NationalWatch

Alabama’s top law enforcement officer filed a Supreme Court challenge aimed at overturning a prior ruling that limited Republicans in decennial redistricting, after a recent Louisiana case raised questions about how the court previously ruled there.

Louisiana’s “Callais” ruling struck down the state’s map, including districts centered on New Orleans and a narrow majority-minority corridor from Baton Rouge. Alabama leaders said the decision conflicts with or calls into question Supreme Court precedent affecting their state by requiring racial factors to be considered when drawing congressional districts.

“Now they have a framework for Alabama to directly defend what the legislature did both in 2021 and 2023,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, telling Fox News Digital he was “thrilled” to see where the court came down on “Callais” at the end of April.

“And that is, drawing maps based on historical redistricting principles that now I think Callais makes clear were constitutional exercises of that authority,” Marshall said, highlighting SCOTUS’ analysis that race should not predominate when drawing congressional districts.

SUPREME COURT RULES ON KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE AS REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS WAGE REDISTRICTING WAR

“And then unlike Louisiana, which was able to get direct relief through that decision, we now have to be removed from the injunction [against Alabama’s prior map] by the three-judge panel in order to either go back to the map that is being challenged or give the legislature the authority to draw a new map.”

A previous Supreme Court ruling, Allen v. Milligan, invalidated Alabama’s prior redistricting effort, with critics saying the decision wrongly weighted racial factors in creating what became a second Democratic-favored district in the ruby-red state.

If Alabama is able to get out from under Milligan, it could have national implications for Democrats’ attempts to gain enough seats in the slim GOP-majority U.S. House this fall, as Montgomery’s so-called Livingston map, originally struck down in the 2023 case, would see new life.

Marshall, who is also running to succeed retiring Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., this fall, said urgency before the court is important with the May 19 primary approaching.

 “Because the lower court’s injunction cannot stand in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, we have asked the court to lift the injunction. Alabama deserves the right to use its own maps, just like every other state.” 

The AG said he is working separately from state lawmakers, who are in special session through Friday to address the legislative side of the fight, and that his office is “singularly focused” on getting legal relief from the Supreme Court.

GOP SPEAKER CLAPS BACK AFTER BOOKER STUMPS AGAINST BID TO ERADICATE RED STATE’S LONE DEMOCRAT-HELD DISTRICT

He also said that, regarding race, the Alabama of the 2020s is not the Alabama of the 1960s and that there are few, if any, barriers to minority suffrage in the Yellowhammer State.

“You saw some of that sentiment from Justice Kavanaugh in a concurrence in the [Milligan] case that Alabama had there a few years ago, saying there’s a point in time in which we have to acknowledge that circumstances have changed,” he said, as the prior case forced Alabama to draw a second district where Black voters have a meaningful opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

For Democratic critics like New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who descended on Alabama to push back — as he did at a counter-redistricting forum in Birmingham with the city’s Mayor Randall Woodfin and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Doug Jones — Marshall suggested they get their own house in order up north.

“[They’re] arguing for proportional representation, which is basically what they are saying, they make that same argument in Maine, in Rhode Island, in New Hampshire — where you don’t see a single congressional member there from the Republican Party.”

Underlining that New England states have large blocs of “unaffiliated” or independent voters, gerrymander critics often point to the region because those who are Republican essentially have no voice in Washington.

Maine is considered the most moderate of the states, with an estimated Republican bloc of about 30%, while Vermont’s more vague registration system resulted in about the same percentage of vote share going to President Donald Trump in 2024.

VIRGINIA CONGRESSMAN SAYS SPANBERGER WANTS TO ‘TURN US INTO NEW ENGLAND’

Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts all have between 10% and 40% Republican vote share, presuming a bloc of the “unaffiliated” group votes at times for Republican candidates. Those states have more than 40% of their people registered unaffiliated or similar.

Fox News Digital reached out to Booker earlier this week on similar criticism but did not receive a response.

Marshall said his work is not necessarily in concert with the legislature, but the two are on similar tracks.

“While we’ll obviously watch what the legislature is doing, our job is to secure the relief from the [2023 redistricting] injunction as quickly as possible.”

“And the other thing, not only are we working on the state congressional map, but it’s also, we have a state Senate district [map] likewise that was subject to redrawing based upon a [Voting Rights Act] Section 2 challenge,” he said.

His office is also involved in the New Orleans-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the state’s senatorial map while seeking Supreme Court review on the congressional front.

While Marshall spoke to Fox News Digital before the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the Democratic-led redistricting map there, he called Richmond’s move “clearly [done] for hyper-political reasons that kept none of the traditional principles in mind.”

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Alabama’s redistricting efforts have aimed to follow the letter and spirit of the law, and the attorney general said he hopes to have a real chance of receiving favorable corrective action from the nation’s highest court and remedying a fight the Yellowhammer State previously lost.

Secretary of State Wes Allen indicated the May 19 primary will go on as expected, meaning Marshall’s motions may come just in time to give Republicans another incremental advantage in a nationally relevant electoral landscape.

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is facing social media backlash after saying during an interview he would support his underage son if he wanted to transition his gender identity. 

“Maryland Governor Wes Moore says he would let his son go through gender mutilation as a minor if he wanted to,” RNC Research posted to X on May 7, accompanied by footage of the clip.

Moore, a prominent Democratic governor who has repeatedly clashed with Trump, has signed measures positioning Maryland as a haven for transgender rights and gender-transition care. He was asked a hypothetical question regarding his own son during a discussion on a podcast with American businessman Patrick Bet-David last week. 

“Your son comes in saying he wants to transition, what do you do,” Bet-David asked Moore on his “PBD Podcast.” 

HOSPITALS WARNED THEY MUST PROTECT CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION: HHS AGENCY MEMO

“If this is a journey that he wants to go down, um I want him to always be comfortable in his own skin,” Moore responded, saying his son would always have his “undying love.” 

Bet-David pressed Moore on the question, asking whether he would still support his son if he were a minor. Moore said he would. 

“I want him to feel safe in his own skin, safe in his own decision-making, but also know that, at 14 years old, I want to be involved inside of that process as well,” said Moore. “I’m not going to condemn him nor castigate him, I’m not going to kick him out of the house. I’m not going to do anything that’s going to hurt him, but I just want to make sure that I’m involved.”

However, Moore — a father of two children under 18 — said it would be “deeply unfair” to allow a child to go on puberty blockers, indicating he would not permit his own son to do so.

Social media commenters unleashed on Moore for appearing to support minors making life-altering decisions.

“That’s not empathy. That’s insanity. As a parent, you are called to guide your children toward the right decisions, not to affirm life-altering destructive ones. This speaks to Gov Wes Moore sacrificing his own child on the altar of woke transgenderism,” wrote Maryland Freedom Caucus vice chair Kathy Szelgia on X.

PARENTS MUST STAY ALERT AS PUBLIC SCHOOLS HIDE LIFE-ALTERING DECISIONS FROM FAMILIES

“There is a 0% chance he believes this. But this is how insane the Democrat party is,” said Outkick founder Clay Travis.

“This is the man trusted to run Maryland.  Just thought you should know where he stands,” write the account Blue Lives Matter.

“INSANE: Maryland Governor Wes Moore says he would let his 12-year-old son go through gender mutilation as a minor if he wanted to,” conservative commentator Steve Guest posted in response. 

“A child who can’t smoke, buy alcohol, vote and whose frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop till their mid 20’s is suddenly capable of rationally electing to permanently mutilate their body for the rest of their life,” wrote an X user. “Wes Moore has no business being an elected official.”

DETRANSITIONER CHLOE COLE SHARES COMPLICATIONS AFTER GENDER PROCEDURES: ‘I AM GRIEVING’

“Good to know that you wouldn’t kick him out of the house, disown him, or hurt him. Next Question: Would the administration of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones be hurting him,” asked another user.

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The administration has taken a very strong stance against gender mutilation and puberty blockers following an executive order last year.

In December, the Department of Health and Human Services rolled out a series of policy updates and regulatory actions that would effectively defund hospitals that provide gender transition procedures,

Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of Governor Wes Moore and the White House for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has introduced a resolution aimed at reversing the two impeachments of President Donald Trump in the House of Representatives in a move he says will rectify a situation where Democrats used “knowingly false” claims in a partisan attempt to destroy the president’s reputation. 

The resolution, H.Res.1211, referred to the House Judiciary Committee, declares that both of Donald Trump’s impeachments, approved by the House in 2019 and 2021, should be formally “expunged as if such Article had never passed the full House of Representatives.”

“The fact is that the Constitution doesn’t spell out what to do when you’ve wrongfully indicted somebody, an impeachment is basically an indictment and it’s an indictment that you can’t really be acquitted from, if you are impeached by the House, famously where do you where do you go to get your reputation back is the question,” Issa told Fox News Digital.

“And that’s sort of a problem that we’re dealing with, which is that the President was wrongfully accused, the evidence is now out that there was withheld information and false information, but where do we go to unring this bell? And the answer is we go back to Congress and we go to the House floor and we have a vote.”

GREGG JARRETT: LONG-HIDDEN DOCUMENTS REVEAL FIRST TRUMP IMPEACHMENT WAS A TOTAL FRAUD

“More importantly,” Issa explained, is that he hopes his process will “make sure that the facts and the reality that there was misconduct in the process gets a hearing” because that’s “really where this becomes a big deal is that we really have to make our case in front of Congress and in front of the American people.” 

The resolution makes the case that the 2019 impeachment was based on unreliable and politically biased information, pointing to newly declassified material that it says undermines the credibility of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint triggered the inquiry. 

It contends the whistleblower lacked firsthand knowledge, was assisted by other officials with alleged political bias, and that House investigators mishandled or misrepresented evidence while denying Trump the opportunity to confront his accusers.

LAWYER OF WHISTLEBLOWER IN TRUMP IMPEACHMENT CASE SUES ADMINISTRATION OVER REVOKED SECURITY CLEARANCE

In a press release earlier this year, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the declassification of documents she says revealed a “coordinated effort” within the intelligence community “to manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump in 2019.”

Issa says the Democrats “broke every House rule” in their impeachment quests and a source close to Issa’s office told Fox News Digital that prominent Democrats have admitted in private that information revealed since the impeachments “reflects so poorly on the House” and “represents an example of what’s gone wrong in the Capitol and in Washington.”

The resolution argues that the 2021 impeachment was rushed and procedurally flawed, noting that the House moved from introduction to passage in two days and did not conduct a full evidentiary process. While lawmakers held a brief committee hearing with constitutional experts, the measure advanced without fact witnesses or extended investigation, which the resolution says denied Trump basic due process.

“They impeached him for essentially an insurrection, a true high crime, and it’s false,” Issa said.

WHITE HOUSE TORCHES DEMOCRATS’ JAN 6 ‘GASLIGHTING’ CLAIMS IN ANNIVERSARY TAKEDOWN

Previous attempts have been made to reverse the impeachments, including resolutions in 2022 and 2023, but never received hearings, markups, or floor votes, and died at the end of the 118th Congress. 

Issa told Fox News Digital that the previous resolutions were not written as strongly as this one and “didn’t have what we have” which is “the compelling case to say the misconduct of the accusation is now what we’re going to have on trial rather than the President because he was impeached with information that the very people who brought it knew was wrong.”

Additionally, Issa’s effort has the backing of one of the top Republicans in Congress, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan.

“Democrats weaponized impeachment against President Trump with politically motivated charges,” Jordan told Fox News Digital. “We applaud Chairman Issa for leading the fight to expunge this sham from the record.” 

The effort also has strong support from other House Republicans, including a list of over 20 cosponsors that includes: Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., Russell Fry, R-S.C., Mark Alford, R-Mo., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Tom McClintock, R-Calif., David J. Taylor, R-Ohio, Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., Rick Allen, R-Ga., Rich McCormick, R-Ga., Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, Mary Miller, R-Ill., Mike Collins, R-Ga., Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., Tracey Mann, R-Kan., Tim Walberg, R-Mich., John Rose, R-Tenn., Joe Wilson, R-S.C., David Rouzer, R-N.C., Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., and Ronny Jackson, R-Texas.

Issa’s resolution reignites a constitutional argument as to whether the House can retroactively nullify an impeachment it has already adopted. Supporters contend that because the Constitution gives the House the “sole Power of Impeachment,” it also has authority over its own records and can vote to expunge prior actions.

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Critics, including some legal scholars, argue that while the House can express disapproval or annotate its records, it cannot erase the historical fact of an impeachment or undo the constitutional process once it has occurred, making such efforts largely symbolic. 

“Our goal is to show that it’s false and it was maliciously false and as a result it should no longer stand as as a legitimate accusation to then be played upon when people are saying, ‘No Kings,’” Issa said.

“When you’ve been falsely accused, whether it’s days, weeks, months or years later, somebody should be just as interested in printing that retraction on the front page as they were in putting the original charge on the front page,” Issa explained. “And that’s what we’re trying to achieve, is to have the legitimate retraction receive at least some semblance of the same attention as the false accusations did.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

The partisan battle over midterm elections is heating up in Washington, D.C., with accusations flying that both sides are trying to rig the outcome in November. 

Republicans are trying to hold on to their majority in both chambers, while Democrats are trying to pounce on sluggish legislating, infighting and rising costs in their quest to take over the House, Senate or both. 

And President Donald Trump is already accusing Democrats of election interference months before Election Day. 

SCHUMER, DEMS LAUNCH ‘FREE AND FAIR’ ELECTIONS TASK FORCE AS TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT STUMBLES

“The Democrats are totally unhinged, and we will not allow them to threaten the integrity of our Elections,” Trump said on Truth Social.  

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats recently launched a “free and fair elections task force” that would recruit the likes of former Attorney General Eric Holder and Marc Elias, who Trump charged was “a terrible lawyer with a horrible track record.” 

“Palestinian Chuck Schumer is hiring Eric Holder, famous for handing guns to Mexican cartels under the Barack Hussein Obama administration, as part of a Democrat-led ‘Election Integrity Group’ that will no doubt try to suppress Republican voters, and interfere in our Elections,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Schumer and Senate Democrats debuted the elections task force as Republicans struggle to move forward on voter ID and citizenship verification legislation, and on the heels of the Supreme Court’s redistricting decision that is expected to further crank up the redistricting arms race across the country.

REPUBLICANS FAIL TO ATTACH SAVE AMERICA ACT TO PARTY-LINE FUNDING PACKAGE

“Donald Trump and the Republicans realize that if the election were held fairly, that the likelihood is that they would lose, and we would win, that we would take back the House, take back the Senate,” Schumer said.

“So they are doing all kinds of nefarious things, some of them legal, some of them not so legal, to try and overturn a fair result in an election,” he continued.

Schumer described the task force’s mission as seeking out “election threats,” including actions at the administrative level by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), attacks on the First Amendment, foreign threats and militarization of law enforcement at the polls.

Trump countered that in the 2024 election cycle, Republicans mounted an “Election Integrity Army in every single State to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote.”

“We will be doing the same again in 2026, but it will be much bigger and stronger,” Trump said. “All Americans should have their voices be heard by casting a vote. Be assured this Election will be fair!”

Its inception is in response to what Democrats say is a “comprehensive effort” by Trump and his administration to undermine the upcoming election, particularly through efforts to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

TWO DOZEN HOUSE REPUBLICANS GO TO WAR WITH SENATE GOP OVER SAVE AMERICA ACT

Trump has strongly pushed Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, which would create federal voter ID laws, require proof of citizenship to register to vote and share information on voter rolls with DHS. Democrats say the legislation would disenfranchise millions of Americans.

But Republicans aren’t unified behind the legislation. The SAVE America Act, or a version of it pushed by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., failed last month when four Republicans joined Democrats to kill it.

He has also called on Republicans to nationalize elections, and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin didn’t rule out sending federal immigration agents to polling places in the fall during his confirmation hearing earlier this year.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier this year pushed back against whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would head to the polls come November, and said “that’s not something I’ve ever heard the president consider.” 

“I haven’t heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations,” Leavitt said. 

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It’s part of what Democrats charge is a concerted effort to tip the scales in the upcoming elections.

“Donald Trump doesn’t think he did too much in 2020 to steal the election,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. “He thinks he did too little, and so that’s why you are seeing, already, a comprehensive effort to try to rig and steal the fall election.”

Alabama’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation Friday that would demand the governor call special primary elections for impacted U.S. House districts if the Supreme Court allows the state to utilize district lines its legislature approved in 2023 but has been blocked from using.

The governor also signed similar legislation pertaining to state Senate districts approved in 2021.

“With this special session successfully behind us, Alabama now stands ready to quickly act, should the courts issue favorable rulings in our ongoing redistricting cases,” Ivey said in a statement. “I thank the Legislature for answering my call to address the issue in fast order. I am grateful to Speaker Ledbetter and Pro Tem Gudger for their strong leadership and focus this week. Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best.”

GOP SPEAKER CLAPS BACK AFTER BOOKER STUMPS AGAINST BID TO ERADICATE RED STATE’S DEMOCRAT-HELD DISTRICTS

A federal court on Friday denied an emergency motion for a stay in the congressional redistricting case.

“Quite simply, we do not have the authority to issue an order that upends Alabama’s status quo, especially in the middle of an election, while our injunction establishing that status quo is well under review in the nation’s highest court,” the order declared.

SEN TOMMY TUBERVILLE, MORGAN MURPHY: REPUBLICANS MUST WIN THE MAP WAR ONCE AND FOR ALL

The state is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to take action to allow it to utilize the 2023 congressional map.

“I will continue to fight for Alabama to be able to use the congressional map the people’s elected representatives enacted,” state Attorney General Steve Marshall said Friday.

TRUMP CRITICIZES 2 SUPREME COURT JUSTICES BY NAME OVER TARIFF RULING

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“Alabama drew a map based on lawful policy goals, not race, and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling vindicates that approach. We were punished for doing the right thing, and we are asking the Court to correct that now,” the official noted.

Conservative House Republicans are escalating a fight over government surveillance as Congress reopens debate this week on a controversial warrantless spying program.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus are pledging to hold firm on adding a permanent ban on central bank digital currency (CBDC) to any legislation that reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But the proposal faces widespread opposition from Senate Democrats and is viewed as dead on arrival in the upper chamber.

The cross-chamber standoff threatens to complicate Congress’ ability to meet a mid-June deadline to renew the spy law, which the Trump administration argues is a critical national security tool. 

“If the Senate thinks they’re going to keep rolling over us, it’s just not going to happen,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said at a news conference in late April, referring to the Senate’s opposition to including a CBDC ban in a FISA renewal bill.

SPEAKER JOHNSON ONE STEP CLOSER TO RENEWING CONTROVERSIAL SPY PROGRAM AFTER CONSERVATIVES FALL IN LINE

Both chambers in April approved a 45-day FISA extension to allow for more time for negotiations. House GOP privacy hawks objected to the short-term measure, citing its omission of a CBDC ban. 

“CBDC can still make it across the finish line. Let’s just push on,” the Texas Republican added. “The Senate will respond to the people if they push hard enough. I’m positive on it.”

GOP privacy hawks argue a CBDC ban is a critical privacy guardrail against the Federal Reserve issuing a digital currency that could be used to surveil and potentially cut access to Americans’ financial transactions.

“They don’t want the government monitoring their bank accounts, telling them what they can buy, when they can buy it and when they’re not allowed to buy,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said at a news conference, referring to his constituents’ concerns about a government-issued digital token.

The group has repeatedly sought to add a CBDC ban to various legislation over the past year, but has not yet been able to get a permanent ban on President Donald Trump’s desk.

During his confirmation hearing, Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh said he would not issue a CBDC during his term, calling the proposal a “bad policy choice.”

HOUSE GOP SLAMMED BY CONSERVATIVES FOR JOINING DEMS ON CONTROVERSIAL ‘KILL SWITCH’ AMENDMENT

The push to ban CBDCs is part of a broader effort by conservative Republicans to ramp up their fight against government surveillance. 

“Americans don’t want Big Brother in their cars, their bank accounts, or their homes,” a spokesperson for the conservative House Freedom Caucus told Fox News Digital. “The gloves are coming off before FISA expires on June 12.”

Roy, the HFC’s policy chief, is pushing to repeal a Biden-era provision requiring a federal agency to draft a rule mandating impaired driver technology in new cars that could shut off vehicles if drunk driving is detected. The federal government has not yet moved forward with drafting the “kill switch” regulation.

“Do you really want to put that kind of data collection mandated inside every car? At what point is there just literally no privacy at all anywhere?” Roy said during a hearing in late April in support of adding a “kill switch” repeal amendment to FISA extension legislation.

GOP privacy hawks have also advocated for language that would add a judicial warrant requirement to the FISA renewal bill. While the law targets foreigners overseas using U.S. platforms, their communications with Americans can also be swept up and reviewed.

Privacy advocates in the Democratic Party have also long pushed for a warrant requirement to gather information on Americans.

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The Trump administration initially sought a clean 18-month extension of the spy law, but quickly ran into problems with a mix of conservative and progressive privacy hawks.

“We’re not going to pass something that’s a long-term, clean reauthorization,” Roy said. “I think that’s been taken off the table. We’ve demonstrated that, and we’re going to get reforms.”

President Donald Trump issued a lengthy lament for two of his Supreme Court justices’ $159 billion ruling against tariffs and likely “ruling against us on Birthright Citizenship” and showing “so little respect to our country, and its people.”

“I don’t want loyalty, but I do want and expect it for our Country,” Trump’s 545-word Truth Social post read Sunday night, showing his disappointment in Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. “Yes, I have another way of doing Tariffs, but it is far slower, and more laborious than what was just determined, in a close decision, to be ‘illegal’ or ‘unconstitutional,’ with three powerful, and highly accurate, dissents! Well, maybe Neil, and Amy, just had a really bad day, but our Country can only handle so many decisions of that magnitude before it breaks down, and cracks!!!”

“Sometimes decisions have to be allowed to use Good, Strong, Common Sense as a guide.”

TRUMP SAYS SUPREME COURT RULING AGAINST BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER WOULD BENEFIT CHINA

“A negative ruling on Birthright Citizenship, on top of the recent Supreme Court Tariff catastrophe, is not Economically sustainable for the United States of America!”

The birthright citizenship ruling remains pending before the Supreme Court, with a decision expected before the end of June or in early July. Trump has sought to end the practice of “birth tourism,” where foreign nationals have put their family’s stake in automatic U.S. citizenship of their children born while in the U.S.

“I choose people to help our Country, not to hurt it,” Trump’s post read, “and now, based on what I witnessed recently by being the first President in History to attend a Supreme Court session (Which fact was not even recognized or acknowledged, out of respect for the position of President, by the Court — Something which did not go unnoticed by the Fake News Media!), they will be ruling against us on Birthright Citizenship, making us the only Country in the World that practices this unsustainable, unsafe, and incredibly costly DISASTER.”

JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: WE’RE NOT ‘POLITICAL ACTORS,’ NOT AN ‘ACCURATE UNDERSTANDING’ OF US

The Supreme Court delivered a 6-3 decision against Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) use of tariffs for national security and trade in late February. Gorsuch, Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts ruled with liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Only Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented against the constitutionality of using IEEPA to levy tariffs on foreign goods and countries amid multiple wars.

“I ‘Love’ Justice Neil Gorsuch! He’s a really smart and good man, but he voted against me, and our Country, on Tariffs, a devastating move,” Trump’s post began. “How do I reconcile this? So bad, and hurtful to our Country. I have, likewise, always liked and respected Amy Coney Barrett, but the same thing with her.

SUPREME COURT KILLS TRUMP’S ‘LIBERATION DAY’ TARIFFS — BUT 4 OTHER LAWS COULD RESURRECT THEM

“They were appointed by me, and yet have hurt our Country so badly! I do not believe they meant to do so, but their decision on Tariffs cost the United States 159 Billion Dollars that we have to pay back to enemies, and people, companies, and Countries, that have been ripping us off for years. It’s hardly believable!”

Trump added he was fine with the ruling if they had just not left the door open for companies to come back to ask for the tariffs money back, something the ruling did not expressly allow, but ultimately has forced the Trump administration to respond to.

“They could have solved that situation with a ‘tiny’ sentence, ‘Any money paid by others to the United States does not have to be paid back,'” Trump wrote. “Why wouldn’t they have done so?

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS WARNS AGAINST PERSONAL ATTACKS ON JUDGES AS ‘DANGEROUS’ AFTER TRUMP COURT TIRADE

“With certain Republican Nominated Justices that we have on the Supreme Court, the Democrats don’t really need to ‘PACK THE COURT‘ any longer. In fact, I should be the one wanting to PACK THE COURT!”

Trump suggested some of the conservative justices should follow the liberal justices’ political interpretations of the law on behalf of the people and ideology they represent.

“I’m working so hard to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and then people that I appointed have shown so little respect to our Country, and its people,” he continued. “What is the reason for this? They have to do the right thing, but it’s really OK for them to be loyal to the person that appointed them to ‘almost’ the highest position in the land, that is, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.”

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“Democrat Justices always remain true to the people that honored them for that very special Nomination. They don’t waver, no matter how good or bad a case may be, but Republican Justices often go out of their way to oppose me, because they want to show how ‘independent’ or, ‘above it all,’ they are.”

Beef prices aren’t easing anytime soon and economists warn the pressure could last for years.

That’s because the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to its smallest size in 75 years, after years of drought, rising feed costs and an aging ranching workforce forced producers to scale back.

“The biggest thing has been drought,” Eric Belasco, head of the agricultural economics department at Montana State University, told Fox News Digital.

Years of dry weather have wiped out grasslands across the West and Plains, leaving ranchers without enough feed or water to sustain their herds. Many have been forced to sell cattle early, including breeding cows needed to produce the next generation of calves, making it harder to rebuild.

Drought quickly makes it harder and more expensive for ranchers to raise cattle.

As conditions worsen, hay production falls, feed gets more expensive and herd sizes shrink, according to data from the Kansas City Federal Reserve.

IN TEXAS CATTLE COUNTRY, ONE RANCHER WELCOMES TRUMP’S FOCUS ON DECADES OF THIN MARGINS

But even when conditions improve, rebuilding the herd takes time.

“The fact of the matter is there’s really nothing anybody can do to change this very quickly,” said Derrell Peel, a professor of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University. “We’re in a tight supply situation that took several years to develop, and it’ll take several years to get out of it.”

Peel, who specializes in livestock marketing, said it takes roughly two years to bring cattle to market, and several more years to rebuild herds, leaving little room for short-term relief.

TRUMP’S BEEF IMPORT PLAN IGNORES KEY ISSUE SQUEEZING AMERICAN CATTLE RANCHERS

And the supply crunch is only part of the story.

The U.S. beef industry is also highly concentrated, with four major companies—Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef—processing about 85% of the nation’s grain-fed cattle.

That dominance has drawn scrutiny from regulators, including a Department of Justice investigation into potential antitrust issues and pricing practices in the meatpacking industry.

Critics argue that level of consolidation gives meatpackers significant influence over prices, while industry groups say the market remains competitive.

Higher prices haven’t scared off consumers.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the average price of beef climbed from about $8.70 per pound in March 2025 to $10.08 a year later, an increase of roughly 16%.

Even so, demand has held up. In 2025, shoppers spent more than $45 billion on beef, buying more than 6.2 billion pounds, according to data from Beef Research, a contractor for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

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Spending jumped about 12% from a year earlier, while the amount of beef sold rose more than 4%—a sign consumers aren’t just paying more, they’re buying more.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Sunday suggested Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., may have violated his oath with comments he made to a news outlet following a classified briefing.

Kelly told Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation that it is “shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines” when asked if the Pentagon has updated lawmakers on the Iran war’s impact on U.S. weapons stockpiles. 

The senator told Brennan the Tomahawks, Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3), Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) rounds and Patriot rounds used to defend the U.S. have been hit hard, adding that it will take years to replenish those stockpiles, which could affect a hypothetical U.S. conflict with China.

In response, Hegseth questioned if Kelly, a former Navy pilot, violated his oath and said the Pentagon’s legal counsel will review his comments.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS PENTAGON FROM DEMOTING MARK KELLY OVER CONTROVERSIAL MILITARY VIDEO

“‘Captain’ Mark Kelly strikes again,” Hegseth wrote on X.

“Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received,” he continued. “Did he violate his oath… again? @DeptofWar legal counsel will review.”

This comes amid a months-long dispute between Hegseth and Kelly over the senator’s participation in a video with some of his Democrat colleagues in Congress urging U.S. military members to ignore “illegal” orders.

The DOJ had opened an investigation into the video posted online featuring six Democratic lawmakers calling on troops and members of the intelligence community to defy illegal orders from the federal government. The lawmakers all served in the military or at intelligence agencies.

In addition to Kelly, the other lawmakers in the video were Sens. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, as well as Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Jason Crow of Colorado.

GRAND JURY REJECTS DOJ EFFORT TO INDICT DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS WHO URGED MILITARY TO DEFY ILLEGAL ORDERS

“This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” the lawmakers said in the video. “Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

Grand jurors declined to sign off on charges against the lawmakers in February.

In November, the Pentagon launched an investigation into Kelly, pointing to a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the secretary for possible court-martial or other punishment.

Hegseth has censured Kelly and has attempted to retroactively demote him from his retired rank of captain over his participation in the video, which affirms that refusing unlawful orders is a standard part of military protocol.

But a federal court ruling blocked the Pentagon from demoting the lawmaker over the video. The court also found the Pentagon likely violated Kelly’s First Amendment rights, and those of “millions of military retirees,” when it formally censured him on Jan. 5.

Hegseth subsequently appealed that ruling.

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Last week, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments and appeared largely skeptical of Hegseth’s attempt to punish Kelly for the video.

“I will not back down from this fight,” Kelly said after the hearing.

President Donald Trump had accused the lawmakers of being “traitors” who engaged in “sedition at the highest level” and “should be in jail” after the video was posted last fall. He even suggested they should be executed over the video, although he later attempted to walk that comment back.

Slotkin, who previously worked at the CIA and Pentagon, was targeted with a bomb threat just days after the clip and Trump’s subsequent statements suggesting the Democrats be executed.

Fox News Digital reached out to Kelly for comment.

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that five prisoners from Poland and Moldova were released from detention in Belarus and Russia following diplomatic efforts involving the U.S., marking a rare breakthrough in negotiations with the two countries.

The release includes Polish journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut, whose case has drawn international attention and concern from European leaders, and signals a potential opening for limited cooperation between Washington and Minsk, even as tensions with Russia remain high and broader disputes persist.

“We just secured the release of three Polish and two Moldovan prisoners from Belarusian and Russian detention,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Thanks to my Special Presidential Envoy, John Coale, we were able to push hard to make this release happen.

“My friend, President Karol Nawrocki of Poland, met with me last September and asked me to help secure Andrzej Poczobut from Belarusian prison,” he continued. “Today, Poczobut is free due to our efforts. The United States delivers for our Allies and Friends.

SECRETARY OF STATE RUBIO HAILS RELEASE OF US PRISONER IN BELARUS AS CONTROVERSY HANGS OVER NATION’S ELECTION

“Thank you to President Aleksandr Lukashenko for his cooperation and friendship. So nice!” Trump added.

Poczobut, a correspondent for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a prominent member of Belarus’ Polish minority, had been serving an eight-year sentence in a case widely criticized as politically motivated.

He was arrested in 2021 after reporting on pro-democracy protests in Belarus, drawing international condemnation. Poczobut was later awarded the Sakharov Prize, the European Union’s top human rights honor.

POLISH CONSERVATIVE KAROL NAWROCKI WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TO SUCCEED DUDA

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski described Poczobut as both a symbol of the fight for freedom in Belarus and an example of Poland’s commitment to securing the return of its citizens.

The exchange was part of a broader series of prisoner releases negotiated with U.S. involvement, reflecting a recent thaw in relations between Washington and Minsk under Trump.

A spokesperson for Poland’s Foreign Ministry said the deal involved a multi-country arrangement, with three individuals transferred from Belarus to Poland in exchange for three sent in the opposite direction, alongside others released through separate agreements.

AMERICAN AMONG 3 DETAINEES RELEASED FROM BELARUS

Those freed included Grzegorz Gawel, a Roman Catholic friar from the Carmelite order in Krakow, as well as a Belarusian national who had worked with Polish intelligence services, according to Polish officials, who did not publicly identify the individual.

Earlier this year, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko authorized the release of 250 political prisoners under an agreement with Washington that led to a partial easing of U.S. sanctions.

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Belarus, a longtime ally of Russia, has remained largely isolated from the West for years. Lukashenko, who has been in power for more than three decades, has faced repeated sanctions over human rights abuses and for allowing Russian forces to use Belarusian territory during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Virginia Democrats’ redistricting push was meant to lock in an advantage. Instead, it’s unraveling after a costly court defeat—triggering a growing blame game inside the party.

The high-stakes effort to redraw congressional maps, backed by tens of millions of dollars and significant political capital, briefly delivered a narrow on-paper win. But in a 4–3 ruling, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the maps, citing legal deficiencies, and forced a redraw—wiping out those gains.

Democrats are left arguing over whether party leaders ignored legal warnings and pushed a strategy that was always at risk of collapsing.

DAVID MARCUS: VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS STEP ON A $70M RAKE AND NOW THEY’RE CRYING

In hindsight, critics say the outcome was avoidable. Republicans had urged an earlier court review before votes were cast and money spent, a step they argued could have clarified the maps’ legality. 

Democrats pressed ahead anyway, betting the strategy would hold.

“Violating the Virginia Constitution and bypassing the rule of law to further one’s own political power is wrong,” Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., said in a statement to The Hill. “Had [Democratic Gov.] Abigail Spanberger and the rest of Virginia’s Democrats succeeded, they would have caused irreparable harm to our democracy and disenfranchised millions of Virginians.”

Allies of Spanberger say legal concerns were raised early and not fully heeded, pointing to state lawmakers for pushing forward. Lawmakers and other Democrats counter that litigation was inevitable and the maps were defensible.

DEMS WHO RAN ON AFFORDABILITY NOW FACE BACKLASH AS COSTS CLIMB IN NY, VIRGINIA

The dispute reflects a broader divide within the party over how aggressively to pursue redistricting. Some Democrats argue such efforts are necessary to counter Republican-led maps nationwide.

“I feel like the system is fundamentally broken, but let’s be clear. Republicans began the redistricting arms race,” Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., told Fox News Digital in an earlier interview. “And so Democrats are left with no choice but to level the playing field for the sake of democracy.”

“Look, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have political gerrymandering,” Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Texas, added. “But because we don’t live in that world, we’ve got to fight fire with fire.”

Others, however, are more blunt in assigning blame.

“I put this all on Democrats,” Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, said, arguing the party failed to respond forcefully to earlier GOP redistricting efforts and is now facing the consequences.

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The fallout is landing at a difficult moment.

A federal raid on May 6 on the office of a powerful state senator has added to a sense of instability, while former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder has suggested the turmoil could give Spanberger an opening to reset and impose discipline on a still-fractured political operation.

The episode underscores the growing role of courts in redistricting fights—and the risks of pushing legal boundaries in a high-stakes environment, with potential implications for control of Virginia’s congressional delegation.

In retrospect, even with the narrow 4–3 decision, it’s a steep price: roughly $70 million and much of Spanberger’s political capital spent on a campaign that won the battle but lost the war.

Democrats are left to sort out not just what went wrong—but who’s responsible.

Fox News Digital’s Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden’s lawyers are expected to object to the Justice Department’s release of redacted written transcripts and audio recordings of Biden’s 2017 interactions with his book ghostwriter, according to a new court filing.

“President Biden, through counsel, has advised the Department that he intends to seek to intervene to prevent any such disclosures,” Assistant Attorney General Civil Division Brett Shumate wrote in a filing from a Freedom of Information Act request from the Heritage Foundation’s Mike Howell. “The Department does not oppose intervention.”

There is a Tuesday deadline for Biden’s lawyers to respond to the DOJ’s release for a response to Howell’s FOIA request, which would come shortly after Tuesday if there was no objection.

Shumate noted the release of 70 hours of redacted recordings would be delayed until June 15 if Biden objects before the deadline.

BIDEN INTERVIEW AUDIO REVEALS WHO BROUGHT UP BEAU’S DEATH — AND IT WASN’T HUR

“Defendant intends to disclose the written transcript and audio recordings at issue in this matter, with redactions, to Congress, pursuant to a request from the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as to Plaintiffs,” the filing in Howell’s FOIA lawsuit with the DOJ read.

The interactions came between Biden and his ghostwriter for the 2017 book: “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.” The audio and transcript were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents after the Obama administration ended, which included storing them in his garage and at the Penn Biden Center.

“President Biden cooperated fully with special counsel Hur, and agreed to provide audiotapes of conversations with his biographer for a book about his deceased son on the condition that they would not be made public,” Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo told Politico in a statement Sunday. “The DOJ themselves have said these tapes serve no public interest.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS RELEASE OF JACK SMITH REPORT’S SECOND VOLUME

“What’s happening now isn’t about transparency. It’s about politics,” Ducklo continued. “If this Administration were genuinely committed to transparency, they would release Volume 2 of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s own alleged mishandling of classified documents. That report contains information Americans actually deserve to see.”

Fox News reached out to Ducklo for independent confirmation on this report and has not yet heard back.

The FOIA requester remains in pursuit of the documents.

CONSERVATIVES REACT TO LEAKED BIDEN AUDIO ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ‘THIS IS PAINFUL’

“These tapes will further prove the massive lie regarding Biden’s fitness for office and the fact Biden revealed classified information,” Howell, president of Heritage’s Oversight Project, told Politico. “The shenanigans aren’t over: At the last possible second, and after every delay tactic possible, the autopen is objecting to the American People receiving transparency. “

Hur concluded his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents, noting longstanding DOJ policy of not indicting a sitting president and saying a jury would be sympathetic to the oldest sitting American president, 82, because he was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“It appears that after lengthy negotiation covering several months — at no point seeking to intervene into this case on a timely basis — President Biden has changed position and now seeks to even enjoin release of the portions of transcripts that match exact phrases quoted in the Hur Report,” Shumate’s filing Friday read.

GREGG JARRETT: BIDEN, THE ‘MARIONETTE PRESIDENT; AND THE CASE OF THE RUNAWAY AUTOPEN

“The potential intervention by former President Biden and the new development of a discretionary release to the House Judiciary Committee in response to their March 23, 2026 letter, raises a number of issues”:

“As Plaintiffs understand the matter, President Biden would need an order barring release in this case and an order enjoining the Department from producing to the House Judiciary Committee all by June 15, 2026.”

The DOJ also accuses Biden’s lawyers of slow-walking responses and rejecting deadlines.

BIDEN WHITE HOUSE AIDES FACE OVERSIGHT DEADLINE AMID THREAT OF SUBPOENAS

“President Biden’s lead counsel was unable to provide any information about President Biden’s submissions arguing that such discussion was somehow premature (whereas, in reality it is 16 months late) and incredibly indicating that despite the June 15, 2026 production date, the motion to intervene would not be filed until mid-next week and that President Biden would seek up to three days after a ruling granting a motion to intervene to submit a proposed schedule for substantive relief,” the filing read.

“That is no way to conduct litigation and smacks of kicking the can down the road to justify delaying the June 15, 2026 production by some form of administrative injunction.”

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The DOJ issued a new warning of Tuesday’s deadline, regardless.

READ THE COURT FILING – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

“The public deserves to hear the tapes and read the transcripts as redacted by President Donald J. Trump’s Department of Justice,” Shumate’s filing concluded. “Plaintiffs regret that they are currently unable to assist the Court in this process due to the repeated failure of counsel for President Biden to engage with Plaintiffs on this matter, putting off even initial substantive conversations until next week.”

Kirk Bangstad, the controversial Wisconsin brewery owner who seemed to offer free beer on Facebook for the assassination of President Donald Trump, is currently seeking the requisite 2,000 signatures for his burgeoning campaign for governor, warning his party he will win the primary if they try to silence him.

“I will win the primary if they don’t let me speak: I guarantee you that,” Bangstad told WISN 12 News this week when asked about speaking at the state Democratic convention.

Bangstad, the owner of Minocqua Brewing Company (MBC), launched his campaign for Wisconsin governor after drawing national scrutiny for a social media post that appeared on the brewery’s Facebook page after an alleged assassination attempt against Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

“Well, we almost got #freebeerday,” the April 12 post read just minutes after the WHCA Dinner security event. “Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle. We’ll never know. Regardless, we stand at the ready to pour free beer the day it happens.”

WISCONSIN DEM’S BAR LAMENTS ‘WE ALMOST GOT FREE BEER DAY’ FOR TRUMP ASSASSINATION

The news spread so far on social media and in the news that it drew a visit from the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI days later, but Bangstad contends it was merely satirical commentary and not a dog whistle for political violence from leftist radicals like the past three Trump assassination attempts.

“It was satire,” he told WISN 12. “I meant it as satire. I’ve said that all along and it was taken out of context in order to create a feeding frenzy by the media, which it did, and allow Republicans to paint Democrats as politically violent.”

There has been caution from Democrats about Bangstad’s rhetoric for weeks, but it has not stopped him, and he acknowledged it led to his jumping into the gubernatorial race after the federal law enforcement visit, and even has proven lucrative for fundraising, if not his brewery business.

“Remember there was another half of that post that said, ‘or Donald Trump is trying to fake an assassination attempt to get a better news cycle,” Bangstad told WISN 12. “The first part was satire that was trying to set off the second part.”

WISCONSIN MOM ‘SEETHING’ AFTER DEMOCRATS GIVE HER 8-YEAR-OLD SON A CHILLING BRACELET CALLING FOR TRUMP’S DEATH

Bangstad said he resurfaced his “free beer day” MBC business campaign because “the assassination attempt seemed staged,” acknowledging it has allowed him to gain “name recognition.”

Bangstad pointed to his “250,000 followers on Facebook” and “170,000 subscribers to our Substack page.”

“Most of those people are progressives and a lot of those are progressives who live in Wisconsin, so I would think I have the best name recognition in the state of Wisconsin right now,” Bangstad continued.

“The Democratic Party who has a terrible approval rating across the country and in Wisconsin can say all they want to about me. I’m a true Democrat, a true progressive Democrat, and I have more name recognition than everybody in this race save for probably Mandela Barnes.”

DEM LAWMAKER SPARKS ONLINE OUTRAGE FOR BLAMING TRUMP’S LOW APPROVAL FOR WHCA DINNER SHOOTING

If he was blocked from speaking at the June 13-14 Wisconsin Democratic convention at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Bangstad vowed, “I’d speak anyway; I’d speak outside the front door.”

“And if they try to not let me speak, they’re going to put me in office,” Bangstad said. “Let’s be honest.

“If they restrict my speech as a fellow Democrat, they are going to do so much harm to their appearance, and they’re going to do so much harm to other candidates, I will win the primary if they don’t let me speak. I guarantee you that.”

Bangstad said he has not “gotten that far” on whether he will attend the Democratic convention in June.

MANDELA BARNES JUMPS INTO WISCONSIN GOVERNOR RACE — BUT BAGGAGE FROM HIS 2022 SENATE BID FOLLOWS

“I’ve got to get my 2,000 signatures by June 1 – obviously, I’m in the race really late; we’ve got a month to get 2,000 signatures,” he said.

“I will of course attend the Democratic convention, I’m a Democrat. I want to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming to a realistic place that’s not owned by big money, and that’s what I plan to do.

“And I think I can get there in Wisconsin.”

FORMER NAVY SEAL AND ‘POLITICAL OUTSIDER’ ANNOUNCES GOP CAMPAIGN FOR WISCONSIN GOVERNOR

The Wisconsin primary is Aug. 11, but getting the signatures and his name out there is a first priority, according to Bangstad, admitting the campaign as “raised a ton of money so far” while demurring on exactly how much.

“I’ve got oodles of money in Facebook followers, in Substack followers, the equivalent of that in my being able to reach people and give them my message,” he said.

Bangstad’s small brewery has long leaned into liberal politics, selling progressive-themed merchandise and promoting itself through anti-Trump messaging and shirts reading, “I wish it was free beer day.”

PATTERN OF LEFTIST VIOLENCE GROWS AS TRUMP NEARS 10 MONTHS IN OFFICE

The controversy escalated after the April 25 security scare at the WHCA Dinner in Washington, D.C., where authorities say Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, attempted to storm a Secret Service checkpoint with a loaded shotgun and other weapons. Allen was ordered held without bail, facing life in prison for attempted assassination of the president and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

After the brewery’s post, the FBI and Secret Service confirmed they followed up on the matter and conducted a voluntary interview with Bangstad.

“The U.S. Secret Service follows up on perceived threats against the President of the United States or any one of our protectees,” the agencies said in a joint statement to Fox News. “The FBI and Secret Service together followed up on information received and conducted further investigative steps, which included a voluntary interview with the individual. This is an ongoing matter and we do not have further comment.”

HASAN PIKER NO-SHOWS PRO-COMMUNIST EVENT OVER ALLEGED SAFETY FEARS WHILE MOCKING TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Bangstad livestreamed part of the encounter with two suited men who questioned him about whether he knew anyone who wanted to harm Trump or supported anyone who wanted to harm the president. The brewery also posted what it said was a transcription of a voicemail from a person Bangstad identified as a Secret Service agent and urged supporters to call the number.

Bangstad, a former Democrat candidate for Wisconsin’s 34th Assembly District, lost his 2020 general election bid. He also founded the Minocqua Brewing Company super PAC, which has targeted Trump and Republicans, and previously sued to keep Trump off Wisconsin’s 2024 ballot.

The latest controversy also put pressure on other Wisconsin Democrats who have past ties to Bangstad.

Trump-backed House candidate Michael Alfonso accused Democrats of trying to avoid the issue, pointing to Bangstad’s connections to Democrats in the state.

POPULAR LEFT-WING PODCAST HOSTS PUSH CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP STAGED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON HIMSELF

“This brewery is owned by a man named Kirk Bangstad, and he’s not just some random crazy guy,” Alfonso wrote on X. “Kirk is friends with current Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Francesca Hong. He previously employed Rebecca Cooke, the Democrat currently running against Derrick Van Orden, and was himself the Democratic nominee against my father-in-law, Sean Duffy, in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District—where I am now running for office.”

Cooke’s campaign denounced political violence but did not mention Bangstad by name in its response to Fox News.

“This rhetoric is dangerous and unacceptable – showcasing just how broken our political system is,” Cooke said through her campaign manager. “I denounce all forms of political violence.

“We need to bring the temperature down, stop pitting working folks against each other, and come together to solve the very serious problems facing our communities.”

DISNEY UNDER FIRE AS ABC GRAPPLES WITH ANOTHER JIMMY KIMMEL CONTROVERSY

The National Republican Congressional Committee said Cooke’s response was insufficient and called on her to directly name her former employer.

“Rebecca Cooke needs to stop hiding and immediately denounce her former employer, Kirk Bangstad’s dangerous and unhinged comments,” NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon told Fox News. “Cooke’s previous employment by Bangstad makes her silence even more unacceptable. Voters deserve to know whether she stands with Wisconsinites who reject this rhetoric or with the same extremist voices pushing it.”

Hong also responded in a series of X posts after Fox News Digital reached out, condemning the normalization of political violence but not naming Bangstad. When asked specifically about the brewery or owner, Hong campaign manager Becky Cooper pointed back to the posts.

“That would fall under the ‘becoming numb’ portion,” Cooper told Fox News, declining to denounce Bangstad by name. “MBC’s tweet is intentionally inflammatory and a symptom of the normalization of political violence.”

LIBERAL WISCONSIN BREWING COMPANY PROMISES ‘FREE BEER, ALL DAY LONG’ AFTER TRUMP DIES

Wisconsin Republicans and national GOP figures have seized on the episode as evidence of overheated rhetoric on the left.

“Wisconsin Democrats are so sick in the head that an attempted murder is funny to them,” RNC spokeswoman Delanie Bomar told Fox News. “All Wisconsin Democrats, including Rebecca Cooke, must immediately condemn this disgusting behavior.”

Bangstad has also drawn scrutiny outside his anti-Trump messaging. Wisconsin Public Radio reported last year that he had been charged in a harassment case tied to a dispute with a local newspaper publisher.

“We only give comments to legitimate news organizations, not state propaganda agencies,” Bangstad told Fox News Digital after a request for comment about the Secret Service and FBI visit. “However, maybe one of our customers might want to respond to your question.”

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Fox News reached out to Bangstad for further comment Sunday and has not yet heard back.

Fox News has also reached out to the campaigns for Hong, Cooke and Barnes, along with the Wisconsin Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee.

Fox News’ Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.

Michael Eisenberg, a top advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israel and the newly-created Board of Peace will “take action” against Hamas if it does not comply with the peace terms it agreed to.

Eisenberg made the comments during an interview with Fox News on Sunday. He said Hamas is currently out of compliance with a wider peace agreement and is refusing to give up its weapons to “demilitarize” Gaza.

“I think all the options are on the table since Hamas is noncompliant with the 20-point plan, and they haven’t delivered their weapons like they were supposed to. And so we’ll have to wait and see. But like I said, this is incredibly well thought out. Give President Trump a tremendous amount of credit and his team of people credit. They’ve literally thought through every stage of this from beginning to end,” Eisenberg said.

“And by the way, and as President Trump said, there’s an easy way and a hard way. Everyone prefers the easy way, which is Hamas. With the help of the mediators delivers the weapons, but if they don’t, there’s a hard way too.,” he added.

TRUMP CONVENES FIRST ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ MEETING AS GAZA REBUILD HINGES ON HAMAS DISARMAMENT

Eisenberg went on to say that Iran must also eventually give up control over Gaza under the 20-pont plan agreed to between the U.S., Israel and Hamas.

“Hamas is still there. But the 20-point plan says they cannot be there. They cannot be a part of government. They cannot bear arms. They have to become Swedish, basically, in order for them to stay in any role in Gaza. And so I suggest they do that sooner rather than later. And I think progress is slow. You can’t microwave a 30-year problem. It doesn’t work. Sociologists,” he said.

Eisenberg’s comments come amid multiple peace negotiations across the Middle East. Israel is hashing out an agreement to deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the U.S. is in talks with Iran.

WHAT ISRAEL WANTS FROM AN IRAN PEACE DEAL: NO ENRICHMENT, MISSILE LIMITS AND STRICT ENFORCEMENT

Netanyahu said last week that Israel and the United States remain in “full coordination” as negotiations continue.

“We share common objectives, and the most important objective is the removal of the enriched material from Iran, all the enriched material, and the dismantling of Iran’s enrichment capabilities,” Netanyahu said at the opening of a security cabinet meeting.

On the nuclear issue, former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror said Israel’s position remains uncompromising.

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“Weaponized uranium must leave Iran,” Amidror said. “The Iranians must not be allowed to enrich uranium.”

Alongside the nuclear issue, Israeli analysts say Iran’s ballistic missile program has become equally central to Israel’s security concerns.

The statute of limitations on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s criminal referral for lying to Congress about gain-of-function research expires Monday, but Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is vowing to keep up the pressure on “the COVID coverup” with a Senate hearing this week.

“David Morens, Dr. Fauci’s top advisor, was indicted, but Fauci himself still walks free,” Paul, who has long pressed Fauci in heated exchanges in congressional hearings, wrote this week on X, continuing his urging of the Justice Department to pick up charges from his criminal referral despite former President Joe Biden issuing a sweeping preemptive pardon of Fauci on his last night in office Jan. 19, 2025.

“The DOJ has 5 days to indict Fauci before the statute of limitations runs out. The clock is ticking. Justice cannot wait.”

The Biden pardon and Fauci’s statute of limitations expiration Monday shields the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to Biden, but Morens was indicted late last month for having “deliberately concealed information and falsified records in an effort to suppress alternative theories regarding the origins of COVID-19.”

EX-FAUCI TOP ADVISOR INDICTED OVER ALLEGED COVID COVER-UP, HIDDEN EMAILS

“For years, I warned that Fauci and his inner circle buried the truth about Wuhan,” Paul wrote Wednesday on X. “Now his closest adviser has been indicted.

“Fauci lied to Congress under oath. The statute of limitations expires in 5 days. Will the DOJ finally indict Fauci?”

The Trump Justice Department under former Attorney General Pam Bondi or acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has made no public statements about bringing charges.

ANTHONY FAUCI MAY BE DEPOSED AS GOP INTENSIFIES COVID INVESTIGATIONS IN NEW CONGRESS

“While we can all have our beefs with Congress, this isn’t in our hands any longer,” Paul wrote Thursday on X. “I DID the work, investigated, and sent multiple CRIMINAL referrals to the DOJ.

“Whether he is indicted or not now is not up to Congress. It is up to the DoJ, and no one else.”

“He lied to Congress about NIH funding dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan and engaged in the worst cover-up in modern medical history,” Paul added in another X post. “The American people want Fauci behind bars.”

BIDEN TEAM REPORTEDLY CONSIDERING PREEMPTIVE PARDONS FOR FAUCI, SCHIFF, OTHER TRUMP ‘TARGETS’

President Donald Trump has publicly rejected the Biden autopen pardons as having no force or “legal effect,” but there is no precedent for a new president nullifying a past president’s pardons, because they would potentially render presidential pardon authority ultimately powerless against a new administration’s agenda.

“Anyone receiving ‘Pardons,’ ‘Commutations,’ or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect,” Trump wrote in December on Truth Social.

Just two days after the Fauci clock runs out, Paul is chairing a Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee hearing with a “COVID coverup” whistleblower Wednesday.

FBI EXAMINING COVID-19 ORIGIN ‘COVER-UP’ AMID NEW STRAIN EMERGENCE: BONGINO

“Next week I’m holding a hearing with a whistleblower who will testify publicly about the COVID coverup,” Paul teased in an X post. “Mark your calendars: Wednesday, May 13 at 10 a.m.

“The truth is coming.”

Paul renewed a criminal referral to the DOJ last July to investigate whether Fauci’s May 2021 statements violated federal false-statements law. In the referral, Paul pointed to Fauci’s testimony that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

DOJ INVESTIGATING ANDREW CUOMO FOR ALLEGEDLY LYING ABOUT COVID DECISIONS, SOURCE CONFIRMS

Paul’s referral also noted Fauci later said he had “never lied before the Congress” and did “not retract that statement” after Paul warned him about the criminal implications of lying to Congress.

The referral cites a February 2020 email released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, in which Fauci wrote that “scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments” involving bat viruses and human infection.

Paul argued that the email contradicted Fauci’s sworn testimony.

COVID ‘MOST LIKELY’ LEAKED FROM WUHAN LAB, SOCIAL DISTANCING ‘NOT BASED ON SCIENCE,’ SELECT COMMITTEE FINDS

Paul also cited research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that he said was funded under a NIAID award and involved combining spike genes from bat SARS-related coronaviruses with another coronavirus backbone to create chimeric viruses capable of infecting human cells.

“This research, conducted at the WIV and funded under NIAID Award R01AI110964, fits the definition of gain-of-function research,” the referral stated.

The criminal referral further cites a 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the WIV and Wuhan University received NIH funding. According to Paul’s referral, the GAO said NIH funded a project that included “genetic experiments to combine naturally occurring bat coronaviruses with SARS and MERS viruses, resulting in hybridized coronavirus strains.”

SCIENTISTS EXPECT MAJOR ‘MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS’ DESPITE TRUMP’S CAP ON NIH RESEARCH FUNDING

Anyone who makes a materially false statement in a congressional investigation or review can face fines and up to five years in prison.

Paul’s July referral also challenged the legal effect of a preemptive pardon Fauci received from Biden’s autopen.

“New information has revealed that these pardons were executed via autopen, with no documented confirmation that the President personally reviewed or approved each individual grant of clemency,” Paul wrote. “According to reports, White House staff authorized the use of the autopen to issue the clemency documents.

“This raises serious constitutional and legal concerns about the legitimacy of Dr. Fauci’s pardon.”

GREGG JARRETT: BIDEN, THE ‘MARIONETTE PRESIDENT; AND THE CASE OF THE RUNAWAY AUTOPEN

Fauci has repeatedly denied lying to Congress, including forcefully to Paul himself in multiple congressional hearings.

“Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11 [2021], where you claimed at the NIH never funded gain-of-function research and move on?” Paul asked in a July 2021 Senate hearing.

“Sen. Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci shot back.

“Let me finish!” Fauci added, when Paul tried to interject. “Sen. Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially, you do not know what you’re talking about.”

DR. FAUCI SAYS HE APPRECIATES PRESIDENT BIDEN’S PARDON BUT INSISTS ‘NO CRIME’ WAS COMMITTED

The nature of the alleged lie revolves around the definition and denials of gain-of-function research surrounding COVID-19.

“You’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around them from a pandemic,” Paul said in the famed exchange, adding, “you are obviously obfuscating the truth.”

Fauci replied, “I’m not obfuscating the truth – you are.”

“You are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individuals,” he added. “I totally resent that.”

Paul shot back, “It could have been.”

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“If there is any lying here, senator, it is you,” Fauci said, shaking his finger at Paul.

Sitting members of Congress are provided immunity under the speech and debate clause of the Constitution, while most of those investigated by Congress and subject to testifying under oath, which Fauci did.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stood out from her colleagues this week when she broke with them to rail against the high court’s decision to fast-track its landmark order dismantling a key provision in the Voting Rights Act. 

But Jackson’s solo dissent was far from the first time the Biden-appointed justice has been on an island, as she has routinely blasted the court for not asserting more judicial authority over President Donald Trump’s executive actions and drawn rebukes from her colleagues for taking what they have viewed as flawed positions.

Ideological divides over high-profile cases have been common. The trio of liberals has remained unified against the Trump administration by opposing decisions, including on the interim docket, to curb universal injunctions, allow states to ban transgender medical treatments for minors, permit Trump to fire members of independent agencies, authorize the government to cancel immigrants’ temporary protected status and more.

But even in some of those cases, Jackson goes on solo diatribes, highlighting a deeper internal divide within the liberal bloc.

WHY JUSTICE JACKSON IS A FISH OUT OF WATER ON THE SUPREME COURT

Below are five recent times Jackson gave lone opinions.

1. Louisiana redistricting judgment

The Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s map last month, finding 6-3 it contained an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

Upon request, the Supreme Court also decided 8-1 to fast-track the landmark decision — handing it down immediately rather than in roughly a month like it usually does — allowing several red states to more quickly attempt to implement new congressional lines after the high court weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by limiting the role race may play in congressional redistricting.

Jackson, the bench’s most junior justice, broke with her eight colleagues in that decision, saying the court improperly “[dove] into the fray” of active elections by handing its judgment down immediately.

“Not content to have decided the law, it now takes steps to influence its implementation,” Jackson wrote.

LATEST SCOTUS LEAK A GIFT TO LIBERALS ‘SALIVATING’ OVER CONTROL OF HIGH COURT NARRATIVE: EXPERTS

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, wrote a scathing concurrence for the sole purpose of ripping apart Jackson’s dissent, saying her claims were “groundless and utterly irresponsible.”

2. Universal injunctions

The Supreme Court is still weighing Trump’s signature plan to severely limit birthright citizenship, but it first entertained the subject last year by addressing how lower courts across the country uniformly issued nationwide injunctions against the plan. The high court decided 6-3 to ban such injunctions but left room for judges and plaintiffs to deploy other methods when seeking widespread relief.

Jackson gave a rogue, separate dissent in the case, drawing eyebrow-raising jabs from Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

“We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,” Barrett wrote in the court’s opinion in 2025. “We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.”

Jackson wrote that nationwide injunctions should be permissible because the courts should not allow the president to “violate the Constitution.” 

Barrett disagreed.

“She offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush,” Barrett wrote.

3. National Institutes of Health grants

The high court fractured last August in dual 5–4 decisions that allowed the National Institutes of Health to cancel nearly $800 million in research grants.

Jackson, in one of her most memorable one-person dissents, appeared to boil over with frustration, observing that the majority “bends over backward to accommodate” the Trump administration.

“This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules,” Jackson wrote. “We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins.”

Some of the canceled grants were geared toward research on diversity, equity and inclusion; COVID-19; and gender identity. Jackson argued the grants went further and that “life-saving biomedical research” was at stake.

4. Colorado conversion therapy case

When the Supreme Court sided 8-1 with a Christian counselor who challenged Colorado’s ban on counseling minors about sexual orientation and gender identity — which the state barred as conversion therapy — Jackson was the lone dissenter, warning that “to be completely frank, no one knows what will happen now.”

Jackson said the key free speech decision defied “treatment standards” and bucked the medical profession, leading an unlikely colleague, Justice Elena Kagan, to openly reject her dissent.

Kagan, an Obama appointee, said Jackson’s view “rests on reimagining—and in that way collapsing—the well-settled distinction between viewpoint-based and other content-based speech restrictions.”

5. Reasonable suspicion for police

In a lower profile case about police stops, Jackson conspicuously found in April that the high court overstepped its authority by improperly meddling in a lower court’s assessment of how Washington, D.C., police decided to stop a man in a suspicious vehicle.

The Supreme Court reversed the decision by the lower court, saying it should have weighed the “totality of the circumstances” surrounding the vehicle and approved of an officer’s decision to briefly detain the man.

The decision was 7-2, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor opposed the ruling while also opting against joining Jackson’s dissent. Jackson accused the majority of trying to “wordsmith” and interfere with a typically routine evaluation of a police stop.

“I cannot fathom why that kind of factbound determination warranted correction by this Court,” Jackson wrote.

Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor, said in an op-ed this month that Jackson has “quickly developed a radical and chilling jurisprudence.”

Despite establishing herself as an outlier, Jackson also has a swathe of supporters from civil rights groups to celebrities. She has been showered with praise on “The View,” nominated for a Grammy for her audiobook and drawn encouragement from Democratic lawmakers.

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Jackson said during her appearance this year on “The View” that “criticism is part of the job.”

“Dissents are an opportunity for the justices who disagree with the majority to really describe their view of the law but also their concerns,” Jackson said, adding that “you hope that your view will prevail in the long run.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Supreme Court’s press office for comment.

President Donald Trump and Republicans are hailing the blockbuster ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court to strike down the state’s congressional redistricting ballot measure, which was a major setback for Democrats in the battle for the U.S. House majority.

“Huge win for the Republican Party,” the president proclaimed in a social media post on Friday minutes after Virginia’s highest court struck down the referendum passed by voters last month.

The new map drawn by the Virginia legislature would have given Democrats four more left-leaning House districts in the Commonwealth ahead of this year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin majority in the chamber.

The Virginia ruling, along with the recent opinion by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to slash a key Voting Rights Act protection, is giving Trump and the GOP a major boost in their ongoing political fight with Democrats to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the midterms. At stake in this nationwide redistricting showdown is which party will control the House during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House.

BLOCKBUSTER RULING: VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN DEMOCRAT-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL MAP

In Virginia, the decision means the map used in the 2024 elections will stay in place for the 2026 ballot box showdowns. Democrats currently control the state’s U.S. House delegation by a 6-5 margin. The now overturned map could have resulted in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in the blue-leaning but competitive state.

In the wake of their latest legal setback, House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York said, “We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision.”

And the House minority leader vowed, “No matter what it takes, House Democrats will win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans.”

But the 2026 redistricting wars are far from over, and the political landscape may get even rougher for Democrats going forward.

Here’s where things stand.

Louisiana

The Supreme Court’s decision reshaped the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act by ruling that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative district maps. And the opinion specifically ruled that Louisiana’s congressional district map was unconstitutional.

Last week, the Supreme Court said that its decision declaring Louisiana’s map unconstitutional should go into effect immediately, breaking with its usual procedure of waiting roughly a month before its opinions become official.

That cleared the way for the GOP-controlled state legislature to begin the process of redrawing the map, and hearings got underway on Friday.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a top Trump ally, took swift action in the immediate aftermath of the high court’s ruling, when he delayed the May 16 U.S. House primary elections in Louisiana.

Louisiana Republicans are aiming to erase one or both of the two Black-majority House seats, which are represented by Democrats.

Tennessee

Republicans in Tennessee moved even faster.

The GOP-dominated Tennessee legislature on Thursday quickly adopted a new map that would eliminate the only Democrat-controlled congressional district in the state, and would likely give Republicans control of all nine districts.

TENN GOV LEE CALLS SPECIAL SESSION TO REDRAW HOUSE MAP IN GOP’S FAVOR 9-0

GOP Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed the new maps into law.

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents the majority Black district that’s being carved up, vowed legal action.

“Trump knows he HAS TO rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. It’s shameful,” Cohen wrote on social media. “Next stop is the courts.”

Alabama

Lawmakers in the Alabama legislature, where the GOP holds a supermajority in both chambers, are advancing legislation as they met this past week in a special session focused on redistricting. The new maps may result in eliminating one or both of the state’s two blue-leaning U.S. House districts.

The special session was called by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.

But any new map passed by Alabama lawmakers will need to be greenlit by the Supreme Court. That’s because Alabama is currently prohibited by the high court from redistricting until 2030. It’s unclear if the court will lift its injunction.

Protests rocked both the Alabama and Tennessee legislatures as Republican lawmakers pushed forward the new maps.

South Carolina

In South Carolina, the GOP-controlled legislature returns in special session on Monday, as Republican lawmakers consider a new map that could put longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in the state’s seven-person House delegation, out of a job.

Georgia

Republicans in Georgia are divided over GOP Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia’s decision not to call state lawmakers back into a special session on redistricting.

The state’s primary is on May 19 and early voting is already underway in Georgia.

Florida

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill passed last week by the GOP-dominated state legislature that redraws the red-leaning state’s congressional districts, adding four more right-leaning seats by eliminating districts currently controlled by Democrats.

Republicans currently control Florida’s U.S. House delegation by a 20-8 margin.

How we got here

The battle over the maps ignited last spring when Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country. Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That led to five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

But the fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president’s push.

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But in blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

And Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.

Facing the president’s wrath, five of those Republican state senators in Indiana were ousted by Trump-backed challengers in last week’s GOP primary.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris accused President Donald Trump and Republicans of trying to “rig the 2026 elections” after the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated a voter-approved redistricting referendum, a ruling she said would “give a boost” to that effort.

“Today, the Virginia Supreme Court ignored the will of the people and overturned those democratically chosen maps,” Harris wrote on X on May 8.

“This ruling gives a boost to Donald Trump’s effort to rig the 2026 elections and the Republicans’ long game to attack voting rights,” she added.

The ruling marked a significant victory for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms and escalated an already intensifying national battle over redistricting and control of Congress.

VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT RULES ON NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP

“We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia,” the state’s high court said in its decision. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.”

The measure, which passed by a narrow 51% to 49% margin, would have temporarily shifted redistricting authority from Virginia’s nonpartisan commission to the Democrat-controlled legislature through 2030 and was expected to yield a 10-1 Democratic advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.

Trump praised the decision in a post on Truth Social, calling it a “Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia.”

‘JUSTICE’: CELEBRATION, MOCKERY ERUPT AFTER SPANBERGER ‘GERRYMANDER’ IS BLOWN UP IN BLOCKBUSTER DECISION

“The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander,” he wrote.

Democrats sharply criticized the ruling. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said “a group of unelected judges on the Virginia Supreme Court chose to put partisan politics over the will of the people.”

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones also pushed back, saying the decision “silences the voices of the millions of Virginians who cast their ballots” and that his office is evaluating “every legal pathway forward.”

ERIC HOLDER ACCUSES GOP OF ‘STEALING SEATS’ WHILE DEFENDING ‘FAIR’ DEMOCRATIC REDISTRICTING PUSH

Harris echoed that sentiment in her post, writing, “We are rightfully outraged, but we will not give up. We must continue our fight to restore the power of the people.”

Her comments come as she has stepped up attacks on Trump in recent appearances while facing renewed questions about her political future.

At a recent event in Las Vegas, Harris said, “For far too many people in our country, the American dream, is not real. And in fact, for many people in their lived experience, it’s what they would consider an American myth.”

KAMALA HARRIS’ TRAVELS AND COMMENTS CLEARLY POINT TO 2028

She also declined to downplay Trump, saying, “I’m not going to dismiss him as being an idiot. He’s dangerous.”

At the same time, top Democrats have been reluctant to weigh in on whether Harris should lead the party in 2028.

“I have no idea,” Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told Fox News Digital when asked about her future.

“I have no idea who’s running, and we’ll focus on 2028 after 2026,” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said.

Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said the decision ultimately rests with Harris but added he believes Democrats should have “a wide-open Democratic primary.”

The Virginia ruling is the latest flashpoint in a broader redistricting fight as both parties position themselves ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Harris, for her part, signaled she intends to remain engaged.

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“I firmly and strongly believe that when you feel powerless, you are powerless,” Harris said. “And when you feel powerful, you are powerful. And we are powerful and we are powerful. And so let’s just show ourselves, each other, our power around the midterms and every day.”

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch, Leo Briceno, Olivia Palombo, and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this reporting.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his wife, “Fox & Friends” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, fired back on Friday after former Sec. Pete Buttigieg and his husband launched a barrage of attacks against the Duffys’ upcoming “Great American Road Trip” reality TV series.

The feud ignited Friday after the couple announced the new show on “Fox & Friends.” Chasten Glezman Buttigieg quickly took to X to bash the project, accusing the Duffys of taking a “multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip” while gas and grocery prices soar due to “Trump’s war of choice.”

He went on to call the couple “unfocused, unserious, and out of touch,” and aired old grievances about the Duffys’ past criticism of Pete Buttigieg working from his son’s ICU bedside.

DUFFY BLASTS BUTTIGIEG, ACCUSING BIDEN-ERA OFFICIAL OF ‘MISMANAGEMENT’: ‘MAYOR PETE FAILED FOR FOUR YEARS…’

Pete Buttigieg joined in on the attack on X, adding, “I love a good road trip, but this is brutally out of touch: a Trump Cabinet member making a documentary about himself while regular families can’t afford road trips anymore, because Trump and his war put gas prices through the roof.”

Rachel Campos-Duffy replied to Chasten Buttigieg’s post, telling him to “stand down,” and clarifying the production was funded entirely by a nonprofit, The Great American Road Trip, Inc.

She said her family participated for free to celebrate America’s 250th birthday and noted the series was filmed in short one- and two-day stops over seven months.

SEC SEAN DUFFY: ‘ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ IS DOWN PAYMENT ON A NEW, MUCH-NEEDED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM

“You and I both know that my husband has done more in one year to transform the DOT and ATC than your husband did in over 4 years on the job,” Campos-Duffy said.

Sean Duffy waited until Saturday to deliver a blistering response, claiming the “radical, miserable left” hates the series because it is “too wholesome,” “too patriotic” and “too joyful.”

He confirmed career ethics and budget officials at the Department of Transportation fully reviewed and cleared his participation in accordance with federal rules, emphasized zero taxpayer dollars were used, and said filming took place strictly during short windows like weekends and his children’s spring break.

DOT CRACKS DOWN ON THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKERS, AS AGENCY LOOKS TO HOLIDAY TRAVEL: DUFFY

He also defended his fast-paced record at the DOT, highlighting modernized air traffic control, the removal of illegal truck drivers and a 20% annual increase in hiring controllers compared to his predecessor.

Following the Duffys’ corrections, Chasten Buttigieg pivoted his line of attack, reposting multiple creators on X Saturday who took aim at the road trip’s corporate sponsors, which include DOT-regulated entities like Boeing, United Airlines, Toyota and Shell.

The reposted critics alleged a conflict of interest, claiming the companies funded an “extended vacation” for the secretary. The posts also attempted to tie the sponsorships to claims that Duffy has halted safety standards, pardoned airlines that violated consumer laws, and hasn’t fined a single airline in over a year.

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Despite the political mudslinging and moving goalposts from critics, the Duffys continue encouraging families to ignore the “haters” and explore America’s national parks and monuments ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday.

“Our message is really simple: to love America is to see America,” Sec. Duffy said. “So put the phone down, hit the open road, and rediscover what makes America great.”

President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Congress to overhaul college sports, warning the system could be “lost forever” as a White House-backed committee pushes sweeping changes to rein in athlete pay, transfers and soaring costs.

The proposals include creating a task force to examine pooled media rights, limits on coaching salaries, rewritten eligibility rules and changes to the transfer portal, according to a draft document obtained by Yahoo Sports and reported by The Associated Press.

The push builds on a recent executive order from Trump, which described college athletics as an “out-of-control financial arms race” fueled by loosening rules around player compensation, transfers and eligibility — and urged federal action before the system destabilizes further.

The White House said the current model is “driving universities into debt,” threatening women’s and Olympic sports and undermining student-athletes’ educational opportunities.

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO REGULATE THE BUSINESS OF COLLEGE SPORTS

“Further delay is not an option given what is at stake,” the order states, citing roughly 500,000 annual educational, athletic and leadership opportunities and nearly $4 billion in scholarships.

Trump has also raised alarms about the direction of college sports, saying during a White House roundtable last month that “crazy things are happening” as players stay in school longer and earn more through NIL deals, according to previous Fox News Digital reporting.

The draft proposal calls on Congress to quickly pass legislation creating a task force with an antitrust exemption and authority to override individual state laws, a major priority for NCAA and college sports leaders seeking national standards.

I PLAYED DIVISION1 VOLLEYBALL — NIL CHAOS IS OUT OF CONTROL. THE SCORE ACT WILL SAVE SPORTS

Among the most divisive ideas is pooling media rights across conferences, a move opposed by the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten but backed by a group led by Texas Tech regent Cody Campbell, who has argued it could add billions in value, according to AP.

The draft also calls for rules targeting “salary-cap circumvention,” an apparent reference to schools using third-party NIL deals to get around current limits on direct payments to athletes.

That issue is already at the center of an arbitration case brought by Nebraska football players whose NIL deals were rejected by the College Sports Commission, which reviews third-party contracts.

NCAA SETTLEMENT CHAOS: NEW LEGAL MOVE COULD TRIGGER MASSIVE INCREASE IN NIL SPENDING

Trump’s executive order also directs agencies that contract with or give grants to higher education institutions to evaluate certain violations of college athletics rules, including eligibility limits, transfers, revenue sharing and “improper financial activities.”

The order defines those activities to include fraudulent NIL schemes, use of federal funds for NIL or revenue-sharing payments and interference with contracts between student-athletes and other schools.

The White House also urged college athletics governing bodies to clarify rules before Aug. 1, including limits on eligibility, transfer rules, medical care for athletes and protections for women’s and Olympic sports.

HOUSE VOTE ON NIL REGULATION ACT CANCELED DESPITE TRUMP’S BACKING AS SOME REPUBLICANS STILL NOT ON BOARD

Congress has been stalled for more than a year on legislation codifying parts of the House settlement that put revenue-sharing into place, according to AP.

The draft committee document calls for lawmakers to act before Congress leaves for its traditional August recess.

Without a national solution, the administration has warned, the financial pressure created by football and basketball could force schools to cut other sports or reshape college athletics entirely.

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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Ryan Morik contributed to this reporting.

The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.