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AOC’s ‘modern-day lynchings’ claim torn to shreds online as Black hanging case findings tell a different story
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., warned Friday of "racial terror" and "widespread modern-day lynchings" in the U.S. as she joined dozens of Democrats demanding that the DOJ and FBI investigate hanging deaths of Black Americans.
Multiple official findings in several recent cases show that law enforcement or medical examiners ruled the deaths suicides, while at least one very recent death remains under a homicide investigation.
AOC alleges there is systemic racial bias at the agencies, while fellow progressive lawmaker Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., called the hangings a "national crisis" in a letter to the agencies that she spearheaded.
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"This year, there have already been 10 reported hangings of Black people in the U.S. I’ m proud to have signed onto Rep. Pressley’s letter to address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X in support of the call.
Pressley warned in her letter that "Black folks are being found hanged in America" and insisted: "We cannot stand by while strange fruit hangs from trees across the country."
The letter, addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, was signed by Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and about 50 Democrats. They demanded a "thorough, transparent, and comprehensive federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black individual across the United States," arguing that federal agencies have failed for decades to adequately investigate such deaths.
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One 2026 case involved the death of a 21-year-old Atlanta man who had gone missing. He was later found hanging from a tree in a Cobb County park, where officials ruled out foul play and deemed the death a suicide, according to Atlanta’s NBC affiliate.
Another 2026 case involved Delta State University student Demartravion Reed in Mississippi. Officials "determined the cause of death to be a hanging and the manner of death as suicide."
At the time, the case reopened old memories of the murder of Emmett Till, according to reports. Till was a Black teen kidnapped and murdered by White men not far from the site after he was falsely accused of flirting with a White woman in 1955.
15-YEAR-OLD BLACK TEEN'S MURDER REVEALS THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT WHITE GUILT IN AMERICA
A Grio report on Pressley’s letter also referenced the hanging deaths of a 58-year-old man in Albany, N.Y., and a 39-year-old man in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
The Albany Police Department said Earl Smith’s death was "ruled a suicide" and investigators found "no evidence" of criminal activity.
"The Albany Police Department is aware of concerns posted on social media suggesting that criminal activity was involved with this incident, which has understandably caused public concern," the department said.
A preliminary investigation of the Wisconsin man’s death also indicated suicide, according to Brookfield’s police chief cited by the Waukesha County Freeman.
At least one case remains under homicide investigation, according to reports.
Tasia Fortune was found hanging outside an abandoned house in Jackson, Mississippi, CNN reported Thursday. Authorities later questioned Terence Bernard Anderson, the father of one of her children, and arrested him on unrelated weapons charges, according to several reports.
The lawmakers’ characterization also drew criticism on social media.
"Those community notes are stacking up," one critic said, as X’s crowdsourced correction indicator included several wire reports and media links disputing Ocasio-Cortez’ claims.
"There should be some sort of penalty for willfully lying on social media, especially for a politician," another claimed.
Former Energy Department official Matt Van Swol posted to X, "In the last ‘lynching’ of a Black woman, the media conveniently left out the prime suspect in the case was her Black boyfriend. Zero White people are lynching Black people in America today."
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Former Senate staffer Matt Whitlock added that "every death is a tragedy, but what do you think ‘widespread’ means if only one of these was actually a homicide. Not sure you’ve landed the point about ‘racial terror’ with this."
X’s crowdsourced Community Notes feature also pointed readers to law-enforcement and medical-examiner findings in several of the cases, stating that most high-profile hanging deaths it identified in 2025 and 2026 had been ruled suicides and that one remained under homicide investigation.
Fox News Digital reached out to Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, the DOJ and the FBI for comment.
9/11 sent them to war. 25 years later, veterans grapple with what followed
John Byrnes was swimming in a pool beneath Hunter College in Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he stepped outside for coffee and heard sirens blaring down Lexington Avenue.
He learned that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Minutes later, he saw the North Tower collapse on a campus television and immediately headed toward his National Guard armory.
Byrnes spent the next two weeks helping secure Ground Zero. And spent the following years in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Each of the five veterans who spoke with Fox News Digital ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 remembers where they were when they learned the nation had been attacked — and how Sept. 11 changed the trajectory of their life and service.
Some were already in uniform. Others, including a successful businessman and a teenager who watched the attacks unfold on television at his school, felt compelled to enlist.
Looking back 25 years later, Byrnes draws a sharp distinction between the wars, including the decision to respond to the terrorist attacks and the choices that followed to continue the war on terror.
"The decision to go to Afghanistan, that was absolutely necessary," Byrnes, who is now a strategic director at Concerned Veterans for America, told Fox News Digital. "The decision to go to Iraq, which was not necessary."
"The decision to stay in Afghanistan for so long was unfortunate, but it all came down to that day."
"The decisions that didn’t seem wrong at the time were just pebble after pebble into an avalanche," he said.
Veterans who spoke to Fox News Digital all went to war believing they were protecting Americans by keeping the fight "over there." Twenty-five years later, they remain proud that they answered that call. Their harder questions are about what came afterward: how the mission expanded, what two decades of war accomplished and whether the country ultimately made good on the sacrifices it asked of them — and the people of Afghanistan.
Chris Hoff was working for the state Department of Corrections while studying to become a special-education teacher in his post-military service life. For him, the decision to return to service came as he watched the towers fall from the New Jersey shoreline.
"When September 11th happened, I knew right then and there that I was going back in the military," Hoff told Fox News Digital.
He returned to the reserves and deployed to Afghanistan twice. During his second deployment, he suffered multiple concussions and was ultimately forced to end his military career.
"For 20 years, all I knew was prison and war," Hoff said. "And I was good at both of them."
When he could no longer continue in either career, Hoff said he felt as though he had failed. But he credits connecting with the Wounded Warrior Project and beginning equine therapy for ultimately saving his life.
Hoff now shares his story in hopes other veterans will seek help sooner.
"If I can help just one soldier... get help," he said, "it’s okay to get help. It truly is. I’m glad I did."
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., now serving his first term in Congress, was moose hunting in remote Alaska when he first learned that the World Trade Center had been attacked.
He had been dropped in the bush with only an aviation radio, and no planes had flown overhead for days. When a pilot finally reached the hunting party, Downing learned that both towers had fallen.
"This country has been good to me," Downing recalled thinking at the time when learning about the attack on U.S. soil. "What have I ever done to deserve it? We’re being attacked right now. Everything that this country stands for is being attacked. And I’ve never done anything to deserve this."
Downing, the son of a single teenage mom, grew up poor. He went on to teach at New York University and help build a technology startup that became Yahoo.
He was 34, with no prior military service, when he returned home and walked into a recruiter’s office the next day. Downing joined the Air National Guard and served in combat search and rescue, including during two deployments to Afghanistan.
The way the war ended did not change Downing’s view of the decision to serve. But it did shape how he viewed what the country ultimately did with that service.
Downing called the withdrawal under former President Joe Biden "a blemish" that "squandered everything that we gained there." He urged veterans not to conclude that their own sacrifices had been in vain.
"I just want to make sure that my brothers and sisters in arms, the folks that have served this mission, understand that they served this country and they served honorably," Downing told Fox News Digital. "And not think just because of that one misstep that it was in vain because you stepped up to the dotted line when your country asked you to."
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Brandon Newberry has wrestled directly with that question.
Just 16 years old when he walked out of gym class and saw news coverage of the World Trade Center falling on a TV in his Spanish classroom, Newberry said: "I just felt lost and hopeless."
"I wanted to do something," he went on. "I wanted to help. I knew there were people suffering, people dying and it hurt me really bad."
Newberry joined the Marine Corps in 2006 because he believed the branch would put him closest to the fight. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and later served two tours in Afghanistan.
"My whole philosophy behind it was take the fight to them," Newberry told Fox News Digital. "As long as I kept it in their backyard, they couldn’t put it in our backyard."
Newberry said he spent roughly seven years in Afghanistan, including time as a government contractor after leaving the Marines. The years there gave him a close view of the Afghan people and the changes he believed had taken place while U.S. forces were in the country.
"At the time, women were allowed to go to school. We had women doctors," he said. "They didn’t have that fear of the unknown, as long as we were there trying to help them out."
Newberry said the U.S. "fumbled the ball" and could have done more to establish a lasting government and security force before leaving.
"It could have definitely been done better," he said.
He also felt the conclusion of the two-decade war was a tragedy. "The withdrawal hurt us military guys. I lost a lot of good friends, and it hurts."
The ending, Newberry said, raised a more personal question about the years he had spent there: "I almost feel like everything that I did was almost for nothing because, again, I feel like at this point I failed the Afghan people."
Michael Matthews was already serving in the Army when the attacks happened that fateful day in 2001. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 with one of the first divisions to cross the border from Kuwait. His team was later hit by an IED.
Matthews suffered injuries to his face, neck, head, back, arms and legs, spent three and a half weeks in a coma and remained hospitalized for nearly nine months.
He had hoped to make a career of military service, but the injuries forced him onto a different path.
"It just ultimately changed the trajectory of what my goal was, which was to, of course, do this amazing life in the military and make a huge career out of it," Matthews told Fox News Digital.
Instead, Matthews said the experience also gave him a new purpose: "Helping veterans and helping the community."
For the men who served, questions about the wars do not necessarily translate into regret over their own decision to fight.
Byrnes said one of the central lessons of the post-9/11 wars is that military and political leaders must look beyond the immediate objective — and be willing to acknowledge when a strategy is not working.
"You can never admit failure," Byrnes said. "You always want to, no matter how bad things were, set the positive note. You tell the boss you’re winning until somebody else comes to take your place so you can get promoted without saying that you’re not winning."
But 25 years after the attacks, the veterans’ reflections resist a simple judgment on the wars that followed.
They describe pride in having served despite the physical and psychological wounds, expressed frustration over the decisions that prolonged or expanded the wars, and issued sharply different conclusions about what the United States ultimately accomplished in its 20-year endeavor in the Middle East.
Matthews put that tension simply.
"We’re proud of what we did," he said. "Even though we may not have fully understood what we were doing or why we were doing it."
'Feels like yesterday': 9/11 victim's daughter says families still fighting for justice 25 years later
DALLAS - Twenty-five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Angela Mistrulli said, "It feels like forever, but it also feels like yesterday."
Mistrulli, whose father was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City, is the founder of American Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism (AVSSTU), which represents victims and families impacted by terrorist attacks.
She spoke with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the Republican midterm convention, where she and other 9/11 family members, Gold Star families, and families of civilian victims were pressing to meet with political leaders on an urgent mission as the clock ticked towards a critical deadline.
"Congress created the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (USVSST Fund). It was supposed to be a place for all victims to be able to go and receive some sort of relief. It was a lifeline to over 22,000 victims," Mistrulli explained. "Unfortunately, that fund has run dry, and September 30th is the fiscal deadline for Congress to act in order for victims to receive relief."
Established in 2015, the USVSST Fund has provided over $10 billion to victims harmed by international state-sponsored terrorism, including personal representatives for those who lost their lives from acts of terrorism such as the 9/11 attacks.
Mistrulli emphasized that 25 years after the 9/11 attacks, "We are still fighting for justice, transparency, recognition, and relief that Congress promised us."
"We're here not only to memorialize the 25th anniversary of 9/11, but also to try to get some face time with these leaders and these higher ups to be able to discuss this urgent and critical topic," she added.
With the fiscal-year cutoff approaching Sept. 30, Congress would need to authorize additional funding for victims holding unpaid terrorism judgments to be paid. A bipartisan group of lawmakers from New York introduced a bill in July that would require the U.S. Department of the Treasury to loan $3 billion annually to the fund for fiscal years 2027, 2028 and 2029.
The bill, H.R. 9795, was named after Mistrulli’s father — the Never Forget the Victims of Terrorism: Joseph D. Mistrulli and Alan Kleinberg USVSST Fund Solvency Act.
The Department of Justice has acknowledged that available USVSST funds remain insufficient to fully compensate victims' claims that have been and are anticipated to continue to grow.
Mistrulli and members of the AVSSTU are at the Republican midterm convention to push to influence members of Congress in voting to authorize continued funding for victims as the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks concludes the week of convention activities in Dallas.
"This is a hard one this year. 25 years. It feels like forever, but it also feels like yesterday, and it's also disappointing because I feel like our country has come so far away from who we were on September 12th," Mistrulli said. "It's also exhausting that it's been 25 years of us fighting for justice."
"We have now been divided as a nation and my wish to everyone out there as we commemorate this anniversary, memorialize, never forget by coming back together."
Universities across America honor the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks with memorial stair climbs
9/11 is a sobering day of remembrance for America. It's been 25 years since terrorist attacks rocked our nation to its core. After two planes struck the World Trade Center in New York City, Americans were scared, confused, and desperately looking for healing. Sports became a key catalyst to that healing. It unified and inspired us in the aftermath and even now half a century later, sports teams and leagues are doing their part to honor the first responders, victims, and working to bring Americans together in remembrance of this tragedy.
Many teams and universities across the country had 9/11 Memorial Stair Climbs on Friday morning where they climbed the stairs of local stadiums, the equivalent of 110 stories of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers to honor the 343 firefighters and other first responders who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
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These are just a few of many universities and teams that have done their part to honor the victims. It's a great way to remember what first responders went through to save fellow Americans. In a day and age where sports have been used as a divider, some leagues, players, and media members using their platforms to talk ill of our country, moments like this take us back to a time of when Americans rallied around eachother, while understanding that freedom isn't free, it comes with a cost, and some paid the ultimate sacrifice to save others in the midst of reckless hate.
God bless the first responders and those that participated across the country this morning in stair climbs.
Grab a bucket: Nike continues to faceplant with hideous new NBA alternate jersey reveal
The NBA has become somewhat of a gimmicky league over the last decade and a half.
Between players forming super teams, in-season tournaments, and guys making vague posts about each other on social media for attention, I sometimes have to wonder if these are modern-day gladiators or if they're gearing up to make an appearance on "Real Housewives."
Another thing about the Association that really grinds my gears is the staggering number of "alternate jerseys" they seem to barf out every year.
I'm all for having a few different uniform combos to choose from, but the NBA seems to have taken one look at the Oregon Ducks' football team and said, "hold my beer."
You've got throwback jerseys, "City Edition" jerseys, "Statement Edition" jerseys, and a bunch of others to choose from that would make a costume director on the set of a chick flick blush.
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That hasn't changed this season, either, as Nike decided to throw their hat in the ring and design a set of NBA jerseys deemed the "Spectre Edition" uniforms.
These are alternate jerseys for eight of the oldest teams in the league, and I can promise you that nothing will prepare you for how awful these look.
I say this without the slightest hint of hyperbole. These are some of the laziest pieces of trash I've ever seen for a jersey release, and that's saying something.
I've railed about bad college football uniforms in the past, but at least those had some effort put into them.
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These look like some Nike exec had a 90s screensaver app on his computer and said, "hey, I have an idea," as he started taking screenshots.
Sheesh, no wonder the once-powerful shoe and athletic apparel company is face planting as it ends its 18-year run in the S&P 100.
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Now, a lot of that has to do with their bizarre, far-left agenda that they seemingly insert into their ad campaigns, but the least they could do is be woke AND not produce a bunch of slapped together garbage.
And before you call me a boomer (guilty as charged) and say that I don't know what the kids are into these days (again, true), I would like to point out that I'm not alone.
These used elementary school paint smocks are being torched by every corner of the internet.
Absolutely brutal.
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Maybe if Nike spent less time shoving leftist talking points down everyone's throats and more time putting some thought into their jersey designs, we wouldn't have these monstrosities.
Back to the drawing board, folks.
Netflix drops new trailer for 'Below' starring Josh Hartnett as a fisherman fighting a sea creature
A new trailer is out for Netflix's upcoming limited series "Below."
Basic info:
Release date: October 8, 2026
"Below" stars Josh Hartnett, Charlie Heaton and Mackenzie Davis, and there's been some solid buzz ever since word was first announced about it.
The first preview for the series was released in late July. It painted a grim and ominous picture about a mysterious monster in the water.
A new preview was released by Netflix on Thursday, and it takes things to a terrifying new level. It's very clear that "Below" will be a blend of "Jaws," a paranormal story and horror.
That's more than enough to get me excited.
Give the latest preview a watch below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.
People in the comments were quick to show interest and intrigue. One wrote, "This is how trailers should be suspenseful, keeping you on the edge and not spiking a d**n thing!"
Another added, "Gordon Lightfoot providing background for a horror film is a new one."
A third commented, "Josh Hartnett defending his family against whatever’s in the water + Charlie Heaton? Sold. This sounds like it’s going to be a rollercoaster ride."
Buzz is high and only getting higher. It's never a bad time to dive into a new limited series.
You can catch "Below" starting October 8 on Netflix, and make sure to hit me with your theories at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.
‘Their souls are in that steel’: 9/11 beam makes emotional stop in Indianapolis before return to NYC
A 21-foot, 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower arrived in Indianapolis last month as part of a nationwide tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a tribute that will ultimately end up back at Ground Zero.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation brought its "Steel Across America" tour to the Indiana War Memorial and Museum on Aug. 19, marking the tour’s 31st stop. The beam is traveling more than 10,500 miles through 21 states and Washington, D.C., before returning to New York City for a Sept. 11 commemoration.
The piece of steel recovered from Ground Zero in the days after the attacks by first responders who rushed to the site has since become a symbol of the nearly 3,000 civilians, firefighters, police officers, emergency workers and military personnel who died that day.
"For the past four months, communities across the country have welcomed this sacred piece of American history with incredible emotion," Tunnel to Towers Chairman and CEO Frank Siller said in a press release. "Watching people stand in front of that steel, hugging it, praying over it, weeping, reminds me every single day of why we do this work."
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The Indianapolis ceremony included a color guard, a pipes and drums procession, the national anthem performed by the Voices of the Indianapolis Fire Department and an invocation from Indianapolis Fire Department Chaplain Mike Gatliff.
Indianapolis Fire Division Chief Tom Neal and Timothy Winslow, a retired major general and executive director of the Indiana War Memorial and Museum, also addressed the crowd about the connection between the city’s first responders, veterans and the legacy of 9/11.
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"Bringing this steel to Indianapolis, and to a museum that has stood for over a century as a tribute to American sacrifice, is deeply moving," FDNY Lt. Jack Kielty, a Tunnel to Towers board member, said. "Indiana veterans and first responders understand what it means to serve."
The event also highlighted Indiana’s own connection to the attacks. Nine Hoosiers died on Sept. 11, while Indianapolis Task Force One sent rescuers to Ground Zero. Six members of the team later died from illnesses linked to their work in the toxic environment, according to the Indiana War Memorial.
Scott Nokes, a Marine Corps veteran and Tunnel to Towers recipient, spoke to attendees about the significance of allowing people to see the steel in person.
"Out of the 2,977 lives that were lost, there’s over 1,000 bodies that were never recovered specifically from Ground Zero in New York," Nokes said. "Their souls are in that steel, and if you touch it, you feel it."
The foundation’s tour is designed in part to connect younger Americans with an event that many were too young to remember or were not alive to witness. Nokes said seeing the artifact firsthand offers a connection that cannot be replicated by books or documentaries.
The Indianapolis stop was followed by an appearance at the Cincinnati Fire Museum. The tour’s final stops include West Point, Boston and Washington, D.C., before the steel returns to New York City.
When the steel returns to New York City on Sept. 11, Frank Siller and members of the Siller family will carry it through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, retracing the route Stephen Siller took 25 years earlier after strapping 60 pounds of gear to his back and running toward the World Trade Center. The steel will accompany the procession through the tunnel but will not enter or stop at the World Trade Center site.
Top House chairman warns Congress against 'complacency' 25 years after 9/11
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., remembers exactly where he was when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
"I was a senior in high school. I was in Mr. Ponzi's government class. And that's when the first plane hit. And one of the other teachers came in and was telling Mr. Ponzi about it," he told Fox News Digital. "We all thought it was a little plane. And then we went to the next class. And then the second plane hit, and everybody realized that stuff was wrong."
Twenty-five years later, Garbarino leads a congressional committee that oversees a Cabinet department created explicitly after the terror attack. He's warning that Congress needs to change how it deals with potential threats to avoid another tragedy of that scale.
"Being chairman of the committee, being a New Yorker, it's one of those things you focus on, and you want to make sure another 9/11 doesn't happen, and doesn't ever happen again. And that's my goal. That's my priority," he said.
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"Congress is very good at being reactive... We don't want another 9/11. So if I could leave my fingerprints on something here, it's the fact that the focus, Congress' focus on national security, Congress' focus on homeland security or safety, is that we address an issue before something happens."
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He said Congress needed to get into the habit of passing laws ahead of time, "instead of being like, 'Oh my God I can't believe this happened, how did this happen, let's fix it now.'"
"That's why 9/11 happened. 9/11 happened because our intelligence agencies, they were siloed, they were not sharing information. I don't know if it was a complacency or whatever, but there were a lot of problems," Garbarino said. "I don't want to fall into that same complacency."
Garbarino represents New York's 2nd Congressional District, part of Long Island's south shore. As a suburb of New York City, its residents are deeply attuned to that tragedy 25 years ago.
"We have people that lost loved ones that day that are still dealing with it 25 years later," Garbarino said. "So the scar is still there."
His district and others are also still dealing with illnesses stemming from that day, including first responders who bravely rushed to the collapsing twin towers.
"There are now more people that have died from 9/11-related illnesses than died on the actual day. So it's a day that keeps taking people away from us," Garbarino said.
"You have firemen who, 9/11 was their first call. They were 21, 22 years old. They're now 47... And a lot of these, some of these cancers, they take a while to take hold, and they're now just getting sick."
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Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed legislation led by Garbarino and others to address a projected funding shortfall for the World Trade Center Health Program, which helps survivors pay for their medical treatment.
He said nearly all congressional districts across the country have at least one person participating in the program, a testament to how widespread the tragedy's effects are.
"People moved out of New York, people who came from all over the country after 9/11 to help, they all went back home, they also got sick. So this does affect the entire country," Garbarino said.
‘Trump-level’ smackdown earns Vance roaring praise as 2028 buzz builds at GOP convention
Republicans reached a consensus that Vice President JD Vance solidified his position as the presumptive 2028 presidential candidate with his "Trump-level" smackdown of a foreign flag-waving protester who disrupted his speech at the Republican National Convention.
Vance did not hesitate after a protester interrupted his primetime speech in Dallas on Thursday by waving the flags of the Palestinian Authority and Mexico. He recalled to those watching his speech on TV: "What the people at home missed is that we just had a protester interrupting us and waving the Mexican flag."
"Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your a-- over there. I'll buy you the plane ticket," the VP said, to which the crowd erupted into applause.
"JD Vance just MIC DROPPED a leftist heckler who interrupted him waving a Mexican flag...this place is DEAFENING," conservative commentator Eric Daugherty wrote on X, adding, "TOTAL PANDEMONIUM."
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Popular conservative pundit Benny Johnson called Vance’s quick wit an "epic response." President Donald Trump supporter and activist Scott Pressler similarly praised Vance for reacting "without missing a beat," and called it "an iconic moment."
"This was masterful. A Trump-level move from JD Vance," wrote Overton, a conservative commentary and news account. "Vice President Vance perfectly handled a protestor waving a Mexican flag at the RNC in Dallas. Then he fired back with a savage one-liner that sent the American Airlines Center into absolute bedlam."
The moment was capped off with a "USA!" chant from those in the crowd at the GOP Midterm Convention.
Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier wrote, "JD Vance just absolute [sic] WIPED THE FLOOR with a leftist heckler who interrupted his rally waving a Mexican flag."
"The crowd went completely WILD. Unbelievable energy," wrote Fournier.
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"JD Vance just notched the most iconic moment of the RNC when he told a protester waving a Mexican flag exactly what all red blooded Americans were thinking," wrote Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet.
Commentator Brilyn Hollyhand put it simply, posting on X, "Yea JD for President after this."
Vance recovered from the interruption quickly, telling the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, I had a whole speech written. But I think I’ve got to change it because we just discovered the symbol of the far left — an idiot waving … a Mexican flag at a protest when he should be waving the flag of the United States of America."
"Now, we all know, of course, that as much as that person might wave around a foreign flag, he'd much rather live in Dallas, or in Cincinnati, or in any one of our great cities than Mexico," President Donald Trump's No. 2 continued. "But while we wave the American flag and fight for the American dream, we have to remind ourselves tonight that the good life that is the foundation of this country's promise is not guaranteed."
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"Every generation of Americans has had to fight for these things when it's our turn," he went on.
"And this fall, the Democrats are running candidates who will tell your children what they're allowed to say, how they're allowed to live, and importantly, who they ought to hate, because that's what the Democrat Party is about in 2026," Vance continued. "It's not about you, it's about foreign fraudsters, and it's about who they hate. And we got to send their a--es back in November."
Speculation has swirled over who will be the heir to Trump's MAGA throne in 2028. The consensus so far among Republicans appears to be split between Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — but a lot could change before the next presidential election.
Patriots star AJ Brown has high ankle sprain as team suffers big blow after brutal Seahawks loss: reports
The New England Patriots lost on Wednesday, but the hits kept coming on Thursday.
An MRI confirmed that star wide receiver A.J. Brown sustained a high ankle sprain during the Patriots’ 13-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday and could miss three to six weeks, according to multiple reports.
"I don’t know if he’ll be available going forward here for the next week, but we’ll see," Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. "Once we get the report, we’ll figure out what the treatment plan is."
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The 29-year-old sustained the injury while trying to make a catch on an incomplete pass in the third quarter. Seahawks cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett’s knee made contact with Brown’s ankle, pushing it into the ground.
The three-time Pro Bowler was initially listed as questionable to return before eventually being ruled out. He had three catches for 26 yards while also drawing a defensive pass interference penalty that led to the Patriots’ lone touchdown before leaving the game.
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The Patriots acquired Brown from the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason for first- and fifth-round picks in the 2028 and 2027 NFL Drafts, respectively, with the hope that he could become Drake Maye’s No. 1 receiver and help elevate the offense.
In Brown’s four seasons with the Eagles, he was durable, missing just six games and playing all 17 games in a season twice. In Brown’s absence, Maye will turn to Romeo Doubs, whom the Patriots signed to a four-year, $68 million contract this offseason, along with Mack Hollins, Demario Douglas and Kyle Williams.
Doubs had a crucial drop on second-and-14 in the fourth quarter that would have resulted in a first down. After the drop, Maye threw an interception on the drive, one of his three in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots (0-1) will look to bounce back when they play the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road in Week 2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.