Tag Archive for: Primary Elections

‘They Lied to Every Single Person’: Radio Station Eyes Legal Action over Harris Campaign’s Deceptive Google Ads

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A family-owned radio station is considering suing the Democratic presidential nominee and a Big Tech figurehead over deceptive political ads. Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign was exposed for editing Google text ads attached to news headlines, giving the impression that major and local news outlets were outright endorsing or promoting Harris’s White House bid. One of the news outlets that was targeted was the family-owned, North Dakota-based WDAY Radio. According to the Daily Caller, WDAY is considering legal action against the Harris campaign and Google.

“We feel insulted and violated by what was done here,” Steve Hallstrom, the president and managing partner of Flag Family Media, which owns WDAY Radio, told the Daily Caller. “You have a political campaign that used our news brand and our URL to effectively lie to people about the headline we wrote. They lied to every single person that saw that ad. It’s misleading, it’s dishonest, and it hurts us as the company, our news brand. So as of today, we’re starting to make some calls here. We are considering all of our options here, including legal action.”

The Harris campaign spent over $750,000 in August alone to attach its ads to news stories that appear in Google searches. The campaign crafted its own headlines and attached text in order to make it appear that WDAY and other news outlets — like the Associated Press, USA Today, The Guardian, The Independent, Time Magazine, NPR, PBS, CNN, CBS News, and more — were promoting, supporting, or endorsing the Harris campaign. When links to the targeted news sites or news stories were clicked, users were directed to the original news stories, not the ads written by the Harris campaign.

Spokesmen for the various news outlets targeted by the Harris campaign have asserted that they were unaware that their names, brands, logos, and links were being used in this way. For example, a spokesman for The Guardian said, “While we understand why an organization might wish to align itself with The Guardian’s trusted brand, we need to ensure it is being used appropriately and with our permission. We’ll be reaching out to Google for more information about this practice.”

The ads attached to WDAY links used the headlines “Harris Picks Tim Walz — 215,000 MN Families Win,” “Learn About VP Pick Tim Walz — Harris Picks Tim Walz,” and “Harris Picks Tim Walz — Tim Walz Tapped For VP.” The text of the ads, according to Google Ads Transparency Center, boasted of Walz expanding the child tax credit in Minnesota. Previously, Harris and her campaign have attacked Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who was selected as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, for promoting the child tax credit.

Google has insisted that the Harris campaign is in no way violating the tech giant’s rules or policies. Others have noted that while editing text in ads is not an altogether uncommon practice, it is rarely used in political campaigns. Google and several media bias watchdog groups have confirmed that Trump is not running any similar ads.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

What Is Most Important to J.D. Vance, According to Usha Vance?

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For those who care deeply about faith, family, and freedom, it’s important to know where presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates stand on public policies that particularly impact families — such as the child tax credit, parental rights, school choice, religious freedom, and the sanctity of human life.

Usha Vance, wife of Republican vice presidential candidate and Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), has brought attention in recent weeks to the fact that family is of utmost importance to her husband. In her moving speech before the delegates at the Republican National Convention in July, Vance described her husband as the most determined person she knows “with one overriding ambition: to become a husband and a father and to build the kind of tight-knit family that he had longed for as a child.” She explained, “His goals in this new role are the same that he has pursued for our family — to keep people safe, to create opportunities to build a better life, and to solve problems with an open mind.”

Vance and his wife first gained national attention from his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was released in 2016 and became a New York Times bestseller. In 2020, it became a movie which has received renewed attention on Netflix since former President Trump chose Vance to be his running mate. In “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance writes about his family’s struggle with poverty, family violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse.

In an interview with Fox & Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt this week, Usha Vance said about her husband, “There is nothing that he cares about more than being there for his kids. He wakes up after a really late night of travel … at 6 a.m. to make sure that they have an elaborate breakfast the next day. He is just determined to be there for them.” Vance went on to say that her husband is thankful for role models such as his grandmother, aunt, and his uncle who currently lives with them now. Usha herself grew up in a loving family with both of her parents and her sister. She said their family means everything to them and keeps them well-grounded.

Usha told Earhardt that what her husband “really really cares about” is “the people he grew up around. There are a lot of people that just haven’t had the opportunity to wake up every day and know that their kids are going to have a better life than they had themselves, and I just think that J.D. is not afraid to push the boundaries and to shake things up in the way that will allow more people to wake up … to know that they’re giving their kids a better life and that it’s possible.”

When Earhardt asked Vance about her husband’s controversial words that he used in a 2021 interview, referring to some liberal policymakers as “childless cat ladies,” Usha said she wished people would go back and take a look at the context in which he used those words. She explained, “What he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder. And we should be asking ourselves, ‘Why is that true? What is it about our leadership and the way that they think about the world that makes it so hard sometimes for parents?’ And that’s the conversation that I really think we should have, and I understand why he was saying that.”

Earhardt asked, “What do you say to the women who were offended or were hurt by that?

Usha replied, “I think I would say, first of all, that J.D. absolutely at the time and today would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family who really was struggling with that. He made that clear at the time. He has made that clear today. And we have lots of friends who have been in that position. It is challenging and never ever anything that anyone would want to mock or make fun of. I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good. I think what I would say is, let’s try to look at the real conversation he is trying to have and engage with it and understand for those of us who do have families, for the many of us who want to have families and for whom it’s really hard, what can we do to make it better? What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024?”

Earhardt then asked Vance to explain the importance of family and society to her husband. Usha answered, “I think it comes from his background. It comes from the fact that he knows that he would not be anywhere near where he is today if he hadn’t had family members looking out for him every stretch of the way. I think it comes from seeing my family and knowing that the stability and calm that I provide in our family life comes from all of the support that I had, just the faith that things would be okay because I had people behind me. I think that J.D. needs family to thrive.”

In a speech in Atlanta recently, the Ohio senator highlighted some of the family-friendly policies he cares so deeply about — which Democrats in Congress and the White House vehemently oppose. He pointed out, “Barack Obama said we cling to God and guns; remember that Hillary Clinton called us ‘deplorables’; and now Kamala Harris says we’re ‘weird.’ Well, Kamala, I’m glad you brought that up. Let’s talk about some things that are weird. We think it’s weird that Democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries. We think it’s weird that the far Left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing, and we think it’s weird for a presidential candidate to bail convicted rapists and murderers out of prison, and that’s what Kamala Harris did.”

To learn how the Biden-Harris administration’s policies have hurt families, check out FRC Action’s Biden-Harris Historical Record and Biden Administration Actions Addressing Life, Family, and Religious Freedom and compare them to the previous Trump Administration’s Accomplishments.

AUTHOR

Kathy Athearn

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

A Travesty of Justice’: Donald Trump Booked as Inmate No. P01135809 in Atlanta

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As he departed an Atlanta-area jail Thursday night, former President Donald Trump derided his fourth indictment as a form of “election interference” designed to thwart his presidential campaign and stifle constitutionally protected free speech rights.

“This is a very sad day for America,” said Trump as he left the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, where he voluntarily surrendered to authorities over allegations that his questioning the controversial outcome of the 2020 election violated the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. In a short period, Trump went through booking as Inmate No. P01135809 and paid a $200,000 bond.

“We have every right — every single right — to challenge an election we think is dishonest,” he said, noting Hillary Clinton and Stacey Abrams had denied the outcome of the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 Georgia governor’s election, respectively. “What has taken place here is a travesty of justice,” said Trump.

The charges display “the continued weaponization of the justice system against a political opponent,” said Rep. Byron Donald (R-Fla.).

The indictments are intended to disadvantage Trump’s 2024 presidential bid to oust Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the 45th president said. In all, Democratic prosecutors have filed 91 charges against Trump spread across four indictments:

  • A local indictment of 34 counts handed down by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in March that Trump falsified business records when paying off pornstar Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Critics say punishing federal election violations belongs exclusively to federal authorities and that the statute of limitations has lapsed;
  • A federal case brought by Biden administration Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith in June for 37 felonies, claiming Trump illegally retained classified information after leaving the White House and attempted to obstruct justice. This led to the first-ever government raid on the home of a former president;
  • Another four-count federal indictment which Smith issued in August, alleging that Trump illegally attempted to sway the 2020 presidential election; and
  • The Atlanta indictment charging Trump with 13 election-related charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to impede the January 6 congressional proceeding, and a conspiracy against the right to vote, and an attempt to obstruct and impede the certification of the electoral vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pressed a total of 41 charges against 19 defendants, whom she says she plans to try as a group.

“What they’re doing is election interference,” said Trump. “This is their way of campaigning.”

Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, proposed the federal trial over the 2020 election begin on January 2, 2024 — 13 days before the Iowa caucus. The New York City trial will follow on March 25, the heat of the presidential primary season.

The latest case could also chill Trump’s ability to campaign, as it threatens to jail him if he makes any “direct or indirect threat,” including via social media. Smith claimed a remark Trump made on Truth Social — “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” — could intimidate witnesses. Trump’s campaign said the post came “in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs.”

At age 77, nearly any conviction on “any count could be a terminal sentence,” said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.

If the criminalization of political differences does not end, any Republican could share Trump’s fate, the president said. “If somebody else got in other than me, they’ll go after him just as viciously as me,” Trump told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday evening. “These people are sick.”

Trump’s remarks came at 8:55 p.m. Eastern Wednesday night — five minutes before eight other Republican presidential hopefuls held their first debate. Trump opted instead to appear on episode 19 of “Tucker on X,” formerly “Tucker on Twitter.”

Trump and Tucker’s tête-à-tête represented a revenge of sorts from both men against Fox News, which observers say has aggressively moved leftward since pivoting away from Trump and firing Carlson in April. Its ratings have plunged, with the news channel briefly losing its position as the leading network in cable news to MSNBC. Fox News viewership dropped 49% this July compared to July 2022. The audience for Tucker’s replacement, Jesse Watters, still lags behind his predecessor by 700,000 viewers.

Trump skipped the debate, in part because it would be held “at a network that isn’t particularly friendly to me, quite frankly.” His “Tucker on X” interview tweet was seen by 252 million people within less than 36 hours — 16 times higher than the 12.8 million people who watched the Fox News debate. Trump dominates the Republican field, leading his nearest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, by 41 points, according to a Real Clear Politics average of polls.

“If you’re elected president again, what’s your number one priority?” asked Carlson.

“The first thing I would do is seal up the border good-and-tight, except for people who want to come in legally,” Trump replied. “You can do numerous things at the same time,” including deporting “hundreds of thousands” of criminal aliens admitted into the United States by the Biden-Harris administration, improving security, and completing the border wall promised in the 2016 election. “Terrorists are pouring into our country,” he said. Border agents encountered 591 people on the U.S. terror watchlist in July. “Last month, we had 149 countries represented from places that many people never even heard of, coming into our country,” said Trump.

Trump also proposed a number of electoral reforms to prevent future voter fraud. “We should go back to all paper ballots, voter ID, same-day voting,” said Trump. “Anytime you have mail-in ballots, you’re going to have massive cheating in your election,” something he said the Democrats’ must resort to after their policies fail.

“Who wants open borders? Who wants high taxes? Who wants high interest rates? Who wants not to be able to use a gas stove?”

Fox News moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum did not ask a single question about immigration, legal or illegal, which voters rank as their third most important issue.

If he avoids a criminal conviction, Trump feels confident about his ability to defeat Joe Biden in a 2020 rematch. “I think he’s worse mentally than physically. … He looks like he’s walking on toothpicks, then you see him at the beach, he can’t lift the chair,” Trump said. “You’re waiting for him to collapse, and he almost always does.”

He also criticized Biden for vacationing at Delaware’s Rehoboth Beach as forest fires consumed Maui. “The beach doesn’t represent what the president’s supposed to be doing. He’s supposed to be working. He’s supposed to be getting us out of that horrible, horrible war that we’re very much involved in with Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said, adding “That’s a war that we should end immediately, not because of one side or the other; because hundreds of thousands of people are being killed.”

Kamala Harris’s mental acuity is “almost as bad as” Biden’s, Trump said. “She speaks almost in rhyme. …. ‘The bus will go here, and then the bus will go there, because that’s what buses do.’ It’s weird.”

The 46-minute-long interview gave Trump the opportunity to address such idiosyncratic issues as whether Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. (“I think he probably committed suicide,” said Trump. But the former president allowed that Epstein “knew a lot on a lot of people,” and “A case could be made either way.”)

When asked if he was convinced the FBI and CIA informed him of all their activities during his term as president, Trump replied, “No, I’m not.” He vowed to control intelligence agencies, citing his firing of James Comey as director of the FBI. “If I didn’t fire Comey, maybe I wouldn’t be talking to you,” he said, referring to the Russian collusion investigation as “a coup.” But, he said, taking on the Deep State touched off yet more massive resistance to the popular will, including his present legal troubles.

“When I fired Comey, it was like throwing a rock into a hornet’s nest.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.