Special Report with Bret Baier 8/28/24 Full End Show | Fox Breaking News August 28 2024
Transcript
00:00Oh, yes. Good evening. Welcome to Washington. I'm Bret Baier. With fewer than 70 days until
00:05the presidential election, we are releasing new Fox polls from key Sunbelt states. And
00:11it's anyone's ballgame, as you can see right here. Former President Donald Trump holds
00:15a one-point lead in North Carolina, 50 to 49. But Vice President Harris, Kamala Harris,
00:21is leading by one in Arizona, 50 to 49, by two in Nevada and Georgia, 50 to 48 in each
00:29of those states. All of these numbers, obviously within the margin of error here, these surveys,
00:35we should point out, were conducted after both the Democratic National Convention and
00:39Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropping out and endorsing Trump. The Harris-Walz ticket is barnstorming
00:45Georgia with a bus tour as former President Trump prepares to head to Michigan and Wisconsin.
00:50We have Fox News coverage tonight. Correspondent Ayesha Hosney is in Grand Rapids with the
00:55latest on what's ahead for the Trump-Vance campaign. But we begin with correspondent
00:59Mark Meredith in Savannah with the latest from the Harris-Walz ticket. Mark.
01:04Bret, good evening to you. Democrats are pouring more time, money and resources into Georgia.
01:10Given the polls you were just showing, they feel more energy. And tonight, we're also
01:14seeing the Harris campaign pivot to try to reach some Democratic voters that have been
01:18ignored in the past. Tonight, Vice President Harris campaigning in rural Georgia, hoping
01:26to boost turnout in places where Democrats have long struggled.
01:30You never let any circumstance knock you down or slow you down. You just keep going at it.
01:36That's who you are. And that's why we are so confident in everything that you are doing
01:42and will continue to do for our country.
01:44Harris is investing heavily in the state she and President Biden won by less than 12,000
01:48votes four years ago. Her campaign, hiring 190 staffers and opening 24 field offices.
01:55You have to make sure that you're playing the field within the entire state. And that's
01:58exactly what we're going to continue to do.
02:00Democrats are also challenging how Georgia will run November's election. This week, the
02:04party suing the state's election board, claiming new rules created by Republicans could allow
02:09some county election officials to delay certifying their results.
02:14We will risk falling into chaos.
02:17Republicans support the changes, which requires a quote, reasonable inquiry before certification.
02:22The Georgia GOP writing the rules, quote, increase transparency and public confidence
02:26regarding our elections.
02:28While in Georgia, Harris will sit down with CNN for her first TV interview since becoming
02:33the Democratic Party nominee. Her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, will also participate.
02:40Today Walz was in Boston urging the nation's largest firefighters union, which backed Biden
02:45last cycle to make an endorsement quickly.
02:48Sisters and brothers in labor, it's time for you to step up to the plate.
02:54The Teamsters union has also not endorsed a candidate yet. The group is expected to
02:59meet with Vice President Harris fairly soon. They backed Biden Harris in 2020. But this
03:04time around, they left the door open for that possibility. They could endorse the former
03:08president.
03:09Mark Meredith live in Savannah. Mark, thanks. The Republican ticket is spending overtime
03:14in Rust Belt states attacking Vice President Harris and the Biden administration for losing
03:19manufacturing jobs to China.
03:21As mentioned earlier, former President Trump will be in Michigan tomorrow. Correspondent
03:26Aisha Hosni joins us now from Grand Rapids with the latest. Good evening, Aisha.
03:30Right. Good evening to you. So right now, Senator J.D. Vance is en route to Wisconsin,
03:37where he will hold a rally near excuse me, he will hold a rally there shortly in the
03:42next hour. And he was making a campaign stop in Erie, Pennsylvania earlier today as the
03:49strategy for this ticket now is to target the Rust Belt states as they try to court
03:54suburban women, independents and also middle class voters through their number one issue,
04:00which is the economy.
04:01The Harris campaign is taking note of this, punching back by claiming that Trump and Vance
04:05will, quote, always prioritize their ultra wealthy buddies over middle class Americans.
04:11Now, Michigan and Wisconsin could also be impacted by another name, and that is RFK
04:16Junior, who can't seem to get off the ballots in those two states after endorsing former
04:21President Trump. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is also eyeing women in battleground states.
04:27They released a brand new ad today featuring more than a dozen black women who were denouncing
04:32Vice President Harris. And Trump's luck could be turning in another battleground state.
04:37That is the state of Georgia, where popular Governor Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp
04:41have just announced that they will headline a fundraiser for the former president in Atlanta
04:46on Thursday.
04:47That is, of course, after a big public quarrel with the former president last month. And
04:53clearly, Democrats are also taking notice of this Rust Belt strategy because now President
04:58Biden has a trip to Wisconsin on the schedule for next week to talk up his investing in
05:04America agenda. Brett.
05:08Thanks, Aisha. Former President Trump will campaign in Potterville, Michigan tomorrow
05:13as he and his running mate J.D. Vance continue their campaign through the Rust Belt states.
05:17Meanwhile, Vice President Harris and Tim Walz focusing on the Sun Belt. Harris has made
05:22more trips to the Sun Belt states than former President Trump, and those visits have been
05:28paying off. According to the polls, as we mentioned earlier, she is ahead of the former
05:32president in three of our four new battleground state polls. She begins a bus trip through
05:38Georgia today. The Sun Belt and the Rust Belt will likely be what it comes down to on election
05:44night to 70. The electoral votes to win. There you see 226 to 219 with the states already
05:51decided and all the states in gray. Those are the toss ups we're talking about. Seven
05:56states from those regions. Vice President Harris again, 226 to 219. Before we start
06:02with the what if scenario, let's say the Republican nominee Donald Trump does well in the Rust
06:08Belt and he wins Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Vice President Harris then, according to recent
06:17polls, may win over voters in Michigan. That brings us to 241 to 248. Now to the Sun Belt
06:25starting out west in Nevada. Our new Fox News poll out today shows Vice President Harris.
06:30They're leading by two points, obviously within the margin of error. Obviously, the former
06:35president has outperformed polls going into Election Day previously two times. But let's
06:40just say for the sake of argument, she wins Nevada. President Biden had won there in 2020,
06:46but it had fallen behind former President Trump in polling. Most recently, he was
06:50five points back in our June poll. Now it's the same case in Arizona. Our new poll shows that the
06:56vice president is ahead of the former president by one point. Again, very, very tight. But President
07:02Biden won Arizona by less than a third of a percentage point in 2020. Our most recent polling
07:08with President Biden in the poll, again, five points back in June. That has changed. Heading
07:15now out east to North Carolina. Former President Trump is also ahead there by one point. We'll say
07:21that he wins the state of North Carolina. We are going to give the state of Arizona to the vice
07:30president. And then the recent polling showed President Biden five points behind in North
07:37Carolina. And it's very, very tight right now. So go back to the map. It goes brings us to 264
07:44to 258. Again, 270 is what you need to win. And guess what remains? Georgia. Georgia remains. It
07:51was the closest contest in 2020 decided by less than a quarter of a percentage point in favor of
07:58President Biden. Our recent polling showed the widest gap, six points for former President Trump
08:03over President Biden. But now that has closed. Harris has a two point lead in our latest poll.
08:10It's expected to be a close race. That's obviously within the margin of error. But
08:14both candidates are spending a lot of time in Georgia. And if that lead holds,
08:19she wins Georgia. She wins the presidency of the United States.
08:29Donald Trump had a lot of great successes in the Oval Office. And we know Kamala Harris has
08:33not had a whole lot of successes. The excitement has been incredible. Every day that Kamala Harris
08:38has been the candidate. We have won the election every day. We saw she governed. And I think that
08:43is why this is a neck and neck race. And people want a change of who's leading the country.
08:49Let's start off with our panel in the A Block, Fox News senior political analyst Juan Williams,
08:53Matthew Connetti, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Katie Pavlich,
08:57news editor at townhall.com. The bottom line, Katie, is this tracks other polls that essentially
09:03has this tide. I mean, it depends on the day who's up one or up to all of those are within
09:08the margin of error. We have ourselves a race and it may be a late night on November 5th.
09:13But looking into the numbers that shows me that Kamala Harris as a new nominee for the Democrats
09:18has done her job in the sense of bringing back the coalition, bringing base voters
09:22back into the party, getting them enthused about wanting to go out and vote for Democrats.
09:26She's also been able to present herself as a new candidate rather than the vice president who is
09:31tied to all of Joe Biden's policies. People are saying that she has the benefit of the doubt when
09:35she's presenting herself in limited ways to the American public about who she is as a candidate.
09:41Also, these numbers show that the Trump campaign is having to defend a lot of turf that they
09:46previously were running away with when they were competing against Joe Biden. They really were
09:50going to be able to focus on Michigan, Pennsylvania, the blue wall, Wisconsin. Now they have to focus
09:56as well on these other states. But in terms of the margin of error, Trump typically does better
10:01in these polls in terms of being underestimated. So it's a neck and neck race. These races are
10:06going to be decided by maybe thousands of votes. And we still have a couple of months to go.
10:11Now, there are a couple of states where Republicans are on the offense. Virginia
10:15gets tight single digits. It was Minnesota before the Tim Walz pick. If you look at the issues,
10:23trust who to do a better job. Immigration, border security. The former president, Juan, is up 16.
10:30Economy. The former president is up eight. Israel-Hamas war, up eight. Health care and
10:36abortion, he's down. But the things that people say they care about most are those top two things.
10:44Well, I think what you have to understand here is, one, it's a very close race,
10:47and it depends where you are. So when we look at those issues, we're looking nationally. Those
10:52polls are done in terms of national response. And if you start then to pick on specific states,
10:57you may get different answers. Well, that's this poll, this set of polls,
11:01which is the Sun Belt, Rust Belt. Yes. So that's why I'm saying that's why you get that. But I
11:05think if you look at what Harris has done, I think there's a lot of pressure on her to do an
11:09interview that she's going to do tomorrow night. People asking, have you flip-flopped on immigration
11:14on other issues? Those are legitimate questions. Right. But I mean, it's a legitimate question to
11:18ask that of the Republicans. I mean, there's no mention of abortion in the Republican platform.
11:23They're running away from Project 2025 as laying out there. So then you say, well, you know. Because
11:28you never embraced 2025, but keep going. Right. But then you say, wait a minute, how much does
11:32it matter? You look back to something, you know, like I think it was, you know, when you think back
11:38to 2016 and you start looking at what Trump had written out there as policy, I think he had like
11:4416 pages versus what you see from the Clinton campaign. It was like 300 pages. Obviously,
11:50she lost. I think what people tap into is values and statements and what they're hearing from the
11:56candidate. And in this case, then I think what you're hearing from Harris is she is painting
12:02herself as a centrist. She's using language like this, economic opportunity. She's not talking
12:07about fairness. She's not talking about justice, economic opportunity. But this is a different
12:12candidate, Matthew, than 2019. And she will have to. One would think Dana Bash is going to ask some
12:18of these contrasts about 2019 and now in this moderate candidate that Juan portrays. Right.
12:24And if she acknowledges changing her mind on any of these issues, the follow up question is why?
12:29What made you change? Exactly. But I want to talk about the polls just briefly. I mean,
12:32you can compare this set of polls to the Biden Trump set of polls. In that case,
12:37Harris is doing better. She's gained ground. She's ahead by a very small margin in some of
12:41these states. But compare Trump's performance now to what polls are showing at this point in 2020
12:47and 2016. And Trump is doing pretty well. And so what we have is we have a toss up election now
12:53where Trump is leading on two of the three major issues. He's got the economy. He's got
12:57immigration while she has abortion. I think there are multiple ways that Trump can widen that
13:02advantage and capitalize on the fact that Harris did not receive a bounce coming out of her
13:06convention, according to this poll. Not significant. Definitely not. If you look at the RCP average,
13:11RCP average national head to head right now, Harris is up forty eight point three to forty
13:17six point six. But to Matthew's point, if you go back to 2020 at this exact point,
13:22Biden was up forty nine point six to forty two point seven. And then you go way back to 2016.
13:28At this exact point, Hillary Clinton was up forty eight point three to forty two point three.
13:34This is a time where not only one, the former president outperforms where people either head
13:40into the booth and they don't tell the pollster and they pull the lever or he closes. Well,
13:46in the final, you would think, given all of the positive coverage of the DNC convention
13:51and the candidate not being held accountable for her old statements, which she says that
13:55through AIDS have changed significantly, that she would get more of a bump coming out of the DNC.
13:59But buried in the Fox News polling, this was a very interesting number. President Donald Trump's
14:04support among black voters has gone from seven percent to 19 percent. That has to worry the
14:08Kamala Harris campaign. If it's 19 one, that's a big shift. That would be massive. But I think
14:15that the other thing to say coming out of the poll today is that what we've seen is that Kamala
14:20Harris has taken the undecided. I think that's what's bolstered her numbers and her independent
14:25numbers high. Yeah. But the question is, what happened to the Nikki Haley voters,
14:29the Republicans who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Trump? And so far they're staying
14:34with Trump. All right, panel, we'll see you later in the show. Thank you. Here are some
14:38other headlines we're following tonight. The Supreme Court keeping on hold the latest
14:43multibillion dollar student debt relief plan from the Biden administration, while multiple lawsuits
14:48make their way through lower courts. The justices rejected the request, asking to put most of the
14:53policy back into effect. The high court says it expects the appeals court to issue a full
14:58decision on this. The Biden administration vowed to aggressively defend the plan. Overseas,
15:04Israeli forces launched a large operation in the occupied West Bank overnight, killing at
15:09least 10 Hamas militants, carrying out arrests, sealing off a volatile city of Jenin. We'll have
15:15a full report from there and where the ceasefire negotiations stand live from Tel Aviv later in
15:20the show. Stocks were off today in a technology led retreat. The Dow lost 159. The S&P 500 fell 34.
15:28The Nasdaq dropped 199. Up next, new images and information into the investigation into the
15:33attempted assassination of former President Trump and then where Vice President Harris stands now
15:40on the issues. We'll look at then and now. The FBI is releasing new images and details for the first
15:47time in nearly a month on the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
15:51Correspondent C.B. Cotton shows us what we learned today. After reviewing five years of online
15:58activity, the FBI says it still can't say why 20 year old suspected gunman Thomas Crooks
16:04tried to kill former President Donald Trump. A clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to
16:10make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time. And Crooks mindset wasn't consistent,
16:16according to investigators. We've seen no definitive ideology associated with our subject,
16:23either left leaning or right leaning. It's really been a mixture. The FBI says it has seen what it
16:29called detailed planning for the attack and an apparent focus on political figures and events.
16:35Crooks came to the July 13th rally armed with this rifle and carrying this backpack. The newly
16:42released evidence photos also showing the homemade explosive devices investigators say they found in
16:48Crooks car. The FBI says the shooter's online history showed searches for both the RNC and DNC.
16:56And in the 30 days leading up to the shooting, more than 60 searches were related to Trump and
17:01President Biden. As the rally date grew closer, investigators say Crooks zeroed in with searches
17:08like. Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show? Quote Butler Farm Show podium and quote
17:16Butler Farm Show photos. The FBI says it continues to look through Crooks encrypted
17:22accounts. At this time, the FBI has not identified a motive nor any co-conspirators or associates
17:29of Crooks with advanced knowledge of the attack. And I want to be clear, we have not seen any
17:35indication to suggest Crooks was directed by a foreign entity to conduct the attack.
17:41The FBI's ongoing investigation could bring criminal charges, but the officials wouldn't say
17:46whether the probe is eyeing any of Crooks family members who we're told are cooperating. Brett.
17:52CB, thank you. There are new questions tonight about where exactly Vice President Harris stands
17:58on a number of issues. The current Harris campaign pulling in about face on a number of key policy
18:03positions from the 2019 Democratic candidate, as we just talked about with the panel.
18:08Senior White House correspondent Jackie Heinrich has that story live from the North Lawn. Good
18:12evening, Jackie. Good evening, Brett. The vice president has some explaining to do after
18:16abandoning some of her more liberal policy positions on things like Medicare for all and
18:21fracking. The campaign telling us her views have been shaped now by three effective years
18:27governing with President Biden. And as president, she would seek bipartisan solutions, an easier
18:31sell in a general election. We don't have to clear a primary. But her campaign website still has
18:38no policy details and all of her positions. The details are pretty hazy.
18:44There's some daylight between this in 2019. We're not going to treat people who are undocumented
18:50across the border as criminals. And this today, quote, the vice president's position is the same
18:54as the administration's unauthorized border crossings are illegal. It's also unclear if
18:59Harris would support more border wall funding. She keeps showing it in her ads, framing her as
19:04tough on the border. Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris. A campaign source downplayed
19:10it, saying Democrats have always supported border barriers where it makes sense. But Harris wrote
19:15in 2020, Trump's border wall is a complete waste of taxpayer money and won't make us any safer.
19:20There are more policy shifts when it comes to climate. Harris campaign fact check email this
19:25week said, quote, Vice President Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate. But in 2019,
19:30she co-sponsored a bill banning the sale of new gas powered cars by 2040.
19:35Her 2020 campaign website promised to ban all new internal combustion cars by 2035.
19:41Harris has said she would take extreme measures to enact her plans.
19:45I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.
19:50She repeated that warning under Biden on a different issue.
19:53I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and
20:01reproductive rights. Some new plans Harris has released have been quashed by congressional
20:06Democrats, like for grocery price caps. We will not have price controls in this country,
20:11I can almost assure you. But with her running mate at her side, Harris's team is hoping
20:15tomorrow's interview isn't as tense as some in the past. You haven't been to the border.
20:20I and I haven't been to Europe. President Biden spent the day at the beach. He went from one
20:27vacation in California to another in Delaware, and he is expected to stay there until Monday.
20:32However, we're told he is going to be hitting the trail with Harris on Monday for an event in
20:39Pittsburgh. The kind of side by side campaigning we've been told for a very long time, Brett,
20:44would start happening soon. Jackie Heinrich live in the North Lawn. Jackie, thank you.
20:49Up next, a new major Israeli military operation to root out Hamas will take you there.
20:54And a damning report from President Biden on the costly Gaza humanitarian people.
20:59You're looking live, Savannah, Georgia. There you see Vice President Harris,
21:02also in there, Governor Tim Walz. This is a stop at the Sandfly BBQ restaurant in Savannah.
21:09A crowd outside as they're obviously ordering some some dinner there on their stop. They are
21:15focused on Georgia, had a number of stops in Georgia. This is southeastern Georgia,
21:20where Democrats feel they can make some some hay with the voters there. We wanted to dip into this
21:25because we're going to try to take you to the J.D. Vance event in Wisconsin a little bit later in
21:30this show. Overseas now, French authorities are handing handing preliminary charges to Telegram
21:38CEO Pavel Durov for allegedly allowing criminal activity on his messaging app. They are also
21:44barring him from leaving France pending further investigation. Durov was detained Saturday outside
21:50Paris as part of a sweeping investigation opened earlier this year and released earlier today
21:56after four days of questioning.
22:05Israeli forces are ramping up operations in the occupied West Bank region, as mentioned earlier,
22:11an overnight offensive targeting Hamas militants killed at least 10.
22:15National correspondent Jeff Paul reports from Tel Aviv. In one of the largest operations carried
22:21out by Israeli forces in the West Bank in months, soldiers descended upon the cities of Jenin and
22:27Tulkarem overnight into Wednesday morning. Around 2 a.m., the army raided the camp with a large
22:33number of soldiers on foot. They raided the camp from different sides. We were surprised. Israel
22:38says its latest counterterrorism campaign aimed at destabilizing Palestinian militant groups.
22:46Through airstrikes and small arms fire, as many as 10 militants were killed.
22:50In seconds, very fast. We felt like something come down on us from the sky and there was an
22:56explosion. The Palestinian Authority warned of repercussions over Israel's siege, which comes at
23:02a time of escalating tensions in the region. Israeli forces continue fighting Hamas in Gaza,
23:07the U.S., Egypt and Qatar are still pushing for a ceasefire deal, but so far no breakthroughs this
23:12week. After a massive weekend escalation involving Israel and Hezbollah, the exchange of fire between
23:19both sides continues. During a visit to the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli Prime Minister
23:24Benjamin Netanyahu commended troops for helping stop a surprise attack by Hezbollah, but says
23:30it's not enough. This is not the end of the story. When will it be the end of the story?
23:35Only when we can return the security and the residents to their homes safely.
23:41And we are learning tonight that Israeli forces have retrieved the body of a soldier who was
23:46killed and abducted back on October 7th. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they will
23:51do everything they can to bring both alive and dead. Brett. Jeff Paul, live in Tel Aviv. Jeff,
23:57thanks. Tonight we have startling revelations from a watchdog report on the temporary pier
24:03constructed to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Remember that? The summary indicates
24:08President Biden pushed forward with that plan despite vocal opposition over logistics and
24:14concerns it would undercut other humanitarian efforts, let alone the cost. Chief National
24:20Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the story from the Pentagon. Tonight I'm directing
24:26the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean
24:32on the coast of Gaza. When President Biden announced he was sending a military pier known
24:37by the acronym J-Lots based in Norfolk, Virginia, to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza,
24:43Pentagon officials were caught by surprise. According to a new USAID inspector general report,
24:50many U.S. officials objected to the plan. Quote, multiple USAID staff expressed concerns that the
24:56focus on using J-Lots would detract from the agency's advocacy to open land crossings in Israel
25:03and Egypt, which were seen as more efficient and proven avenues for delivering aid to Gaza.
25:09The goal was to deliver enough food for 500,000 Palestinians for three months, but in the end,
25:15only enough aid to feed 450,000 for one month came through the pier. It was operational for
25:21just 20 days and cost $230 million. Within days of being attached along the Gaza coast,
25:28the Mediterranean's rough conditions broke it apart, resulting in $22 million in damage.
25:35Last month, the Pentagon was still publicly defending the temporary pier.
25:39We delivered nearly 20 million pounds of aid. But officials admitted the doomed project was
25:45always known by the Defense Department to be a near impossible task. We know that sea states
25:52were going to get worse as the summer progressed. That is something that was always known.
25:58Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command,
26:01has said U.S. service members who participated in the effort should be proud.
26:0620 million pounds of aid to Gaza was the equivalent of what the U.S. military
26:10delivered to Haiti during the catastrophic earthquake in 2010.
26:14Brett.
26:15Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon. Jennifer, thanks.
26:17Up next, we look at the factors driving the surge in car insurance prices and what you can
26:22expect going forward. First, beyond our borders tonight, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
26:28meets with China's foreign minister in Beijing as the White House announces President Biden
26:32plans to hold a phone call with the Chinese president in coming weeks. The meeting comes
26:37amid high tensions and a new report showing China spent seven percent of its defense budget
26:42on military exercises in the Western Pacific. Italian prosecutors are investigating two more
26:48crew members from British tech tycoon Mike Lynch's yacht along with its captain in connection with
26:54the vessel sinking over a week ago. The three are under investigation for manslaughter and shipwreck.
27:00Lynch and six other people were killed when that super yacht
27:04capsized. And this is a live look at Biarritz, France. It's dark there on the beach. One of the
27:10big stories there tonight, a Paralympics. The Paralympics gets underway in Paris,
27:15some 4,400 athletes with disabilities, permanent injuries or impairments prepare to compete.
27:21There are 549 medals up for grabs across 22 sports over the next 11 days in Paris.
27:28Both alive and dead. Brett.
27:31Jeff Paul live in Tel Aviv. Jeff, thanks. Tonight, we have startling revelations from a watchdog
27:36report on the temporary pier constructed to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Remember that
27:42the summary indicates President Biden pushed forward with that plan despite vocal opposition
27:48over logistics and concerns it would undercut other humanitarian efforts,
27:53let alone the cost. Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the story
27:58from the Pentagon. Tonight, I'm directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission
28:04to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza.
28:09When President Biden announced he was sending a military pier known by the acronym J-Lots
28:14based in Norfolk, Virginia, to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza,
28:19Pentagon officials were caught by surprise. According to a new USAID inspector general
28:24report, many U.S. officials objected to the plan. Quote, multiple USAID staff expressed concerns
28:32that the focus on using J-Lots would detract from the agency's advocacy to open land crossings
28:38in Israel and Egypt, which were seen as more efficient and proven avenues for delivering aid
28:43to Gaza. The goal was to deliver enough food for 500,000 Palestinians for three months,
28:50but in the end, only enough aid to feed 450,000 for one month came through the pier. It was operational.