Central Park 5 Members Rip Into Trump at DNC for What He Did to Them

Members of the wrongly convicted “Central Park Five” spoke during primetime of the final night of the Democratic National Convention. And they had some choice words for Donald Trump.

“Our youth was stolen from us. Every day, as we walked into [the] courtroom people screamed at us, threatened us, because of Donald Trump,” said Korey Wise, one of the men falsely charged as a teenager for the beating and rape of a white woman.

Trump “spent $85,000 on a full page ad in the New York Times calling for our execution,” Wise continued.

The Central Park 5 were a group of Black and brown teenagers, aged 14 to 16, who in 1990 were falsely convicted of raping and assaulting a young white woman jogging in Central Park. The high-profile case gained national attention—and Trump at the time helped fan the flames. 

He did in fact take out $85,000 worth of full-page ads in The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post, and Newsday. The ads accused the kids of being guilty, with no evidence, and in all caps, they urged: “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”

Trump, now a convicted felon, continues to hold that the men are guilty, even though another man confessed to the crime after DNA evidence proved otherwise. Trump has also refused to apologize.

Wise, Yousef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, and Antron McCray were ultimately convicted and spent between 7 to 13 years in prison. Four of them, with the exception of McCray, attended the DNC Thursday.

Salaam, now a member of the New York City Council, echoed Wise’s warnings about Trump. “Forty-five wanted us un-alive, he wanted us dead.”

“That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict. He dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong. He has never changed and he never will.”

After collectively serving decades in prison, the five were awarded $41 million from the city.

Speaking on Thursday at the DNC, the men were met with a standing ovation from the crowd.

Senator Elizabeth Warren had a zinger for J.D. Vance during her Thursday night speech at the Democratic National Convention.

“Trust Donald Trump and J.D. Vance to look out for your family?” she asked. “I wouldn’t trust them to move my couch.”

In her speech, Warren painted a picture of Harris as the candidate looking out for working class people while Republicans look out for themselves. “Donald Trump, the felon, has no plans to lower costs for families.”

“When did he ever fill up a gas tank or worry about a grocery bill? The only bills he worries about are from his criminal defense lawyers,” the Massachusetts politician joked.

Warren also highlighted Harris’s background in law protecting everyday people. She “fought the giant banks, and she delivered billions of dollars of help for families,” said Warren. “And that is the difference between a criminal and a prosecutor.”

Donald Trump has taken January 6 denialism to a new level: He’s going to be hosting an awards ceremony dedicated to the Capitol riot.

On September 5, a “J6 Awards Gala” will be held at Trump’s golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey. The event will include a raffle to win a plaque recognizing the “Justice For All” song performed by Trump and the “J6 Prison Choir,” which briefly reached the Billboard Music Chart. The choir is made up of defendants serving prison sentences for their actions in the Capitol in 2021.

Trump is scheduled as a guest speaker, as is his former lawyer and indicted co-defendant Rudy Giuliani. A separate flier for the event notes that tickets range from $2,500 for an individual to $50,000 for a table for 12.

“We gather to pay tribute not only to these individuals but to all J6 defendants who have shown incredible courage and sacrifice,” the event description states.

In a promotional video for the event, Trump calls the rioters “peaceful” and “hostages,” and adds that “there have never been people treated more horrifically than J6 hostages.”

It’s pretty clear that Trump is trying to whitewash an event where he tried to overturn the 2020 election, and maybe make some money in the process. The rioters committed federal crimes and assaulted law enforcement, and yet this event honors them. It’s a warning that without any accountability, Trump will celebrate his crimes, and perhaps be emboldened to repeat them.

Donald Trump made an appearance in Cochise County, Arizona, near the southern U.S. border Thursday, touting a list of violent crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants in an effort to boost his own political campaign.

During Trump’s speech, he read out a list of several gruesome crimes committed against young girls and women across the country, which Trump claimed had been carried out by undocumented immigrants—outright blaming his opponent Kamala Harris for allowing the immigrants into the country. Devoid of any emotion from Trump, the list was presented solely to create shock and outrage.

During his address, Trump invited Patty Morin to speak. Morin is the mother of Rachel Morin, who was sexually assaulted and murdered in Maryland in 2023, allegedly by a migrant from El Salvador. Morin spoke emotionally about the devastating loss of her daughter, which compelled her to speak on behalf of Trump.

“I really want our words to be heard, and I really want you to take to heart what I’m saying. We’re not here for a political stand—although we are,” Morin said. “We’re here because we’re losing our moms, our daughters, our children to criminals. That shouldn’t happen.”

Trump and other MAGA figures have repeatedly highlighted Morin’s story as a tool to criticize the Biden administration’s efforts to expand legal protections for undocumented immigrants. Rachel’s brother was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention last month.

The Republican nominee also invited family members of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old from Houston, Texas, who was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant.

In highlighting these stories and their disturbing details, Trump hopes to feed into the anti-immigrant narrative his campaign has created, convincing Americans to support whichever candidate would close the southern border. But his fear-mongering regularly dives into overt racism and baseless claims, such as on Sunday, when Trump shared a post on his Truth Social account showing video footage of a line of people of color walking on a dirt road. The video was captioned, “If you’re a woman you can either vote for Trump or wait until one of these monsters goes after you or your daughter.”

Trump was also accompanied Thursday by Sheriff Mark Dannels, who has been linked to the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a right-wing group of law enforcement officers that believe the county—not the state or federal governments—-should control all land within its borders, giving sheriffs license to ignore federal law and enforce their own vision of justice.

The Supreme Court handed a win to Republicans Thursday by restoring a voting law in Arizona requiring proof of citizenship with state voter registration forms.

The restoration came in a 5–4 decision, with liberals Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting along with conservative Amy Coney Barrett. But the rest of the court’s conservative justices handed Republicans a win.

Still, the court at least denied another GOP request, which was to reinstate an Arizona law that would throw out ballots if the voters didn’t provide proof of citizenship, even if they registered via a federal form, which doesn’t require proof.

The legal challenges were brought to the court by the Republican National Committee, which made an emergency request. The Justice Department sued over the second provision, arguing that it conflicted with federal law. The Democratic National Committee argued that both provisions are unconstitutional, and also violate a 2018 consent decree.

Republicans seem to be going all in on the false idea that massive numbers of noncitizens are voting illegally thanks to lax requirements for identification while voting or registering to vote, and keep repeating the claim without any proof. Several Republicans have been peddling the claim for years, and many mentioned it in their speeches at the Republican National Convention last month. Not only is it included in the party platform, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has used poorly sourced information to propose a bill to supposedly fight it.

By making these requirements more stringent, they think Democrats won’t be able to cheat. Of course, there’s no such cheating going on, but it will make voting more difficult for low-income citizens.

This new ruling not only gives the false claim more legitimacy, but it appears to be blatant intervention by the Supreme Court to try and help Republicans get favorable results in Arizona, a state that Democrats flipped in 2020. Republicans are looking for every advantage they can get in 2024, but without the actual work of convincing voters.

Democratic members of the Squad joined an Uncommitted movement sit-in outside the Democratic National Convention, protesting organizers’ decision to reject a Palestinian speaker on the convention stage.

The protest began Wednesday evening, after DNC organizers rejected the Uncommitted movement’s request for a Palestinian speaker on stage, and continued into Thursday morning.

Those sitting outside the United Center were joined by sympathetic Squad members, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke at the first night of the convention.

“I think it is critically important for us to send this message of shared humanity,” said Ocasio-Cortez via FaceTime, emphasizing that the request is “a basic thing to ask for.”

On Wednesday night, Representative Ilhan Omar joined the demonstration in person, embracing protesters, as other politicians called in.

“To still speak up in your grief in the face of people who would essentially spit in your face and to do it anyway is a love that some people will never understand,” said Representative Summer Lee, who also joined the encampment Wednesday night.

On Thursday, Representative Rashida Tlaib joined the Uncommitted movement’s press conference via FaceTime, stating that protesters “shouldn’t have to beg” for a Palestinian voice to be heard.

Outed Squad members Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman also promoted the sit-in on social media. “Michelle Obama implored us all to do something. I’m imploring our party to do better,” wrote Bush. On Thursday afternoon, Bush joined protesters in person, declaring, “We need a Palestinian American to speak from that stage.”

Here is the speech that the Uncommitted movement wanted to give to the convention.

This story has been updated.

J.D. Vance made another awkward, slightly sinister appearance Thursday at a press conference in Valdosta, Georgia.

“First of all, if it’s a fake news anchor, I’d appreciate y’all just letting them ask their question, it’s OK,” Vance joked to the crowd. “We can run them out of town after they ask their question.” There were mild laughs, but Vance’s joke hit a dark note as the running mate of the guy who once called the American press the “enemy of the people.”

The vice presidential candidate noted that he was “just kidding,” but the grim joke isn’t a first for Vance, who regularly makes awkward, often hostile remarks about the press. Earlier this week, he visited a deli in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and made a similar joke. 

“You have any food here you really don’t like? We’ll take some and feed it to the journalists on the plane,” Vance quipped, according to Reese Gorman, a reporter for NOTUS. 

It should hardly come as a surprise that Vance has a certain resentment toward the press, as they’re the ones telling everyone just how weird he actually is. 

Later, Vance was asked about Trump’s immigration plan, which he has promised will be the largest deportation plan in history. 

“As a husband of someone who is a daughter of immigrants, how do you look at the deportation plan that Trump will put in place? Specifically the detention of families and children,” one reporter asked. 

“Let me say three things about this,” Vance replied. “First, I am married to the daughter of immigrants to this country, I am married to the daughter of legal immigrants to this country—people who respected the country enough to follow the rules before they came.”

Beside the strange fact that Vance felt it was necessary to clarify his family member’s immigration status, the Ohio senator clearly imagines that it is a lack of respect that draws immigrants from around the world to the U.S. border, rather than any of the actual root causes of immigration.

“You can’t reward people for breaking the laws,” Vance continued, without a trace of irony for his rule-breaking running mate, who expects to be rewarded with the presidency in November.  

To top the whole thing off, as Vance walked away from the podium, the Guns N’ Roses cover of Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” started playing—not quite an anthem of political victory, but one of disillusionment. 

Donald Trump is losing his grasp on a key demographic.

A poll published Wednesday revealed that the Republican presidential nominee is bleeding support from older voters—historically the voting bloc most likely to show up at the polls—because they find him to be in “very poor” health.

The University of New Hampshire poll surveyed residents in Vermont, where Trump won roughly 30 percent of the vote in 2016 and 2020. If the election were held today, 27 percent of the respondents said that they would vote for Trump, while 67 percent said they would elect Kamala Harris.

But underneath the favorability odds were deep concerns about Trump’s physical and mental condition. The poll found that 61 percent of voters aged 65 and older in Vermont found Trump’s physical and mental fitness to be “very poor.” Other age demographics were slightly less bleak about Trump’s health, with 58 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds identifying Trump as in “very poor” health, 40 percent of 35- to 49-year-olds, and just 37 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds.

Added up, half of the 934 respondents identified Trump’s physical and mental health as “very poor.” Just 14 percent described his health as “very good,” while 12 percent described his health as simply “good.”

Harris’s mental and physical fitness report was much more optimistic from the Green Mountain State. Approximately 62 percent of voters described Harris’s health as “very good,” with an additional 16 percent describing it as “good.” Only six percent found Harris’s health to be “very poor.”

Democratic National Convention organizers are facing criticism from their own party after refusing to allow any Palestinian speaker or member of the Uncommitted movement speaking time on the convention stage.

On Wednesday, Jon Polin and his wife Rachel Goldberg-Polin spoke to DNC delegates about their son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is being held captive in Gaza.

“In our Jewish tradition, we say ‘kol adam olam um lo’o,’ every person is an entire universe,” Polin said. “We must save all these universes. In an inflamed Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring hope to the entire region, a deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza. The time is now.”

But little else has been said on the convention stage about Palestinian civilians suffering from Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. Muslim Women for Harris-Walz announced they would disband after learning of the DNC’s rejection of a Palestinian speaker. The Uncommitted movement also launched a sit-in protest on Thursday to demand a Palestinian speaker be included.

The sit-in has received support from vocal pro-Palestine Democrats, including Squad members Representatives Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley. But it’s not just the Squad. Their demands have also spread to other Democrats, including convention speakers. And the list keeps growing:

• Representative Greg Casar
• Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison
• Representative Maxwell Frost
• Representative Val Hoyle
• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
• Representative Ro Khanna
• Representative Mark Pocan
• Representative Delia Ramirez

Israel’s war has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, including nearly 16,500 children. The Uncommitted delegates represent Democrats who support the party but want action to end the war, including an arms embargo against Israel, and they are only asking for a speaker to voice their concerns to the convention. Their speaker recommendations were pro-Harris and would have their remarks vetted ahead of time. 

“We talked to the DNC, we offered options, we said we’ll identify someone who is willing to express support for Vice President Harris … we did everything right, you know?” delegate Abbas Alawieh told Mother Jones. The question is, does anyone in the Harris campaign even care?

Elon Musk’s X is apparently getting money from some pretty shady people.

A federal judge ordered Tuesday that a list of investors who helped fund Musk’s $44 billion takeover of X, formerly Twitter, in October 2022 be unsealed. Buried among the lengthy list of nearly 100 investors are several particularly troubling figures.

One entity listed is Sean Combs Capital, LLC—better known as Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper who has been accused of rape, assault, forcible drugging, and even implicated in a sex trafficking operation.

In the early days of his X takeover, Musk once touted his relationship with Combs to push back on another investor’s concern about increasing racism on the social media platform.

In the forthcoming book Character Limit by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, Detavio Samuels, the CEO of the media company Revolt, voiced his concerns about anti-Black speech being emboldened on X.

“As you continue down the path that you’re going, I really recommend that you have conversations with this specific community, and we make sure that whatever solutions are created are solutions that make them feel safe and in a welcoming space,” Samuels said.

While Musk said he wanted to make sure people were comfortable, he thought that Samuels might be comforted to hear that one of his high-profile Black friends had also invested in Musk’s social media site. “I don’t know if you know this, but Puff is an investor in Twitter,” Musk said, using Combs’s nickname. “You know, he’s a good friend of mine, we text a lot.”

The list also includes several Silicon Valley entities run by billionaires like Musk himself and backing Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

One of the first names included is Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm run by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who recently announced that they were backing Trump in 2024. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the big issues that people care about,” Andreessen claimed, making clear that he was ignoring Trump’s platform on immigration and abortion, for a more favorable view on issues like crypto—in which Andreessen and Horowitz claim to be some of the world’s largest investors.

Also on the list is Sequoia Capital, run by Douglas Leone and Shaun Maguire, who donated a whopping $1 million and $500,000 respectively to Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC, the America PAC, which is currently under investigation for the shady way it was collecting voter information.

Another investor is 8VC, a venture capitalist firm run by Joe Lonsdale, who also donated $1 million to Musk’s PAC in June. Lonsdale is a co-founder of intelligence contractor and data analysis platform Palantir, which was also headed by Peter Thiel. While it’s hardly surprising that Musk’s billionaire buddies are invested in his social media company, it’s clear that X is being heavily underwritten by the same individuals funding Trump’s campaign.

Also included on the list of investors is Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, who has long had a stake in the social media company. In 2015, bin Talal owned 5.2 percent of Twitter, more than the company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey.

In November 2017, bin Talal was arrested as part of a sweeping “anti-corruption” purge that forced numerous wealthy Saudis and members of the royal family to sign over their assets to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an autocratic dictator with no tolerance for dissent. This sparked major concerns that Twitter was being used by the Saudi government to surveil its own citizens.

After Musk’s takeover, bin Talal and Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company maintained their ownership of X shares valued at $1.89 billion, making them jointly the company’s second-largest investors, according to Al Jazeera.

Another notable entity is the Pershing Square Foundation, which is headed by Bill Ackman, the CEO of the giant hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management. Last year, Ackman, a staunch Zionist who funded violent pro-Israel counterprotesters on college campuses, spearheaded the campaign to see Harvard’s President Claudine Gay removed from her seat.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the debt on Musk’s $13 billion in loans borrowed from several banks in order to buy X was never off-loaded from these banks’ balance sheets, leaving his debt “hung” in industry terms. Not only is X the longest-lasting hung deal since the 2008 financial crisis, it’s also reportedly one of the biggest. While the banks have been able to collect a hefty interest, it’s unclear how Musk will ever repay the principal if X continues on its current trajectory.