With Donald Trump the almost-certain Republican Party nominee for president – and given his lead against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in most national polls – two broad camps are emerging among global leaders on who they’d like to see in White House a year from now.
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Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) released a statement opposing a $118.3 billion emergency spending package that would fund U.S. national security efforts in Ukraine, Israel, and at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) introduced a bill on Thursday that would designate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Ogles’ bill, H.R.7206, comes after nine employees from the United Nations Relief Works Agency were fired last week after being accused of involvement in the terrorist group Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel.
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Border Patrol agents apprehended 50 illegal aliens on the terror watchlist between October and December, according to federal data updated Friday.
The total number of migrant crossings at the southern border between October and December surpassed 785,000, more than 629,000 of them being illegal entries, according to the data. Federal authorities warned Border Patrol after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel to keep watch for Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorists possibly crossing into the U.S. via the southern border, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Metro Nashville Council Member Jeff Eslick joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments and work from the Metro Nashville Council, which convened for the first time in 2024 on Tuesday.
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“NYC Public School Wipes Israel from the Map” reads the headline of Francesca Block’s article in The Free Press today (January 11). The map was supplied to the school, PS 261, as part of a program that is sponsored by the rulers of Qatar. The idea is, of course, to normalize to these children the idea of a Middle East from which Israel has been erased.
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Pro-Palestine Vanderbilt students and alumni activists accused the university and its chancellor of “supporting genocide” in an Instagram post on Monday.
The Instagram accounts for the Vanderbilt Alumni for Palestine and the Vanderbilt chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine jointly posted a series of graphics in response to an email that the groups claim Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier sent to students.
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Harvard University students sued the university Wednesday over alleged antisemitism on campus.
Harvard University has come under fire for alleged antisemitic incidents on campus, including pro-Palestinian protests that use anti-Israel slogans and the reported mobbing of a Jewish student. The students filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and accused the university of selectively applying its policies on discrimination and allowing Jews to be discriminated against on campus, according to court filings.
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Reports of antisemitic incidents in the United States surged by 360% after Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
From Oct. 7 to Jan. 7, the Anti-Defamation League recorded reports of 3,283 antisemitic incidents, which is a 360% increase from the same time period a year before, in which 712 incidents occurred, the advocacy group said Tuesday.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s spending deal doesn’t include President Biden’s $106 billion request for a supplemental foreign aid package, Just the News has learned. Congress faces two appropriations deadlines of Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 before the federal government runs out of money.
The deal sets a top line for domestic and military spending through September 2024 at $1.59 trillion. The total reflects the parameters of the previously passed Financial Responsibility Act of 2023, which passed after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a spending agreement with President Biden that raised the nation’s debt ceiling.
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A Tennessee senator is co-sponsoring a bill that would make it a federal crime to block a highway as a form of protest.
S.3492, “The Safe and Open Streets Act,” says “[i]t shall be unlawful to, in any way or degree, purposely obstruct, delay, or affect commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce by blocking a public road or highway, or to attempt or conspire so to do.”
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Harvard may assume the forced resignation of its president, Claudine Gay, has finally ended its month-long scandal over her tenure.
Gay stepped down, remember, amid serious allegations of serial plagiarism—without refuting the charges. She proved either unable or unwilling to discipline those on her campus who were defiantly anti-Semitic in speech and action.
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Co-founder of the Jewish Republican Alliance Mitch Silberman recently joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss his work with the group as well as the changes he’s seen among Jewish voters amid the terrorist group Hamas’ attack on Israel last year.
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Video captured pro-Palestine protesters waving flags in Collierville, Tennessee on December 24, where they reportedly interfered with Christmas shoppers.
Newsmax host and author Todd Starnes wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the crowd was “mostly Muslim” in a post seen more than 300,000 times. Video of the incident shows protesters drive through a parking lot, then stop. Though words appear to be exchanged between the protesters and Christmas Eve shoppers, their words are unintelligible in the video due to the number of horns honking. Individuals with Palestinian flags are seen running on the sidewalk as the vehicles bearing Palestine’s flag are stopped in the parking lot.
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In his powerful new book, Neutering the CIA: Why Us Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-term Consequences, former CIA analyst John Gentry discusses how the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda has harmed national security by elevating the goals of left-wing identity politics as paramount in the selection and promotion of officers. For example, late last month, the Financial Times revealed that a CIA officer posted pro-Palestinian images on her Facebook page and a selfie photo with the caption “Free Palestine.”
The agency officer, later identified as Amy McFadden, reportedly posted at least one of these images to the Internet after the horrific October 7, Hamas attack on Israel in which more than 1,300 Jews were killed by Hamas terrorists, many of them raped and mutilated, and more than 250 taken hostage.
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Former President Donald Trump’s lead against President Joe Biden has widened in the latest poll of seven battleground states, with the latest Morning Consult poll showing Trump beating Biden by five percentage points, 47% to 42%. This is a slightly wider lead than Trump had over Biden in swing state polling conducted in early November that showed Trump ahead of Biden by four percentage points, 44% to 48%.
Meanwhile, new polling conducted for CNN by SSRS shows Trump’s margins widening specifically in Michigan and Georgia, buoyed by voters who sat out the 2020 election but plan to vote in 2024.
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Stewart Parks, a former congressional candidate from Tennessee’s 5th District, finds himself in the crosshairs of a harrowing legal battle following his participation in the January 6 events at the Capitol. Convicted in a bench trial by Judge Amit Mehta, Parks disputes charges of misdemeanor trespassing, disorderly conduct, and theft and is in the early stages of pursuing an appeal.
Parks updated listeners on Thursday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on the latest developments in his plight and he details his concerns about potential prejudice against those with conservative ideologies and the need for a fair legal defense.
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led a bipartisan group of colleagues in sending a letter to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging he open an independent investigation into the UN’s lack of action in response to the sexual violence against Israeli committed by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7.
The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), which, according to its website, is “dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women,” failed to immediately condemn the rape and mutilation of Israeli women committed by Hamas.
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At least two families were denied reimbursement by their travel insurance company when their trips to Israel were canceled due to the attacks by Hamas. AIG Travel Guard Insurance representatives told the would-be travelers that its policy didn’t cover war, or acts of war, only “acts of terror.” Arizona’s Family On Your Side (AFOYS) interviewed the families and aired coverage of a video showing that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken referred to the violence as a terrorist attack, specifically distinguishing it from war. However, AIG will not backtrack on what it told the families, even after AFOYS contacted the company.
Sheri Hathaway, who was denied reimbursement along with her husband and children, told The Arizona Sun Times that she would never use AIG again. They spent nearly $12,000, excluding airfare. “Hamas is a terrorist organization,” she said. “This happened as a terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas and clearly states in their policy that they do cover terrorist incidents, which this clearly was.”
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Breitbart News Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak joined the newsmaker line on Wednesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to share insights into the troubling state of his alma mater, Harvard University.
The veteran journalist and Harvard Law School graduate highlighted the rise of antisemitism on campus and traced the university’s decline, noting that it was former President Drew Faust who emphasized a thin record of slavery over Harvard’s significant contributions to the abolitionist cause and civil rights movement.
The 387-year-old institution’s rapid shift to prioritize social justice and the erosion of free speech, Pollak suggested, has indelibly marred Harvard’s reputation as a symbol of excellence.
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President Joe Biden is not the Democrats’ biggest problem; they are. The greatest misperception in the 2024 presidential race is that Biden is causing Democrats’ poor performance. On the contrary, Biden is an effect. The real cause is that Democrats are wildly out of touch with America.
Biden’s bad polling numbers are well known. According to Real Clear Politics’ Dec. 18 average of national polling, Biden’s job approval rating is 40.8–56.0 percent; he trails former President Donald Trump in a head-to-head rematch 43.7 to 47.2 percent, and his favorability rating is 39.4–56.0 percent.
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Arizona State Representative Alma Hernandez (D-Tucson) reported being victim to a doxxing campaign on Thursday, posting evidence of masked individuals distributing anti-Israel flyers containing her personal address in her neighborhood.
The flyers cite Hernandez’s public opposition to a ceasefire between Palestine and Israel, and claimed she is “working to silence pro-Palestinian colleagues on a local and national level” before claiming Hernandez abuses “power in support of genocide.”
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Another pro-Palestine rally is scheduled to be held this weekend in downtown Nashville, the organization Nashville Youth for Palestine announced on social media.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) urged in a Wednesday letter to the United States Space Force for the military to prepare for “space warfare” after Israel reported intercepting a rocket from outside Earth’s orbit after it was launched by Iran-backed Houthi militants.
“The world has crossed into a new, concerning frontier: war in space,” Blackburn warned the military branch in her letter, which was first obtained by The Washington Free Beacon. After highlighting the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and rising Chinese tensions over the fate of Taiwan, Blackburn noted the October 31 interception of a ballistic missile launched by “Iranian-sponsored Houthi terrorists” in Yemen.
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Dozens of protesters shut down an Edina School Board meeting Monday night in a show of support for two Edina High School students who were suspended for using an antisemitic chant during a walkout for Palestine Oct. 26.
The students were suspended for three days for chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during a student-led walkout in October. Protesters say the students’ First Amendment rights were violated and want the suspensions expunged from the students’ records.
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A linebacker for the Tennessee Titans is supporting the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund through the National Football League’s (NFL) My Cause My Cleats campaign.
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The Tennessee Student Solidarity Network (TSSN) urged activists to “disrupt” a number of Nashville businesses on Saturday over their purported pro-Israel stance as part of the controversial Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Community organizing group Nour Nashville distributed a flyer on social media revealing a “BDS Direct Action” event scheduled for December 9. The group explained the post is a “call for action to disrupt businesses in support of genocide,” and urged its followers to message the TSSN “for details.” Neither Nour Nashville nor TSSN posted updates about their planned disruptions by press time.
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A Williamsburg music and arts festival is denying it ever scheduled a menorah lighting to celebrate Hanukkah after Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) condemned the group’s purported decision to cancel it amid Israel’s defensive war against Hamas.
News broke on Sunday that the 2nd Sundays Art and Music Festival in Williamsburg canceled a menorah lighting scheduled for its December 10 event, with The Virginia Gazette reporting that festival founder Shirley Vermillion “said 2nd Sundays are inclusive to different religions and cultures,” and reported that Vermillion stated the menorah lighting “seemed very inappropriate” due to what the outlet called “current events in Israel and Gaza.”
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led seven of her Republican colleagues this week in introducing the Iran China Accountability Act, which would place certain conditions and limitations on any nuclear deals relating to Iran.
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Muslim Americans, some of whom live in crucial swing states, are set to launch a campaign that will officially oppose Joe Biden’s re-election bid in 2024.
Axios reports that the campaign, titled “#AbandonBiden,” launched on Saturday with a gathering in Michigan. It consists of left-wing Muslim Americans who oppose Biden’s support for Israel as the country wages war against the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas.
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Another pro-Palestine rally is scheduled to be held this weekend in downtown Nashville, the organization Nashville Youth for Palestine announced on social media.
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I would have thought myself immune to all this. American public life has been a circus of lies for a while. Outright lies (“I did not have relations with that woman”), carefully parsed technical truths that meant to convey lies (the 50-odd members of the intelligence community, law enforcement, military, and the like who wrote that Hunter Biden’s laptop had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation) — take your pick, we all have our favorites. I was at first completely dismayed, but now, it’s already baked into the price, as they say on Wall Street: Rather than wait for the crash, the value of the discourse is already steeply discounted. Such is our politics.
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President Joe Biden continues to trail former President Donald Trump by several percentage points with the latest national polls showing Trump ahead by four points and ahead in five of six battleground states. While Biden’s support has eroded within his own party, swing voters retracting their support is at the heart of the president’s plummeting polling numbers.
A collection of polling across the past month shows Biden losing double-digits with young people, minorities and Independents compared to 2020 as well as struggling with female voters in battleground states.
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Tennessee State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) sat down with the Editor-in-Chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star Michael Patrick Leahy in the latest episode of The Tennessee Star Extra to discuss his recent overseas trip to Israel following the terrorist group Hamas’ October 7 attack on the country that left around 1,200 Israelis dead.
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Israeli intelligence services obtained plans for the deadly Oct. 7 attack more than a year before it was carried out, The New York Times reported.
Hamas carried out the deadly terrorist attack on multiple locations in southern Israel Oct. 7, killing over 1,400 people, including at least 30 Americans. Israeli military and intelligence officials viewed the plans, which they named “Jericho Wall,” as being aspirational, according to The New York Times.
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Another pro-Palestine, anti-Israel rally will be held in downtown Nashville this Saturday after the sun goes down, according to the new self-described “abolitionist” group Palestine Hurra Collective Nashville.
The “Shut It Down For Palestine” march will be held at 5:00 p.m. at the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in Nashville, according to the group, which said the demonstration will be part of a “global mobilization for Palestine.”
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Knoxville City Council did not pass a resolution condemning Israel and calling for a ceasefire between Israeli and Hamas forces during its Tuesday council meeting.
The resolution, according to its broad text, “calls on the U.S. Federal Government to urge an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine and to express the Council of the City of Knoxville’s support and solidarity with the people of Palestine facing genocidal levels of violence at the hands of the state of Israel.”
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U.S. Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) joined Representative Max Miller (R-OH-07) this week in introducing a resolution condemning and denouncing antisemitism in the United States and around the world.
Kustoff and Miller, the only Republican Jewish members of the House, said it’s time to stand up to surging antisemitism infecting communities and institutions, including Congress.
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A Northern Virginia middle school chose “Palestine” as their country to represent as part of a school district-wide multicultural fair, omitting any recognition of the State of Israel – including maps.
The fair was recently presented by the Stafford County Public Schools “to empower multicultural awareness” for students and the community. All 33 schools in the district participated, with nearly 1,000 in attendance. Schools “were able to choose the country they wanted to represent,” according to the school district.
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A group of faith organizations led by the Faith and Freedom Coalition has sent a letter to congressional leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate urging a number of steps be taken to support Israel and fight antisemitism.
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A pro-Palestine, anti-Israel rally will occur on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s (UTK) campus next week, according to the group Students for Justice in Palestine at UTK.
On Instagram, the group announced its plans to hold an art installation and rally for Palestine at the Pedestrian Walkway in the heart of the UT Knoxville campus on December 1 at 11:00 a.m.
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Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares and Sergeant Major Carlos Ruiz, the newest Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps basically changed jobs during recent events in Virginia and on the battlefield in the Middle East.
Known for their fearless service in combat and garrison advising senior officers, political presentations are not part of a Sergeant Major’s job description.
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Thirteen Israeli hostages have reportedly been released and are now with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Egypt.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib faces a formal complaint asking the State Bar of Michigan to open an investigation into the Michigan Democrat, an active member of the state bar, over her alleged “repeated false statements, anti-Semitic comments, and spread of foreign terrorist propaganda” following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in about 1,200 deaths.
“Attorney Tlaib’s public statements have shown a complete disregard for the truth and serve only to enflame anti-Semitic hatred rather than promote the ends of justice,” the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a free speech nonprofit, wrote in the complaint Monday to the Michigan bar.
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Memphis Voices for Palestine will hold a rally on Wednesday as part of an effort demanding Tennessee U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) call for a ceasefire between Israeli and Hamas forces as well as vote against any legislation funding or arming Israel.
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Volunteers for Israel’s (VFI) Arizona chapter is seeking volunteers to work in a non-military capacity on Israeli Defense Forces bases, assisting in various support services.
“When you are actually here, it’s the most unique experience. It’s the only organization that has civilians coming to help on a base to assist doing things like packing food kits and medical supplies or cleaning helmets,” said Mindy Franklin, VFI southwest regional manager.
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University of Michigan police arrested 40 people on campus Friday after breaking up a pro-Palestinian protest of hundreds, some of whom had forced their way into an administrative building.
“At least 200 people gathered Friday, calling for the university to divest from Israel,” Michigan Live reported Saturday. “Around 4 p.m., the demonstrators moved from the central campus Diag area to the Ruthven Administration Building.”
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A prayer vigil for Israel was held at the Murfreesboro Civic Plaza on Saturday. The event was organized by Concerned Women for America (CWA) and Young Women for America (YWA).
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Another “All Out For Palestine Peace Rally” was held on Saturday at Centennial Park in Nashville.
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Congressman Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., says that universities should be graded in regard to antisemitism on a scale for the public to see.
“On the antisemitic thing, groups ought to come out and rank the universities: A, B, C, D and E,” Grothman said on the Thursday edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “Say if you have a Jewish child. Would you want them to go to this university? What university would want to be labeled an F for Jewish children?”
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