August 7, 2024: An Edit To Walz's Military Record, Why Some Republicans Are Calling Walz 'Tampon Tim,' RFK Jr.'s NY Lawsuit Explained, Biden Sued By U.S.-Israeli Citizens, and More.
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Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis.

Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Wednesday, August 7th, and this is your daily news rundown. As always, if you love the unbiased approach that this episode provides, you feel more informed after listening, please go ahead and leave my show a review on whatever platform you listen, share the show with your friends, and if you're watching on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to the channel. If you're not already, all of those things really help me out, help me grow, so thank you very much.

And without further ado, we can get into today's stories. In yesterday's episode, I spoke at great lengths about Governor Tim Walz and some of his policies and actions in office to give you a good idea about what, you know, what he stands for.

After that episode was recorded, there were some new pieces of information that came out, so I wanted to include those for you just so you're as informed as possible. Now, before I get into it, I realize that talking about Walls and his policies and really any politician or candidate policy,

for that matter, sort of makes a listener's bias radar turn on. Last night when I posted the clip about walls, specifically on immigration, I had people from the right and the left coming at me. People on the right were accusing me of being biased because I left out his stance on too many other topics. People on the left were accusing me of being biased because I only touched on immigration. Clearly,

None of those people actually took the time to read the caption of that post, which stated that my podcast episode touched on many, many, many more topics other than immigration. But the reason that I tell you this is because I know this is a bit of a sensitive topic. It's a little bit touchy. And you guys, my podcast listeners, are amazing. I truly believe I tell everyone this. I tell everyone that my podcast listeners specifically are amazing.

the most rational and level-headed of all of my followers. I think you guys are just like a lot more committed to the unbiased practice and approach. But anyway, I say this because it's not necessarily you that's the problem, but I did want to issue this reminder before I get into the story that my job is to tell all sides of the story. That has been my mission since day one. That'll always be my mission. Sure, you can listen to what I'm about to say and

Call me biased for mentioning it in the first place, but the reality is if I didn't mention it, then I would be biased for not mentioning it. So I'm here to give you all of the facts. Just keep that in mind. With that said, yesterday I spoke a lot about Walls, his policies, and his background, but

But I specifically spoke about his time with the National Guard, and I mentioned how he spent 24 years as an enlisted soldier with the National Guard, which he did. And I said that after 9-11, he was deployed overseas, and that was a little bit misleading. So here's the full story.

Walls did serve overseas with the National Guard post 9-11, but it was in Italy in 2003. He also served in Norway. When it came to serving overseas post 9-11 in Iraq, he did not do that. He actually retired from the National Guard after learning that his battalion was being deployed overseas.

According to former members of his battalion, Walls told his troops that he would be joining them in Iraq when they were deployed. But when it actually came time to do so in 2005, he did not. He instead ran for Congress. And this lines up with his biography because we know that he was first elected to the House in 2006. And he himself told Minnesota Public Radio that he never saw active combat in his years in the military.

In a 2018 letter written by a retired command sergeant when Governor Tim Walz was first running for governor in Minnesota, he wrote in part, quote,

end quote. And in fact, it was actually Walls himself who was supposed to act as the command sergeant in Iraq. But when he retired, the man who wrote that letter ended up taking Walls' place. During the 2022 Minnesota governor's race, Walls' opponent actually raised the fact that Walls left the National Guard when he did in order to avoid deployment. And Walls rebutted that by saying he retired to focus on running for Congress.

The second question related to Walls that I wanted to clear up is why he's been given the nickname Tampon Tim by Republicans. A lot of you messaged me last night wanting the story on this and whether there's any validity to this claim that he gave tampons to boys. So here's the story.

Under his governance, Minnesota enacted a law which, in part, set forth the legal requirements for access to menstrual products. And what that law says is, quote, "...a school district or charter school must provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge. The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12, according to a plan developed by the school district."

End quote. Under that law, menstrual products means pads, tampons, or other similar products used in connection with the menstrual cycle. So given the broad language of that statute, that being the law referring to quote unquote all menstruating students in any restroom, people argue that that allows tampons to be put in boys' bathrooms. And yes, under this law, if there is a biological female menstruating,

that menstruates but identifies as a male and uses a bathroom designated for boys, then by law that person is entitled to access to tampons in that boy's bathroom. So that's the backstory behind the nickname, and now we can move on to the next story, which is about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,

RFK Jr., the independent presidential candidate, has spent his week testifying in a New York courtroom over accusations that he's not actually a New York resident and therefore cannot be on the state's ballot due to misrepresentations on his petition. So let's break this down. This lawsuit, first and foremost, was filed by four private voters, four individuals in New York.

The lawsuit alleges that Kennedy deliberately lied on the independent nominating petition to get him on the ballot in the state of New York by listing an address in New York. Now, he wasn't required to list an address in New York. He just did that. The lawsuit says this address is not actually Kennedy's address because Kennedy actually lives with his wife in California. Instead, the address that Kennedy listed is the address of a friend of his where he has visited.

And the reason that Kennedy did this, according to the suit, is because his vice president, Nicole Shanahan, is also from California. As we've talked about before, the 12th Amendment tells us that electors cannot cast ballots for two candidates from the same state. So if they are both from California, they'd run into some 12th Amendment issues.

issues. Kennedy, though, says this decision to list the New York address was one that he made with his lawyers, and the fact that he receives mail in New York, his driver's license is registered there, his car is registered there, and his voting registration is from there, all of those things factored into the decision to list New York

as his residence. He acknowledges that he doesn't own the property listed in the petition, but according to him, this was a lose-lose situation either way. He says if he would have put his California address, he would have been challenged on that too, given his ties to New York.

In court and through testimony this week from both the property owner and Kennedy himself, we have learned that Kennedy rents a room from the property owner for $500 a month, but that those rent payments only began one day after a news article questioned Kennedy's claim that he lived in New York. And at the same time, Kennedy also wrote a check for $6,000 for one year in back rent.

There is no written lease, according to the property owner, but the understanding between the two was that, quote, as long as Bobby needs the room, it will continue, end quote. Kennedy testified that he moved out to California from New York to support his wife, who's an actress, but that once she's done acting, they have both agreed that they'll move back to

to New York City full time. He said he's always kept his New York residence, the residence in question here, because he loves New York, that it's a part of who he is, and that it was important for him to keep. Now, you might be wondering, can't he just move to New York and avoid all of these problems? Yes. After all, that is what we saw Dick Cheney do when he ran with George W. Bush. They were both from Texas. Dick Cheney switched his residence to Wyoming. Sure, he can certainly change his residency to New York at any given time. Why he hasn't done that, I

I'm not entirely sure. Maybe because he's already used his California address on a variety of other federal election forms, but I don't have the answer to that. It could also be seen as maybe some sort of admission of guilt if he were to do it now, but I don't know for sure. Regardless, though, of why he put the New York address as his address on his nominating petition, the plaintiffs are arguing that all of the signatures on the petition, roughly 102,000, should now be invalidated,

which means that if it were invalidated, he would not appear on New York's state ballot because to appear on New York state ballot, you have to meet certain requirements. And in New York, as an independent candidate, you have to receive at least 45,000 signatures. With zero signatures, you're obviously ineligible for the ballot. So that is the goal of this lawsuit.

A little bit of the behind-the-scenes facts that are worth noting. These four individuals that filed this suit are reportedly being backed by a Democratic PAC called Clear Choice, which is funded in part by a man named Reid Hoffman, who happens to be, yes, the co-founder of LinkedIn, but also the man who funded E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump.

Now, at the end of the day, this case is really going to come down to whether the judge determines that Kennedy has a lawful residence in New York. Because legally, under state law, you're allowed to leave the state of New York for work and still be considered a resident. And you only have to be at that residence for roughly 180 days out of the year. But whether this New York property can be considered his lawful residence for purposes of the election will be a question for the judge.

At this point in Kennedy's campaign, he has officially made it onto the ballot in seven states, Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Texas. And in another nine states, he says he's met the requirements but isn't yet on the ballot. Those states are New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas.

New York. It's also worth noting before we move into quick hitters is that Kennedy is also facing a second lawsuit in New York over the actual signatures on the petition. Those who sued him are claiming that he obtained the signatures without telling the signers what they were signing, but Kennedy says all of these lawsuits are just attempts to keep him off the ballot.

Okay, now let's finish with some quick hitters. The first one, the Biden administration is facing a lawsuit from pro-Israel advocacy groups and dual U.S.-Israeli citizens over Biden's recent order imposing financial and immigration sanctions on individuals involved in settler violence in the West Bank.

So the West Bank is one of two Palestinian territories within Israel, the other being Gaza. And Biden's order was an attempt to prevent what's called settler violence, which is when settlers within these territories attack those living there. Biden's order called for both immigration and financial sanctions on Israeli settlers who partake in violence against the Palestinians living in the West Bank.

The plaintiffs, though, say that this order violates their free speech rights and illegally interferes with the exercise of religious beliefs. Boeing and Spirit Aerosystems entered their second day of testimony today in front of Congress over the January Alaska Airlines door plug incident. The senior vice president of quality for Boeing testified that it's not clear who and when the door plug was put in place. She said the door plug was removed and

at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington last September so that some problems with some rivets could be repaired. However, at that time, the requisite paperwork for the door plug removal was never created. Consequently, when workers replaced the door plug temporarily, other workers were unaware that bolts needed to be reinstalled.

A federal judge in Boston ruled that Harvard must face a lawsuit over anti-Semitism on campus. Harvard had tried to get this suit dismissed, but in a new ruling, the judge said that the Jewish students had plausibly claimed, which, by the way, is the legal standard for filing a claim or a lawsuit. You just have to submit a plausible claim. And the judge said that the Jewish students had plausibly claimed, which, by the way, is the legal standard for filing a claim or a lawsuit.

but that the students had plausibly claimed Harvard had been indifferent to their fears of walking through campus and missing classes when they were allegedly harassed by pro-Palestinian protesters. Consequently, because the judge found the claim to be plausible, Harvard's motion to dismiss was denied. And this doesn't mean that Harvard lost the suit on the merits. It just means that this case can now proceed through litigation.

A county court judge in Ohio upheld Ohio's state law banning transition-related care, such as puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors. Originally, the judge had put the law on hold while he heard and decided the merits of the case, but today he issued his ruling and said that the state of Ohio had a legitimate interest in passing the law because the treatments at issue carry, quote, "...undeniable risk and permanent outcomes."

The ACLU of Ohio has said that they will appeal this ruling.

And in some other state news, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld a law enacted by Governor Tim Walz that restores the right to vote for felons who have completed their prison terms. However, rather than addressing the actual merits of the lawsuit at hand, the panel of judges unanimously held that the group challenging Walz's law did not have the requisite standing to do so. So Minnesota now joins many other states that allow felons to vote upon completion of their sentence.

That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. Have a fantastic night, and I will be back tomorrow for the final news rundown of the week.