作者： root

Parents of Bucknell student who died after football practice speak out after criminal charges filed against ex-coach

July 8, 2026 / 2:25 PM EDT / CBS News

When Nicole Dickey found out that former Bucknell strength and conditioning coach Mark Kulbis was facing criminal charges in the death of her son Calvin “C.J.” Dickey Jr. after a 2024 football practice, she told “CBS Mornings” she appreciated the decision to file charges after so much time had passed.

“We’ve been living in this space for months and months now, so what I felt was just appreciation,” she said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced Monday that his office is charging Kulbis with felony aggravated hazing as well as misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and hazing. Prosecutors say the coach subjected Dickey Jr. to extreme workouts despite knowing that the freshman carried sickle-cell trait, making him more vulnerable to the impact of strenuous physical activity.

The NCAA requires all new athletes to be screened for sickle-cell trait. Its sports medicine handbook says exercising with the condition is generally safe when proper precautions are taken, like cool-down periods and a slower workout pace.

“The facts show this defendant received information about C.J.’s health condition, along with training about NCAA anti-hazing standards, and disregarded that information,” Sunday said in a statement. “This is an extraordinary tragedy, worsened by the fact that C.J.’s death was preventable.”

The workout that led to Dickey Jr.’s death allegedly included 100 “up-downs,” and Kulbis allegedly only called for help after Dickey Jr. passed out despite visibly struggling during the drills. He died in a hospital two days later.

“We thought, go to the hospital, they, you know, patch him up, in a couple days, he’d be out, and we just, you know, keep moving on — nope,” his father Calvin Dickey Sr. said.

Kulbis left Bucknell around six months after Dickey Jr. died. Kulbis’ attorney maintains that the coach is not responsible for the athlete’s death.

But his parents hope that something else can come from their loss.

They started the C.J. Dickey Foundation, which focuses on sickle-cell trait awareness and education. The Dickey family also filed a separate civil lawsuit against Bucknell last April.

“This is an opportunity for education and awareness,” Nicole Dickey said. “It’s also an opportunity for programs to self-reflect.”

“This is not the time for silence,” she continued. “I do not want to see another C.J.”

These Maine Democrats could run to replace Graham Platner in the Senate race

2026-07-08T18:14:10.324Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/08/politics/graham-platner-replacements-maine-senate

Maine Democrats would have less than three weeks to find a new candidate to take on the nation’s most formidable blue-state Republican in one of their party’s most important midterms contests.

With the party’s current nominee, Graham Platner, seeking to navigate an exit from the race as soon as Wednesday in the face of heavy intraparty pressure, people familiar with the matter told CNN, a field of prospective candidates is quickly emerging to take on five-term GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

The behind-the-scenes scramble is being closely watched by Democrats in Washington, who see Maine as a critical seat in their effort to flip the Senate this November. But so far there’s no consensus pick, and anxiety is mounting inside the Democratic Party about how to elevate a top-tier nominee after Platner’s high-profile meltdown just 100 days from the election.

Three of the possible contenders — Nirav Shah, Troy Jackson and Shenna Bellows — are eyeing the Senate race fresh off their own failed gubernatorial bids. Jackson, a former state senator, and Bellows, the current Maine secretary of state, have described themselves as progressive populists, while Shah, a former high-ranking state and federal health official, is considered more moderate, with possible bipartisan appeal.

In an interview Tuesday with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Jackson acknowledged the manic sprint that any post-Platner candidate would face. “Short timeline, obviously money and all that. It’s gonna be a challenge, but I definitely think it’s doable,” he said.

But as one strategist who’s worked on statewide Maine races acknowledged to CNN: “Running against Susan Collins would be night and day compared to a governor’s race.”

Another Democrat, Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban, formally declared for the race on Wednesday. He had initially run for this same primary last year, only to drop out when national Democrats brought their preferred candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, into the race. Kleban, who would need to build a campaign from the ground up, had been gauging interest among fellow Mainers.

“I believe I can unite our party and finally defeat Susan Collins in November,” Kleban wrote in a Substack post he later shared on X.

Platner has encouraged at least one Democrat in Maine to consider running if he steps aside from the race, a source familiar with the matter said.

Platner called state Rep. Valli Geiger, a longtime backer, to “thank her for her support and encouraged her to consider running if he stepped down,” the source said.

“He’s not made any decision on endorsing,” the source added.

No one yet knows the precise path forward. Maine’s Democratic Party is still determining the process to replace Platner on the ballot. But multiple sources told CNN that it will be anything but a coronation: Democrats are expecting a snap convention or a formal caucus where voters can choose their candidate. As long as Platner drops out before Monday afternoon, Democrats will have until July 27 to choose an alternative.

The brash 58-year-old Jackson has already filed the paperwork to officially explore a possible Senate run. Jackson is perhaps best-known to Maine progressives, campaigning alongside Platner and Sen. Bernie Sanders during his gubernatorial run this year.

A fifth-generation logger and a union member, Jackson is a onetime Republican turned 2016 Sanders voter. But he also comes with an ideological record that could give some Democrats pause: In his long state Senate career, Jackson voted against legalizing same-sex marriage, and has previously opposed abortion except in certain circumstances.

The former director of the state’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention had initially received the most votes in this year’s gubernatorial election, though he ultimately placed second after ranked-choice votes were reallocated.

Shah was tapped by Mills to lead the state’s health agency in 2019 and then led the state’s pandemic response. While he was a household name in Maine during the time, his critics point out that he did not grow up in the state and point out that he voted in Georgia in the 2024 election. (He had been tapped by the Biden administration as the No. 2 official at the national CDC in Atlanta, a job he held through Trump’s election.)

Bellows has gained national attention for her role as Maine secretary of state, once declaring Trump as ineligible for her state’s 2024 ballot after the January 6 Capitol riot. (The Supreme Court later overturned her decision.)

The self-declared populist has run against Collins before, losing by 30 percentage points in the 2014 election — a terrible cycle for Democrats — without any support from the national party.

But her supporters insist that much has changed. This year, Bellows got more second-choice votes than any other candidate. That would mean that if the state re-ran the ranked choice votes for this year’s gubernatorial election without the winner, Hannah Pingree, then Bellows would be first.

Raised in a small town near Bar Harbor, Bellows grew up without electricity or running water until she was in grade school and has pitched herself as a champion for the working class.

Kleban is, so far, the only political outsider eying the race. A resident of Cumberland, Maine, which is just north of Portland, Kleban co-founded Maine Beer Company in 2009 after losing his job during the Great Recession. Before dropping his initial Senate bid last year, he focused his campaign on affordability and climate issues.

This time around, Kleban is signaling that he’ll aim his campaign squarely at “rigged corporate interests” and “Washington establishment insiders.”

The former Rockland mayor and current state represenative has been an impassioned supporter of Platner, writing an op-ed in a local paper last fall headlined “Graham Platner deserves grace.”

Geiger spent decades working in health care, including as a registered nurse, and was elected to the Maine statehouse in 2020.

CNN’s Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.

Trump explains why he’s flying old Air Force One back to DC

Trump acknowledges dangers of being president: “I’m No. 1 on the kill list for Iran’

July 8, 2026 2:13pm EDT / Fox News

By Eric Mack

Trump addresses Air Force One switch for return from Turkey

President Donald Trump dismissed speculation that security concerns were behind his decision not to fly home on the new Air Force One, saying the aircraft is headed to Europe so U.S. troops can tour it.

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President Donald Trump addressed speculation about the dangers of flying home from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, amid Iranian threats, saying he is not flying home on the new Air Force One because the aircraft is being sent to the United Kingdom.

“It’s flying to Europe, to one of the big bases,” Trump said. “Two or three of the big bases where we can show it to the people. And we’ll be going home by normal methods.”

Trump said the aircraft would stop at “a couple of bases,” including one in particular, “so the soldiers can see it, because it’s truly magnificent.”

NEW AIR FORCE ONE TAKES FLIGHT AS TRUMP UNVEILS REVAMPED PRESIDENTIAL AIRCRAFT

President Donald Trump said his move from the new Air Force One to the old one is not due to security concerns, but he did admit Iran has made him a No. 1 target for assassination.(Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In a Truth Social post earlier Wednesday, Trump said the new aircraft was being sent to Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom to honor U.S. troops.

“To honor our brave men and women of the Military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the Aircraft — Everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first,” Trump wrote.

“For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One, from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our Great Military Heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force Fleet!” he added.

TRUMP SAYS NATO FAILED TWO KEY TESTS DURING HIGH-STAKES TURKEY SUMMIT: ‘NOT HAPPY’

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6400554556112

Trump was pressed during a news conference about speculation that he was leaving Turkey on the older presidential aircraft due to possible threats from Iran.

“Well, I speak about it a lot because, you know, the life of a president is very dangerous,” Trump said, adding that he is “No. 1 on the kill list for Iran.

“They’re lovely people. I’m No. 1.”

TRUMP FACES UNPRECEDENTED THIRD ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6400550492112

Trump, the target of at least three assassination attempts, has frequently addressed the danger of being the leader of the free world, noting the mortality rate is “5.2%” for U.S. presidents.

“You know what a race car driver is? One tenth of 1%,” Trump continued. “A bull rider – that looks pretty dangerous to me – it’s one tenth of 1%.

“You should have told me,” the president said. “You’re an excellent reporter. You should have told me that years ago, maybe I wouldn’t have run. It’s a very dangerous profession.”

U.S. President Donald Trump steps out of the new Air Force One, gifted to him by Qatar, in a hangar at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on June 19, 2026.(Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

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Trump added he doesn’t “really care” about the threats or danger, “because I’m doing my job.”

“I like being No. 1 on TikTok better,” Trump said, “but I’m No. 1 on the list for killing.”

Eric Mack is a breaking news reporter and writer Sunday through Thursday, 6 a.m. ET to 2 p.m. ET, with a particular interest in stories that lead the news cycle on politics, elections, foreign affairs and government.

Kentucky governor requests ‘transparent’ update on McConnell’s health amid speculation

July 8, 2026 at 12:24 p.m. EDT / The Washington Post

Representatives for the 84-year-old senator haven’t disclosed what sent him to the hospital June 14, nor when he might return.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) passes through a Capitol Subway stop on April 22. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

By Stella Canino-Quiñones

As rumors swirl over the weeks-long hospitalization of Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has requested an official update on his well-being.

“Allowing speculation to continue in the media is not fair to the Senator or to Kentuckians, and my hope is that this provides him the opportunity to share the information in a transparent manner, direct from the source,” Beshear said Wednesday in a letter to McConnell (R-Kentucky) that he shared online.

McConnell’s office hasn’t disclosed what sent the 84-year-old to the hospital June 14, nor when he might return. Conservative influencers have posted theories that he was in a coma, incapacitated or even dead.

Several of McConnell’s Republican colleagues and allies said Tuesday that they have spoken to him by phone. But others haven’t been satisfied by the accounts, and the calls have become a source of online trolling.

“I spoke to McConnell for about 20 minutes this morning,” joked Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) on X. “He said we should end the war with Iran, quit giving aid to Israel, stop spying on Americans without a warrant, and he’s really sorry about how my primary turned out.”

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Sons of Mexican man killed by ICE officer in Houston demand independent investigation

2026-07-08 15:43 EDT / CBS/AP

A Mexican national fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston had no criminal convictions during his decades living in the U.S. and was driving a crew to a homebuilding site when he was killed, his family and a Texas congresswoman said Wednesday.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo worked from sunrise to sunset for 35 years to send all three of his American citizen sons to college. He had been working toward securing legal status in the U.S. after neglecting that for years as he built homes, his son Ronaldo Salgado said at a news conference.

“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream,” his son said.

The shooting happened Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has been a hub for the Mexican American community for a century.

Lorenzo Salgado Jr., son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, holds a family photograph during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Federal officials say their vehicle was rammed but don’t provide evidence

Salgado Araujo was shot after he ignored commands and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday in a statement. ICE officers were targeting him because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.

DHS claimed Salgado Araujo “refused to follow multiple verbal commands.”

“The driver was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted,” the agency’s statement said. “The driver was transported to the hospital where he passed away from his injuries.”

Houston firefighters said Salgado Araujo was shot in the abdomen.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions.

Three other men appeared to be detained as Salgado Araujo lay moaning on the ground, according to his son, who said one of them was his uncle and that no one has heard from them since.

Police work on Canal Street in Houston, Tuesday, July 7, 2026, after a shooting. Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle via AP

Federal officials have not released video or images of the shooting or the damage to the vehicles. Salgado on Tuesday joined civil rights groups and Democratic officials in urging federal authorities to release all the footage and other information it has on the shooting.

A video shot by bystander Juliet Martinez shows a black vehicle angled toward a white van, their doors wide open. A bleeding and handcuffed man groans loudly on the ground and his leg shakes. Other federal officers stand over at least three other handcuffed men.

In several other shootings involving federal officers, initial descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been contradicted later by video evidence.

In the case of Alex Pretti, a Minnesota ICU nurse who was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents earlier this year, top Trump administration officials made claims about the encounter that are contradicted by bystander video and witness testimony. They claimed that he approached federal agents with a gun, but multiple videos show Pretti did not have a gun in his hands.

In the March 2025 fatal shooting of American citizen Ruben Ray Martinez, video obtained by CBS News also appears to contradict claims by federal officials that Martinez “accelerated” and “intentionally ran over” an agent with his car before an ICE agent shot him. The video shows that Martinez’s vehicle was stationary or going at a very low speed when he was fatally shot.

Civil rights groups say ICE can’t be trusted with the investigation

The federal immigration crackdown has created a country where it is “open season on Latinos” by officers who think they can “shoot and explain later,” League of United Latin American Citizens President Roman Palomares said during the news conference Wednesday.

The way ICE has handled previous investigations shows they have not earned the trust of taking their statements as facts without evidence like video to back it up, he said.

Ronaldo Salgado and Lorenzo Jr., sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, hold a photograph of their father during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

“Your pattern has been one of inaccuracies of prejudicial leaks before the facts are known, of twisting the narrative to fit your version of events,” Palomares said.

The league offered a $5,000 reward for information and videos from witnesses as it calls for an independent investigation. Others begged anyone with videos to not turn them over to ICE, which they said could destroy them.

U.S. Rep. Al Green on Wednesday also called for transparency, asking the House Committee on Homeland Security to hold a hearing on Salgado Araujo’s killing and demanding the release of all available body-worn camera footage.

“Whenever deadly force is used by federal law enforcement, the American people deserve a complete, transparent, and independent examination of the facts,” Green said in a statement. “Public confidence in our institutions depends upon the willingness of government to subject itself to meaningful oversight.”

There’s been uptick in arrests in recent weeks

Representatives of ICE and DHS have not responded to repeated requests for comment Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department in March with the aim of keeping it away from the controversies that had marked the tenure of his predecessor, Kristi Noem.

In the months after the fatal shootings of Pretti and another U.S. citizen, Renee Good, in Minnesota sparked a fierce backlash, the number of immigration arrests across the country fell and ICE appeared to recalibrate its tactics. But in late June, arrests around the country surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.

The shooting was at least the eighth death from an encounter with federal immigration officials since the start of the Trump administration’s intense immigration enforcement campaign in the U.S.

Son says father worked hard for decades

Ronaldo Salgado said his mother was told something bad had happened to his dad around 7 a.m. Tuesday. After frantically looking for him at his job site and finding his empty van, he saw a video.

“I recognized him, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street,” Salgado said.

Salgado Araujo met his wife as a teenager in Mexico. They came to America and built their own home in Houston with help from friends and family who worked on his crew. His wife made his lunch before he left for the day and had a hearty meal ready when he came home. He would listen to music and pet his dog on his porch, Salgado said.

Ronaldo Salgado, son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, speaks during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

“After nearly 35 years working to give us the American dream, he made the choice to begin the process of obtaining his American dream through a work permit,” Salgado said. “We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.”

Salgado Araujo had biometric scan and fingerprints done earlier this year, his son said, and had carefully studied what to do if ICE pulled him over. If he was speeding away, it was probably because he feared having his tools stolen, his son said.

“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied,” his son said.

Mexican president criticizes the latest killing

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is considering legal measures or may ask the United Nations to step in to stop the violence against Mexicans in the United States.

“There has been another tragic death of one of our compatriots in the United States due to detention issues, even though their only ‘offense’ is not yet having proper documentation,” Sheinbaum said.

Texas’ largest city has experienced heightened enforcement operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/ice-agent-fatally-shoots-man-in-houston/

Court again knocks down Trump’s demand for his name to go back on the Kennedy Center

2026-07-08T16:40:29.143Z / CNN

By Tierney Sneed, Betsy Klein

Updated 1 hr 53 min ago

Updated Jul 8, 2026, 2:10 PM ET

PUBLISHED Jul 8, 2026, 12:40 PM ET

This image, obtained by CNN, shows the Kennedy Center signage with President Donald Trump’s name removed.

Hands Off the Arts

A federal appeals court for a second time said it would not quickly intervene to reverse a judge’s order that removed President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center.

The new order from the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s arguments that taking his name off the building would dampen fundraising efforts for the performing arts institution.

The defendants in the case “failed to support this assertion with any specific facts or evidence,” the circuit court said. “They offer only the conclusory assertions of the Kennedy Center’s Executive Director that were made in a factually unsupported declaration.”

Trump had also argued that the Kennedy Center’s bylaws would require it to return contributions that it had brought in unless his name was put back on its facade. The appeals court noted the defendants never made that claim when the case was before the district court. The lawsuit was brought by Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat and an ex-officio trustee.

Circuit Judges Patricia Millet and Robert Wilkins — both appointees of former President Barack Obama — were on the panel considering the emergency appeal as well as Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee known for being aligned with some of the conservative justices on the US Supreme Court. There were no dissents from the new order.

Hours before Trump’s name was removed from the building’s exterior last month, workers constructed scaffolding with tarp obstructing the facade.

Kennedy Center Executive Director Matt Floca affirmed in a declaration that the letters bearing Trump’s name were removed; however, the tarp remains in place weeks later. CNN has obtained images from behind the tarp confirming Floca’s declaration.

“Today’s ruling again affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename the Kennedy Center were unlawful,” Beatty said Wednesday. “His name no longer desecrates this sacred memorial, which belongs to the American people. Now it is time for the Trump administration to accept this, comply with the law, and take the tarps down.”

US District Judge Casey Cooper has demanded that the institution provide an explanation for the tarp and scaffolding that has covered the building’s exterior signage in the coming weeks.

Trump’s name was taken down from the Kennedy Center building after the same panel of appellate judges declined his request for an immediate, “administrative” order to pause its removal ahead of the deadline set by Cooper.

Cooper’s May 29 ruling said that Trump’s name had to be removed both from the physical building and from its website. It also blocked plans to close the center for renovations. A longer-term appeal of that ruling will continue.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that plans to bolster programming are “coming together” and will be discussed at the next board meeting, expected as soon as next week.

The center has added some additional new music programming at the Millennium Stage throughout the month of July.

This story has been updated with additional reaction.

Trump reopens the Iran war — and a political problem he can’t shake

July 8, 2026 at 1:15 p.m. EDT / The Washington Post

Republicans face fall elections tied to a conflict most voters oppose, unable to end it and mostly unwilling to break with the man who started it.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, middle, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. (Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)

By Amy B Wang, Praveena Somasundaram and Amber Phillips

President Donald Trump’s declaration Wednesday that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was “over” thrusts him and his administration back into a familiar corner: mired in an unpopular war that Trump cannot seem to end, with midterm elections less than four months away.

Former DNC chair on how Maine democrats should navigate a potential Platner exit

2:53 PM EDT, Wed July 8, 2026 / By Blake McGill, CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/08/politics/video/cncpm-graham-platner-jaime-harrison-reacts

Graham Platner and a small team of strategists behind his candidacy are trying to navigate an exit from the consequential Senate race in Maine without entirely squandering the movement he built, people familiar with the matter said, rather than digging in or trying to find a path forward for his candidacy. Former DNC chair Jaime Harrison, who oversaw the 2024 democratic presidential nomination process, weighs in.

7:01 • Source: CNN

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Former judge fined $5K, spared prison for helping immigrant avoid arrest

July 8, 2026 at 1:28 p.m. EDT / The Washington Post

A jury in December convicted Hannah Dugan of a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding for interfering with the arrest outside of her courtroom.

Former county judge Hannah Dugan arrives Wednesday for her sentencing in Milwaukee. (Jovanny Hernandez/Milwaukee Journal/USA Today Network/Reuters)

By Patrick Marley

A former judge convicted of obstructing the arrest of an undocumented immigrant was sentenced Wednesday to a $5,000 fine but spared time behind bars.

A jury in December convicted Hannah Dugan of a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding for interfering with the arrest outside of her courtroom while she was serving as a Milwaukee County judge. Dugan resigned as a judge in January.

U.S. District Judge Lynn S. Adelman of Wisconsin’s Eastern District fined Dugan $5,000 but did not sentence her to probation or prison time, according to local media reports. Adelman, a former Democratic state senator, was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton.

The Justice Department used the case as a rallying point, with FBI Director Kash Patel making her arrest public in a social media post and later sharing a photo of the judge in handcuffs.

Dugan faced up to five years in prison. Prosecutors did not ask for a specific sentence but cited federal sentencing guidelines that recommended a sentence of 15 to 21 months imprisonment. Dugan’s attorneys asked that she be given no time in prison and have said they plan to appeal her conviction.

In April 2025, federal agents showed up outside Dugan’s courtroom when Eduardo Flores Ruiz appeared before her on misdemeanor battery charges. They were there to arrest Flores Ruiz, who had been deported to Mexico in 2013 and was again in the United States illegally.

Dugan confronted the agents and sent them down the hall to the office of the county’s chief judge. While most of the agents were away, she postponed Flores Ruiz’s hearing and told him to go out a back door in her courtroom. The agents caught up to him soon afterward outside of the courthouse and arrested him; he was deported in November.

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WATCH: Surfaced videos of Dem Senate candidate backing ‘defund the police’ contradict recent denials

July 8, 2026 12:47pm EDT / Fox News

The Michigan Senate front-runner backed by Bernie Sanders deleted old tweets as his ‘defund the police’ comments resurfaced

By Alex Miller, Fox News

WATCH: Surfaced videos of Dem Senate candidate backing ‘defund the police’ contradict recent denials

Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed has spent his campaign denying he wanted to defund the police, but in an unearthed clip he questioned, “Do police really need to use guns?” (Credit: YouTube/Michigan Online – Oct. 22, 2020)

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The front-runner in Michigan’s messy Democratic primary has repeatedly said he never called for defunding the police, but unearthed interviews and video from years earlier tell a different story.

Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the Democratic nomination in Michigan against Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., has been adamant throughout his push for the Senate that he never wanted to strip tax dollars from police departments, going so far as to say he deleted old tweets embracing the ideology.

But in a video for the University of Michigan published five years ago titled, “Systemic Racism as a Public Health Issue,” El-Sayed argued that funding police and their use of force was a facet of systemic racism and constituted a public health issue.

DEMOCRATS’ CIVIL WAR HEADS TO MICHIGAN, WHERE PROGRESSIVES FACE BIGGEST TEST YET IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE SHOWDOWN

Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed has spent his campaign denying that he wanted to defund the police, but in an unearthed clip, he asked, “Do police really need to use guns?”(Sarah Rice/Getty Images)

“Why are we investing so much in people with guns and less in people with the means of being able to invest in young folks, empower folks through their livelihoods, and empower them to live their best lives?” El-Sayed questioned.

“Do police really need to use guns? Do we need as much of a police force?” he continued. “And so, if we ask ourselves about how we spend money in the public, where that money goes, where it comes from, we need to make a lot better decisions about investing in the things that root out poverty, rather than investing in policing poverty.”

The video follows a report from CNN that found during the height of the “defund the police” movement in 2020, El-Sayed leaned into it.

During an interview with Detroit Public Radio from June 2020, El-Sayed argued that he never directly called to “defund the police,” but he contended that the principles behind the movement were difficult to express online in a tweet.

MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE CONFRONTED REPEATEDLY OVER ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST, DEFUNDING THE POLICE

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6398019980112

“So, you’ll note, I didn’t say ‘defund the police,’ I just described what needed to be done,” El-Sayed said. “And I do think we need to be really focused on describing or explaining rather than sort of hedging on one side or the other behind a hashtag.”

“Defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets and investing more in the means of educating and empowering and engaging communities with the means of being able to take on systemic poverty that we’ve allowed to fester in too many communities.”

El-Sayed tried to pitch his stance as “refunding” the police to ensure taxpayer dollars don’t flow to “buy war materiel to wage war in our streets.”

“What we call that is, to me, less important than what we do on the problems on the ground,” he said at the time.

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Chicago police officers patrol downtown on Aug. 26, 2025, in Chicago.(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Roxie Richner, a campaign spokesperson for El-Sayed, said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he worked closely with law enforcement during his time as director of Health, Human, and Veterans Services for Wayne County, Michigan, and that “as hands-on experience always allows, his perspective has become more nuanced.”

“One simple word has never been enough to fully explain the reforms we need for a challenge as complex as our criminal legal system,” she said.

“Just as he did in Wayne County in 2023, Abdul believes we need to improve law enforcement recruitment, retention, and retirement funding so that law enforcement officers come from the communities they serve,” Richner continued. “He also believes we must reject militarized policing, pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and opt for community violence intervention, behavioral health response, and improvements in public health to reduce violence and protect the lives of communities and law enforcement alike.”

Still, El-Sayed has sought to clean up his position on the matter as he runs ahead in one of the most consequential races of the 2026 midterm cycle.

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He and Stevens are vying to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., for a seat Republicans are hungry to flip.

And more broadly, El-Sayed is part of the progressive wave that is flooding into the Democratic Party, sporting endorsements from progressive heavyweights like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

The candidate, however, can’t seem to shake off his posts and interviews from years ago despite this support.

Just last week during an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt, El-Sayed was pressed on his old posts and shot back that he “deleted all the tweets, because I didn’t want them to be taken out of context like this.”

He chalked up the issue to “clickbait in D.C.”

“I think this debate about 2020 and the ways that tweets are going to play are really nice on CNN if you want to get clicks,” El-Sayed said. “They’re not that effective, and nobody really asks me about them on the streets or in communities in Michigan.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.