VP Debate Date Uncertain; Supreme Court Grants Stay of Execution for Texas Inmate – Jul. 18

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to NTD Tonight. I'm David Zhang. Here are today's top stories. Former President Trump's campaign delays setting a date for the vice presidential debate. Find out why. The U.S. House and Senate say they will conduct separate investigations on former President Trump's attempted assassination. First up, former President Trump's campaign delays setting a date for the vice presidential debate. Why they want to wait until after the Democratic National Convention. Former President Trump's campaign is postponing agreeing to date for a vice presidential debate. His team says they're waiting until after the Democratic National Convention, which starts August 19th. Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes says it wouldn't be fair to finalize a debate date without knowing the Democratic nominee for vice president. Hughes says it's possible Vice President Kamala Harris may become the party's presidential nominee due to some calls from Democrats for President Biden to withdraw from the race. Harris had previously accepted a CBS debate on August 12th. Meanwhile, Trump's team agreed earlier to a debate hosted by Fox News. Harris' camp criticized Trump for hesitating on debates despite earlier indications of willingness. Authorities have identified Samuel Sharpe Jr. as the man fatally shot by police near the RNC this week. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson says the shooting of the armed man appears to be justified. Here's Mayor Johnson on the shooting. I understand where some of the anger has come from because they were not local police officers. But in my conversations with officers, including local police officers, any officer, any officer in that same situation where they witness somebody who's going to cause death or serious bodily harm to somebody with a gun or in this case with a knife, not just one knife but two knives, would have taken the exact same action to preserve life and then proceeded to yell out to that individual to drop the knives, drop the knives because he was confronting another person on the street. Officers then rushed towards that individual continuing to say drop the knife, drop the knife, don't engage, you know, essentially. And he disobeyed the officer's commands and then proceeded to lunge the individual with two knives. Ohio police officers were in Milwaukee to help out with security. They shot Sharpe on Tuesday. It happened just blocks away from the Republican National Convention on the outer security perimeter. Authorities released the video from the body camera of one officer involved. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin called for a full and transparent investigation into the shooting. President Biden is recovering at home in Delaware after catching COVID. He left Las Vegas after his diagnosis, telling reporters at the airport that he was feeling well. Mr. President, how do you feel? How do you feel? The White House announced the positive test for President Biden after he canceled a speech to a Latino civil rights group due to the diagnosis. He shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon. My first thought was that I really respected the fact that he followed the same advice that he gave Americans at the height of the pandemic to isolate and not risk anybody else becoming infected with COVID. So a lot of respect for him for that. I do not think he should step aside. We were really excited to see him, but I don't think it really speaks to his commitment or anything like that. Sounds like he's just affected by things that we're all dealing with. So I don't think that in itself is a sign that he should step down. His health is of utmost importance, and of course, we wish him well. As far as stepping aside, I think that is something that he has to make a decision on his own with his family. And obviously, he cares for this country, and he has proven it over his 50-plus years of public service. So I know that he will make the right decision, and whatever that decision is, we, the Latino population, will support him. He should stay in the race, but he should be a little bit more aggressive about what we should be expecting from him, because I know the other candidates kind of are strong, too. Well, I believe that it was important for President Biden to be here, but we all understand we'd rather not get COVID than be sick for it. But it is important for the president and anybody who's running for office, for that top seat, to be in front of Latinos. The issues that we face are very important, and it's important for those individuals that are running and seeking office to learn about what's important to us, that it's more than just immigration, that it's the economy, housing, workforce, jobs, and things like that. The White House said Biden plans to spend a long weekend at his Delaware beach house. It's unclear how long the sickness will keep him from the campaign trail. A federal appeals court today blocked President Joe Biden's administration from continuing to implement a new student debt relief plan. The plan would have lowered monthly payments for millions of Americans, impacting around 35,000 public sector workers, including teachers, nurses, and firefighters. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by seven Republican-led states to put a hold on parts of the U.S. Department of Education's student debt relief plan. To date, Biden has canceled more than $168 billion of federal student loan debt for nearly 4.8 million Americans. The announcement comes as the Biden administration fights legal challenges to a separate student loan repayment plan it launched last year. The Supreme Court is expected to decide soon whether to block part of the plan while the matter is fully litigated. Former President Trump spoke tonight at the Republican National Convention. His running mate, J.D. Vance, addressed the audience last night. NTD's Daniel Monaghan has takeaways from the event. Let's take a look. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance used his Wednesday night address to share the story of his hard scrabble upbringing. Vance made the case that the Republican Party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans. I will give you everything I have to serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family, and your country will be possible once again. Vance called on people to watch the video of the attempted assassination of former President Trump. And what did he call us to do for our country? To fight. To fight for America. Even in his most perilous moment, we were on his mind. The Ohio Senator said Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world prior to running for president. And yet, instead of choosing the easy path, he chose to endure abuse, slander, and persecution. And he did it because he loves this country. Donald Trump Jr. says Vance is going to make one heck of a vice president. Look at me and my friend J.D. Vance. A kid from Appalachia and a kid from Trump Tower in Manhattan. We grew up worlds apart. Yet now, we're both fighting side by side to save the country we love. In an emotional moment, Trump Jr. spoke of the tragic loss of life of heroic former fire chief Cory Comparatore during the assassination attempt on his father. The crowd chanted his name in unison. The parents of Hamas terror group hostage Omer Nutra appealed for their son's safe return. Say it with us. Bring them home. Bring them home. Thank you, everybody. God bless Israel and God bless America. The Republican National Convention culminates Thursday with former President Donald Trump expected to accept the party's presidential nomination. This marks a comeback for Trump, four years in the making, and made more dramatic by last Saturday's assassination attempt. Daniel Monahan, NTD News. The House and Senate will conduct separate investigations on former President Trump's attempted assassination. Our Washington correspondent Luis Martinez has more on the story. House Republicans have already announced two separate investigations, and Speaker of the bipartisan task force to look into former President Donald Trump's attempted assassination. The House is conducting an immediate and thorough investigation of these tragic events, and that work has already begun. The American people deserve to know the truth. Chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer subpoenaed U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle to testify on a hearing to be held on Monday, July 22nd. And Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Mark Green invited DHS Secretary, FBI Director, and Director Cheadle to testify, but also invited officials from Pennsylvania State and Butler County Police. Some Republicans think this is not enough. But I think that this does warrant a J-13 type commission where we can actually look at it and say, let's investigate and find out why this happened so it doesn't happen to anyone. During this week's Republican National Convention, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle was confronted by Republican senators who demanded accountability for the alleged security failures. This was an assassination attempt. You owe the people answers. Others, like Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, focused on gun control and mental health awareness as a strategy to prevent future attempts. I don't think giving a military-style weapon to a child to solve a psychological problem makes much sense. Eyewitnesses at last week's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, expressed concern for alleged lack of security and coordination. I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage? I'm standing there pointing at him for, you know, two or three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. And according to some Republican lawmakers, Department of Homeland Security and local police have deflected accountability. You know, there was a grandstand, a very large area, a lot of people there when this all unfolded. And that's what I was trying to stress, was that we just divided up areas of responsibility, and they provided support to those areas of responsibility. The Senate's Homeland Security Committee has also requested a private briefing and hearing with U.S. Secret Service officials before August 1st. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News. We'll take a short break now, everybody, but here's a look at what we have for you when we come back. The Supreme Court halts Texas' execution of an inmate for the murder of an 85-year-old woman. A Nevada conservative is accused of fraud over fundraising for charity. Those stories and more coming up on NTD Tonight. Welcome back to NTD Tonight. I'm your host, David Zhang. The Supreme Court granted a state of execution for a Texas man just 20 minutes before he was scheduled to face a lethal injection. NTD's Christina Crona tells us more. Ruben Gutierrez, 47, has long maintained that DNA testing would help prove he wasn't responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery in 1998. The Supreme Court issued the definite stay shortly before Gutierrez was to be executed in Huntsville, Texas. Historically, this has been rare. Recently, it has been rare. It's very unusual. Gutierrez was convicted for the 1998 murder of Escolastica Harrison in Brownsville, Texas. Prosecutors claimed her death was tied to an attempted theft of over $600,000 she kept at home due to mistrust of banks. However, Gutierrez has pursued DNA testing to support his assertion of innocence in her death. His legal team says that no physical or forensic evidence links him to the crime, while two additional individuals were also implicated in the incident. In Mr. Gutierrez's case, he had litigation pending in the courts, trying very hard to test the DNA that will either confirm his guilt or prove his innocence. And the state of Texas chose to set an execution date in the middle of that litigation. She emphasizes the importance of thorough review in death penalty cases, stressing the need to carefully consider every valid claim to avoid unjustly executing innocent individuals. I don't think anybody can argue with a straight face that repeatedly coming within hours of execution is not a form of torture. There will be lasting psychological, emotional, and physical effects for Mr. Gutierrez, but also on his lawyers, the prison staff, the victims' families, and many others. The Supreme Court's brief order stated that the stay of execution would continue while the justices consider whether to review his appeal. Should the court reject the appeal, the stay of execution would be lifted automatically. Christina Corona, NTD News. What are the best and worst cities for first-time home buyers? NTD's David Lam speaks with Christy Mathurin of WalletHub on its latest report. Christy Mathurin, editor with WalletHub, thank you so much for joining us. Break down the findings for the report for us. Sure. The bottom line is it's hard out there for first-time home buyers right now, partially due to rising home prices and interest rates. Only 32 percent of the market last year consisted of first-time home buyers, which is a drop from the historical average of 40 percent, which I believe is pretty significant. The study compared 300 cities across 22 indicators of market attractiveness, affordability, and quality of life. And the top cities for the first-time home buyers in 2024 included Palm Bay, Florida, Cape Coral, Florida, and Fort St. Lucie, Florida. The worst cities were Anchorage, Alaska, Santa Monica, California, and Berkeley, California. Christy, so what are the differences between the best and worst cities for first-time home buyers? Some of the key differences between the highest and the lowest on our list are higher-ranking cities have a lot of millennials buying more homes. The highest-ranking cities on our list had a high rate of millennial home ownership, and the last two on our list had very low rates of this. And quality of life is better in the higher-ranking cities. Our higher-ranking cities had pretty good school systems, low crime rates, high home appreciation values, and a high median number of days on the market, which are all pretty good for buyers and people shopping for homes. Also, houses tend to stay on the market longer in the highest-ranking cities. This allows home buyers to scrutinize a little better, and it's not this insane housing market where houses are selling the next day or anything. That would not be a good buyer's market. Also, some things we're seeing in both the high-ranking and lowest-ranking cities, the top three and the bottom three cities aren't at the top of the affordability category. So the affordability is tough across the board is what we're seeing. Right. Now, I couldn't help but notice that Florida has the top five. Why is that? Yeah, so that boils down to a couple of different things that we looked at. Florida seems to have a pretty high quality of life. These cities at the top of this list generally offer amenities and services that appeal to new homeowners. A couple of examples of that are Palm Bay, Cape Coral, and Tampa rank pretty high in the quality of life metrics like recreational opportunities and access to healthcare and education. We also see that Florida has a really good real estate market for buyers, and also they're relatively affordable. Like I said, affordability is pretty difficult across the board right now for homeownership, but Florida cities are offering this balance between housing costs and incomes and also what's available on the market. Chrissy, thanks for bringing that down for us. So what was your reaction when you first saw the results from this report? I think what I saw, what impacted me the most when I saw this data was that it really paints a picture of the housing market right now. The historical decrease in the percentage of first-time homebuyers from 40% to 32% is very interesting and concerning to me. There are a lot of challenges right now for first-time homebuyers, and some appear to be waiting or perhaps they've given up. We're not really sure. It's hard to tell. But I also think this data shows that inventory and what's on the market right now play a role here, too. And I think it's worth saying that even the top cities on our list had middle-of-the-road affordability, so people are having to find this balance between their dream home, what's actually out there, and what they can afford. When can we expect an update on this report? We update this one every year. Okay, all right. That's wonderful. So we'll be keeping an eye on it. I mean, this is a big issue. People want to settle down and just have a secure home and build a family. Christy Mathern, editor with WalletHub, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me on. Former Las Vegas City Council member Michelle Fiori is facing federal charges for allegedly soliciting donations to build a statue honoring local police officers killed in the line of duty, then using the funds for personal expenses. NTD's Christina Corona has more details on the story. The Department of Justice announced that Michelle Fiori, 53, was charged with four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Tuesday. The indictment revealed that while serving as a City Councilwoman, Fiori solicited $70,000 in donations to construct a statue honoring Las Vegas police officers who died in the line of duty. The indictment claims Fiori promised donors that 100% of the contributions would go towards the statue while she was a Councilwoman, but instead diverted tens of thousands of dollars to pay off political fundraising bills, rent, and her daughter's wedding. In a statement on Wednesday, the former Nevada State Assembly and Las Vegas City Council member said that she had been aware of the FBI investigation for years, but only learned of her indictment through media reports. Fiori stated, I hold my oath of office sacred and have consistently strived to serve my community with integrity and to the best of my ability. Now that I have been accused, I eagerly wait my opportunity to address these charges in court. Fiori served one term in the Nevada legislature from 2012 through 2016 and is a state member of the Republican National Committee. Fiori is expected to appear in court Friday. If convicted, Fiori faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count. Christina Corona, NTD News. Stay tuned for China In Focus with Tiffany Meyer coming up next. The Missouri Attorney General is investigating a non-profit run by China's intelligence services. One big question remains, is it another Chinese police outpost? More on China In Focus with Tiffany Meyer at 9.30 p.m. Eastern. And that's all we've got for you tonight. We'd like you to join us again on NTD Tonight every weekday at 9 p.m. I'm David Zhang. Have a wonderful evening.