Daniel Hampton

A heated discussion erupted Monday night on CNN over a racially charged attack on Haitian immigrants Wednesday by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA).

The Louisiana lawmaker quietly deleted a social media post dubbing Haitians pet-eating "thugs" after the House's Black Caucus chair told him to take it down.

"These Haitians are wild," Higgins wrote. "Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters... but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP."

Panelists on CNN's "NewsNight" condemned the comments, including Frank Luntz, a conservative pollster and communications strategist.

"We have to be willing to call out members when they do things like this," he said. "It's one of the reasons why I enjoy this show."

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Luntz also called for halting the use of such rhetoric.

"It's gonna be offensive to everyone," he said, later adding: "It's a horrible thing that was said. It should not have been said."

Fellow panelist Gretchen Carlson, a journalist, said Higgins would've been expelled and forced to resign before the Donald Trump era of politics.

"Sorry, I'm really angry about this because we are now at a state in our culture where we just brush this off — even the speaker just said tonight, 'Oh, it's all about redemption. Bygones are bygones,'" she said, mocking House Speaker Mike Johnson. "No, it's not! This is so serious!"

Tara Setmayer, co-founder and CEO of The Seneca Project, agreed with Carlson.

"You know why. Because if they hold these people accountable for the things they say, they have to explain why they support Donald Trump, to your point. And they're all cowards and unwilling to do that. Because it's then revealed for the hypocrites that they are."

Setmayer said she was a Republican Party member for nearly three decades, and people in the party would've stood up and condemned Higgins' comments before Trump.

"That party is dead and gone," she said. "And Clay Higgins is a racist. And has been his entire career, all the way back to when he admitted he voted for David Duke, who at the time was a known Grand Wizard of the KKK."

Setmayer continued laying into Higgins, and urged the party to "call a spade a spade."

Madison Gesiotto, a Trump ally and former RNC National spokesperson, joined the panel in condemning the comments, calling them "wrong" and "quite racist," said, "We can't sit back and say, 'It's ok.'"

The panel shouted at Gesiotto over her comment that she knows no Republicans who stand by the comment, with Setmayer demanding to know if they've spoken out publicly.

Anchor Abby Phillip and Setmayer later strongly pushed back on Republican Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, who tried to say that an influx of temporary status migrants started the saga.

"That's not what started this," Phillips and Setmayer replied, in unison. "What started this was a racist lie that Haitian immigrants were eating pets. That is what started this."

Later in the segment, Setmayer blasted Republicans for perpetuating falsehoods.

"You just repeat the lies and stay on message whether it's true or not," she said, directing her attack at Lanza.

She added that "Neo-Nazis are marching in the streets because of this lie, that you are out here perpetuating," again directing her statement at Lanza.

"That is unacceptable. It's un-American," said Setmayer, later adding that the MAGA perpetuation of the racist theory is "disgraceful."

Watch the heated clips below or at this link.

House Speaker Mike Johnson gave himself a pat on the back on Wednesday as he defended his tenure from critics including firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Johnson told reporters at an impromptu news conference that his speakership term was among the most difficult ever.

"By all admission, this has been one of the most complicated speakerships in the history of the Congress," he said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was on the warpath against Johnson (R-LA) again earlier this month

In an interview with CNN's Manu Raju, Greene declared that she was not at all satisfied with Johnson's plan — which later failed — to attach a new law mandating proof of citizenship as a prerequisite to voter registration to a must-pass government spending bill.

On Wednesday, Johnson pointed to an opinion piece penned by former Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) who, served as House speaker from 1995 to 1999, in which Gingrich said it was the most challenging speakership since the Civil War.

"I want to make something crystal clear: House Speaker Mike Johnson is doing an excellent job," Gingrich wrote earlier this year.

"Lately, far too many people — with no real knowledge about or experience in leading Congress — have had too many criticisms. As a former speaker, I assure you they have no idea how complicated the job really is.

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Mr. Johnson has the most challenging speakership since the Civil War over 150 years ago."

Johnson joked that he called up Gingrich following the piece and asked, "Newt, are you trying to encourage me?"

Gingrich replied that he wanted to make it known Johnson was doing an "excellent job" — and that the the "job has become impossible" given a historically small margin.

"Smallest in U.S. history for about 5 months," Johnson noted. "One-vote margin."

The 2023-25 Congress has a slim Republican majority of 222-213.

"I think we navigated some really difficult terrain in unprecedented and challenging times. And we're going to get through it and we're going to win the election cycle because of that. I intend, having been forced through that fire and developed that leadership, I intend to offer my services for that going forward," he said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

The mayor of New York City has reportedly been indicted in a federal corruption probe.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the indictment against Eric Adams remained sealed. It wasn't immediately known what charges he faces.

Adams is a retired police captain who took office in January 2022 after serving in the New York City Transit Police and later the New York City Police Department for over 20 years.

The Times reported that Adams would become the first New York City mayor to be criminally charged while in office.

ALSO READ: The week Fox News finally faces its reckoning

Adams was reportedly subpoenaed in July as part of a federal investigation into corruption and unlawful campaign donations related to his 2021 campaign.

Investigators have been looking into whether Adams and his campaign schemed with the Turkish government to receive unlawful foreign donations, as well as free flight upgrades Adams received from Turkish Airlines.

They were also looking into whether the fire department was pushed to authorize a new skyscraper consulate for the country in Manhattan facing safety questions.

Three subpoenas were served, the Times reported, seeking an array of materials such as texts, documents and other communications. They reportedly also sought information on the travel of Adams, his aides and others, as well as fundraising activities.

A new billboard greets drivers entering Colorado from the north with a reference to debunked claims peddled by Republicans including former President Donald Trump.

The billboard, placed near the Colorado-Wyoming state line on the busy Interstate 25, reads, "Venezuela Ahead, BE PREPARED," 9News.com reported.

Drivers entering Colorado from Wyoming on Interstate 25 are greeted by a billboard with the Venezuelan flag and the message “Venezuela Ahead, BE PREPARED!”

The billboard said it was paid for by Clipper Properties, LLC, Tim Mellon, Member.

Mellon is reportedly the largest donor to Trump this election cycle, according to the report, which cited information from the nonprofit Open Secrets.

Mellon is the heir to turn-of-the-century tycoon Andrew Mellon's family fortune. He reportedly plunked down $50 million to former President Donald Trump's super PAC in June.

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The report comes as the Republican mayor of Aurora pushed back Tuesday night against the "false" narrative pushed by Trump that the Denver suburb has been taken over by Venezuelan gangs.

Trump name-dropped the city, along with Springfield, Ohio, as examples where illegal immigrants are terrorizing lawful citizens.

"We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums," Trump said at the debate "… You see what's happening with towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. They're going in violently. These are the people that [Vice President Kamala Harris] and [President Joe Biden] let into our country. And they're destroying our country. They're dangerous. They're at the highest level of criminality."

Trump has also said, without evidence, that Venezuelan gangs are "taking over real estate in the city" with weapons that "even our military hasn't seen."

Mayor Mike Coffman joined "Laura Coates Live" said that while the video was "chilling," he said the problem "doesn't exist" in the two apartment complexes referenced.

"To have the narrative that the entire city is overrun by Venezuelan gangs or the entire state, it's simply not true," said Coffman.

A woman has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to charges in what prosecutors said was a neo-Nazi scheme to attack energy substations in the Baltimore area.

Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 36, of Catonsville, Maryland, was sentenced Wednesday and will also have to serve a lifetime of supervised release for conspiring to attack electrical facilities in the state. She is also serving a concurrent 15-year prison sentence for having a gun while being a felon.

Clendaniel met Brandon Russell, of Florida, in 2018, federal prosecutors said. Russell has also been charged with conspiracy to attack electrical facilities in the state and is awaiting trial.

Both espouse white supremacist ideologies and advocate a concept known as “accelerationism,” prosecutors said, meaning they promote a white supremacist belief that the current system is "irreparable and without an apparent political solution, and therefore violent action is necessary to precipitate societal and government collapse," prosecutors said in a news release Wednesday.

ALSO READ: Trump's hate-filled rhetoric and its violent consequences

Their planned attack, which could've resulted in an estimated $75 million in damages, took aim at five substations including “Norrisville, Reisterstown, and Perry Hall.”

Clendaniel said there was a “ring” around Baltimore. If they hit a number of them in one day, they “would completely destroy this whole city.” She added that they needed to “destroy those cores, not just leak the oil . . . ” and that a “good four or five shots through the center of them . . . should make that happen.”

Further, she said: “[i]t would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully.” When CHS-1 asked if it would accomplish a “cascading failure,” Clendaniel replied, “[y]es . . . probably” and that the attack targets are all “major ones.” Clendaniel also said that the most difficult target that they would have to do together has “fire walls on three sides.”

The Republican mayor of Aurora, Colorado, pushed back Tuesday night against the "false" narrative pushed by former President Donald Trump that the Denver suburb has been taken over by Venezuelan gangs.

Trump name-dropped the city, along with Springfield, Ohio, as examples where illegal immigrants are terrorizing lawful citizens.

"We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums," Trump said at the debate "… You see what's happening with towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. They're going in violently. These are the people that [Vice President Kamala Harris] and [President Joe Biden] let into our country. And they're destroying our country. They're dangerous. They're at the highest level of criminality."

Trump has also said, without evidence, that Venezuelan gangs are "taking over real estate in the city" with weapons that "even our military hasn't seen."

The claim stemmed from a real estate management company denying requests to repair buildings in the city, noted CNN anchor Laura Coates on her show Tuesday night.

"They claimed Venezuelan gangs had taken them over," she said. "That claim was then repeated by the mayor and then a city council member."

Mayor Mike Coffman told Fox News on Aug. 29 that there are "several buildings, actually under the same ownership, out-of-state ownership that have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs... They in fact have pushed out the property management through intimidation and collected the rents.”

A viral video then purportedly showed armed men in the apartment complex. When the mayor tried to walk back the claim, she said, the narrative already took hold.

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Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman joined "Laura Coates Live" and said that while the video was "chilling," he said the problem "doesn't exist" in the two apartment complexes referenced.

"To have the narrative that the entire city is overrun by Venezuelan gangs or the entire state, it's simply not true," said Coffman.

Trump's campaign has not reached out to Coffman about a potential visit, but he said with a laugh that he'd like the opportunity to show Trump the city and that "we're not, in fact, some gang-infested city."

"I think that the narrative is hurting us," he said, noting he's received calls from business leaders including a major hotel executive who asked whether the statements were true.

"Having a narrative that's out there that's false isn't helpful," he said.

Even so, Coffman said he has no regrets about how he portrayed the gang rumor from the outset.

"That's the way it was portrayed to me by the law enforcement," he said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

Former President George. W. Bush has so far remained mum about the 2024 election, even as his vice president endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Bush's silence became the topic of discussion on CNN's "NewsNight" on Tuesday night, with a Democratic strategist calling the Republican's refusal to endorse "upsetting."

Anchor Abby Phillip played two clips of Bush in which he asked Americans to be "citizens, not spectators," and to participate in the country's "active public square."

"My hope is you will speak out on issues that matter to you," Bush said in a 2015 clip. "By taking part in American Democracy, you will make our country stronger."

However, in 2024, Bush's office said earlier this month he "retired from presidential politics years ago."

Phillips asked her panel whether Bush bears responsibility or obligation to speak out given many feel democracy is "on the ballot."

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Republican strategist Scott Jennings, who played significant roles in both of Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and later served as a special assistant to the president in 2005, defended his old boss.

"I don't think he has a responsibility to speak out," said Jennings. "Once he left the presidency, he has basically stayed out of politics."

Jennings said Americans "ought to respect" Bush's decision to stay away from politics, contrary to other former presidents.

"He has personally chosen not to wade into this personally and I think we ought to leave him alone about that," said Jennings. "It's his right to do that."

Jennings' answer was met with skepticism from Karen Finney, who worked in Bill Clinton's White House and served as senior advisor for communications and political outreach as well as senior spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

"Hmm," she said, cocking an eyebrow. "You're right it's absolutely his right. You're correct on that. To me, what is more upsetting and disappointing is the fact we were just having a conversation about how low the Republicans can actually go in North Carolina. Lower than many of us ever thought possible. And yet, how about the fact that the former president who is now trying to go back to the White House actually incited an insurrection and violence at our Capitol where people died."

Finney said while Bush doesn't have to speak out, "if you don't speak out, this is what happens to your party."

Watch the clip below or at this link.

Donald Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan appeared on the right-wing media company Newsmax on Tuesday evening to cast doubt on federal law enforcement efforts to investigate an assassination plot against Trump in South Florida.

Ryan Routh was apprehended by the Secret Service after authorities said he tried to attack Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property with a high-powered rifle. Federal prosecutors initially charged him with unlawful gun possession as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Trump has accused prosecutors of deliberately lowballing the charges for political reasons.

Asked whether he has been satisfied with the Department of Justice's efforts to prosecute Routh, Jordan agreed with the former president.

"No, of course not," he told Greta Van Susteren on "The Record."

ALSO READ: Why Trump is barely campaigning

Jordan blasted FBI "retaliation" against whistleblowers who came forward to his subcommittee the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

He said their lives were made a "living hell," including revoked security clearances, and called it a "problem" that the FBI special agent in charge of the assassination investigation at the agency's Miami field office has been tied to those retaliation efforts.

"Should we be surprised? I don't think we should be surprised that the same FBI that spied on Trump's campaign; the same FBI that said, 'If you're a parent showing up at a school board meeting, you need investigating; the same FBI that said if you're a pro-life Catholic you're an extremist; the same FBI that can't tell us who leaked the Dobbs decision, who put the pipe bombs on Jan. 6 at the Capitol and who put cocaine at the White House." said Jordan.

He added: "Should we be surprised that that FBI retaliates against whistleblowers who come give us information?"

That, he said, will be the topic of a scheduled hearing Tuesday.

Jordan said he doesn't believe Americans have "a whole lot of confidence" in Attorney General Merrick Garland's words.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

A former White House staffer for former President Donald Trump scolded her party over what she called it's "infantilizing" comments about women who need a "protector."

In recent days, Trump has tried to push back on claims that he's struggling in the polls with a gender divide.

"I am your protector," Trump said at a rally Monday night in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. "I want to be your protector as president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don't make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn't go, 'Oh, he wants to be their protector.' Well, I am. As president, I have to be your protector."

Appearing on CNN's "AC360," Alyssa Farah Griffin told anchor Anderson Cooper that she initially laughed at the comment.

"I started laughing and thinking it was creepy," she said. "And thinking more about it, it's very infantilizing. Talking about women as though we're weak, we're meek, we need a protector, we need a defender and we just sit around thinking about abortions all day. It just underscores a fundamental lack of understanding for why a demographic that represents half of the country is one that he is struggling so profoundly with."

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Griffin said that if Trump loses, his biggest regret could be not having a woman on the ticket, who "knows how to speak to normal living, breathing, normal women."

She noted that access to reproductive health care matters to women, but economics and national security are also issues women care deeply about.

"And just the way he is talking about them is not the way to sway voters in the middle," she concluded.

Griffin's comments came about an hour after Republican strategist Republican strategist Erin Perrine, who served as principal deputy communications director for Trump, got a "little animated" as she roundly criticized candidates in her party over their remarks attacking or insulting women.

"If a woman is having a miscarriage and bleeding out, that's not a question," she said, emphatically. "That shouldn't be a question in the 21st century and it should not be a question for the Republican Party. And the fact that we have people running for office in the Republican Party who can't state the obvious truth about access to health care when a woman needs her life saved boggles my mind. And I'm getting a little animated here because it actually flabbergasts me that Republicans can't speak the truth on this."

Watch the clip below or at this link.

A Republican strategist unloaded on her party Tuesday evening and accused GOP candidates of failing to speak truth on women's health care.

CNN anchor Erin Burnett played a clip of Sen. J.D. Vance attacking "childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they've made" during an interview with Tucker Carlson, followed by former President Donald Trump's declaration, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" after the artist endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and attached a photo of herself with her cat.

After playing the infamous Access Hollywood tape — in which Trump was recorded saying that when "you're a star" you can do anything, including "grab [women] by the p----" — Burnett questioned why attacking or insulting women is "smart politics for the GOP."

When Burnett asked her panelists to react to a clip of Trump telling women, "I will be your protector," Democratic political commentator Kate Bedingfield called the comments "patronizing" and "a little creepy."

"He does not seem to understand and the Republican Party across the board doesn't seem to understand why they have a problem with women," she said.

Bedingfield, who previously served as the White House communications director during the Biden administration, said Trump and his running mate "talk about women like they don't know any women."

"They talk about women like women are this 'other' like this foreign object. They don't talk about women like they're human! And you constantly hear them degrading women. Suggesting that women over the age of 50 don't have any stake in some of these policy positions. They don't seem to understand that the policies they're putting forward take freedoms away from women."

ALSO READ: Why Trump is barely campaigning

In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, Republican strategist Erin Perrine, who served as principal deputy communications director for Trump, agreed with Bedingfield.

"It's a bit of a head-scratcher that this is the line of attack that Donald Trump and Bernie Moreno are taking," she said.

She said that Republicans are "losing" anytime they aren't talking about immigration and the economy.

Since the Dobbs decision, she said Republicans have "struggled" to give the "easy answer" to women's health care.

"If a woman is having a miscarriage and bleeding out, that's not a question," she said, emphatically. "That shouldn't be a question in the 21st century and it should not be a question for the Republican Party. And the fact that we have people running for office in the Republican Party who can't state the obvious truth about access to health care when a woman needs her life saved boggles my mind. And I'm getting a little animated here because it actually flabergasts me that Republicans can't speak the truth on this."

Watch the fiery response below or at this link.

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer fact-checked a former Republican strategist and frequent commentator during a discussion over the filibuster.

The filibuster allows a minority of senators to block or delay legislation, even if it has majority support. The mechanism has drawn criticism from those who see it as a hindrance to passing important legislation.

Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has called for ending the filibuster so lawmakers can push through her pledge to codify Roe v. Wade and guarantee women's right to an abortion through legislation.

Harris told a radio station in Wisconsin that she supports ending the filibuster "for Roe," saying it would "get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom, and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body – and not have their government tell them what to do."

Harris' comments drew the ire of independent Sen. Joe Manchin, who told CNN's Manu Raju on Tuesday, "Shame on her." Manchin said he can no longer endorse Harris in the race due to her stance on the filibuster.

ALSO READ: Trump's hate-filled rhetoric and its violent consequences

When Blitzer asked his panel to react to Manchin's comments, Republican Scott Jennings, called it "amazing" that Harris wants to end the mechanism given that polls have shown Republicans are in a good position to take control over the chamber.

"They might have 51 or 52, so I was shocked to learn that Kamala Harris wants Republicans to get rid of the filibuster today and do goodness knows what," he said with a laugh. "The dynamic is this: the Republican Party will defend the filibuster and thank God because we do need it."

Jennings praised the mechanism as "one of the last tools in Washington to drive bipartisanship."

"It's how you get bipartisan outcomes in one of the two chambers of Congress," he said.

Jennings then tried to slam Harris for trying to do away with the mechanism for one issue.

"But that's not how it works! You can't get rid of it for one issue!" he exclaimed.

Blitzer was having none of it.

"Yes you can, Scott. They got rid of it for Supreme Court justices," said Blitzer.

Jennings pushed back again, saying if lawmakers get rid of the filibuster it won't be for one issue. But Blitzer continued, noting Harris was very specific in that she wanted to get rid of the filibuster to bring back Roe v. Wade.

Jennings doubled down, however.

"If you think the Senate is going to get rid of it for one issue especially a Senate that's not controlled by Democrats — I just — I find this answer to be a total mess."

He added: "The issue is live. And the issue is we shouldn't be changing the rules of the Senate. It's a terrible idea. She's come out for a terrible idea."

Watch the clip below or at this link.

Comedian Jon Stewart took to "The Daily Show" on Monday to criticize Israel's strategy of "de-escalation through escalation," slamming the phrase as "cognitive dissonance" and "language calisthenics."

Stewart opened his show by criticizing President Joe Biden over the United States' recent insistence that its working tireless toward a ceasefire. He played a montage of Biden repeating his insistence that his administration was working tirelessly toward a ceasefire with Israel and Palestine.

"We're close. We're close," says Biden in various clips.

Stewart points out that in one of the clips, Biden is eating ice cream out of a cone. Stewart grabs a cone of his own — then promptly spits it out as he plays a news clip announcing Israel launched an all-out assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"Wait! We've been working tirelessly towards a ceasefire in Gaza and they're in f---ing Lebanon?" an incredulous Stewart asks.

When he plays a clip of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Lebanon of "wanton rocketing," Stewart hit back.

"What kind of rocketing are you doing in Gaza, if not wanton?" questioned Stewart, to a smattering of applause.

Stewart then turned his focus on Israel's exploding pager attack.

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"Exploding pagers. Ah. Lebanon expecting an attack from the South. Instead, they attacked from the 1980s," he jabbed.

Stewart brought out a pager to explain to viewers under age 45 how the device functions.

"There was a time when we didn't have cellphones, but you still wanted to buy drugs," said Stewart.

Stewart then joked that Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, will use the porn site Nude Africa to conduct its communications in secret. The joke came at the expense of North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who was linked to the site in a CNN report that surfaced comments he is accused of making defending slavery and proclaiming himself a "Black Nazi."

Stewart later scorched the "full cognitive dissonance and language calisthenics that have to be deployed to describe the Middle East."

"I give you the golden soundbite, brought down from Sinai to explain how f---ing convoluted this has to be."

The show then plays a clip of Barak Ravid, politics and foreign policy reporter at Axios, telling CNN that, "what the Israeli government is saying — and the Biden administration is, in many ways, subscribed to this idea, is de-escalation through escalation."

Stewart harshly pushed back on the clip.

"Or as that is sometimes called, war!" he yells. "That is war!"

Stewart then hammered the U.S. for having "no idea" when and where its bombs — which he jokingly re-named, "escalators" — will be detonated.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

A former Democratic lawmaker sparred with a Republican strategist Monday night on CNN over a clip of Donald Trump saying Haitian migrants need to leave the country as MAGA supporters chant "Send them back!"

Former South Carolina Rep. Bakari Sellers squared off against Erin Perrine, press communications director for Trump's 2020 campaign, on CNN's "NewsNight."

Host Abby Phillip played a clip of Trump's event in Pennsylvania earlier Monday in which he asked supporters, "Do you think Springfield will ever be the same? I don't think so. The fact is, I'll say it now, you have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out. I'm sorry."

The crowd then chants, "Send them back!"

The statement comes after Trump and running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, promoted a racist and baseless conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants in the city were abducting and eating peoples' pets.

"He won't let it go," Phillip tells the panel.

ALSO READ: The simple yet powerful way Tim Walz just exposed Donald Trump

"That's embarrassing," said panelist Jamele Hill, contributor at The Atlantic, accusing Trump of putting a "target on that fine community's back."

"A community that has done nothing but contribute and do all the things that you say that you want legal immigrants to do," she said.

When Phillips said Trump was not making a nuanced argument about immigrants or the White House's role in the process of legalization, Sellers said Trump simply isn't able to make a nuanced argument.

Sellers said Trump appeared more disciplined against President Joe Biden. But with the election less than 50 days away and polls showing him in a dead heat with Vice President Kamala Harris, the playbook has changed.

"The playbook is back to the normal isms that Donald Trump uses. He uses racism and xenophobia as political currency. It's us versus them. Do you want your country to become browner, or not?"

He notes that Ukranian and Irish migrants aren't the immigrants facing status questions or calls to "send them back."

Perrine pushed back on Sellers though, noting Trump also uses the term "paddywagons," a term that some in the Irish-American community also find offensive.

Perrine noted she's heard "Lock him up!" chants at Democratic rallies, referring to Trump's criminal cases, and said incendiary rhetoric is a problem on both sides.

Hill and Sellers scoffed at the statement.

"It's not the same," said Sellers, shaking his head.

"It's not even remotely the same," said Hill.

When Perrine tried to clarify she was not trying to commit "What-About-ism," Sellers retorts, "But that's what you did."

As Perrine tries to insist she wasn't saying "one was better than the other," Sellers replies: "I think that's a level of intellectual dishonesty."

"No, I don't think it is," Perrine fires back.

Sellers noted that brown and Black Haitians are coming from a country devastated by natural disasters and political corruption, and are coming to the U.S. to contribute to society.

"The people who they work for say they're good citizens," he said. "The people they pay taxes to say they're good citizens. And then you bastardize them by saying they are the least amount of human beings. By saying they eat our dogs and eat our cats. That is not the intellectual equivalence."

Watch the tense clip below or at this link.

A former White House staffer for Donald Trump said comments made Monday by her old boss reminded her of 2020 whiplash she witnessed of conflicting comments between Trump and his campaign.

During a visit to the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump called the idea of early voting "stupid."

"Now we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early," he told MAGA supporters. "I wonder what the hell happens during those 45 days. 'Let's move the — see these votes? We've got about a million votes. Let's move them. We're fixing the air conditioner in the room' right? No. It's terrible. What happened the last time was disgraceful, including right here."

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins pointed out to a panel on her show, "The Source," that Trump's daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair, Laura Trump, has encouraged people to vote early.

ALSO READ: Inside Trump and Johnson's shocking new bid to suppress women's votes

Reacting to Collins, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in multiple roles during the Trump administration, said a similar conflict happened four years ago. Trump's campaign wanted him to promote early and mail-in voting during the pandemic. But the MAGA leader cast doubt on the legitimacy of the practice.

"He's got something — intellectually, he cannot accept the fact that you can vote early. It can be safe. It can be tabulated. He just has this very arcane way of looking at it," she said.

Trump's messaging also gets to his strategy of casting doubt on the results in case he loses, she said.

"He's incapable of losing and accepting that he lost," said Griffin, adding this is why Trump has blamed Jewish leaders, jabbed at Catholics and cast doubt on the system.

"It's kind of two-fold. He genuinely does not, in my understanding, trust early voting. But he also wants to have something to blame if he loses," she said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.