Noticias

Diplomatic relations between Washington and Paris have taken a sharp turn after U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner, a longtime New Jersey developer and close ally of former President Donald Trump, publicly rebuked French President Emmanuel Macron for what he called a “failure to confront a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism” across France.

In a fiery open letter published in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Kushner accused Macron’s government of “emboldening extremists” and warned that anti-Jewish hatred in France had reached “historic and dangerous levels” since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

The French Foreign Ministry reacted swiftly, summoning Kushner to appear on August 25 to explain his remarks, calling his allegations “unacceptable.”

Kushner, 70, a Livingston resident until moving to New York more than a decade ago, was appointed ambassador by Trump after the 2024 election. He framed his letter as both a personal plea and a diplomatic warning. He invoked his family’s Jewish heritage and close ties to Israel, stressing the need for decisive government action.

“In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” said Kushner, the son of Holocaust survivors. “Your own Interior Ministry has reported antisemitic incidents even at preschools.”

He charged that Macron’s public support for recognizing a Palestinian state has “fueled violence” and “legitimized” pro-Hamas activists, further endangering French Jews.

Kushner noted that he and Trump “share Jewish grandchildren.”  His son, Jared Kushner, is married to the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.

He also drew comparisons to Trump’s record on combating antisemitism, highlighting measures such as expanded FBI resources for synagogue security, strict visa vetting to bar extremists, and cutting funding to groups accused of promoting anti-Israel incitement:

“These measures prove that antisemitism can be fought effectively when leaders have the will to act,” Kushner stated, urging Macron to enforce hate-crime laws “without exception” and ensure “the safety of Jewish schools, synagogues, and businesses.”

Within hours of the letter’s publication, the French Foreign Ministry issued a sharply worded statement.

“The Ambassador’s allegations are unacceptable,” the ministry said.

Macron’s government defended its record, noting that since October 7, France has increased police protection around synagogues, deployed additional security forces to Jewish schools, and prosecuted individuals involved in antisemitic violence.

But privately, French officials expressed frustration that Kushner’s open letter bypassed established diplomatic channels and appeared to politicize an already sensitive issue.

Kushner’s intervention comes amid growing transatlantic tensions over the Gaza conflict and recognition of Palestinian statehood. Macron has emerged as one of Europe’s strongest critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war, condemning civilian casualties and calling for international recognition of a Palestinian state.

That stance has clashed directly with Trump-aligned Republicans in Washington, who continue to back Netanyahu unconditionally.  Kushner’s letter followed a similar warning sent to Macron earlier in the week by Netanyahu himself, accusing France of “contributing to antisemitism” by supporting Palestinian recognition.

By publicly aligning himself with Netanyahu and Trump, Kushner has effectively inserted the U.S. Embassy into one of Europe’s most polarizing debates.

Kushner and Netanyahu are longtime friends; Netanyahu once visited the Kushner family at their Livingston home.

Kushner’s alarm reflects real concerns on the ground. According to France’s Interior Ministry, antisemitic incidents have surged since October 2023, with reports of vandalized synagogues, verbal abuse, and physical assaults.

Kushner is expected to meet with senior French officials on August 25, where he is likely to face pointed questions about U.S. intentions and the ambassador’s role in shaping policy.

In a statement, Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks lauded Kushner for calling out the French government.

“We thank Ambassador Kushner for his righteous moral clarity,” Brooks said.  “U.S. leadership, at this critical moment in history, is more important than ever.”

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President Donald Trump escalated his feud with Chris Christie last night, suggesting a renewed investigation into Bridgegate after the former governor criticized Trump on a Sunday news show.

Trump said Christie sacrificed his aides amid the 2013 scandal, including Bridget Anne Kelly, his former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a top official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The president’s threat is likely toothless given the five-year statute of limitations on most federal crimes.

“Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him, including a young mother, who spent years trying to fight off the vicious charges against her,” Trump wrote. “Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts.”

Allies of Christie closed lanes of the George Washington Bridge in an effort to cause traffic jams in Fort Lee, an act of retribution against Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who refused to endorse Christie in that year’s gubernatorial election. Kelly and Baroni were both convicted in the case, but the Supreme Court overruled those convictions.

Christie, who has denied involvement in the scandal, did not return a request for comment. Several witnesses in the case said Christie was aware of the lane-closure plan before it started.

The former governor, an ABC News contributor and former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, said on ABC’s This Week that Trump is attempting to turn the Justice Department into “his personal legal representation.” Christie largely defended the FBI raids of Trump critic John Bolton’s home, noting a judge would have had to sign off on warrants, but called the classified-documents investigation into Bolton hypocritical.

“I think it’s kind of funny to hear the president talk the way he does about Bolton and classified information, yet when he had classified information, the same rules didn’t apply,” Christie said, referring to the now-dropped indictment of Trump in a classified-documents case.

Trump and Christie were close for years, and the latter endorsed Trump after suspending his 2016 campaign for president. Their relationship deteriorated after the president’s 2020 re-election loss, however, and grew vicious after Christie spent much of his 2024 presidential campaign attacking Trump.

And even though the pair were allies for some time, Sunday’s social media post was not the first in which Trump accused Christie of being involved in Bridgegate. In 2015, the then-candidate alleged Christie “totally knew about it” at a rally in South Carolina.

David Wildstein, the editor of the New Jersey Globe, pleaded guilty to a pair of charges in the Bridgegate case and served as a witness in the prosecutions of Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, and the guilty plea was later dismissed. Wildstein was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

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When President Donald Trump nominated Alina Habba for a full term as U.S. Attorney on July 1, he ran into a long-standing and robust Senate norm: nominees for U.S Attorney and District Court judgeships need consent forms known as blue slips from their local home-state senators in order for the Senate to take up their nomination.

Since New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim were resolutely opposed to Habba’s nomination, the Senate never acted on it before the expiration of Habba’s interim appointment, drawing the ire of both Trump and Habba herself. But in a series of social media posts this morning, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) defended the blue-slip process and seemed to say Habba wouldn’t have had the votes to be confirmed regardless.

“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv the votes to get out of cmte,” Grassley wrote in one of his characteristically terse posts. “As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.”

He also noted that the committee was given minimal information about Habba’s nomination and little time to process it; the day Habba was nominated was either the day her 120-day interim tenure expired (according to one federal judge) or around four weeks before it expired (according to the Trump administration).

“Habba was withdrawn as the President’s nominee for New Jersey U.S. Atty on July 24 &the Judic cmte never received any of the paperwork needed for the Senate to vet her nomination,” Grassley wrote.

After it became clear that the Senate wouldn’t take up Habba’s nomination in time, the Trump administration executed a complex series of maneuvers to keep her in office as acting U.S. Attorney – in defiance of New Jersey’s federal judges, who had voted to install a career prosecutor in her place. One of those steps was withdrawing Habba’s nomination, since pending nominees can’t serve as acting U.S. Attorneys.

Last week, however, Pennsylvania federal judge Matthew Brann ruled that Habba’s appointment had been improper for several reasons, and declared that she didn’t have the authority to continue prosecuting cases in New Jersey. Brann also issued an immediate stay of his own ruling pending appeal to the Third Circuit, so Habba’s status remains in limbo for now.

In the days since Brann issued his ruling, Habba and top Justice Department officials have attacked everything that has stood in Habba’s way – and one of their targets is the blue-slip process. During a TV appearance over the weekend, Habba argued that blue slips prevent Trump from choosing his own preferred nominees from states with Democratic senators.

“Senator Booker and Senator Kim had absolutely every right to vote no for me for the U.S. Attorney position,” Habba said, per Politico. “But I had the right as the nominee to get in front of the Senate and to be voted on, to be vetted. I never even got there.”

But Grassley noted that the same process helped Republicans block many of President Joe Biden’s nominees during his tenure: “In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES,” he wrote today.

Booker and Kim, for their part, have shown no signs of softening on their opposition to Habba. After Brann heard arguments from both sides of the appointment dispute on August 15, the two senators said in a joint statement that they hoped Brann would nullify Habba’s authority and that the Trump administration would work to “identify and nominate a permanent, qualified individual who will put the interests of the people of New Jersey above all else.”

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Jersey City will select its first new mayor in twelve years in November, and seven candidates have filed to run for the seat held since 2013 by Steven Fulop, according to an unofficial list of contenders.

Running for mayor are former Board of Education President Mussab Ali, former Gov. James E. McGreevey, Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea, City Councilman James Soloman, and Council President Joyce Watterman, along with two others: Christina Freeman and Kalki Jayne-Rose.

Fifteen candidates are seeking three at-large seats, with Daniel Rivera, the lone incumbent in the race, running on a slate with O’Dea.  Watterman is running for mayor, and another embattled incumbent, Amy DeGise, is walking away.

DeGise never formally announced her plans, but her political future ended in July 2022 when she was cited for leaving the scene of an accident after a car she was driving collided with a Jersey City man on a bicycle.   A Jersey City surveillance video, Andrew Black is shown running a red light and then getting hit by DeGise’s SUV.  DeGise never stopped and didn’t report the collision until later that day.  Black is suing DeGise and Jersey City, and a trial is set to begin on October 27.

Joining Rivera on the DeGise ticket are Kristen Zadroga Hart, a former teachers’ union leader, and Saundra Robinson Green. Israel Nieves, Jennise Sarmiento, and Meredith Burns are running with McGreevey; Mamta Singh, Michael Griffin, and Roland Lavarro, a former city council president, are allied with Solomon. Watterman’s at-large ticket includes Rev. Tami Weaver Henry, Dr. Floyd Jeter, and Kenny Reyes.  Other candidates include Ira Guilford, Nina Nalls, and Saundra Robinson-Green.

Five candidates have filed to challenge Ward A Councilwoman Denise Ridley, who is seeking re-election on the Solomon ticket: Dave Carment (Watterman), Pam Johnson (Ali), Brandi Warren (McGreevey), and Lamont Wade.

Ward B Councilwoman Maureen Hulings, who was appointed in May after Mira Prinz-Arey resigned to run the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation, will not seek a full term.  Seeking her seat are Lorena Loaya (Solomon), Efrain Orleans, Jr. (McGreevey), and Iris Zahidi (Ali).  Joel Brooks is running independently, but he and O’Dea have endorsed each other. Travis Heller and Dannon Hill are also running.

In Ward C, veteran Councilman Richard Boggiano is running on the McGreevey slate.  He faces Dawn Giambalvo (Solomon), Shahab Kahn (Ali), and Tom Zuppa (O’Dea).  Zuppa had challenged Boggiano in 2021 and then endorsed him in the runoff.

Five candidates filed for the Ward D seat of Councilman Yousef Saleh, who gave up his seat to seek the Democratic nomination for State Assembly: Veronica Akaezuwa (Solomon), Patrick Ambrossi (Ali), Elvin Dominici Encarnacion, independent Jake Ephros, and Catherine Healy (McGreevey), the daughter of former Mayor Jeramiah Healy.

Eleana Little, who won 45% in a Democratic primary for Hudson County Commissioner in 2020 and then 24% in the Democratic primary for Hudson County Executive in 2023, is running on Solomon’s ticket for his open Downtown Ward E council seat.  She faces:  Ryan Baylock (McGreevey), Alexander Hamilton (Watterman), Daniel Israel (O’Dea), and Stacey Lawrence (Ali).

In Ward D, Councilman Frank “Educational” Gilmore faces Rev. Keith Howell Garvin (O’Dea) and Gloria Walton (McGreevey).  Gilmore is running on his own, but he and Solomon have endorsed each other.

Fulop was elected in 2013, defeating Healy, and re-elected in 2017 and 2021; he sought the Democratic nomination for governor in June.

In West Orange, seven candidates have filed for the one-year unexpired term of Councilwoman Asmeret Ghebremicael, who resigned in June for health reasons involving her and her family, including two former councilmembers.

Tammy Williams lost her bid for re-election to a second term in November 2024, and Bill Rutherford, who was council president, fell three or four (depending on how the threshold was rounded) petition signatures short of making it on the ballot at all.

They face’ Justin Goldsman, who served as an aide to the late Rep. Donald Payne, Jr.; accountant Kenneth Gibbons; David Allan-Matheson, a U.S. Army reservist who works in the pharmaceutical industry; Edison police detective Jennifer Iorio; and Jerry Companion, the head custodian at the Hazel Avenue School.

Five candidates are seeking three township council seats in Verona, including incumbents Jack McEvoy, Cynthia Holland, and Christopher Tamburro, the current mayor.  Also in the race: Liz Hynes, a transportation planner, and newcomer Paul Petrangeli.

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