(WASHINGTON) — They’re leaving town — and for millions of their adoring fans — you could call it, well, unbearable.
After more than two decades of “panda diplomacy,” Washington’s popular pandas were being returned to China Wednesday.
The Smithsonian National Zoo’s three current pandas, Mei Xiang (May-SHONG) Tian Tian (tee-YEN tee-YEN) and Xiao Qi Ji (SHIAU-chi-ji), were set to be loaded into special crates Wednesday morning for a 19-hour plane ride aboard the FedEx “Giant Panda Express” to Chengdu, China.
They’ll be accompanied by animal care experts and plenty of fresh bamboo, their favorite food.
But because they’re in crates, the pandas, who’ve delighted zoogoers with their slow-moving antics over the years, won’t be visible to those wanting to say a final farewell.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in Washington in 2000 and their fourth cub, Xiao Qi Ji, was born in 2020. Xiao Qi Ji’s siblings were sent to China when each of them was 2 or 3 years old, after their births created a national sensation.
The National Zoo has had giant pandas since 1972, when President Richard Nixon was gifted a pair, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in exchange for a pair of arctic musk oxen — goodwill gestures as the countries opened diplomatic relations.
After the original panda pair passed away in 1999, the National Zoo signed a contract with the China Wildlife and Conservation Association (CWCA) — “The Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement” — and welcomed Mei Xiang and Tian Tian the next year under a 10-year contract that since then has been renewed three times.
Since 1984, Chinese wildlife organizations started lending pandas to other countries, instead of gifting them, in the interest of panda conservation.
With the departure of Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji for China, the only pandas remaining in the U.S. will be in Zoo Atlanta, whose contract expires at the end of 2024.
Their leaving comes shortly before the White House says President Joe Biden will meet China’s President Xi Jinping later this month during an economic summit in San Francisco, amid tensions between the two countries.
The pandas’ return was originally scheduled for December, then moved to Nov. 15 — and it wasn’t clear why it was moved up to this week.
“Giant pandas are not political,” Pamela Baker-Masson, director of communications at the National Zoo, said in an earlier interview. “We’ve been doing this for 51 years, we are very close with our Chinese partners, and we work very, very well together. So, it’s about that relationship, and it’s about how people from not just China, the United States, but from around the world, work together with one goal and one mission.”
But when asked in a recent interview if attempts were made to extend the panda contract, Zoo Director Brandie Smith didn’t answer directly.
“Our focus is on the giant panda reproduction, and the kind of behaviors associated with that. And so, we knew when the pandas were post-reproductive they’d return to China to live out their golden years in their homelands,” she told ABC News. “And so our plan was always to send them to China at this time.”
(NASHVILLE) — An 18-year-old college freshman was shot in the head and very critically wounded while she was walking on a track in Nashville, authorities said.
Shaquille Taylor, 29, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and evidence tampering for allegedly shooting Jillian Ludwig Tuesday afternoon, according to Nashville police.
Taylor allegedly fired from across the street and was aiming at a car when a bullet struck Ludwig in the head as she walked on a track at Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park, police said.
Ludwig, a New Jersey native and a freshman at Belmont University in Nashville, is in “extremely critical condition,” police said.
“Jillian is an engaged member of our community who is known for her love of music,” Belmont University President Greg Jones said in a statement to the school community. “A music business major and bass player, she is often found at concerts, cheering on fellow musicians and using music as a way to connect with those around her. Jillian is also an avid runner who enjoys being outside.”
“I will be convening a Prayer Service at noon at the Bell Tower for our entire community to pray for Jillian and her family,” Jones said. “Please take the time you need as we all process this tragedy. All faculty and staff will be extending grace and support to students in the wake of this news.”
Taylor’s bond was set at $280,000. He is due in court on Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 08, 8:47 AM EST
Crowd of reporters awaits Ivanka Trump outside court
A sizeable group of reporters is huddling outside the New York State Supreme Courthouse in lower Manhattan awaiting the arrival of Ivanka Trump on a chilly 42-degree morning.
Moderately smaller than the crowd that waited her father on Monday, photographers and court reporters are crammed in a narrow maze of metal barriers that police have assembled outside the building for the trial. The security arrangement, which has been utilized any time a Trump family member has appeared in court, has become a regular part of life for reporters covering the trial and a curiosity for tourists exploring downtown New York.
“Is this the line to see Donald Trump?” a passerby asked this morning.
“Yes, but he’s not here today,” a reporter responded to the visibly disappointed tourist.
Nov 08, 8:04 AM EST
Trump lauds ‘beautiful daughter’ ahead of Ivanka’s testimony
Former President Donald Trump has renewed his attacks on New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron ahead of testimony this morning from his daughter Ivanka Trump, who is expected to be the last witness in the state’s case before the defense begins presenting its case.
“My wonderful and beautiful daughter, Ivanka, is going to the Lower Manhattan Courthouse, at the direction of Letitia Peekaboo James … and a Trump Hating, out of control Clubhouse appointed Judge, Arthur Engoron, who viciously ruled against me before the trial even started,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to the judge’s partial summary judgment against the defendants.
Donald Trump’s lawyers also plan to question Ivanka Trump — a notable departure after they declined to cross-examine Donald Trump and his adult sons when they testified.
“We are certainly going to ask her questions, to the extent we have questions,” Trump’s attorney Chris Kise said on Monday. “We are trying to get that done now so as to minimize the interference in her life to not have to come back again.”
(NEW YORK) — After years of distancing herself from her father’s business empire, Ivanka Trump will be appearing in court Wednesday as the state’s final witness in the New York attorney general’s $250 million civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump and his namesake company.
A former executive vice president for the Trump Organization and senior adviser to her father when he was U.S. president, Ivanka Trump stepped away from her role in the family firm in 2017 and is not involved in her father’s 2024 presidential campaign.
New York Attorney General Letitia James initially included Ivanka Trump as a defendant in her lawsuit, alleging she served an integral role in using her father’s financial statements to negotiate business deals that reaped her family’s firm millions. An appeals court dismissed her from the case in June because her alleged conduct fell outside the state’s statute of limitations.
Ivanka Trump similarly tried to get out of testifying in the trial by arguing that she does not have any relevant information about the alleged conduct that is the subject of the case, but James argued the opposite in a filing, writing that Ivanka Trump “indisputably has personal knowledge of facts relevant to the claims.”
“They just want another free-for-all on another one of President Trump’s children,” Donald Trump’s attorney Chris Kise argued in court.
Judge Arthur Engoron sided with James and compelled Ivanka Trump to testify, and an appeals court denied her request for an emergency stay that cited the undue hardship of testifying “in the middle of a school week.”
Without any legal recourse, Ivanka Trump withdrew her appeal and will follow in the footsteps of her father and brothers to face questions about her family’s business empire in a New York courthouse.
Donald Trump testified on Monday, and her brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump answered questions in court last week as part of James’ case that accuses the Trumps of engaging in a decade-long fraud to inflate their assets in order to secure better loan terms and insurance deals. In a pretrial ruling, the judge overseeing the case already decided that the Trumps are liable for committing years of fraud, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
Donald Trump and his sons have denied all wrongdoing and have appealed the judge’s pretrial ruling.
“This is a case that should have never been brought and it’s a case that should be immediately dismissed,” Donald Trump said while leaving court after his testimony on Monday.
‘I’m not an accountant’
Ivanka Trump denied any involvement in his father’s statements of financial condition — the documents at the center of James’ case — when she sat for a deposition with the attorney general on August 3, 2022.
“I have my own. I’ve never prepared one. I don’t know. I never made one. I’m not an accountant,” Ivanka Trump said during the deposition.
Pushed on her involvement with the statements, she equivocated about her father’s statements compared to the company’s statements.
“Do you have any recollection of your father having personal financial statements?” state attorney Louis Solomon — who will lead the questioning in court — asked during the deposition.
“Not specifically,” Ivanka Trump responded. “Well, see, I combine them all in my mind, like the statements of the company and, so I, no, not like specific to him.”
In court last week, Donald Trump Jr. testified that he signed off on his father’s financial statements based on the advice of accountants, while Eric Trump initially testified that he was unaware of his father’s financial statements before clarifying his involvement.
“I understood we had financials as a company. I was not personally aware of the statement of financial condition,” Eric Trump said. “I did not work on the statement of financial condition. I’ve been very clear about that.”
‘It doesn’t get better than this’
While Ivanka Trump is no longer a defendant in James’ case, her name has reappeared throughout the trial related to loans from Deutsche Bank and a lease she negotiated for a property in Washington, D.C.
James alleges that Ivanka served as a primary contact between Deutsche Bank and the Trump Organization for loans that relied on Donald Trump’s statement of financial condition.
“It doesn’t get better than this … I am tempted not to negotiate this though,” Ivanka Trump said in a 2011 email, entered into evidence, that she sent to then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg related to a loan for the Trump National Doral golf club.
During his April 2023 deposition, Donald Trump described Ivanka as critical to the Trump Organization’s effort to secure a lease from the government to develop the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., into a hotel.
“She was very much involved in helping us get it,” Donald Trump said.
James alleges that Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump submitted Trump’s statement of financial condition when they bid on the project, and even attended an in-person meeting to address concerns about the statements.
According to the state’s expert analysis, loans related to the three properties that Ivanka had a role in securing cost Deutsche Bank $143 million in lost interest.
In addition to that allegation, the state’s lawsuit claims that despite Ivanka Trump having the option to purchase her penthouse in Trump Park Avenue for $8.5 million, Donald Trump listed the value of the apartment as $25 million in his 2013 financial statement.
Former prosecutor Kan Nawaday told ABC News that while Ivanka Trump might no longer be a defendant in the lawsuit, testifying about those deals without implicating herself will be a challenge.
“What she’s going to try to do is walk a tightrope through the eye of a needle,” said Nawaday. “She wants to make sure that she doesn’t say anything that’s going to create exposure for herself personally.”
“But at the same time, she doesn’t want to inflame her father, the former president, or her family,” Nawaday said.
(WASHINGTON) — Leaders of nations from the Pacific region will gather in San Francisco for the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in San Francisco next week — and the U.S. Secret Service has a plan to thwart threats amid heightened international tensions.
With wars ongoing in multiple regions across the globe and an elevated threat environment, leaders from the Secret Service — the agency responsible for securing the event — say they are taking no chances.
“We’re always monitoring the current environment and potential threats,” Secret Service Director Kim Cheadle told ABC News in an interview. “We have seen, obviously, over the last several years groups or demonstrators or individuals that will use large scale events to garner attention or to have an audience to get their point across, and so Secret Service, we obviously respect the right of people to peacefully demonstrate.”
The Secret Service is working with the FBI and other agencies that receive intelligence and will “adjust our security posture accordingly” to coordinate with local law enforcement, Cheadle said.
The APEC event is designated a National Special Security Event (NSSC) by the secretary of Homeland Security and puts the Secret Service in charge of planning and coordinating the event. Other NSSC events include the Super Bowl and United Nations General Assembly.
Cheadle says the Secret Service brings a “number” of resources in securing major events like APEC.
“We bring personnel. We bring technical assets and a number of resources to bear,” she said.
Law enforcement leaders have said one of the most concerning threats is the threat of a lone wolf actor. Cheadle said that because the primary responsibility of Secret Service agents is to protect the president, they are well equipped to combat this threat.
“It is important to note that the Secret Service has the responsibility of protecting the president at events daily, and so that is something that is always on our radar. … This is obviously a larger event in size and scope, and so we may bring different assets or more assets to bear to mitigate those potential threats. But that is something that that the Secret Service is very conscious of every day,” she said.
There are 21 heads of state set to attend APEC, including President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two are expected to meet during the summit.
China’s attendance is noteworthy given the country’s increasingly aggressive moves in the Indo-Pacific, with Xi instructing his military to “be ready by 2027” to invade Taiwan, according to U.S. intelligence.
(WASHINGTON) — A former CIA officer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal charges of sexually abusing and drugging more than two dozen women during his service postings overseas.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 47, admitted in court on Tuesday to keeping nearly 500 videos and photos he took of naked and unconscious women he had drugged in various countries over a 14-year period. In some of the recordings, he is seen “touching and manipulating” their bodies while they were unconscious, according to the Department of Justice.
The Justice Department said Raymond had been an employee of the U.S. government at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
He abused women in his “embassy-leased housing” between 2006-2020, according to the DOJ.
The department said in a release Tuesday that upon learning of the criminal investigation, Raymond attempted to delete some of the photos and videos.
Under the plea agreement that Raymond reached with federal prosecutors, he will face between 24 and 30 years behind bars and lifelong probation. He will also have to pay restitution to many of the victims identified by the government.
Raymond’s sentencing hearings begin on Sept. 18, 2024.
(NEW YORK) — Criminal justice reform advocate Adam Foss has been acquitted of rape and sexual abuse charges, more than a year after he was charged by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in a 2022 indictment.
Foss had met his 25-year-old accuser in 2017 at a Midtown Manhattan hotel where he allegedly raped the woman as she slept, according to court documents and statements made on the record in court. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty last week. Foss’ attorneys had argued their encounter was consensual; he had pleaded not guilty.
Foss was an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, whose TED Talk brought him into partnership with singer John Legend on criminal justice reform. (Legend later apologized in 2021 for helping “elevate” Foss.)
The National Law Journal named him among the 40 most up-and-coming lawyers in the United States. In 2013, the Massachusetts Bar Association voted Foss prosecutor of the year.
Defense attorney Priya Chaudhry called the verdict “a testament to the fairness of our legal system” and said Foss “is carefully evaluating his legal options to address the grave impact these false accusations have had on his life.”
“Mr. Foss, a former assistant district attorney from Boston and founder of Prosecutor Impact, expresses sincere appreciation to the jury and judge for their diligent discernment of the truth in a complex case,” Chaudhry said.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg expressed disappointment with the verdict.
“Survivors of sexual assault deserve to have their day in court, and our prosecutors fight every day to center and uplift their voices,” Bragg’s office said. “While we are disappointed, we sincerely thank the jury for its service and respect the verdict it rendered. As such, we will decline to comment further at this time.”
(NEW YORK) — A man with a gun has been arrested in a park near the U.S. Capitol, according to Capitol Police.
“USCP Officers just arrested a man with a gun in the park across from Union Station. At this time we have no reason to believe there is an ongoing threat. We are working to gather more information and will put out more details when they are confirmed,” police said in a statement.
The park was searched and secured and the suspect’s belongings were searched “out of an abundance of caution,” Capitol Police said.
The incident occurred in front of Union Station, which is very close to the Capitol building but not on Capitol grounds.
Capitol Police shared in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that several road closures were in effect “due to police activity” and advised people to “avoid the area until further notice.”
There is a heavy police presence in the area and access is restricted.
The incident Tuesday was the second involving a firearms arrest near the Capitol in the last three days. On Sunday, two men were arrested after they crashed a stolen car into a barricade outside the Capitol. They were found to be in possession of two handguns during their arrest — one of which was modified to turn the weapon into a machine gun.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and John Parkinson contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Law enforcement officers assigned to street crime units aim to infiltrate gangs, confiscate illegal guns and remove drugs off the streets, according to police officials and legal experts.
However, street crime units have found themselves at the forefront of controversy and many have come under scrutiny following allegations of abuse and misconduct.
Critics of such units, whose officers sometimes operate in unmarked cars and plainclothes, have said they too often fall into discriminatory and abusive practices.
Units under scrutiny
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the local police department’s street crime unit was accused in September of abusing their authority and injuring members of the public in a series of lawsuits alleging civil rights violations at the hands of police.
The unit was called BRAVE, an acronym for Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination.
Complaints against the department allege beatings and strip searches of suspects at a warehouse that the street crime unit used for interrogations, which allegedly turned violent and during which police officers would allegedly turn off their body cameras.
Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome permanently closed the warehouse known as “Brave Cave” and disbanded the police department’s street crimes units amid the allegations.
Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced his impending resignation following the allegations and lawsuits.
“We will hold ourselves accountable,” Paul said at a City Council meeting in September. “The investigative efforts will yield accountability that will meet community expectations.”
The FBI New Orleans field office, alongside the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana, has opened an investigation into the department.
In Memphis, Tennessee, the local police department’s SCORPION unit, which stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, was disbanded following a January incident involving 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, who was the victim of a brutal beating by members of the SCORPION unit.
SCORPION unit officers pulled over Nichols for alleged “reckless driving,” according to Memphis police reports. Officers could be seen beating him in body camera footage. Nichols was transported to a hospital, where he died three days later.
According to a preliminary independent autopsy commissioned by the family, Nichols suffered “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”
The Memphis Police Association, the union representing the city’s police officers, told ABC News following the release of the incident’s body camera footage that it is “committed to the administration of justice and never condones the mistreatment of any citizen nor any abuse of power.”
The unit was dedicated to patrolling “high crime hotspots” — focusing on auto thefts, as well as gang-related and drug-related crimes.
The department declined ABC News’ request for comment. Five officers were criminally charged in Nichols’ death. One has entered a guilty plea to federal charges of excessive force and obstruction of Justice. Four others have each pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.
The New York Police Department’s anti-crime unit became known for its stop-and-frisk practices, and was found to disproportionately target Black and Hispanic New Yorkers.
In 1998, the street crime unit filed more than 27,000 stop-and-frisk reports — which was the greatest number generated by any NYPD unit, according to research from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
NYPD data at the time suggested “that racial profiling plays some role in the stop-and-frisk practices of the overall department,” particularly in the street crime unit, the commission research showed.
Anthony Rivera, a correction officer with the New York City Department of Correction at the time, told the commission about his encounter with the unit.
“I was also stopped by a fellow officer while picking up my daughter one day at school, by the Street Crimes Unit,” he said. “They just came out of their vehicles, about three vehicles, like cowboys from the wild, wild west, with their guns drawn. Luckily I had a shield, and my friend, my fellow officer, had his shield. But if it was a regular Latino out there, we might have been a statistic that you talk about today, our brothers being shot without probable cause, or for any reason.”
The NYPD disbanded the anti-crime unit in August 2020 in the wake of social justice protests following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, and was resurrected in 2022 by Mayor Eric Adams.
The department continues to operate under a court-appointed watchdog “to ensure that the NYPD engages in constitutional stops, frisks, and searches,” according to the independent monitor’s website.
“Since the time a decade ago when hundreds of thousands of stops were made a year, today stops have been reduced by 97%,” said Matthew Pontillo, the NYPD’s Chief of Risk Management in a 2022 statement about the monitor’s reports.
The statement continued, “At the same time, through intelligence led, data-driven, precision policing, the NYPD continues to make gun arrests at the highest rate in over two decades.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights, which has sued the NYPD several times for its practices, told ABC News that inadequate “supervisory review and discipline” are at the core of why anti-crime units often face such controversies.
“Anti-crime units are often given broad discretion and encouraged to be overly inclusive in stops in an effort to combat crime, but in reality these actions lead to unconstitutional behavior, including racial profiling,” Samah Mcgona Sisay, who is a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, told ABC News.
Why street crime units remain active
Street crime units continue to be found in police departments across the country.
Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told ABC News that street crime units can be helpful for tackling gang activity and drug cases if officers know a community well.
“I knew everybody and most of the people in the precinct knew me … You worked for a community, you understood it,” said Boyce of his time on a street crime unit. “If you want a citywide unit, it’s a mistake because they’re not plugged in.”
“It’s important to convey to your officers exactly what they’re going to do – robberies, guns, violence, street crime,” said Boyce. “You shouldn’t be pulling over cars, although sometimes you need to … and sometimes you have no choice.”
The Pittsfield Police Department in Massachusetts has a much smaller street crime unit than those in New York, Baton Rouge and Memphis. Pittsfield Lt. Jacob Barbour told ABC News that having a street crime unit that’s well known in their community has helped police address crime.
“We just had a homicide that was solved within 40 hours. They had the suspect arrested. We helped out a lot on that one as far as surveillance on particular houses; the guys have informants,” he told ABC News. “So frequently, that information is so valuable when we have these major cases.”
His unit has made hundreds of arrests on public offenses, including shoplifting, possession of illegal firearms, drug possession with intent to distribute, and more.
He continued, “We’re out there so often … A lot of the people that we deal with frequently we know very well, mostly on a first name basis.”
Boyce added that, in light of the potential for abuses of power, street crime units need to be heavily trained and heavily supervised to be effective.
“Unless you have a really strong supervision on this, you’re gonna have some problems,” said Boyce.
(LOS ANGELES) — A 69-year-old Jewish man died after a blunt-force head injury following an altercation at an Israel-Hamas war protest in California, Ventura County officials and local organizations said Monday.
The death followed a confrontation with a counter-protester as simultaneous pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held at the same location over the weekend, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office said it determined Paul Kessler’s death was a homicide. Authorities have not ruled out the possibility the incident was a hate crime, officials said Monday. Kessler was Jewish, according to two faith-based organizations in Los Angeles.
On Sunday afternoon in Thousand Oaks, California, multiple people called the Ventura County Sheriff’s Communication Center to report an incident of battery at the corner of Westlake Boulevard and Thousand Oaks Boulevard, authorities said. The intersection was where pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrations were taking place.
Authorities arriving on the scene located Kessler and noted he was suffering from a head injury, the sheriff’s office said.
Witnesses told deputies that Kessler was involved in a physical altercation with a counter-protester or protesters, officials said Monday night. Kessler fell backward during the altercation, authorities said, hitting his head on the ground.
He was transported to a local hospital for what authorities said was “advanced medical treatment,” but he died from his injuries Monday, officials said.
The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles said in a Monday statement that it was “devastated to learn of the tragic death of an elderly Jewish man.”
“Violence against our people has no place in civilized society. We demand safety. We will not tolerate violence against our community. We will do everything in our power to prevent it,” the federation said.
Executive Director Hussam Ayloush of the Greater LA office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also issued a statement following the news of the man’s death.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic and shocking loss. We join local Jewish leaders in calling on all individuals to refrain from jumping to conclusions, sensationalizing such a tragedy for political gains, or spreading rumors that could unnecessarily escalate tensions that are already at an all-time high,” he said.
The public should wait until the sheriff’s office completes its investigation before “drawing any conclusions,” he said.
“While we strongly support the right of political debate, CAIR-LA and the Muslim community stand with the Jewish community in rejecting any and all violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia, or incitement of hatred,” he added.
