraising in 2022. Anything you see there asking you to donate is likely a scam — or someone skirting the rules and you don’t want to be involved with that, either.

It’s not just your wallet you need to worry about. Fake news travels fast online — I’ve seen everything from ‘The election is canceled’ to ‘Non-citizens get to vote this year.’

In some cases, foreign countries are behind it with massive misinformation campaigns. Meta says the Kremlin is the No. 1 source of AI-created misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election. 

The most common trick on Facebook? Imaginary ‘journalists’ who write bogus news stories. If it’s an outlet you’ve never heard of, look elsewhere to corroborate the story.

In other cases, fake info spreads because someone took a joke as fact. Take the mock electoral maps flooding social media. The trend is to take a blank map, color it mostly blue or red, and slap a clever line about how either Democrats or Republicans could win the Electoral College. They’re not real; don’t share like they are.

Election fakes are particularly tricky to spot because there’s so much public footage of politicians speaking. The more training data, the better the copies.

But you can still use these guidelines to verify if it’s AI or not:

Backgrounds: A vague, blurred background, smooth surfaces or lines that don’t match up are immediate red flags that an image is AI-generated.
Context: Use your head. If the scenery doesn’t align with the current climate, season or what’s physically possible, that’s because it’s fake.
Behavior: You’ve probably seen several videos of most major candidates. Look for differences in their tone, inflection and cadence. If their speech or facial reactions look ‘off,’ it might be AI.
Proportions: Check for objects that look mushed together or seem too large or small. The same goes for features, especially ears, fingers and feet.
Angle: Deepfakes are the most convincing when the subject faces the camera directly. Glitches may appear once a person starts to turn to the side and move.
Text: AI can’t spell. Look for fake words on signs and labels.
Chins: Yep, you heard me. The lower half of the face is the No. 1 giveaway on AI-generated candidate videos. It’s subtle, but check to see if their chin or neck moves unnaturally or in an exaggerated way.
Fingers and hands: Look for weird positions, too many fingers, extra-long digits or hands out of place.
Accessories: Look at earrings, clothes, ties — whatever you can spot. The giveaways are often in these little details.

My best advice: Slow down. When a video gets an emotional reaction out of us, we’re quick to believe it and quick to share. That’s what scammers bank on. Watch it a few times and do your research before you make up your mind.

Award-winning host Kim Komando is your secret weapon for navigating tech.

National radio: Airing on 500+ stations across the US – Find yours
Daily newsletter: 5-minute tech updates delivered to your inbox (free!)
Watch: On Kim’s YouTube channel
Podcast: ‘Kim Komando Today’ – Listen wherever you get podcasts

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Conservative activists and media outlets took to X to share their thoughts on a clip of CNN’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris as she explained why her policy positions have changed since she took over the Democratic ticket for president. 

In the clip of the interview, which will air Thursday night on CNN, anchor Dana Bash asked, ‘Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made? … Is it because you have more experience now, and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary? And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you’re saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?’

‘Dana, I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,’ Harris replied. 

‘You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I’ve worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act,’ Harris continued. 

‘Gobbledygook,’ conservative commentator Steve Guest posted on X. ‘The definition of a deadline is ‘the latest time or date by which something should be completed’.’

Noah Rothman, senior writer at the National Review, referenced her comments as ‘rambling.’ 

Charles C. W. Cooke, a British-American journalist, called the clip an ‘instant classic.’

‘Undefeated. She’s still got it—even as the nominee,’ he said. 

The X account for The Blaze referred to the comment as ‘word salad’ — a term Republicans frequently use to describe Harris’ media engagements. 

Harris continued, ‘We have set goals for the United States of America and, by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as an example.’

‘That value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border. That value is not changed,’ she said. 

‘I spent two terms as the Attorney General of California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage of guns, drugs, and human beings across our border. My values have not changed,’ she said. 

Vice President Kamala Harris defended flip-flopping on key policies such as energy in a preview clip of her first sit-down interview with the media since ascending the Democratic presidential ticket. 

‘Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made?’ CNN host Dana Bash asked Harris in the preview clip released late Thursday afternoon. ‘… Is it because you have more experience now, and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary? And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you’re saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?’

Harris responded that her ‘values have not changed’ throughout her political career. 

‘I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act,’ Harris responded. 

Harris has been accused by voters, political pundits and the Trump campaign of flip-flopping on key policies since emerging as the Democratic Party’s nominee since President Biden dropped out of the race last month. On fracking, for example, Harris’ campaign announced last month that the vice president did not support a ban on the oil extraction technique that enjoys broad support in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

That position, however, is the opposite of her remarks as a primary candidate during a 2019 CNN town hall event, when Harris said there is ‘no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.’

Harris has also distanced herself from ‘Medicare for All’ and semiautomatic rifle buyback programs, after publicly touting both programs during her failed primary campaign during the 2020 cycle. 

‘We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,’ Harris continued in her comments to CNN on Thursday.

‘As an example, that value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border. That value has not changed. I spent two terms as the Attorney General of California prosecuting transnational criminal organization, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage, of guns, drugs and human beings across our border, my values have not changed,’ she said.

The network will release the full interview with Harris at 9 p.m. Thursday evening, with Bash telling her audience Thursday afternoon that the interview will dive into Harris’ policies on handling the economy, inflation, the environment and immigration. 

The interview was conducted in the battleground state of Georgia at Kim’s Cafe, a Black-owned restaurant in Savannah. Harris was joined by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the interview.

Fox News Digital’s Mike Lee contributed to this report.  

President Biden began his second straight week of vacation Monday, providing more fodder for critics who insist he is not finishing out his term with very much vigor.

Biden arrived at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, beach house Sunday, where he will remain until at least Saturday, according to The New York Post. The president arrived following a six-night vacation stay with his family the following week at Democratic Party donor Joe Kiani’s California ranch estate. Biden’s also reportedly has no public events scheduled while he is at the beach this week.

The lame duck president has been criticized for overusing vacation time when he is supposed to be the leader of the free world. During the third anniversary of the Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 American soldiers on Monday, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby was pressed by a reporter on whether Biden is simply a ‘ceremonial figure’ at this point.

‘My goodness, he talked to Prime Minister Modi today. He had calls with leaders in the region and in Europe, President Zelenskyy, last week.  He monitored in real time what was going on over the weekend. I mean, come on,’ Kirby said of Biden. ‘The president is on vacation, but you can never unplug from a job like that, nor does he try to… He’s very much in command of making sure we can continue to protect our national security interests here at home and certainly overseas.’

Meanwhile, shortly after bowing out of the race to win re-election in July, Biden told reporters he is ‘not going anywhere’ and intended to ‘work like hell’ until the end of his term in January 2025. ‘Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president,’ Biden added during a July 24 Oval Office address, which was only the third speech he had given from the Resolute desk since becoming commander in chief. 

Sources differ on the exact number of days that Biden has spent on vacation during his presidency. Data from the Republican National Committee claims that after serving roughly two years and seven months as president, Biden spent about 40% of his time on vacation.

House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., alongside other congressional Republicans, have called on Biden’s Cabinet to consider invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows for the vice president to take over the president’s duties if he is unable to fulfill the responsibilities necessary to run the White House. Democrats similarly sought to invoke the 25th Amendment during the final days of former President Trump’s time in office.

‘Who is running the country?’ several social media users asked Thursday, including Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas. ‘An Armed Illegal Alien Street Gang from Venezuela Seizes an Apartment Complex in Aurora, Colorado—Residents Terrified! Meanwhile, Joe Biden is on his second vacation in two weeks and Kamala Harris is preparing for her first interview in 40 days.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.

A flurry of recent polls seem to indicate Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is maintaining its post-Democratic National Convention momentum.

In the past two days, Fox News, Reuters and USA Today have published poll results indicating Harris is holding on to her lead against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The Reuters/Ipsos Poll released Thursday reported Harris leading Trump 45% to 41% among registered voters. 

The poll, conducted over eight days concluding Wednesday, reported that the source of this boost in support came from Hispanic and women voters. 

The Reuters/Ipsos poll maintained a plus or minus 2% margin of error.

A USA Today/Suffolk University Poll released Wednesday found Harris surging ahead of Trump by several points. 

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 likely voters via landline phones and cellphones from Aug. 25-28, found Harris was leading with 48% against Trump’s 43% nationwide. The USA Today poll reports a plus or minus 3.1% margin of error.

A Fox News Poll released Wednesday found Harris has improved on President Biden’s 2024 election numbers in four battleground states, driven by strong support among women, Black voters and young voters. 

In addition, while Trump leads on top issues, more voters see Harris as the candidate who can unite the country and who will ‘fight for people like you.’ That’s according to new Fox News statewide surveys in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.  

Each survey includes about 1,000 registered voters and was conducted Aug. 23-26, after the Democratic National Convention and just after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped out and endorsed Trump.

The surveys, released Wednesday, find a close, two-way Harris-Trump race. Harris is up by 1 percentage point in Arizona and by 2 points in Georgia and Nevada, while Trump is ahead by 1 point in North Carolina. All are within the margin of sampling error.

Fox News Digital’s Dana Blanton and Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been a longtime vocal supporter of a medical research institute in his home state with a long track record of collaborating with a firm labeled by the Pentagon as a ‘Chinese military company’ and with Chinese officials with controversial ties to the CCP.

Walz, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, has long been aligned with the Hormel Institute, a biomedical research center in Austin, Minnesota, within the University of Minnesota’s Research and Innovation Office. As recently as April, a press release from the institute highlighted how Walz went to ‘meet with local leaders and learn of the Institute’s recent progress in groundbreaking biomedical and agricultural research and its expanding education and outreach initiatives.’

‘[The Hormel Institute] is no longer a secret, and we don’t want it to be a secret — it’s very un-Minnesotan of us because we’re bragging all the time,’ Walz said in the press release. ‘I think it [the vision of MBiC] fits with where we see ourselves as a state [in the future]… a future around… green energy, sustainable agriculture, and the ability to feed a very hungry world… and the ability to be one of the nation’s designated biotech hubs.’

The Hormel Institute has done extensive work with the Beijing Genomics Institute, a group labeled by the Pentagon as a ‘Chinese military company,’ some of which involved research on BGI machines and studies conducted with BGI laboratories in Shenzhen, China, for analysis.

‘BGI may be serving, wittingly or unwittingly, as a global collection mechanism for Chinese government gene databases, providing China with greater raw numbers and diversity of human genome samples as well as access to sensitive personal information about key individuals around the world,’ The National Security Commission on AI said in 2022.

Concerns about BGI are so prevalent that Congress has weighed legislation to ban government contracts with the Chinese military subsidiary, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Beyond the extensive ties to BGI, the former executive director of the Hormel Institute, and the timing of his 2019 resignation, has drawn controversy in its own right.

Dr. Zigang Dong abruptly stepped down from his post leading the institute in 2019 after 18 years in the position. Around the same time, it was revealed Dong was involved in an FBI probe where the bureau was investigating his ‘possible failure to report foreign backing when applying for grants,’ Austin Daily Herald reported.

In addition to serving as the executive director of the Hormel Institute, Dong established the China-US (Henan) Hormel Cancer Institute (CUHCI), a multimillion-dollar international partnership with a research facility in China, during his time with Hormel, and Walz was present to celebrate the announcement. 

‘The collaboration brings more resources, it brings more collaboration in terms of what that scientific data is showing,’ Walz, then a congressman representing Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, said about the partnership.

‘A sum of money is budgeted by the Henan Provincial Government to the institute annually to maintain its regular operation,’ the partnership explained.

In 2014, Walz welcomed a delegation from China to the institute that included Wang Yanling, the vice governor of Henan Province and a Communist Party doctor. Yanling is listed as holding several positions in the Chinese Communist Party over the course of many decades.

Several members of the Chinese Communist Party have sat on the board of directors at the Henan Cancer Institute, according to an archived version of the organization’s website.

Despite stepping down from the executive director role, Dong’s ties to the China‐US (Henan) Hormel Cancer Institute in Zhengzhou have continued since he stepped down in 2019. In 2022, the Henan institute published a study with Dong and several other individuals that involved genetic sequencing provided by BGI. 

In January of this year, Professor Ann M. Bode from the Hormel Institute in Minnesota collaborated with several scientists based in China to conduct research that included experiments carried out using BGI machines.

A review of the Minnesota Hormel Institute’s faculty list shows five professors who were educated in China, including genetics experts who specialize in ‘gene regulation.’

FEC filings show that Dong has been a longtime and almost exclusive donor to Walz’s political career, including five donations of over $200 to Walz’s congressional campaigns dating back to 2005.

As a member of Congress, Walz backed Hormel’s expansion and helped them secure ‘over $2M for technology acquisitions,’ according to a press release.

In 2008, when Walz was touring the Hormel Institute, the Rochester Post Bulletin reported he ‘will keep pushing for the institute to receive a $5 million federal earmark in 2009 to help pay for equipment and instruments in its new International Center of Research Technology. The center could cost as much as $10 million, with additional costs of staff, other instruments and possibly more space.’

Dong praised Walz’s efforts to secure funding for the group, including his push to send over $300,000 to the institute in 2009.

‘We are deeply indebted to Congressman Walz and the diligent, dedicated effort he makes to secure funding support for the Hormel Institute,’ Dong said, according to the Post Bulletin.

‘The growth we have achieved — and the future growth we will continue to strive for — depends on the important partnerships we share with our community and the support we receive from our leaders, such as Congressman Walz.’

In addition to Walz, two of his top congressional aides visited the Hormel Institute in 2016 to ‘discuss areas where congressional support could be helpful, such as increasing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget to increase cancer grant funding.’

Tim Bertocci, who served as Walz’s legislative director, among other roles, started working at the Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict earlier this year, according to his Linkedin profile. Sara Severs, who was Walz’s deputy chief of staff at the time, works for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

‘They toured the expansion and learned about the CryoElectron microscope and lab newly added to the International Center of Research Technology,’ the Facebook post continued. ‘Rep. Walz’s efforts secured nearly $2 million in technology grants for items such as a supercomputer and mass spectrometry for cancer research.’

Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, warned in his recent book ‘Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance,’ that the CCP is actively involved in subverting U.S. foreign policy through cancer research centers.

‘America, by virtue of its power and ideology, stands athwart authoritarianism and imperialism, oftentimes without Americans realizing it,’ Sobolik wrote. 

‘Whether we know it or not, we are once again living in a cold war. I still remember the day this reality mugged me in 2018, when the president of an internationally recognized cancer research center visited the Senate and warned me that the CCP was stealing advanced radiology research from their institution. Beijing’s intent was not to cure cancer but to examine the possibility of immunizing their population against radiation poisoning in a nuclear war.’

Sobolik told Fox News Digital that while Americans ‘want to use science to cure cancer,’ the ‘Chinese Communist Party wants to leverage that research to win a nuclear war.’

‘That’s terrifying — and it’s been an open secret in medical research centers throughout America for over five years. Even if Tim Walz didn’t know that, he should have noted the FBI’s investigation into Dong. It has the hallmarks of the CCP’s Thousand Talents Program, which Beijing leverages to steal and repurpose dual-use research for military purposes. Walz’s continued support for the Hormel Institute raises questions about his judgment on critical national security issues.’

Dong appears to be linked with the CCP’s ‘Talents Plan’ or ‘Thousand Talents Plan,’ which it describes as an effort by China to ‘incentivize its members to steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals.’

In 2018, a company known as ThermoFisher, which Human Rights Watch accused of supplying the Chinese government with surveillance tech to crack down on the Uyghur population, sponsored a conference in Beijing titled ‘Transforming lives through pioneering Precision Medicine.’

One of the panels at that conference, called ‘Looking Toward a World Without Cancer,’ was hosted by Professor Liu Yuanli, who is openly associated with the ‘Thousand Talents’ program.

Also sitting on that panel was Dong.

Dong was selected by ‘100 Top Talents Projects’ in China, according to a 2014 press release.

‘Someday when they write the history of how humanity solved cancer, it will be written through Henan Province and through Austin, Minnesota,’ Walz is quoted as saying.

The ties to the Hormel Institute exist under the backdrop of increased scrutiny in recent weeks of Walz’s affinity toward China and past associations with its communist regime.

Walz worked briefly in China as a teacher, traveling to Guangdong in 1989 for a teach abroad program to teach English and American history. Walz has made dozens of trips to China and The Wall Street Journal, citing local media reports, reported that one trip to China doubled as his honeymoon in 1994, and he planned his wedding date to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

‘I’ve lived in China and, as I’ve said, I’ve been there about 30 times…. I don’t fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship. I totally disagree, and I think we need to stand firm on what they’re doing in the South China Sea, but there’s many areas of cooperation we can work on,’ Walz said in an interview with Agri-Pulse Communications.

He was also quoted by a local outlet in 1990 reflecting on his visits to China, saying, ‘No matter how long I live, I will never be treated that well again.’

‘They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience,’ Walz said, adding that he was ‘treated exceptionally well.’

The remark came in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and amid continued and still ongoing mass human rights abuses in the communist regime.

‘Tim Walz owes the American people an explanation about his unusual, 35-year relationship with Communist China,’ Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted on X in early August.

Fox News Digital reported earlier this month that the House Oversight Committee was probing Walz’s ties to China, including his alleged ‘longstanding connections’ to China and CCP-linked entities.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the Hormel Institute in Minnesota said the Hormel Cancer institute in China and the Hormel Institute in Minnesota are no longer affiliated.

‘The University of Minnesota and the Hormel Institute in Minnesota have no affiliation with China-US (Henan) Hormel Cancer Institute in China,’ the statement said. ‘Cease and desist letters have been sent to the institute in China requesting it to stop using the Hormel name.’

‘The Hormel Institute and the University are committed to compliance with federal disclosure, security, export controls and sanctions rules.’

The spokesperson added, ‘Many of our elected leaders, Republicans and Democrats, have supported and continue to support the Hormel Institute and its mission. State and federal leaders from both parties visit Austin regularly to meet with our researchers and learn more about our life-saving biomedical and cancer research.’

After publication, the spokesperson said that ‘notification was sent as early as January 2020 to remove the Hormel trademark from the name of the China-US Hormel (Henan) Cancer Institute.’

The spokesperson did not respond to questions about Hormel’s connections to BGI.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Then-Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris did not rule out potentially packing the Supreme Court in 2019 when she sought the party’s nod to face then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. 

The now-vice president and Democratic nominee for president in 2024 reiterated several times during her previous campaign that she wasn’t opposed to a Supreme Court expansion, which would theoretically allow liberal justices to take on a majority role through new appointments. 

‘I’m open to this conversation about increasing the number of people on the United States Supreme Court,’ Harris told voters in Nashua, New Hampshire, after a question was posed to her about adding up to four seats to the high court, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Her interest in court-packing was not limited to a one-off remark. Harris made it clear, reiterating during her primary campaign in 2019 to both the New York Times and Politico that she was open-minded when it came to adding more seats to the court. 

Harris claimed to Politico at the time that ‘everything is on the table’ to restore confidence in the Supreme Court, including court-packing. 

She was asked by The New York Times whether she wished to elaborate on being ‘open’ to court-packing, to which she declined. 

‘I’m just open to it,’ she said. 

Harris’ campaign did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication. It was asked whether Harris was still open to court-packing. 

Last month, Biden and Harris’ administration rolled out a slate of policies to overhaul the Supreme Court. In their proposal, they called for term limits for Supreme Court justices, who currently serve lifetime appointments, an enforceable ethics code for justices, and an amendment to the Constitution to overturn the high court’s ruling that former presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office. 

The overhaul also included a form of packing the court, according to the analysis of former Trump administration lawyer Mark Paoletta. Stealthily included under the term limit proposal, Biden and Harris’ plan outlines a system in which the president appoints a new Supreme Court justice ‘every two years to spend eighteen years in active service on the Supreme Court.’

‘Even though Joe Biden caved to radicals and recently endorsed court packing, Harris is even further to the left of him on this thoroughly discredited idea,’ Paoletta said in a statement to Fox News Digital. He notably worked on the confirmation efforts for Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Harris’ past statements and refusal to comment further on the subject suggest that her administration could undertake not only the Supreme Court expansion apparently outlined in the administration’s desired overhaul, but an even more drastic version. 

Paoletta pointed to a recent claim from Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who said Harris’ campaign told him his Supreme Court legislation is ‘precisely aligned with what we are talking about,’ the Dispatch reported.

‘According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse—who is the single most malignant figure in America trying to undermine the independence of the Supreme Court—Harris supports his court-packing legislation that would disqualify the senior-most Justices from active service, which just so happen to be Justice Thomas, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justice Alito,’ Paoletta explained. 

He claimed Whitehouse’s plans, which Harris has purportedly expressed agreement with, are ‘far more nefarious’ than the ‘court packing scheme’ under former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

As Paoletta noted, legislation authored by Whitehouse laid out a similar structure to Biden and Harris’ latest proposal, outlining appointments of justices every two years. Under the bill, only the most recently appointed nine justices would oversee appellate jurisdiction cases. It further states that ‘all’ justices are to preside over original jurisdiction cases, without specifying a number. 

Prior to the latest overhaul proposal, Biden had held off supporting packing the court, despite calls from other Democrats. He once warned that Democrats would ‘live to rue’ taking such action. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been a longtime vocal supporter of a medical research institute in his home state with a long track record of collaborating with a firm labeled by the Pentagon as a ‘Chinese military company’ and with Chinese officials with controversial ties to the CCP.

Walz, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, has long been aligned with the Hormel Institute, a biomedical research center in Austin, Minnesota, within the University of Minnesota’s Research and Innovation Office. As recently as April, a press release from the institute highlighted how Walz went to ‘meet with local leaders and learn of the Institute’s recent progress in groundbreaking biomedical and agricultural research and its expanding education and outreach initiatives.’

‘[The Hormel Institute] is no longer a secret, and we don’t want it to be a secret – it’s very un-Minnesotan of us because we’re bragging all the time,’ Walz said in the press release. ‘I think it [the vision of MBiC] fits with where we see ourselves as a state [in the future]… a future around… green energy, sustainable agriculture, and the ability to feed a very hungry world… and the ability to be one of the nation’s designated biotech hubs.’

The Hormel Institute has done extensive work with the Beijing Genomics Institute, a group labeled by the Pentagon as a ‘Chinese military company,’ some of which involved research on BGI machines and studies conducted with BGI laboratories in Shenzhen, China, for analysis.

‘BGI may be serving, wittingly or unwittingly, as a global collection mechanism for Chinese government gene databases, providing China with greater raw numbers and diversity of human genome samples as well as access to sensitive personal information about key individuals around the world,’ The National Security Commission on AI said in 2022.

Concerns about BGI are so prevalent that Congress has weighed legislation to ban government contracts with the Chinese military subsidiary, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Beyond the extensive ties to BGI, the former executive director of the Hormel Institute, and the timing of his 2019 resignation, has drawn controversy in its own right.

Dr. Zigang Dong abruptly stepped down from his post leading the institute in 2019 after 18 years in the position. Around the same time, it was revealed Dong was involved in an FBI probe where the bureau was investigating his ‘possible failure to report foreign backing when applying for grants,’ Austin Daily Herald reported.

In addition to serving as the executive director of the Hormel Institute, Dong established the China-US (Henan) Hormel Cancer Institute (CUHCI), a multimillion-dollar international partnership with a research facility in China, during his time with Hormel, and Walz was present to celebrate the announcement. 

‘The collaboration brings more resources, it brings more collaboration in terms of what that scientific data is showing,’ Walz, then a congressman representing Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, said about the partnership.

‘A sum of money is budgeted by the Henan Provincial Government to the institute annually to maintain its regular operation,’ the partnership explained.

In 2014, Walz welcomed a delegation from China to the institute that included Wang Yanling, the vice governor of Henan Province and a Communist Party doctor. Yanling is listed as holding several positions in the Chinese Communist Party over the course of many decades.

Several members of the Chinese Communist Party have sat on the board of directors at the Henan Cancer Institute, according to an archived version of the organization’s website.

Despite stepping down from the executive director role, Dong’s ties to the China‐US (Henan) Hormel Cancer Institute in Zhengzhou have continued since he stepped down in 2019. In 2022, the Henan institute published a study with Dong and several other individuals that involved genetic sequencing provided by BGI. 

In January 2024, Professor Ann M. Bode from the Hormel Institute in Minnesota collaborated with several scientists based in China to conduct research that included experiments carried out using BGI machines.

A review of the Minnesota Hormel Institute’s faculty list shows five professors who were educated in China, including genetics experts who specialize in ‘gene regulation.’

FEC filings show that Dong has been a longtime and almost exclusive donor to Walz’s political career, including five donations of over $200 to Walz’s congressional campaigns dating back to 2005.

As a member of Congress, Walz backed Hormel’s expansion and helped them secure ‘over $2M for technology acquisitions,’ according to a press release.

In 2008, when Walz was touring the Hormel Institute, the Rochester Post Bulletin reported he ‘will keep pushing for the institute to receive a $5 million federal earmark in 2009 to help pay for equipment and instruments in its new International Center of Research Technology. The center could cost as much as $10 million, with additional costs of staff, other instruments and possibly more space.’

Dong praised Walz’s efforts to secure funding for the group, including his push to send over $300,000 to the institute in 2009.

‘We are deeply indebted to Congressman Walz and the diligent, dedicated effort he makes to secure funding support for the Hormel Institute,’ Dong said, according to the Post Bulletin.

‘The growth we have achieved – and the future growth we will continue to strive for – depends on the important partnerships we share with our community and the support we receive from our leaders, such as Congressman Walz.’

In addition to Walz, two of his top congressional aides visited the Hormel Institute in 2016 to ‘discuss areas where congressional support could be helpful, such as increasing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget to increase cancer grant funding.’

Tim Bertocci, who served as Walz’s legislative director, among other roles, started working at the Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict earlier this year, according to his Linkedin profile. Sara Severs, who was Walz’s deputy chief of staff at the time, works for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

‘They toured the expansion and learned about the CryoElectron microscope and lab newly added to the International Center of Research Technology,’ the Facebook post continued. ‘Rep. Walz’s efforts secured nearly $2 million in technology grants for items such as a supercomputer and mass spectrometry for cancer research.’

Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, warned in his recent book ‘Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance,’ that the CCP is actively involved in subverting U.S. foreign policy through cancer research centers.

‘America, by virtue of its power and ideology, stands athwart authoritarianism and imperialism, oftentimes without Americans realizing it,’ Sobolik wrote. 

‘Whether we know it or not, we are once again living in a cold war. I still remember the day this reality mugged me in 2018, when the president of an internationally recognized cancer research center visited the Senate and warned me that the CCP was stealing advanced radiology research from their institution. Beijing’s intent was not to cure cancer but to examine the possibility of immunizing their population against radiation poisoning in a nuclear war.’

Sobolik told Fox News Digital that while Americans ‘want to use science to cure cancer,’ the ‘Chinese Community Party wants to leverage that research to win a nuclear war.’

‘That’s terrifying – and it’s been an open secret in medical research centers throughout America for over five years. Even if Tim Walz didn’t know that, he should have noted the FBI’s investigation into Dong. It has the hallmarks of the CCP’s Thousand Talents Program, which Beijing leverages to steal and repurpose dual-use research for military purposes. Walz’s continued support for the Hormel Institute raises questions about his judgment on critical national security issues.’

Dong appears to be linked with the CCP’s ‘Talents Plan’ or ‘Thousand Talents Plan,’ which it describes as an effort by China to ‘incentivize its members to steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals.’

In 2018, a company known as ThermoFisher, which Human Rights Watch accused of supplying the Chinese government with surveillance tech to crack down on the Uyghur population, sponsored a conference in Beijing titled ‘Transforming lives through pioneering Precision Medicine.’

One of the panels at that conference, called ‘Looking Toward a World Without Cancer,’ was hosted by Professor Liu Yuanli, who is openly associated with the ‘Thousand Talents’ program.

Also sitting on that panel was Dong.

Dong was selected by ‘100 Top Talents Projects’ in China, according to a 2014 press release.

‘Someday when they write the history of how humanity solved cancer, it will be written through Henan Province and through Austin, Minnesota,’ Walz is quoted as saying. 

The ties to the Hormel Institute exist under the backdrop of increased scrutiny in recent weeks of Walz’s affinity toward China and past associations with its communist regime.

Walz worked briefly in China as a teacher, traveling to Guangdong in 1989 for a teach abroad program to teach English and American history. Walz has made dozens of trips to China and The Wall Street Journal, citing local media reports, reported that one trip to China doubled as his honeymoon in 1994, and he planned his wedding date to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

‘I’ve lived in China and, as I’ve said, I’ve been there about 30 times…. I don’t fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship. I totally disagree, and I think we need to stand firm on what they’re doing in the South China Sea, but there’s many areas of cooperation we can work on,’ Walz said in an interview with Agri-Pulse Communications.

He was also quoted by a local outlet in 1990 reflecting on his visits to China, saying, ‘No matter how long I live, I will never be treated that well again.’

‘They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience,’ Walz said, adding that he was ‘treated exceptionally well.’

The remark came in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and amid continued and still ongoing mass human rights abuses in the communist regime.

‘Tim Walz owes the American people an explanation about his unusual, 35-year relationship with Communist China,’ Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted on X in early August.

Fox News Digital reported earlier this month that the House Oversight Committee was probing Walz’s ties to China, including his alleged ‘longstanding connections’ to China and CCP-linked entities.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the Hormel Institute in Minnesota said the Hormel Cancer institute in China and the Hormel Institute in Minnesota are no longer affiliated.

‘The University of Minnesota and the Hormel Institute in Minnesota have no affiliation with China-US (Henan) Hormel Cancer Institute in China,’ the statement said. ‘Cease and desist letters have been sent to the institute in China requesting it to stop using the Hormel name.’

‘The Hormel Institute and the University are committed to compliance with federal disclosure, security, export controls and sanctions rules.’

The spokesperson added, ‘Many of our elected leaders, Republicans and Democrats, have supported and continue to support the Hormel Institute and its mission. State and federal leaders from both parties visit Austin regularly to meet with our researchers and learn more about our life-saving biomedical and cancer research.’

The spokesperson did not respond to questions about when the disassociation took place or about Hormel’s connections to BGI. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.