WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Attorney General Merrick Garland alleged that Russia ran a sophisticated disinformation campaign to interfere with the U.S. presidential election, including propping up fake news outlets designed to mimic real ones, and hiring U.S. social media influencers.
The father of the 14-year-old suspect accused of killing two teachers and two students at his Georgia high school was arrested and charged in connection with the school shooting. He had been interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation a year earlier in connection with potential threats of school violence by his son.
The White House issued a statement condemning Tucker Carlson for his viral social media interview with a podcaster offering a revisionist account of World War II sympathetic to Nazi Germany.
The Catholic bishops of Arizona issued a joint statement urging voters to reject a ballot initiative that would criminalize illegal immigration at the state level.
And a new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research survey found Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump among Catholic voters.
Justice Department alleges sweeping Russian disinformation campaign
The Justice Department alleged a Tennessee-based company was being funded by Russian operatives in a Kremlin-orchestrated operation seeking to influence the 2024 US election, and charged two Russian nationals with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The company, which is unnamed in court documents, was later revealed to be Tenet Media. The indictment alleges two employees of RT, the Kremlin’s media arm, spent nearly $10 million for content suiting the Kremlin’s aims from the company. Tenent Media is linked to right-wing influencers including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin, all of whom issued statements denying knowledge of the Russian involvement in the company.
“The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”
Russia’s government is systematically persecuting Christian and other faith communities in occupied regions of Ukraine, according to experts who testified before U.S. lawmakers of the Helsinki Commission this past July.
Russian officials in the occupied portion of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region have also formally banned the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church by written decree, as well as the Knights of Columbus and Caritas Ukraine, part of the universal church’s Caritas Internationalis global network of humanitarian aid organizations.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said in a June 25 interview with media outlet Ukrinform that “there is not a single Catholic priest in the occupied territories today — either Greek Catholic or Roman Catholic,” with Russian forces destroying or appropriating churches, while driving out clergy.
Father of Georgia school shooting suspect charged
Colin Gray — the father of the 14-year-old suspect behind a mass shooting Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, that resulted in the deaths of two teachers and two students — was arrested and charged on Sept. 5 with second-degree murder in connection with the incident, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced.
In addition to two counts of second-degree murder, Gray, 54, was also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the GBI. Chris Hosey, the agency’s director, told reporters, “These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon.”
Colin Gray had previously been interviewed by the FBI’s Atlanta office, which had received a tip in May 2023 regarding his son, but ended up not having enough evidence to make a case.
“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the FBI said. “The subject denied making the threats online.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia law states that parents or caretakers can be charged with second-degree cruelty to children if investigators can prove criminal negligence, such as when an adult was either aware or should have been aware of a gun in the home and did not prevent its access to children. Second-degree murder can be added if such negligence results in a death.
Colt Gray reportedly used an AR-15-style rifle — one his father is said to have gifted him for Christmas in 2023 — in the attack he is accused of carrying out on his school.
The U.S. bishops have called on congressional lawmakers to pass new legislation to combat gun violence, stating their support for a 1994 federal assault weapons ban similar to one Congress allowed to expire in 2004.
They have also supported limitations on civilian access to high-capacity ammunition magazines, which allow a shooter to maintain a steady rate of fire with more infrequent pauses for reloading once the magazine is depleted. Other gun regulation measures the bishops support include universal background checks for all gun purchases.
Catholic bishops of Arizona urge voters to reject immigration proposal
The Catholic bishops of Arizona issued a statement Sept. 3 arguing that despite their “frustration” with how the federal government has managed the U.S-Mexico border, an upcoming ballot measure would have “harmful consequences” if passed.
The ballot measure, Proposition 314, would make crossing the state’s border without authorization a state crime separate from a federal one. Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs previously rejected a similar legislative proposal. Federal law already makes it illegal to enter the U.S. without authorization. Most portions of a similar 2010 Arizona law were later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a joint statement urging voters to reject the memo, the bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference — Bishops John P. Dolan of Phoenix, Edward J. Weisenburger of Tucson and James S. Wall of Gallup, New Mexico (whose diocese includes a portion of Arizona), as well as Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares of Phoenix — said the states “and local communities along the border shoulder much of the challenges created by the federal government’s neglect.”
“Its failure to address increased migration in a pragmatic and humane way has led to an ineffective response at the border and an unacceptable number of migrant deaths,” they said. “We do not question the good intentions of those seeking to address these challenges. Nonetheless, we believe that Proposition 314 will have unanticipated consequences, and that it is not the right solution.”
The bishops added that “although proponents argue that Proposition 314 is about border security, the reality is that its passage will create real fear within Arizona communities that will have harmful consequences.”
“In particular, by having state and local law enforcement responsible for enforcing what should be the role of federal immigration authorities, many crime victims and witnesses will be afraid to go to law enforcement and report crimes,” they said. “As a result, dangerous criminals will not be apprehended, and public safety will be threatened.”
Election Day is November 5. Early voting begins in Arizona on Oct. 9.
White House rebukes viral false claims about World War II
The White House issued a statement condemning ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s interview with podcaster Darryl Cooper, in which the latter erroneously labeled Winston Churchill “the chief villain” of World War II and insinuated that the Holocaust was an accident.
In a two-hour interview posted on X, formerly Twitter, Cooper falsely accused Churchill of “rank terrorism” against Germany. Cooper also erroneously claimed that Germany “went in with no plan” and “they just threw these people into camps. And millions of people ended up dead there.”
The Nazi regime implemented the systematic, state-sponsored, persecution and murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. The regime also targeted other groups for persecution and eventual annihilation amid its claims of racial and ideological superiority, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Carlson did not push back on Cooper’s Holocaust denial or other false claims, instead telling him, “I think you are the most important popular historian working in the United States today.”
Carlson’s interview sparked criticism across the ideological spectrum, from the White House to conservative pundits.
Giving a microphone to a Holocaust denier who spreads Nazi propaganda is a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans, to the memory of the over 6 million Jews who were genocidally murdered by Adolf Hitler, to the service of the millions of Americans who fought to defeat Nazism, and to every subsequent victim of Antisemitism,” White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to the media website Mediaite.
“Hitler was one of the most evil figures in human history and the ‘chief villain’ of World War II, full stop,” Bates said. “The Biden-Harris Administration believes that trafficking in this moral rot is unacceptable at any time, let alone less than one year after the deadliest massacre perpetrated against the Jewish people since the Holocaust and at a time when the cancer of Antisemitism is growing all over the world.”
Sohrab Ahmari, a Catholic and founder of the conservative magazine Compact, wrote Sept. 4 at The Free Press, “Odious views like the Nazi apologia aired by a guest on Tucker Carlson’s podcast this week threaten to make their way from the fringe to the mainstream.”
“Those of us who adhere to the precepts of Abrahamic faith and dare not venture beyond good and evil must resist this rising tide of online-right racism and anti-Semitism,” he added on X.
Survey: Harris leading Trump among Catholic voters
The RealClear Opinion Research/EWTN News survey of Catholic U.S. voters — conducted August 28-30, 2024 — found 50% of Catholic voters plan to support Harris for president, while 43% said they planned to support Trump, with another 6% undecided.
When undecided Catholic voters were asked which candidate they lean toward, Harris’ overall support increased to 54%, and Trump to 45%.
The survey found that Catholic voters across all ages rated the economy as their top issue. Overall, 51% of Catholic voters (including 57% of Hispanic Catholics) rated the economy as the top issue, followed by border security and immigration at 13% and abortion at 10%.
The survey has a credibility interval — which differs slightly from a traditional margin of error — of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
