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by Alan Barton, All News Pipeline: As new as this whole sordid Trump assassination mess is, there are so many things that can be said and have been said, that just about any position you want to take has all of the credentialed opinion and thoroughly studied guesswork to fit whatever supposition you may wish […]

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined the list of congressional Democrats publicly calling for Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential election. Brown, considered among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection, is the fourth senator to urge Biden to step aside. “Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from Ohioans on important issues, such as how to continue to grow jobs in our state, give law enforcement the resources to crack down on fentanyl, protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts, and prevent the ongoing efforts to impose a national abortion ban. These are the issues Ohioans care about and it is my job to keep fighting for them,” Brown said in a statement. “I agree with the many Ohioans who have reached out to me. At this critical time, our full attention must return to these important issues. I think the President should end his campaign,” he added. I agree with the many Ohioans who have reached out to me. At this critical time, our full attention must return to these important issues. I think the President should end his campaign. pic.twitter.com/dwKMZJzMfu — Sherrod Brown (@SherrodBrown) July 19, 2024 Brown’s call for Biden to end his campaign follow the statement made by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who’s considered another vulnerable Senate Democrat. Another Democrat Senator Calls On Joe Biden To Withdraw From Presidential Election Per NBC News: Brown’s call follows one Thursday from Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who, like Brown, faces a tough re-election campaign this fall, and another Friday from Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., urged Biden to withdraw from the race last week. More than 30 congressional Democrats now want someone other than Biden to be their party’s presidential nominee. The push for Biden to exit comes after a debate performance with Trump last month that raised alarms about the president’s age and health — and about his ability to lead the Democratic ticket this fall. The push has intensified in recent days, with speculation increasing about Vice President Kamala Harris and others stepping in for Biden. Brown, according to his campaign, will not weigh in on the process to choose a new Democratic nominee and believes Biden should serve the rest of his term. The three-term Ohio senator had previously said that voters in his state, which former President Donald Trump twice won by 8 percentage points, had “legitimate questions about whether the president should continue his campaign” and that he intended to listen to their concerns. But he had stopped short of calling for Biden to end his re-election bid. "Make no mistake, @SherrodBrown has known for a long time that Joe Biden is unfit to serve, but Brown lied and hid the ball on his cognitive decline. Sherrod must answer if @JoeBiden should step down as President, or if Democrats will continue to put our country at risk," Ohio Republicans wrote. Make no mistake, @SherrodBrown has known for a long time that Joe Biden is unfit to serve, but Brown lied and hid the ball on his cognitive decline. Sherrod must answer if @JoeBiden should step down as President, or if Democrats will continue to put our country at risk. — Ohio Republicans (@ohiogop) July 19, 2024 "If Joe Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve. I am formally calling on Joe Biden to resign the Presidency because his continued presence in the situation room is a national security threat," Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio Bernie Moreno reportedly said. Bernie Moreno on Sherrod Brown suddenly deciding Biden needs to step aside: "If Joe Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve… Brown was fully aware of Joe Biden's mental decline, covered it up, and used Biden as a vessel to pass the most liberal agenda in American history." pic.twitter.com/LuaADfUoKi — Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) July 19, 2024 Fox News reports: Brown is the fourth Democrat senator to press Biden to step aside and the 34th Congressional Democrat to do so. The Ohio Democrat is in a particularly competitive race in November, where he will face Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, who is endorsed by former President Trump. Non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report rated the Ohio Senate race as a "Toss Up," placing it alongside races in Montana, Nevada, and Michigan.

The historic sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Dallas, the church led by Pastor Robert Jeffress, caught fire on Friday night. The cause remains unknown, though the fire comes less than one week after an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, of whom Jeffress has long been an impassioned supporter. “Dallas Fire-Rescue is currently battling a two-alarm fire in a building located at 1717 San Jacinto Street,” Chief Robert Borse told The Daily Signal. “The initial call was received at 6:05 p.m., and crews arrived on scene at 6:09 p.m.” “First arriving crews were confronted with heavy smoke and fire conditions involving the structure and immediately initiated fire attack operations,” he added. The department confirmed that the secondary chapel of the First Baptist Church is the structure involved. “Fire operations are defensive and a partial collapse of the structure occurred just after 7:30 p.m.,” Borse added. “At this time, no injuries have been reported.” “A little bit after 6 p.m. we got word that the church was on fire, our historic sanctuary,” Jeffress told an ABC News local affiliate. “This sanctuary has been around since 1890. It was the home for our church for a long time.” First Baptist Dallas moved to a new worship center about 12 years ago. “This historic sanctuary was the site of many personal events, including my own,” Jeffress recalled. “I was baptized there when I was six, I was ordained for the ministry when I was 21, it holds a lot of memories, but we thank God that nobody has been hurt. We had just concluded vacation bible school with over 2,000 kids. They were all gone, so God has protected us through all of this.” “I am grateful that the church is not bricks and mortar or wood, it’s people, and the people of God will endure,” he added. First Baptist Dallas has 16,000 members, according to its website. The church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest Christian denomination behind Catholicism. The pastor said that “nothing has been ruled in or out at this point.” According to the Dallas Fire-Rescue website, 64 fire teams were working to combat the fire as of 9 p.m. Central. Purported footage of the church on fire went viral on social media. Footage of First Baptist Church Dallas, founded 1868. It’s a SBC church, currently led by Dr. Robert Jeffress. This is the historic sanctuary, the cornerstone was laid in 1891.Other reports say there was the sound of a loud explosion as well. Pray for this church. pic.twitter.com/chEpOaTufF— William Wolfe ?? (@William_E_Wolfe) July 20, 2024 The fire comes one day after the Republican National Convention ended in Milwaukee. At the convention, Republicans nominated Trump, who had barely survived an assassination attempt on Saturday. Jeffress has long praised and prayed for Trump, publicly appearing with him at events as far back as September 2015. This is a breaking story and will be updated. The post Texas Church Led by Pro-Trump Pastor Catches Fire After Assassination Attempt, Republican Convention appeared first on The Daily Signal.

National Public Radio’s Up First newsletter highlights top stories from the taxpayer-supported radio network. Wednesday’s newsletter, centered around Night Two of the Republican National Convention and its themes of crime and illegal immigration, smeared and "fact-checked" Tuesday night’s speakers while using the soft, politically pleasing phrase “undocumented immigrants” to describe those formerly known as “illegal immigrants.” NPR's Majd Al-Waheidi and Brittney Melton led with left-wing hysteria right off the bat. Somehow, talking about illegal aliens murdering women is "violent rhetoric" and an "attack." The Republican National Convention's "Make America Safe Again" night was marked by violent rhetoric and attacks on undocumented immigrants. Speakers said crime is increasing, criticized Biden's record on crime and immigration, and falsely claimed Democrats want to allow unauthorized migrants to vote. Nearly every speaker linked the fentanyl crisis to U.S. immigration and border policies… While it is true that under President Biden, the southern border saw a record high amount of people crossing into the U.S. without authorization, the number has greatly decreased since January, Martínez-Beltrán reports. He reports that studies also show migrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens. So, after months of the media ignoring or dismissing the border crisis, now it’s old news because Biden has supposedly brought his administration's incredibly high numbers down? How convenient. The supposed fact-check got not better. Excerpts from the text version of the original NPR report highlighted by Up First: A MARTÍNEZ: Here to help us sort all of this out is NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, who covers immigration, and NPR's Meg Anderson, who covers criminal justice. All right, Sergio, let's start with you. A lot of the speeches talked about migrants pouring into the country. Do a little fact check for us, if you could. SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah, so it is true that under President Biden, the southern border saw a record high in terms of people crossing into the U.S. without authorization, but that number has really gone down since January. In June, there was a 24% decrease in arrests at the border in comparison to May, so no, there has not been a, quote-unquote, "open border" or "invasion" at the southern border. A MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, Republicans also accused Democrats of wanting to allow unauthorized migrants to vote. What about that one? SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So it is illegal to vote in the U.S. if you're not a citizen, but several Republicans last night repeatedly falsely said that Democrats want to allow unauthorized migrants to vote, and, you know, this is in line with the long-standing Republican rhetoric that elections in this country are rampant with voter fraud, although there's no evidence for that. In fact, it is not invariably “illegal to vote in the U.S. if you’re not a citizen,” at least not in one of the many liberal municipalities across America that allow non-citizens to vote in state and local elections, if not yet federal ones. It’s certainly not a baseless concern. A MARTÍNEZ: We heard also a lot of linking of migrants to crime. What do we know about that link? SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So last night, we heard from the family of Rachel Morin. She was murdered on a trail in Maryland last year, and a man from El Salvador, who is in the country without authorization, has been charged with her murder and rape. You know, this is very tragic. This is horrible, but it is not emblematic of any particular trend, even though Republicans did try to frame it that way. Multiple studies have found, A, that migrants are less likely to commit a crime than people born in the U.S. For example, Stanford University found that immigrants are 30% less likely to be imprisoned than white Americans.

The party’s over in Milwaukee, but the Democrat crisis is ongoing. This year's Republican convention drew surprisingly calm coverage compared to the hostile norm, in part due to the attempt to kill Donald Trump. Meanwhile, on some days, the GOP news was submerged to cover Democrats deep in a crisis as more politicians call on Joe Biden to end his campaign. The convention itself had a serious message discipline. Journalists seemed frustrated it wasn't more negative-sounding. We have several measurements of a double standard in convention coverage.  Tone. To the media, the Republican convention is always dark and hateful and ultraconservative. The Democrats are always inspirational. The usual objection to the tone erupted in spurts, just because it’s a habit. But there were a lot of moments of real emotional connection that they often found hard to ignore. The mothers who lost children to illegal-immigrant crime. The parents of American hostages in Gaza. The Gold Star families from Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco. Some networks tried to ignore them. MSNBC talked right over the Gold Star families as they spoke. Inclusion. The Republican convention is always narrowcasting to a fringy base, while the Democrats have a "big tent." The DNC Media or the DEI Media are always policing the minority voters to make sure they don’t cross the street to vote Republican. When Republicans try to attract black voters, liberal journalists go on the attack. On MSNBC, Joy Reid complained about black men wanting to be "white-adjacent." On CNN, Van Jones said about black Republican convention speakers: "All four of them sounded like black people who talk about black people, but don’t talk to black people.” Now imagine how these concepts would sound if we reversed them. Fact-Checking. The "fact police" always get extremely active when Republicans talk, because liberals think it's preposterous that, say, Joe Biden believes in open borders. Or that, this is weird, you can’t call Kamala Harris a border czar. PolitiFact editor-in-chief Katie Sanders appeared on PBS to claim the "border czar" thing was just a GOP nickname. But news stories at the time reported Harris was expected to help reduce the flow of immigration, which didn't happen. The "fact checkers" are docile around Democrats, even as they insist Trump and the Republicans will end democracy. Controversy. Usually, the media play up any divisions between Republicans, like in fights over platform language. That was prevented before the convention began. All week, the real controversy was the struggle to get President Biden to quit. Enjoy the podcast below.