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There will be no Triple Crown winner this year.

Seize the Grey is the winner of the 2024 Preakness Stakes, denying 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan the chance of becoming the 14th horse to win the Triple Crown. 

History was made with trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who at 88 becomes the oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown race.

Mystik Dan got off to a good start out of the gate, but Seize the Grey seized the lead early and never let up. Mystik Dan made a late push after the final turn but was unable to catch up to the winner. Mystik Dan finished second. 

With no Triple Crown winner possible this year, Justify in 2018 remains the last horse to achieve the remarkable feat.

Preakness payouts

The purse for this year’s race was $2 million, the highest in Preakness history. As a result, the owners of Seize the Grey − MyRacehorse, which sells public shares of the horse − will get $1.2 million. Those who bet on Seize the Grey to win the race could also cash in, and even more for getting the finalists of the race correct.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, 88, adds to his legend

He still wakes up every morning at 3:30 to get to the barn. He still gets on the pony every day to watch his horses train. And though his operation isn’t the coast-to-coast behemoth it once was as he’s aged into his late 80s, D. Wayne Lukas is still the Stetson-and-sunglasses wearing embodiment of what Thoroughbred racing is all about. 

Train ‘em hard. Give ‘em a shot. Maybe, just maybe, win a big one. 

It’s never changed for Lukas, from the moment he won his first Preakness with Codex in 1980 until he did it again Saturday for the seventh time with Seize The Grey. 

D. Wayne Lukas knew Seize the Grey would hold on at Preakness

Seize the Grey was out in front nearly the entire race, but the excitement picked up down the stretch when Mystik Dan closed the gap. But Seize the Grey trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he didn’t believe the horse would falter and said he looked great coming out of the far turn.

Interviewed by NBC after the race, Lukas said his thoughts during the race were, “Watch out. He’s not gonna quit.’

Mystik Dan trainer Kenny McPeek: ‘Just wasn’t his day’

Mystik Dan trainer Kenny McPeek gave credit to Seize the Grey trainer D. Wayne Lukas on the NBC broadcast, saying he idolized Lukas and “it’s fine” to get beat by him. 

McPeek said he’s proud of his team for getting Mystik Dan prepared for the race, inlcuding the horse. 

“(I’m) proud of him and it just wasn’t his day, but look, he’ll live to race again.”

Watch: Seize the Grey dominates at muddy Preakness

Preakness Stakes results

Seize the Grey
Mystik Dan
Catching Freedom
Tuscan Gold
Just Steel
Uncle Heavy
Imagination
Mugatu

Preakness odds

Post positions for the 2024 Preakness Stakes were drawn May 13. The eight-horse field is as follows, followed by the jockey and the latest odds, courtesy of FanDuel:

Mugatu, Joe Bravo, 20-1
Uncle Heavy, Irad Ortiz Jr., 20-1
Catching Freedom, Flavien Prat, 7-2
Muth (scratched)
Mystik Dan, Brian Hernandez Jr., 8-5
Seize the Grey, Jaime Torres, 12-1
Just Steel, Joel Rosario, 12-1
Tuscan Gold, Tyler Gaffalione, 9-2
Imagination, Frankie Dettori, 3-1

Track downgraded to ‘muddy’ before race

After a rainy day in Baltimore, Pimlico officials officially downgraded the track condition to ‘muddy’ before Saturday night’s race.

Ravens legend Ray Lewis announces ‘Riders up!’

Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis made the ‘Riders up’ announcement his own in the moments before the race Saturday.

After shouting out Baltimore, Lewis yelled ‘Riders up,’ then broke out his famous dance and threw some grass from the infield into the air.

Lewis revealed his pick for the race on NBC: Mystik Dan.

Preakness weather looks stormy

There is a thunderstorm watch in Baltimore as lightning was forecast in the area a few hours before the race, according to AccuWeather. Conditions are expected to calm around race time, but there is another chance of thunderstorms when the horses are scheduled to be out of the gate. There’s also a 66% chance of rain with temperatures in the mid-60s.

Preakness Stakes start time

Post time for the 2024 Preakness Stakes is 6:50 p.m. ET.

Preakness Stakes TV coverage

The Preakness Stakes will be broadcast live on NBC, with coverage starting at 4:30 p.m. ET. Coverage of the early races begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on CNBC.

Preakness Stakes live stream

For cord-cutters, the Preakness Stakes can be streamed on Peacock.

What is Triple Crown in horse racing?

The Triple Crown refers to the three major races in American Thoroughbred horse racing. It consists of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. A horse that finishes first in all three races in the same year is said to have won the Triple Crown.

Triple Crown winners

Since the Kentucky Derby was established in 1875, a total of 13 horses have won what’s officially called the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. They are:

Sir Barton (1919)
Gallant Fox (1930)
Omaha (1935)
War Admiral (1937)
Whirlaway (1941)
Count Fleet (1943)
Assault (1946)
Citation (1948)
Secretariat (1973)
Seattle Slew (1977)
Affirmed (1978)
American Pharoah (2015)
Justify (2018)

Kentucky Derby was electric. What’s next? We’ll see.

Television ratings for the 150th Kentucky Derby were the best since 1989, with a peak of more than 20 million people tuning in to watch the thrilling, three-horse photo finish with Mystik Dan beating Sierra Leone by a nose. The Derby drew a record $198.3 million in wagers, with nearly $320 million bet in total on the 14-race card at Churchill Downs.

And perhaps most important of all, the week went off without any breakdowns or horse deaths, which might be coincidence but could also be evidence that new federally mandated safety protocols implemented over the last year are working. We’ll see.

The bottom line is that, despite racing’s decline as a major mainstream sport, people still like watching and betting on horses – particularly around days that feel like big events. But the elation surrounding Derby Day is about to once again run into the sport’s annual comedown: The Preakness.

Read Dan Wolken’s column here.

Bob Baffert discusses his Churchill Downs suspension

It’s been three years since Bob Baffert was allowed to enter a horse at Churchill Downs, and the Hall of Fame trainer is hopeful he’ll be allowed back soon.

“I miss being there,” Baffert said Friday morning at Pimlico Race Course, where he’ll saddle Imagination for Saturday’s $2 million Preakness Stakes. “Watching on television, it’s exciting to watch. The Derby means a lot to me. I have great moments in my life there.

“It was tough sitting it out again. We’re totally committed to finding an amicable solution and hopefully to get back in the Triple Crown race. … I’d love to be there. I’d love to be there next week.”

Baffert’s six Kentucky Derby victories are tied with Ben Jones for the most by a trainer. Baffert appeared to have a record-breaking seventh Derby win with Medina Spirit in 2021 before all hell broke loose.

What does Muth’s scratch mean for Mystik Dan at Preakness?

Upon hearing the news morning-line favorite Muth had been scratched from Saturday’s Preakness Stakes because of a fever, trainer Kenny McPeek knew what it meant for his Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan.

“Oh, my goodness,” McPeek responded. “I guess it puts added pressure on us, but he’s ready.”

Muth’s scratch provided the buzz Wednesday at Pimlico Race Course. Muth is 4-2-0 in six career starts for trainer Bob Baffert and was set to enter the Preakness as the 8-5 favorite after an impressive victory March 30 in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

Muth arrived at Pimlico at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday after an 18-hour trip that started with a FedEx flight from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey. He was then vanned from Newark to Baltimore.

Mystik Dan was great in Derby. His jockey was even better.

There would have been a fleeting moment nearly three decades ago, participating in his first Kentucky Derby, when Kenny McPeek thought he might just win it. He was just 32 years old back then, barely starting to crack the top echelon of the sport, and a horse named Tejano Run — the first big horse he had in his barn — was flying through the stretch.

Ultimately, Tejano Run came up just short to Thunder Gulch. McPeek, a young and confident trainer, figured it was just the beginning.

“If I thought it would take me this long to knock it down…” he said, his voice trailing off. “I thought I’d do it before today.”

But in the 29 years since, McPeek has won a ton of races and learned a lot of lessons. One of them, of course, is that winning the Derby is really, really hard: None of his next eight Derby runners even hit the board.

He learned another lesson, too: It doesn’t take a superstar jockey to give a horse a great ride.

Read Dan Wolken’s story here.

Preakness Stakes winners since 2000

Here are the Preakness Stakes winners over the years, with the winning horse and the winning time in parentheses. Eventual Triple Crown winners are in bold.

2023 – National Treasure (1:55.12)

2022 – Early Voting (1:54.54)

2021 – Rombauer (1:53.62)

2020 – Swiss Skydiver (1:53.28)

2019 – War of Will (1:54.34)

2018 Justify (1:55.93)

2017 – Cloud Computing (1:55.98)

2016 – Exaggerator (1:58.31)

2015 American Pharaoh (1:58.46)

2014 – California Chrome (1:54.84)

2013 – Oxbow (1:57.54)

2012 – I’ll Have Another (1:55.94)

2011 – Shackleford (1:56.47)

2010 – Lookin At Lucky (1:55.47)

2009 – Rachel Alexandra (1:55.08)

2008 – Big Brown (1:54.86)

2007 – Curlin (1:53.46)

2006 – Bernardini (1:54.65)

2005 – Afleet Alex (1:55.04)

2004 – Smarty Jones   (1:55.59)

2003 – Funny Cide (1:55.61)

2002 – War Emblem (1:56.40)

2001 – Point Given (1:55.40)

2000 – Red Bullet (1:56.00)

Have any fillies won the Preakness?

In 148 Preakness Stakes runs, only six female horses have won the event:

Flocarline in 1903;

Whimsical in 1906;

Rhine Maiden in 1915;

Nellie Morse in 1924;

Rachel Alexandra in 2009 and;

Swiss Skydiver in 2020

There are no fillies in the field in 2024, with Secret Oath the last to enter the race (2022).

Preakness Stakes 2024 field

The complete field for the 2024 Preakness Stakes is as follows (trainer in parenthesis):

Mugatu (Jeff Engler)
Uncle Heavy (Robert E. Reid Jr.)
Catching Freedom (Brad H. Cox)
Mystik Dan (Kenneth G. McPeek)
Seie the Grey (D. Wayne Lukas)
Just Steel (D. Wayne Lukas)
Tuscan Gold (Chad C. Brown)
Imagination (Bob Baffert)
Muth (Bob Baffert, SCRATCHED)

Where is the Preakness Stakes held?

The Preakness Stakes takes place at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

How long is the Preakness Stakes?

The Preakness Stakes is the shortest of the three Triple Crown races, at 1 3/16 miles, or 9 ½ furlongs. The race has been run at this length since 1925.

Mystik Dan at disadvantage after quick turnaround from Derby

Typically, horses respond to this grueling task one of two ways. Either they exit the rigorous Derby as fit and ready to run as they’ve ever been in their life, or they struggle to bounce back and run lethargically in the Preakness.

The physical effort it took for Mystik Dan to win the Kentucky Derby was undoubtedly at the front of trainer Ken McPeek’s mind during the week he spent waffling about whether to run in the Preakness.

At the same time, all the physical signs from Mystik Dan point to him being one of those horses that comes out of the Derby thriving and ready to put on an even better performance at Pimlico, says Dan Wolken.

Read his column here.

Preakness Stakes 2023 winner

National Treasure won the 2023 Preakness Stakes by a head. The horse was the eighth of Bob Baffert’s to win the Preakness Stakes.

Preakness Stakes 2024 purse

The purse for the 149th running of the Preakness Stakes sits at $2 million. That number is up from $1.5 million in 2023.

Why was Muth scratched from Preakness?

Muth, the Bob Baffert-trained horse who was the favorite for the Preakness entering the week, was scratched after dealing with a 103-degree fever.

‘We are sick about this. The horse had been doing really well,’ Baffert said earlier this week. ‘But we have to do what’s right by the horse.’

Baffert still has a horse in the race, with Imagination in the running this weekend.

When is the 2024 Belmont Stakes?

The Belmont Stakes will take place June 8 from Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.

With renovations taking place at Belmont Park, this is the first time the race will take place in Saratoga. It will be run at 1 ¼ miles, shorter than the usual 1 ½-mile distance.

Pimlico Race Course capacity

Pimlico Race Course can hold around 120,000 fans on the day of the Preakness. There are 750 betting windows at the track, as well as automated betting machines.

When was the last Triple Crown winner?

In 2018, Justify (trained by Bob Baffert) took home the Triple Crown. Justify was the first horse to win the Triple Crown since American Pharaoh in 2015. American Pharaoh was also trained by Baffert.

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House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., will blast President Biden as she seeks to reassure Israel during a speech at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Sunday morning.

Her prepared remarks were obtained by Fox News Digital ahead of the address. Stefanik will be the highest-ranking House member to visit Israel since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. She will be introduced by the Israeli speaker, according to her office.

The New York Republican is also planning to meet with high-level government officials and pay her respects to locations attacked by Hamas in October. She plans to tout her decades-long support for the Jewish state as a senior member of the House Armed Services and House Intelligence committees.

In her speech, Stefanik calls herself ‘a lifelong admirer, supporter and friend of Israel and the Jewish people.’

‘I am lucky to have had the privilege of traveling here many times before, but I must confess that this time feels different,’ Stefanik’s speech states. ‘The stakes feel higher. Our sense of moral, patriotic duty feels heightened, renewed.’

In the remarks, Stefanik praises former President Trump for his relationship with Israel during his administration, and she criticizes Biden for his administration’s controversial measures during the Israel-Hamas war. In November 2023, the Biden administration extended a waiver that allowed Iran to access $10 billion previously in escrow, prompting widespread criticism. 

The White House recently paused a weapons shipment to Israel out of concern about an invasion of Rafah, before deciding to move forward with the sale earlier this week.

‘There is no excuse for an American president to block aid to Israel, aid that was duly passed by the Congress, or to ease sanctions on Iran, paying a $6 billion ransom to the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, or to dither and hide while our friends fight for their lives. No excuse,’ the speech states. ‘Full stop.’

The Republican leader’s address to the Knesset will express support for ‘every measure to aid Israel that has come before the U.S. Congress,’ and tout her history as ‘a leading proponent and partner to President Trump in his historic support for Israeli independence and security.’

‘If I leave you with one message today, it’s this: The majority of Americans support you, and we always will since President Truman’s recognition of Israel 11 minutes after David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence 76 years and 5 days ago,’ the address says. ‘America stands with Israel.’

Before concluding her speech, the politician will take aim at Ivy League universities for their responses to chaotic protests and anti-Israel encampments.

‘We must not let the extremism in ‘elite’ corners conceal the deep, abiding love for Israel among the American people,’ the speech adds. ‘Most Americans feel a strong connection to your people. They have opened their hearts to you in this dark hour.’

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Former President Trump fired up supporters at the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meeting in Texas on Saturday, calling for President Biden to take a ‘drug test,’ putting ‘radical’ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on blast and encouraging gun enthusiasts to get out and vote.

The crowd at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas roared as Trump received the NRA’s endorsement before he took the stage.

Trump thanked the ‘great patriots’ for the endorsements, but reprimanded the ‘rebellious bunch’ for not voting.

‘But one thing I’ll say, and I say it as friends, we’ve got to get gun owners to vote because you know what? I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it’s a form of rebellion because you’re a rebellious people, aren’t you?,’ Trump said. ‘But gun owners don’t vote. What is that all about?’

‘If gun owners would vote, we would swamp them at levels that nobody’s ever seen before,’ he said. ‘So, I think you’re a rebellious bunch. So let’s be rebellious and vote this time.’

‘Radical’ RFK Jr.

Trump turned his attention to Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., telling NRA-supporters to not ‘waste your vote’ and that he is a part of the ‘radical left.’

‘RFK, Jr. — I call him Junior by the way — he’s radical left. Don’t think about it. Don’t waste your vote,’ Trump said. ‘We need a conservative person with common sense. This guy is radical left who destroyed New York.’

‘Actually, he’s a disaster. He reminds you of this fly that’s driving me crazy up here,’ said Trump, who swatted at a fly that flitted around the stage. ‘This fly is brutal. I don’t like flies!’

Trump said that RFK Jr. had ‘no policy for anything.’

‘But RFK Jr. calls you a terrorist group. You know, he calls you a terrorist group,’ Trump said. ‘[You] can’t vote for him. You can’t. You know, somebody said, well, they like his policy on vaccines the other day. He said, no, no, he’ll go for the vaccine. He’s nice. He’s got no policy or anything. He’s radical left. He always has been.’

‘We can’t waste any votes,’ he added. ‘We have to make sure we win.’

‘High as a kite’

The Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee set his sights on President Biden, beginning with the usual jabs at Biden’s cognitive ability, and saying that Biden was as ‘high as a kite’ during his State of the Union address in March. 

‘Now, he did that State of the Union the other day. He was high as a kite,’ Trump said. ‘So, I think we should go for drug tests on the debate. Yeah, we’re going to call for drug tests.’

Earlier Saturday, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced the creation of a new ‘Gun Owners for Trump’ coalition that includes gun rights activists and individuals in the firearms’ industry.

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Some of the most vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbents up for re-election in November have looked to highlight their disagreements with President Biden ahead of the pivotal matchups. 

”Distancing’ from a party brand is a time-honored tradition in Congress,’ explained Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa., are embroiled in the most competitive races of the 2024 cycle, with the Democrats up against one of the toughest re-election maps in years. 

‘They’re going to sound like MAGA Republicans in their TV ads before it’s all over with,’ said Republican strategist Scott Jennings. 

Last week, Tester came out in favor of a largely Republican-supported illegal immigration measure named after slain Georgia college student Laken Riley. He previously voted against moving forward with the bill, which takes aim at illegal immigrants like the one charged with Riley’s murder, as a potential amendment to a larger bill package. However, Tester did signal at the time he would support it if it came to the floor as a stand-alone bill, despite the unlikelihood of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. allowing that to happen. 

Tester’s office vehemently pushed back on previous claims that he was against the bill. ‘Claims from Mitch McConnell-backed groups that Senator Tester changed his position on the Laken Riley Act are patently false and another desperate attempt to politicize the border instead of fixing it,’ his office told Fox News Digital. 

The Montana senator isn’t the only one to make his differences with Biden clear in the lead-up to the election. 

Rosen, who represents the critical swing state of Nevada, also diverged with Biden publicly on multiple occasions. In particular, Rosen is partially credited with killing the Biden administration’s hopes of confirming the first Muslim federal appellate judge in Adeel Mangi. The Nevada senator came out against the controversial Biden nominee, citing his ties with an allegedly anti-law enforcement organization. 

‘This is what they do,’ Jennings said. ‘They spend five and a half years supporting Democrats and Democratic policies that everyone in their state hates. And then they spend six months pretending it never happened.’

The Republican strategist added, though, that they may be hard-pressed to convince voters of their differences with the president, given that they vote in line with him nearly all the time. 

In 2023, Tester voted with Biden the second least among other Democratic senators. However, he still aligned with the president 94.6% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight’s analysis. Brown voted with Biden 97.9% of the time, Rosen 98.6%, and Baldwin and Casey each 99.3%.

‘Jon Tester does what’s right for Montana. President Trump signed more than 20 of his bills into law, and over the years Jon has stood up to President Biden on many issues — from securing the border to protecting Montana from burdensome energy regulations,’ said Monica Robinson, a spokesperson for Montanans for Tester. 

Matt Keyes, spokesperson for Friends of Sherrod Brown, argued similar motivations for the senator in Ohio. ‘He has stood up to presidents of both parties to oppose bad trade deals, worked with Republicans to make sure border patrol agents and law enforcement officers have the resources they need, and demanded that the Biden administration crack down on Chinese-made electric vehicles,’ Keyes said. 

According to Paul Beck, a political science professor at the Ohio State University, ‘Biden is unpopular here in Ohio, and to win Brown will have to poll considerably better than Biden will.’

Further, he noted that any moves from Brown to support Republican efforts can only help him. ‘He will not pay a penalty for supporting a Republican bill, and it may allow him to demonstrate his independence,’ Beck said.

‘Tammy Baldwin has stood up to Presidents Trump and Biden on behalf of Wisconsin workers,’ said Tammy Baldwin for Senate spokesman Andrew Mamo in a statement, echoing the same sentiment. ‘Wisconsinites trust her because no matter who is in the White House, she fights for them.’

Per Johanna Warshaw, Rosen for Nevada spokesperson, ‘Jacky Rosen has worked to get things done in a bipartisan way and has never been afraid to disagree with her party leaders to do what’s right for Nevada.’

‘Bob Casey is consistently ranked among the most effective and bipartisan senators in Washington and has worked across the aisle to create jobs and lower costs,’ Maddy McDaniel, spokesperson for Bob Casey for Senate, said in a statement. 

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Communications Director Mike Berg told Fox News Digital, ‘These Democrats are running against everything they voted for now that Joe Biden’s poll numbers have taken a hit,’ calling it ‘very bizarre.’ 

Jennings predicted the senators would continue to make efforts to demonstrate their differences with the president, especially with his historically low approval. 

Biden has maintained an average approval rating of 38.7%, Gallup revealed last month. This is historically low, with each of the last nine presidents going back to Dwight Eisenhower boasting higher averages at the same point. 

A Biden campaign spokesperson pointed to the president’s accomplishments, saying in a statement, ‘Joe Biden created 15 million jobs, capped the price of insulin at $35, and made health care more affordable than ever.’

The spokesperson emphasized that ‘Democrats across the country will be running on’ Biden’s ‘record of historic results for the American people.’

‘Republicans’ MAGA agenda is toxic with voters, as we saw with their failed red wave in 2022 and strong, Democratic overperformance wins in the NY special election and Kentucky gubernatorial,’ they added. 

While the senators are using a strategy that has been relied on historically, not everyone is sure it will continue to work. ‘As politics continues to nationalize in the U.S., I’m not sure if voters in those states are going to be able to separate the individual from the party,’ said Neiheisel. 

Republican strategist Zack Roday, a partner at Ascent Media, claimed the vulnerable Democrats’ positioning ahead of the elections is ‘nonsense.’ 

‘These Senate Democrats are a safe vote for Biden every time,’ he emphasized. 

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President Biden spoke to Black leaders Friday on the 70th anniversary of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools but was called out online for his past actions in the fight against school desegregation.

Biden spoke at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington about Brown v. Board of Education, which found that separation of schools by race was unconstitutional.

‘The work of building a democracy … worthy of our dreams starts with opening the doors of opportunity for everyone, without exception,’ he said. 

Despite his remarks and his advocacy for affirmative action programs, Biden was called out for his past remarks his critics say were racist.

‘Remember when joe biden said segregation (sic) would turn schools into racial jungles,’ one user on X wrote. 

‘Too bad Joe Biden kept fighting FOR Segregation (sic) decades after this wonderful decision,’ another wrote.

‘Biden had spoken out, in public, in favor of segregation,’ stated another. 

The president was once a primary figure in the fight against school desegregation. His 2020 Democratic presidential opponents, including Vice President Kamala Harris, used it to attack his position on race. 

‘You also worked with them to oppose bussing,’ Harris told Biden during a 2019 debate. ‘You know there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me.’

In a 1975 Senate hearing, then-NAACP Legal Defense Fund Director Jack Greenberg criticized Biden for sponsoring a bill limiting the court’s power to use buses to desegregate schools. He said the legislation ‘heaves a brick through the window of school integration.’

That year, a Delaware newspaper quoted Biden as saying he didn’t ‘buy the concept’ that Black people have been oppressed for hundreds of years.

‘I do not buy the concept, popular in the ’60s, which said, ‘We have suppressed the Black man for 300 years, and the White man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers,’ Biden was quoted as saying. ‘In order to even the score, we must now give the Black man a head start, or even hold the White man back, to even the race. I don’t buy that.’

Biden has also been criticized in the past for remarks about segregationists and KKK members. He previously eulogized late West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, a former KKK member who later regretted that affiliation and described it as a mistake, and Strom Thurmond, the former South Carolina senator and ‘Dixiecrat’ presidential candidate who supported segregation.

Biden called Thurmond a ‘brave man, who, in the end, made his choice and moved to the good side.’ In 2019, he refused to apologize for his remarks. 

‘Apologize for what?’ Biden told reporters. ‘Not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period. Period. Period.’

Fox News Digital’s Joe Schoffstall and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.  

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President Javier Milei of Argentina continues to stun his critics with an economy that has outperformed expectations and continues along an ambitious path for national security, including pursuit of a NATO global partnership. 

‘The fact that you have a president, head of state, who is defending the free market, who is defending the role of entrepreneurs and businessmen as creators of value and just defending deregulation when the tendency in Latin America and much of the West has been to regulate the economy . . . I think that’s very positive, not only for Argentina, but for the region as a whole and maybe beyond,’ Daniel Raisbeck, a policy analyst at the CATO Institute, told Fox News Digital. 

Milei won the presidency in November last year and prompted concern from some in the West that he would lead his country down a road to ruin with libertarian policies that would make an already troubled economy even weaker. Voters wanted economic relief from a market hit with some of the highest inflation in the world. 

Those attitudes have shifted just months later as Milei has enacted a raft of policy changes: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to release a tranche of loans due to Argentina under a bailout program thanks to Milei’s government managing to create a fiscal surplus in the previous fiscal quarter and bring inflation down. 

Argentina’s inflation in March alone hit 287%, causing poverty to deepen, and citizens to take to the streets with strikes and protests against his policies. The monthly inflation rate was 25% in December when Milei first took office. 

Milei then went on to significantly reduce spending with major cuts to public-sector wages as he suspended public works projects and cut subsidies. He also devalued the country’s currency by over 50%, which helped it stabilize in value even as the price of basic goods jumped. 

The monthly inflation dropped to 8.8% by April, marking the first single-digit inflation rate in over six months. 

Argentina recorded a $589 million budget surplus in January and continued to post a surplus for each of the first four months of 2024, even as the surplus shrank to $299 million in April, Reuters reported. This marks the country’s first quarterly surplus since 2008. 

Raisbeck stressed that Milei’s primary measure of cutting spending has proven highly effective, while arguing that the significant deregulation in other parts of the economy has helped it revive over those first months of the new administration. 

‘Argentina was one of the most regulated economies in the world,’ Raisbeck said. ‘So when you have a very well-thought-out package like the one that they introduced . . . and you get rid of as many of those regulations as you can, then it’s very positive.’

He noted that Milei has not adhered to some of his more aggressive campaign promises, which included a promise to dollarize the economy and shut down the Central Bank, saying that it was a ‘non-negotiable matter.’

Even days after he won the election, Milei appeared to favor more moderate Cabinet members than many would have expected of a man who jolted the international community with his outsider attitude and plans. 

The Wall Street Journal, in December 2023, argued that Milei’s tenure ‘may turn out to be pretty conventional,’ with pro-market Economy Minister Luis Caputo leading away from Milei’s more radical plans. 

The promised dollarization has been delayed, and Raisbeck explained that Milei’s approach has relied heavily on using the Central Bank to help regulate the economy, though he argued that Milei’s policies remain libertarian due to the deregulation he has pursued in other areas. 

‘Everything related to deregulation is very libertarian, and we’ve seen great success already in the housing market, for instance,’ Raisbeck said. ‘So that obviously brought a huge amount of supply that was suppressed because of price controls.’

Milei also brought Argentina back to the international foreground, with a stronger focus on national security and changing up the country’s goals from the previous administration – most notably, he rejected the invitation to join the China and Russia-led economic bloc BRICS. 

Milei argued that it was not ‘opportune’ for Argentina to join the bloc as a full member, according to German outlet DW. However, he will continue to develop ties with its members in the meantime. 

‘They have a good security minister, Patricia Bullrich, who has experience because she was a security minister in the previous government,’ Joseph M. Humire, the executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society, told Fox News Digital. ‘She has been able to get the ball rolling very quickly, and I think that was the benefit of having her in that position.’ 

Humire explained that Milei’s government has largely focused on clearing out external agitators, particularly those connected to Russian disinformation networks, which remain a paramount concern in most parts of the world as Moscow seeks to expand its influence. 

‘The external forces are usually the key,’ Humire said. ‘Usually, it’s the Russians. The Russians have probably the biggest disinformation networks to be able to amplify local grievances and turn them into this macro instability, and they did that in Colombia, in Chile.’ 

‘A lot of the specifics of the nation’s security has been in mitigating these agitation networks that create chaos throughout the country, and they have been neutralizing some of these threats while they’re studying others,’ he added. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Recent polls of swing state voters showed former President Trump with an edge over President Biden in six key battleground states where he was narrowly defeated four years ago. 

Now, some of those voters who supported Biden in 2020 are explaining why, looking ahead to the 2024 election, they want Trump back in office.

Frederick Westbrook, a retired Las Vegas hotel worker, told The New York Times in an interview that voting for Biden to kick Trump out of office was ‘the biggest mistake of my life.’ 

‘As a Black man in America, I felt he was doing unjust things,’ Westbrook said of Trump. ‘He’s got a big mouth, he’s not a nice person.’ But while his view of Trump has not changed in the last four years, Westbrook told the Times his cost of living has risen too high under Biden’s watch.

‘Everything is just about the economy,’ said Westbrook, who now drives for Lyft to support his fixed retirement income. ‘I don’t really trust Donald Trump at all. I just think housing, food, my car, my insurance, every single piece of living has gone up.’

The view that Americans are not better off today than they were four years ago is shared by others who were among the 14% of survey respondents who said they won’t vote for Biden a second time, according to polls released Monday by The New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

The survey results and follow-up interviews reported in the Times on Friday suggest discontent over the economy and the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, and a deterioration in support for Biden by younger, Black and Hispanic voters, ‘threaten to unravel the president’s Democratic coalition.’ 

Jaredd Johnson, a 25-year-old voter who works in marketing in Atlanta, told the Times he had hoped Biden would restore the country to a pre-pandemic normal, but doesn’t think he has. Despite his reservations about Trump, he said he plans to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee in November.

While Jonson said he understands the importance of supporting Ukraine and Israel, supplying Gaza with aid and helping immigrants, conversations with his friends and family ‘are suddenly less about what’s happening overseas and more about how we are struggling here, too.’

Christopher Sheffield, 61, a counselor for veterans in Thomasville, Georgia, told the Times that whatever concerns he may have about Trump’s attitude toward race are not as important as crises abroad that could lead to another world war.

‘I’m an African American — of course I worry about racism,’ he told the paper. ‘But guess what? I’ve been dealing with that my whole life.’

Biden is ‘a good guy,’ Sheffield said. ‘But when I look at him, he looks weak. With North Korea, Putin, and all those boys ready to act, I think they will be a little bit more reluctant to challenge Trump than they would with Biden.’ He said he would vote for Trump in November.

Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell said it’s no surprise that Black voters like Westbrook and Sheffield are moving away from Biden and towards Trump.

‘The pundits and analysts view the Black voters supporting Trump as an anomaly, and they are wrong,’ Caldwell said. ‘Many Black voters were browbeaten into voting for Biden in 2020 by the media and celebrity cultural figures like Charlemagne the God with promises and predictions of a presidency that would serve the Black community well, and Black folks now realize they have been bamboozled by the left and media.’ 

‘Considering their economic conditions under the Biden administration are now far worse than under Trump, many feel they have no choice but to support the man who actually got the job done and made many feel more financially secure,’ he added.

Other voters told the Times that persistent inflation — which clocked in at 3.4% in April, down from the 2022 high of 9% but still well above the Federal Reserve’s target 2% rate — illegal immigration and Biden’s decision to withhold an arms shipment to Israel demonstrate a need for big change in America.

‘All of our core values are gone, gone, and I’m just not pleased at all,’ said Amelia Earwood, 47, a safety trainer at the U.S. Postal Service in Georgia.

She told the Times she thinks Trump is ‘a horrible human being,’ but said, ‘I’m voting on his policies, and I think that he could straighten this country out, while Biden made a ginormous mess out of it.’

The Trump and Biden campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan branded former President Trump a racist, a sexist and a homophobe as he urged his own Labour Party to do more to ‘call him out.’

Ahead of the presidential election in November, the U.K.’s Labour Party appears to be working to strengthen its relationship with Republicans should Trump take back the White House. However, Khan, a fierce Trump critic, insists the party ‘shouldn’t be literally rolling out a red carpet for a state visit.’

Khan’s remarks on the former president came after foreign affairs chief David Lammy appeared to extend an olive branch earlier this month while insisting Trump is ‘often misunderstood’ when it comes to policy and ‘wants Europeans to do more to ensure a better defended Europe.’

Rejecting Lammy’s position, Khan told Politico, ‘I’m quite clear, I understand, on Trump. He’s a racist. He’s a sexist. He’s a homophobe. And it’s very important, particularly when you’ve got a special relationship, that you treat them as a best mate.

‘If my best mate was a racist, or a sexist or a homophobe, I’d call him out, and I’d explain to him why those views are wrong,’ the London mayor added.

Khan, who was recently re-elected to a third term leading Great Britain’s most populous city, told the outlet he worries ‘about a Donald Trump presidency.’

‘You know, I’ve been speaking to governors from America. I’ve been speaking to mayors from America. Of course, we’ll have a relationship, whoever the president is. But we shouldn’t be literally rolling out a red carpet for a state visit,’ he said. 

‘It’s really important that we, of course, have good relations with Democrats and Republicans. But I lost count of the amount of Republicans I’ve spoken to who are also worried about a Trump presidency.’

Khan and Trump have a history of feuding and not seeing eye to eye on a number of topics, including immigration.

In 2019, prior to his arrival in London for a state visit, Trump referred to Khan as a ‘stone cold loser’ who is ‘very dumb.’

Responding to those comments in his interview with Politico, Khan said: ‘I’ve got more latitude as a mayor to just to say what I feel about Trump, and I make this point. He called me a ‘stone cold loser.’ I’ve won three. How many has he won?’

Khan’s remarks come as the Labour Party is expected to return to power after 14 years in a U.K. general election that will take place in the coming months.

Lammy, who has criticized Trump in the past as a ‘neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath,’ recently traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met with a number of Democrats and several Trump allies, including Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance and South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.

‘Were his words in office shocking? Yes, they were,’ Lammy told Politico of the former president. ‘Would we have used them? No. But U.S. spending on European defense actually grew under President Trump, as did the defense spending of the wider alliance during his tenure.’

Lammy also argued Trump helped matters by pushing European nations to increase their own defense spending.

‘When he began his campaign, only four countries were spending their 2% of GDP. The number was 10 by the time he left office. And it is 18 today.’ Lammy added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A Philippine mayor faces accusations of acting as a Chinese asset amid a growing territorial dispute between the two countries. 

‘No one knows her. We wonder where she came from. That’s why we are investigating this, together with the Bureau of Immigration, because of the questions about her citizenship,’ Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos told reporters this week. 

Alice Guo, the 35-year-old mayor of Bamban, has found herself in the middle of a potential scandal over her origins and allegiances. She claimed to have grown up on a pig farm and had raised no concerns prior to a strange discovery made in her town this month, the BBC reported. 

Law enforcement discovered that an online casino by the name of Philippine Offshore Gambling Operator (Pogo) in Bamban actually served as a front for a ‘scam center,’ which had close to 700 workers — including over 200 Chinese nationals — who were posing as ‘online lovers.’

The raid on the site in March rescued all of those workers, who claimed they were forced to work for the owners. The center tried to con victims with a ‘pig butchering’ scam, in which a scammer adopted a fake identity to gain trust and then offered a romantic relationship to manipulate and steal from the victim. 

Guo found herself entangled in the incident when it came to light that she owned half the land where Pogo was located.

The nation’s Senate brought her into a hearing to testify, and she claimed she had sold the land before she ran for mayor two years earlier, along with assets that included a helicopter and a Ford Expedition, both registered under her name but allegedly sold off before her campaign, the South China Morning Press reported. 

Other irregularities raised concerns about her status. She only registered with the Commission on Elections to vote in Bamban one year before she ran and won as mayor. 

She also admitted she only registered her birth certificate with local authorities at the age of 17 and gave few details about her background other than she was born in a house and home-schooled in a family compound where they raised pigs. 

Senators accused Guo of providing ‘opaque’ answers to their questions about her background, leading one senator to ask if Guo was a Chinese asset. She fired back that she was ‘not a coddler, not a protector of Pogos.’

China and the Philippines have found themselves in renewed territorial disputes as Beijing tries to enforce control over waters around the Philippines, leading to clashes between Chinese Coast Guards and Filipino fishermen. 

Last year saw a series of near clashes between the two coast guards near the Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippine authorities protested China’s use of a water cannon and military-grade lasers. 

China established a claim to the Scarborough Shoal in 2012, after which the Philippines formally launched a protest that went before a United Nations-backed tribunal. A 2016 ruling went against China, rejecting Beijing’s claims on ‘historical grounds,’ but Beijing rejected the arbitration and its outcome. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a milestone Thursday that seemed unfathomable a year ago.

A trader at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, May 16, 2024, as the DOW reached 40,000.Courtney Crow / NYSE

The 30-stock benchmark broke above 40,000 for the first time. The move comes as investors cheer the prospects of artificial intelligence boosting corporate profits and the Federal Reserve possibly cutting rates later this year as inflation eases further from its pandemic highs.

It’s been a long and winding road for the Dow to climb to these levels. Here’s a look at the Dow’s trajectory over the past 20,000 points.

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