DV Journal

Why did Vice President Kamala Harris hide her boss’s declining cognitive condition? Why does Donald Trump feel the need to demean those who disagree with him?

These are just a few of the questions voters in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties would ask if they were moderating Tuesday night’s debate between Harris and Trump. DVJournal reached out to political activists and average voters to find out what questions are top of mind when the two candidates meet in Philadelphia.

Local lawyer and conservative pundit Christine Flowers said she would ask Trump, “You have said that you would deport all of the ‘illegal aliens’ in the country. Please explain how you would do this, since during your administration, the rate of deportations did not significantly increase and, in fact, decreased with respect to the Obama administration?”

For Harris, Flowers would ask about abortion, faith and conscience.

“You sponsored the Women’s Protection Act, which would have stripped conscience protections for those who refuse to provide abortions due to their religious affiliation. Please explain what conscience exceptions you would provide for Catholic or other religious hospitals and organizations that refuse to perform acts which violate their conscience, and if you would not allow for any exceptions, how would you handle a legal challenge under the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause?”

“I would ask Mr. Trump why he feels it necessary to demean the other candidate rather than tout his own programs,” said lawyer Michael Shechtman, a Cheltenham resident.

“I would ask Vice President Harris, ‘You’ve spent most of 2023 and 2024 telling voters that inflation was under control, yet you now acknowledge it’s a genuine problem. Your first policy speech on inflation—your only policy speech to date—was ridiculed by economists and even The Washington Post. How are you going to bring down inflation—and why should we believe that you now have a plan?” said Guy Ciarrocchi, a writer and senior fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation, who lives in Chester County.

Pat Poprik, chair of the Bucks County GOP, said, “I would ask [Harris] that she stated in her recent interview that she has not changed her values. So, then, if she’s now saying she’s not going to oppose fracking; isn’t that changing her values?”

Elkins Park resident Jerry Fisher said, “Does putting tariffs on goods coming into America tax the other country or the people of our country?”

“I think that I would ask, ‘Do you feel that every American is equal under the law? And what does that mean in your opinion?  And do you think that there’s a problem with the president of the United States being treated differently than me?’” said Roberta Lee of Cheltenham, an artist and author.

Dave Siegal of West Chester said he’d ask, “What is a woman?”  That is a question that Biden-Harris Supreme Court appointee Justice Ketanji Jackson Brown was famously unable to answer during her confirmation hearing.

Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello said, for Harris he would ask, “Why in the last three weeks have you switched positions on basically all your left, progressive policies you promoted for the last 10 years to more conservative policies including building a wall on the southern border? Do you forget about how you bailed out rioters?”

Bala Cynwyd resident Noga Senderowitsch said that she would ask, “What will you do to bring the hostages home and (bring) the war between Israel and Hamas to an end ASAP? What is the timeline for this plan?”

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During an appearance at a medical products company in North Philadelphia, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance offered his own diagnosis of American politics: Democrats are gaslighting you.

“We have a country that’s being failed by its present leadership,” said Sen. Vance (R-Ohio). “Don’t let anybody gaslight you here. Kamala Harris is running around the country and saying ‘On Day One,’ she wants to bring the cost of goods and the cost of housing under control. She says ‘On Day One,’ she wants to make the cost of groceries and housing more affordable to American citizens.

“Kamala Harris, where you have you been?” Vance asked. “Day One was three and a half years ago!”

Vance’s speech came after Harris revealed her economic plan that includes giving first-time homebuyers $25,000 and imposing government price controls on groceries.

Vance was introduced by DiSorb Systems CEO Ted McLaughin, who told the enthusiastic crowd America needs experienced entrepreneurs like former President Donald Trump to run the country, noting that Democrats Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) have no business experience.

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the epitome of career politicians,” he said.

Vance came to prominence as a best-selling author who wrote about his experiences growing up in the economically-depressed environs of Appalachia, and he’s been an outspoken advocate of Trump’s “America First” policies that promote domestic economic activity, in part by imposing tariffs on imported goods.

“We’ve got to stop the Chinese and everybody else from undercutting the wages of American workers.  If you want access to American markets, you ought to deal fairly with the American people. Union and nonunion alike, we’re going to stop the Chinese from building their middle class on the back of the American middle class,” Vance said.

Vance noted Harris has also said she wants more manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

“Well, Kamala, if you really, really want to bring American manufacturing back to this country, might I suggest you vote for Donald Trump,” said Vance. “Get out of this race.”

Vance, who sat down for a series of tough interviews on the Sunday news shows, called out the Democratic ticket for refusing to take questions from the press.

“It is disgraceful that Kamala Harris pretends to run for the presidency of the United States, but she refuses to stand before the American people without a teleprompter standing between.  What are you so afraid of? The American people are good and kind.”

“If you want to be the people’s president, you ought to be willing to stand before the American people and answer a few tough questions. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, is it?”

Vance also turned his fire on Harris’s running mate, who has been besieged by video clips and press statements he’s made that were less than accurate about his service in the National Guard.

“Everything that comes out of [Tim Walz’s] mouth about his military service is 25 percent of a lie,” Vance said, adding:  “It occurred to me the closest that Tim Walz has ever come to combat, even though he said he ‘carried a weapon in war,’ is when he let rioters burn Minneapolis to the ground.

“The American people deserve to be led by someone who is willing to get out there and talk to somebody,” said Vance. “Kamala and Tim, stop hiding in the basement. Get out there and campaign.”

When a reporter asked Vance about abortion, the crowd booed.

Vance said he and Trump are “focused on making the American Dream affordable again.”

But added Trump said that Pennsylvania will have a different abortion policy than Ohio or California. “Let the states decide.”

Their Democratic opposition is talking about “taxpayer-funded abortions up until the moment of birth,” said Vance.

“We want Americans to feel like they can afford to have families again,” said Vance. “You talk to young women who have an unexpected pregnancy, a lot of them feel like they don’t have options. How are you going to feed a baby? How are you going to house a baby?”

DVJournal asked him what a Trump-Vance administration’s position on Israel and the war in Gaza would be.

“Our position is pretty simple. The best thing for Israel and the best thing for the United States is for this war to be over as quickly as possible and for Hamas to be destroyed in the process,” Vance said. “You have Kamala Harris, who said she’s really concerned about civilian casualties. Well, I’m concerned about civilian casualties, too. If you’re concerned about civilian casualties, you want the war to be over as quickly as possible, and you want to destroy Hamas’ ability to fight.

Carolyn ‘Bunny’ Welsh

“She’s pursued policies that are just the opposite,” Vance said. “Not allowing Israel to finish the job against Hamas is the worst of all [outcomes].”

Former Chester County Sheriff Carolyn ‘Bunny’ Welsh was at the Philly event, and she noted that he grew up poor and served in the Marines.

After the event, attendees told DVJournal they were impressed.

“He’s a strong partner for Trump,” said Welsh. “He’ll go through a wall for him. He’s articulate and measured.”

“I think he was great,” said Melissa Hertenberger of Langhorne after the event. “He had a clear presentation, and he knows what it is to be in business and how to get things done.”

Gary Heasley, a Chester County resident, said, “JD Vance has the ability to articulate the platform that is necessary to restore this nation. And he’s already voting to implement it [in the Senate]. He’s a great choice. You can see it when he goes on Democrat TV channels, CNN, MSNBC. He’s consistently fighting for the pro-America agenda to get these policies through, not the globalist agenda.”

Vance “can explain it, but he can also execute it,” Heasley said.

“He’s very quick on his feet. I like what he says,” added West Goshen resident Felice Fein. “He says what he means, and he means what he says. He believes it.”

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Former president Donald Trump, who has offered little details surrounding his planned economic policies for a possible second presidency, has made headlines by announcing his proposal to eliminate federal tax on tips for service workers. The proposal is aimed at securing working-class voters despite tipped workers making up only 2.5 percent of all employment. Of these, 12.6 percent are teens ineligible to vote and 37 percent had incomes low enough they faced no federal income tax.

This policy has sparked enthusiasm and criticism. Vice President Kamala Harris has even endorsed the idea.

As Senate Republicans swiftly introduce related legislation, it’s crucial to examine the broader implications, particularly in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in Snyder v. United States.

During a June campaign stop in Nevada, Trump unveiled this proposal, which he has since made a central part of his platform. Some Republican senators have introduced the “No Tax on Tips Act.” The legislation would allow taxpayers to claim a 100 percent deduction for tipped wages, if passed.

The proposal could result in a significant loss of federal revenue — which the Committee for a Responsible Budget estimated to be between $150 billion and $250 billion over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that these cuts if extended past 2025 would cost nearly $4 trillion between 2025 and 2035. This comes on the heels of Trump’s tax cuts from his first administration, which reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, with an additional 20 percent cut promised.

Supporters argue the act provides much-needed relief to service workers who rely on tips for a significant part of their income. However, critics from both sides of the aisle question the effectiveness and fairness of the proposal. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and experts from the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center contend that the proposal could ultimately harm many workers and slow efforts to raise the minimum wage.

To understand the potential legal ramifications of Trump’s proposal, it’s crucial to look back at the Supreme Court ruling in Snyder v. United States. In the June ruling, the court addressed the issue of tax exemptions and the federal taxation system itself. The case concerned the legality of paying government officials “gratuities” or “tips” under federal bribery law and whether “section 666 criminalizes gratuities … payments in recognition of actions the official has already taken or committed to take, without any quid pro quo agreement in those actions.”

In the 6-3 opinion, the court remanded the case to the lower court, which held that section 666 “prohibits bribes to state and local officials but does not make it illegal for those officials to accept gratuities for their past actions.”

Harkening former Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s Citizens United ruling in his majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh drew the conclusion that bribes and gratuities are not the same thing:

“Bribes are payments made or agreed to before an official act in order to influence the official with respect to that future official act. … (Gratuities) are typically payments made to an official after an official act as a token of appreciation.”

As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson explained in her dissent, for the purposes of public corruption, there is simply no distinction between a bribe and a gratuity: “Because reading (section) 666 to prohibit gratuities — just as it always has — poses no genuine threat to common gift giving but does honor Congress’s intent to punish rewards corruptly accepted by government officials in ways that are functionally indistinguishable from taking a bribe.

As the “No Tax on Tips Act” does not affect a large enough segment of Americans to provide a sizeable electoral effect and also fails to address the many factors the act could have on the economy, could the act really be in direct response to these newly legalized “bribes”?

While the act appears to be a straightforward benefit for service workers, the effect is far-reaching, with its potential to create a large loss of federal revenue and worsen wage stagnation. Most important, with the Snyder v. United States ruling, questions arise about the act’s intent and potential for far-reaching legal ramifications. As lawmakers and the public scrutinize this proposal, we must weigh the immediate benefits against the long-term consequences on our nation’s ethical governance.

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In an incredibly divisive election season, there is one thing that major pundits and political figures I bring on my show agree on: Whichever presidential candidate wins Pennsylvania is going to win the presidency.

Pennsylvania is a swing state and has 19 electoral votes, making it the key state to reach the required 270 electoral votes and win the presidency.

So, why did Vice President Kamala Harris choose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate? Is Shapiro not seen as a popular and capable governor? On the contrary, he is seen as very capable and has a job approval rating of about 61 percent.

Shapiro’s also a world-class campaigner and even though very liberal, he has been able to posture effectively as a moderate and even somewhat bipartisan. Walz is from a deep blue state, and someone known as at least as progressive as Harris.

You will hear spin that Shapiro was not chosen because he is not viewed as a team player. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) apparently was instrumental in pointing that out to Harris and her advisors. And Shapiro was labeled as “overly ambitious.” Shapiro seemed like he’s been running for president for years. With Harris viewed as a weak political player, she and her advisers probably thought Shapiro, would overshadow her.

However, I think the main reason he wasn’t chosen is a lot uglier than that. Shapiro is Jewish and has properly and publicly defended the right of Israel to defend itself against enemies who launched horrific attacks on innocent people in Israel: the unspeakable savagery of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7. He supported Israel’s attempts to hunt down members of Hamas. He also pushed back against the mobs on college campuses like Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and others that allowed Jewish students on their campuses to be threatened and attacked.

Those moral and logical positions are not allowed by significant numbers of the current Democratic Party. On CNN, progressive Van Jones agreed Shapiro was passed over because, “You also have antisemitism that has gotten marbled into this party. You can be for the Palestinians without being an anti- Jewish bigot, but there are some anti-Jewish bigots out there. And there’s some disquiet now- and there has to be- how much of what just happened is caving into some of the darker parts of the party?”

That a polite way of saying the progressive mob of the party has veto power over almost any supporter of Israel.

So, what has Harris gotten in Walz? First, he’s a governor who took days to send in the national guard as cities in Minnesota were burning during riots after the killing of George Floyd. Walz has backed defunding the police and opposes fracking.

Yet, he has been sold as a guy who can come to places like rural Pennsylvania and reach voters through a progressive agenda and a folksy persona. He has said things like, “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Apparently, because he likes cabins and ice fishing, he will be able to win back Trump voters across the more remote parts of Pennsylvania. Watch for Republicans to highlight his cozy relationship with the Communist Chinese Party leadership and his abandoning of his leadership role in the Minnesota National Guard when it was going to be deployed in Iraq.

I see Walz as someone who mirrors Harris’ radical agenda and someone who will get no traction in Pennsylvania, other than in Democratic bastions like Philadelphia. As far as Josh Shapiro, he is a very formidable opponent who has been taught a brutal lesson about the bigotry of his own party.

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According to a chilling report from the House Judiciary Committee released Monday, at least 99 illegal aliens on the FBI terror watchlist were released into the United States after being arrested by Border Patrol at the southern border, and another 34 aliens on the list are currently in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody.

This information was reported to the committee by DHS.

Those actions were taken under policies administered by the Biden-Harris administration and are likely to add heat to the debate over border security in November’s elections. GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick has already called out his opponent, three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey.

“Bob Casey and Kamala Harris should be putting terrorists behind bars, not releasing them into our communities,” McCormick posted on X in response to the findings.

According to the Judiciary Committee report, the Biden administration “allowed millions of illegal aliens to enter the United States, including [from] terrorist organizations and other bad actors looking to harm Americans. In three and a half years, the Biden-Harris administration has released more than 5.4 million illegal aliens into the United States, with an additional at least 1.9 million known ‘gotaways’ escaping into the country.”

Among those are 250 people on the terrorist watchlist who Border Patrol encountered on the southern border between 2021 and 2023. The report said the Department of Homeland Security released at least 99 of them, with some 34 others in DHS custody.

The illegal aliens in question came from at least 36 different countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

During the fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol encountered thousands of illegal immigrants from countries that “could present national security risks,” including 2,134 Afghan nationals, 33,347 Chinese citizens, 541 Iranians, 530 Syrians, and 3,104 Uzbek nationals, the report said.

Of eight Tajik nationals released despite potential ISIS ties that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested in June 2024, three had been released into the country using the Biden-Harris administration’s CBP One phone application to schedule an appointment at a port of entry. Four were encountered by Border Patrol while crossing the border without scheduling an appointment.

One of the eight Tajiki men was arrested in Philadelphia.

Polls show Americans are very concerned about the impact of illegal immigration, which set multiple records during the time Vice President Harris was tasked by Biden to address “root causes” of migration from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras).

While Harris allies reject the label “border czar,” illegal crossings from these four countries were 140 percent higher than during the Trump presidency.

Critics of the Biden administration hold the president and his team responsible for the violent crimes committed against lawful American residents by those who cross the border illegally. They point to cases like Rachel Morin, the Maryland mother of five who was beaten, raped, and strangled to death, allegedly by an illegal alien from El Salvador earlier this year.

Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies argues that “all crimes committed by illegal aliens represent an unnecessary and preventable burden on American society and its criminal justice system.

“To state what should be obvious: Illegal aliens blocked at the border or who are quickly removed from the country cannot inflict harm on Americans because they are not present. That means every single crime committed by an illegally present immigrant was preventable and should never have happened.

The committee report, presented by the GOP majority, claims the Biden administration downplays the possibility of terrorist threats. It also calls out Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his management of the illegal immigrant issue.

“There is a more than 3,000 percent increase of watchlisted alien encounters compared to all four years of the Trump administration,” the report said. “With the border in chaos under the Biden-Harris administration, the terrorist threat to the homeland has skyrocketed.”

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