Raw Story

Police have arrested a 36-year-old man in what they're calling a "road rage incident" involving Ohio Rep. Max Miller (R), according to WKYC-TV.

The suspect was identified as Feras Hamdan of Westlake, Ohio. The charge is a misdemeanor count of aggravated menacing.

"In details released Friday morning...Hamdan voluntarily turned himself in with counsel. An arrest warrant had been issued after Miller signed a criminal complaint for aggravated menacing and motion for a protection order," the news station reported.

A press release from the Rocky River Police Department stated, "Congressman Miller reported he was driving on Interstate 90 when the suspect threatened him and his family along with making antisemitic slurs. The suspect's vehicle left the area prior to the arrival of responding officers."

Miller released a statement on the incident, writing, "I will continue to fight against antisemitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of hate. You have an issue, take it to our office. You want to run me off the road, that’s a different story. We know who you are young man, and the police are going to be paying you a visit -- and I hope what you did this morning is worth it to you and anyone else who plans on doing this to anybody within our district, state or country."

Donald Trump subjected a crew of flagpole installers to a bizarre press conference Wednesday, trapping the workers in an impromptu political rant that covered everything from bombing Iran to Harvey Weinstein's legal troubles.

And one of those who stood awkwardly behind the president has described his bewilderment.

The spectacle unfolded when Trump, trailed by reporters, marched toward construction workers erecting massive flagpoles on White House grounds. Apparently without warning, the workers found themselves unwilling participants in a wide-ranging presidential tirade.

"Any illegal immigrants?" Trump asked the crew upon approaching—presumably as a joke.

Christopher Tattersall, a 40-year-old tree surgeon from Maryland, later described his bewilderment at being thrust into the global spotlight. "I didn't really know what to think," he told The New York Times. "I was just there, in the moment, you know, and I got the president next to me giving a worldwide press conference."

As Trump launched into attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Tattersall admitted he was completely lost. "I had no clue who he was talking about," he said. "I was basically just there as a fly on the wall, waiting for him to wrap it up and then we could get back to work."

The president's rambling expanded to include his "war on Harvard," Vladimir Putin, and conflicts between Pakistan and India. When Trump attempted crude humor about the flagpole "lifting," making suggestive references to words starting with "E," Tattersall remained unimpressed despite Trump's obvious expectation of laughter.

The awkward political theater adds to a later meeting in the Oval Office, where he subjected visiting soccer players to another impromptu political session. Timothy Weah, son of soccer legend George Weah and a U.S. Men's National Team star, found himself trapped alongside Juventus teammates as Trump discussed missile strikes and travel bans.

"They told us that we have to go and I had no choice," Weah said afterward. "I was caught by surprise, honestly. It was a bit weird. When he started talking about the politics with Iran and everything, it's kind of like, I just want to play football, man."

CNN's Tom Foreman called new details coming out about the night Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette, were shot and seriously wounded during an alleged political attack, "absolutely remarkable."

Fifty-seven-year-old Vance Boelter was arrested and charged with shooting the Hoffmans, and killing Speaker Emerita of the MN House Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark.

Federal investigators revealed this week that the suspect visited the homes of two other legislators on the same day.

"Unbelievable the details we're getting out of the hospital from these folks here. It really is remarkable," Foreman exclaimed.

"What they are saying now is that they went to their door at two in the morning. They hear this pounding on the door. They say they went to the door with their adult daughter, Hope, who was with them also," Foreman recounted.

"They saw, according to them, this gunman at the door who shot John Hoffman nine times. His wife Yvette, was pushing the gunman out the door as he shot her eight times. She got him out the door. The daughter, Hope, locked the door and called 911 and got help to the house. Remarkable that these people survived this and made it through their serious conditions."

Foreman remarked that "the fact that this family was able to do that at two in the morning out of a dead sleep, absolutely remarkable."

Foreman read from a statement the Hoffmans released Thursday saying, "We are grappling with the reality that we live in a world where public service carries such risks as being targeted because someone disagrees with you or doesn't like what you stand for as a society, as a nation, as a community, we must work together to return to a level of civility that allows us all to live peacefully. The future for our children depends on that."

Yvette Hoffman was released from the hospital Thursday while her husband continues to be treated for his injuries.

Watch the clip below via CNN or click the link here.

The overwhelming majority of the lawsuit against Fox News by Smartmatic has been filed under seal, leaving little information available for the public to follow. That changed with a filing this week, however.

Fox News filed a motion for summary judgment, which is a request for the court to resolve a lawsuit without a trial. In its response, Smartmatic emphatically said no.

In the wake of President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, Fox hosts and guests similarly attacked Dominion Voting Systems, leading to a lawsuit from the company. After years of negotiations, both parties agreed to settle in 2023 for $787.5 million and an acknowledgment "the Court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false."

Smartmatic indicated at the time that it would not be following suit.

The court filing submitted on Wednesday alleges "widespread damage" and "unprecedented scale of defamation," calling the comments about the company "deliberate deception" and "Targeted Character Assassination."

However, it was in the final section that Smartmatic made it clear it was in it for the long haul.

"But, to be fair, Fox got one thing right in their motion. Smartmatic is not Dominion. Smartmatic is an order of magnitude bigger in almost every metric, starting with historical profits. Smartmatic pioneered voting systems with verified paper trails, conducted the first fully automated nationwide elections, and provided Europe’s first fully automated, verifiable voting experience. Smartmatic provided the world’s largest and longest operating online voting system, delivered the first blockchain-powered online vote, and supplied voting machines for the largest election contract in U.S. history," the documents says.

The filing cites endorsements from former presidents and touts its transparency and "perfect record. Smartmatic was in 2020 the largest and most successful voting company in the world."

"Fox picked the wrong company to cast as its villain," the filing says.

"Prior to the Campaign, Smartmatic was a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with global reach, a track record of success in the world’s most challenging election environments, and a foolproof defense to any claim of rigging the 2020 election (it operated only in LA County)," it continues. "In 2020, Fox may not have appreciated that it was attacking a company that, in fact, embodied the American dream—growing from obscurity to winner of the largest election contracts in the world. Fox now knows. That is why its motion desperately attempts to once again vilify Smartmatic—deploying the classic abuser’s tactic of blaming the victim. But Fox’s claims about Smartmatic remain lies; and, ultimately, the jury will determine the price Fox must pay for its deliberate destruction of an innocent company."

Smartmatic issued a press release with the filing saying internal communications at Fox "reveal that they knew there was no credible evidence of Smartmatic participating in election fraud, yet they deliberately chose to promote false narratives against the company anyway. These communications show contempt against their viewers, the country and the President."

Among the arguments Fox has presented is that they have a First Amendment right to the free press.

“This is not a case about freedom of the press,” said external legal counsel Erik Connolly, said for Smartmatic. “This is about a media empire choosing to lie for ratings and profit, no matter the consequences and no matter the damage done.”

Fox's first motion, filed in May, attacked the company further, saying that it has "ongoing reputational problems," which gives credence to its claims on air about the company, ABC News reported.

"In the wake of the hotly contested 2020 Presidential Election, Fox News hosts fairly and accurately reported on remarkable and newsworthy allegations that the President and his lawyers were making about election integrity during the short interval between Election Day and the date the results were certified, while court challenges were playing out around the country," the filing from the network said.

Fox said that Smartmatic sees the networks as a "litigation lottery ticket in Fox News's coverage of the 2020 election."

The lawsuit was first filed in 2021 and included other defendants.

See the court filing below.

The reality of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown played out in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday when a Honduran mother was forced to raise her right hand and swear an oath while breastfeeding her eight-month-old daughter—all while masked FBI agents lurked in the hallways.

The Daily Beast's Michael Daly told how Valeria Lopez, whom the Trump administration brands part of an "invading horde," steadied baby Mia against her breast as she complied with Judge John Siemietkowski's request.

Daly sarcastically called it Trump's vision of America's greatest threat: a nursing mother seeking asylum with her husband Edison and their two well-behaved children, 11-year-old Alan and 7-year-old Iker.

Portraits of a glowering Trump, resembling his 2023 mugshot, watched over proceedings, Daly wrote.

While actual criminals on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list—gang leaders, drug kingpins, terrorists—remain free, agents have been reassigned to help Trump "scoop up 3,000 undocumented immigrants a day," Daly wrote.

Their strategy is to position "snatch teams" of masked agents outside immigration courtrooms, the writer stated. When asylum seekers dutifully appear for hearings, the government dismisses their cases, strips their interim protection, and agents immediately pounce. It's "the equivalent of going fishing in an aquarium," Daly wrote.

At least 18 agents in three groups stalked the courthouse corridors this week, Daly saw. On Tuesday, they handcuffed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander when he demanded to see a judicial warrant. The viral video of that confrontation prompted visits from Governor Kathy Hochul and Congressional Representatives Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler.

Siemietkowski provided a stark contrast to the administration's dehumanization, Daly remarked. Marveling at the Lopez children's behavior, he told them: "I want to know your secret for raising such angels." He gave the boys drawing pads, joking, "Who needs Lion King or Wicked when you can come to Courtroom 16?"

When they showed their artwork, he held the drawings up for all to see, leading applause as he declared them "our own Picassos!" He then warned the family about the agents waiting outside: "You may see somebody you know arrested. You yourself may be arrested."

The Lopez family's next hearing isn't until June 2026—part of a crushing 3.5 million-case national backlog.

As they departed Wednesday, 11-year-old Alan offered his assessment of America: "I love school!" Seven-year-old Iker gave a thumbs-up. Only baby Mia, born on U.S. soil, has guaranteed protection from Trump's deportation machine.

This is Trump's "invasion," Daly concluded — a breastfeeding mother, children making drawings for a kind judge, and a family desperately seeking safety while armed agents hunt them like prey.

Mike Huckabee shared a text message he sent urging president Donald Trump to strike Iran, and an Israeli journalist and author said the ambassador's "Bible-thumping, messianic rhetoric" revealed the Christian right's dark ambitions.

Trump's ambassador to Israel called on Trump to join military operations against Iran, saying he was spared from an assassin's bullet by God to be the “most consequential President in a century — maybe ever," and Haaretz columnist Etan Nechin warned that Huckabee and other "Christian Zionists" are calling for war to usher in what they believe will be the end times.

"Huckabee believes deeply in Dispensationalist theology, which holds that modern Israel fulfills biblical prophecy and must be supported until the end of days. He's also not shy about it," Nechin wrote. "In April, standing atop the ancient walls of Jerusalem, the ambassador declared: 'We have the opportunity to be representatives not only of our government, but also representatives of Jesus Christ.'"

"[The ambassador's] text to Trump reads less like strategic counsel and more like the culmination of decades of evangelical doomsday politics toward Israel and the messianic turn of Israeli politics itself," Nechin added.

Israel has quickly intensified its assault on Iran and its officials are openly talking about regime change in Tehran, and Nechin warned that political leadership in both Jerusalem and Washington has fallen into the grips of religious extremism.

"The messianic language claiming to defend democracy heard from both Israeli and American politicians reveals a dangerous irony: They're not opposing theocracy, they just oppose the Islamic kind," Nechin wrote. "They just cloak their own religious fanaticism in terms like 'Judeo-Christian values' and 'the West.'"

Jewish religious Zionists have fused religion and nationalism, and they've come to see Israel as a vessel for redemption, Nechin argued, and they share Huckabee's apparent view that the Al-Aqsa must be destroyed so a third temple can be built, which they believe will usher in the Messiah.

"What's plain in the ambassador's text is this: the U.S. never was an honest broker, and was never meant to be," Nechin wrote. "It is, increasingly, the political wing of a Christian apocalyptic vision with Israel at its center."

"This war is a holy battleground," the columnist added, "and the people of Israel and Iran are a small price to pay for the kingdom of heaven on earth."