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The Hill
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Mahmoud Khalil details detainment during son's birth: It ‘got me in the heart'
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for 104 days, in a Friday interview on MSNBC recounted what it was like to miss the birth of his first son. 'I lost, like, one of the divine moments with — with my wife and — and son. I mean, the first time was literally, like, 3:30 a.m., moments after, like, the delivery. I just heard him crying,' Khalil said in an excerpt of an interview airing Saturday on MSNBC's 'The Weekend: Primetime.' 'And — and that literally, like, got me in the heart. And I think it's — it's just unbelievable that someone had the cruelty to take that moment from — from me,' Khalil said. Khalil was released on June 20 from ICE detention after his March arrest. He is a lawful resident of the U.S. with a green card and served as one of the lead negotiators of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia University while in school. He was not charged with a crime. 'My priority now is to get back to my wife and son,' Khalil told reporters after his release. His arrest was the first of several foreign students the Trump administration detained in its crackdown on campus protests. Khalil and his wife's son was born in May. His wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said that returning to an empty apartment after the birth of their son was one of the most difficult moments for her. 'We walked into the apartment. And it was just — it was, like, quiet. And — and it's not how I imagined walking into my apartment with my new baby. I don't know. I think all the emotions kind of hit me at that point. I just — I just wanted him to be there,' she said about her husband. Last week, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil's release, saying he was not a flight risk nor a danger to community. However, the case is still being litigated after the administration appealed the ruling the same day. 'There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner — and, of course, that would be unconstitutional,' wrote Farbiarz in his ruling. As a condition for his release, Khalil's travel is restricted to New York, Michigan, Washington, New Jersey and Louisiana for family visits, court appearances and interactions with Congress.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court's Birthright Citizenship Ruling Is ‘Enormous Win' for Trump and ‘Death Blow to the Rule of Law,' MSNBC Legal Analyst Says
The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling on Friday that limits nationwide injunctions against President Trump's executive orders — including one EO ending birthright citizenship — is a 'death blow to the rule of law,' according to one MSNBC legal analyst. Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University, shared the comment just minutes after the decision was made on Friday while appearing on MSNBC's 'Ana Cabrera Reports.' Murray said the ruling was a 'huge win' for the president, allowing him to target 'undocumented persons' without 'the benefit of due process.' 'The court has essentially kneecapped lower courts from stopping this administration when it engages in lawless and unconstitutional behavior,' she added. MSNBC's coverage followed the Supreme Court's ruling that curtailed the ability for federal judges to temporarily pause executive orders. The ruling did not make a decision on the legality of President Trump's push to end birthright citizenship, however. President Trump signed EO 14160 in January, which said citizenship should not be granted automatically to people born in the U.S. The president said at the time that the Fourteenth Amendment was 'noble' and 'meant for the children of slaves,' but not meant to grant citizenship to everyone born on American soil. 'The Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States,' the president's executive order stated. 'The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'' EO 14160 was thwarted soon after it was signed, with multiple federal judges issuing national preliminary injunctions to stop it from being enforced. MSNBC, during its Friday coverage, included text from the Supreme Court decision, which was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, on the screen. 'Federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch; they resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them,' the ruling noted. 'When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted lawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.' Soon after Murray gave her thoughts on the decision, former U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg agreed it was a big win not only for President Trump, but all presidents moving forward. 'I would think of it in a slightly different way — a huge victory for the Executive Branch and the office of the president,' he said. 'If a Democrat is president, the same rule applies. If a Democratic president issues an executive order, one federal judge in one federal district, under this ruling, could not enjoin that ruling nationwide.' The post Supreme Court's Birthright Citizenship Ruling Is 'Enormous Win' for Trump and 'Death Blow to the Rule of Law,' MSNBC Legal Analyst Says appeared first on TheWrap.
Scroll.in
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Can Zohran Mamdani's win help the beleaguered Democratic Party find a new roadmap?
Shortly after midnight on June 25, New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani appeared before his supporters at a rooftop brewery to greet the crowd of supporters chanting his name. His main rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Andrew Cuomo, had just conceded defeat on television and the mood was delirious. Said Mamdani, quoting Nelson Mandela, 'It always seems impossible until it is done.' Hours later, as the magnitude of his upset became clear, the 33-year-old Mamdani found himself fielding questions about what his victory might mean for the floundering Democratic Party in the United States. Since losing to Donald Trump in November's presidential election, the Democratic Party has faced intense criticism from its own supporters who believe their leaders have been too passive in opposing Trump's agenda and failed to present voters with compelling alternatives. The party hit historic lows in public approval in April, with merely a quarter of voters holding positive views about the Democrats – the worst showing since tracking began in 1990. Mamdani's win has given the party cause to cheer – and perhaps a new roadmap. The result is a 'larger referendum about where our party goes', Mamdani told MSNBC, contending that the Democrats must 'move our political instinct from lecturing to listening'. The victory for Mamdani in Tuesday's Democratic primary makes him the party's nominee for New York mayor in November's general election. A self-avowed democratic socialist, his campaign has advocated policies such as free public transit and rent freezes. He defeated Cuomo – a former state governor with strong establishment backing – despite starting the race with little name recognition. For the Democratic Party, it may be difficult to seek definitive pointers from the primary election in one city – particularly when that city is overwhelmingly Democratic and the establishment candidate was as flawed as Cuomo, who previously resigned over sexual harassment allegations. CNN: Do you like capitalism? ZOHRAN MAMDANI: No. I have many critiques of capitalism. In the words of Dr. King decades ago, he said, 'Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism; there must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's children in this country.'… — Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 27, 2025 Yet Mamdani's success provides evidence that the brand of democratic socialism advanced by his wing of the party can attract diverse voters. He received endorsements from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two other prominent politicians who describe themselves as democratic socialists. Mamdani seems to have been buoyed by the frustration many feel with the old Democratic machine and strategies. His campaign managed to mobilise voters who had previously stayed away from mayoral elections in New York. Nearly a quarter of early voters were casting ballots in a Democratic primary for the first time since 2012 – a jump from 2021, when only 3% were new to Democratic primaries. 'Mamdani's focus on concrete economic issues such as free buses, rent freezes, and universal childcare clearly resonated with a wide range of voters,' said Na'ilah Amaru, a policy advocate who works with Democratic politicians. 'Campaigns that rely too heavily on past voting patterns miss entire groups of emerging voters who are ready to engage when offered something real.' Mamdani's campaign released a statement to journalists on Thursday that he had won working-class neighborhoods that Mayor Eric Adams had carried in 2021, and captured areas that swung toward Trump in 2024. The campaign's scale was also unprecedented for a municipal race, deploying over 50,000 volunteers who knocked on 1.5 million doors –in a city with 4.7 million Democrat voters and a population of 8 million. Mamdani also benefitted from New York City's public financing system, which is designed to level the playing field and reduce the influence of wealthy donors. Under this system, for every dollar up to $250 that a city resident contributes to a campaign, the city government adds another $8 from public funds. In March, Mamdani became the first candidate in the election to reach the $8 million spending cap for the primary. He did so with donations from a far more diverse sources than Cuomo: while Cuomo's campaign had 5,730 donors giving an average of $700 each, Mamdani was backed by 20,720 donors averaging $82. Another source of disappointment among the Democratic base that Mamdani tapped into was the party's messaging around the violence in Palestine. Many voters have criticised Democratic leaders, including presidential candidate Kamala Harris, for remaining largely silent as tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed. Mamdani is a rare US politician who has openly declared his support for Palestine, even as he runs to be mayor of a city in which estimated 11.6% of the population is Jewish. Zohran Mamdani's win isn't just historic for New York City – it's groundbreaking for how U.S. politicians talk about Palestine. AJ+'s @TonyKaron breaks down why Mamdani's victory proves that candidates can openly support Palestine. — AJ+ (@ajplus) June 26, 2025 Raza G, who worked with a South Asian collective canvassing voters for Mamdani's campaign, contended that the results demonstrated 'a breakdown of the centre' in Democratic party politics. 'The election was between a candidate who was pro-Palestine and another who was backed by pro-Israel groups,' he said. 'Voters saw that in the silence of Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party did not have a plan to address the question of Palestine and at the same time saw in Mamdani someone who has consistently spoken up about Palestinian rights.' Raza added that unlike Harris, Mamdani did not disengage from voters who disagreed with him. 'People may have moved to the right but Mamdani understood that these people wanted an end to the violence and wanted inflation to reduce,' he said. While Mamdani worked to mobilise the South Asian and Muslim communities that had a historically low turnout in mayoral elections, his campaign also made an effort to engage with Jewish voters. Daniel Aldana Cohen, an assistant professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, suggested that Mamdani's campaign could be used across the US. 'When Mamdani talks about the cost of living, he's talking about solutions,' Cohen said. 'He's emphasising tangible benefits for ordinary people while keeping economic issues front and centre – but not at the exclusion of everything else like opposing bigotry…This is certainly a national model.'
Bangkok Post
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Pentagon chief backs Trump on success of Iran strikes
WASHINGTON - US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Thursday that American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were a success, backing President Donald Trump and berating the media for covering an intelligence report that questioned the results of the operation. American B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs last weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third site with Tomahawk cruise missiles. "President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating -- choose your word -- obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities," Hegseth told journalists at the Pentagon, referring to a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran. Trump has called the strikes a "spectacular military success" and repeatedly said they "obliterated" the nuclear sites. On Thursday, he insisted that Iran did not manage to move nuclear materials -- including enriched uranium -- ahead of the US military action. "Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. However, US media revealed a preliminary American intelligence assessment earlier this week that said the strikes only set back Iran's nuclear program by months -- coverage sharply criticised by Hegseth. "Whether it's fake news CNN, MSNBC or the New York Times, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment." The document was "leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn't successful," Hegseth said. Trump has also lashed out at coverage of the intelligence report, calling for journalists to lose their jobs. - 'Get a big shovel' - Hegseth did not definitively state that the enriched uranium and centrifuges at the heart of Iran's controversial nuclear program had been wiped out, but cited intelligence officials -- although giving little detail -- as saying the nuclear facilities were destroyed. "If you want to know what's going on at Fordo, you better go there and get a big shovel, because no one's under there right now," Hegseth said, referring to the deep-underground nuclear site. Among the officials cited by Hegseth was US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who said the previous day that "Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed." He also referred to a statement by CIA chief John Ratcliffe that said: "A body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes." Ratcliffe pointed to a "historically reliable and accurate" source of information indicating that "several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years." International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, speaking Thursday on French radio, meanwhile said Iran's uranium-enriching centrifuges had been knocked out. "Given power of these (bombs) and the characteristics of a centrifuge, we already know that these centrifuges are no longer operational," Grossi said. Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to end the country's nuclear program, which Tehran says is for civilian purposes but Washington and other powers insist is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons. Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to take military action. The US operation was massive, involving more than 125 US aircraft including stealth bombers, fighters and aerial refueling tankers as well as a guided missile submarine.
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Enraged Hegseth blasts New York Times, MSNBC and CNN's Trump ‘hatred'
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blasted the media for undermining the success of American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, accusing outlets of being driven by 'Trump hatred.' Hegseth joined Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine to address the press at the Pentagon, discussing the United States' strikes on Iran. "There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did, that by — because of the hatred of this press corps, are undermined because your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful," he said on Thursday, local time. "It's irresponsible." A visibly angry Hegseth criticised the dissemination of an early intelligence report questioning the efficacy of the bombings. "There was a great deal of irresponsible reporting based on leaks, preliminary information in low confidence. Again, when someone leaks something, they do it with an agenda," he said. "Whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC, or The New York Times, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment."
