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Ukraine exchanged over 100 individuals with Russia this week as the country celebrated its third Independence Day since the invasion began.

The two nations swapped an even number of prisoners — 115 soldiers for 115 soldiers — on Saturday, the 55th such exchange of the ongoing conflict.

‘Another 115 of our defenders have returned home today. These are warriors of the National Guard, the Armed Forces, the Navy, and the State Border Guard Service,’ Zelenskyy said in a statement on the exchange. ‘We remember everyone. We are searching for them and making every effort to bring them all back.’

The agreement was struck via negotiations facilitated by the United Arab Emirates. 

Zelenskyy praised those soldiers responsible for capturing Russian combatants, stating that such successes on the battlefield give the much smaller nation leverage in negotiations for their own men’s return.

‘I am grateful to each unit that replenishes our exchange fund. This helps to advance the release of our military personnel and civilians from Russian captivity,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘I thank our team and partners, the UAE, for bringing our people back home.’

Officials in the Kremlin are scrambling to downplay Ukraine’s invasion into the Kursk region as Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed for a second week to stop Kyiv’s advances on his home turf, according to a report by independent Russian news outlet Meduza.

The report, which first emerged last week, claimed that sources in the Kremlin have begun pushing government-funded media agencies to minimize the severity of the Ukrainian incursion and to start employing a propaganda campaign that encourages Russians to embrace the ‘new normal.’

Fox News Digital could not independently verify the report, which comes as Ukraine continues to tout its success in capturing more than 780 square miles of Kursk, including the town of Sudhza, as well as nearly 100 Russian villages, according to Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Tuesday. 

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

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One day, airports will figure out a civilized method for catching an Uber after your flight, but that day was not last Sunday at O’Hare as a maelstrom of confused travelers stared into an endless stream of gray Toyota Camrys. Having made facial contact with my driver and exchanged names, I settled in for a bumper to bumper drive to my hotel and we began chatting.

‘Do you mind if I ask what your accent is?’ I queried. ‘I travel a lot but I can’t place it.’

‘Siberian,’ he laughed. ‘I know it’s confusing, I look Chinese and sound Russian. I hit the green card lottery.’

It turns out that the green card lottery is a few select spots for his area that he applied for on a whim and won. Four years ago he arrived, speaking no English, made his way to Chicago, and is thrilled to be here.

‘There is no democracy in Russia,’ he said. ‘Putin is dictator, and if you want a car like this you have to have a good job and that takes connections. It’s completely different.’

He doesn’t travel back to see his parents anymore, for fear of being arrested or conscripted.

It was a sobering way to enter Chicago on the week of the Democratic National Convention, and I wondered if the people here who hit the ‘born in America lottery,’ had quite such a sense of how special that is.

Chicago being Chicago, I mostly met Democrats, but not only Democrats. On my first night, I met a guy in a white and gold MAGA hat who loves trolling his hometown by wearing it. There are also many types of Democrats with their own priorities.

Several of the bartenders and hotel employees I spoke to emphasized unions. Most belonged to Local 1 of the Service Employees International Union, and they are worried about Donald Trump’s positions on the labor issue, and unclear where Harris stands on everything else. These were not woke progressives, and they also emphasized the difference between private and public unions.

‘We know the business,’ one told me. ‘We know if we ask too high, the business will shut down, the government has endless money.’

For these workers, as for so many others, their vote for president is directly tied to their jobs and bank accounts; for others, loftier notions take center stage.

One millennial couple I met was on their way to a concert sponsored by the DNC. Both Harris supporters, their political lifestyles were a bit different. In the dim-lit Chicago steakhouse, I asked if they had any friends voting for Trump. She didn’t, but he had a more rural upbringing and did.

‘We can talk politics,’ he told me of his friends back home. ‘It doesn’t get too heated, usually. We all try to listen.’ 

For these voters, in the upper middle class and beyond, the kitchen table politics of President Joe Biden’s composite financially struggling dad are not the core issues. They talk about abortion, and saving democracy, and Trump being horrible.

Another guy I met who was traveling for work and has a job in sports didn’t hold out too much hope that either side was much better than the other. ‘I don’t know, man, I’m not sure it matters much,’ he sighed, not angry, maybe a bit exasperated by it all.

Without exception, everyone I spoke to who was not a delegate told me that, of course, Harris should do interviews and press conferences. But as those who were delegates were quick to point out, it is not a dealbreaker for them, Trump, after all, being Trump.

On my Uber ride back to the airport on Wednesday, I was driven by another recent immigrant to our country, this time from Kuwait. ‘Why you vote?’ he bluntly asked me, referring to the convention. ‘The one with the most votes doesn’t even win.’

On this shorter midday jaunt, we talked about the electoral college, why every state has two senators, and all the other oddities of our republic.

‘In Kuwait, sometimes the prince gives us democracy, sometimes he takes it away,’ he said. ‘What’s the difference?’ 

It was clear that I wasn’t going to convince him, and I realized that there is no empirical way to prove the superiority of democracy, the dignity that comes with casting a ballot to have a say, being part of the citizenry at whose pleasure our politicians serve. 

My first immigrant driver got it, my second didn’t. And in between, in the Windy City, everyone had their own unique take on what it means to live and vote in our democratic republic. 

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If you asked Venezuelans how they felt at the beginning of 2023, most would answer hopeless and resigned. Nicolás Maduro, the socialist dictator, had just crushed and co-opted many of the opposition leaders. More than 9 million people were starving, not able to eat three meals a day. Over 350,000 Venezuelans had recently fled the country through the Darien Gap, and the regime was bombarding those who stayed with propaganda that ‘Venezuela is fixed.’ For many, the dictatorship was seen as unbeatable. The dilemma was now whether to get used to the new normal or leave the country.  
 
In this context, the fragmented opposition decided to solve its problem of unified leadership through primary elections. No one was betting on their success. But Venezuelans gave a lesson in democracy when 2.6 million stood against the regime on October 22 and nominated María Corina Machado with a 93% turnout. ‘Havana we have a problem!’ was probably heard in the hallways of Miraflores, the presidential palace, as an unprecedented social movement was now focused on restoring freedom and democracy.   

The reaction of the dictatorship was predictable. Machado was illegally banned from running for office and Professor Corina Yoris, the first opposition replacement, was blocked by the Electoral Council.  

Almost 5 million Venezuelan migrants were ruled out from voting, more than 120 activists were illegally detained during the campaign, and the electoral observation mission from the European Union was not allowed to enter the country. The Barbados Accords, signed a few days before the primary elections, were not fulfilled by Jorge Rodríguez, the chief of the regime’s negotiating team.  

Unfortunately, none of this was surprising.  

From this authoritarian haze, Edmundo González was the only democratic opposition candidate left that was ‘allowed’ to run. A long-serving diplomat, he was unknown by the majority of Venezuelans, and critically underestimated by the regime. His candidacy was registered on a voting ballot that featured the face of Maduro no less than 15 times and the faces of alacranes, so-called opposition candidates promoted by the regime, to confuse voters.  

Despite the omnipresent censorship of TV networks, radio stations and websites, González was recognized throughout the country in a matter of days. He formed a powerful duo alongside Machado who had not stopped rallying the country since she was banned from running by the regime.  

The country that was once hopeless and submerged in darkness recovered its faith. Venezuelans started to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but it was still a campaign within a dictatorship. The regime would not allow billboards or stages for rallies. Maduro’s intelligence apparatus employed brutal persecution against those who dared to speak out.  

The National Guard deployed checkpoints to control movement within the country. Restaurants were even shut down after Machado and González stopped by to eat. None of this mattered to the Venezuelan people who saw this moment as their last chance to return to democracy and reunite their families after decades of oppression.  

Ahead of the presidential election, the largest civic organization in Venezuela’s history was formed with more than 600,000 people signing up to become poll watchers, volunteers and mobilizers. These everyday heroes secured voting tallies despite the regime’s efforts to steal the election.  

They broadcast the reality of the people’s vote on a website that now serves as concrete evidence that González defeated Maduro in a landslide. Competing against a dictatorship and against all odds, González won 70% of the vote, the largest victory in the history of Venezuelan presidential elections. With a free and fair election, that number could have been closer to 90%. 

In the aftermath of the vote, election observers from the Carter Center and a panel of experts from the United Nations agreed on a lack of electoral transparency and were unable to declare Maduro as the victor.  

Despite the omnipresent censorship of TV networks, radio stations and websites, González was recognized throughout the country in a matter of days. He formed a powerful duo alongside Machado who had not stopped rallying the country since she was banned from running by the regime.  

The regime’s reaction has been brutal. In their so-called Operation Knock-Knock, Maduro’s thugs are targeting anyone who dares to speak out. Twenty-three people have been killed so far. Two thousand two hundred innocent Venezuelans have been arrested. Access to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, was shut down. Thousands of new police checkpoints were deployed across the country. And criminal investigations were launched against González and Machado.  
 
The real outcome of the election is plain to see behind Maduro’s lies: democracy won and the dictatorship lost. But as the regime holds on to power by force, Venezuelans have not lost faith. The movement that started last year against all odds and reached its peak on July 28 is unstoppable. The voice of the Venezuelan people cannot be silenced.  

Increasing pressure with non-violent protests within the country, peaceful gatherings across the world with the diaspora, and protecting the leadership of Machado and González will be decisive to achieve what Venezuelans deserve — freedom.  

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There are 73 days until Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

But if Americans vote like they did in the last two election cycles, most of them will have already cast a ballot before the big day.

Early voting starts as soon as Sept. 6 for eligible voters, with seven battleground states sending out ballots to at least some voters the same month.

It makes the next few months less a countdown to Election Day, and more the beginning of ‘election season.’

States have long allowed at least some Americans to vote early, like members of the military or people with illnesses. 

In some states, almost every voter casts a ballot by mail.

Many states expanded eligibility in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made it riskier to vote in-person.

That year, the Fox News Voter Analysis found that 71% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day, with 30% voting early in-person and 41% voting by mail.

Early voting remained popular in the midterms, with 57% of voters casting a ballot before Election Day.

Elections officials stress that voting early is safe and secure. Recounts, investigations and lawsuits filed after the 2020 election did not reveal evidence of widespread fraud or corruption. 

The difference between ‘early in-person’ and ‘mail’ or ‘absentee’ voting.

There are a few ways to vote before Election Day.

The first is , where a voter casts a regular ballot in-person at a voting center before Election Day.

The second is , where the process and eligibility varies by state.

Eight states vote mostly by mail, including California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah. Registered voters receive ballots and send them back.

Most states allow any registered voter to request a mail ballot and send it back. This is also called mail voting, or sometimes absentee voting. Depending on the state, voters can return their ballot by mail, at a drop box, and/or at an office or facility that accepts mail ballots.

In 14 states, voters must have an excuse to vote by mail, ranging from illness, age, work hours or if a voter is out of their home county on Election Day.

States process and tabulate ballots at different times. Some states don’t begin counting ballots until election night, which delays the release of results.

Voting begins on Sept. 6 in North Carolina, with seven more battleground states starting that month

This list of early voting dates is for guidance only. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, go to Vote.gov and your state’s elections website.

The first voters to be sent absentee ballots will be in North Carolina, which begins mailing out ballots for eligible voters on Sept. 6.

Seven more battleground states open up early voting the same month, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada.

September deadlines

In-person early voting in bold.

Sept. 6

North Carolina – Absentee ballots sent to voters

Sept. 16

Pennsylvania – Mail-in ballots sent to voters

Sept. 17

Georgia – Absentee ballots sent to military & overseas

Sept. 19

Wisconsin – Absentee ballots sent

Sept. 20

Arkansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Wyoming – Absentee ballots sent to military & overseas
Minnesota, South Dakota – In-person absentee voting begins
Virginia – In-person early voting begins
Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia – Absentee ballots sent

Sept. 21

Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington – Absentee ballots sent to military & overseas
Indiana, New Mexico – Absentee ballots sent
Maryland, New Jersey – Mail-in ballots sent

Sept. 23

Mississippi – In-person absentee voting begins & absentee ballots sent
Oregon, Vermont – Absentee ballots sent

Sept. 26

Illinois – In-person early voting begins 
Michigan – Absentee ballots sent
Florida, Nevada – Mail-in ballots sent
North Dakota – Absentee & mail-in ballots sent

Sept. 30

Nebraska – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 4

Connecticut – Absentee ballots sent

Oct. 6

Michigan – In-person early voting begins 
Maine – In-person absentee voting begins & mail ballots sent
California – In-person absentee voting begins & mail ballots sent
Montana – In-person absentee voting begins
Nebraska – In-person early voting begins 
Georgia – Absentee ballots sent
Massachusetts – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 8

California – Ballot drop-offs open
New Mexico, Ohio – In-person absentee voting begins
Indiana – In-person early voting begins
Wyoming – In-person absentee voting begins & absentee ballots sent

Oct. 9

Arizona – In-person early voting begins & mail ballots sent

Oct. 11

Colorado – Mail-in ballots sent
Arkansas, Alaska – Absentee ballots sent

Oct. 15

Georgia – In-person early voting begins
Utah – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 16

Rhode Island, Kansas, Tennessee – In-person early voting begins
Iowa – In-person absentee voting begins
Oregon, Nevada – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 17

North Carolina – In-person early voting begins 

Oct. 18

Washington, Louisiana – In-person early voting begins
Hawaii – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 19

Nevada, Massachusetts – In-person early voting begins 
Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas – In-person early voting begins 
Colorado – Ballot drop-offs open

Oct. 22

Hawaii, Utah – In-person early voting begins 
Missouri, Wisconsin – In-person absentee voting begins

Oct. 23

West Virginia – In-person early voting begins

Oct. 24

Maryland – In-person early voting begins

Oct. 25

Delaware – In-person early voting begins

Oct. 26

Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, New York – In-person early voting begins 

Oct. 30

Oklahoma – In-person early voting begins 

Oct. 31

Kentucky – In-person absentee voting begins

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Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden announced his decision to drop out of the upcoming presidential election, Vice President and now-Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, couldn’t wait to talk about abortion.  

Using euphemisms like ‘reproductive freedom’ and touting the same old ‘bodily autonomy’ rhetoric, Harris’ message is nothing new. It’s one she’s been sending for decades: abortion should be legal in any circumstance through all nine months.  

A Harris presidency would be disastrous for human rights.  

The science is clear: a new and distinct human being comes into existence at fertilization. At that moment, a baby’s sex, ethnicity, hair color, eye color and countless traits are already determined. Life at this stage, and every stage, is precious and should be protected and defended.  

Equal protection for all people is the bedrock of our legal system. Our leaders should fight to defend the human rights of all people – and life, the right not to be killed – is the first human right.  

Harris refuses to protect the human rights of the most vulnerable Americans. In fact, she is all too willing to partner with the abortion industry, which profits from the killing of our most vulnerable children. 

The vice president has become the administration’s ‘abortion czar’ – the media thinks she will ‘supercharge’ the Democrats’ message on abortion.  

But that’s not all.  

Perhaps the only political issue Harris has approached with more enthusiasm than abortion is using the legal system to persecute Americans who engage in efforts to protect preborn children.  

Harris has staked her entire political career on targeting preborn children and the brave citizens who speak on their behalf. If given the powers of the American presidency, which has authority over the Department of Justice and the FBI, the results for the cause of human life — the defining human rights issue of our time — would be nothing short of catastrophic.  

We’ve already seen what she does with that kind of power.  

Kamala Harris chose to use the influence of her position as California’s attorney general to prosecute journalists who exposed alleged federal crimes rather than those who allegedly committed crimes — all in violation of her oath of office as attorney general. 

This cannot be allowed to escalate. Free speech is a cornerstone of American liberty. Investigative and undercover journalism are vital aspects of the speech protected by the First Amendment. Every public official has a duty to defend the rights we are guaranteed in our Constitution, and any act contrary to those rights should disqualify someone from serving in public office.  

Another cause for concern is Harris’ track record of supporting efforts to undermine the mission of California’s pregnancy resource centers.  

These centers exist to lovingly embrace pregnant mothers and offer tangible resources to help these families, often including medical care, diapers and other material assistance ranging from housing aid to job placement.  

Pro-life resource centers are crucial to help equip women to successfully become mothers, especially in California which is known for having some of the most pro-abortion policies in the nation. And it’s no surprise Harris has been at the heart of many of them. 

For example, in 2015, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that required pro-life and faith-based pregnancy centers to provide abortion information, even if it’s against their deeply held religious beliefs to do so. Violators faced fines of up to $1,000 for each infraction if they refused to promote abortion in their facilities. 

Harris co-sponsored the law in California and made it a part of her platform as she ran for the U.S. Senate. Thankfully, this law was struck down in 2018 by the Supreme Court, which ruled that it was unconstitutional. 

Reality is stark: It took action from the highest judiciary body in the United States to ensure the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable in our nation.  

Perhaps the only political issue Harris has approached with more enthusiasm than abortion is using the legal system to persecute Americans who engage in efforts to protect preborn children.  

It should never be questioned whether every human being has the right to life and equal protection under the law from the moment of fertilization. We shouldn’t have to wonder if every American really has the right to speak up and advocate on behalf of those society casts aside.  

Americans deserve a leader committed to preserving our fundamental rights, not one who wants to deny protection to our youngest children and jail Americans for life-saving activism. That’s what will happen if Kamala Harris becomes president. She’s done it before, and she’ll do it again. 

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A first-term House Republican who runs a small chain of grocery stores in Ohio is worried Vice President Kamala Harris’ grocery price control proposal would hurt family-owned businesses like his.

‘We’re dealing with a lot. The net profit in grocery stores is about one and a half [percent] — if you’re doing really good, one and three quarters. Just in layman’s terms, it’s about a $1.50 for every $100 that you go through the registers. And what we’ve seen in the last three to four years has been pretty horrific,’ Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

‘This will be a nail in the coffin of this industry that no one can imagine.’

Rulli won a special election in June to succeed retired Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio. 

Before that, he was a Republican state senator and helped run Rulli Bros., the mid-sized grocery chain his father started in 1917.

To explain what effect he argues price controls will have on his business, Rulli held up a bottle of Tide laundry detergent made by Procter & Gamble.

If the Harris administration tells Procter & Gamble, which is based in Cincinnati, that this Tide right here that I’m selling today for $4.99 has to stay $4.99 for the next four years, what will happen is that Procter & Gamble will just simply choose not to make this product,’ Rulli said. ‘And so that’s going to happen a lot.’

He pointed to the bar code, known as the stock keeping unit (SKU), denoting the individual product and said his stores, for example, carry items with 38,000 different bar codes, whereas larger grocery chains carry more.

‘Well, why would that matter to your viewers? It’s going to matter to your viewers, because this is the luxury of living in the United States of America, where the average blue-collar worker, Joe Bag of Donuts, would have an opportunity to buy some nice things in life,’ Rulli said.

‘What will happen in four years of a Harris administration is those 38,000 SKUs will go all the way down to 5,000 SKUs, and you will be living in Cuba or Venezuela.’

It comes as Harris begins rolling out her presidential platform with roughly three months until the election in November.

Part of that is a pledge to enact the first-ever ban on food ‘price gouging,’ which critics on the right have argued would stifle economic growth in the same style as authoritarian governments like the former Soviet Union and Venezuela.

Harris’ allies have pointed out that large food manufacturing companies have made record profits in recent years — Hershey has seen a 62% jump in net profits between 2019 and 2023, while companies like General Mills and Kraft Heinz both saw 48% growth, according to The Wall Street Journal.

But groups like the National Grocers Association have called the plan ‘a solution in search of a problem.’

‘Our independent grocers, already operating on extremely thin margins, are hurting from the same inflationary pressure points as their customers,’ the group said earlier this month.

When Harris unveiled the plan in North Carolina, she pledged to ‘make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers.’

But Rulli argued it would hurt small and mid-sized grocers, as well.

‘Many of these smaller and independent grocery stores will go out of business. You’ve already seen it happening gradually over the last 20 or 30 years, but I would say just recently within the 80-mile circumference I’m sitting in right now, there’s been five grocery stores that have gone out of business in the last two years,’ he said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

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Vice President Kamala Harris, urged her supporters to ‘get out there, let’s fight for it,’ as she concluded her presidential nomination acceptance speech at this week’s Democratic National Convention.

With both major party national nominating conventions now in the books, the 2024 edition of the race for the White House enters the final sprint.

Both Harris and former President Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee, will be back on the campaign trail in the upcoming week, along with their running mates, making stops across some of the seven crucial battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the November election.

It’s a process that will be repeated each and every week until Election Day.

The former president, his running mate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and their campaign and allied Republicans have repeatedly criticized Harris for not holding a major news conference or sitting for an interview since replacing Biden atop their party’s 2024 ticket over a month ago.

So all eyes will be on Harris to see if she lives up to her promise to do a national news media interview in the week left in the month of August.

There’s just one week left in August, and the end of the month will bring anticipation of the latest fundraising figures from both the Trump and Harris campaigns.

President Biden enjoyed the fundraising lead over Trump earlier this year, but the former president saw his fundraising soar in the late spring and early summer.

But after Biden’s blockbuster move to end his re-election bid and Harris replacing him as the Democrats’ standard-bearer, the campaign and the party’s fundraising surged and Harris walloped Trump in fundraising during July. 

The August numbers, which the campaigns could release as early as September 1, will be closely watched and scrutinized, as fundraising along with polling is a crucial metric.

The first and possibly the only presidential debate between Harris and Trump is scheduled for Sept. 10 in Philadelphia.

The face-off could be the most important evening in the 2024 presidential election, with the power to potentially shift or transform the current margin-of-error race between the vice president and the former president.

Need proof – just look back to the late June debate between Biden and Trump. The president’s disastrous performance fueled questions about whether the 81-year-old president had the mental and physical stamina to handle another four years in the White House. And it sparked calls from within his own party for Biden to drop out of the race. 

Less than a month after the clash in Atlanta, the president was out of the race.

There are 73 days to go until Election Day, but some voters will start casting ballots next month. 

In swing state North Carolina, mail-in voting begins on Sept. 6. And early voting begins on Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania and Sept. 26 in Michigan, two other crucial electoral battlegrounds.

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A 37-year-old Memphis-area man was charged with making threats against President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Obama, the Justice Department announced Friday. 

Kyl Alton Hall, 37, allegedly posted on X several times last month, threatening to shoot, kill and assassinate Biden and crash his plane and threatening to assassinate Harris and Obama. 

Hall was federally indicted Tuesday and charged with two counts of threats to a sitting president and vice president and one count of a threat to a former president. He was arrested and booked in Mississippi July 30 by the Southaven Police Department.

He could face up to five years in prison on each count if found guilty. 

Earlier this week, an Arizona man who allegedly threatened to kill former President Trump was arrested after a manhunt as the Republican presidential nominee headed to the state for an event on the southern border Thursday. 

Trump’s ear was also grazed in an attempted assassination attempt by a 20-year-old shooter last month while the former president spoke at an outdoor rally. The shooter was killed by law enforcement. 

Multiple U.S. Secret Service agents have been placed on leave as the investigation into the failed assassination attempt continues. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office and the Justice Department for comment on the charges against Hall. 

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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Friday dropped his White House bid and announced support for former President Donald Trump, issuing broadsides against the Democratic Party’s handling of the primary election and media censorship.

‘…I’ve made the heart-wrenching decision to suspend my campaign and to support President Trump. This decision is agonizing for me because of the difficulties it causes me, and my children and my friends,’ said Kennedy.

Kennedy charged in an event in Phoenix, Arizona that the Democratic Party ‘waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself,’ and ‘ran a sham primary.’

‘In an honest system, I believe I would have won the election,’ he argued. ‘I no longer believe that I have a realistic past of electoral victory in the face of this relentless, systematic censorship and media control.’

Kennedy’s campaign is asking swing states to remove his name from the ballot because he does not want to be a ‘spoiler,’ he said. He will remain on the ballot in states that he considers ‘red’ or ‘blue,’ he said. ‘If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or or Vice President Harris,’ Kennedy said. ‘In red states, the same will apply.’

The former Democrat spoke a couple of hours before Trump was scheduled to hold a campaign event in nearby Glendale, Arizona. The Trump campaign on Thursday advertised that the former president would be joined by a ‘special guest,’ which further sparked speculation of a Kennedy endorsement of the Republican 2024 presidential nominee.

The announcement ends the presidential run by the longtime environmental activist and high-profile vaccine skeptic, who is the scion of the nation’s most storied political dynasty.

Kennedy launched his long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in April of last year, but last October the 70-year-old candidate switched to an independent run for the White House.

While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated in the 1960s, Kennedy in recent years has built relationships with leaders on the right. Kennedy repeatedly invoked his father and uncle Friday in Phoenix.

President Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee for months repeatedly slammed Kennedy as a potential spoiler whose supporters could hand Trump a presidential election victory in November.

 

But Kennedy remained a thorn in Biden’s side from last year through the president’s announcement last month that he was ending his re-election bid and endorsing Harris.

According to Kennedy, ‘Vice President Harris declined to meet or even to speak with me.’

The Trump campaign, which had cheered on Kennedy when he was running against Biden as a Democrat, also started taking aim at him after he switched to an independent run, labeling him a member of the ‘radical left,’ and criticizing him for his environmental activism.

Kennedy described the modern Democratic Party as ‘the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big ag, and big money.’

‘The DNC waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself,’ said Kennedy. ‘Each time that our volunteers turned in those towering boxes of signatures needed to get on the ballot, the DNC dragged us into court, state after state, attempting to erase their work and disappear with the will of the voters, which signed those petitions.’ 

‘It deployed DNC-aligned judges to throw me and other candidates off the ballot, and to throw President Trump in jail.’

The Kennedy-Shanahan ticket has faced uphill battles nationwide to earn a spot on the presidential ballot in November. New York State recently blocked ballot access to the independent campaign altogether on August 12.

According to running mate Nicole Shanahan, the campaign is facing no fewer than nine lawsuits from the Democratic Party. The campaign faces uphill legal climbs with suits in Nevada, North Carolina, Delaware and New Jersey. Trump, Shanahan said, faces 6 legal battles brought on by Democrats at the same time. 

And the DNC battled Kennedy and his supporters at nearly every step as he worked to place his name on the ballot in all 50 states. ‘What the Democrats consider common course to win elections is the kind of ‘normalcy’ that leads to famine, sickness, and civil war. The country is ready for an administration that represents unity,’ Shanahan said in a social media post.

Democrats consistently have attacked both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as anti-democracy candidates, for which RFK Jr. lambasted them in his remarks Thursday.

‘….Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable — because he wants to be an autocrat,’ said Vice President Harris at the DNC in Chicago.

Following criticisms of Biden’s ‘bullseye’ commentary after the assassination attempt on former President Trump, which the president admitted he should not have said, he claimed ‘I’m not the guy that said, ‘I want to be a dictator on day one.’ I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election.’ Biden was referring to a comment in which Trump joked to Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he would be a ‘dictator for one day’ to close the border and ‘drill, baby, drill’ to rebuild America’s energy leadership. Biden enacted dozens of executive orders during his first days in office on both the border and energy. 

The relationship between Kennedy and Trump started warming earlier this year, and the two spoke last month after the assassination attempt against Trump and met in person the following day. 

‘In a series of long, intense discussions, I was surprised to discover that we are aligned on many key issues and those meetings,’ said Kennedy of the meetings.

Earlier this week, Kennedy running mate Nicole Shanahan sparked headlines by saying in a podcast interview that the campaign was considering whether to ‘join forces’ with Trump to prevent the possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris winning the 2024 election.

‘If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place,’ Trump said on Thursday in an interview on ‘Fox & Friends.’

And the former president’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, said Wednesday in an interview on ‘Fox & Friends’ that he hoped Kennedy ‘endorses the president, gets on the team, because this is about saving the country.’

Kennedy’s departure from the race comes as his campaign was cratering.

The last public event put on by his campaign came on July 9, in Freeport, Maine. But even before that, his poll numbers – which once stood in the teens – had faded.

The most recent Fox News national poll, conducted August 9-12, indicated Kennedy at 6% support. 

His fundraising was also in a free fall, with campaign finance reports indicating he had just $3.9 million cash on hand as of the start of July, with nearly $3.5 million in debt.

‘The more voters learned about RFK Jr. the less they liked him. Donald Trump isn’t earning an endorsement that’s going to help build support, he’s inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance,’ said DNC Senior Advisor Mary Beth Cahill following Kennedy’s speech.

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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Friday dropped his White House bid and announced support for former President Donald Trump, issuing broadsides against the Democratic Party’s handling of the primary election and media censorship.

‘…I’ve made the heart-wrenching decision to suspend my campaign and to support President Trump. This decision is agonizing for me because of the difficulties it causes me, and my children and my friends,’ said Kennedy.

Kennedy said in Phoenix that the Democratic Party ‘waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself,’ and ‘ran a sham primary.’

‘In an honest system, I believe I would have won the election,’ he said. ‘I no longer believe that I have a realistic past of electoral victory in the face of this relentless, systematic censorship and media control.’

Kennedy’s campaign is asking swing states to remove his name from the ballot because he does not want to be a ‘spoiler,’ he said. He will remain on the ballot in states that he considers ‘red’ or ‘blue,’ he said. ‘If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or or Vice President Harris,’ Kennedy said. ‘In red states, the same will apply.’

The former Democrat spoke a couple of hours before Trump was scheduled to hold a campaign event in nearby Glendale, Arizona. The Trump campaign on Thursday advertised that the former president would be joined by a ‘special guest,’ which further sparked speculation of a Kennedy endorsement of the Republican 2024 presidential nominee.

The announcement ends the presidential run by the longtime environmental activist and high-profile vaccine skeptic, who is the scion of the nation’s most storied political dynasty.

Kennedy launched his long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in April of last year, but last October the 70-year-old candidate switched to an independent run for the White House.

While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and his uncle President John F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated in the 1960s, Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders. Kennedy repeatedly invoked his father and uncle Friday in Phoenix.

President Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee for months repeatedly slammed Kennedy as a potential spoiler whose supporters could hand Trump a presidential election victory in November.

And the DNC battled Kennedy and his supporters at nearly every step as he worked to place his name on the ballot in all 50 states.

According to Kennedy, ‘Vice President Harris declined to meet or even to speak with me.’

 

But Kennedy remained a thorn in Biden’s side from last year through the president’s announcement last month that he was ending his re-election bid and endorsing Harris.

The Trump campaign, which had cheered on Kennedy when he was running against Biden as a Democrat, also started taking aim at him after he switched to an independent run, labeling him a member of the ‘radical left,’ and criticizing him for his environmental activism.

Kennedy described the modern Democratic Party as ‘the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big ag, and big money.’

‘The DNC waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself,’ said Kennedy. ‘Each time that our volunteers turned in those towering boxes of signatures needed to get on the ballot, the DNC dragged us into court, state after state, attempting to erase their work and disappear with the will of the voters, which signed those petitions.’ 

‘It deployed DNC aligned judges to throw me and other candidates off the ballot, and to throw President Trump in jail.’

But the relationship between Kennedy and Trump started warming earlier this year, and the two spoke last month after the assassination attempt against Trump and met in person the following day. 

‘In a series of long, intense discussions, I was surprised to discover that we are aligned on many key issues and those meetings,’ said Kennedy of the meetings.

Earlier this week, Kennedy running mate Nicole Shanahan sparked headlines by saying in a podcast interview that the campaign was considering whether to ‘join forces’ with Trump to prevent the possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris winning the 2024 election.

‘If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place,’ Trump said on Thursday in an interview on ‘Fox & Friends.’

And the former president’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, said Wednesday in an interview on ‘Fox & Friends’ that he hoped Kennedy ‘endorses the president, gets on the team, because this is about saving the country.’

Kennedy’s departure from the race comes as his campaign was cratering.

The last public event put on by his campaign came on July 9, in Freeport, Maine. But even before that, his poll numbers – which once stood in the teens – had faded.

The most recent Fox News national poll, conducted August 9-12, indicated Kennedy at 6% support. 

His fundraising was also in a free fall, with campaign finance reports indicating he had just $3.9 million cash on hand as of the start of July, with nearly $3.5 million in debt.

‘The more voters learned about RFK Jr. the less they liked him. Donald Trump isn’t earning an endorsement that’s going to help build support, he’s inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance,’ said DNC Senior Advisor Mary Beth Cahill following Kennedy’s speech.

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