Tourists casually destroy Fox News' narrative of crime-ridden NYC in live interview

Tourists casually destroy Fox News' narrative of crime-ridden NYC in live interview
Fox News/screen grab

In a live television interview on Fox News, two tourists refuted the network's characterization of New York City as crime-ridden.

During her Wednesday program on Fox News, host Martha MacCallum issued a Fox News Alert to report that the NYPD was preparing for pro-Palestinian protests at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony Wednesday night.

"This is an added element of potential tension," MacCallum warned viewers, noting that protesters could be covered in "fake blood."

After providing some background on previous protests, the host asked for a report from national correspondent Bryan Llenas, who was at Rockefeller Center with two tourists from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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"Now I know you have seen, like the rest of the country, these protesters," Llenas told the two women. "Are you concerned at all about protesters trying to disrupt an event like this tonight?"

"No," one tourist said. "Not at all."

"Do you guys feel safe walking around the city?" Llenas asked.

"Absolutely," the first tourist said.

"Yes," the second tourist agreed.

For years, Fox News has pushed the narrative that cities run by Democrats were unsafe because of violent crime, looting, and homelessness.

Watch the video below from Fox News.

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a grace warning Tuesday over the ongoing government shutdown, predicting that if it were to persist into next week the United States would descend into “mass chaos.”

“If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos, you will see mass flight delays,” Duffy said, according to Reuters reporter David Shepardson. “You'll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it.”

Sparked over debates on government health care subsidies, the government shutdown reached its 35th day Tuesday, officially tying it with the longest shutdown on record that occurred under the first Trump administration in 2018-2019.

Amid the shutdown, an array of government services have been impacted, including transportation, with at least 35 air traffic control sites currently facing shortages as air traffic controllers continue to work without pay. Duffy warned over the weekend that flight delays and disruptions would continue to get worse, but made his most startling prediction on Tuesday when he issued a hard deadline of when “mass chaos” could erupt.

Two planes recently had a low-speed collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, with critics having pointed to the shortage of air traffic controllers as a potential culprit. Duffy has said that he would halt air traffic entirely should the situation become so dire that safety becomes a major concern for flyers.

“We've seen problems at LA, in Dallas, in DC, Boston, Atlanta,” Duffy said on Sunday. “And so I think it's only going to get worse.”

And, while one GOP pollster has predicted that the government shutdown may end next week, lawmakers have not budged on their irreconcilable positions.

The heart of the dispute centers around funding subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, with Democrats vowing not to support any spending bill that doesn’t include funding for the subsidies. Republicans, however, have held firm in rejecting Democrats’ demand, a position also held by President Donald Trump, who has warned GOP lawmakers against supporting an extension of the subsidies.

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For a second time, U.S. District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie has ordered the Department of Justice to turn over transcripts from the grand jury that indicted former FBI Director James Comey after the department failed to include statements made by interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan.

In an order last month, McGowan first requested the transcripts after Comey alleged that the indictment should be dismissed because Halligan, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, was invalidly appointed to her position.

McGowan said that the transcripts were necessary "to determine the extent of the indictment signer's involvement in the grand jury proceedings."

On Tuesday, the judge revealed that the DOJ had handed over the transcripts, but had stripped out all of Halligan's remarks.

"This court has reviewed the transcript and finds it fails to include remarks made by the indictment signer both before and after the testimony of the sole witness, which remarks were referenced by the indictment signer during the witness's testimony," the judge wrote. "In addition, the package contains no records or transcripts regarding the presentation of the three-count indictment referenced in the Transcript of the Return of Grand Jury Indictment Proceedings before the Magistrate Judge."

In response, McGowan gave the DOJ 24 hours to come up with "a complete Transcript and/or recording of all statements made by" Halligan. She also said that she expected to see "statements made prior to and after the testimony of the witness and during the presentation of the three-count and subsequent two-count indictments."

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance noted that it was "unusual for a court to ask for disclosure or a prosecutor's comments in the grand jury."

"And never good news for the government," she added.

Latino voters who helped seal Florida's status as a Republican stronghold are now reeling with anger, bewilderment and guilt over their support of President Donald Trump, according to El País.

"Trump’s manifesto of economic prosperity and law and order clashes with a reality that continues to punish disadvantaged families," writes Abel Fernández.

Nearly a year into Trump's first term and the Hispanic community, he writes, is deeply divided.

"Frustration and regret have grown among those most affected by the rising cost of living, cuts to social programs and an immigration agenda that has torn the Hispanic community apart," Fernández writes.

The disenchantment, he says, is palpable across the state, with a list of complaints including "the disruption to government aid as a result of the government shutdown, the unstoppable rise in the cost of rest, and persistent inflation."

The loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, in particular, are affecting those in Miami-Dade County "especially hard," Fernández explains, where "the shift of the Latino vote from Democrat to Republican was key to Trump’s victory last year."

In Miami-Dade, 215,000 households (about 24 percent) rely on SNAP, one of the highest rates in the country. "In other words, more than half a million people," he writes.

Alexis Maria, a single mother is one of those and says she deeply regrets her support of Trump.

“The last time Trump was president, I made more money than ever in my career. Prices were low. Gasoline was cheap. I remember going on vacation. Interest rates were lower. Now everything is out of control. I can’t even afford the air we breathe. Now I see that I made the wrong decision,” she says.

Maria, who relies on food stamps to feed her two children, says "The government is the reason we’ve been able to eat most of the month, and the other half, I’m counting each cent to survive, what with food prices and rent."

As Maria searches for food banks and organizations to help her and her family, her anger at supporting Trump grows.

"Now I need to go three times a week to feed my family, and the lines every week have been longer. This sums up why I’m angry with the president. His decisions are now [adversely] affecting the lower and middle class. They only benefit the rich,” she says.

Central Florida resident Michael Lyras is disabled and on food stamps and says that though he voted for Trump three times, he's deeply unsatisfied.

“I regret my last vote enormously,” he says. "It was necessary to make changes, but not in this way, sacrificing our civil rights and liberties that are enshrined in our Constitution,” Lyras adds. “[Trump] is turning this into a police state and he’s acting like an authoritarian. I didn’t vote for any of this”

Trump supporter Cuban Pita says that the Trump administration's immigration policies are “a Republican political manipulation. … If you say you’re going to deport all criminals, even migrants, like me, they [voters] are happy with that. That is why the Latino vote was oriented towards Trump. People agreed with what the Republicans were saying in the campaign, which was: ‘I’m going to get rid of all criminals.’ But what Trump is doing is something else, and it is very cruel and very bad, and they are going to pay dearly.”

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