Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., revealed the ‘biggest thing’ he believes can help former President Donald Trump in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia. 

During Tuesday night’s debate in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Scott said that ‘the best thing Trump can get her to do is if she could talk 99% of the time.’

‘It’ll be interesting to see which Kamala Harris shows up,’ Scott told Fox News Digital. ‘The Harris that has been part of the Biden administration that has opened the border, ruined the economy and … stopped supporting Israel and allowed Iran to have all the weapons, or is it a new Harris that, you know, that believes the border ought to be secure, and we ought to get inflation under control by allowing free markets to work … allowing oil and gas production in this country so we can get the gas prices down. So it’ll be interesting to see which Harris shows up.’

‘I think the biggest thing is make sure that Harris talks,’ Scott, a Trump 2024 campaign surrogate, said. ‘When she talks, no one, almost nobody agrees with her – maybe some socialists would. So I think the biggest thing is for her to talk about her ideas, whether it’s to talk about the border, talk about the economy, talk about foreign policy … there is no logic to her thought process.’

‘When she talks about price controls, that just means product shortages,’ the senator said during a phone interview Monday morning. ‘When she talks about the border, people say, ‘Well, why didn’t she do it now?’ And because everything she says she’s going to do, I mean, I think the first reaction everybody has is ‘Well, why didn’t you do it?”

Scott said ABC News moderators should ask Harris during the debate if she will apologize to the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the August 2021 suicide bombing at Abbey Gate during the Afghanistan withdrawal. He also said the moderators should ask what Harris has to say to the families in this country who ‘can’t afford grocery prices and gas prices and rent because of the inflation she and Joe Biden caused.’

Scott, who sat next to Harris for two years on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he noticed during that time that she ‘wasn’t serious about any policy issues,’ but ‘was serious about getting on television.’

After plenty of debate over the debate, both camps agreed to adhere to the same rules that governed the Biden-Trump debate. The most contentious rule – the microphones will once again be muted during an opponent’s responses, which pundits see as a victory for Trump. As with the June debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta, there will be no studio audience.

The moderators, ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only ones asking questions, according to the rules.

When asked about how the Republican nominee should appeal to women during the debate amid recent polling indicating Harris has an advantage over Trump when it comes to female voters, Scott said Trump should talk about important issues like the economy, education and keeping people safe, which he argues ‘resonates with all men and all women.’ 

‘I think letting men playing women’s sports resonates to women, but I think it also resonates to men,’ Scott said. ‘And I think – just make sure Harris talks about what she believes in, and I think it turns people off.’ 

Fox News Digital also asked whether Trump should mention during the debate a piece of legislation called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which aims to require states to obtain proof of citizenship – in person – when registering an individual to vote and require states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls. 

Some Republicans, including Scott, have pushed for the SAVE Act to be attached to a spending bill extension to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year. 
 

‘Do you think specifically Trump should mention the SAVE act and the concern about illegal immigrants, noncitizens voting in this upcoming election?’ Fox News Digital asked. 

‘Yes,’ Scott said. ‘As I travel around Florida because I’m up this year, one of the things that comes up in every talk is, you know, are they going to steal the election. So I think it’s important to people.’

‘So I’m hopeful, hopefully it will pass the House,’ Scott said of the bill. ‘And then, you know, unless Schumer wants to shut down government, he’ll pass it out of the Senate.’ 

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

A high-ranking leader within the United States Secret Service (USSS) has been asked to retire, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Michael Plati, the office of protective operations assistant director, has been asked to retire from his position, and he is ending his tenure with the service in the coming days.

The decision is reportedly linked with the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania — a security failure that has sent shock waves through all levels of the agency.

The USSS is preparing to brief Congress in the coming days about lessons learned from the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life.

Plati was asked to step down by senior leadership, including Acting Director Ronald Rowe.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the USSS for comment and is awaiting its response. 

USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned under mounting pressure on July 23 following the assassination attempt on the former president, Fox News confirmed. 

The Department of Defense (DOD) has since offered the USSS ‘additional assistance’ in protecting political figures that require personal security.

Anthony Guglielmi, U.S. Secret Service chief of communications, announced last month that the DOD will provide ‘additional assistance including logistics, transportation, and communications, through the 2024 campaign season.’

This is a developing story. Please check back soon for further updates.

An anti-CCP group is launching a 6-figure ad in key battleground states during Tuesday’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris that accuses her of ‘doing damage’ to the country through her position on China.

‘The Protecting America Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused on safeguarding the nation from Communist China’s growing influence in the states, today released a six-figure TV ad that will air during the Trump-Harris Presidential Debate on Tuesday,’ the Protecting America Initiative said in a press release this week leading up to the first debate between Trump and Harris. 

In the 30-second ad, which will run in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during Tuesday’s debate, the group takes direct aim at the Harris-Walz record on China.

‘Joe Biden and Kamala Harris opened the door to Communist China, and they’re marching right through it,’ the ad says.

‘A new Biden-Harris rule means China will hold our auto industry hostage. Harris even cast the tiebreaking vote that made it possible. And now that she’s running for president, she’s chosen a running mate under federal investigation for ‘close ties’ to the CCP,’ the ad continued. ‘Harris has done enough damage. It’s time to fight back. To safeguard our manufacturing, our food supply, and our border…It’s time to stand up to China and Protect America.’

The Protecting America Initiative describes itself as a ‘conservative nonprofit organization that supports state lawmakers in their effort to crack down on the growing threat of the Communist Chinese Party’ that is led by former Trump Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and former GOP Congressman Lee Zeldin.

The Harris-Walz campaign has faced scrutiny over its positions on China, specifically Walz, who is the subject of an investigation in the House over his ‘longstanding connections’ to China. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced earlier this year he is seeking information about the Chinese entities and officials Walz has ‘engaged and partnered with,’ as well as any ‘warnings or advice the FBI may have given to Governor Walz about U.S. political figures being targeted by or recruited for CCP influence operations.’ 

Comer said Walz has ‘longstanding connections to CCP-connected entities and officials that make him susceptible’ to the CCP’s strategy of ‘elite capture,’ which seeks to co-opt influential figures in elite political, cultural and academic circles to ‘influence the United States to the benefit of the communist regime and the detriment of Americans.’ 

Comer pointed to reports of Walz’s ‘extensive engagement with CCP officials and entities while serving in public office,’ saying it raises questions about ‘possible CCP influence in his decision-making as governor — and, should he be elected, as vice president.’ 

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

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

– Two well-known former Democrats turned independents who are backing Donald Trump will be in the spin room at Tuesday night’s debate between the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris, to talk up Trump’s performance.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the well-known environmental activist and vaccine skeptic who last month suspended his own presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, will be on hand at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, the Trump campaign confirmed to Fox News.

So will former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination before leaving the party and becoming an independent two years ago.

Gabbard, who’s become a favorite of many on the political right, backed Trump last month.

Joining Kennedy and Gabbard in the spin room at the debate – which is the first and potentially only face-to-face showdown between Harris and Trump before Election Day on Nov 5 – is a squad of high-profile Republicans.

Topping the list is Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

Also in the spin room for Trump: Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, who is the former president’s daughter-in-law.

So will former Trump rivals during the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination turned surrogates: Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Other top surrogates in the spin room will be Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Reps. Byron Donalds and Matt Gaetz of Florida and Mike Waltz of Texas, and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota.

News of the Trump spin room surrogates was first reported by Politico.

The Harris campaign had yet to announce their list of spin room surrogates.

A program is being rolled out and overseen by the House of Representatives this week that is aimed at boosting transparency in the high-profile fight for control of Congress.

‘We’re excited to really ramp the program up, roll it out, as we come into the final eight weeks before the election,’ House Committee on Administration Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital in an interview about the program, which has been used in several election cycles.

More than a dozen House races are expected to come down to razor-thin margins in November. Democrats are fighting to win back control from the House GOP and the fight is likely to be close either way.

The House Committee on Administration is moving to boost accountability efforts at the polls for such races through the Election Observer Program.

Congressional staffers are eligible to volunteer for a training program that would set them up to be poll watchers in the upcoming election. 

They would then be sent out to districts, not including their own, if requested by a congressional candidate in a close race.

‘I think uniquely this Congress, we can raise awareness, engagement and participation in the program,’ Steil said. ‘This is a program that’s been around for some time, and it’s been a successful program. My staff has participated in it, and I think it’s an important piece of the puzzle as we work to enhance the integrity and Americans’ confidence in our elections.’

He said it is imperative to boost the program’s visibility so that candidates and incumbents running across the political spectrum in November know it is available to them.

Asked if he had any particular security concerns about this year’s elections, Steil said he was ‘frustrated’ by a lack of answers from the Biden administration in response to his probing of a June executive order aimed at using federal resources to bolster voter access.

‘The administration continues to hide the ball on the work they’re doing as it relates to President Biden’s executive order, and I think there’s areas in particular as it relates to noncitizen voting that we should work to continue to get in place,’ Steil said.

The House’s Election Observer Program is one of several election security measures Steil has used his committee gavel to focus on.

Democrats, meanwhile, have panned several key GOP-led election efforts as voter suppression. 

Congressional Democrat leaders are also opposing a short-term government funding bill that is attached to legislation mandating proof of citizenship in the voter registration process. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the Republican plan ‘extreme.’

Steil said he hopes Democrats utilize the program as they had before, though he conceded that election integrity issues have become highly political.

‘A lot of things that did not used to be viewed as partisan in nature, in particular as it relates to election integrity, have become an attempt by the left to try to weaponize the efforts in the other direction,’ he said. ‘We’ll see how our Democratic colleagues respond to a program they participated in the past.’

‘But I am of the view that we have an opportunity to take this program and move it up to the next level, both in visibility and in participation.’

Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign hired a new climate director who has frequently said the effects of climate change are part of what’s stopping her from having children.

Camila Thorndike, who previously worked in the Senate managing the climate portfolio of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was given the title of climate engagement director for the Harris for President campaign in September 2024, according to her LinkedIn page. 

Prior to joining the Harris campaign, Thorndike said on several occasions that she considers climate change a factor when deciding whether to have kids.

‘I was 15 when I first saw the climate ‘hockey stick’ graph. I realized that this skyrocketing arrow of temperature would take place in my lifetime. All of the big milestones of life that I was looking forward to would be in the context of this big global crisis. It led to the question of whether or not to have kids – which is still a big question for me – where I would put down roots, what my family would do,’ Thorndike said in 2018 when she was the D.C. campaign director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Again in November 2019, Thorndike described it as an ‘ethical question that keeps me up at night.’

‘I have always been someone who enjoys children and loves the idea of a family, and that’s why I have wrestled with this, because my logical mind and the facts of the future I can see bearing down on us are not supportive of the life I would want for them,’ she told Yahoo News at the time. 

During an appearance on the ‘My Climate Journey’ podcast in August 2022, a show hosted by Jason Jacobs and Cody Simms for people seeking to better understand climate change, Thorndike again made a connection between the decision to have children and what it might look like in the future amid climate change. 

‘I plotted my own lifetime against that and realized that around the time that I would, especially, be considering having kids or whatever, in around my 30s, we would start to see the escalation of this crisis. And so that was when I realized that, at the time, the grownups were not coming to save us and my generation would have to fight to take the wheel.’

Featured in a Washington Post article about whether people should not have kids due to climate change, the new Harris campaign official said she worried about her potential kids ‘suffering’ from climate-related issues.  

‘It’s coming partly from a place of love for my hypothetical child,’ she said. ‘I want to protect them from suffering. Not that life is ever free from suffering, but what of the joys and peace and goodness that make me happiest to be alive will be accessible in 20, 30, 40 years?’

Harris acknowledged this idea during a discussion at the ‘Fight for Our Freedoms’ event in September 2023.

‘I’ve heard young leaders talk with me about a term they’ve coined called ‘climate anxiety,’ which is fear of the future and the unknown of whether it makes sense for you to even think about having children, whether it makes sense for you to think about aspiring to buy a home,’ Harris said in a clip that has resurfaced since she became the 2024 Democratic nominee.

A clip of the comment, shared by Donald Trump Jr. in July, prompted backlash from critics of Harris.

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who is now former President Trump’s running mate, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter: ‘It’s almost like these people don’t want young people starting families or something. Really weird stuff.’

‘Shamala is an extinctionist. The natural extension of her philosophy would be a de facto holocaust for all of humanity!’ wrote billionaire and X owner Elon Musk on his platform.