EXCLUSIVE: Two Georgia lawmakers who are also doctors experienced in emergency medicine are speaking out against what they say is media “fearmongering” about the Peach State’s abortion laws in light of recent reporting on the tragic deaths of two women from the state.

ProPublica’s reporting on the death of Amber Nicole Thurman last week sparked controversy over Georgia’s heartbeat law, which states that “no abortion shall be performed if the unborn child has a detectable human heartbeat except in the event of a medical emergency or medically futile pregnancy.”

Thurman died in Georgia after taking abortion pills and suffering complications. According to ProPublica reporting, doctors at Piedmont Henry Hospital waited a prolonged period of time before performing the necessary dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to remove the dead fetus, which is not an abortion, out of reportedly being in fear of facing legal backlash due to the state’s abortion law. 

HARRIS CALLS FOR ELIMINATING FILIBUSTER TO PASS ‘ROE’ ABORTION BILL INTO FEDERAL LAW

But Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., and state Rep. Mark Newton don’t believe the law had anything to do with Thurman’s death, but rather the complications allegedly caused by the abortion pills, as doctors may have waited too long to intercede.

“We never deny a woman an abortion because it’s going to harm her in some way. She will always be protected,” McCormick, who previously served as emergency department head in a Navy deployment in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

“You have every right to an abortion, even with that heartbeat law,” he continued. “So, let’s make that very clear right now. When they say there’s no exceptions, there’s never any law in any state where there’s no exceptions. That doesn’t exist. That’s simply not the way it works. The mother’s life is always protected. With that said, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to get an abortion just because you have a complication or because something goes wrong.”

Once a baby’s heart has stopped, McCormick said, there are no restrictions on performing a D&C to ensure the safety of the mother.

NEW POLL INDICATES WHETHER HARRIS OR TRUMP HAS THE EDGE IN THIS KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE

“In my understanding, is, this baby was already in demise. There was no reason that it had anything to do with whether she could have a D&C or not. That’s actually irrelevant to the baby’s life because the baby’s already gone,” McCormick said. “If the heartbeat stopped it’s not about this law. Remember, it has nothing to do with this law at that point. It has everything to do with doing the best care for the woman.”

Newton, a board-certified emergency physician, added that there are complex decisions doctors face regarding the risks of surgery versus the risks of not performing it, especially in life-threatening emergencies.

“I do not think there’s anything in Georgia’s law, unless someone had a complete misunderstanding or just failed to be aware of what Georgia’s law was, has nothing to do with the timing of the decision-making,” Newton said. “This situation in which the woman presented was clearly a medical or a life-threatening emergency”

Georgia’s law should not affect the timing of medical decisions, he said, adding that cases involving septic shock due to complications from a miscarriage or abortion present high mortality risks, and physicians often have to make quick decisions to stabilize patients for surgery, which typically happens immediately in emergency situations.

DEMS LOOK TO FORCE VOTES ON EMERGENCY ABORTION AS ABORTION PILL DEATHS MAKE HEADLINES

Democrats and pro-choice advocates have since blamed so-called “abortion bans” for the cause of the two deaths and are seeking to force votes on abortion-related bills on Capitol Hill.

The advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America released a six-figure ad on Tuesday “calling out Vice President Kamala Harris and pro-abortion Democrats for spreading misinformation” relating to the fatalities. 

“Amber Thurman and Candi Miller died after they suffered complications from dangerous abortion drugs and did not receive appropriate, completely legal emergency care,” president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.  “The laws do not penalize women who have abortions and they use plain, commonly accepted legal language.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Piedmont Henry Hospital but did not receive a response prior to publication.

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson contributed to this report. 

PITTSBURGH, PA – A new public opinion poll indicates Vice President Kamala Harris holding the edge over former President Trump in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Forty-eight percent of those questioned in Monmouth University survey of registered Pennsylvania voters released on Wednesday said they are definitely or probably supporting Harris in the presidential election, with 45% saying the same thing about Trump.

And the poll, conducted Sept. 19-23, indicates Harris holding a four-point advantage over Trump among those who said they are extremely motivated to cast a ballot in the White House race.

The survey is the latest to indicate a close contest in Pennsylvania, which, with 19 electoral votes up for grabs, is the biggest prize among the seven key battleground states whose razor-thin margins decided President Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump and will likely determine whether Harris or Trump succeeds Biden in the White House.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW

Pennsylvania, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, makes up the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall,” which the party reliably won for a quarter-century in presidential elections until Trump narrowly carried all three states in his 2016 White House victory. But Biden – with razor-thin margins – won back all three states four years ago.

Both Harris and Trump have repeatedly made stops this summer in Pennsylvania. And while the campaigns and their allied super PACs are pouring resources into all seven swing states, more money has been spent to run spots in Pennsylvania than any of the other battlegrounds. And both sides have dished out more dollars to reserve airtime going forward in the Keystone State than any of the other swing states, according to figures from AdImpact, a top national ad tracking firm.

The release of the poll comes a couple of hours before Harris returns to Pennsylvania – which is considered a must-win state for the Democratic presidential nominee – to deliver what her campaign is billing as a major speech on the economy.

THIS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HAS THE UPPER HAND IN THE 2024 CASH DASH

The vice president, at her address at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, is expected to offer up the most substantial comments on the economy since replacing Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticker just over two months ago.

A senior Harris campaign official said the vice president will spotlight her “pragmatic” approach to the economy and will offer up “practical, realistic solutions.”

The official added that Harris – who has been derided by Trump as “Comrade Kamala” – will describe herself as “a capitalist” who “understands the limitations of government and has always sought to take good ideas from wherever they come and harness the power of innovation.”

Her address comes a day after the former president, in a speech in battleground Georgia, gave what was also billed a major economic speech, vowing to lower taxes on U.S.-based manufacturers.

With less than six weeks to go until Election Day on Nov. 5 and with early in-person voting or absentee balloting underway in nearly two dozen states, just about every poll indicates that the economy remains the top issue on the minds of Americans.

This, as the nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic-inflicted recession continues and inflation remains a leading concern among voters.

WHICH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HOLDS THE EDGE ON THE ECONOMY?

When it comes to which presidential candidate can better handle the economy, Trump continues to have the edge – but his margins over Harris differ dramatically depending on the poll.

The former president’s up 13 points over the vice president in a post-debate survey from the New York Times and Siena College, and favored by seven points in an ABC News Ipsos survey also conducted after the showdown.

But Trump’s advantage over Harris on the economy stands at only five points in the latest Fox News poll, and just two points in an AP/NORC survey.

In Pennsylvania, the new Monmouth University survey indicates Trump holding a three-point edge over Harris when respondents were asked which candidate is more trusted to handle the economy.

Harris, according to the senior campaign aide, is expected in her speech to premiere some new manufacturing proposals and highlight her ideas to lower costs, invest in American innovation and entrepreneurship, and her goal of “leading the world in the industries of the future.”

The senior official added that Harris is expected to argue that “for Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers. Not those who build them. Not those who wire them. Not those who mop the floors.”

And that she will reiterate her charge that Trump has “no intention to grow the middle class, because all he cares about is helping himself and billionaires like him.”

Trump has repeatedly charged that Harris’ plans for the economy are inept and potentially dangerous.

“If you think four years of Harris-Biden is bad, that’s nothing compared to four years of Harris-Walz,” the Trump campaign has argued.

Fox News’ Mark Meredith contributed to this report

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

The House Oversight Committee is investigating the Biden-Harris administration’s alleged use of taxpayer-funded resources to fly Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to battleground Pennsylvania ahead of the November presidential election, Fox News Digital has learned. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., penned letters to the White House, the Pentagon and the Justice Department on Wednesday seeking documents regarding the administration’s alleged “misuse of government resources” to allow Zelenskyy to allegedly “interfere in the 2024 presidential election.” 

“In 2019, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives impeached President Donald J. Trump for abuse of power under the theory that he attempted to use a foreign leader — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — to benefit his 2020 presidential campaign, despite a lack of any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of President Trump,” Comer wrote. 

ZELENSKYY WARNS VANCE’S PLAN TO GIVE RUSSIA SEIZED LAND WILL LEAD TO ‘GLOBAL SHOWDOWN’

Comer, though, said the Biden-Harris administration “recently flew the same foreign leader — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — on an American-taxpayer-funded flight to Pennsylvania, a battleground state in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, which has been described as the ‘trickiest battleground for Vice President Kamala Harris to win.’”

REPUBLICANS GROAN AT BIDEN ADMIN’S LAST-MINUTE REQUEST FOR MORE TIME TO SEND UNUSED $6B TO UKRAINE

“The Committee seeks to determine whether the Biden-Harris Administration attempted to use a foreign leader to benefit Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign and, if so, necessarily committed an abuse of power,” Comer wrote. 

Comer said his committee is investigating the circumstances that led to “justify” the administration’s transport of Zelenskyy on a Department of the Air Force aircraft to Pennsylvania. 

Comer said Zelenskyy’s itinerary included a stop in Pennsylvania to meet with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. 

Comer also cited a recent interview with Zelenskyy, in which he was critical of Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, calling the Ohio senator “too radical.” 

“He further stated his belief that President Trump and his administration would not be able to stop the war, despite this being one of President Trump’s main campaign platforms (and peace in the region under the entirety of the former Trump administration),” Comer wrote.

“This rhetoric coming from a foreign leader released in anticipation of a U.S.-taxpayer funded visit about the current Administration’s political opponent is highly concerning,” Comer wrote. “The Committee is investigating any coordination or communication among the Biden-Harris Administration, Pennsylvania’s Office of the Governor, and President Zelenskyy for use or solicitation of use of government property to politically benefit Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign.” 

In his letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Comer reminded that the DOJ is highly focused on combating foreign election interference, specifically from adversaries. 

However, Comer said the House Oversight Committee “believes no foreign actor — whether or not deemed ‘malign’ by DOJ — should be permitted to interfere in American elections.” 

Comer’s letters were addressed to Garland, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Assistant to the President and White House Counsel Edward Siskel. 

Comer demanded documents and records from the agencies by Oct. 2. 

Minnesota Gov. and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz was blasted on social media this week for visiting the upscale Manhattan apartment of Alex Soros, the son of billionaire liberal mega donor George Soros.

“Honored to host Governor @Tim_Walz at my home in New York City!” Alex Soros, his dad’s successor at the multibillion-dollar Open Society Foundations (OSF), posted on X on Tuesday along with photos alongside Walz in front of the New York City skyline.

The post was widely panned by conservatives on social media who made the argument that Walz’s portrayal as a “rural” moderate was compromised by standing next to one of the most prolific progressive families in the United States. 

“All you need to know……” Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham posted on X.

GEORGE SOROS CLOSER TO CONTROLLING 200 RADIO STATIONS DESPITE OBJECTION FROM TRUMP-NOMINATED FCC COMMISSIONER

“If you squint, you can see the strings on the marionette,” former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted on X.

“A post like this does nothing to help Kamala Harris & Tim Walz win — if anything, it hurts them,” journalist Jerry Dunleavy posted on X. “So why would Soros post something like this? To publicly signal his power & influence within the next would-be presidential administration.”

SOROS-LINKED GROUP BLASTS HARRISON BUTKER’S GRADUATION SPEECH, FEARS POWER-SEEKERS ‘THINK JUST LIKE HIM’

“Real working man’s salt of the earth aesthetic for ol Walzy,” Daily Caller editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll posted on X. 

“This guy goes around saying he’s a small town midwestern guy who understands the struggles of the middle class and then goes to hang out at the floating home in the sky of the world’s biggest billionaire nepo baby,” digital strategist Greg Price wrote on X.

“Nothing screams Midwestern folksy like a billionaire penthouse view of Manhattan,” Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross posted on X.

“George was better at this than his weird son,” Daily Wire managing editor Brent Scher posted on X. “Why would you post this?”

This is at least the second time that Walz has hung out with Alex Soros in the last month. Photos circulated on social media in August during the DNC showed Soros, his new fiancée, Huma Abedin, and Walz hanging out in Chicago.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign and the Soros Open Society Foundation for comment but did not receive a response. 

Walz has been widely touted by various media outlets as a VP choice who will help Harris win rural voters in Middle America while George Soros is one of the most polarizing progressive figures in American politics, often criticized by Republicans for implementing a far-left agenda with his vast fortune.

The Justice Department (DOJ) has sided with the United Nations in defending in court its relief agency for Palestinians after some workers were found to have likely been involved in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) fired at least nine of its employees in August after finding that they likely participated in the Hamas slaughter of 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans. 

Victims of the massacre and their families sued UNRWA in a New York federal court, accusing the group and the individuals involved of aiding and abetting Hamas “in the commission of international torts.”

The United Nations (U.N.) says the lawsuit should be dismissed, claiming the charter between the U.S. and the U.N. gives the group and its subsidiaries diplomatic immunity. “Since the U.N. has not waived immunity in this instance, its subsidiary, UNRWA, continues to enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution, and the lawsuit should be dismissed,” the U.N. stated in response. 

UN CHIEF DEFENDS UNRWA, SAYS ONLY ‘A FEW ELEMENTS’ PARTICIPATED IN OCT. 7

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York filed a brief in July supporting that argument, saying, “In light of the United Nations’ immunity, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the United Nations.”

The brief notes that “the United States acknowledges and deplores the profound losses suffered on October 7,” and that “the United States takes no position on the factual allegations in the complaint.”

“The United Nations is absolutely immune from suit and legal process absent an express waiver of immunity,” Williams said, citing the Charter of the United Nations, to which the United States acceded in 1945, that says the U.N. “shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfilment [sic] of its purposes.”

Similarly, the individual defendants in the lawsuit also enjoy immunity from suit as U.N. employees, the brief said.

Among other things, the DOJ’s brief says that the victims’ lawsuit alleges that UNRWA “knowingly provided monetary and material support to Hamas to build its ‘terror infrastructure’ leading up to the Oct. 7 attacks, facilitated the construction of Hamas command and control centers, permitted weapons storage in UNRWA facilities, concealed rocket and rocket-launching materials on UNRWA premises, and that that UNRWA chose Hamas-approved textbooks for its schools that were used to indoctrinate children against Israel.”

The suit also alleges UNRWA “knew several local staff were affiliated with Hamas and paid staff “in a fashion calculated to further enrich Hamas,” according to Williams’ brief.

UN FORCED TO FIRE 9 EMPLOYEES OVER LIKELY INVOLVEMENT IN HAMAS MASSACRE: ‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’

Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, said that DOJ’s brief outlining the scope of UNRWA’s immunity “makes a lot of assumptions” and exhibits a “lack of appetite on behalf of the executive branch to go after supporters of terror.”

“There are also multiple technical arguments to be made here that UNRWA is not actually immune,” Goldfeder said in a statement on X, directed at the Justice Department. 

“The treaties above are not self-executing; it is only an affiliated organization and was never itself designated under the International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945,” he continued. “It saddens me that you chose to simply assume that UNRWA’s positions are correct, instead of engaging on any of these points.” 

“Perhaps the most egregious assumption you accept is the idea that the claims made by the plaintiffs against all the individual defendants here relate to actions undertaken or omissions made by them in the performance of their official function,” Goldfeder said.

ISRAEL’S UN AMBASSADOR SLAMS WORLD BODY, SAYS UNRWA TAKEN OVER BY HAMAS TERRORISTS IN GAZA

“To be clear… [the complaint is] chock-full of allegations that these defendants aided and abetted Hamas, and that they did so consciously, voluntarily, and culpably.” 

“Is it, pray tell, your contention that all of those actions were what UNRWA was supposed to be doing?” Goldfeder questioned on the social media platform.

Goldfeder continued in an interview with Fox News Digital, arguing, “The basic premise of what makes it so absolutely crazy is this – the U.N. is claiming that immunity from civil suits for invading a country and massacring its citizens is necessary for the exercise of its functions. And again, the Biden-Harris administration just filed that they agree. So the point is, if you think that immunity for mass murder is necessary for the U.N. to function, maybe it’s time to rethink the U.N. entirely.”

Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, says that the practical effect of DOJ’s position is “unaccountabillity” for UNRWA.  

“Regardless of the empty protestations to the contrary, the practical effect of the DOJ position is to contribute to unaccountability for UNRWA and its employees despite their demonstrable connections to Hamas and heinous behavior on multiple fronts,” Bayefsky said. 

“Legally-speaking immunity applies here when employees act within the boundaries of their official capacities. So is the DOJ now arguing that aiding and abetting an officially-designated terrorist organization is UNRWA just doing its job?” she added.

UNRWA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. 

A top conservative immigration expert is arguing that a recent surge in immigration into the U.S. is likely to have a heavy impact on the job prospects of Black Americans — just as the Census Bureau found that foreign workers had made gains in the job market.

Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an arm of the Department of Labor, shows native-born Americans lost more than 1.3 million jobs over the last 12 months, while foreign-born workers gained more than 1.2 million jobs. 

As of August of this year, there are 129,712,000 native-born workers compared to 131,031,000 in August 2023, meaning a plummeting reduction of 1,319,000 jobs.

JOBS REPORT IS A BOOM FOR MIGRANTS, SLUM FOR AMERICANS

In comparison, there were 31,636,000 foreign-born workers in the U.S. as of last month, compared to 30,396,000 in August 2023, a surge of 1,240,000 jobs.

Roy Beck, who founded the group NumbersUSA which argues for lower levels of immigration, recently published “Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth.”

In that book, he outlines the history of government-induced migration impacting heavily on the prospects of Black Americans the most.

“Economic historians say that every time that immigration has gone to a high percentage, the incomes of black males have gone down and that income and that income disparity, racial disparity increases,” he said. “Every time you reduce immigration, the livelihoods of black families and black men increase.”

SURGE OF FOREIGN-BORN WORKERS REMAKE AMERICAN JOBS MARKET

August statistics show that the unemployment rate for adult men is 4% and adult women is 3.7%. For White Americans, it is 3.8%, and for Black Americans, it is 6.1%. The White House noted in May that the unemployment rate for Black workers – then at 5.6% in April – was still lower than the average unemployment rate for Black Americans for 2016 to 2020 (about 8%) and 2000 to 2015 (11%).

However, Beck argues that, while foreigners will often create jobs as well, some jobs that are taken by foreign workers would otherwise go to Americans of all races — and he argues that racial discrimination often means that Black Americans are hired last.

“There is still racial discrimination that happens among many employers and there’s a tendency that the last people recruited are the descendants of American slavery,” he said. “And so African-Americans, the descendants of American slavery, have always done best — all Americans have done best — but they’ve really done best in tight labor markets. And immigration is not the only thing that dictates loose and tight labor market, but it’s something you can control.”

“The government can control how many foreign workers it brings in, he said. “But over the last three and a half years, there’s been virtually no control at all. I mean, we’ve never seen numbers, anything like the new foreign workers that have come over the last three and a half years,” he said.

As to why this is not a bigger issue for Black civil rights leaders, he said that major national leaders have not been speaking out, but some at the local level are getting louder.

“What you have is more and more black leaders in the communities, places like Chicago and Philadelphia and Houston, more and more, you’re seeing local black leaders who have their ear on the ground, their eyes on the ground, who are speaking out more and more.”

However, he blames national leaders for turning a blind eye due to “political alliances.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

“The tragic thing is that part of it seems to be that the Black leaders feel like they have to make an alliance with Hispanic political leaders. But the fact is that polls show that a majority of Hispanic Americans don’t want this high immigration either,” he said.

However, he believes there is change coming. 

“At some point, these leaders are going to get left behind because the people in the local communities are going to just stop putting up with national leaders who just insist on flooding their communities with workers that aren’t needed and with people for whom there isn’t housing for them.”

The New York Police Department (NYPD) says it is targeting the bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), which has set up operations in the Big Apple amid a surge of migration into the sanctuary city and as the gang establishes a presence throughout the U.S.

The TdA is a violent street gang believed to have originated in Venezuelan prisons and moved north over the last decade. However, its reputation within the U.S. has grown this year, in part, due to a number of high-profile crimes linked to the gang, with many believed to have arrived by coming across the southern border as part of the sharp increase in migration in recent years.

Now, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell says TdA is actively recruiting gang members in migrant shelters where guns and drugs have been smuggled inside via food cartons. 

BLOODTHIRSTY VENEZUELAN STREET GANG SPARKS FEAR IN US AMID MIGRANT SURGE: WHAT TO KNOW 

“Do we believe there’s guns in the shelters that have a gang affiliation? Absolutely. Do we believe that they were being smuggled in? Absolutely,” he told Fox News.

The NYPD says there are hundreds of gang associates citywide, and they are not afraid to shoot at police. Earlier this year, a suspected gang member shot and wounded two police officers while another fired at an officer while shoplifting.

“They’re a big threat to the city. We’re not new to gangs or crews in the city. So this is our newest crew. And what’s alarming about this crew is that their conspiracy to commit crimes touches a lot of areas, from retail theft to extortion to robberies to human trafficking, and the worst of the worst, they’ve shot two of our cops,” he said.

New York City is also a sanctuary city, which restricts police from co-operation with federal law enforcement. The city is one of a number of sanctuary cities that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bussed migrants in response to the surge at the border in 2022, sparking a war of words between Abbott and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The gang has established a presence in Aurora, Colorado, where there have been a number of arrests and reports that the gang has taken over entire apartment buildings — something local authorities have pushed back against. Fox News Digital reported in July that TdA members have been given a “green light” to fire on or attack law enforcement in Denver.

AFTER VIDEO OF ARMED VENEZUELAN GANG SHARED BY LOCAL OFFICIAL GOES VIRAL, COLORADO CITY TAKES ACTION

The head of U.S. Border Patrol said recently that they have apprehended dozens of gang members attempting to enter the U.S. at the southern border.

A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bulletin in March alerted agents to tattoos and other identifiers of the gang. Federal authorities had previously warned that the gang was trying to establish itself in the U.S. and could potentially team up with the violent MS-13 gang.

The Biden administration announced significant action against the gang in July, when the Treasury designated TdA a “significant transnational criminal organization.” That move blocks all property and assets owned by the gang in the U.S.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

Meanwhile, the State Department offered up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest of three of the gang’s leaders. The administration also stressed that it is working to disrupt the gang and has increased vetting.

However, it taps into ongoing concerns about immigration, which is a top issue for the election, with both presidential candidates claiming that they are the right person to secure the border.

Iran’s recent hack of the Trump campaign is an “explicit tipping of the scales” in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris, according to one former national security official.

Last week, the U.S. revealed Iranian hackers had obtained information on the Trump campaign and tried to distribute it to people linked to the Biden campaign and media organizations since June. 

“It’s no surprise, right?” Robert Greenway, former head of Middle East policy on the National Security Council, told Fox News Digital. “Iran perceives the return of Donald Trump and his policies, which brought them to the brink of financial collapse, as an existential threat.” 

Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran deal meant to stave off a nuclear Iran in exchange for softening of sanctions. Republicans argued the deal did not have enough enforcement. 

MIKE JOHNSON SAYS HARRIS IS IRAN’S ‘PREFERRED CANDIDATE,’ DEMANDS INFO ON TRUMP CAMPAIGN HACKS 

After Biden rolled back sanctions on Iran, Greenway argued, the regime went from 500 centrifuges needed to make a nuclear bomb to 7,000. It went from 5% enriched uranium to 60% (90% is needed for a nuclear weapon.) It went from exporting 400,000 barrels of oil per day in 2019 under the Trump administration’s harsh sanctions to 1.7 million barrels per day today. 

“They’ve made a tremendous amount of money. They have had doors opened by the U.S. administration.”

Reports also suggest renewed activity in two nuclear weaponization sites in Iran – Sanjarian and Golab Dareh.

But another Middle East expert shrugged off the incidents, suggesting it could have been as simple as a Trump campaign staffer inadvertently clicking on a phishing scam. 

“The Iranians carry out a bunch of cyberattacks all the time,” said Aaron Stein, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. 

“I think this one might be as explained as simply as somebody was silly enough to click on probably an obvious cyber phishing and it would expose the campaign to potential embarrassment if somebody ultimately chooses to publish the documents.”

“I don’t know if [the Iranians] have a favorite in the race,” Stein said. “There have been numerous investigations that the Iranians continue to try and actively plot… to take revenge for the killing of [Iranian General] Qassem Soleimani in the Trump administration.” 

TOP RUSSIAN OFFICIAL LANDS IN IRAN AMID US, UK CONCERNS OVER ALLEGED NUCLEAR DEAL

“But the Iran nuclear deal is dead. I don’t think anybody is going back to it. I ultimately think the approach to Iran would be more or less the same. Trump might be a little more bellicose, but I think in a practical sense, it’ll be more or less the same.” 

“The Islamic Republic is indeed seeking to sow discord of the West,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iranian expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said of the campaign hack. “But we cannot be ignorant of the empirical record.”

“The reason the Islamic Republic in 2020 was trying to drive voter turnout on the left, the reason in 2018 and 2019 accounts tied to the Islamic Republic were trying to spoof and amplify methods tied to the progressive left. The reason they tried to hack the Trump campaign very recently, their reason, still the Islamic Republic seeks the assassination of former President Donald Trump, is that Trump was exceptionally successful in his maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic,” he said. 

Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian was in New York City, where he struck a less combative tone at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. 

“We don’t wish to be the cause of instability in the region,” he told the crowd. “We don’t want war… We want to live in peace.” 

“We know more than anyone else that if a larger war were to erupt in the Middle East, it will not benefit anyone throughout the world. It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict,” he insisted. 

Pezeshkian was elected on a promise that he could convince the West to lift sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program. 

Taleblue predicted that Pezeshkian would take to New York to “prime the press to deliver talking points, that they are indeed interested in nuclear talks, but again, really, they’ll only use nuclear talks as a human shield against real pressure.”

“They will probably try to successfully exploit a permissive environment to sell more oil to China, to generate more revenue to fund its drone program, its missile program and its nuclear program… under patronage from Russia and China.” 

Republicans are set to flip the Senate for the first time this cycle in this week’s Fox News Power Rankings. 

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris enjoys a small post-debate bump, three new toss-up races emerge in the House, and the GOP loses ground on the governor’s map.

Two weeks after their first debate, Harris is up a point and former President Donald Trump is down the same in an average of high-quality polls.

If those numbers sound familiar, it is because they match the shifts after the first debate between President Biden and Trump four years ago.

That could be a problem for Republicans. In 2020, Trump did not narrow the polling gap that the first debate created until a stronger showing in the second. As of today, Harris and Trump have not agreed on terms for a rematch.

FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS THINK HARRIS DID BETTER THAN TRUMP IN DEBATE

Harris’ improvement comes from independents more than any other group. They backed Trump by eight points in a Fox News survey last month but now prefer Harris by 12. Biden won independents by 15 points in the last election, so an enduring Harris lead in this group could give her an edge on election night. (Poll results among subgroups can be volatile.)

The same post-debate poll has Trump down two points among all voters, leaving the former president at 48% and Harris at 50%. A spread like that on election night gives Trump an electoral college advantage.

Further slippage in support for the former president would change that math.

Republicans have enjoyed a head start in the Senate from the beginning of this cycle. Their star candidate in Montana is doing more than anyone to get them to the finish line.

The latest forecast predicts Republicans will take at least 51 seats on election night, while Democrats are expected to take at least 47. That leaves two races in the Toss Up category.

Montana moves out of that category this week.

This state has been represented for nearly two decades by Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, one of the last rural Democrats, who has leaned on his farming background and gun rights advocacy to exceed expectations in three elections. 

However, Trump won the state by 16 points in 2020, and Tester faces a strong opponent in businessman and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy. He has run an efficient, disciplined campaign on the economy and the border. 

That makes Montana a better pickup opportunity for the GOP than Ohio, which does not lean toward Trump as much as its western neighbor and where Republican candidate Bernie Moreno has made missteps on the trail.

Sheehy leads with 51% to Tester’s 45% in an AARP poll conducted in late August. The incumbent Democrat is ahead among independents, but that is not enough to overcome this conservative electorate.

Sitting among the peaks that shape Montana’s landscape is a mountain of cash. Over $121 million has been spent by the campaigns and outside groups so far, according to OpenSecrets, with at least $100 million more in reserved spending. That is an extraordinary sum for a race that isn’t competitive at the presidential level and equates to more than $150 per registered voter.

That is what keeps this race tight. Tester has more than three times as much cash on hand as Sheehy, giving the Democrat spending money for local advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts.

If that cash can push this race back within the margin of error, Democrats have a shot at retaining the upper house.

EARLY VOTING MEANS ‘ELECTION SEASON’ HAS ALREADY BEGUN

Montana moves from Toss Up to Lean R.

The House is still a toss-up in the latest forecast. In fact, with three more races joining that category, it is less clear than ever which direction the lower chamber will take.

NEBRASKA GOP SENATOR OPPOSES ELECTORAL COLLEGE CHANGE THAT MAY HAVE HELPED TRUMP WIN RE-ELECTION

Finally, a sleepy gubernatorial cycle had its wake-up call last Thursday when CNN reported that North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov Mark Robinson referred to himself as a “Black Nazi” on a porn website he frequented between 2008 and 2012. He denied the report.

Robinson is more than embattled in this race. At least four senior staffers have resigned from his campaign, allies have jumped ship, and the Republican Governors Association is not spending another dollar on advertising. 

No one knows how this will impact Trump. Voting has begun with Robinson’s name a few rows down from Trump’s on the ballot, and Democrats are reminding voters about the strong, consistent praise that the former president has offered Robinson. However, calcified support for Trump among Republicans and the state’s history of ticket splitting should keep him competitive. 

In the meantime, the Power Rankings already had the governor’s race at Lean D because of previous Robinson scandals. Now, it moves to Likely D.

Voting has begun in 21 states, including Wisconsin, North Carolina, Minnesota and Virginia. By the end of the month, more than half of all states will send ballots to voters.

While many voters are expected to cast a ballot early, election day itself is only six weeks away. 

Next week, vice presidential hopefuls Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, will participate in a debate hosted by CBS News in New York City. Fox News will simulcast the debate with special coverage anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum at 8:20 p.m. ET.

Fox News Media has proposed a second Harris-Trump debate to be moderated by MacCallum and Baier in October.

FLASHBACK: VP Kamala Harris, while serving as California’s attorney general, sided with an illegal immigrant’s bid to acquire a license to practice law in a move that was opposed by the Obama administration. 

Harris, who is expected to be making a visit to the southern border this week, supported in a 2012 Supreme Court brief the desire for 35-year-old illegal immigrant Sergio Garcia to be granted a law degree by the State Bar of California, arguing that the government could not block him from doing so. 

“No law or policy prevents this court from admitting Garcia to the State Bar,” Harris’ office wrote in the brief. “In fact, admitting Garcia to the Bar would be consistent with state and federal policy that encourages immigrants, both documented and undocumented, to contribute to society.”

Harris’ stance on the issue put her at odds with then-president Barack Obama, whose Department of Justice opposed the move and said it would violate 1996 federal immigration law, San Jose Mercury News reported.

VIDEO RESURFACES OF HARRIS CHANTING ‘DOWN WITH DEPORTATION’ AT 2018 PARADE WITH DISGRACED ACTOR

“In the view of the United States, (federal law) prohibits this court from issuing a law license to an unlawfully present alien,” government lawyers wrote at the time.

The state bar, civil rights groups and Latino lawmakers in the state all came out in support of Garcia, the report notes, though Harris’ endorsement “made the difference,” Kevin Johnson, the dean of UC Davis’ law school, told the Sacramento Bee earlier this year. 

HARRIS SHIFTS KEY POSITIONS ON BORDER, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS CAMPAIGN PROMISES ‘PRAGMATIC’ APPROACH

“When the highest law enforcement officer of a state weighs in and says this is legal, this is permissible, this is possible, the Supreme Court of the State of California listens,” said Johnson, who also represented the State Bar of California in support of Garcia’s case. “She could have ducked and covered and tried to avoid any political controversy. But she sided with the State Bar of California and Sergio Garcia, so, I respect her for that.”

Garcia ultimately became the first undocumented immigrant to practice law in California after the state Supreme Court sided with him and legislation was passed that allowed the licensing of individuals regardless of immigration status.

Garcia was ultimately awarded the Medal of Valor by AG Harris before becoming a citizen and voting for Harris on the presidential ticket along with Joe Biden in 2020, CBS News reported.

MIGRANT CRIME CRISIS COMES TO NANTUCKET, MARTHA’S VINEYARD, PLAYGROUNDS FOR RICH AND FAMOUS

The Garcia situation was one of several examples where Harris was to the left of the Obama administration, which Harris referenced during the 2019 presidential primary when she spoke out against deportations for illegal immigrants who haven’t committed any crimes beyond crossing the border. 

“Well, thank you. I will say — no, absolutely not, they should not be deported,” Harris said. “And I actually — this was one of the very few issues with which I disagreed with the administration, with whom I always had a great relationship and a great deal of respect.”

“But on the secure communities issue, I was attorney general of California,” Harris continued. “I led the second-largest Department of Justice in the United States, second only to the United States Department of Justice, in a state of 40 million people.”

“And on this issue, I disagreed with my president, because the policy was to allow deportation of people who by ICE’s own definition were non-criminals. So as attorney general, and the chief law officer of the state of California, I issued a directive to the sheriffs of my state that they did not have to comply with detainers, and instead should make decisions based on the best interests of public safety of their community.”

Harris reiterated her differences with Obama on illegal immigration in 2019 interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos where she said that Obama was “wrong” when it came to deportations and ICE detainers. 

The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Multiple outlets reported this week that Harris’ campaign is considering a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, although details have not been decided. The vice president’s critics were quick to dismiss the possible trip as a “political stunt.”

The latest Scripps News/Ipsos Poll, released last week, shows that approximately 54% of all respondents “strongly” or “somewhat” support the idea of mass deportation, according to the poll. 

On the subject of immigration in general, respondents favored Trump (44%) to Harris (34%) as better able to handle the issue.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw and Timothy HJ Nerozzi contributed to this report