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(CHICAGO) — There were chants of “USA” and boasts of patriotism. Even the vice presidential candidate touted his love of guns.

No, it was not the Republican National Convention all over again, but it has been a roster of Republican speakers getting standing ovations at the Democratic National Convention by taking some of the harshest swipes at former President Donald Trump.

Every night of the DNC, GOP members from a former press secretary for the Trump White House to a former “full-fledged member of MAGA,” have been given a chance to stand at the podium and address the Democratic delegates in Chicago.

At least seven Republicans have been given time to speak to their longtime rivals — including Rep. Adam Kinzinger who was given a prime-time speaking slot Thursday night — and all of them said they’ve dumped Trump and are supporting Harris.

“I voted for Trump not once, not twice, but three times. You see, I work in construction. I work with my hands. He told us he’d look out for blue-collar workers. So, I made my first-ever political contribution to Trump and I donated to him many times throughout his presidency,” Kyle Sweetser of Alabama said during his DNC speech Tuesday night. “But then I started to see Trump’s tariff policy in action. Costs for construction workers like me were starting to soar. I realized that Trump wasn’t for me. He was lining his own pockets.”

Sweetser said he’s not “left-wing, period. But I believe our leaders should bring out the best in us, not the worst.”

Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan received a standing ovation Wednesday night when he told the crowd that Trump’s attempts to overthrow the 2020 election “disqualified him from ever, ever, ever stepping foot into the Oval Office again.”

“If Republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves, our party is not civil or conservative. It’s chaotic and crazy. And the only thing left to do is dump Trump,” Duncan said. “These days, our party acts more like a cult, a cult worshiping a felonous thug.”

He said he was supporting Harris and stared into the camera to speak to his “Republican friends at home watching.”

“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot,” said Duncan, prompting chants of “USA! USA.!”

Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told conventiongoers that she was “a true believer” of Trump.

“I was one of his closest advisers. The Trump family became my family,” said Grisham, adding that she spent Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s with the Trumps at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Grisham offered a behind-the-scenes look at Trump, alleging he mocks his supporters, calling them “basement dwellers.”

“On a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad the cameras were not watching him,” Grisham alleged. “He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth. He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough and people will believe you.’ But it does matter. What you say matters and what you don’t say matters.”

Grisham said while working in the White House she was skewered for never holding a press briefing. She said it was because “I never wanted to stand at a podium and lie.”

“Now, here I am at a podium advocating for a Democrat and that’s because I love my country more than my party,” Grisham said during her speech Tuesday night.

Another Trump administration veteran, Olivia Troye, a former homeland security aide to Vice President Mike Pence, said her dream of working in the White House turned into a nightmare.

“I saw how Donald Trump undermined our intelligence community, our military leaders and, ultimately, our democratic process,” Troye said during her speech Wednesday night. “Now, he’s doing it again. Lying and laying the groundwork to undermine this election.”

Troye added, “Being inside Trump’s White House was terrifying, but what keeps me up at night is what will happen if he gets back there.”

Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles began his DNC speech Tuesday by saying, “I have a confession to make: I’m a lifelong Republican.”

“I feel a little out of place tonight, but I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican party. The Grand Old Party had been kidnapped by extremists and evolved into a cult, the cult of Donald Trump,” Giles said. “Trump doesn’t know the first thing about public service. Like a child, he acts purely out of self-interest. We all need an adult in the White House. We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have one.”

Rich Logis of Florida told the conventioneers that two years ago he was a “full-fledged member of MAGA.”

“I believed Trump. I was a MAGA pundit. I had my own podcast. I was in a state of panic, terrified the Democrats were destroying our country,” Logis said, addressing the convention Monday night via a video link.

He said that when the pandemic hit, he began to see how important solid leadership is and described Trump’s handling of the crisis as “a major betrayal to the country.”

“So I finally stepped outside the MAGA echo chamber. I stopped listening to what Trump said and looked around with my own eyes. And I realized he had been lying about pretty much everything. Lying is Trump’s toxic superpower,” Logis said. “I made a grave mistake, but it’s never too late to change your mind.”

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(NEW YORK) — The largest police force in the nation is planning to use a fleet of autonomous drones to combat an alarming surge in robberies and assaults in Central Park, the world’s most iconic public green space.

The New York Police Department has already flooded the sprawling park, one of the most popular tourist sites in America, with hundreds of officers patrolling on foot, bike and horseback since violent crime began to skyrocket this summer.

“We’ve got the autonomous drones coming by the end of the month. There are over 800 acres in this park. It’s going to allow us to cover a big territory very quickly and also allow us to get images and video in places where we don’t have cameras,” Tarik Sheppard, the NYPD deputy commissioner for public information, said during a recent news conference in Central Park.

According to the crime statistics through Aug. 18, there have been 33 robberies in Central Park so far in 2024, a 154% increase from this time last year. There have also been 11 felony assaults in the park this year, a 57% increase from 2023.

The jump in Central Park crime comes even as overall violent crime in the city of roughly 8.8 million people is down 2.49% from last year, according to NYPD citywide crime statistics.

‘Most iconic park in the world’

“This is the most iconic park in the world, one of the most iconic locations in the world. There are no secrets being kept here. Crime is up in this park for the year, specifically robberies. Robberies are the name of the game here,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference last week.

Chell said the robberies were usually occurring between the hours of 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. He said many of the robberies are being committed by juveniles, some as young as 11 years old, who on several occasions have swarmed victims in mobs sometimes as large as a dozen perpetrators.

“In this particular crime pattern, if you will, that’s happening here at the southern end, from 59th to 65th [streets] on both sides of the park involve young groups of kids,” Chell said.

On June 30, two men, ages 20 and 21, were accosted in the park by a group of people who forced them to hand over their backpacks, wallets and headphones, according to police. On Aug. 1, a roving group of bandits surrounded two men sitting on a bench near Wollman Rink near the southern part of the park and robbed them at knifepoint, police said.

On Aug. 13, back-to-back robberies occurred at the southern end of the park. One of the robberies occurred about 10 p.m. when two men were confronted on the west side of the park by two assailants who forcibly snatched their chains, vape pens and one of their hats. The second robbery unfolded three hours later on the east side of the park when victims — ages 35, 21, and 15 — were approached by three teenagers who stole their AirPods and a necklace from one of them, according to police.

Among the assaults that have recently occurred, a 42-year-old man was repeatedly slashed with knives on July 6 at 9:45 a.m. by two strangers he got into an argument with, police said. An 82-year-old woman was accosted on Aug. 14 by a man in his 30s, who pushed her near the Central Park tennis court, causing her to suffer minor injuries, according to police.

11-year-old perpetrator

Chell said police have made several arrests in the crime spree, including one alleged perpetrator just 11 years old.

“The 11-year-old is on video using credit cards stolen from robberies where? In Central Park,” Chell said. “So, this is what we’re combatting.”

Chell said the 11-year-old assailant and several other alleged teenage perpetrators arrested recently are among the migrants who have been pouring into the city.

But not all of the crimes have been the work of roving groups of criminals.

On June 24, a 21-year-old woman sunbathing at 1:30 p.m. in the Great Hill section of the park was attacked by a man who exposed himself and attempted to sexually assault her, police said. The victim managed to fight off the attacker who ran from the scene. A 43-year-old man, whom police identified as Jermaine Longmire, was arrested in the crime and charged with attempted rape and sexual abuse, according to police.

Longmire has pleaded not guilty to the charges and, according to online records, remains locked up at Rikers Island jail.

Chell said the NYPD has a “mandate” to keep park visitors safe.

“We’ll be deploying numerous resources throughout the days, throughout the weeks until we take care of this problem from mounted, to bike patrol, to foot patrol, to cars in the street to drones,” Chell said.

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(NEW YORK) — A Staten Island man who ran a large-scale marijuana smuggling operation and whose 10-year federal prison sentence was commuted by then-President Donald Trump has been arrested for domestic assault in Atlantic Beach.

Jonathan Braun, 41, is charged with punching his father-in-law Tuesday after the elderly man came to the assistance of Braun’s wife, whom he was chasing after an argument, according to prosecutors.

Braun pleaded not guilty. The judge released him on his own recognizance over the objection of the Nassau County District Attorney’s office, which requested bail.

At the time Trump granted Braun clemency, on his last day in office, the White House said Braun “will seek employment to support his wife and children.” Braun has assaulted his wife numerous times since his release, according to court records.

Braun also has a history of violence and threats.

At the time of his clemency, Braun still faced investigations related to his role in an operation that made predatory loans to small-business owners.

According to a lawsuit by the New York attorney general’s office, Braun called business owners and insulted, swore at and bullied them, demanding payment and making threats.

“You have no idea what I’m going to do,” the lawsuit quoted Braun as allegedly saying. “I will take your daughters from you.”

Braun also threatened that he would come to one merchant’s synagogue in Brooklyn and physically beat him and “publicly embarrass him,” stating, “I am going to make you bleed.”

He threatened another, “Be thankful you’re not in New York, because your family would find you floating in the Hudson,” according to the lawsuit.

Braun was granted clemency, along with dozens of others, on Jan. 19, 2021, his last day in office before Joe Biden took over as president.

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(FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.) — An 8-year-old boy who went missing at Arizona’s Lava River Cave on Wednesday night has been found alive and is being evaluated.

Tzion Maron was reported missing at around 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday after he became separated from his family at the cave, located near Flagstaff, according to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.

Before he went missing, the boy was last seen near the cave entrance, according to officials.

His family reported the boy missing after they were unable to find him in the immediate area, the sheriff’s office said.

Patrol deputies and multiple search and rescue teams spent the night and morning scouring the area, before the child was found Thursday afternoon. Officials said it was raining overnight in the area.

The boy was described as just over 4 feet tall and about 50 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a gray shirt with blue stripes, navy blue pants and sneakers.

The Lava River Cave is a mile-long lava tube cave formed around 700,000 years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.

The cave can be as cool as 42 degrees, even in the summer, and there may be some ice inside, the Forest Service said. Rocks in the cave can also be “sharp and slippery” and visitors are told to bring two or three sources of light as it can be “very dark one mile from the nearest light source,” according to the USDA.

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(NEW YORK) — Two burglars swiped memorabilia from St. John’s University men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino’s office on the New York City campus, according to police.

Items including a basketball and bullhorn were taken during the break-in Tuesday evening in Queens, according to police.

The suspects fled on a moped, the NYPD said.

The unidentified suspects remain at large. Both were captured in footage from a university camera that was released by police. One appeared to be holding a bullhorn and the other a small sword in the footage.

Pitino said on social media that he was “really upset” about the burglary and was “livid” over the theft of a vintage bottle of wine — a 1985 6L Petrus Pomerol, which sells for tens of thousands of dollars on some collectible wine sites — though later clarified that he was joking.

“I would never keep that on my desk! Saving that one in a wine cellar to open after the Johnnies go to the final four!” he said on X.

The incident occurred at approximately 8 p.m. Tuesday, according to St. John’s spokesperson Brian Browne.

“Property was stolen from an office in the Athletics Department,” Browne said in a statement. “The University shared surveillance footage with the NYPD and is assisting in the ongoing investigation.”

Pitino has served as the coach of the Big East team since 2023. He gained stardom coaching at the University of Kentucky, winning a national title in 1996.

He had short stints with the NBA’s Boston Celtics and New York Knicks before returning to college at the University of Louisville. He coached the Cardinals from 2001 to 2017 and won the national title in 2013, though it was later vacated for NCAA violations.

He was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Pitino says he was joking about the wine being stolen.

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(NEW YORK) — Hate crime and murder charges have been filed against a New York City parks worker in the fatal July shooting of a Venezuelan migrant, a crime prosecutors described as “premeditated and cold-blooded.”

Elijah Mitchell, a 23-year-old temporary worker for the New York City Parks Department, was indicted Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder as a hate crime, second-degree murder, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, second-degree menacing as a hate crime, and second-degree menacing, according to a statement from Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

Mitchell is accused of gunning down Arturo Jose Rodriguez Marcano in July at Brooklyn’s Stueben Playground, three days after he allegedly threatened the 30-year-old migrant with a handgun during an argument at the park, Gonzalez said in his statement.

“This defendant allegedly came to the location where the victim was staying, armed with a gun, to settle a score,” Gonzalez said in the statement. “This premeditated and cold-blooded homicide is outrageous on many levels, not least because the alleged motive was hatred towards new arrivals to our city.”

Mitchell pleaded not guilty to the charges Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court and a public defender was appointed to represent him. An ABC News request for comment sent to Mitchell’s attorney was not immediately answered. The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation had no comment in response to a similar ABC News request.

The shooting unfolded around 10:40 p.m. on July 21 inside Stueben Playground, prosecutors said.

Mitchell allegedly went to the park looking for Marcano and shot him once in the chest before fleeing the scene on foot, prosecutors said. The mortally wounded victim was taken to Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, where he was pronounced dead.

After he was detained July 29 for questioning about Marcano’s murder, Mitchell allegedly admitted to being at the park the night of the shooting but claimed he did not commit the killing, saying he went there to use the restroom, heard a gunshot and then ran, according to a statement prosecutors say he gave detectives after allegedly waiving his Miranda right to remain silent.

“Hell no, I didn’t have a gun that night,” Mitchell purportedly told detectives, according to his statement to detectives, which prosecutors provided to ABC News on Thursday.

Three days before the shooting, prosecutors allege Mitchell, who claimed to be homeless and living out of his car, got into a heated argument with Rodriguez Marcano at the playground.

“The defendant went to a vehicle, came back and allegedly lifted his shirt to show a gun in his waistband. He was pulled away by other employees,” prosecutors said in a statement.

But Mitchell, according to his statement to detectives, denied threatening Rodriguez Marcan with a gun. He said he was told to leave the park that day by his supervisor when a group of migrants living in the park became upset with him and other parks department employees for trying to clear their homeless encampment as part of their work duties.

“What caused me to leave was that they were being aggressive,” Mitchell purportedly told detectives of the migrants’ reaction, according to his statement to detectives. “They started grabbing weapons and s—. I just went back to the truck. No, I don’t have a gun on me. I don’t do that. I’m positive.”

Mitchell said he harbors no animus toward migrants, but conceded that he and his coworkers were “tired of removing people from the park,” according to his statement to detectives.

“It’s not my problem. It’s not [the] Parks Department’s problem. I go to work, I cut grass, and that’s it. No, I don’t have a problem with migrants,” Mitchell told detectives, according to his statement.

If convicted of the charges, Mitchell faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison, prosecutors said. He is being held in jail on a $2.5 million bond and was ordered to return to court on Oct. 23.

“My office will vigorously prosecute this horrific case, and these enhanced charges send a strong message that hate crimes will never be tolerated in Brooklyn,” Gonzalez said in his statement.

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(SIERRA VISTA, Ariz.) — An Arizona man was taken into custody in connection with an alleged social media threat to kill former President Donald Trump, according to officials.

Ronald Lee Syvrud, 66, of Benson, was taken into custody on Thursday without incident, a Cochise County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told ABC News.

Syvrud was wanted for “suspicious activity,” the sheriff’s office in southeastern Arizona said.

“Syvrud is being sought as an investigative lead for threats to kill a presidential candidate,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release on Facebook.

The sheriff’s office did not provide any additional details on the alleged threats, including the name of the candidate. However, two sources told ABC News the alleged social media threat was directed at Trump.

Trump was scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County on Thursday.

The U.S. Secret Service is aware and monitoring the incident, according to sources.

“The U.S. Secret Service investigates all threats against our protectees. As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further at this time,” a Secret Service spokesperson said.

An FBI spokesperson said they are aware of the incident but deferred to the local sheriff’s office for further comment.

Syvrud was also being sought for several outstanding warrants, including failure to appear for a DUI in Wisconsin and failure to register as a sex offender and a hit and run in Graham County, Arizona, the sheriff’s office said.

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(SEATTLE) — A man has been arrested after he allegedly carjacked an 80-year-old dog walker, leaving her with fatal injuries before stabbing her dog to death, according to police.

James K. Hayes, a 48-year-old Seattle resident, was found and arrested Thursday morning in the murder of 80-year-old Ruth Dalton.

Police expect he will be charged with first-degree murder, murder during the commission of a robbery and first-degree animal cruelty. He has eight prior felony convictions — including a vehicular homicide conviction from 1993 — and a history of mental health concerns.

Police said he had a knife on him with blood on it when he was arrested.

Police were able to identify the suspect after they received a 911 call reporting that an individual was hurting a dog. An animal control officer then responded to the scene and found a dog that was stabbed to death. The dog was wearing a tag identifying the victim as its owner and the victim’s car was found nearby.

Crime scene investigators were able to lift fingerprints from the victim’s phone, which was in the car, and identify the suspect.

Seattle Police responded to a report of a carjacking on Wednesday and found a citizen giving aid to a woman who was down on the road.

Officers took over life-saving efforts until Seattle Fire Department officials showed up and took over. The victim died of her injuries Wednesday, police said.

Witnesses then told investigators that they had seen a struggle between the woman and the suspect inside the vehicle while the vehicle was moving. The vehicle then drove off the road and a struggle between them continued with the suspect trying to push the victim out of the vehicle as she resisted, according to police.

A witness then stopped their car in the road and came to assist her and the suspect took out a knife. The witness then backed away and retrieved a stick or bat and came back to try and help the woman, according to police.

The car then began to move across the road and crashed into two parked vehicles and the woman was struck during the crash. The suspect drove away from the scene and the victim was left on the street.

Police believe the suspect then drove to a park, stabbed the dog and fled on foot.

“We want to thank the community for the heroic actions of passers-by who just happened to see something like this happening and tried to intervene,” Eric Barden, the deputy chief of the Seattle Police Department said during a press conference.

Police said they are unsure how the suspect got into the car before the carjacking and said that is under investigation. Police do not believe the suspect and the victim knew each other — they think it is a random incident.

There were at least two dogs in the car, one of which escaped the car.

“This is a tragic and horrific incident where a wonderful member of our community was active and participating vibrantly in her community at 80 years old and that was snatched from her and from her family and friends and the community by virtue of this senseless violent act,” Barden said.

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(NEW YORK) — Inflatable structures like bounce houses and moonwalks are staples at children’s birthday parties and summer carnivals. Despite the fun they bring, the wind can make them dangerous — it’s something multiple families found out the hard way this year.

Shock and chaos ensued as families rushed for cover at an Alabama work picnic last Saturday, when strong winds swept away an inflatable slide during a severe thunderstorm.

“I’ve never seen a bounce house take off like that,” witness Joshua Cofield said. “It was just a crazy, freak accident. I was shocked. I was not expecting it because from where I was at, I could not see the bounce house, but when it came into the frame, it blew my mind.”

Cofield and other witnesses stated that the two inflatables knocked over by the storm each had four to six stakes to secure them to the ground, but even that wasn’t enough.

Experts from safety group Weather to Bounce say all inflatables should have stakes firmly planted in the ground, along with sandbags to weigh them down.

Saturday’s incident just one of many weather-related incidents involving large inflatables, which can cause serious injury and even death.

In April, a bounce house incident in Casa Grande, Arizona, killed a 2-year-old child. Another child was injured when the inflatable was carried away by the wind and landed in a neighboring lot.

Also in April, a Victorville, California, family experienced some turbulent weather that created a frightening scene. A video captured a dust devil forming in their backyard and whipping a bounce house high into the air while children were playing in the pool.

“It was very dangerous,” homeowner Yvonne Iribe said.

A University of Georgia study found that wind-related bounce house accidents injured at least 479 people and killed 28 worldwide from 2000 to 2021, with those numbers only rising since.

Wendy and Mitch Hammond spoke out about a horrifying incident that befell them in July 2019, after their kids Lizzy, Danny and Abby were invited to a birthday party in Reno, Nevada. The festivities included an inflatable bounce house and slide.

A sudden gust of wind lifted both inflatables into the air — Lizzy, Danny and the birthday boy were trapped inside the bounce house.

“It flew over me and as I stood up is when I turned and saw the bounce house up in the power lines hanging there,” Wendy Hammond said.

She recalled the family trying to get the bounce house down.

“It was out of reach. First responders get there. And they had too short of a ladder on their fire truck,” she said. “So then we all had to wait. While you’re screaming up at the bounce house, trying to see which kid you can hear.”

Rescuers reached the children and the boys were treated for minor injuries. However, 9-year-old Lizzy did not survive.

“It was blunt force trauma to the spine,” Mitch Hammond said. “And at that point, we decided to put her on life support and tried to harvest what we could to help other kids.”

Days later, family and friends honored Lizzy’s life with an emotional honor walk at the hospital.

The Hammonds now operate the Lizzy Hammond Foundation, to educate and advocate for legislative change. What gives them peace is knowing their late daughter’s organs gave life to others.

“I would like her legacy to be that she saved three kids, you know?” Mitch Hammond said. “So she still was a giver all the way to the very end.”

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(SIERRA VISTA, Ariz.) — An Arizona man is being sought in connection with an alleged social media threat to kill former President Donald Trump, according to sources.

Ronald Lee Syvrud, 66, of Benson, is wanted for “suspicious activity,” the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office in southeastern Arizona said.

“Syvrud is being sought as an investigative lead for threats to kill a presidential candidate,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release on Facebook.

The sheriff’s office did not provide any additional details on the alleged threats, including the name of the candidate. However, two sources told ABC News the alleged social media threat was directed at Trump.

Trump was scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County on Thursday.

The U.S. Secret Service is aware and monitoring the incident, according to sources.

“The U.S. Secret Service investigates all threats against our protectees. As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further at this time,” a Secret Service spokesperson said.

An FBI spokesperson said they are aware of the incident but deferred to the local sheriff’s office for further comment.

Syvrud is also being sought for several outstanding warrants, including failure to appear for a DUI in Wisconsin and failure to register as a sex offender and a hit and run in Graham County, Arizona, the sheriff’s office said.

He was described by authorities as white, 6 feet tall and 220 pounds, with glasses.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to call 911 or their local law enforcement agency.

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