Donald Trump is once more courting controversy by suggesting that illegal immigrants are at risk of committing heinous crimes resulting from genetic aspects.

The former president and current candidate of the Republican Party within the 2024 presidential election appeared on the web site “The Hugh Hewitt Show” to debate the primary anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, which marked the start of a brutal and ongoing genocide that has killed over 41,000 Palestinians.

Trump spoke on other foreign relations topics, while also hurling quite a few insults at President Joe Biden and Trump’s current opponent, Kamala Harris. On the problem of immigration, he addressed the vice chairman, stating that she desired to “feed people in a government way” and “enter the system like the communist party.”

However, it was his later comments about illegal immigrants that sparked accusations that the previous president was once more toying with scientific racism.

“How about allowing people to cross an open border, 13,000 of whom are murderers? Many of them have murdered far more than one person and now live happily in the United States,” Trump he said. “You know, I’m a murderer now, I believe it, it’s in my genes. And we have a lot of bad genes in our country now. They left, 425,000 people came to our country who should not be here and who are criminals. Do you know one of the worst statistics? 325,000 little children missing.”

“Let me guess…immigrants coming from Europe don’t have ‘bad genes,'” wrote one X user. “The KKK thought the same about black people during Jim Crow and after,” another person added.

According to National Human Genome InstituteScientific racism is a historical pattern of ideologies that misuse science to advertise false scientific beliefs through which dominant racial and ethnic groups are perceived as superior.

Leading scientists in lots of industrialized countries within the nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries espoused these ideologies, but by the mid-Twentieth century the pseudoscientific racist beliefs were widely debunked. Despite this, evidence shows that scientific racism persists in science and research.

This discredited set of beliefs was strongly held against Black Americans throughout the Jim Crow era, when the eugenics movement became widely popular. Scientists would encourage white Americans to marry and reproduce only amongst their own race, labeling ethnic minority genes as “unfit” for improvement in future generations. Former President Teddy Roosevelt was one of the predominant supporters of eugenics within the early Twentieth century.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for his campaign, said Trump’s latest comments about immigrants he told NBC News“He was clearly talking about MURDERERS, not migrants.”

As for the 13,000 figure that Trump used to make his point, he’s referring to the 13,000 immigrants convicted of murder who will not be in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. However, three ICE officials he said NBC’s data doesn’t include whether these people are in state or local prisons. Other officials said the information dates back many years and that many of these people arrived within the United States before Biden’s presidential term, including while Trump was in office.

Trump’s harsh rhetoric on immigration dates back to when he first ran for president. He once said that Mexico “doesn’t send its best” and suggested that many migrants crossing the border are “rapists” and “criminals.” He fiercely advocated radical border policies that included constructing a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

At a rally in Minnesota in 2020, he again invoked the science of race and told a predominantly white crowd: “You have good genes. You know that, right? You have good genes. Rather a lot of it has to do with genes, don’t you think that? The racehorse theory. Do you think that we’re that different? You’ve got good Minnesota genes.

Racehorse theory was and still is widely adopted by white supremacists to perpetuate the thought of ​​racial purity and eugenics that whiteness is the top of genetics.

In a preview of Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview on “60 Minutes,” the Democratic presidential nominee appeared to further signal that if elected on November 5, she is willing to adopt a latest U.S. approach to the alliance with Israel.

More specifically, Whitaker questioned Harris on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resistance to U.S. calls for a ceasefire and escalating tensions within the region, including in Lebanon, against Hezbollah.

“Does the US have no influence on Prime Minister Netanyahu?” asked Whitaker.

In response, Vice President Harris said that diplomacy to secure a ceasefire, release hostages and increase humanitarian aid in Gaza was a “continuous pursuit.”

“We will continue to put pressure on Israel and the region, including Arab leaders,” Harris said.

Whitaker further pressed Harris, asking the presidential candidate whether Netanyahu was a “truly close ally” of the United States. The vp avoided answering this query. Instead, she said, “The better question is whether we have a valid alliance between the American people and the Israeli people – and the answer is yes.”

Cross said Harris’ response to Netanyahu showed her “ability” to walk a delicate balance each as a vp who must uphold the policy positions of her boss – President Biden – and as a presidential candidate who will ultimately forge her own path.

The political expert said Harris “respects both roles she plays” but additionally “shows that if elected in November, there will be a new side that will likely include some level of conditionality” for Israel.

Netanyahu has faced growing criticism each in Israel and world wide for his handling of the war against Hamas, which has led to more bloodshed, including Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Cross noted that the Israeli prime minister can also be adding “fire to the embers of a potentially dangerous war with Iran, which the United States does not want.” She added: “I would argue that most of the Western world doesn’t want that either.”

Netanyahu’s leadership in Israel stays uncertain as some Israelis call on him to step down as prime minister. Some of them blamed Netanyahu for inciting the war in Gaza and failing to take enough motion to finish the war and produce back the hostages. Foreign experts too concentrate that Netanyahu probably wants the war to proceed for political reasons.

“Netanyahu, like former President Trump, is someone who does not want to go to prison for the crimes he committed and was accused of,” Cross said of the prime minister, who continues to be on trial corruption allegations in Israel.

“(He) is willing to double down on the war to protect himself from the consequences of his own actions,” Cross added.

Ultimately, Cross said, the one “real weapon the United States has” is a commitment to chop weapons and funding for Israel, something Biden has been reluctant to do.

Although Harris didn’t call for such conditions for Israel, she went further than Biden in her public statements calling for a ceasefire and acknowledging the suffering of innocent Palestinians, including women and kids. The war can also be a major concern for American voters, especially young voters, black voters and Arab Americans.

“She met with disengaged voters. She met with groups of Palestinians. She listens to them in a way that I think helps her formulate a certain ideology about what should come next,” Cross said.

“There is a better way,” she continued. “There is a way to protect your nation and say you are taking revenge on someone who committed an atrocity against you, but these innocent people did not do it.”

More history

October seventh is the last day that potential voters in the 2024 elections can register to vote in each Texas and Georgia amid concerns that each states are engaging in voter suppression ahead of November’s hotly contested presidential and local elections.

According to , Georgia residents can register to vote online or by mail, telephone, or in person at a registration office, so long as they’re a U.S. citizen, are a legal resident of the county in which they are attempting to register, are not less than 17.5 years of age, aren’t currently serving a sentence, have been convicted of against the law, and haven’t been convicted by a judge considered incapable of mental work.

According to , Texans cannot register to vote onlinebut he must complete a paper application and submit it to the registry office by October 7.

Additionally, Texans even have the chance to register to vote when renewing, exchanging or changing contact information for an existing Texas driver’s license or ID card.

BLACK ENTERPRISES on her Instagram page, she posted upcoming voter registration deadlines in several other states as a reminder for those needing this information.

According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott removing roughly a million voters from state rolls has raised concerns amongst voting rights watchdogs that the governor’s designation of this as a routine process to combat voter fraud could potentially undermine the integrity of Texas elections.

As recently as 2019, Texas was incorrectly labeling people as foreigners, according to Alex Clapman, senior adviser on the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Program.

Clapman also identified that the concept an individual would risk deportation in order to vote doesn’t pass the smell test.

“The idea itself is so illogical,” Clapman told the Journal. “It is irresponsible for politicians and others to fan the flames of disinformation and undermine confidence in the elections.”

Governor Abbott just isn’t the just one pushing election security as a reason to remove voters from the rolls. In May 2024, Governor Kemp signed a bill that allowed change of address as probable cause to remove voters from state rolls.

According to , like Governor Abbott’s move, the signing of this bill raised concerns that this could lead on to voter disenfranchisement.

Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group founded by Kemp’s former opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, said SB 189 is a “voter suppression bill that emboldens right-wing activists in their efforts to kick black and brown voters off the rolls.”

The group continued: “By signing SB 189 into law, Brian Kemp delivered a gift to MAGA voter deniers.”

According to the Economic Policy Institute, it is a tactic utilized by each Abbott and Kemp fall inside the bounds of voter suppression tactics that are increasingly used against Black and other voters of color.

“Some of the most common tactics used by states include eliminating same-day voter registration, shortening early voting periods, removing polling places, creating mechanisms to override local election officials, “purging” voters from registration rolls, and creating harsh and expansive penalties for seemingly mundane administrative errors ” – they wrote in a report dated October 1.

EPI continued: “While these actions took place under the guise of preserving “election integrity” or responding to budget constraints, the effect (and intent) of those tactics is clearly to make it harder for Black and brown residents to vote. A 2022 study found that voters in Black neighborhoods waited 29% longer and were 74% more likely to spend greater than half-hour on the polls compared to voters in white neighborhoods.