Cuffari, whose investigations have been critical of the border crisis and security failures that led to the first assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump as well as the federal response to Hurricane Helene, has faced calls to resign after a Wednesday report from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) alleged that he “abused his power” during “retaliatory investigations” against former employees. Gaetz called this investigation’s timing “telling” and “gross,” saying that his removal “would look like a cover-up,” according to the letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“You have independent oversight over the nerve center of the D.C. swamp, and the knives are out for you,” Gaetz said in the letter. “I am very concerned that Vice President Harris and others who want to cover up the open border and the assassination attempts on former President Trump will be calling for your firing and privately leaning on President Biden to remove you.”

After the report was released, Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin, who serves as ranking member for the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Bennie Thompson, who serves as ranking member for the House Committee on Homeland Security, called on Biden to remove Cuffari, who was appointed by Trump and confirmed in 2019.

“In the wake of the independent and nonpartisan CIGIE Integrity Committee’s report documenting IG Cuffari’s misconduct, we call on President Biden to remove him as inspector general of DHS,” Raskin and Thompson said in a joint press release. “CIGIE’s report confirms the findings of our own multi-year investigation, which is that DHS Inspector General Cuffari misled Congress during his confirmation to become an inspector general and, after becoming an inspector general, once again misled Congress and proceeded to blatantly abuse his powers and waste millions in taxpayer dollars.”

Gaetz pushed back in the letter and pointed out that both he and FBI Director Christopher Wray object to Cuffari’s removal.

“It would look like a cover-up on the part of President Biden and Vice President Harris,” Gaetz said in the letter. “Given two assassination attempts on former President Trump, your continued oversight responsibilities related to the Southern border crisis, and now the numerous whistleblowers coming forward about FEMA mismanagement of the Hurricane Helene response, removing you might be politically convenient for those in power, but Americans would see it as a dirty trick.”

“It is telling, and rather gross, that this report comes out right before the November election,” Gaetz said in the letter. “After all, your office has oversight over parts of the Department of Homeland Security that might be asleep at the wheel as our election technology is penetrated by foreign adversaries.”

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Harris is currently outpacing former President Donald Trump across several national polls, boasting a 2.8 point lead according to FiveThirtyEight and a 1.4 point lead according to RealClearPolling. Harris is underperforming, however, in national polls and across key demographics compared to President Joe Biden and former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Harris’ “vibes” oriented campaign may be at fault.

“Vibes are for the people who can afford it,” Len Foxwell, a Democratic strategist based in Maryland, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If you’re struggling to make ends meet and if your take home pay is less than your basic living expenses, you don’t care about the vibes. You want to hear plans about how to improve your living situation.”

“She hasn’t really been introduced to a lot of the country yet,” Jon McHenry, GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, told the DCNF. “They had a stage produced convention, and up until last month, she hasn’t been on the campaign trail. So, people are still trying to figure out who she is and what she stands for.”

“Most people think that the economy’s headed on the wrong track, they’re worried about their jobs, they’re worried about crime, they’re worried about open borders and they’re worried about national security,” John McLaughlin, a Trump campaign pollster and CEO of McLaughlin & Associates, told the DCNF. “Voters don’t feel good even though she’s trying to run a feel good campaign. She’s part of the problem, not the solution.”

Biden was leading Trump by over 7.5 points at 50.6% on September 8, 2020, while the then-President was trailing at 43%, according to FiveThirtyEight. He boasted a similar 7.1 point at this point in the race in RealClearPolling averagesfrom the same date, polling at 49.9% to Trump’s 42.8%.

Although Biden was polling substantially ahead of Trump, the current president won the election by just 4.4 points, bringing in 51.3% of the vote while the incumbent garnered 46.9% of the vote, according to CNN.

Clinton had been ahead by 3.2 points at this point in the race, polling at 42.1% while Trump trailed at 38.9%, according to the FiveThirtyEight national poll on September 8, 2016. She was also 2.8 points ahead of Trump according to RealClearPolling averages on the same date.

“Donald Trump is historically one of the great under-pollers in the history of American politics,” Foxwell told the DCNF. “There are a substantial number of Trump voters who are disinclined to share their voting preferences with a complete stranger over the phone. Adding to the unpredictability is the fact that we have the first woman of color seeking the presidency. I’m very concerned that we could be looking at an application of the so called Bradley Effect, where people will tell a pollster what they think is a socially acceptable answer, which is that they’re going to support Kamala Harris, and then in the privacy of their polling place, they’ll just do the opposite.”

“She may be a fresh face, and she’s not 80 years old, but she still has all the vulnerabilities that Biden had,” McHenry told the DCNF. “I mean, she’s part of the administration.”

At this point in the last election cycle, Biden was bringing in 82% of support from black voters while Trump only held 4% support, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll from September 2020. Biden also outpaced Trump with Hispanics, with 56% supporting the now-President and just 24% supporting the incumbent.

Clinton boasted a similar polling advantage as Biden, leading with 92% among black voters while Trump brought in just 4% support, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll from September 2016. Clinton’s advantage with Hispanic voters was also greater than Harris’, polling at 65% support compared to Trump’s 24% support among the demographic.

This time around, however, Trump has begun to close the gap among these key demographics. Trump is favored by 12% of black voters and 37% of Hispanic voters while Harris brought in just 76% and 53% support, respectively, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll from Thursday.

“Trump has been actively campaigning the last three years to attract African American support, Hispanic support, young voters and independents,” McLaughlin told the DCNF. “Now it’s paying off, and she’s having a hard time getting back.”

“We need less vibes and more policy,” Foxwell told the DCNF. “We need a shift into a more substantive conversation of what she would do on matters such as the economy, the crisis on the southern border, and other issues that are considerable concerns to Americans.”

Trump’s chances of winning the electoral college are currently projected to be 60.1%, the highest since July 30, while Harris is behind at 39.7%, according to Nate Silver’s forecast from Sept. 5. Her odds slipped even more in swing states, with Trump projected to win in Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada, as well as tying with Harris in Michigan and Wisconsin.

“There’s room to debate the convention bounce stuff, but Harris has been getting a lot of mediocre state polls lately,” Silver wrote in a post on X.

McHenry said that the upcoming presidential debate on Tuesday will be a defining moment for Harris’ polling and her campaign.

“A sit down interview with your running mate on CNN is not exactly a stressful situation,” McHenry told the DCNF. “But having Donald Trump at the other podium questioning everything that she has said is going to be a stressful situation. What we’ve seen so far suggests that she’s not gonna handle that particularly well. She just shifts into word salad mode.”

“If she has a good debate, then she’ll probably reduce those deficits compared to where maybe Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden were four years ago,” McHenry continued. “If she has a bad debate, which is definitely on the table, she might lock in those deficits.”

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Moore claimed to have received the honor on a White House fellowship application in 2006, and has failed to correct television hosts who have wrongly introduced him as a recipient of the award in the past, the New York Times reported. Moore, who has also defended Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz amid his accusations of stolen valor, called the discrepancy an “honest mistake” and expressed regret for not correcting his application, according to a statement from Thursday.

“I was encouraged to fill out an application for the White House Fellowship by my deputy brigade commander,” Moore said in a statement. “In fact, he helped me edit it before I sent it in. At the time, he had recommended me for the Bronze Star. He told me to include the Bronze Star award on my application after confirming with two other senior-level officers that they had also signed off on the commendation.”

“Still, I sincerely wish I had gone back to correct the note on my application,” Moore continued. “It was an honest mistake, and I regret not making that correction.”

My full statement on my military record: pic.twitter.com/4pfS3YkuJu

— Governor Wes Moore (@GovWesMoore) August 29, 2024

Moore had not received either the Bronze Star or the Combat Army Badge at the time that he submitted his application in January of 2006, the New York Times confirmed. He was eventually awarded the Combat Army Badge in May 2006, but there is no record of him ever receiving a Bronze Star.

“Over the last few weeks, our country has grown used to seeing what it looks like when a veteran’s integrity is attacked for political gain,” Moore said in the statement. “But those who seek to cast doubt on our records misunderstand something fundamental about true patriots, who have put on the flag of our country and put everything on the line to be called Americans: We don’t get shaken. We put our heads down, and we do the work. And that is what I will continue to do.”

Moore also defended another prominent Democrat who had his military record questioned. Just days after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, his statements about his military service in the National Guard were called into question.

Walz previously advocated for a ban on “weapons of war” that he said he “carried in war,” according to a video posted by Harris’ campaign on X. However, Walz never actually went into combat and reportedly retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005 shortly after he learned that his unit was being deployed to Iraq.

Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, called out this discrepancy and claimed that Walz “abandoned” his unit.

“Well I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?” Vance said during a campaign event. “What was this weapon that you carried into war given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq and he has not spent a day in a combat zone? What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage.”

Moore responded to Vance and defended Walz in an August MSNBC interview, saying that anyone who has served the country “deserves our utmost respect.”

“You don’t get to sergeant major just because,” Moore said in the interview. “You get to sergeant major because you’ve served this country.”

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The Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s website says that any poll watchers who are recruited must be physically present in the state to work, but that they “do not necessarily have to be PA voters.” The state party’s guidance contradicts Pennsylvania state law that requires poll watchers to be “a qualified registered elector of the county” where the polling is taking place, according to the RNC letter.

“That’s a completely inaccurate statement regarding Pennsylvania poll watchers,” Linda A. Kerns, Pennsylvania election integrity counsel for the RNC, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Our law is extremely strict on that. A candidate can’t even enter the polling place unless he’s actually there to vote. If you want to be a poll watcher, you have to be a resident of the county where that district is.”

“The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is soliciting individuals to violate state law,” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow and manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF.

Not only did the RNC dispute the legality of these guidelines in the letter, but they also claimed that recruiting poll watchers based on their restrictions could interfere with the legitimacy of the election results.

“It’s incorrect, and the last thing voters need is to have incorrect information like that spread,” Kern told the DCNF. “And I think that the Democrats know that. People have the right to go to their polling place and have it be a smooth experience. That’s what our laws are designed for.”

“The misinformation on the PA Dems’ website threatens the integrity of November’s general election,” the letter reads. “The Democratic Party cannot be permitted to recruit poll watchers in violation of the law and flood polling places with unqualified out-of-state poll watchers across the Commonwealth. We urge your office to issue a public statement clarifying that poll watchers must be registered voters in the counties in which they serve as poll watchers.”

The RNC also expressed concern in the letter about the Pennsylvania Democrats’ statements on their website about “early vote monitors,” who are responsible for assisting “voters outside Boards of Election and satellite locations during voting.” The RNC asserted that the recruitment of these “early vote monitors” could “threaten chaos” at these election offices and risk the opportunity for monitors to “engage in observation of voting activities.”

“This is an egregious misstatement of Pennsylvania election law,” the letter reads. “For the benefit of all candidates and political parties, please clarify the scope of permissible activities with respect to observation at satellite election offices and whether the PA Dems’ proposed activities are consistent with the position you took as a Commissioner in Philadelphia.”

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

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The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) contracted the mosquito-borne illness but is expected to fully recover, a spokesperson told Fox News. The top COVID-19 official ran the NIAID for four decades and consulted both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s administrations during the pandemic before retiring in 2022.

“Tony Fauci has been hospitalized with a case of West Nile virus. He is now home and is recovering. A full recovery is expected,” the spokesperson said.

West Nile virus has become the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease since it first entered the U.S. in 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea and rashes, although roughly 80% of those who contract it will not experience any symptoms.

There are no vaccines or treatments for the virus, according to the CDC.

In 2020, Fauci became the public face of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which garnered widespread criticisms from Republican lawmakers for his opinions on the origin of COVID-19 as well as his imposition of mask and vaccine mandates and lockdown policies.

Fauci testified before the House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic during a hearing in January where he admitted that the COVID-19 era restrictions were likely not based on data or science but rather “sort of just appeared.”

“After two days of testimony and 14 hours of questioning, many things became evident,” Republican Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement after the hearing. “During his interview today, Dr. Fauci claimed that the policies and mandates he promoted may unfortunately increase vaccine hesitancy for years to come. He testified that the lab leak hypothesis — which was often suppressed — was, in fact, not a conspiracy theory. Further, the social distancing recommendations forced on Americans ‘sort of just appeared’ and were not likely based on scientific data.”

The former COVID-19 advisor repeatedly dismissed lab leak theories as conspiracy, despite the Biden administration reportedly shutting down a State Department inquiry in 2021 investigating the origins of the virus.

Featured Image: Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz

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(DCNF)—The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged on Friday that TikTok and its Chinese parent company collected sensitive data from their American users, according to court filings.

The DOJ alleged in court filings that TikTok had been collecting Americans’ user data on their views regarding sensitive topics like abortion, gun control and religion, arguing that the app poses a “potential threat to U.S. national security.” The DOJ’s latest filings follow a federal lawsuit TikTok filed in May after President Joe Biden signed legislation that gave the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, until January of 2025 to formally divest itself of the platform or risk a total ban in the U.S.

TikTok argued that the law, which required either a sale or a ban of the popular app, is a free speech violation for the 170 million American users, according to a statement in an X post on Saturday.

“The U.S. Intelligence Community assesses that ByteDance and TikTok pose a potential threat to U.S. national security because they could be used by the [People’s Republic of China] against the United States in two principal ways,” the most recent filing reads. “Malign foreign influence targeting U.S. persons, and collection of sensitive data of U.S. persons.”

The DOJ alleged in their most recent filing that TikTok and ByteDance allowed their employees to use software tools that allowed the app to collect user information and to censor certain content at the discretion of the Chinese-owned parent company.

“One of those tools allowed ByteDance and TikTok employees in the United States and China to collect bulk user information based on the user’s content or expressions, including views on gun control, abortion, and religion,” the filing reads. “Another tool contained policies that allowed both for the collection of bulk user information as well as the triggering of the suppression of content on the platform based on the user’s use of certain words.”

TikTok reiterated its view that the lawsuit is “unconstitutional” and that the DOJ has yet to provide “proof of its claims,” according to their statement on X.

“Nothing in this brief changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side,” TikTok said in a statement on X in response to the court filings. “The TikTok ban would silence 170 million Americans’ voices, violating the First Amendment.”

“As we’ve said before, the government has never put forth proof of its claims, including when Congress passed this unconstitutional law,” TikTok said in the statement. “Today, once again, the government is taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information. We remain confident we will prevail in court.”

The oral arguments for the case are scheduled for Sept. 16, according to the recent court filings.

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