NationalWatch

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who won a fourth six-year term last week, doubled down on his claim that the Democratic Party’ lacks appeal to the working class, and responded to pushback from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. 

In appearances on CNN’s “State of the Union” and NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sanders was pressed about his statement, released after President-elect Trump decisively defeated Vice President Harris in the 2024 presidential election. 

The left-wing lawmaker, who is listed as a member of the Senate Democratic caucus, said Wednesday, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.” 

Pelosi shot back against the criticism of her party on Saturday, telling The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast that while she has “a great deal of respect” for Sanders, “I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class families.” 

“Under President Biden, you see the rescue package, money in the pockets of people, the shots in the arm, children in school safely, working people back to work,” Pelosi said. “What did Trump do when he was president? One bill that gave a tax cut to the richest people in America.”

NBC’s Kristen Welker played the podcast clip on NBC and asked Sanders to respond. 

“Nancy is a friend of mine,” Sanders said. “But here is the reality. In the Senate in the last two years, we have not even brought forth legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage despite the fact that some 20 million people in this country are working for less than $15 an hour.” 

The progressive senator listed his grievances with the Democratically controlled Senate, saying that in the past two years the chamber failed to pass legislation to make it easier for workers to join unions. He also claimed that the Senate has not been talking about benefit pension plans “so that our elderly can retire with security,” and that Democrats are “not talking about lifting the cap on Social Security so that we can extend the solvency of Social Security and raise benefits.”

“Bottom line, if you’re a working person out there, do you really think that the Democratic Party is going to the max, taking on powerful special interests and fighting for you? I think the overwhelming answer is no,” Sanders said.

BERNIE SANDERS EXCORIATES DEMOCRATIC PARTY, CALLS CAMPAIGN ‘DISASTROUS’ AFTER TRUMP VICTORY

“Look, the working people of this country are extremely angry,” Sanders told Welker earlier. “They have a right to be angry in the richest country in the history of the world. Today, the people on top are doing phenomenally well, while 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Millions of families worry that their kids have actually got to have a lower standard of living than they do.” 

“You got the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 90%. We’re the only major country not to guarantee health care to all of our people. Twenty-five percent of our seniors are trying to live on $50,000 a year or less. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. And the gap between the people at the top and everybody else is getting wider and wider. And then, of course, that on top of all of that, we’ve got a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaires to buy elections. So if you’re an average worker out there, you’re saying, ‘Hey, I’m working longer and longer hours, go nowhere in a hurry, worried about my kids.’ And yet the people on top, ‘I’ve never had it so good.'” 

Arguing that Biden had followed through on his promise to be the most progressive president in terms of domestic policy, Sanders lodged a dig at Trump regarding the Republican’s success in reaching working-class voters. 

NANCY PELOSI FIRES BACK AT BERNIE SANDERS FOR COMMENTS ON DEMS’ SWEEPING ELECTION LOSS: NO ‘RESPECT’

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“What Donald Trump did is provided an explanation. He went around, he said, ‘I know you’re angry. And the reason is that zillions of illegal immigrants are coming over, and they’re eating your cats and dogs and everything else.’ That’s the reason. Well, obviously, that is not the reason,” Sanders said. “The reason is, in my view, that we have an unprecedented level of corporate greed today, more income and wealth inequality. And people on top want it all. And we need an agenda that says to the working class, ‘We’re going to take on these powerful special interests and create an economy and a government that works for you.’ And by the way, that can’t happen unless you get big money out of politics. We’ve got to get rid of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision so billionaires do not continue to buy elections.” 

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday endorsed lawmaker Rick Scott for Senate majority leader, joining a growing list of MAGA figures who are throwing their support behind the Florida Republican. 

“Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!” Musk wrote in a post on X Sunday afternoon, days after Republicans won back control of the Senate on Election Day. 

Musk’s post came in response to a post from Scott, who was responding to President-elect Trump’s demand that “Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.” 

“100% agree,” Scott responded. “I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible.” 

SCOTT TOUTS ‘DEAL GUY’ BACKGROUND IN BID FOR SENATE MAJORITY LEADER

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY ‘DELIGHTED’ TO BACK SEN. JOHN CORNYN FOR SENATE MAJORITY LEADER

Musk is the latest Trump-ally calling for Scott to be the Senate GOP leader. Scott’s senate Republican colleagues, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Rand Paul of Kentucky have each pledged to vote for Scott. 

Scott, whose bid for the position is seen as a long shot by some observers, is up against fellow Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, and John Thune of South Dakota for the job McConnell has held since 2007. 

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Scott has expressed hope that Trump will publicly endorse his bid for the top job, though some reports have indicated the president-elect has been hesitant to weigh in on the race. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report. 

President-elect Trump’s transition team would not confirm or deny that the 2024 election victor told Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the war with Ukraine during a call last week.

The Washington Post reported that Putin and Trump spoke on Thursday, marking the first conversation between the two leaders since Trump won his way back into the Oval Office last Tuesday.

Trump reportedly took the call from Florida and advised Putin to not escalate the war in Ukraine. The president-elect also reminded Russia’s president about the amount of U.S. military in Europe, a person familiar with the call who spoke on anonymity told the publication.

Additionally, the two men talked about peace being the goal in Europe, while Trump also expressed a desire for further talks on “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” several sources told The Post.

ELON MUSK JOINS DONALD TRUMP IN ‘VERY GOOD CALL’ WITH UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY

When asked by Fox News for comment about the report, Trump’s team released the following statement:

“We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders,” Trump communication’s director, Steven Cheung, said in a statement. “President Trump won a historic election decisively and leaders from around the world know America will return to prominence on the world stage. That is why leaders have begun the process of developing stronger relationships with the 45th and 47th President because he represents global peace and stability.”

The statement comes just two days after a senior Ukrainian official confirmed to Fox News that billionaire Elon Musk joined a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.

ELON MUSK REVEALS HIS POLITICAL PAC’S FUTURE AMID TIGHT PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Musk’s unexpected appearance during the first official conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy may point to the SpaceX CEO’s influence on the incoming Trump administration.

“I had an excellent call with President Trump and congratulated him on his historic landslide victory — his tremendous campaign made this result possible,” Zelenskyy posted on X.

Details of Musk’s exact role were not disclosed, according to reporting from Axios, though sources reported Musk expressed his intent to continue supporting Ukraine through his Starlink satellite network, a service critical to Ukraine’s wartime communications.

UKRAINE, NORTH KOREAN TROOPS CLASH FOR FIRST TIME; ZELENSKYY WARNS OF ESCALATION

Throughout his campaign, Trump voiced skepticism about continued U.S. aid to Ukraine and emphasized a fast resolution to its conflict with Russia, which raised concerns across Europe. 

Trump assured Zelenskyy of support on the 25-minute call, but he did not provide specifics on either policies or military aid. Axios first reported Musk’s presence on the call, and Musk has not yet commented.

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The phone call is expected to be the first of many between Trump’s team and Zelenskyy’s advisers as both sides navigate America’s involvement in the ongoing conflict.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Fox News’ Sarah Tobianski contributed to this report.

There was some shock at the outcome of last week’s election.

But when it comes to control of the House and Senate, things generally landed in the range anticipated by many learned observers.

There was a high probability of a Republican Senate – with the GOP likely having a seat or two to cushion a majority.

The House of Representatives was expected to be close. The forecast was that the House breakdown would probably reflect the split between the majority and minority today. The only question was which party would be in the majority. And there was a high likelihood that control of the House would mirror the outcome of the Presidential election.

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE MEANING OF A REPUBLICAN SENATE – AND WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THE HOUSE

You know the rest.

The House is close, likely in Republican hands. When everything is settled, Republicans will likely have between 221-223 seats. The Senate moved to the GOP – with a few pickups.

So say what you will about the Presidential election. But very few predictions about the House and Senate were off.

In the Senate, the map always favored Republicans. The GOP would probably score an immediate pickup with Sen.-elect Jim Justice, R-W.V., claiming the seat of retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.V., who caucused with the Democrats.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Jon Tester, D-Mont., were the most-endangered Democrats up this cycle. Both represented states which heavily supported President-elect Trump. But Brown and Tester consistently proved they could win their races in challenging environments. Plus, there was something else going for them: Brown and Tester always appearing on the ballot in Democratic years: 2006, 2012 and 2018.

Democrats won the House and Senate in 2006. That was the “six-year itch” election for President George W. Bush. The second midterm is often brutal for the party of the president in Congress. Voters returned former President Obama to the White House in 2012. Democrats won the House in 2018.

2024? Not a good year for Democrats.

TOP REPUBLICAN PRIVATELY BACKING THUNE TO SUCCEED MCCONNELL IN GOP LEADER RACE

In Ohio, it appears that Mr. Trump won the Buckeye State by a staggering 11 points.

It was always believed that Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, would run behind Mr. Trump and that the President-elect needed to carry Ohio by about 10 points to unseat Brown. Moreno wound up toppling Brown by four points.

Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, R-Penn., appears to have unseated Sen. Bob Casey, D-Penn. The underperformance of Vice President Harris in the Keystone State really harmed Democrats like Casey. Harris lost Pennsylvania by about two points. Something else about Casey? Like Brown and Tester, he was on the same election cycle: 2006, 2012, 2018 and 2024. Democrats would have a fighting chance at flipping the House had they performed better in Pennsylvania. They failed to unseat former Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn. Meantime, GOP challengers defeated Reps. Susan Wild, D-Penn., and Matt Cartwright, D-Penn. Democrats needed to knock off Perry and hold those seats to claim the House.

Despite being in the same boat as Brown, Tester and Casey, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., prevailed in a battleground state captured by Mr. Trump. Rep. and Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., also won in a state carried by the incoming President.

In the House, Democrats clung to several key seats they needed in order to flip the House. Rep.-elect Eugene Vindman, D-Va., defeated Republican Derrick Anderson in central Virginia. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio is on track to hold her seat. And Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, won – despite Brown’s loss and the blowout of the President-elect.

Freshman Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M, won re-election, vanquishing former Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M., in what has been the swingiest district in the country. Vasquez’s district in southern New Mexico has toggled between the parties in each election since 2016. Democrat Janelle Bynum is leading Rep. Lori Chavez-Deremer, R-Ore. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., topped Republican Joe Kent. Gluesenkamp Perez was the surprise winner of all House races in 2022.

A ‘VERY DIFFERENT SCENARIO’ FOR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ELECTIONS IN 2024

During an interview with colleague Bret Baier, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., cited how moderates like Gluesenkamp Perez ran campaigns to fit their districts and scored reelection.

“In Marie’s case, she was criticized by the Washington state Democratic party for some of her votes and some of the positions she has taken. They threatened her with a primary. And then she went out there and won in a Trump plus-six district,” said Smith.

Smith added that fellow Democrats “should learn a lot from” the likes of Gluesenkamp Perez, Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., Pat Ryan, D-N.Y. and Vasquez.

In other words, Democrats seemed to do many of the things necessary to gain control of the House.

But not enough.

Take California.

ALL EYES ON CALIFORNIA AS HOUSE MAJORITY STILL HINGES ON TIGHT RACES

It was thought that Vice President Harris atop of the ticket could help Democrats flip five or six seats in the Golden State alone. Harris is the state’s former Attorney General and U.S. senator.

No dice.

Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., prevailed in her race. Reps. David Valadao, R-Calif., Ken Calvert, R-Calif., Michelle Steel, R-Calif., and John Duarte, R-Calif., are all poised to hold their seats. Things remain close between Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., and Democratic challenger George Whitesides. The same with Democrat Dave Min and Republican Scott Baugh in the state’s 47th Congressional district. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., vacated that seat in her unsuccessful quest for the Senate.

“These are areas that have been Democrat strongholds, and we’re within that fraction of a percentage of taking two more. So the voter shift was significant in a deep blue state. Let’s not kid ourselves. We are a deep blue state. But the shift is significant,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Fox Business.

The current breakdown in the House is as follows:

432 members. 220 Republicans, 212 Democrats. There are three vacancies: Late Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., died. Former Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc. resigned. These seats are partisan districts. So in reality with 435 members, the breakdown should probably be 221 Republicans and 214 Democrats.

THE RISE OF AI: WHEN WILL CONGRESS REGULATE IT?

When all is said and done, campaigns will have exhausted several billion dollars on House races. And the results: likely the same as where things stand now. A probable Republican majority within a seat or two of the present breakdown.

Let’s say just for the sake of argument it is 221 Republicans to 214 Democrats. With a margin of seven votes, Republicans can only lose three votes on their side before needing help from Democrats to pass bills. That is precisely the same problem which bedeviled the Republican majority for the past two years. It’s a problem to pass anything with more than a few defectors – or if one or two Republicans are absent. As I always say, you try to get 435 people in the same room at the same time.

For Republicans, a solid victory by President-elect Trump will likely impose party discipline for many of his legislative initiatives. But what happens when the GOP tries to advance tax reform – and budget hawks balk because it explodes the deficit? Or if New York Republicans demand a restoration of the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT?

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Republicans likely have 53 seats in the Senate. But that’s a far cry from 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. And while 53 is a lot better than the 51 Democrats had in this Congress, don’t forget that Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, sometimes bucked the Trump Administration the last time.

These are the possible headaches which could hinder the GOP when it comes to governing. Republicans are more aligned now than they were when President-elect Trump entered office in 2017. But it’s always about the math on Capitol Hill. And the parliamentary algebra presents some challenging equations that Republicans must solve to implement their policies in the 119th Congress.

A video clip making the rounds online shows President Biden appearing to struggle while walking on the beach with first lady Jill Biden.

The video shows the outgoing president and his wife padding across the sands of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he was spending the weekend, as Secret Service members stand by. 

Biden, 81, can be seen visibly struggling to trudge through the sand, looking as if he is on the verge of toppling over. At one point, the first lady grabs his arm to hold him steady.

Off camera, people can be heard asking him what he will say to Donald Trump when the president-elect visits the White House on Wednesday for a traditional post-election meeting. 

FORMER HARRIS STAFFER CALLS ON BIDEN TO RESIGN, INSTALL HARRIS AS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

Such a meeting is customary between the outgoing president and the incoming president and is meant partly to mark the start of a peaceful transfer of power under America’s democracy.

The video prompted a flurry of jokes and speculation about Biden’s physical fitness, recalling the barrage of criticism the president received after his June debate performance that ultimately led to him dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

On X, podcast host Benny Johnson quipped, “Joe Biden’s latest opponent: Sand.”

Another commented the video was “Brutal to watch.” 

“Joe Biden can’t walk on sand,” League of American Workers founder Steve Cortes commented. “This man is the President for the next 71 days.”

DEM PARTY BLAME GAME: ACCUSATIONS FLY AS TO WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HARRIS’ MASSIVE LOSS TO TRUMP

After losing to Biden in 2020, Trump resoundingly beat Vice President Harris, the Democrat presidential nominee, on Tuesday. 

Trump is the first former president to return to power for a nonconsecutive term since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election.

The White House said Biden called Trump this past Wednesday to congratulate him and invite him to meet in the Oval Office. Their meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

In a speech Thursday, Biden said he assured Trump “that I would direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve.”

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Asked about Trump as he left church on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Biden said, “I’m going to see him on Wednesday.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for a response.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden will urge President-elect Trump to not abandon Ukraine when the two meet on Wednesday, among other domestic and foreign policies, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.

On Tuesday, Trump defeated Vice President Harris in the presidential election, and he will take office on Jan. 20, 2025. After Trump won his way back into the Oval Office, Biden congratulated him and invited the 45th, and soon to be 47th, president of the United States to the White House to ensure a peaceful transition of power. The two are expected to meet this Wednesday.

On Sunday, Sullivan was a guest on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” where he said Biden’s top message would be ensuring his commitment to a peaceful transfer of power. Sullivan also said the president will talk to Trump about what is happening around the world in places like Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

“The president will have the chance to explain to President Trump how he sees things, where they stand and talk to President Trump about how President Trump is thinking about taking on these issues when he takes office,” Sullivan said. “President Biden made clear when [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy was here in Washington a couple of months ago that we would spend all of the resources that were provided to us by the Congress on time and in full, meaning that by Jan. 20th we will have sent the full amount of resources and aid to Ukraine that Congress has authorized.”

DEMOCRATS LOOKING TO POINT FINGERS AFTER ‘HUMILIATING’ ELECTION DEFEAT SHOULD START WITH MEDIA: WSJ COLUMNIST

He continued by saying that over the next 70 days, Biden will make the case to Congress and the incoming administration that the U.S. should not walk away from Ukraine, because walking away “means more instability in Europe.”

“Ultimately, as the Japanese prime minister said, if we walk away from Ukraine in Europe, the question about America’s commitment to our allies in Asia will grow,” Sullivan said.

He would not say if Biden would propose specific legislation, but he explained that the president would make the case to continue sending resources to Ukraine beyond his term because Russia’s threat to Ukraine will remain.

PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP TO MEET BIDEN IN OVAL OFFICE WEDNESDAY

“The United States should not walk away from its commitment either to Ukraine or to the 50 nations that we have rallied in defense of Ukraine, in both Europe and Asia,” Sullivan said.

The national security adviser’s comments came as Ukraine launched an attack on Moscow with at least 34 drones on Sunday. The attack was the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the beginning of the war.

Trump has insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he were in the White House at the time. He also told Reuters that Ukraine may have to cede territory in order to reach a peace agreement, which Ukraine rejects and Biden has never suggested.

TRUMP TEAM REACTS TO REPORT PRESIDENT-ELECT TOLD RUSSIA’S PUTIN NOT TO ESCALATE WAR WITH UKRAINE

Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military and economic aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticized and rallied against with other Republican lawmakers.

According to the Government Accountability Office, Congress appropriated over $174 billion to Ukraine under Biden. The pace of aid is almost sure to drop under Trump, with Republicans set to take control of the U.S. Senate with a 52-seat majority.

The war in Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow’s forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war.

Any fresh attempt to end the war is likely to involve peace talks of some kind, which have not been held since the early months of the war.

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Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukraine. Russia says the war cannot end until its claimed annexations are recognized. Kyiv demands all of its territory back, a position that has largely been supported by Western allies.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President-elect Trump has been winding down from the recent election on the golf course, pictures show.

Kai Trump, the 17-year-old daughter of Donald Trump, Jr., made an Instagram post sharing recent pictures with her grandfather on Sunday.

“Sundays with Grandpa,” the proud granddaughter captioned the post, adding a heart. The post featured a selfie Kai Trump shared with the president-elect, along with videos she took on the golf course and a picture with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. 

Musk appeared to be with his 4-year-old son in one of the photos. The child, whose name is X, was originally named X Æ A-12 when he was born in 2020.

FORMER GEORGIA SENATOR KELLY LOEFFLER TO SERVE ON TRUMP’S INAUGURAL COMMITTEE

Chloe Trump, 10, was also photographed on the golf course with her grandfather.

In one clip, the president-elect was seen watching Kai Trump from a golf cart while “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John was blasting in the background.

The pictures were shared days after Trump decisively won the 2024 presidential election race held on Nov. 5. On Saturday night, The Associated Press called Arizona in Trump’s favor, ending the electoral vote count for the 2024 presidential election. 

NEW YORK DEMOCRAT RIPS ‘FAR LEFT’ FOR TRUMP VICTORY: ‘IVORY-TOWERED NONSENSE’

Trump garnered 312 electoral votes, dwarfing his opponent, Vice President Harris. The Democratic candidate lost all seven battleground states and only collected 226 electoral votes.

The Republican leader is currently selecting his Cabinet and determining who will serve in his second administration. Trump is also expected to meet President Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday. 

On Saturday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would not be inviting two members of his former administration to the White House.

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“I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” the president-elect said. “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Democratic blame game is at a fever pitch after Vice President Kamala Harris was swiftly defeated by President-elect Donald Trump at the ballot box in an election that had been anticipated to drag out for days as polling indicated the match-up was razor-thin. 

Trump sailed to victory in the early morning hours last Wednesday, after locking down key battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania and Georgia and clearing 270 electoral votes. He concluded the race with 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226, and won the popular vote. 

In the final days of the campaigning cycle, polling indicated that the results for the election would likely be very close, which could have resulted in state recounts and lawsuits before the winner was announced. 

Following Trump’s clear victory, Democrats across the nation issued statements accepting the results and congratulating the president. Fallout from the devastating loss, however, has reverberated across the party as members point fingers at each other for the Trump win. 

5 MISTAKES THAT DOOMED KAMALA HARRIS’ CAMPAIGN AGAINST TRUMP

Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi spar over claims Dems ‘abandoned working class’

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pinned blame for the loss on the Democratic Party for “abandoning” the working class, sparking rebuke from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. 

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” Sanders posted to X last week, accompanied by a press release on the election results. “And they’re right.”

NANCY PELOSI FIRES BACK AT BERNIE SANDERS FOR COMMENTS ON DEMS’ SWEEPING ELECTION LOSS: NO ‘RESPECT’

Pelosi responded that the party has not left the working class behind in favor of kowtowing to “big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party,” as Sanders had argued in his press release. 

“With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him [Sanders], for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class families. That’s where we are,” Pelosi told The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast on Saturday.

“Under President Biden, you see the rescue package, money in the pockets of people, the shots in the arm, children in school safely, working people back to work. What did Trump do when he was president? One bill that gave a tax cut to the richest people in America,” she continued. 

Sanders doubled down on his remarks Sunday, telling NBC’s Kristen Welker that “the working people of this country are extremely angry.” 

“Nancy is a friend of mine,” Sanders said. “But here is the reality. In the Senate in the last two years, we have not even brought forth legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage despite the fact that some 20 million people in this country are working for less than $15 an hour.” 

SANDERS DOUBLES DOWN ON HIS CRITICISM OF DEMOCRATS, FIRES BACK AT PELOSI’S PUSHBACK

“Bottom line, if you’re a working person out there, do you really think that the Democratic Party is going to the max, taking on powerful special interests and fighting for you? I think the overwhelming answer is no,” Sanders said.

Harris, Biden campaigns pin blame on each other 

The Harris campaign and Biden campaign have reportedly pinned blame for the loss on each other, Axios reported last week. 

“The 107-day Harris campaign was nearly flawless. The Biden campaign that preceded it was the opposite,” one Harris campaign member told the outlet. 

“We did what we could. I think the odds against us were insurmountable,” another individual involved with the Harris campaign said, referring to President Biden’s exit from the presidential race in July and his low approval ratings. 

Biden dropped out of the race over the summer following his disastrous debate performance against Trump, where he frequently lost his train of thought and stumbled over his words. The debate opened the floodgates to both conservatives and traditional Democrat allies calling on the president to pass the torch to a younger generation as concerns mounted surrounding his mental acuity and his age. 

THE ‘SQUAD,’ WARREN AND SANDERS AMONG PROMINENT POLITICAL FIGURES WHO CRUISED TO RE-ELECTION VICTORIES

Many of those who worked on the Biden campaign also joined the Harris campaign following the president’s endorsement of his VP to take up the mantle as Democratic presidential candidate. 

A person who worked on the Biden campaign shot back in comment to Axios that the Harris team was to blame: “How did you spend $1 billion and not win? What the f—?”

“The Harris team benched [Biden], and then they lost, so now the people who represent Biden are saying, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t have benched him,'” another person familiar with the dynamics between the teams said. 

White House spokesman Andrew Bates told the outlet, “Anyone criticizing the vice president’s campaign is at odds with President Biden.”

Pelosi points to Biden for loss 

Pelosi appeared to pin blame for the loss on the president, claiming that Biden had dropped out of the race too late in the game and that that hadn’t provided an opportunity for an open primary. 

“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” she told the New York Times podcast. 

“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” Pelosi continued. “. . . Because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.” 

TRUMP WINS ARIZONA TO SWEEP SWING STATES AND SECURE 312 TOTAL ELECTORAL VOTES

Biden dropped out of the presidential race on a Sunday afternoon in July via a social media post. He endorsed Harris minutes later in a follow-up X post, sparking other Democrats to rally around the VP. 

Pelosi did defend Biden in June, when the Wall Street Journal ran an article doubting Biden’s mental fitness as president.

​​”Many of us spent time with @WSJ to share on the record our first-hand experiences with @POTUS, where we see his wisdom, experience, strength and strategic thinking,” Pelosi wrote on X at the time. “Instead, the Journal ignored testimony by Democrats, focused on attacks by Republicans and printed a hit piece.”

Pelosi, as well as other high-profile Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, also notably called on Biden to run for a second term ahead of the 2024 cycle kicking off in earnest. 

Obama to blame?

Other Democrats and insiders pointed to former President Barack Obama for the loss, after Obama reportedly worked in the background over the summer to encourage Biden’s ouster from the race. 

A handful of Obama’s allies and former advisers helped lead the charge in calling on Biden to drop out of the 2024 race earlier this summer, including former Obama adviser David Axelrod saying that Biden was “not winning this race;” longtime Obama friend George Clooney calling on the president to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed; and Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, also calling on Biden to drop out of the race ahead of his eventual departure. 

“There is no singular reason why we lost, but a big reason is because the Obama advisers publicly encouraged Democratic infighting to push Joe Biden out, didn’t even want Kamala Harris as the nominee, and then signed up as the saviors of the campaign, only to run outdated Obama-era playbooks for a candidate that wasn’t Obama,” one former Biden staffer told Politico.

DNC National Finance Committee member and Harris campaign fundraiser Lindy Li told Fox News this weekend that Obama’s seemingly delayed endorsement of Harris after Biden dropped out added to Harris’ defeat. 

​​”I want to point out they waited three days – Michelle and Barack Obama waited three days to endorse Kamala Harris,” Li said on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday. “It was the silence heard round the world.”

“The truth is, this is just an epic disaster – this is a $1 billion disaster,” Li added during the interview. 

‘ABANDON HARRIS’ MOVEMENT FLIPPED DEARBORN TO TRUMP ON ELECTION DAY

Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, with the Obamas endorsing Harris in a video message posted to social media on July 26, five days after Biden’s announcement. The silence was not lost on the media, as headlines spread across the nation on Obama’s “silence.” 

David Axelrod says Dem Party morphing into ‘smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party’

Similar to Sanders, longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod appeared to pin blame for the loss on the Democratic Party’s shift away from blue-collar, middle class voters. 

“You can’t approach working people like missionaries and say, ‘We’re here to help you become more like us.’ There’s a kind of unspoken disdain, unintended disdain in that,” the CNN contributor said last week. 

“The only group … Democrats won among were people who make more than $100,000 a year,” Axelrod said. “You can’t win national elections that way, and it certainly shouldn’t be that way for a party that fashions itself as the party of working people.”

“I think Biden has done programmatically some good things for working people. But the party itself has increasingly become a smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party, and it lends itself to the kind of backlash that we’ve seen,” he continued.

Claims of underwhelming VP choice 

After Biden’s exit from the race, Harris simultaneously launched her campaign as well as her search for a running mate, combing through a list of high-profile Democrats and lesser-known allies before choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Democrats ultimately rallied behind Walz, but another choice, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was viewed by many as the better candidate to get the Democratic Party across the finish line victoriously.

‘SHOULD HAVE BEEN JOSH SHAPIRO’: HARRIS’ VP CONTENDERS PASSED OVER FOR WALZ DODGE MASSIVE CAMPAIGN LOSS

“As a founding member of She Shoulda Picked Shapiro, I think it’s relatively clear now that she made a mistake,” statistician Nate Silver told the New York Times ahead of Election Day. 

“Pennsylvania seems to be lagging a little behind the other blue-wall states. Meanwhile, Walz was mediocre in the debate, and he’s been mediocre and nervous in his public appearances.”

Li told Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich from Howard University, where Harris held her election night party, that Shapiro would likely have aided the Harris campaign’s efforts to notch a massive victory. 

“One of the things that are top of mind is the choice of Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate,” Li said. “A lot of people are saying tonight that it should have been Josh Shapiro. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.”

Considering Pennsylvania’s battleground-state status, the popular first-term governor was viewed as a potential key for the Harris campaign to reach the coveted 270 electoral votes to lock up the election. Shapiro, who is Jewish, was also touted as a potential bridge for the Harris campaign to court Jewish voters amid backlash over her previous comments defending anti-Israel protesters who rocked college campuses last year during the war in Israel.

James Carville says Harris campaign fail could boil down to one interview 

Longtime Democratic political consultant James Carville said the Harris campaign’s loss could boil down to her interview on “The View,” when co-host Sunny Hostin asked Harris to identify an example of anything she would have done differently from Biden. 

“I think if this campaign is reducible to one moment, we are in a 65% wrong-track country. The country wants something different. And she’s asked, as is so often the case, in a friendly audience, on ‘The View,’ ‘How would you be different than Biden?’ That’s the one question that you exist to answer, alright? That is it. That’s the money question. That’s the one you want,” Carville said on “The Bulwark Podcast” on Saturday. 

JAMES CARVILLE SAYS KAMALA HARRIS’ FAILED CAMPAIGN COULD BE REDUCED TO SUNNY HOSTIN’S QUESTION ON ‘THE VIEW’

“That’s the one that everybody wants to know the answer to. And you freeze. You literally freeze and say, ‘Well, I can’t think of anything,’” Carville continued. 

Hostin had asked Harris in the October interview, “If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” 

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris answered.

Harris’ comment stands in stark contrast to how voters were feeling: They were unhappy with the current administration’s leadership.  

Preliminary data from the Fox News Voter Analysis, a survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, found that the majority of voters headed into the polls believing that the country was headed in the wrong direction. 

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Voters, ahead of casting their ballots, reported that the country was on the wrong track (70%, up from 60% who felt that way four years ago) and that they were seeking something different. Most wanted a change in how the country is run, with roughly a quarter seeking complete and total upheaval.

Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report. 

Vice President Kamala Harris paid Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions $1 million, just one example of millions the campaign spent on various entertainers during the vice president’s failed bid for president.

The Harris campaign paid $1 million to Winfrey’s company on October 15, according to a report in the Washington Examiner, coming after a star-studded town hall that Winfrey hosted for the vice president in September.

Winfrey also appeared at Harris’ final rally in Philadelphia on the eve of Election Day, with the talk-show star offering a rare endorsement of a presidential candidate.

HARRIS CAMPAIGN REPORTEDLY SPENT 6 FIGURES ON ‘CALL HER DADDY’ PODCAST WITH FEWER THAN 1 MILLION YOUTUBE VIEWS

“We’re voting for values and integrity,” Winfrey said at the rally. “We’re voting for healing over hate.”

But Winfrey wasn’t the only star the Harris campaign spent big money on, with the Washington Examiner report also revealing that the campaign spent big on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. 

“A source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that the Harris campaign spent six figures on building a set for Harris’s appearance on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper,” the Examiner wrote. “The interview came out in October and was reportedly filmed in a hotel room in Washington, D.C.”

HARRIS CAMPAIGN AND ALLIES SPENT MORE THAN $1.4B ON POLITICAL ADS IN LOSING RACE AGAINST TRUMP

The campaign also spent up to $20 million on swing state concerns on the eve of the election, according to a report in the New York Post, a sum that could have been more if a planned performance by Alanis Morissette had not been scrapped.

The campaign had seven swing-state concerts on Monday, the report noted, including performances by Jon Bon Jovi in Detroit, Christina Aguilera in Las Vegas, Katy Perry in Pittsburgh and Lady Gaga in Philadelphia, and a 2 Chainz performance at a rally three days before the election in Atlanta.

“Money can’t buy you love or a good candidate,” Republican political strategist Brad Todd told the Examiner, with regard to the massive spending.

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“Advertising is a pretty important source of information for swing voters,” Todd said. “It no doubt matters, but it’s not enough. It doesn’t matter if you have the wrong message and it’s not delivered in a compelling way. What her campaign was missing was any effort to break with the unpopular administration she has been a part of.”

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., responded to President-Elect Donald Trump’s newly announced litmus test for those vying to be the next GOP leader, exclusively telling Fox News Digital that he was open to it and that “all options are on the table.”

Trump said on Sunday that whoever the new leader is “must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.”

Recess appointments refer to the president’s ability to fill federal vacancies that occur while the Senate is in recess. This power is outlined in the Recess Appointments Clause of the Constitution. For the president to unilaterally make these appointments, the Congress must be in recess. 

CORNYN TOUTS LIFETIME FUNDRAISING PROWESS FOR GOP IN FINAL CASE TO SUCCEED MCCONNELL

“I’ve spent eight months carefully listening to my colleagues about their vision for the next chapter of the Senate Republican Conference, especially as we hit the ground running with President Trump,” Thune told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. 

“One thing is clear: We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s cabinet and other nominees in place as soon as possible to start delivering on the mandate we’ve been sent to execute, and all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments. We cannot let Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats block the will of the American people,” he continued. 

TIM SCOTT LAUNCHES BID TO CHAIR NRSC AS GOP SEEKS TO CAPITALIZE ON NEW MINORITY GAINS

Trump’s request for the new GOP Senate leader to agree to recess appointments comes after his struggle with a divided Congress in 2020, which would not adjourn when he asked them so that he could push through key appointments amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

TOP REPUBLICAN PRIVATELY BACKING THUNE TO SUCCEED MCCONNELL IN GOP LEADER RACE

“If the House will not agree to that adjournment, I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress,” he threatened at the time. “The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony pro-forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis. It is a scam that they do.”

RICK SCOTT SEES RED WAVE AS ‘BEST CASE SCENARIO’ FOR SENATE LEADER BID AS HE LOBBIES TRUMP FOR SUPPORT

One of Thune’s opponents in the race, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., quickly agreed with Trump, writing on X, “100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible.” 

He is also competing against Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. 

Cornyn has not yet responded directly to the latest ask from Trump, but he shared on X on Saturday, “The first order of business in the new Senate should be confirming President Trump’s cabinet. If I am the majority leader, I will keep the Senate in session until those confirmations occur.”

“No weekends, no breaks. Democrats can cooperate in the best interest of the country, or continue the resistance, which will eventually be ground down. Take your pick,” he said. 

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The election will be conducted by secret ballot on Nov. 13. 

Trump has not made any endorsement in the race and has not said whether he plans to. 

Florida Sen. Rick Scott touted his experience in business when asked why his Republican colleagues should back him for Senate Majority Leader.

“I built businesses all my life,” Scott said during an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. “I built the largest hospital company, I built a variety of manufacturing companies, I ran the state of Florida.”

The comments come as Scott finds himself in a three-way race to become the GOP Senate leader, battling fellow Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota for the job held by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., since 2007.

Scott, whose bid for the position is seen as a long shot by some observers, has earned the endorsement of Republican Sens. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida.

“I will be voting for my Florida colleague @ScottforFlorida to be our next Senate GOP leader,” Rubio said on X on Sunday.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY ‘DELIGHTED’ TO BACK SEN. JOHN CORNYN FOR SENATE MAJORITY LEADER

But the Florida Republican is also seen by some as the friendliest candidate to President-elect Trump, something Hagerty noted when making his endorsement of Scott.

“Any leader of this new majority must be able to work hand-in-hand with President Trump to advance his America First agenda,” Hagerty posted to X on Sunday. “That’s why I want to see a Senate Majority Leader who can join me in embracing the Trump agenda, which will unify Senate Republicans. On Wednesday, I will be voting for Rick Scott.”

Scott himself hinted at the alignment with Trump during his appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures,” arguing that the Republican Senate should reflect the will of the voters.

“Washington ought to represent the Republican voters around the country,” Scott said. 

“We have a mandate for change … who is going to represent all the Republican voters? I ran two years ago because I knew we needed to make a change in the Senate.” he continued, referring to his failed 2022 attempt to oust McConnell for the Senate GOP’s top job “I’ve talked to my colleagues, I think everybody realizes we need to make a change. So the question is going to be: Who is going to make sure we get those things done?”

CORNYN TOUTS LIFETIME FUNDRAISING PROWESS FOR GOP IN FINAL CASE TO SUCCEED MCCONNELL

Scott has expressed hope that Trump will publicly endorse his bid for the top job, though some reports have indicated the president-elect has been hesitant to weigh in on the race.

Thune, meanwhile, has encouraged Trump to stay out of the race.

“Obviously, if he wants to, he could exert a considerable amount of influence on that, but honestly, I think my preference would be, and I think it’s probably in his best interest, to stay out of that,” Thune, who has at times had a rocky relationship with Trump, said during an appearance on CNBC last week.

“These Senate secret ballot elections are probably best left to senators, and he’s got to work with all of us when it’s all said and done,” Thune, who currently serves as Senate minority whip, added, “but whatever he decides to do, that’s going to be his prerogative, as we know.”

RICK SCOTT SEES RED WAVE AS ‘BEST CASE SCENARIO’ FOR SENATE LEADER BID AS HE LOBBIES TRUMP FOR SUPPORT

Cornyn, who also previously served as the Senate’s GOP Whip, has touted he held the role when Trump’s tax cuts were passed through the Senate, arguing he would once again be able to work with the president-elect to help pass his agenda.

Republicans return to Washington this week, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is expected to host a forum with the candidates on Tuesday. The election, which is done by secret ballot, will take place on Wednesday with incoming GOP Sens.-elect Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Tim Sheehy of Montana and Jim Justice of West Virginia also being able to participate in the vote.

Only a simple majority is required for a winner to be chosen. If no candidate achieves a simple majority in the first round of ballots, the candidate with the least number of votes will be eliminated and there will be another round of voting between the top two candidates.

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Scott argued that a vote for him on Wednesday would be a vote for a candidate who could “bring people together.”

“What it’s going to take is somebody is going to take the time to sit down and bring people together. We’ve got to get, for a lot of things, 60 votes in the Senate, so we’ve got to have somebody that’s going to sit down with Democrats and say, ‘How do we balance a budget? How do we do these things?’” Scott said. “That’s all I’ve done. I’m a deal guy. That’s what I did all my life.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James has a long history of slamming President-elect Donald Trump, vowing in her first campaign to “take on Donald Trump” if elected, only to double down on the rhetoric after his massive election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris last week.  

“She’s got serious Trump derangement syndrome,” Trump said at the start of the year as he faced a civil fraud trial brought by the New York attorney general. He has repeatedly accused James of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome” throughout a bevy of New York court cases brought against him by James and other Democrats in New York. 

A staunch supporter of the president-elect who has been floated as a potential AG contender has already put James on notice to end her “lawfare” against the 45th and upcoming 47th president in a fiery interview after Trump’s win. 

“Let me just say this to Big Tish James, the New York Attorney General. . . . I dare you to continue your lawfare against President Trump in his second term,” Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, said on the “The Benny Show” podcast last week. “Because listen here, sweetheart, we’re not messing around this time. And we will put your fat a– in prison for conspiracy against rights, and I promise you that.” 

NEW YORK APPEALS COURT APPEARS RECEPTIVE TO REVERSING OR REDUCING $454M TRUMP CIVIL FRAUD JUDGMENT

Fox News Digital pored through James’ history as New York attorney general candidate, compiling the highlights of her legal battles against Trump over the last nearly seven years. 

The Campaign to Take On Trump 

James, a former city council member in New York and public defender, launched her run for New York AG during the 2018 cycle, while emphasizing that if she were elected, she would aggressively pursue charges against Trump. 

“I’m running for attorney general because I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president when our fundamental rights are at stake. From the Muslim ban, to efforts to deport immigrants, to denying transgender students the ability to choose whatever bathroom they want, rolling back regulations to protect our planet, colluding with foreign powers, putting profits over people, dividing us in ways we haven’t seen in generations,” James declared in September of 2018. 

“And what is fueling this campaign, what is fueling my soul right now, is Trump and his abuses, abuses against immigrants, against women, against our environment. We need an attorney general who will stand up to Donald Trump,” she said during a debate in August of that same year. 

James won her election that year, about two years into Trump’s first administration, and took a victory lap while vowing to expose the “con man.” 

“New Yorkers, we can spot a con man. We can spot a carnival barker, a fearmonger a mile away and he should know that we here in New York, and I in particular, we are not scared of you,” she said. “As the new attorney general of his home state, I will be shining a light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings and every dealing, demanding truthfulness at every turn. I will hold him accountable using the unbending power of the law.”

TRUMP’S $454M JUDGMENT BOND SLASHED BY MORE THAN HALF IN APPEALS COURT RULING

Trump and his team immediately slammed James’ apparent fixation on pursuing him, with Trump saying on X at the time that a candidate who “openly campaigned on a GET TRUMP agenda” was elected New York’s top cop and that he would “never be treated fairly by these people – a total double standard of justice.”

Trump civil fraud case 

About three months into taking office, James announced an investigation into the Trump Organization, claiming there was evidence indicating that the president and his company had falsely valued assets to obtain loans, insurance coverage and tax deductions. The investigation was launched after Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who had previously served federal prison time for violating campaign finance laws, testified before Congress that Trump Org. had exaggerated the value of his assets. 

James officially sued Trump, Trump Organization and its senior leadership for allegedly falsely inflating “his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company, to satisfy continuing loan covenants, to induce insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums, and to gain tax benefits, among other things.”

“For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them. Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct,” James said in a press release. “With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system. In fact, the very foundation of his purported net worth is rooted in incredible fraud and illegality. Mr. Trump thought he could get away with the art of the steal, but today, that ends.”

Trump charged that James had launched a “witch hunt” against him after her explicitly campaigning on a platform to prosecute the president. 

TRUMP VOWS TO FIGHT NEW YORK AG CASE ‘ALL THE WAY UP TO THE US SUPREME COURT,’ AS DEADLINE TO POST $454M LOOMS

“Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General, Letitia James, who failed in her run for Governor, getting almost zero support from the public, and now is doing poorly against Law & Order AG candidate, highly respected Michael Henry,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following the lawsuit. 

“I never thought this case would be brought – until I saw her really bad poll numbers. She is a fraud who campaigned on a ‘get Trump’ platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the crime and murder disasters of the world under her watch!” he added.

Trump and his family denied any wrongdoing, with the former president saying his assets had been undervalued. 

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in September of last year in the non-jury trial that Trump and his organization had committed fraud while building his real estate business by deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth. He was initially ordered to pay a penalty of $355 million, which quickly increased to over $450 million due to interest accruals of approximately $112,000 a day. 

He was ordered to pay a $454 million sum in February of this year. 

Trump appealed the ruling. His attorneys called New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling “draconian, unlawful and unconstitutional.” 

A panel of five judges on the appellate court, notably, appeared receptive to reversing or reducing the $454 million civil fraud judgment against Trump during court proceedings in September of this year. 

Trump attorney D. John Sauer argued that James’ lawsuit stretched New York consumer protection laws and said there were “no victims” and “no complaints” of Trump’s business from lenders and insurers. He added that if the verdict is not overturned, “people can’t do business in real estate” without fear. 

Judge Peter H. Moulton questioned whether James’ lawsuit had turned into “something it was not meant to do.” 

The judge added that the “immense penalty in this case is troubling.”

The court is still considering the appeal. 

TRUMP BARRED FROM OPERATING BUSINESS, ORDERED TO PAY OVER $350 MILLION IN NY CIVIL FRAUD CASE

Trump has said he will fight the case “all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.” 

Front-row court seat, declares she’s ready to ‘seize’ Trump’s iconic buildings 

James frequently sat in the courtroom throughout the civil fraud proceedings, at one point even appearing to smirk at Donald Trump Jr. 

James was caught on camera appearing gleeful as Donald Trump Jr. took the stand at his father’s civil trial in November, after frequently sitting in the court amid proceedings. 

WHERE DO TRUMP’S LEGAL CASES STAND AFTER MASSIVE ELECTION WIN?

“It is so inappropriate and so highly unusual. Attorneys general do not attend trials. They just don’t,” Fox News Legal Editor Kerri Kupec Urbahn said on “Fox & Friends” when asked about James’ recurring presence in the courtroom last year. 

James also slammed Trump in comments to the press during the trial. 

“Trump’s comments were offensive, baseless, they were void of any facts and or any evidence. What they were were comments that unfortunately fomented violence, comments that I would describe as race-baiting, comments that unfortunately appeals to the bottom of our humanity,” James told the media in a press conference outside of the courtroom in October of last year. 

JONATHAN TURLEY: TRUMP’S VICTORY PUTS AN END TO DEMOCRAT ATTACKS ON ONE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT

“This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals were engaged in patent practice of fraud, and I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law, and lastly I will not be bullied, and so Mr. Trump is no longer here. The Donald Trump show is over. This was nothing more than a political stunt,” James added.

After the judge’s ruling, James told the media in February of this year that she was ready to seize Trump’s New York City buildings, such as Trump Tower. 

“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James said in an interview with ABC News. 

TRUMP SUES CBS NEWS FOR $10 BILLION ALLEGING ‘DECEPTIVE DOCTORING’ OF HARRIS’ ’60 MINUTES’ INTERVIEW

An appeals court slashed Trump’s bond payment in March, and the former president paid $175 million, which thwarted the state’s attempt to seize his properties while he appeals the case. 

Trump Manhattan trial 

Trump has battled a handful of lawsuits originating in New York amid and following his first term in the White House, including in 2019 when the New York Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the NY-based charity the Donald J. Trump Foundation, and various cases where the state and city sued him over policies, such as the administration’s push to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg emerged as another Trump foe, leading the charge in his criminal trial earlier this year after charging Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records. 

Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records following his Manhattan criminal trial in May. Bragg’s office worked to prove that Trump had falsified the business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case, and he has argued that it was “lawfare” promoted by the Biden administration and Democrats to injure his re-election efforts. 

WHERE DOES TRUMP’S NEW YORK SENTENCING STAND AFTER MASSIVE ELECTION WIN?

Trump’s sentencing currently hangs in the balance, after his lawyers asked presiding Judge Juan Merchan to overturn the former president’s guilty verdict in New York v. Trump after the Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office, but not for unofficial acts. Merchan is expected to rule by Nov. 12 as to where the charges stand, while Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26. 

Despite not taking the lead on the case, James celebrated Trump’s guilty verdict, tweeting her common saying aimed at Trump, “No one is above the law,” shortly following the jury’s decision. 

James and Gov. Hochul vow to continue pursuing Trump after massive victory 

James and Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to fight back against any potential “revenge or retribution” from the Trump administration after his massive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump sailed to victory on the night of the election after locking down most battleground states, such as Pennsylvania and Georgia. 

“We did not expect this result, but we are prepared to respond to this result. And my office has been preparing for several months because we’ve been here before,” James said. “We faced this challenge before, and we used the rule of law to fight back. And we are prepared to fight back once again because, as the attorney general of this great state, it is my job to protect and defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law. And I will not shrink from that responsibility.”

Between 2019 and 2021, James said, her office took nearly 100 legal actions against Trump’s previous administration.

“We’re ready to respond to any attempts to cut or eliminate any funding to the great state of New York, as the governor outlined,” James said. “So, despite what has happened on the national stage, we will continue to stand tall in the face of injustice, revenge or retribution.”

Both Hochul and James congratulated Trump before launching warnings at the president-elect. 

TRUMP’S ‘MODERN DAY SALEM WITCH TRIAL’ VERDICT SIGNALS ‘OPEN SEASON’ ON FORMER PRESIDENTS: EXPERTS

“I want to be very clear that while we honor the results of this election and will work with anyone who wants to be a partner in achieving the goals of our administration in our state, that does not mean we’ll accept an agenda from Washington that strips away the rights that New Yorkers have long enjoyed,” Hochul said during the presser. 

“Our team will do whatever we have to do to identify any possible threats to these rights that we hold dear in the state of New York and protect New Yorkers,” Hochul said. “This will include legislation, rulemaking, appropriations and partnerships with our congressional delegation and including the Biden administration at this time.”

Legal experts and supporters of the president-elect have meanwhile said his massive victory last week likely marked the end to “lawfare.” 

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“Letitia James tried lawfare. The Democrat Party tried lawfare, and they lost, so now they need to go home,” Fox News’ Kaylee McEnany said last week. “That strategy did not work. Letitia James brought a case, the civil fraud case. It was unprecedented, our own Brain Room said, ‘We cannot find any example of a similar suit against a crime that was victimless.’ They could not find precedent for this. So she tried this, and the naked political reason was this was politically motivated. She called Trump a con man, all sorts of names. She ran on this, and what she’s doing now is exactly what Gavin Newsom is doing, exactly what Kamala Harris did yesterday, and now her. They all want to be the leader of the resistance.”

“Lawfare was terrible for the country. The resounding win Americans have given Trump should be its death knell,” Fox contributor and former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Andrew McCarthy also wrote in an op-ed for Fox News Digital last week. 

Fierce Trump ally Mike Davis said the upcoming administration will likely have no patience for “lawfare.” 

“I can imagine that the Trump 47 Justice Department is not going to have any patience for this Democrat lawfare over the next four years,” he told Newsmax. 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Greg Wehner and Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report. 

Members of the Los Angeles City Council say they are working to expedite a law declaring Los Angeles a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants following President-elect Trump’s victory last week.

The law would ban federal immigration officials from accessing city databases and ban city resources from being used for immigration enforcement. The ordnance was originally passed last year, but it has faced a lengthy legal review and has yet to take effect.

City Council member Hugo Soto-Martínez, who supports expediting the process, also called on President Biden to renew a program that allows illegal immigrants from Central America to stay in Los Angeles, according to the LA Times.

“More than anything, people are angry,” Soto-Martínez told the Times. “They’re agitated and they’re ready to fight back, just like we did in 2016.”

PROPOSITION 36 OVERWHELMINGLY PASSES IN CALIFORNIA, REVERSING SOME SOROS-BACKED SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

California officials appear to be preparing to push back on the upcoming Trump administration from top to bottom. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday he is calling an emergency special session to bolster the state’s legal response to any future attacks from the Trump administration.

The special session will focus on safeguarding “civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action, and immigrant families,” Newsom’s office said in a press release.

“California is ready to fight,” Newsom said on X. “Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action – we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked.”

NATHAN HOCHMAN OUSTS EMBATTLED LIBERAL PROSECUTOR GEORGE GASCON AS LA COUNTY DA AMID CRIME CONCERNS

His action comes just a day after Newsom said he “will seek to work with the incoming president.”

The special session will convene on Monday, Dec. 2.

Newsom is urging his state legislature to earmark more funds for the California Department of Justice and other state agencies with additional resources to mount legal challenges.

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“The funding will support the ability to immediately file litigation and seek injunctive relief against unlawful federal actions,” Newsom’s office said.

During Trump’s first term, Newsom launched lawsuits against the federal government more than 100 times.

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump places the Democratic Party in an awkward position of having no clear leader in the months to come.

Once President Biden and Harris leave office in January, Democrats will be without a figurehead, proving an opportunity for some of the party’s top personalities to fill the void.

Here are the most likely candidates:

Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could play a major role in shepherding the Democratic Party through the next four years. He has led Democrats in the Senate for decades, and with Rep. Nancy Pelosi stepping back from leadership in Congress, he is the most senior Democrat left in the branch.

He will now have to contend once again with a Republican majority in the Senate, however.

SHUTDOWN STANDOFF LOOMS IN CONGRESS’ FINAL WEEKS BEFORE TRUMP’S RETURN TO WHITE HOUSE

Hakeem Jeffries

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., presents a younger alternative to Schumer as Pelosi’s successor in the House of Representatives. Jeffries is sure to play a central role in Democrats’ efforts to hamper the Trump administration and congressional Republicans over the next four years.

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Gavin Newsom

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is widely thought to have national ambitions, and the void left by Biden and Harris could be the opportunity he’s been looking for. Newsom loudly ruled himself out from contesting Biden’s re-election campaign early in the 2024 cycle, and he is already making plays to position himself as a standout leader against Trump.

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro could also position himself as a Democratic leader. Spurned by Harris as a VP pick, he is now free from the political fallout from her loss that has also disqualified Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Shapiro enjoys an over-60% approval rating in Pennsylvania, arguably the most important state for winning the presidency.

Pete Buttigieg

While “Mayor Pete” has played a relatively quiet role under the Biden administration as transportation secretary, the Biden-Harris departure could give him an opportunity to resume his meteoric rise within the Democratic Party.

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Buttigieg secured a position in the party’s top tier with his performance in the 2019 Democratic primary, but it remains unclear what role he will play after the Biden administration comes to a close.

More than 40% of Californians voted for President-elect Trump this year, making it the most votes for a GOP presidential candidate in the blue state since George W. Bush re-election in 2004. 

Experts say Californians aren’t as far left “as Newsom thinks,” citing several state ballot measures that swung conservative, followed by the ousting of progressive Soros-backed Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon.

Though Trump lost California to Vice President Kamala Harris, his electoral showing in the Golden State increased significantly; he got 31% of the vote in 2016 and 34% in 2020. Even with something of a conservative exodus driving many residents to red states like Florida and Texas, Trump increased his percentage of the state vote by six points.

In absolute terms, Trump’s vote numbers from California come in third behind his showings in Texas and Florida.

“Trump built a cross party, multi party coalition,” Susan Shelley, VP of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “He’s built a movement that crosses party lines, and it’s reaching people who have not benefited from the policies that have been put forward.” 

PROPOSITION 36 OVERWHELMINGLY PASSES IN CALIFORNIA, REVERSING SOME SOROS-BACKED SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES

Regarding California’s clean-energy mandates, Shelley said, “People have paid dearly for this, and that’s what crosses party lines.”

“Everybody’s electricity bill is higher because of the climate policies,” Shelley said. “And Trump is promising to do more domestic energy production to bring down the cost of energy, and he has a track record now of having done this as president for four years.”

“The legislature is much, much more liberal, much more much further to the left than the voters are. And you can see that in the results in the propositions,” Shelley, who is also a columnist, said. 

Proposition 36, which would reverse some soft-on-crime policies authored by L.A. DA George Gascon and re-establish felony offenses for certain drug and theft crimes, was overwhelmingly passed by California voters. 

Another tax-related measure, Proposition 5, also failed. Critics of the measure said it would likely have led to higher property taxes, because it would have lowered the threshold to local bond issues, which are backed by tax dollars.

Gascon, L.A.  County’s district attorney since 2020, was also voted out. Independent candidate Nathan Hochman, a former assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush, will replace him.

“I think he knows that California is shifting and needs help,” Shelley said. “And he has spoken many times about California’s election process, mailing out 22 million ballots. He has concerns about that. He’s spoken about voter ID laws. Whether he’ll do anything about that as President, I don’t know, but he certainly has indicated that he knows Californians are not as liberal as Gavin Newsom presents them to be.”

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California was also ground zero for several culture wars in children’s education and transgender issues, such as sex change surgeries for incarcerated people on the taxpayer dollar. 

Lance Christensen, a California Policy Center political expert, told Fox News Digital these issues also played a role in earning Trump more votes in the Golden State.

“I think people got tired of the rope-a-dope stuff that Governor Newsom was doing over the last several years,” Christensen said. “And they saw him doing that because of an enabling power from the Biden-Harris administration. And when they realized that the insane progressive policies that were happening in California were being amplified in D.C., I don’t think they felt like there was a good backstop.”

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In July, Newsom signed a new law banning school districts from notifying parents if their child uses different pronouns or identifies as a gender that is different from what’s on their school record. 

The law created significant pushback from California parents who spent months protesting the new law at local school district meetings, and one school district went so far as to sue Newsom over the law.

“A lot of the social and cultural issues, the ethnic studies, the gender stuff, the hyper-sexuality that was happening in a lot of our schools, and they just didn’t want that nationwide, especially with issues like Title Nine, where more and more women feel disenfranchised by the Biden administration,” Christensen said.

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“I think that you’re seeing a shift in the partisan landscape of California, and it won’t be dramatic, and it won’t necessarily be consistent across the board, but I think there’s a march towards some sort of sanity when it comes to politics that won’t necessarily be a red-blue divide,” he said.

On Thursday, Newsom called a special emergency session for December with the state’s legislature in response to Trump’s victory and bolster the blue state’s legal response to any future attacks.

“California is ready to fight,” Newsom said on X. “Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action – we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked.”

His action comes just a day after Newsom said he “will seek to work with the incoming president.”

The year 2027 has become a fixation for Washington. It’s the year that U.S. intelligence projects China will be ready and capable for an invasion of Taiwan. 

It could happen sooner, as evidenced by military drills in the South China Sea. Or, it could not happen at all. 

But President-elect Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday leaves the Taiwanese wondering whether the U.S. would come to their defense under a new, non-interventionist-minded administration. 

Trump’s public comments might suggest that he would not be willing to put boots on the ground to face another global superpower in defense of a tiny island democracy. 

“I think Taiwan should pay us for defense,” Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek in June. 

“You know, we’re no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything,” he added.

In October, he once again complained about U.S. aid to Taiwan and accused the nation of “stealing” the U.S. microchip industry. “You know, Taiwan, they stole our chip business,” Trump said during his appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast.

“They want us to protect, and they want protection. They don’t pay us money for the protection, you know. The mob makes you pay money, right? But with these countries that we protect, I got hundreds of billions of dollars from NATO countries that were never paying us.”

Trump’s close advisors are far more hawkish on the Taiwan matter than the president-elect’s comments would suggest he is, according to Lyle Goldstein, director for Asia engagement at Defense Priorities. 

“During Trump’s last four years there was quite a robust stance in favor of defending Taiwan through various measures taken chiefly, I think, through his advisors,” said Goldstein. 

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Asked in October if he would defend Taiwan in a China invasion, Trump told the Wall Street Journal: “I wouldn’t have to, because he respects me and he knows I’m f––– crazy.”

Asked how he would convince Xi to avoid such an invasion, Trump responded: “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you” — meaning impose tariffs — “at 150% to 200%.” 

He may even ban trade between the two nations. 

He spoke highly of his relationship with Xi. “I had a very strong relationship with him. He was actually a really good, I don’t want to say friend — I don’t want to act foolish, ‘He was my friend’ — but I got along with him great. He stayed at Mar-a-Lago with me, so we got to know each other great. He’s a very fierce person.”

The U.S. routinely sends military equipment to Taiwan, and that is expected to continue through the next administration. In October, the Biden administration approved $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, including radar systems and three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems. 

With rapidly improving drone capabilities, the U.S. could come to Taiwan’s aid in an invasion without deploying troops to the region.

“I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told The Washington Post at the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue Summit.

In doing so, he said, “I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.” 

But there is hope among restraint groups that Trump will be focused on economic warfare with China – rather than military. Trump has threatened a blanket 60% tariff on Chinese goods. 

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“I think his approach on China will be very tough on the economic side,” said Goldstein. “But — I’m hoping anyway — easing tensions on the diplomatic and military side.“

“We don’t have that alliance with Taiwan,” Goldstein went on. “We have an alliance with Japan. And with the Philippines. We may want to double down on guarding our allies . . . the Taiwan issue is a powder keg — it’s exceedingly dangerous. And we should play very cautiously here.”

The U.S. has long recognized a One China policy and pursued a policy of strategic ambiguity, refusing to reveal whether it would come to Taiwan’s defense in an all-out war. 

Biden seemed to want to declare his intention to defend Taiwan from China. His staff was forced to walk back a series of off-the-cuff statements that seemed to undermine strategic ambiguity. 

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“The U.S. is standing up for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the president said at West Point in May. He added pointedly: “I’ve always been willing to use force when required to protect our nation, our allies, our core interests.” 

FIRST ON FOX: Leading pro-life activist groups are already shifting from celebrating former President Donald Trump’s victory to drawing up plans for his second term, Fox News Digital has learned.

A memorandum shared exclusively with Fox News Digital by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), one of the country’s largest and most influential pro-life groups, lays out the group’s plans and priorities for the upcoming administration in what they hope will serve as the beginning of a roadmap for pro-life victories in the years to come.

It states that while Democrats spent $570 million on abortion advertising, Trump’s blowout victory is evidence that the American people do not support the unrestricted abortion access endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris and many top Democrats.

“Democrats’ abortion fearmongering campaign was a spectacular failure in the first presidential election since the reversal of Roe,” the memo says. “Meanwhile, President T

rump did what he’s done better than anyone since 2016: he effectively cast the Democrats as the real extremists on abortion who support abortion even in the seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy and even refuse to support giving basic medical care to children who survive attempted abortions.”

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“With victory in hand,” the memo asks: “What’s next?”

First, the memo states that the Trump administration must immediately undo every abortion policy instituted over the last four years under the Biden-Harris administration.

“The accomplishments from President Trump’s first term become the baseline for the second term,” the memo continues. “However, in order to even get to the baseline, there is much that must be undone from the Biden-Harris regime, which worked tirelessly to promote abortion in every nook and cranny of the federal government. It all must be undone.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA, told Fox News Digital that her group will push for the “cleansing” of tax funding of abortion during the first 100 days of the Trump administration through the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services and other government agencies, as well as through grants to groups like Planned Parenthood.

Dannenfelser added that the Trump administration should clarify what resources and options are available to women who do not want to choose abortion during the first 100 days. She also said Trump should reinstate the “Mexico City Policy” that prohibits the government from pushing or paying for abortion internationally.

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Dannenfelser did not take a national abortion limit off the table, though she admitted it is “not a day one” issue.

While the pro-life movement had a lot to celebrate this past week, seven states passed sweeping amendments to enshrine abortion into their state law, significantly expanding abortion in those states. This followed a series of similar amendments being passed by voters in California, Ohio, Michigan and Vermont.

Dannenfelser acknowledged that she understands Americans are not ready to accept the protection of all unborn life after 50 years under Roe v. Wade, but said she believes there should be at least a “minimum standard” of protection for the unborn across the nation. 

SBA noted in its memo that “to go on offense and truly defeat the abortion industry in the long term, we must strengthen the pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family resolve of the Republican Party, centered on the unalienable right to life for the unborn child that exists under the 14th Amendment.”

Dannenfelser said that the job of the pro-life movement over the next few years will be to help advance the cultural conversation about what minimum standards the country should enact to protect unborn life.

She pointed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who she said provides a model of a leader who is effectively engaging in and promoting cultural conversation about abortion.

Florida, along with South Dakota and Nebraska, became the first states to defeat any abortion initiative since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Dannenfelser said that DeSantis’ leadership “showed exactly what you do” to win pro-life victories.

“You don’t pretend it’s not happening; you go on offense against extremism,” she said. “DeSantis showed that when you go full-on, you defy all the prognosticators and fend off that horrible initiative.” 

SBA is not the only pro-life group mobilizing since Trump’s victory. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America (SFLA), told Fox News Digital that her group has also developed a plan titled “Make America Pro-Life Again” that “encompasses both federal action as well as state actions.”

For the early days of the administration, Hawkins said SFLA would prioritize four main policies: 1) Appointing pro-life officials to federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, FDA and DOJ, 2) Releasing pro-life activists imprisoned under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, completely defunding Planned Parenthood and to investigate the harmful chemicals used by chemical abortion pills.

Hawkins also said that she will continue to advocate for abortion restrictions on the federal level, but like Dannenfelser, she granted that will not be likely to happen soon.

For now, she said that Trump’s “day one” priority should be defunding Planned Parenthood.

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“Students for Life America has always been very clear; abortion is 100% federal. The pro-life movement is clear that abortion is 100% federal. Why? Because your right to not be killed because you’re simply inconvenient to another does not begin and end at state lines,” she told Fox News Digital. “We disagree with President Trump on this point. However, we are able to work with President Trump at this point and the first thing he must do is defund and debar Planned Parenthood.”

Also looming large behind both these groups’ plans is the possibility of a Supreme Court justice retiring or passing away. Neither Dannenfelser nor Hawkins divulged who they might support for a Supreme Court nomination, but, like before, Hawkins said she expects Trump to appoint justices supporting the unborn.

“Our ask of President Trump in 2015 and 2016 will be the same ask of President Trump in 2025 or whenever that happens in this administration, that if there is a Supreme Court vacancy, no matter if it’s a Sotomayor or it’s a Justice Thomas, that the person that he nominates, the person that will be confirmed by the US Senate, will not be an abortion activist, they will be a constitutionalist, and they’ll know what’s in the Constitution and what’s not in the Constitution. One of the things that’s not in the Constitution is the right to end the life of an inconvenient human child.”