NationalWatch

EXCLUSIVE: Newly obtained financial statements shed light on claims that former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin’s husband’s company profited millions as a result of a DHS advertising campaign.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem faced intense questioning during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., specifically called out the agency for contracting a public relations firm headed by McLaughlin’s husband, Benjamin Yoho.

“I have personally reviewed the allegations against Ms. McLaughlin and I find them to be baseless,” DHS General Counsel James Percival told Fox News Digital. “Nothing illegal or unethical occurred with respect to these contracts. Ms. McLaughlin was not involved in selecting any subcontractors.

“She is, however, a superstar in the public affairs world, so I am not surprised that she married a successful businessman whose services were attractive to these outside firms.”

Kennedy alleged that Yoho’s firm, The Strategy Group, “got most of the money” out of what the Louisiana Republican senator says was a $220 million in “television advertisements that feature [Noem] prominently.”

“I’m sorry,” Kennedy said. “Safe America Media was a company formed 11 days before you picked them. And that the Strategy Group got most of the money. And the head of that is married to your former spokesperson.”

“It’s just hard for me to believe knowing the president as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut and I’m going to spend $220 million running them that he would have agreed to that,'” Kennedy explained. “I don’t think Russ Vought at OMB [Office of Management and Budget] would have agreed to that.”

‘YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!’: PROTESTER DRAGGED FROM KRISTI NOEM’S SENATE HEARING

The Strategy Group is a conservative advertising agency in which Yoho serves as CEO.

Figures obtained by Fox News Digital show a slightly lesser total advertising expenditure of approximately $185 million, with a total of roughly $146.5 million going to a campaign called “Save America.”

However, of the total that went to “Save America,” roughly $348,000 went to production costs, while the remaining $142 million went to “media buys.”

Sources at DHS say that media buys are the cost of actually buying the ads themselves, whether purchased from social media or for a TV ad.

Kennedy also alleged that the bidding process for the contracts never took place, and that Safe America Media’s recent founding was a cause for concern and collusion between McLaughlin and her husband’s business. 

WATCH THE MOST VIRAL MOMENTS AS KRISTI NOEM’S HEARING GOES OFF THE RAILS

“Yes they did,” Noem responded during the hearing. “They went out to a competitive bid, and career officials at the department chose who would do those advertising commercials.”

The Strategy Group posted to X on Tuesday that they have never had a contract with the department. While they did receive several hundred thousand dollars for production costs associated with the advertising campaigns, The Strategy Group never profited millions.

“The Strategy Group has never had a contract with DHS,” the post read. “We had a subcontract with Safe America [Media] for limited production services. Safe America paid us $226,137.17 total for 5 film shoots, 45 produced video advertisements and 6 produced radio advertisements.”

DHS SPOKESWOMAN TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN TO LEAVE TRUMP ADMIN, SOURCE CONFIRMS

“If you’re going to try to question our integrity, bring actual evidence — we did,” the post concluded.

Because these ads were purchased using public funds, all contract totals are publicly available. 

Lauren Bis, who took up the role of Assistant Secretary once McLaughlin left office, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that scrutiny from both Republicans and Democrats over the advertising spending was unjustified, as the campaigns resulted in “the most successful ad campaign in U.S. history.”

“Sanctuary politicians are attacking this ad campaign because it has been successful in CLOSING our borders and getting more than 2.2 million illegal aliens to LEAVE the U.S.,” Bis said. “The DHS domestic and international ad campaign was the most successful ad campaign in U.S. history. The results speak for themselves: 2.2 million illegal aliens self-deported, and we now have the most secure border in American history.”

KRISTI NOEM TO FACE SENATE GRILLING OVER MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTINGS AS DHS SHUTDOWN HITS WEEK 3

Bis also compared the cost of arresting and deporting an illegal migrant to that of the minimal cost of an illegal migrant self-deporting. The department says the advertising campaign played a key role in marketing self-deportation.

A spokesperson at DHS also told Fox News Digital that contractors decide who they hire fulfilling the terms of the control, not the department itself. 

“By law, DHS cannot and does not determine, control or weigh in on who contractors hire or use to fulfill the terms of the contract,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox. “Those decisions are made by the contractor alone. We have only become aware of these companies because of this inquiry and did not hire those companies.”

The spokesperson also noted that McLaughlin “recused herself” from interactions with subcontractors to avoid “any perceived appearance of impropriety.”

“Upon hearing who the subcontractors were for production of the ad, Ms. McLaughlin recused herself from any interaction or engagement with any subcontractors to avoid any perceived appearance of impropriety,” the spokesperson continued. “DHS Office of Public Affairs is the program officer. Ms. McLaughlin oversees the DHS Office of Public Affairs which is simply the vehicle for this contract.”

McLaughlin told Fox News Digital that the criticism of her and her family by senators at the hearing is a matter of public manipulation.

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“This is yet another example of politicians intentionally trying to dupe and manipulate the public to try to manufacture division and anger,” McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. “The ad spend and contracts are a matter of public record and the process was done by the book.”

“These politicians would rather smear private citizens and American small businesses than do any basic research,” the former DHS assistant secretary added.

Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.

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An FBI spokesman tore into the media on Wednesday for claiming a string of recent firings at the bureau were detrimental to its work on Iran, alleging the reports were poorly sourced and “total BS.”

Ben Williamson, FBI assistant director of public affairs, excoriated CBS News and MS Now on social media after their reporting raised alarm about FBI Director Kash Patel’s recent decision to fire about a dozen employees for allegedly violating their ethics and the bureau’s mission. 

The spokesman accused the media of attempting to stir up worries that the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency was ill-prepared to combat threats Iran posed to the United States in the wake of President Donald Trump launching a war against the country on Saturday.

“I can play the ‘sources’ game too – the difference is mine know what they’re talking about,” Williamson wrote, saying he spoke with several FBI executives and supervisors who confirmed that “only 3” of those fired worked on Iran matters.

His remark came in response to a CBS News report that a source called the firings “‘devastating’ to the FBI’s Iran program and said that these agents have confidential informants in the U.S.-Iranian community who are not replaceable.”

Williamson said that characterization was “total BS,” adding the FBI “surges resources and personnel from all over the country to prepare for these things.”

The firings occurred last week after Patel revealed that his and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ phone records were subpoenaed as part of the Biden Department of Justice’s sweeping investigations into President Donald Trump and his allies. While the subpoena documents have not been made public, Patel and Wiles were private citizens at the time and known witnesses in the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.

The Biden FBI also recorded a phone call between Wiles and her lawyer in 2023 with her lawyer’s permission, unbeknownst to Wiles, two law enforcement sources said. A lawyer representing Wiles at the time disputed that claim, telling Axios he was unaware of a call with his client being recorded.

PATEL DOUBLES DOWN ON FBI ELECTION HUB RAID, SAYS TRUMP CALLED AGENTS DIRECTLY TO THANK THEM FOR OPERATION

Most of those Patel fired worked on the classified documents probe and the majority worked in counterintelligence, a source familiar with the firings told Fox News Digital.

Williamson wrote on X that ahead of the terminations, the FBI had a “record year” in counterintelligence in 2024, notching 35% more arrests than the prior year and capturing six fugitives on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list. The spokesman said the operations were “not something run by three people out of one unit” and that the media reports were a “transparent spin job by people mad about firings.”

Asked for comment, Williamson pointed to his public remarks.

Fox News Digital reached out to MS Now and CBS News for comment on Wednesday, but did not immediately receive replies.

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Patel’s firings have drawn praise from some in Trump’s base who say the Biden DOJ and FBI abused their authority to target Trump while he was running for president and that the terminations represent overdue accountability. 

The firings, however, have also drawn condemnation from critics, including the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA), which represents thousands of employees and has maintained that agents’ actions are typically the result of following orders within a chain of command.

“The FBIAA condemns [the Feb. 25] unlawful termination of FBI Special Agents, which—like other firings by Director Patel—violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country,” the FBIAA said. “These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals—ultimately putting the nation at greater risk.”

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GOP Rep. Pat Fallon blasted Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in a heated fraud hearing on Wednesday in an exchange that was quickly amplified by conservatives on social media. 

“It’s been widely reported that in 2008, when Barack Obama was choosing his vice presidential candidate, he had three criteria. He wanted to make sure he picked someone that wasn’t as smart as him and had less talent and charisma and couldn’t possibly outshine him, so he picked Joe Biden,” Fallon said in the House Oversight Committee hearing. 

“And then Joe Biden in 2020 used the exact same criteria,” Fallon continued. “He wanted to make sure he picked somebody that wasn’t as smart as him, had less talent and charisma, and wouldn’t outshine him, and he picked Kamala Harris.”

Fallon went on to say that in 2024, “I think it’s very evident why Kamala Harris picked you.”

Walz appeared to take the criticism in stride as he laughed and responded with, “I wouldn’t know, Congressman.”

“The talent pool isn’t just shallow, brother, we have hit the shore,” Fallon said before ending his questioning. 

The clip immediately made waves on social media, particularly from conservatives.

REPORT EXPOSES BILLIONS IN UNCOVERED FRAUD, WASTE AS WATCHDOG COALITION OFFERS SUPPORT TO TRUMP’S CRACKDOWN

“Tim Walz just got SCORCHED,” conservative commentator Nick Sortor posted on X. 

Conservative influencer account Libs of TikTok called the exchange “one of the most INCREDIBLE OWNS in American politics.”

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“Rep. Pat Fallon torches Tim Walz,” Brandon Straka, the founder of the #walkaway campaign, posted on X.

Much has been made in media reports and books in recent months about what went into Harris’s decision to name Tim Walz as her running mate instead of other candidates, particularly Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Ultimately, according to the book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” Harris “went with her gut” and chose Walz believing he was the “better fit” in a decision her staff was “unanimously behind.”

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The White House said Wednesday that U.S. munitions stockpiles are sufficient to carry out Operation Epic Fury  – and go “much further” – but the Trump administration is still pressing top defense contractors to ramp up production and quickly. 

“President Trump has rightfully been calling on defense contractors in this country to rapidly and aggressively produce American-made weapons because they are the best in the world,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday. 

“And the president always likes to get things done as quickly as possible, and so he’s been quite vocal in his efforts to try to speed up our defense industry, to protect our homeland,” she said.

Leavitt’s comments came amid the White House’s first briefing since the start of the U.S. and Israel’s joint-military operation in Iran — Operation Epic Fury – on Saturday. 

As the battle continues in Iran, a White House official told Fox News that top executives from U.S. defense contractors are set to visit the White House on Friday to discuss ramping up weapons production. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House Wednesday afternoon for additional details on the stockpile and Friday meeting with defense contractors. 

Leavitt continued from the podium that the U.S. weapons stockpile is more than sufficient to execute the mission in Iran. 

“Under this president, we have significantly increased our defense budget, which is a good thing for the United States, for our national security and for protecting our homeland with respect to munitions, ammunition, weapons, stockpiles,” she said. 

“The United States of America has more than enough capability to not only successfully execute Operation Epic Fury, but to go much further and we have weapons, stockpiles, in places that many people in this world don’t even know about,” she continued.

Leavitt was asked about the stockpile status after President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post on Monday, in which he said the munitions stockpiles have “never been higher or better,” but said the U.S. is “not where we want to be.”

“The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better,” he posted. “As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries’ finest arms!).”

TRUMP SAYS US SANK 10 SHIPS IN IRAN STRIKE, ‘LAST, BEST CHANCE’ TO ACT 

He added: “At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be. Much additional high-grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries.”

“The United States is stocked and ready to WIN BIG!!!” Trump posted.

Leavitt, on Wednesday, said Trump, in his post, “was pointing out that we had a very stupid and incompetent leader in this White House for four years who gave away many of our best weapons for nothing, for free, to another country very far away by the name of Ukraine.”

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Fox News’ Pat Ward contributed to this report. 

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A House Democrat and physicist by background is sounding the alarm over what he views as a lack of a plan to deal with Iran’s nuclear sites during the U.S. offensive campaign.

Coming out of a classified briefing with top administration officials, Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., said Tuesday lawmakers were not presented with a clear plan to secure or neutralize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

“We have heard that they never had a plan for that nuclear stockpile of enriched uranium — to destroy that, to seize it or to put it under international inspection,” he

The U.S. intervention was publicly justified by the Trump administration as a necessary step to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. 

U.S. forces have struck more than 1,700 targets across Iran, including ballistic missile launch sites, air defenses, naval assets and command centers. Core nuclear facilities, however, have not been among the primary targets.

“Until that happens, Iran will be very, very close to making — as many observers have pointed out in a nonclassified situation — Iran can use that material to make a handful of Hiroshima-style nuclear devices,” Foster told Fox News Digital. “Not the sort you can put on a missile, but the sort you can deliver by a number of other ways and are very hard to stop.” 

Foster was referring to Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium — material that, if weaponized, could be used to build a nuclear explosive device.

Experts note that building a compact warhead that fits on a ballistic missile is technically complex and requires advanced engineering. But a simpler, larger nuclear device — similar in basic concept to the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in — would not need to be miniaturized to fit on a missile. Such a device could not be delivered by long-range rocket but could theoretically be transported by other means.

Foster argued that containing Iran’s nuclear materials, most of which are buried deep underground, would likely require U.S. forces to enter Iran.

Recent satellite imagery shows damage to support buildings and access points at Iran’s Natanz enrichment site, though the deepest underground infrastructure at key nuclear facilities has not been confirmed as a primary target in the current campaign.

U.S. and international officials previously have acknowledged that while strikes can damage enrichment infrastructure, stockpiled enriched uranium stored underground may remain intact and potentially retrievable unless physically secured or removed.

“You have to go in there with boots on the ground and grab a bunch of equipment,” Foster said. “You have to go underground into those facilities, and lose a lot of soldiers’ lives doing that.”

“They’re unwilling to do that, or they’ve decided not to, or they’ve decided it’s impossible — in any case, they did not present to us any plan that would actually get the material under control.”

Without securing the nuclear material, he argued, military operations may push Iran closer to a nuclear weapon than diplomatic negotiations would have.

“The only positive thing about the Ayatollah is that he had a fatwa against building nuclear weapons. Who knows what the next generation of ayatollahs are going to feel? They’re going to be under a lot of pressure from the IRGC, which was not so much against having a nuclear weapon.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli operations, had previously issued a fatwa — a religious edict — opposing the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Analysts have long debated how binding or durable that ruling was.

At a Wednesday White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration believes Iran “wanted to build nuclear weapons to use against Americans and our allies,” framing the strikes as necessary to prevent Tehran from advancing its nuclear ambitions.

Missile suppression strategy faces ‘math problem’

Senior administration officials have emphasized that the current phase of the campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s ability to project force with missiles, drones and naval assets. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has highlighted strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile systems, air defenses and naval capabilities, describing the effort as a push to degrade the conventional tools Tehran uses to threaten U.S. forces and regional allies. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly has said the United States is working to “systematically take apart” Iran’s missile program, so it could not “hide behind” it to develop a nuclear weapon. 

While the broader justification for intervention centered on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, the most immediate threat facing U.S. troops and partners has been Iran’s ongoing missile and drone launches. Administration officials contend Iran’s missile buildup was meant to create a deterrent buffer, shielding its broader strategic ambitions, including its nuclear program, from outside attack.

Lawmakers emerging from classified briefings said the campaign has become, in part, a question of sustainability.

US ‘WINNING DECISIVELY’ AGAINST IRAN, WILL ACHIEVE ‘COMPLETE CONTROL’ OF AIRSPACE WITHIN DAYS, HEGSETH SAYS

“We do not have an unlimited supply,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said of U.S. and allied interceptor inventories, warning the conflict could become a “math problem” — balancing launch volumes against finite air defense munitions and the ability to replenish them without weakening readiness in other theaters.

“At some point — and we’re probably already in this — this becomes a math problem,” Kelly added.

He said he pressed defense officials on how interceptor stocks are being replenished and whether diverting munitions to the Middle East could strain U.S. readiness elsewhere.

“How can we resupply air defense munitions? Where are they going to come from? How does that affect other theaters?” he said. “The math on this currently seems to be an issue.”

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said he also sought clarity on interceptor inventories but did not receive detailed answers.

“I am very concerned about that,” Kim said. “I did not get any specificity today … something akin to ‘trust us’ is not good enough for me.”

Republicans, however, pushed back on the notion that interceptor supplies are strained. 

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said officials told lawmakers U.S. forces are “in great shape,” dismissing concerns about shortages.

US UNLEASHES OPERATION EPIC FURY, STRIKES 1,700 IRAN TARGETS IN 72 HOURS

Ehud Eilam, a former Israeli defense official and national security analyst, said that while a nuclear weapon remains the most serious long-term threat, missile and drone systems pose the immediate danger if intelligence assessments conclude Iran is not on the verge of assembling a device.

“As long as it is estimated Iran cannot produce a nuclear weapon soon, then the focus moves to missiles and drones,” Eilam said, noting that ballistic missiles would ultimately be required to deliver any future nuclear warhead. Suppressing mobile launchers, crews and command networks can reduce Iran’s firing tempo — conserving interceptor supplies while degrading Tehran’s broader military capacity, he said.

The concern is not theoretical. 

During the intense June 2025 Iran–Israel conflict, U.S. forces reportedly fired more than 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors — roughly a quarter of the global inventory — along with large numbers of ship-based Standard Missile interceptors to shield allies. 

Analysts note that replenishing high-end air defense systems such as Patriot, THAAD and SM-3 interceptors can take more than a year under current production rates.

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The Pentagon also is balancing competing demands. The same missile defense systems used to protect U.S. bases and Gulf partners are being supplied to Ukraine to defend against Russian cruise missile attacks, creating what some analysts describe as a “zero-sum” competition for inventory between Europe and the Middle East.

“There is a limit to how many THAAD missiles can be used,” Eilam said. “These are not systems you can reproduce overnight.”

The White House and Pentagon could not immediately be reached for comment. 

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President Donald Trump says he’ll soon take sides in the costly Republican Senate primary showdown in Texas between longtime Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I will be making my Endorsement soon,” the president wrote Wednesday in a social media post the day after Cornyn and Paxton advanced to a May 26 runoff election. The two heated rivals topped a crowded field of contenders in Tuesday’s primary, but since no one cleared the 50% threshold, the nomination race heads into overtime.

Trump added that he “will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!”

A Republican operative in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News Digital it’s expected Cornyn will get the president’s endorsement. However, the president has been known to change his mind on candidates or even reverse endorsements.

Cornyn or Paxton will face off in the general election against rising Democratic Party star state Rep. James Talarico, who topped progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in the Democrats’ primary. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in right-leaning Texas.

This year’s Senate showdown in Texas is one of a handful across the country that could determine if Republicans hold their majority in the chamber in the midterm elections. The GOP currently controls the chamber 53-47.

The Cornyn campaign and aligned super PACs spent nearly $100 million to run ads attacking Paxton and Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt — who came in third — with the senator charging in the closing weeks of the primary campaign that Democrats would flip the seat in the general election if Paxton was the GOP’s nominee.

Cornyn, his allies, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing messy divorce.

COMBUSTIBLE REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY IN TEXAS HEADED INTO OVERTIME

“Over the next 12 weeks, Texas Republican primary voters will hear more about my record of delivering conservative victories in the United States Senate, and learn more about Ken’s indefensible personal behavior and failures in office,” Cornyn told reporters on Tuesday night.

“Just like the primary, we have a plan to win the runoff, and we are in the process of executing it. Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton,” Cornyn vowed.

Paxton, a MAGA firebrand and longtime Trump supporter and ally who grabbed significant national attention by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, told supporters on primary night, “As we head into this runoff, we’re going to make the choice even clearer. While John Cornyn was cutting deals on gun control and amnesty, I was suing corrupt Joe Biden over 107 times.”

And he charged, “John Cornyn spent around $100 million trying to buy this seat. We’ve spent around $5 million.”

ROUND TWO OF CORNYN VS. PAXTON GETS UNDER WAY

Trump on Wednesday urged, “for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW!”

And pointing to Talarico, the president argued, “We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively.”

“Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT!” Trump warned.

Trump, whose clout over the GOP remains immense, stayed neutral in the Republican primary race. All three candidates, who sought the president’s endorsement, were in attendance Friday as Trump held an event in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“They’re in a little race together,” Trump said of Cornyn and Paxton. “You know that, right? A little bit of a race. It’s going to be an interesting one, right? They’re both great people, too.”

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the lobbying campaign to clinch the endorsement for Cornyn hasn’t stopped, and if anything, is intensifying in the hours since primary night.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that Cornyn had “a great night” against Paxton. The top Senate Republican has spent the last several months bending Trump’s ear at every opportunity to jump into the race and back the longtime incumbent.

“He’s positioned to win the runoff, and if the president endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and a lot of, you know, just 10 weeks of another spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats,” Thune said.

Thune spoke with Cornyn on Wednesday morning, and believed that Talarico was the more formidable match-up for Republicans in November — one that Cornyn was better suited to win. “The matchup that’s good for us is John Cornyn at the top of the ticket,” Thune said.

NRSC Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez told Fox News Digital, “John Cornyn remains the only candidate who guarantees state Rep. Talarico never becomes a United States senator and ensures the fight for President Trump’s Senate majority is waged in true battleground states, not Texas.”

And the Thune-aligned Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the top super PAC backing Senate Republicans, which spent millions on behalf of Cornyn in the primary campaign, made it clear in a statement early Wednesday that it will continue to support the senator in the runoff.

“SLF and its sister organizations were proud to support Senator Cornyn early, and we look forward to him securing the Republican nomination on May 26,” the group’s executive director, Alex Latcham, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a GOP political operative in Trump’s orbit told Fox News Digital that “Talarico being the nominee makes President Trump’s endorsement of Cornyn more important than ever.”

While Trump stayed neutral, his top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, helped the Cornyn campaign. And veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita, who served as co-campaign manager of Trump’s 2024 White House bid, consulted for a top Cornyn-aligned super PAC. LaCivita, in a social media post Tuesday night aimed at Paxton and his top political consultant, wrote, “the second wave is going to be a bitch.”

But on the Paxton side of the playing field, operatives and donors are confident they can unseat the senator.

Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling chief executive officer and prominent Republican donor and bundler who supports Paxton, told Fox News Digital that “this was Cornyn’s shot to fend off his challenger by getting over 50%, and he couldn’t do it. The runoff voters will be even less friendly territory for Cornyn.”

Pointing to former longtime Senate GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has often acted as a Trump foil, Eberhart said, “This race is about MAGA vs. McConnell.”

Meanwhile, Lone Star Liberty, a pro-Paxton super PAC, circulated a memo ahead of Tuesday’s election that shrugged off threats that Cornyn would succeed in the runoff by continuing to hammer the attorney general over his litany of scandals, arguing there was nothing new to offer.

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“Cornyn’s talk of ‘unleashing’ new attacks in the runoff is bluster,” the memo states. “The truth is that from day one, his forces fired every bullet they had. There are no new attacks left — only more of the same, at ever-greater cost and with ever-diminishing returns.”

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered one of his bluntest defenses yet of President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran Tuesday, sharply rejecting criticism and describing the regime as “lunatics” as he argued the president acted at the right moment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“Let me explain to you guys this in simple English, okay? Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics,” Rubio told reporters.

“They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons,” Rubio said. “This is the weakest they’ve ever been. Now is the time to go after them.”

Rubio said Trump made the “right decision” to dismantle Iran’s military capabilities before they could shield a nuclear program.

“The president made the decision to go after them, take away their missiles, take away their navy, take away their drones … so that they can never have a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said.

He acknowledged “there will be a price to pay,” but argued it would be far lower than allowing Iran to become nuclear-armed.

“That is a much lower price to pay than having a nuclear armed Iran,” he said.

Rubio grew visibly sharper when pressed on whether Israel dictated the timing of the operation.

“Your statement is false,” he told one reporter who suggested the U.S. acted because Israel was about to strike.

Rubio confirmed Monday that Israel was prepared to act independently.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,” Rubio said. “And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them … we would suffer higher casualties.”

He emphasized Tuesday that the decision ultimately rested with President Donald Trump.

“The president determined we were not going to get hit first,” Rubio said. “If you tell the president of the United States that if we don’t go first, we’re going to have more people killed and more people injured, the president is going to go first.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after a classified briefing that Israel was “determined to act … with or without American support,” and that U.S. officials concluded “a coordinated response was necessary.”

“I am convinced that they did the right thing,” Johnson said.

Despite Rubio’s harsh rhetoric toward Iran’s clerical leadership, administration officials have emphasized that the mission is not aimed at overthrowing the regime but at dismantling its military capabilities.

Rubio repeatedly framed the operation as focused on destroying Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers, drone capabilities and naval assets.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “It cannot have the things it was hiding behind to have a nuclear weapons program.”

SEN. KENNEDY PRAISES TRUMP’S RESOLVE ON IRAN, SAYS ‘WORLD IS SAFER TODAY BECAUSE OF WHAT HE’S DONE’

So far, U.S. and Israeli strikes largely have targeted missile infrastructure and military facilities. Officials have not indicated that nuclear enrichment sites have been the primary focus of the campaign.

Some Democrats questioned whether the administration demonstrated an imminent threat to the United States.

“There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. It was a threat to Israel,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said after the briefing. “We equate a threat to Israel is the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States. Then we are in uncharted territory.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said after the classified briefing, “I have no idea what the objective is, and I didn’t get any additional clarity.”

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Rubio brushed aside the criticism, predicting opponents would emerge from briefings claiming they “didn’t hear anything” while insisting the administration complied with congressional notification requirements.

“This is an action by the president to address a real threat,” Rubio said. “The world will be a safer place when these radical clerics no longer have access to these weapons.”

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Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican front-runner for governor, blasted a pro-Palestinian Columbia University student group after it posted “Death to America” in Farsi following the reported killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

“To the Columbia University Students and Faculty who posted ‘Death to America’ — I have one message for you — Get the f— out,” Blakeman said in a video message obtained by Fox News Digital.

The controversy quickly spilled into the race against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, with Blakeman arguing progressive leaders in New York have failed to confront what he calls rising anti-American extremism at elite universities.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest — which is not recognized by the university administration — describes itself as a coalition of student organizations that view a Palestinian state as “the vanguard for our collective liberation” and says it is a continuation of the Vietnam-era anti-war movement.

The group tweeted “Marg bar Amrika” — or “Death to America” — on Saturday after Khamenei was killed. X has since taken down the post.

The development infuriated Blakeman, who is now the top name in the GOP field following the withdrawal of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

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Blakeman called the situation “disgusting” in an ensuing statement and called for immediate action against the student group.

“Let’s be clear: this isn’t activism. It’s extremism and incites terror. American universities exist because of the freedoms, protections, and opportunities this country provides,” Blakeman said.

“At Columbia University, something has gone seriously wrong for many years.”

After the tweet disappeared, CUAD wrote that the social media platform forced the group to delete it to regain access to its account.

“[B]ut the sentiment still stands,” they wrote, according to the New York Post, which reported the follow-up before X again deleted the post.

The group called Khamenei’s death “devastating news” and said their “hearts are with the Iranian people [who] have every right to defend [themselves] against Zionist warfare.”

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As the university ultimately reiterated that it does not recognize the organization, CUAD wrote on X that it has “no affiliation… with the fascist state functionary known as Columbia University.”

“We operate completely outside of the purview of a registered student organization and are proud not to receive any recognition from that institution,” said the group, which also organized the tent-filled anti-Israel “sit-in” protests of 2024 in part with Mahmoud Khalil.

Khalil, a Syrian-born master’s graduate of Columbia’s School of International & Public Affairs, was held by the Trump administration at an immigration facility in Louisiana in the wake of the encampment controversy until a federal judge ordered him released.

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A Columbia University statement to the Post read in part that CUAD is “illegally using the Columbia name.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Hochul campaign for comment.

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President Donald Trump will host executives of major tech companies at the White House Wednesday afternoon to sign a pledge ensuring the tech giants protect Americans against higher electricity bills tied to data center power demand.

Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon are expected to sign the Ratepayer Protection Pledge Wednesday afternoon, Fox News Digital learned. 

The pledge will have the companies agreeing to “build, bring, or buy new generation resources and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades required for data centers,” the White House said.

The Trump administration has promoted the proliferation of artificial intelligence to keep the U.S. as the world’s tech leader, which has included the creation of new data centers and mounting concern energy prices could increase for everyday Americans. The pledge works to combat these concerns and protect Americans against spiking electricity bills. 

The pledge will also have the companies vow against passing expenses to American households.

It also commits companies to hiring and training talent from within communities where they build and operate data centers, which will create thousands of jobs and enhance workforce skills.

“President Trump’s ratepayer protection pledge will deliver more affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the American people and help stop the rising electricity prices that started during the previous administration,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said ahead of the event. “This plan will strengthen American energy dominance, while also ensuring the United States wins the AI race.”

Wright added: “We will continue partnering with technology leaders to strengthen America’s competitive edge, while keeping energy costs low for hardworking families.”

Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said Trump “continues to ensure the U.S. leads the world in AI while strengthening the grid and driving down energy costs for American families.”

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As for the tech companies, Matt Garman, chief executive officer of Amazon web services, said they are signing the pledge “to reinforce our commitment to paying our full energy costs and ensuring our data centers do not increase electricity bills for consumers.”

“We welcome the Administration’s leadership on this issue and support the pledge’s commitments, which establish a clear baseline to protect ratepayers while enabling responsible, long-term energy partnerships that strengthen the grid and the communities where data centers operate,” he said.

Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith also touted the pledge, calling it an “important step,” with Meta president and vice chair Dina Powell McCormick saying the pledge “ensures families aren’t the ones footing the bill for AI’s energy consumption.” 

McCormick said the pledge “gives companies like Meta the certainty we need to keep up the momentum, ensuring that American AI dominance and the prosperity of American families go hand-in-hand.”

And Ruth Porat of Alphabet and Google said the pledge affirms the company’s “long-held commitment to protect energy affordability for American households, accelerate breakthroughs to secure America’s energy future, and deliver energy infrastructure – all of which are critical to maintaining America’s global leadership in this era of innovation.”

“Building the infrastructure to advance AI is vital for America’s economic competitiveness and for ensuring the benefits of AI reach everyone,” OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said. “As demand for AI continues to grow, we believe the infrastructure that enables AI should benefit the communities that make it possible, and that’s why we’re proud to support the White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge.”

The White House said the pledge will contribute to “lower electricity costs, stronger grid infrastructure, and enhanced grid resilience during emergencies.”

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The president announced the Ratepayer Protection Pledge during his State of the Union address in February. 

“Tonight, I’m pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new ratepayer protection pledge,” he said. “You know what that is? We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs.”

“We have an old grid,” he said. “It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that’s needed. So I’m telling them, they can build their own plant. They’re going to produce their own electricity. It will ensure the company’s ability to get electricity, while at the same time, lowering prices of electricity for you.” 

The AI race has pitted the U.S. against China as tech leader, with the Trump administration amplifying efforts to not cede ground to the Asian nation since January 2025. Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania are among states seeing expanded data center campuses and AI growth. 

A White House official previously told Fox Digital that the president and administration have been working on the initiative for a while, including Trump posting about the issue on Truth Social in January. 

The pledge comes as affordability concerns continue to be a top issue for voters heading into the midterm election season. Democratic candidates in just a handful of races in the off-year 2025 cycle campaigned on promises of lowering costs for everyday Americans, which proved to be a winning strategy on election night. 

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Trump has consistently pushed back on Democrats promoting affordability, pointing to sky-high inflation under the Biden administration as evidence that liberal policies have left Americans’ pocketbooks with less cash. 

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DALLAS — The race for the Republican Senate nomination in Texas is heading to a high-stakes runoff, with both sides digging in for a costly, drawn-out fight.

Longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are set to continue their bitter duel after neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold in Tuesday’s primary election.

That means the race, which has become one of the most expensive primary contests in history, will drag on until May 26.

Cornyn argues he is the only candidate in the field who can win a general election in the Lone Star State — something he has done four times — especially against rising star state Rep. James Talarico, D-Texas, who toppled Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, early Wednesday morning.

But for now, his focus is on Paxton.

“Just like the primary, we have a plan to win the runoff, and we are in the process of executing it,” Cornyn said Tuesday night. “Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton.”

Paxton has styled himself as the true MAGA candidate in the race, saying he stood with President Donald Trump when others did not, particularly after the 2020 election. He told supporters in Dallas that he felt the same energy behind his campaign as when Trump announced his re-election bid for a second term.

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“Right now, I feel that same momentum, the same sense that history is turning,” Paxton said. “Now let’s talk about what just happened. John Cornyn spent around $100 million trying to buy this seat. We’ve spent around $5 million.”

“But we proved something they’ll never understand in Washington — Texas is not for sale,” he continued.

Both sides are leaning into their narratives: Cornyn casting himself as a battle-tested incumbent built for a general election fight, while Paxton presents himself as a Trump-aligned conservative who could breathe fresh life into the seat.

Cornyn has the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, and along with it, a massive war chest of campaign cash.

NRSC Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez told Fox News Digital, “John Cornyn remains the only candidate who guarantees state Rep. Talarico never becomes a United States senator and ensures the fight for President Trump’s Senate majority is waged in true battleground states, not Texas.”

The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the top super PAC backing Senate Republicans, which spent millions on behalf of Cornyn in the primary campaign, made it clear in a statement early Wednesday that it will continue to support the senator in the runoff.

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“SLF and its sister organizations were proud to support Senator Cornyn early, and we look forward to him securing the Republican nomination on May 26,” the group’s executive director, Alex Latcham, said in a statement.

But on the Paxton side of the playing field, operatives and donors are confident they can unseat the senator.

Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling chief executive officer and prominent Republican donor and bundler who supports Paxton, told Fox News Digital that “this was Cornyn’s shot to fend off his challenger by getting over 50%, and he couldn’t do it. The runoff voters will be even less friendly territory for Cornyn.”

Pointing to former longtime Senate GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has often acted as a Trump foil, Eberhart said, “This race is about MAGA vs. McConnell.”

Meanwhile, Lone Star Liberty, a pro-Paxton super PAC, circulated a memo ahead of Tuesday’s election that shrugged off threats that Cornyn would succeed in the runoff by continuing to hammer the attorney general over his litany of scandals, arguing there was nothing new to offer.

“Cornyn’s talk of ‘unleashing’ new attacks in the runoff is bluster,” the memo states. “The truth is that from day one, his forces fired every bullet they had. There are no new attacks left — only more of the same, at ever-greater cost and with ever-diminishing returns.”

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But the most consequential variable in the race may not be millions of dollars in advertising spending or stump speeches. It may be whoever Trump decides to endorse.

So far, he has stayed out of the race. He signaled last month that he liked both Cornyn and Paxton, along with Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, who dropped out of the contest after trailing in third place.

Senate Republican leadership continues to believe that a Trump endorsement of Cornyn would effectively put the race to bed and allow the party to focus on the broader Senate battleground map. That endorsement could prove even more important beyond the primary battle.

A GOP political operative in Trump’s orbit told Fox News Digital that “Talarico being the nominee makes President Trump’s endorsement of Cornyn more important than ever.”

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Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, easily defeated a primary challenger Tuesday in Texas’ 28th Congressional District, securing his party’s renomination in the southern border seat he has long represented.

The win sets up a November matchup with President Donald Trump-endorsed South Texas Judge Tano Tijerina.

Cuellar, one of the last remaining “blue dog” conservative Democrats in the House, beat challenger Ricardo Villarreal with 58.1% of the vote to 36.9% — a margin of more than 21 percentage points with 97% of ballots counted, according to The Associated Press. Andrew Vantine was in third place with 5%.

Cuellar’s primary challenge came amid renewed scrutiny over his federal indictment last year and continued tensions within his party over border policy, though he ultimately secured renomination by a comfortable margin.

He had been highly critical of the Biden administration’s handling of immigration and border security. He was later indicted by the Justice Department on federal bribery charges, which he denied.

Cuellar and his allies have characterized the case as politically motivated. He later received an unconditional pardon from Trump, who also said the charges were politically driven. Speculation swirled that Cuellar might switch parties after the pardon, but he dismissed those rumors and said he would remain a Democrat.

Cuellar served in the Texas House from 1987 to 2001 and briefly as Texas Secretary of State in 2001, making him the most recent Democrat to hold statewide office in Texas. He was first elected to Congress in 2004 after defeating incumbent Ciro Rodriguez in a primary and is known as one of the House’s more conservative Democrats. He has since won reelection comfortably, though he has faced competitive primaries in recent cycles.

Trump, meanwhile, endorsed Tijerina in the GOP race and criticized Cuellar ahead of the primary for running. 

Tijerina went on to win the Republican nomination, setting up a November matchup to represent a district that stretches from San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley.

The judge, who switched to the Republican Party in December 2024, saying the Democratic Party no longer aligned with his values, won the GOP primary with 74.3% of the vote to Eileen Day’s 25.7%, according to the AP.

Tijerina’s win was decisive, with a margin of nearly 49 percentage points after 91% of ballots were counted.

He responded to the outpouring of congratulations on social media shortly after the race was called.

“Amen! Let’s work,” he wrote in response to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

In a separate post responding to Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters — who had congratulated him and shared a message from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. — Tijerina wrote: “It’s our win!”

Tijerina has promised to buck Democrats and embrace what he calls a “new generation” of political leadership in South Texas.

He told Fox News Digital on the campaign trail that, despite the district long being considered a Democratic stronghold, the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border and focus on diversity initiatives shifted voters’ views.

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“Being a Democrat after so many years, I’m just sick and tired of seeing all the social issues that the Democrats are [promoting]. And I’m not the only one,” Tijerina said. “That’s why Webb County, that’s why South Texas, voted for Trump plus 10 numbers.”

“We have always been conservative, everybody knows it,” he continued. “Down here in South Texas, the only thing that we care about is good-paying jobs [and] making sure that we’re getting protected.”

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Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives and the race is expected to be closely watched.

Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

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War Secretary Pete Hegseth declared “America is winning” the war against Iran, saying the results in just four days of conflict have been “historic.”

Hegseth says more fighters and bombers are arriving daily to the Middle East, adding that the U.S. and Israel wills soon achieve “complete control” over Iranian airspace. Iran’s missile capabilities have been drastically diminished in the four days of fighting, and the nation’s top leadership positions remain vacant, he said.

“America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,” Hegseth said. “Only the United States of America could lead this. Only us. But when you add the Israeli Defense Forces, a devastatingly capable force, the combination is sheer destruction for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries.”

“They are toast, and they know it,” he added. “The two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies. Uncontested airspace.”

“More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today and now, with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500 pound, thousand pound and 2,000 pound. laser guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile,” he continued.

The U.S. had used “more exquisite standoff munitions” at the outset of Operation Epic Fury, Hegseth said, but the U.S. can now rely on cheaper munitions. He clarified that the U.S. stockpile of premium ordnance remains “extremely strong.

“The enemy can no longer shoot the volume of missiles they once did. Not even close,” he said.

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Hegseth also announced that the U.S. and Israel had sunk Iran’s prize warship, the Soleimani. The vessel was named after Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps who President Donald Trump had eliminated during his first administration.

“Looks like POTUS got him twice,” Hegseth quipped.

His attention then turned to the Indian Ocean, where he said a U.S. submarine sank another Iranian vessel that “thought it was safe in international waters.”

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“Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War Two,” Hegseth said.

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Former Major League Baseball star Mark Teixeira has clinched the Republican primary to succeed GOP Rep. Chip Roy in southwest Texas.

Teixeira secured more than 61% of the vote, avoiding a runoff in the 12-candidate primary field.

Teixeira announced his candidacy for the Lone Star State’s 21st Congressional District seat last August. The seat is currently held by Roy, who has said he is running for Texas attorney general.

The announcement of Teixeira’s campaign came days after Republican state lawmakers approved a redistricting map aimed at strengthening the GOP’s position in the 2026 election.

President Donald Trump endorsed Teixeira in the race, and Teixeira pledged to work with the president to secure the border and end what he described as “radical woke indoctrination.”

The Club for Growth PAC, which — along with affiliated super PACs — contributed more than $250,000 to Teixeira’s candidacy, applauded his primary victory. Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh said the group was “proud to have supported Teixeira in the race.”

“On the campaign trail, Mark Teixeira outlined his plan to lower taxes, cut red tape, and expand school freedom for every family in Texas. Voters believed in his vision, and rewarded him with the Republican nomination,” McIntosh said.

Teixeira began his MLB career with the Texas Rangers after being selected fifth overall in the 2001 MLB Draft. His 14-season career included three All-Star selections, five Gold Gloves, three Silver Slugger Awards and a World Series title with the New York Yankees in 2009. Teixeira and his family moved back to Texas in 2021 after he retired from baseball.

Teixeira defeated fellow Republican candidate Daniel Betts, who ran unsuccessfully for Travis County district attorney last year.

The 21st Congressional District covers a heavily Republican area west of Austin and San Antonio.

On the Democratic side, Dr. Kristin Hook was leading the primary field with roughly 61% of the vote Tuesday night, setting up a general election matchup in November.

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Teixeira described his primary win as a “huge victory.”

“We’re going to run a strong race and win big in November, then hit the ground running to fight for Texas families,” Teixeira said. “Thank you again, TX-21. God bless Texas, and God bless America.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem heads into a second straight day of high-stakes Capitol Hill combat Wednesday, this time facing House Democrats eager to press her on ICE arrests, warrantless operations and the Trump administration’s mass deportation push — all as a partial shutdown clouds her agency.

After sparring with Senate Democrats over DACA arrests and Election Day enforcement, Noem now enters a House Judiciary hearing stacked with vocal critics, from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas., setting up another marathon session over immigration enforcement and executive power.

Noem caught heat from both sides during a Senate hearing Tuesday, when most Republicans praised her work correcting what they view as former President Joe Biden’s failed border policies. But Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and the entirety of the Democratic side of the dais emphatically confronted her during their questioning time.

In Wednesday’s hearing, Noem is expected to go up against House Judiciary Committee ranking member Raskin early, as the Maryland Democrat has previously pressed for more oversight of Noem and DHS, including rescission of policies allowing warrantless operations.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who is likely the committee’s top progressive, has previously called for stricter oversight of DHS and has criticized Noem’s management of ICE as it carries out immigration enforcement operations in cities including Minneapolis and New Orleans.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., will also have a turn to question Noem. Her district in Delaware County was once a reliable Republican stronghold that elected a former Pennsylvania House speaker and leaned toward Trump in 2016. But it has since shifted and sided consistently with Democrats in recent elections.

Scanlon’s district has also featured numerous anti-ICE protests in visible areas such as the major intersection of Baltimore Pike and PA-320 last year, where throngs amassed to wave signs in the county’s commercial hub.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who is fighting a tough Senate primary Tuesday night, will question Noem near the end of Wednesday’s session.

Noem will also take questions from Rep. Henry “Hank” Johnson, D-Ga., and Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., both of whom clashed with Attorney General Pam Bondi just days ago.

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Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., have both been critical of ICE’s activities, as Garcia previously slammed Noem for her agency’s conduct during enforcement operations in his heavily Hispanic district in Chicago.

Noem is expected to have a less confrontational time answering questions from Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and his caucus, which includes border-state Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Kevin Kiley, Tom McClintock and Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

The wild card in committee hearings is typically Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has been criticized by the “MAGA” right for being insufficiently supportive of some of the administration’s policies.

Other members of note on the 44-member panel include Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis.

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On Tuesday, Noem clashed with ranking member Richard Durbin, D-Ill., over arrests of DACA recipients and questioned why Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., were concerned about ICE being dispatched near polling places on Election Day.

Noem appeared to ask both men whether their concern had anything to do with the idea of illegal immigrants voting in federal elections, which is illegal.

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House Oversight Committee Republicans are readying to confront Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison at a high-stakes hearing on welfare fraud Wednesday morning.

“While Governor Walz hesitated, taxpayers lost billions. Attorney General Ellison has likewise claimed his office was aggressively holding fraudsters accountable, but when his statements were tested against the record, they fell apart,” Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., will say, according to prepared opening remarks obtained by Fox News Digital.

“We have spoken with over thirty whistleblowers, many of them current employees and Democrats, who say they were ignored, retaliated against, and even surveilled for raising concerns. Instead of protecting the whistleblowers, the Walz administration protected the system that enabled fraud.”

Hours before the hearing kicked off, the committee released a 53-page report that accused both Walz and Ellison of knowing about the fraud allegations far earlier than previously thought.

“While the Committee continues to review documents and meet with whistleblowers, it is evident that Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison knew about the fraud in federal programs administered by the State of Minnesota much earlier than they told the American people,” the report said.

“Transcribed interviews with current and former public officials from the State of Minnesota have confirmed that Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison would have been aware of fraud in the [Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP)] and high-risk Medicaid programs administered by DHS as early as spring 2019 and fraud in [state food aid] programs administered by [the Minnesota Department of Education] as early as April 2020.”

Both Walz and Ellison previously pushed back on any accusations that they knowingly allowed fraud in Minnesota’s social programs, and have accused Republicans of politicizing the situation.

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The high-profile hearing is the culmination of a months-long probe by the House Oversight Committee targeting allegations of fraud in Minnesota.

The panel previously interviewed current and former officials within the state’s government, including those focused on food aid. 

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged multiple people with stealing more than $240 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future. However, the probe has since widened to multiple state-run programs being investigated for potential fraud. Childcare providers receiving state funding, mainly within the Somali community, are also under scrutiny.

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And the committee’s report accused the state’s progressive leadership of ignoring evidence of fraud in a bid to appease the Somali community in Minneapolis.

“The Committee has found that Minnesota lacked adequate oversight efforts to verify that taxpayer dollars were being used appropriately and could have stopped the flow of money to fraudsters at any time but chose not to for fear of political retribution from the politically active Somali community,” the report said.

“Further legislative efforts at the federal level are necessary to prevent this massive waste, fraud, and abuse of federal dollars from ever happening again.”

In his opening statement, Comer will call the scandal “one of the most extensive breakdowns of oversight this Committee has ever examined.”

“Billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen from social services programs while warnings piled up, whistleblowers spoke out, and state officials chose delay and denial over action,” he will say. 

“Federal prosecutors estimate that as much as $9 billion may have been stolen from just fourteen Medicaid programs administered by the State of Minnesota. As our investigation has shown, it happened because state leadership failed, repeatedly, to intervene. What we’ve uncovered in Minnesota is not a paperwork error or a few bad actors slipping through the cracks. It is a sustained failure of leadership.”

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Meanwhile, Democrats on the committee have accused Comer of trying to distract from the fallout of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis — including the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.

“I encourage folks to watch those videos and see what’s happened for themselves. And I’m hopeful that this committee investigates this incident and that we have full accountability,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said during a previous hearing on Minnesota fraud.

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted Israel did not pressure him to conduct joint military strikes on Iran, claiming that he believed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “was going to attack first.”

Days after the regime leaders were killed and war erupted in Iran, Trump addressed the decision to conduct a joint U.S.-Israel attack on the country, explaining he “might have forced Israel’s hand.”

“I might have forced their hand,” Trump said from the White House Oval Office on Tuesday. “You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. … If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. … So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”

Although sources previously told Fox News the timeline of the attack was moved up to seize an opportunity to strike regime leaders in downtown Tehran, Trump said both the U.S. and Israel were ready.

“We’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out,” the president said. “Now, their missile count is going way down. Amazingly, they’re hitting countries that were, let’s call them neutral … I think they were surprised. I was surprised, I think. Now those countries are all fighting against them and fighting strongly against them.”

Trump’s comments came after Democrats criticized his decision to launch strikes with Israel in Iran without congressional approval.

Administration officials said they provided congressional notification to the “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of top congressional intelligence leaders, ahead of the strikes, but Congress did not hold a vote to approve them.

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The Trump administration has argued the U.S. was facing an “imminent threat,” prompting military action.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was not going to “sit there and absorb a blow” from Iran, while War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation was not a “so-called regime change war” or an open-ended conflict like that in Iraq.

Trump said he believes regardless of whether the U.S. took part in the strikes on Iran, Democrats would have been unhappy with his decision.

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“If I didn’t do this, guys like [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer who — losers, the Democrats [are] losers — … would say, ‘well, you should have done this.’ In other words, if I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, ‘that you should have done this.’”

He added he has “never had more compliments” on presidential action he has taken, noting “people felt that something had to be done.”

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“We [might] have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe lower than even before,” Trump said.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

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U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is claiming Republicans tried to rig her primary race against moderate Texas State Rep. James Talarico, District-50, on Tuesday after the state’s Supreme Court ruled in an emergency decision against her campaign’s request to give voters from Dallas County an extension to sort out confusion about Republican-led changes to polling locations. 

On Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats did not hold joint primaries, leading to polling location restrictions that Democrats, like Crockett, claimed were disenfranchising voters. 

Crockett’s claims came after the Texas Supreme Court knocked down a lower judge’s ruling to keep polling places open longer, mandating that any votes cast after the initial closing time be separated. Democrats pushed for polling locations to be open longer amid polling location restrictions that resulted from Republicans and Democrats not holding joint primaries.

“Knowing that Dallas County is a big dump of votes, we, in my opinion, will not know the election results overall tonight,” Crockett told supporters who gathered to celebrate her potential victory.

“So, that’s my news, is that we’re not going to have election results tonight, in my opinion, based upon what specifically is taking place in Dallas County. Unfortunately, this is what Republicans like to do. And, so, they specifically targeted Dallas County, and I think we all know why.” 

The Texas High Court’s decision to undo a lower court’s ruling from earlier in the night that had given voters in Dallas County until 9:00 p.m. to cast their ballot instructed tabulators to disregard votes that came in after 7:00 p.m.

“I can tell you now that people have been disenfranchised,” Crockett told supporters at a campaign event on Tuesday evening as the courts’ back-and-forth played out. “In my opinion, we will not know the election results overall tonight.”

JASMINE CROCKETT UNDER FIRE AFTER REPORTEDLY HAVING ARMED GUARDS REMOVE ‘WHITE GIRL’ REPORTER FROM RALLY

Voters ran into confusion on Tuesday evening amid the decision of certain counties — including Dallas — to separate out the locations where voters could cast ballots for Republican and Democrat primaries.

Under Texas law, party leaders can object to conducting their primaries together, at the same locations and through the same equipment. For Tuesday’s primaries, counties like Houston decided to forgo joint primaries to protect against crossover voting, fearing that holding Republican and Democratic elections at the same locations could invite sabotage.

Meanwhile, voters in Texas can also participate in any primary without party registration due to it hosting open primaries.

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“They specifically targeted Dallas County, and I think we all know why,” Crockett said Tuesday night. 

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AUSTIN, TEXAS – James Talarico, a Democratic state lawmaker from Texas with a surging national profile, defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a nationally known politician, progressive firebrand, and vocal critic and foil of President Donald Trump, to win the Democratic Senate primary in Texas, according to the Associated Press.

Talarico, 36, will now try to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in Texas, as he faces off against the winner of a bruising Republican primary runoff between longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

This year’s Senate showdown in Texas is one of a handful across the country that could determine if Republicans hold their majority in the chamber in the midterm elections. The GOP currently controls the chamber 53-47.

In the final weeks leading up to Tuesday’s Democratic primary, race became a key factor in the showdown between Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who is considered a rising star among Democrats, and Crockett, a civil rights attorney first elected to Congress in 2022.

Talarico, who is White, was accused a month ago by an influencer of calling former Rep. Colin Allred, a former rival for the 2026 Senate nomination, a “mediocre Black man.” 

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Morgan Thompson, the influencer who goes by the username @morga_tt on TikTok, in a social media post claimed Talarico told her in a private conversation that he had “signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable, intelligent, Black woman.”

Pushing back against Thompson’s characterization of their conversation, Talarico said in a statement, “In my praise of Congresswoman Crockett, I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre — but his life and service are not. I would never attack him on the basis of race.”

Allred, responding in a social media video on Monday, said: “James, if you want to compliment Black women, just do it. Just do it. Don’t do it while also tearing down a Black man.”

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The 44-year-old Crockett, who is Black, said in a statement that Allred “drew a line in the sand.”

“He made it clear that he did not take allegations of an attack on him as simply another day in the neighborhood, but more importantly, his post wasn’t about himself,” Crockett, who was endorsed by Allred, said. “It was a moment that he decided to stand for all people who have been targeted and talked about in a demeaning way as our country continues to be divided.”

A couple of weeks later, Crockett claimed that a Talarico-aligned super PAC had darkened her skin tone in an ad and said it was “straight up racist.”

She also argued late last month that talk that she wasn’t electable statewide was a “dog whistle” that was “tearing down a Black woman,” and that she was the “most qualified” candidate.

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Talarico, who was first elected to the Texas House in 2018 by flipping a red district in northeast Austin and surrounding suburbs, highlighted his ability to win over Republican voters. And he questioned whether Crockett could run a competitive general election campaign.

While dramatically outraising and outspending Crockett the past two months, Talarico cast himself as the underdog in the primary battle against the better-known congresswoman.

Talarico, who speaks openly about his faith and how it shapes his progressive policy agenda, last year started garnering national attention through a slew of social media appearances that went viral. Also boosting his profile were his TikTok videos, which have grabbed millions of views, and his appearance last July on Joe Rogan’s top-rated podcast.

Rogan suggested during the interview that Talarico should run for president.

A month later, Talarico was a regular on the cable news networks, conducting dozens of national media interviews, as he and dozens of his fellow Democrats in the Texas House fled the state for weeks, to delay the eventual Trump-led redistricting push in Texas to create up to five more right-leaning congressional seats

Talarico launched his Senate campaign a month later, in September.

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Last month, Talarcio grabbed even more national attention when his appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was bumped off broadcast TV and instead appeared on YouTube. Colbert accused his network, CBS, of blocking the interview by citing guidelines from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The controversy appeared to boost Talarico, with his campaign saying they hauled in $2.5 million in fundraising in the 24 hours “following his censored” interview.

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Four-term Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, lost his Republican primary battle on Tuesday to Steve Toth, a state representative and businessman, following years of turmoil between Crenshaw and the MAGA faction of the Republican Party that questioned Crenshaw’s loyalty to Trump.

The 2nd Congressional District primary that ended Tuesday with Toth beating out Crenshaw drew a sharp line within the Republican Party. Crenshaw was not formally endorsed by President Donald Trump or Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, endorsed Toth after he reportedly got into a tiff with Crenshaw at the airport over whether the senator was working against the representative’s reelection.

Ahead of the Tuesday primary, Toth positioned himself as the more loyal conservative, comparing Crenshaw to a “version of Liz Cheney,” who, when in Congress, found herself frequently at odds with Trump before exiting public office.

Toth, a Texas State Representative since 2019 who also owns a residential and commercial pool management company, received endorsements from the House Freedom Caucus, Turning Point USA, Sen. Cruz, Texas Right to Life, 21 Republican colleagues from the Texas state legislature and some high-profile local conservatives.

Meanwhile, Crenshaw received endorsements from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, leader of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., the National Border Patrol Council, and the National Rifle Association, among others. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also told media ahead of the primary that he “supported” Crenshaw, and that “hopefully he pulls it out.”   

Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost his eye in combat and currently sits on the powerful House intelligence committee, fought back against the label that he was an insufficiently loyal MAGA Republican ahead of the primary.

“My relationship with Trump is good,” Crenshaw told the Houston Chronicle, which also endorsed the incumbent congressman, in advance of Tuesday’s primary. “I work very closely with his administration. I’m close with Pete Hegseth and John Ratcliffe and Kash Patel, because this is all within my scope too on the [House] Intelligence Committee. We work very closely together with the White House. You’d have to not pay attention to any of that to think I’m not ‘Trump’ enough.”

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In 2020, Crenshaw ran unopposed, then won about two-thirds of the vote in the following 2022 primary, according to Ballotpedia. But, in 2024, according to the database, Crenshaw’s popularity dipped significantly to around just 60% in the primary.

Just days ahead of Tuesday’s primary, reports surfaced of Crenshaw and Cruz getting into a tense exchange at the airport, during which Crenshaw allegedly accused Cruz of working against him in the House primary. According to reporting, Cruz responded: “If I’m working against you, you’re gonna know it.” 

Days later, he dropped his Toth endorsement, followed by a paid ad to get the word out.

“You deserve an unwavering fighter, a Republican who walks the walk,” Cruz says in the ad, which does not refer to Crenshaw.

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Crenshaw had a substantial fundraising advantage over his opponents, but also faced redistricting changes in his district that drew parts of Toth’s home district into the race.

Toth will take on Democratic nominee and investment banker Shaun Finnie, who ran unopposed in the primary, during November’s general election to be the next Representative of Texas’s 2nd Congressional District covering parts of the greater Houston and surrounding areas.

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Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper have secured the Republican and Democratic nominations respectively to succeed retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Whatley, of Boone, and Cooper, of Nashville, were heavily favored to win their contests in a state that has been tough for Republicans at the gubernatorial level and for Democrats at the presidential level.

Cooper faced businessman Daryl Farrow and technology sector consultant Justin Dues — both prior candidates for U.S. House — along with Pastor Orrick Quick and several perennial candidates.

Whatley faced retired Navy JAG officer Don Brown, who previously ran for Congress against Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C. Another major GOP candidate was former Wake County school board candidate Michele Morrow.

Immigration has been a key issue in the race, as Whatley has hammered Cooper for repeatedly vetoing bills from Raleigh’s state legislative Republican majority that would have compelled local cooperation with ICE.

“If Roy Cooper had not vetoed legislation that would have forced sheriffs to honor the ICE detainers, then these people would not have been on the street,” Whatley said.

ICE, along with Tarheel State-native Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, captured at least 120 illegal immigrants in Charlotte and the Triangle during operations last year.

“It’s unfortunate that the Trump administration has to go into a city like Charlotte and help to clean up the city. It would be great if the state and the local officials were to be as concerned for their citizens as they were for the illegal immigration advocates that they’re pushing,” Whatley added at the time.

Cooper vetoed at least three bills during his eight-year tenure dealing with ICE cooperation that were drafted by the GOP-majority legislature.

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In August 2019, Cooper vetoed a bill from current House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Lenoir, that would have required sheriffs to honor ICE detainers and hold suspects until they could be transferred to the feds.

Cooper reportedly said the bill was trying to use “fear to divide North Carolina,” but the effort eventually succeeded as part of a package expanding private-school vouchers.

Cooper has pushed back, with a spokesman telling Fox News Digital that sheriffs in Wake, Mecklenburg and Durham counties all opposed Republicans’ legislation – and backed his own move to veto them. Eight other sheriffs backed Cooper’s veto.

“Roy Cooper is the only candidate who spent his career prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars, and numerous North Carolina sheriffs spoke out against this legislation at the time because of a lack of resources; a problem that Washington, D.C. insider and Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley has made worse because of his support for cuts to local law enforcement,” the spokesman said.

The race sets up a high-stakes fall general election, where Whatley hopes to maintain Republicans’ grip on the seat, and a Cooper win could throw the Senate’s Republican majority into jeopardy.

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The last time a Democrat held a North Carolina U.S. Senate seat was from 2009–2015 with Sen. Kay Hagan, whom Tillis eventually defeated.

Before that, scandal-plagued vice presidential candidate John Edwards split the state’s representation with Republican Elizabeth Dole, the wife of 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole.

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