A crowd of rallygoers in Dearborn, Michigan, waved flags in support of Lebanon and chanted “Death to Israel” in an event attended by Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, while at another rally participants chanted a common threat against Jews.

Multiple events in Dearborn, a suburb west of Detroit, over the last few weeks have highlighted the growing resentment for Israel in the city as Vice President Kamala Harris attempts to shore up support among a fragile coalition in the vital swing state of Michigan.

Hammoud, the city’s mayor, spoke at a Sept. 25 rally in support of Lebanon and slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, which featured chants of “Death to Israel” and demands for Jews to be returned “back to Poland.”

“The reality is, they wish for us to divide ourselves,” Hammoud said at the rally, video of which was reported on by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “But my message is very clear. The values which we advocate for here in Dearborn, we understand, we not only want for the people within the city of Dearborn, but for the people across this globe.”

HARRIS UNVEILS NEW AGENDA AS SHE COURTS BLACK MALE VOTERS

Community leader Osama Siblani helped lead the event, MEMRI reported, introducing Hammoud as “the greatest mayor in the United States of America,” and later praised Nasrallah, the former secretary-general of Hezbollah who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.

“Our martyrs are heroes, our leaders are great,” Siblani said, according to a MEMRI translation of the video. “And first among them, their leader, the great Sayyed, Hassan Nasrallah.” 

The rally was one of several in Dearborn in recent weeks that featured similar rhetoric, highlighting an issue for Harris as she seeks to keep together the voters that helped put President Biden over the top in Michigan just four years ago.

Residents of the town have become increasingly dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, going so far as to launch multiple movements aimed at preventing him from securing the Democratic nomination earlier this year. Leaders of the movements expressed an openness to throwing their support behind Harris after Biden dropped out, though that potential enthusiasm waned as Harris continued to attempt to toe a fine line between support for Israel and sympathy to the plight of Gazans.

While Harris initially attempted to bridge the gap between her campaign and voters in Dearborn, who voted 74% for Biden in 2020, more recent trips to the state have focused on shoring up support among working-class voters in Flint and Detroit.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW 

But it remains to be seen whether that will be enough in Michigan, where recent polling has trended in former President Trump’s direction. According to the Real Clear Politics average on Tuesday, Trump holds a razor-thin lead of just 0.9 points. However, the narrow lead represents a roughly three-point swing from the end of August, when Harris had a 2.2 point lead, according to the Real Clear Politics average.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Meanwhile, Dearborn has seen continued anti-Israel events in recent weeks. At a vigil for Nasrallah at the end of September, MEMRI reported that demonstrators were caught on video chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews,” a common historical threat to Jewish people.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

“’Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return’ is a battle cry repeated by Muslims throughout history that is a specific death threat to Jews. It refers to the attack on the Jewish community of the Bani Qurayza tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, at the Khaybar oasis, when Islam’s Prophet Mohmmad’s army slaughtered 100 Jews who refused to convert to Islam. The others surrendered and agreed to pay a poll tax,” Steven Stalinsky, the executive director of MEMRI, told Fox News Digital. “This explicit call for killing Jews from the heart of Dearborn caught on video is utterly chilling and disturbing. It is an undeniably violent antisemitic chant constituting incitement to genocide.”

At another rally at the center of a MEMRI report over the weekend, people in the crowd were seen holding a sign that depicted Nasrallah making a hand gesture along with the phrase “you will be returned horizontally,” a nod to when the former Hezbollah leader threatened “American soldiers and officers” in the Middle East that they would return home “in a horizontal position,” or “coffins.”

“Under normal circumstances, local authorities would be called on to investigate and act on such incidents,” Stalinsky said. “But considering that these rallies have taken place with the participation of the mayor. as well as of local police officers, judges and other city officials, it will take an investigation on the state level to adequately review these incidents – all of which should be denounced by municipal and local authorities, beginning with the mayor’s office.”

Hammoud’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former President Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, is joining Fox News’ Harris Faulkner in the battleground state of Georgia to speak with an all-female audience about issues that affect them most in a town hall event that will air Wednesday. 

The town hall will be filmed at a venue called the Reid Barn in Cumming, Georgia, on Tuesday and air on Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET on “The Faulkner Focus.” Ahead of the event, Faulkner underscored the importance of the female vote and for presidential candidates to have the opportunity to explain their platforms to the demographic. 

“Women constitute the largest group of registered and active voters in the United States, so it is paramount that female voters understand where the presidential candidates stand on the issues that matter to them most. I am looking forward to providing our viewers with an opportunity to learn more about where former President Trump stands on these topics,” Faulkner said in a Fox News press release. 

Georgia is once again a battleground state where both parties are vying for votes to help determine the election. Trump won the state in 2016 against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The state flipped blue in 2020, with now-President Biden winning the state by 0.23% over Trump.

TRUMP MAKES PLAY FOR WOMEN’S VOTE, VOWS TO ENSURE ‘POWERFUL EXCEPTIONS’ FOR ABORTION

Fox News polling from late last month found that the Democrat nominee, Vice President Harris, had a three-point advantage over Trump.

More Georgia voters reported that Harris is the candidate who will help the middle class and protect democracy by a three-point margin on each issue. She is also seen as more likely to fight “for people like you” by six points.

JD VANCE VOWS TRUMP WOULD NOT IMPOSE FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, VETO IT IF COMES ACROSS DESK

Harris’ largest lead is on handling the issue of abortion, where she is favored by 18 points over Trump. The VP notably received her best numbers from Black voters, urban voters, those under age 30 and women.

The top issues affecting women this cycle, according to Fox polling, include abortion, the economy, immigration and health care. Trump is expected to discuss these issues at length during the town hall.

Abortion has once again featured prominently in this election, with the Harris campaign repeatedly claiming that Trump would roll out a federal ban on abortion if he’s re-elected to the White House.

NEW POLL REVEALS WHICH VOTER GROUP ARE FUELING TRUMP TO A NARROW EDGE OVER HARRIS IN BATTLEGROUND

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have repeatedly pushed back and said there would be no federal abortion ban, noting that after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion laws and rules are left up to individual states.

Late last month, Trump vowed in a lengthy Truth Social post to “protect women at a level never seen before” if elected and to ensure that “powerful exceptions” for abortion are adopted across the nation.

VP KAMALA HARRIS TO SIT DOWN WITH CHIEF POLITICAL ANCHOR BRET BAIER FOR FIRST FORMAL FOX NEWS INTERVIEW

“Women are poorer than they were four years ago, are less healthy than they were four years ago, are less safe on the streets than they were four years ago, are more depressed and unhappy than they were four years ago, and are less optimistic and confident in the future than they were four years ago,” he wrote.

“I will fix all of that, and fast, and at long last this national nightmare will be over,” he said. “Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free!”

Fox News has repeatedly extended a standing town hall event invitation of the same stature to the Harris campaign since August, when she officially became the Democratic Party’s nominee. Harris did accept an invitation for a sit-down interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier early Wednesday evening.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.    

Fox News’ Dana Blanton contributed to this report.

Facing off against former President Trump in a margin-of-error showdown with less than three weeks to go until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her conversations with the media during the final stretch on the campaign.

That effort ramps up a notch on Wednesday, as the vice president is scheduled to sit down in battleground Pennsylvania with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier for an interview that will run on “Special Report” at 6 p.m. ET.

Harris will speak with Fox News following an afternoon campaign event in Bucks County, a crucial swing county in Philadelphia’s northern suburbs.

Baier said the Democratic presidential nominee is expected to sit for approximately 25-30 minutes at around 5 p.m. ET, about an hour before “Special Report” airs live.

HARRIS RAMPS UP OUTREACH TO BLACK MEN AS TRUMP MAKES GAINS

“We are going to run it uninterrupted, unedited, all the way,” Baier said on the eve of the interview.

The vice president’s first formal interview on Fox News will give her a chance to speak directly to viewers across the ideological spectrum who normally don’t watch the rival cable news networks CNN and MSNBC.

“Special Report” is regularly among the most-watched programs on cable news, and the show’s Common Ground segment features political leaders from across the aisle discussing the issues of the day with the goal of finding compromise.

“We have a lot of eyeballs. We have Democrats, independents and Republicans,” Baier said. “We have the biggest cable news audience. And this is probably going to get a lot more eyeballs. I think tough but fair is what I pitched it as. And I think that’s what they’re going to see.”

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

Harris largely avoided interviews after replacing President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket in mid-July. Her first formal sitdown interview – with CNN – didn’t occur until late August. But she has ramped up her media appearances in recent weeks, including interviews with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” ABC’s “The View,” late night talk show host Stephen Colbert, radio personality Howard Stern, and numerous podcasts. Most of those encounters were perceived as friendly interviews.

But the interview with Baier on Fox News may feed the perception that the vice president in the closing stretch of the campaign is open to facing tough questions.

“She knows there are going to be hard questions. She can handle those,” seasoned Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer told Fox News. “Going through that process and handling that, you’re kind of going behind enemy lines a little bit.”

Moyer, a veteran of multiple Democratic presidential campaigns, argued that “doing well in that is a good boost for the campaign, and voters like to know that they’re going to elect somebody who can handle not just the friendly interviews.”

Harris becomes the first Democratic presidential nominee in eight years to sit for an interview on Fox News – 2016 standard-bearer Hillary Clinton spoke with Chris Wallace.

But leading Harris surrogates – including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – have made high-profile appearances on Fox News this summer and autumn.

And Democratic vice presidential nominee, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday” the past two weekends.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW 

Aides to the Harris running mate reached out to Fox News to schedule his second appearance. 

“Folks deserve to hear where we stand on this. Vice President Harris and I have an agenda for, you know, a new way forward, a manufacturing agenda. I was just in Michigan this week. And I think folks are still undecided out there. And I appreciate you. You ask good, hard questions and your viewers get a chance to hear,” Walz told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream this past weekend.

The Harris sitdown with Baier comes the same day that Fox News will run a townhall with Trump, with the former president fielding questions on issues such as abortion and child care from an all-female audience.

The program, recorded on Tuesday in battleground Georgia, will air Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET on “The Faulkner Focus.”

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel demanding it improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk losing crucial security assistance. 

The letter was supposed to be a private, diplomatic communication and was not intended for the public, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said at a press conference Tuesday. 

“What we have seen over the past few months is that the level of humanitarian assistance has not been sustained,” adding, “Ultimately, we did not see our concerns sufficiently addressed, which is why the two secretaries sent the letter they did,” Miller warned.

ISRAELI MILITARY KILLS 250 HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS SINCE START OF LIMITED GROUND OPERATION IN LEBANON

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby tried to assuage fears and told reporters that the letter was not meant as a threat. “The letter was simply meant to reiterate the sense of urgency we feel and the seriousness with which we feel about the need for an increase, dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance. And that’s what you can do with your friend. That’s what you can do with your ally. And it’s not the first time we’ve communicated that to Israel. But hopefully we won’t have to communicate it again.”

Some critics took issue with the letter not being a threat. 

“I’m not sure which is worse to consider, that threatening an ally is a necessary pre-election political theater to pacify radical pro-Hamas leftists or that it’s actually U.S. policy to cut off arms to Israel if Israel doesn’t agree to feed, fuel and fund Hamas,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former NSC official in the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.

“Because let’s be clear, that’s what this is really all about – whether Hamas survives by controlling humanitarian aid and its distribution,” Goldberg said.

The letter, which was first obtained by Axios, expressed its “deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza” and is particularly concerned that recent actions by the Israeli government, including halting commercial imports and denying or impeding nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza in September, are “contributing to an accelerated deterioration in the conditions in Gaza.”

YAZIDI WOMAN HELD HOSTAGE FOR 10 YEARS IN GAZA RESCUED IN ISRAEL, US OPERATION

Since assurances made by Israel last spring, which the letter acknowledges produced important improvements in the humanitarian situation, the amount of aid delivered to Gaza has dropped by 50% in September, the lowest amount of aid delivered in any month since the war began.

The letter says Israel has within 30 days to “reverse the downward humanitarian trajectory” and remain consistent with its obligations to the U.S. Failure to comply with these demands, the letter said, would violate existing U.S. law and have serious implications for U.S. national security policy.

Israel has defended its humanitarian response to the crisis in Gaza in a statement released on Monday by COGAT, the army division that deals with aid to Gaza, stating, “Since the start of the war, Israel has allowed the international community to bring 54,270 aid trucks into Gaza, carrying 1,064,820 tons of humanitarian aid through various crossings, including 38,746 trucks carrying approximately 824,078 tons of food.”

KIRBY: ‘NO USE IN RESPONDING’ TO A ‘HANDFUL OF VETS’ ON BIDEN’S BOTCHED AFGHAN WITHDRAWAL

The U.S. must continually assess the delivery of humanitarian aid under the Foreign Assistance Act in order to provide foreign military financing assistance to Israel. President Biden issued a memorandum in February stating countries receiving U.S. weapons must adhere to international humanitarian law and provide written assurances of their compliance under the laws of war.  

The U.S. has surged billions of dollars in security aid to Israel since the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel is also the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding and has received around $310 billion in economic and military aid. On average, the U.S. provides Israel with over $3 billion in security assistance a year. 

NETANYAHU HITS BIDEN ADMIN, SAYS ISRAEL – NOT US – WILL DECIDE HOW TO HANDLE IRAN

A major component of security aid includes $500 million a year for joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs, notably the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow II, which have been critical to thwarting rocket and missile attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran since Oct. 7.

Some of the military aid to Israel since Oct. 7 includes 13,981 120mm M830A1 high-explosive anti-tank multi-purpose with tracer (MPAT) tank cartridges, 500 aircraft deliveries and 107 sea shipments to Israel of over 50,000 tons of munitions and weapons systems, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The U.S. also announced that it would be sending military personnel and initial components necessary to operate the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to Israel to bolster the country’s security.

“The deployment of the THAAD battery to Israel underscores the United States’ commitment to the defense of Israel and to defend Americans in Israel from any ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” the Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, said in a statement.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, over 40,000 people have been killed since the start of hostilities following the terror group’s massacre of Israelis last October. Some 1,200 Israelis were massacred and 257 were kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. All of Gaza’s 2.1 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance and 1.9 million people are internally displaced, according to the International Rescue Committee.

Government agencies are pointing fingers over how an Afghan national, who is now charged with plotting an Election Day terror attack, was allowed into the U.S. and when he was allegedly radicalized — as lawmakers are pushing for more information.

Authorities last week announced the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who is accused of plotting an Election Day terror attack inspired by ISIS. 

Tawhedi is charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and receiving a firearm to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism. Court documents say he liquidated his family’s assets to finance his plan, including purchasing rifles and one-way tickets for his wife and child back to Afghanistan.

AFGHAN CHARGED WITH ELECTION DAY TERROR PLOT RAISES QUESTIONS, FEARS FROM LAWMAKERS: ‘THIS IS REAL’ ’

Tawhedi came to the U.S. in Sept. 2021 amid a mass evacuation effort as the Taliban took back Afghanistan. The U.S. would go on to admit more than 97,000 Afghan evacuees, of which about 77,000 were admitted via humanitarian parole.

Court filings initially stated that he came on a special immigrant visa but have since clarified that he came to the U.S. via humanitarian parole and later applied for SIV status. Parole requires a less intense vetting than the SIV process.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas initially refused to answer questions at a White House briefing last week. But a senior administration official told Fox News that Tawhedi was screened three times. He was screened first to work security for the CIA in Afghanistan, then for humanitarian parole to enter the U.S. in 2021, when he was vetted and screened in a third country, and then for special immigrant status, for which he was approved. His status has not yet been finalized.

Officials said they believe he was radicalized after coming to the U.S. and that there was no indication that there were any red flags to bar his entry.

But then the government blame game began on the question of when he was radicalized. Fox News is told that the FBI is still putting together specifically when he was radicalized, and if he fell through the cracks.

“The Department of Homeland Security is directly contradicting the State Department in terms of who vetted who,” Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., told Fox News. “I think all of us involved know that the vetting wasn’t as it should have been. They got out a lot of the wrong people and left behind the right people.”

DHS said it did everything by the book.

MAYORKAS REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ON AFGHAN ACCUSED OF ELECTION DAY TERROR PLOT

“When we vet and we do so intensively when we vet an individual, it’s a point-in-time screening and vetting process. If we obtain information subsequently that suggests the individual could be of danger, we take appropriate law enforcement action. That is exactly what we did in this case,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said this weekend on CBS News. When asked about his radicalization, Mayorkas said he wouldn’t speak to that as it was an “ongoing investigation.”

Fox News reported on Monday that two Oklahoma senators had received briefings from the DOJ but Rep. Stephanie Bice has not and has complained about a lack of information. Tawhedi was arrested in Oklahoma.

After the briefing, both senators expressed concern that another attack could be looming.

AFGHAN NATIONAL CHARGED WITH ELECTION DAY TERROR PLOT REIGNITES VETTING CONCERNS

“There was a vulnerability that was left that was able to be taken advantage of by, in this case, ISIS. It could be Taliban next time. It could be any other terrorist organization out there. And what I fear… is this is just one of probably tens, I wouldn’t say hundreds, but tens of more individuals that are in the same situation,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Fox News.

“This is real. And we have people that are trying to be able to kill us that are within our own country, they’re planning,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News. “An open border is a danger. We’ve seen that already, that we’re living on borrowed time through this moment.”

Fox News’ Chad Pergram and Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.

The U.S. is now more deeply entrenched in the conflict in the Middle East after a pivotal move to send troops to Israel was announced this week. 

On Monday, the Biden administration revealed it would offer Israel one of the U.S.’s highly sophisticated THAAD missile defense systems – as Israel braces for potential Iranian retaliation to the counter-attack it is planning after Tehran rained down missiles on Tel Aviv on Oct. 1. 

Only U.S. troops can operate the system, and 100 of them will deploy to Israel. The Pentagon only has seven operable Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries in its possession, and the one offered to Israel would presumably be among the seven. 

Though Washington has armed Israel throughout its existence, putting boots on the ground for Israel’s defense is a rare departure from U.S. policy and the first U.S. deployment there since the outbreak of war after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. 

“It’s a bit unprecedented,” said EJ Kimpton, policy director at the U.S. Israel Education Association. 

“Israel’s mantra has been, you know, with ‘Never Again,’ meaning we will defend ourselves by ourselves, obviously working with allies, but that we should be able to defend our country and not be dependent upon others,” Kimpton went on. “It changes the dynamic between the U.S. and Israel in Israel’s war fighting over the years.”

“This would be the first time that U.S. personnel would be actively engaged in essentially fighting a war with Israel if Iran were to carry out additional strikes.”  

NETANYAHU HITS BIDEN ADMIN, SAYS ISRAEL – NOT US – WILL DECIDE HOW TO HANDLE IRAN

From pushing Israel to a cease-fire, the U.S. has pivoted to containing the war in the Middle East, to seemingly accepting the fate of U.S. involvement in the conflict. 

The U.S. has some 43,000 troops deployed elsewhere in the Middle East and recently sent a “few thousand” to the region within the last few weeks to be ready to defend Israel if necessary.  

“It’s inescapable to see it as anything else [than escalation], the United States is now actually sending troops. We did not do that in Ukraine,” Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Fox News Digital. 

Sending U.S. troops to Ukraine is a non-starter in American discourse – a popular refrain among supporters is that such aid will prevent U.S. troops from ever having to put themselves in Russia’s line of fire. 

“We may end up having American casualties, and to put soldiers in that type of vulnerable situation for something that is not the defense of the United States itself, I think, is a very serious step taken by the administration,” said Parsi.

In the past, Iranians have targeted military installations, including Israeli air defense systems. The THAAD system is expected to be able to intercept ballistic missiles launched from Iran and Yemen and shoot down any short-range missiles launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon. 

Others question why the administration is supplying the system with no real off-ramp to the conflict or U.S. involvement in it. Israel’s mission to eradicate Hezbollah and Hamas has now drawn it into direct conflict with Iran, and hope for peace anytime soon appears to have faded.

“Why are we keeping U.S. troops in harm’s way in Iraq and Syria with no clear mission or defensive strategy, while deploying critical defense systems like THAAD to Israel?” Jason Beardsley, senior coalitions adviser to Concerned Veterans for America, questioned. 

“The reality is, we’re funding both sides of this conflict – directly aiding Iraq, whose Iranian-backed militias target our forces, and indirectly supporting Israel’s defense without addressing the real vulnerability: U.S. personnel scattered across the Middle East, with Iran’s proxies actively targeting our troops.”

IDF MEETS LITTLE RESISTANCE FROM HEZBOLLAH AFTER WEEKS OF HITTING TERROR TARGETS, OFFICIALS SAY

The U.S. has some 2,500 troops in Iraq leading a coalition that provides extensive support to the Iraqi Security Forces to fight ISIS. But Iran has already tightened its grip on Baghdad and the mission its forces carry out. 

The THAAD will assist Israel’s other missile defenses in what could be the Biden administration bracing for escalation: an aggressive counter-attack from Iran to an aggressive counter-attack from Israel. 

For two weeks, the world has waited to see how Israel responds to the 200 missiles Iran fired at the heart of Tel Aviv. 

A violent showing from Israel might deter Iran from wanting to pick a larger battle. But in the Biden administration’s view, a disproportionate response risks a tit-for-tat that could lead to all-out war. 

President Biden may have offered the system as a way to coax Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to follow his recommendation: to make sure Israel’s counterstrike to Iran’s missile attacks is “proportional” – by going after military installations – not nuclear or oil facilities. 

“I think the administration may be thinking that by offering this, they can convince the Israelis not to go that far,” said Parsi. 

“If you truly want to put an end to this, then sending the same system that actually makes it easier for Israel to escalate is not the answer…  Sometimes, it’s really difficult to discern who is actually making the policy and what is the policy.”

Netanyahu told Biden he was willing to strike military facilities when they spoke on the phone last week, according to a Washington Post report. But after that report, Netanyahu said in a statement he would not be making any decisions based on Biden’s insistence on proportionality. “We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest.”

Welcome to the Fox News’ Politics newsletter, with the latest political news from Washington, D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

Here’s what’s happening…

-Trump says ‘I don’t care when you vote’ in new House GOP ad urging voters to turn out early

-Top outside group backing Senate Republicans showcases fundraising haul

-Harris holds big advantage among early voters, Trump with Election Day voters: poll

Former Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade left Capitol Hill on Tuesday after a marathon four-and-a-half hour grilling by House Judiciary Committee investigators.

Wade, whose legal team included former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, said little to reporters before, after and during his closed-door deposition. No lawmakers were seen entering or leaving the room.

“This is all I’m going to say – we gave our testimony, we cooperated and we are through,” Barnes told reporters after the session…Read more

MICROMANAGER-IN-CHIEF?: Netanyahu states that his regime, not the US, will decide how to retaliate against Iran…Read more

CHECK THE TAPE: Speaker Johnson accuses CBS of ‘selectively editing’ interview on heels of VP Harris ’60 Minutes’ controversy…Read more

‘I’M PRAYERFUL’: Nancy Pelosi admits she still hasn’t spoken to President Biden after pressuring him to drop out of the race…Read more

‘BIGGEST CHALLENGE’: The biggest challenge right now is fuel’: Rep. Greg Steube of Florida talks hurricane aftermath…Read more

WHO’S MORE ACCESSIBLE?: Trump-Vance ticket has done combined 78 interviews since August compared to 42 for Harris-Walz…Read more

BLUE ALERT: Popular PA Democratic mayor warns Trump is ‘out-messaging’ Harris: ‘I get more from Colbert’…Read more

‘PARTY OF COMMON SENSE’: Trump says GOP is ‘party of common sense’ during contentious Bloomberg interview…Read more

BIDENS ON THE TRAIL: President and first lady campaign in the biggest of the battlegrounds…Read more

EV TROUBLES: Harris support for EVs could tank campaign in critical swing state, expert says…Read more

‘AT LEAST AFFORD GROCERIES’: ‘I was much better off’: These voters back Trump in top battleground county…Read more

CHARGED UP: ‘Ruining our car industry’: Biden-Harris EV regs prove flashpoint in Michigan Senate debate…Read more

CUT SHORT: Trump cuts Pennsylvania town hall short over medical emergencies in crowd…Read more

SPARKS FLY: CNN anchor and Rep. Waltz clash over Harris ‘socialist’ label, networks likening Trump to Hitler…Read more

‘THIS IS THE PRICE OF LAWFARE’: Classified docs case dismissal means ‘greatest’ legal ‘threat’ to Trump is ‘gone’…Read more

MORE THAN A ‘HANDFUL?’: New report warns bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang’s footprint will remain in US ‘for decades’…Read more

JUDGE RULES: Georgia judge rules election officials must certify vote counts, even if they suspect fraud…Read more

‘COLLECTIVE FAILURE’: Outlet deletes review of Oct. 7 doc after backlash for complaining that film depicts Hamas too negatively…Read more

ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS: Hamilton College student admits to posting ‘antisemitic remarks’ on campus, New York State Police say…Read more

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

A hearing was held Tuesday in a key Georgia county’s lawsuit against the State Elections Board (SEB), roughly three weeks until voters head to the polls on Nov. 5.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney is overseeing the case filed by the Cobb County Board of Elections earlier this month. The bipartisan board is taking issue with a set of new rules imposed by the SEB, including a measure to require county election workers to hand count ballots after polls close to ensure accurate machine tabulation.

The rule has also sparked a lawsuit filed by Georgia Democratic officials, which is set for a hearing on Wednesday.

Cobb County is a majority suburban area anchored by the city of Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta.

GEORGIA GOP CHAIR SHARES 2-PRONGED ELECTION STRATEGY AS TRUMP WORKS TO WIN BACK PEACH STATE

During the Tuesday hearing, attorneys for the SEB argued that there were no limitations on when election rules can be passed and pointed out that the specific hand-counting rule applies only to the ballots themselves, not tallying individual votes cast on the ballots.

“All we are doing is saying, you need to [have] receipts of votes cast, mirror the number that the machine says were cast,” the lawyer said.

But McBurney noted that it was “late in the game” for the SEB to change election rules but also conceded that, in a vacuum, wanting to ensure that the number of ballots cast matched the machine-count was a “laudable goal.”

GEORGIA DEMS CHAIR REVEALS MESSAGE TO UNDECIDED GOP VOTERS AS HARRIS WORKS TO BUILD BROAD BASE

“Why wouldn’t we just pause, especially on the hand-count rule, given what looks like a fairly robust record of chaos that it is sowing?” the judge asked the defendants’ lawyer.

“I’m asking you from a practical perspective, if the goal is orderly, reliable elections, why the prudent — in terms of reasonableness approach — wouldn’t be to say, ‘Let’s try this next election,’ when all those questions can be answered with no one having to sue?” 

Republican Party officials have held the rule up as a critical guardrail to ensuring voters can be confident in their elections, but Democrats contend that its goal is to foment doubt in the process.

The Cobb County lawsuit argued the rules put elections boards across the state in “an untenable position.”

An attorney in support of the plaintiffs later pointed out the state officials who have come out in opposition to the rules changes, including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“All of them are concerned about the impact of this rule,” the lawyer said.

TRUMP VS HARRIS ROUND 2? VOTERS IN KEY GA COUNTY REVEAL IF THEY WANT SECOND DEBATE

“It would be one thing in an ideal sterile environment to have people who are fresh and energized sit down and count ballots… That’s not how this is going to play out. In reality, as our petitioner affidavits reference, poll workers get to their polls as early as 5 a.m., 5:30, 6 a.m. They stay as late as 8 p.m., 10 p.m. And so we’re talking about adding something on top of an already 14- to 16-hour day when people are exhausted.”

McBurney pointed out that it could then be done the next day, to which the attorney responded, “But then there are challenges that come with that as well, Your Honor.”

The judge said the hand-counting ballots rule “does not directly interfere with the certification work going on” but that it “will be a resource drain, no question.”

But the SEB attorney later criticized the plaintiffs’ arguments as conjecture.

“All that it says over and over again is, quote, ‘I am concerned about the rule’s last minute adoption….I am concerned that the Cobb County Elections Office lacks space. I am concerned that the hand-count rule may lead to delays,” he said. 

“It is hypothetical on top of conjecture, on top of speculation. There is no imminent threat here. There is a threat of potential things that might happen if the worst-case scenario comes up, and that’s simply not sufficient for declaratory judgment.”

McBurney heard the case the same day as he issued a decision in a separate Georgia elections case, ruling that county elections supervisors are not allowed to delay certification of results on the grounds of their own suspicions of fraud or mistakes.

There are a flurry of lawsuits expected around the vote count and voter access this election, as there are virtually every presidential election cycle.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

More than 230 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are calling on former President Trump to release his medical records after Vice President Kamala Harris did so.

In an open letter dated Oct. 13, first reported by CBS News, the health care providers raise concerns about Trump’s advanced age and argue that the 78-year-old Republican nominee should be transparent about his health and medical history. 

“On August 20, Donald Trump said he would ‘very gladly’ release his medical records. In the 55 days since, he has yet to do so,” the letter states. “With no recent disclosure of health information from Donald Trump, we are left to extrapolate from public appearances. And on that front, Trump is falling concerningly short of any standard of fitness for office and displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity.” 

Most of the signatories support Harris for president. The letter asserts that Trump appears to “ramble, meander, and crudely lash out at his many perceived grievances” during his campaign events and questions whether this behavior is the result of cognitive changes associated with old age. 

HARRIS GOADS TRUMP TO RELEASE MEDICAL RECORDS AFTER SHE GETS CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH FROM PERSONAL PHYSICIAN

“The American people deserve to have confidence in their elected officials’ mental and physical capacity to do the jobs that they’ve elected them to do. Trump ought to be going above and beyond to provide transparency on his physical health and mental acuity, given his advancing age.” 

The letter comes while Harris is goading Trump into releasing his health information after the White House put out a “Healthcare Statement” on Saturday that declared her to be in “excellent health.”

WHITE HOUSE CORRECTS RECORD ON BIDEN’S PHYSICIAN, PARKINSON’S EXPERT MEETING, SAYS IT WAS FOR PRESIDENT’S CARE

The statement from Harris’ doctor also indicated she had her most recent annual physical exam in April of this year. Trump released his own health records while campaigning in 2016, and once he took over the White House he continued the trend. In August, with the 2024 election quickly approaching, Trump told CBS News that he would release updated medical records to the public. However, he has yet to do so, with roughly three weeks until Election Day.

“He won’t put out his medical records,” Harris said Monday morning during an interview with podcast host Roland Martin. She also slammed Trump for refusing to debate a second time and questioned why Trump’s “staff” would not allow him to do an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” particularly when it is tradition for both presidential candidates to do a sit down with the show.

WHITE HOUSE RELEASES MEDICAL REPORT ON VP KAMALA HARRIS

“It may be because they think he’s just not ready and unfit and unstable and should not have that level of transparency for the American people,” Harris suggested.

The Trump campaign responded by pointing out several times the former president has voluntarily released updates about his health. They also noted that he shared records from a July screening conducted by Dr. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician turned GOP congressman, following the second assassination attempt on his life. 

“All have concluded [Trump] is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. “He has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history.” Meanwhile, Cheung slammed Harris as being “unable to keep up with demands of campaigning,” arguing that compared to Trump her schedule “is much lighter because, it is said, she does not have the stamina of President Trump.”

Trump himself reacted to Harris’ medical statement on social media, calling it “really bad.” 

“With all of the problems that she has, there is a real question as to whether or not she should be running for President!” he wrote. “MY REPORT IS PERFECT – NO PROBLEMS!!!”

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

A judge in a key battleground state has ruled that county election officials must certify results by the legal deadline even if they suspect fraud or mistakes.

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney of Fulton County, Georgia, ruled that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.” 

The officials do have the right to investigate their concerns about the vote count and to review related documents, McBurney wrote, but “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”

Election results must be certified by Georgia’s individual counties by 5 p.m. the Monday or Tuesday after the race.

The ruling was handed down the same day Peach State residents head to the polls for early in-person voting, which runs from Oct. 15 through Nov. 1.

The suit was filed by Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections member Julie Adams and backed by America First Policy Institute, a conservative group aligned with former President Donald Trump.

Adams had voted against certifying the presidential primary results in May. She then sued the Fulton County elections board, arguing she was not able to fulfill her duties as a superintendent after a documents request was denied, and that she was within her rights to not certify the results. 

Adams had requested further documentation related to the election, ahead of the certification deadline, to confirm accuracy of the results. Fellow county officials denied her request, however, arguing that certification was a mandatory facet of her role and that the request was outside her scope of duties.

Her other colleagues on the panel voted to certify the primary results.

In his ruling, McBurney wrote that nothing in Georgia law gives county election officials the authority to determine that fraud has occurred or what should be done about it.

Instead, he wrote, the law says a county election official’s “concerns about fraud or systemic error are to be noted and shared with the appropriate authorities but they are not a basis for a superintendent to decline to certify.”

Georgia, a swing state that President Biden won by less than 1% in 2020, is a hotbed for election lawsuits as Republican and Democratic officials battle over voter access and election security there and in other battlegrounds.

There are multiple lawsuits challenging a new measure passed by the State Board of Elections that would require county officials to hand-count ballots after they are tabulated by a machine on election night.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.