NationalWatch

Republicans in both chambers of Congress are preparing to band together to block any hope of a Democrat-backed border bill getting to the finish line. 

In a letter to senators dated Sunday evening, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed his plan to bring an immigration bill to the floor once again after it was rejected primarily by Senate Republicans in February. 

“We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border,” he wrote. 

DUELING IVF BILLS TAKE CENTER STAGE AS PARTIES BUTT HEADS ON REPRODUCTIVE TECH REGULATION

He noted that he doesn’t expect to get full support from either party, but described the border measure negotiated by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and James Lankford, R-Okla., as “a tough, serious-minded, and – critically, bipartisan – proposal to secure our border.”

The White House promptly backed Schumer’s plan, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling on “every senator to put partisan politics aside and vote to secure the border.”

BALANCE OF POWER: VULNERABLE DEMS LOOK TO DIFFERENTIATE THEMSELVES FROM UNPOPULAR BIDEN

Republicans were quick to push back on the majority leader’s characterization of the bill. “The fake border bill will fail, again, because it does nothing to seriously secure the border – just cement outrageous levels of illegal immigration,” wrote Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

“Ironically, some Democrats will vote against it, because even pretending to limit illegal immigration is a step too far for them,” he added. 

The bill failed a test vote in February, by a vote of 49-50, short of the 60 votes needed to proceed. 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., slammed Democrats reviving the bill as “political theatre.” 

“He thinks this vote will make you think Republicans are to blame for Biden’s border crisis,” he wrote on X. 

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., similarly labeled Schumer’s plan as “kabuki theater.” 

Republicans were quick to reject the negotiated legislation after hearing some of the elements and seeing the bill text, which many described as weak and even counterproductive. 

SEN DURBIN DEMANDS JUSTICE ALITO RECUSE FROM TRUMP CASES AFTER FLYING UPSIDE-DOWN US FLAG

Lankford, who notably helped craft the bill, denounced last week the then-speculation of Schumer bringing the measure back to the floor. “Listen, if we’re going to solve the border issues, it’s not going to by doing competing messaging bills. If we’re going to solve this, let’s sit down like adults and let’s figure out how we’re going to actually resolve this together,” he said in floor remarks.

Lankford was one of only four in his party to vote in favor of moving forward with the negotiated bill in February. It’s unclear if he would support it again. 

His fellow negotiator, Murphy, has led the charge to reconsider the bill. “Republicans don’t care about fixing the border,” he wrote Monday on X. “They want the border a mess because it helps them politically.”

It’s unlikely that the measure will be able to get 60 votes in order to move forward, spelling doom for the bill a second time. But if it were to get past the upper chamber, House Republican leadership made it clear it would be “dead on arrival” in its lower counterpart. 

AOC RIPS FETTERMAN FOR COMPARING HOUSE TO ‘JERRY SPRINGER’ SHOW: ‘I STAND UP TO BULLIES’

In a statement, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Republican conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said, “Leader Schumer is trying give his vulnerable members cover by bringing a vote on a bill which has already failed once in the Senate because it would actually codify many of the disastrous Biden open border policies that created this crisis in the first place.”

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They further highlighted several tougher illegal immigration and border bills that have been passed by the Republican-majority House. “If Senate Democrats were actually serious about solving the problem and ending the border catastrophe, they would bring up H.R. 2 and pass it this week,” they said. 

H.R.2 includes nearly all Republican priorities and has been disregarded by Democratic leaders. Schumer previously remarked that the bill was full of “hard-right border policies” and said it would never be able to pass through Congress. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene responded to Rep. Jasmine Crockett on Monday for seeking to profit off her dust-up with the Georgia Republican during a chaotic House hearing last week.

Crockett’s campaign filed a trademark application on Sunday for the phrase “bleach blonde bad built butch body,” to be used for hats, hoodies, socks, and t-shirts, among other things, according to a document viewed by Fox News Digital.

“I’m very happy with myself. I turn 50 on Monday, and I’m so excited that I’m still alive and healthy and have done so much in life. And I think no matter what shape, size or how we look, we need to be ourselves, not telling women the only way to be attractive or accepted is to have fake boobs, fake hair, fake lashes, and injected faces,” Greene told Fox News Digital. “I mean, we all wear makeup and do lashes and stuff sometimes, but it’s out of control. Women need a better message for women.”

Tensions ran high at last week’s late night House Oversight Committee meeting to advance a contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland.

DOJ WILL NOT TURN OVER BIDEN’S RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR TO CONGRESS

At one point, Crockett criticized Greene’s line of inquiry to fellow Democrats on the committee, to which Greene responded, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”

It prompted a flurry of jeers from Crockett’s fellow Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who forced the panel to vote on whether Greene could speak further. 

Just as Greene was recognized, Crockett asked Comer for clarification, “I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling, if someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde bad built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”

A day later, Crockett announced “A Crockett Clapback Collection” that would “feature various swag that includes random things I’ve said.”

HOUSE GOP THREATENS TO HOLD AG GARLAND IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS OVER RECORDINGS OF BIDEN INTERVIEW IN HUR CASE

“The money will go to ensuring that we have a Democratic House!” she wrote X, formerly Twitter, accompanied by a photo of a male model wearing a black shirt emblazoned with her remarks about Greene.

Greene appeared to indirectly respond with a video of herself on the platform lifting weights, lauding herself as “built and strong.”

Crockett, meanwhile, accused Greene of racism during a recent CNN interview. She mentioned Greene’s comment about her eyelashes.

A spokesperson for Greene said, “The only person who has made this about color is Jasmine Crockett when she attacked MTG’s hair.”

The spokesperson also pointed out that Crockett’s new fundraising venture comes after multiple Democrats accused House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., of fundraising off of that hearing and other committee proceedings.

SEN DURBIN MULLS REVIVING TOOL THAT COULD STYMIE TRUMP NOMINEES IN ANOTHER TERM

At one point, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the committee, said in the hearing, “There is an ethics principle that no solicitation of a campaign or political contribution may be linked to an action taken or to be taken by a member or employee in his or her official capacity. That’s just a reminder to my side. I hope that nobody is linking specific actions that you’re taking on the Oversight Committee to campaign contributions or solicitations.”

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The Greene spokesman accused Democrats of “pure hypocrisy.”

But Crockett’s office responded to Fox News Digital, “The condemnation of Comer’s email was not merely because it referred the Committee, but rather because the content within it that clearly violates ethics rules.”

“In contrast, Rep. Crockett did not engage in an official act merely by saying these six words and one would be hard pressed to find how these six words could be found as one,” Crockett’s office added.

Fox News Digital reached out to Raskin’s office to ask whether his comments extended to Crockett as well. Fox News Digital also reached out to Crockett’s campaign for a response to Greene.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California took a moment in his keynote speech at the Vatican’s Climate Summit last week to jab Donald Trump, accusing the former president of cozying up with big oil companies in what he called “open corruption.”

“And with respect and, forgive me, if this comes off a little too harsh. It’s been said and I’ll repeat it: the polluted heart of the climate crisis are these fossil fuel companies that have been lying to us,” Newsom said in his 10-minute speech Thursday. “They’ve been deceiving us. They’ve known the science. They’ve denied the science. They’ve delayed advancement.”

“And in peril of further alienating some, I have to call this out as well. I don’t want to talk in the paradigm of a political conscience – I mentioned two Republicans, but let me mention one other,” Newsom continued. “Former President Donald Trump, who just last week, I never thought I’d see this. I’ve heard it, but I’ve never seen it. Donald Trump, just last week, had oil executives convening, talking about his election. And he openly asked them for $1 billion to roll back the environmental progress of the Biden administration, the environmental progress that we’ve made over the course of the last half century. Open corruption.”

NEWSOM IGNORING CALIFORNIA CRISES TO PROMOTE HIMSELF IN PRO-ABORTION CAMPAIGN, GOP LAWMAKERS SAY

Newsom’s reference was to a meeting the former president reportedly had at Mar-a-Lago with top oil excecutives, the New York Times reported earlier this month, citing two people who were present at the meeting. 

The Vatican summit, which was spearheaded by Pope Francis in 2022 after he deemed climate change an “ecological sin” caused by human negligence, is organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. According to the academy, so-called climate resilience “requires both cross-disciplinary partnerships among researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs, as well as [transdisciplinary] partnerships between science and community leaders including faith leaders, NGOs, and the public.”

“Mayors and Governors form the core of such transdisciplinary partnerships,” it says on its website.

During Newsom’s speech, he also hailed California as a leading example in its progressive green energy policies, as the state is investing more than $48 billion in climate change initiatives alone, including $10 billion in zero-emission vehicles and chargers.

“California has exceeded its nation-leading environmental goals,” Newsom said. “We’re in the ‘how’ business, and it’s about the power of emulation, proving that we can run the fifth-largest economy, its economic engine, as we change the way we produce and consume energy.”

However, the Golden State will fail to meet its climate change mandates unless it nearly triples its rate of reduction of greenhouse gases through 2030, an analysis in March by Beacon Economics, an L.A.-based economic research firm, reported. Newsom’s office dismissed the report at the time to Fox News Digital and said “we’ll continue proving everybody wrong.”

OUTSPOKEN PRO-ABORTION GOVERNOR GETS SPEAKING SLOT AT VATICAN SUMMIT

Nonetheless, Newsom’s invitation to speak at a prominent Vatican event came as a surprise to many. Newsom, who is Catholic, has touted social progressive policies – often at odds with the Catholic Church’s dogma – in his state since he assumed office in 2019. 

One of those policies was when the blue-state leader made California the first “sanctuary state” in 2022 for transgender children from more restrictive states seeking sex-change surgeries. Meanwhile, the Vatican also formally reaffirmed and expanded on the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding gender theory – which it holds as an inadmissible ideology – asserting that attempts to alter an individual’s immutable gender are ultimately misguided attempts to play God.

But in an interview that aired Sunday, Pope Francis took aim at conservatives opposed to the evolutionary doctrines of the Catholic Church, saying they held a “suicidal attitude” toward it. 

VATICAN PREPARING DOCUMENT ON ‘IMMORAL TENDENCIES’: GENDER THEORY, SURROGACY, AND MORE

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Francis was asked about his controversial comments about LGBTQ individuals and the Vatican’s endorsement of blessings for individuals in same-sex relationships during the “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday. Host Norah O’Donnell asked him if he had a message for conservative bishops in the U.S. who’ve criticized his “efforts to revisit teachings and traditions” in the church.

“You used an adjective, ‘conservative.’ That is, conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that,” Francis said. “It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.”

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report. 

Pennsylvania may be 1,600 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, but the GOP candidate aiming to flip the crucial Northeast battleground state’s Democratic-held Senate seat from blue to red this fall is spotlighting the combustible issues of border security and immigration.

Republican Dave McCormick claims that a new move by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, to vote this week on a standalone border policy bill is “the height of cynicism.”

McCormick is challenging longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. in a high-profile and expensive Senate showdown that is one of a handful across the country that will likely decide whether the GOP wins back the Senate majority.

The GOP Senate nominee, a West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran, and former hedge fund executive and Treasury Department official in George W. Bush’s administration, spent the weekend touring the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.

IT’S GAME ON IN THIS BATTLEGROUND STATE’S CRUCIAL SENATE RACE 

McCormick, in an interview Monday morning on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” took aim at President Biden, charging that the situation at the southern border is “a leadership failure that you just can’t believe.”

“I’m on the border at 2 a.m. and about 50 illegal migrants walk across the border. In that group that I saw there’s five or six military-aged men from Syria and there’s a handful of Chinese nationals, just when I was there at 2 in the morning,” McCormick recollected. 

McCormick argued that it’s “a killer on two levels… the cartels are not just in the drug business, they’re in the human trafficking business.”

REPUBLICANS CLAIM CASEY’S SHIFTED HIS STANCE ON BORDER CRISIS

Illegal immigration and border security have long been top of mind for Republican voters, and GOP leaders for over three years have heavily criticized Biden and his administration over the surge in migrant crossings, as well as the smuggling of deadly fentanyl, across the border. The president’s approval rating on handling the border and immigration remains deeply underwater. 

The issue is front and center not only in the rematch between Biden and former President Trump, but it’s also in the spotlight in this year’s battle for the Senate majority.

McCormick returned to Pennsylvania from his trip to the border on Sunday, as Schumer in a letter to fellow senators wrote, “We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border.”

The bipartisan border security bill was negotiated by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. The measure went down to defeat earlier this year when most Republicans withdrew their support at the urging of Trump, in an apparent move to prevent Biden from securing a victory on the key campaign issue.

The bill is not expected to pass this time around, with most Republicans, including Lankford, still opposed, as well as a handful of far-left Democrats. The vote appears to be an election-year move by Schumer to paint Republicans as putting campaign politics over policy and unwilling to solve the border crisis.

And House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said if the bill reaches his chamber, it would once again be “dead on arrival.”

SCHUMER SAYS SENATE TO VOTE ON BORDER SECURITY BILL THIS WEEK

McCormick argued that the move by Schumer is “the height of cynicism.”

And he claimed that “the bipartisan legislation that was put forward is in fact essentially giving resources to accelerate the processing of the asylum cases, not to secure the border. And so that’s why I oppose it.”

“Right now, Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey are working to accelerate the resettling of illegal immigrants into our communities, not to secure the border,” McCormick charged.

But Democrats counter that the Border Act would not only reform U.S. asylum laws – by making modifications to parole and asylum provisions – but also lead to the hiring of thousands of border agents.

McCormick, who has repeatedly highlighted border security and immigration as he runs a second straight time for the Senate, claimed, “If Joe Biden and Bob Casey really wanted to do something about the border, they would have done something years ago…. Democrats don’t want to deal with it until it becomes a political challenge, which is where we are now.”

Casey has been a leading voice among Senate Democrats in recent months in urging more action from the White House to deal with the immigration and fentanyl crisis at the southern border.

“In order to meaningfully address the fentanyl crisis, law enforcement officers at our Nation’s borders must be equipped to combat the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs,” Casey and 16 of his Senate colleagues wrote earlier this year in a letter to Biden. “We must also support the law enforcement agencies that are investigating these smuggling and trafficking crimes and working to disrupt the transnational criminal networks that threaten our country and our communities.”

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But the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, pointing to Casey’s voting record in the Senate, has argued that he pushed certain immigration fixes during election years and voted against them in off years – a characterization Casey’s office disputes. 

In a statement earlier this year to Fox News Digital, Maddy McDaniel, communications director for Bob Casey for Senate, said, “Casey has a long record of working to strengthen border security and passing bipartisan legislation to combat fentanyl smuggling across the border.”

McDaniel also charged that “McCormick refused to support a bipartisan bill that was called the ‘toughest border and immigration law in modern history,’ was supported by border patrol and would have cracked down on fentanyl trafficking – that’s why Pennsylvanians know McCormick can’t be trusted.”

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen is mulling a run for Congress. 

The admission came on the witness stand Monday on what is his fourth day of testimony in the NY v. Trump case.

Cohen told the court that he would pursue congressional office because he has the “best name recognition out there.” He did not elaborate if he would run in New York, or if he would run as a Republican or Democrat. 

Trump attorney Todd Blanche pressed Cohen if his name recognition is due to Trump, sparking Cohen to explain that his well-known name is partly due to his work for Trump, but is not because of Trump. 

NY V TRUMP: MICHAEL COHEN ADMITS TO STEALING TENS OF THOUSANDS FROM FORMER PRESIDENT’S BUSINESS

“My name recognition is because of the journey I have been on,” Cohen said. 

His testimony in Manhattan court came amid him also saying that he worked on pitching a TV show about himself, called “The Fixer,” but that it has not yet been picked up by a network. 

Cohen has previously floated a potential congressional run, including earlier this month on his TikTok account when he said he would run as a Democrat, the Washington Post reported.  

TRUMP SLAMS NY COURT SYSTEM, BOASTS HE’S GOING ‘TO WIN’ EMPIRE STATE

“I am interested and there’s a multitude of folks encouraging me to run,” Cohen said of a potential congressional run last year in comments to Semafor. 

He also previously ran as a Republican for New York City Council in the early 2000s, Spectrum News previously reported. A Democrat defeated Cohen in his quest for the seat. 

Cohen is a disbarred attorney who was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 after he pleaded guilty to charges including campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress. Cohen’s testimony in the NY v. Trump case included him detailing last week that he also lied under oath to Judge William H. Pauley, who sentenced him to three years in prison. 

NY V. TRUMP TO RESUME WITH CONTINUED CROSS-EXAMINATION OF MICHAEL COHEN AS TRIAL NEARS CONCLUSION

Cohen has been slammed as a “grifter” by some critics and legal experts. Last week, ​​a lawyer who formerly advised Cohen, Robert Costello, testified before Congress that Cohen is a serial liar.

NY V TRUMP: AS ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES, TRUMP ALLIES FLOCK TO COURT TO ‘SUPPORT THEIR FRIEND’

NY v. Trump focuses on the prosecution team trying to prove Trump falsified business records 34 times to conceal a $130,000 payment to former pornography star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an affair with Trump. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case and has repeatedly denied any affair with Daniels. 

BIDEN MOCKED FOR APPARENT SMALL SHOWING OF SUPPORTERS IN DEM CITY: ‘NOBODY CARED’

Trump briefly addressed the media on Monday morning – when court started nearly an hour earlier than it’s typical 9:30 a.m. start time – where he slammed the case as one promoted by the Biden administration and Department of Justice ahead of the 2024 election, and lamented that the trial has kept him from the campaign trail. 

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“It’s an attack on [President Biden’s] political opponent. That’s all it is. All of the things you saw over the last four weeks, most of it should have never even been brought up. And then on top of that, there’s no crime. And we go on day after day. And I have to tell Iowa, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t be able to make it.’ I tell New Hampshire, ‘Sorry, I won’t be able to make it. I’m sitting in an ice box all day,'” he said. 

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen admitted in testimony Monday that he stole thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization by overstating how much he paid a tech company that provided services for the Trump Organization. 

“You stole from the Trump Org, right?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen Wednesday morning. 

“Yes, sir,” Cohen responded. 

The testimony stems from his comments last week, when he detailed to the court that he and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg calculated a $420,000 repayment to Cohen for his $130,000 payment to former pornography star Stormy Daniels. Cohen’s payment to Daniels came ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. 

TRUMP SLAMS NY COURT SYSTEM, BOASTS HE’S GOING ‘TO WIN’ EMPIRE STATE

Cohen previously testified that the repayment was “grossed up” to prevent him from taking a tax hit, and also included reimbursement for paying tech company Red Finch an alleged $50,000. 

NY V. TRUMP TO RESUME WITH CONTINUED CROSS-EXAMINATION OF MICHAEL COHEN AS TRIAL NEARS CONCLUSION

Cohen testified Monday that he went to TD Bank and withdrew cash over a couple of days to pay Red Finch for its services, which he stored in a brown paper bag. The cash ultimately totaled about $20,000, which he gave to Red Finch’s CEO, according to Cohen, but he said he never gave the company the total $50,000. 

During a 2017 meeting on the repayment plan, Cohen said he told Weisselberg he paid Red Finch $50,000 – meaning he pocketed a $30,000 difference. 

NY V TRUMP: AS ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES, TRUMP ALLIES FLOCK TO COURT TO ‘SUPPORT THEIR FRIEND’

“You lied to Weisselberg about how much you needed for Red Finch?” Blanche asked Cohen, and Cohen confirmed he had. 

He testified that the Trump Organization thought he paid the full amount, for which he was still reimbursed despite not having actually paid it.

“Have you paid back the Trump Organization for the money you stole from them?” Blanche also asked Monday.

“No, sir,” Cohen responded.

BIDEN MOCKED FOR APPARENT SMALL SHOWING OF SUPPORTERS IN DEM CITY: ‘NOBODY CARED’

Cohen’s testimony marks the fourth day he has taken the stand. Trump’s legal team last week said they anticipated wrapping up cross-examination with Cohen on Monday. Closing arguments for the case are anticipated next Tuesday, following the Memorial Day holiday. 

Cohen’s testimony last week included him describing that he used his personal funds to pay Daniels in 2016 through a home equity line of credit. Cohen testified he did this because Trump told him to “handle it” because the story could be damaging to the campaign. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case, and has also repeatedly denied ever having an affair with Stormy Daniels. 

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Last week, ​​a lawyer who formerly advised Cohen, Robert Costello, testified before Congress that Cohen is a serial liar. Costello testified before Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s grand jury in March, before Trump was indicted, and recalled interactions with Cohen. 

Fox News Digital’s Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report. 

President Biden appeared to claim he was vice president during the coronavirus pandemic and that former President Barack Obama had dispatched him to Detroit to help with the response.

In comments first reported by the New York Post, Biden addressed an NAACP campaign event in Michigan Sunday night, where he repeatedly railed against his presumptive Republican opponent, former President Trump, while offering an aside about the contagion – which began in 2019 while the latter was in office.

“When I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic,” Biden said near the beginning of his remarks.

“And, what happened was Barack said to me: Go to Detroit – help fix it.”

BIDEN BIZARRELY ENDS CONNECTICUT SPEECH WITH ‘GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, MAN’

Going on to reference Detroit Democratic Mayor Mike Duggan, who was seated to Biden’s right, the president continued, “Well, the poor mayor – he’s spent more time with me than he ever thought he’s going to have to.”

Duggan then rose and shook Biden’s hand.

The pandemic, numbered COVID-19 due to global health officials having deemed it an outbreak in 2019, transpired in the latter years of Trump’s term, not Obama’s. Biden succeeded Trump during the denouement of the pandemic.

Elsewhere in the speech, Biden referenced working with civil rights activists in his youth, and quipped that Detroit helped “put food on” his family’s table, as his father, Joseph Biden Sr., was in the automobile business.

BIDEN DROPS EMBARRASSING GAFFES DAYS AFTER LIBERAL MEDIA HYPES SOTU PERFORMANCE

Reserving much of his remarks for criticism of Trump, Biden claimed at one juncture that “MAGA Republicans” want to engage in book-banning and other endeavors he described as extremist.

“All that progress is at risk. Trump is trying to make the country forget just how dark things were… when he was president,” Biden said.

“We will never forget him lying about how serious the pandemic was, telling Americans ‘just inject bleach’ – I think that’s what he did. I think that’s why he’s so screwy.”

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In another jab, Biden warned against his predecessor potentially nominating more justices to the Supreme Court: “Do you think he’ll put anybody [there] who has a brain?”

“It’s clear when he lost in 2020, and I mean this sincerely: something snapped in Trump. He just can’t accept he lost… That’s why January 6 happened.”

A mid-April Fox News Poll in Michigan found 46% of registered voters there support Biden, while 49% support Trump. Trump gained two percentage points in that survey over a similar one conducted in February. Two years prior, Biden led Trump by eight percentage points in the Great Lakes State.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

Former President Donald Trump ripped the New York justice system in comments ahead of court Monday, while touting that he believes he can win the historically blue Empire State this election cycle. 

“The criminal justice system is on trial in New York,'” Trump said Monday morning, reading an excerpt from legal expert and lawyer Alan Dershowitz. He then added: “I love this state. I love the people of the state. I’m running hard in New York,” Trump said Monday morning. 

“I think we’re going to win New York,” he said. 

Trump also cited other cases he’s faced in the state while slamming the court system as “corrupt.” 

TRUMP WARNS TROUBLE BREWING WITH STRENGTHENED RUSSIA-CHINA TIES AS HE’S STUCK IN ‘ICEBOX’ COURTROOM

BIDEN MOCKED FOR APPARENT SMALL SHOWING OF SUPPORTERS IN DEM CITY: ‘NOBODY CARED’

Trump is back in Manhattan for his 19th day in court, where his former attorney Michael Cohen faces ongoing cross-examination. The case focuses on the prosecution team trying to prove Trump falsified business records 34 times to conceal a $130,000 payment to former pornography star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an affair with Trump. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case and has maintained his innocence. 

Trump’s legal team said last week they expect to wrap up questioning with Cohen early Monday morning. Closing arguments could begin as early as Tuesday. 

Trump’s remarks Monday morning included lamenting that the court’s earlier than typical start time – which began at 8:45 a.m. as opposed to its usual 9:30 a.m. start – which he said prevented him from campaign obligations. 

NY V. TRUMP TO RESUME WITH CONTINUED CROSS-EXAMINATION OF MICHAEL COHEN AS TRIAL NEARS CONCLUSION

“I’m here instead of campaigning. As you know, I was supposed to be in a very different state this morning, and the judge actually decided to call it early. And yet it looks like we’re going have a very big gap between days, and it’s going to be determined right now in court. But we’re here about an hour early today. I was supposed to be making a speech for political purposes. And I’m not allowed to have anything to do with politics because I’m sitting in a very freezing cold courtroom for the last four weeks. It’s very unfair,” Trump said. 

Trump also slammed the case again as a political attack against him at the hands of the Biden administration. 

“It’s an attack on [President Biden’s] political opponent. That’s all it is. All of the things you saw over the last four weeks, most of it should have never even been brought up. And then on top of that, there’s no crime. And we go on day after day. And I have to tell Iowa, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t be able to make it.’ I tell New Hampshire, ‘Sorry, I won’t be able to make it. I’m sitting in an ice box all day,'” he said. 

The 45th president has largely been kept away from the campaign trail amid the trial, as he’s required to be in court four days a week unless presiding Judge Juan Merchan made a rare exception, such as on Friday when Trump attended his son Barron’s high school graduation. Trump has made a few campaign stops since last month, including holding a rally that has been described as historic in deep blue New Jersey. At least 80,000 supporters joined Trump on the beaches of Wildwood last weekend for a rally. 

NY V TRUMP: AS ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES, TRUMP ALLIES FLOCK TO COURT TO ‘SUPPORT THEIR FRIEND’

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He is expected to hold his next rally in the Bronx, another historically deep blue area, which will be his first New York rally since 2016. Trump has also repeatedly floated holding a rally at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan ahead of the election. 

Former President Trump’s criminal trial is expected to resume Monday with Michael Cohen on the stand for the third day of cross-examination by defense attorneys. 

Cohen, who previously served as Trump’s lawyer and described himself as the former president’s “fixer,” is set to take the stand again at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Lower Manhattan. 

NY V TRUMP: AS ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES, TRUMP ALLIES FLOCK TO COURT TO ‘SUPPORT THEIR FRIEND’

Cohen, who is said to be Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “star witness,” first took the stand last week, answering questions from New York prosecutors as they seek to make their case against the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee. 

Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records 34 times to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence. 

“I didn’t violate any law,” Trump said after court on Thursday. “This is a scam.” 

Trump’s defense attorney, Todd Blanche, began his cross-examination of Cohen on Tuesday, which continued through the day Thursday. Court did not meet Friday so the former president could attend his youngest son Barron Trump’s high school graduation in Palm Beach, Florida.

MICHAEL COHEN ONCE SWORE TRUMP WASN’T INVOLVED IN STORMY DANIELS PAYMENT, HIS EX-ATTORNEY TESTIFIES

Court does not meet on Wednesdays. 

So far, Cohen has testified that he personally made the $130,000 payment to Daniels using a home equity line of credit in an effort to conceal the payment from his wife. Cohen said he did this because Trump told him to “handle it” and prevent a negative story from coming out ahead of the election. 

Cohen testified that he was “reimbursed $420,000” for the $130,000 he paid to Daniels. Cohen said former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg suggested he “gross up” the payments and claimed that Trump knew the details of that reimbursement. 

The prosecution presented Cohen with 11 checks totaling $420,000. Cohen confirmed that they were all received and deposited. The checks had a description of a “retainer,” which Cohen said was false. 

Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche was able to get Cohen to testify about the non-disclosure agreement signed by Daniels in October 2016. 

Cohen confirmed that the contract, which Trump never signed, was lawful, and he admitted that non-disclosure agreements are not unusual. The contract was signed using pseudonyms.

Cohen also testified that he sent statements to reporters declaring that Trump was not a party to the Daniels payment. 

Blanche also has highlighted Cohen’s history of lying under oath dating back to 2017, including to Congress about a Trump Tower Moscow project and federal investigators from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office.

Under oath last October, Cohen said he lied under oath more than once in front of Judge William H. Pauley, who sentenced Cohen to three years in prison in 2018 after he pleaded guilty to charges that included campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress.

Cohen agreed again Thursday that he did indeed lie under oath to Pauley. 

Blanche’s questioning also led Cohen to admit that he believes he shouldn’t have been charged with some federal crimes in 2018, including tax evasion, related to his investments in New York City taxi medallions.

“You felt that you did not engage in tax fraud, but you had to plead guilty to protect your wife and family?” Blanche asked.

“Correct,” Cohen responded.

Blanche also said Cohen lied about speaking to Trump on Oct. 24, 2016. Cohen claimed he spoke to then-candidate Trump about the Daniels payment. 

MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES HE SECRETLY RECORDED TRUMP IN LEAD-UP TO 2016 ELECTION

Blanche again accused Cohen of lying and insists he never spoke with Trump that day.

Cohen responded, “I always ran everything by the boss immediately.”

“That was a lie, you did not talk to President Trump,” Blanche said.

“I’m not certain that’s accurate,” Cohen responded. 

Cohen maintains, based on the records that he was able to review, that he spoke with Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller – but also believes he spoke with Trump about the Daniels deal.

“We’re not asking what you believe,” Blanche responded.

Cohen also admitted that he “took some credit” for Bragg’s indictment of Trump last year, which led to the historic and unprecedented criminal trial of a former U.S. president. 

Blanche played a clip in court of Cohen saying during a 2020 podcast interview, “I absolutely hope he ends up in prison…”

Asked by Blanche whether he believes he played a role in Trump’s indictment from New York prosecutors, Cohen responded, “I took some credit.”

Cohen also testified that he wanted to be considered for a top role in the Trump administration, like attorney general or chief of staff, for “ego purposes.” 

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Blanche said the defense expects to wrap up cross-examination on Monday. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said she will have less than an hour on redirect questioning of Cohen. 

The defense anticipates reaching a decision on other witnesses soon, and said it’s reasonable that they could “get on and off” the stand on Monday.

It is unclear, at this point, if Trump will testify in his own defense. 

When President Biden said that Americans can “buy any kind of car they want,” he failed to factor in new emissions standards his administration is putting in place that will reduce consumer choice, industry experts say.

During a speech delivered on Tuesday outside the Rose Garden, Biden focused on protecting U.S. jobs from unfair foreign trade practices and promised to not allow China to control the market for internal combustion engines or electric vehicles (EVs).

“I want to make this clear, notwithstanding what the other guy is saying – can buy any kind of car they want… but we’re never going to allow China to unfairly control the market for these cars, period,” he said, as “the other guy” appeared to be a reference to former President Trump, who made waves for predicting an auto industry “bloodbath” if Democrats continue their EV push.

Geoff Moody is senior vice president of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), a trade association representing companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil, Koch and others. He said that Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation “is functionally a ban on sales of most new gas cars by 2032.”

BIDEN CRACKS DOWN ON DIESEL TRUCKS IN BID TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE, REDUCE EMISSIONS

“The policy is going to both limit the availability of new gas cars and push the cost of remaining gasoline-powered vehicles out of reach for most Americans,” he said, adding that EPA compliance scenarios he has viewed project new internal-combustion-engine car sales to fall drastically from 84% at present to below 30% in 2032.

“The whole point of the rule is to push American drivers toward electric vehicles by limiting their other options,” Moody said.

American Petroleum Institute executive Will Hupman echoed some of that sentiment, predicting that it could effectively eliminate most new gas-powered vehicles in the future. 

In April, Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. launched an effort to stymie the new restrictions via the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to make an expedited attempt to invalidate new agency rules. 

Marshall told Fox News Digital on Thursday the president’s comment sounded like a “political-showboating” response to such objections.

“Now that he’s facing backlash, Biden is trying to walk back his irresponsible EV mandates that drive American jobs and our auto-manufacturing overseas,” Marshall said. “He hopes he can buy some political goodwill from the unions by flip-flopping on these tariffs while simultaneously stabbing them in the back with unrealistic goals of an all-electric transportation system.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who co-sponsored a similar effort, told Fox News Digital the president is either “being dishonest or he is unaware that his administration has been hijacked by far-left extremists trying to regulate combustion engines out of existence by finalizing regulations that amount to an EV mandate.”

GREEN GOVERNANCE THE NEW GUISE FOR MERCANTILISM, WILL LEAD TO GLOBAL INSTABILITY: EXPERT

Sullivan, whose state has pushed back often against many Biden-era environmental rules, added that if Biden remains serious about a transition to electric vehicles, then he should reverse an administration move that restricted access to the Last Frontier’s Ambler Mining District, where rare earth minerals required for EV batteries can be extracted.

“The United States desperately needs [those minerals] not only if the president wants companies to build more EVs, but for important defense projects,” Sullivan said, arguing against continuing to import them instead.

While Biden’s EPA’s emissions standards do not constitute a blanket prohibition on internal combustion engines, automobile and fossil fuel trade organizations claim that to them, they may as well have.

Delving into the specifics of the new regulations, the AFPM wrote in a fact sheet that the average car tailpipe emission would have to be 85 grams per mile, which it described as unrealistic. It claimed that under a carbon credit-based system within the new rules, not every buyer who wants a new gas-powered car can get one if a dealer has not sold enough EVs.

When asked about Biden’s comments and consumer choice concerns in regard to the new mandates, a spokesperson for General Motors said it is continuing to grow its electric vehicle fleet while retaining a broad suite of gas-powered options for customers.

The spokesperson also called it “challenging.”

“The flatter curve approach will allow for the continued development of the EV market and the necessary support like infrastructure and supply chain. We are still awaiting final rules from the Department of Transportation on CAFE regulation[s] to fully understand how [they] will impact our portfolio of products.”

The EPA pushed back on the criticisms and characterizations of its new standards, telling Fox News Digital the new rules actually expand consumer choice and pass on cost savings to drivers in the area of $62 billion worth of reduced yearly fuel and maintenance costs.

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“By encouraging continued development of more efficient vehicles, EPA’s standards are also projected to save Americans on average about $6,000 over the lifetime of a new model year 2032 light-duty vehicle, compared to a vehicle meeting the 2026 standards, by accelerating adoption of technologies that reduce fuel and maintenance costs as well as pollution,” an EPA spokesperson said. They denied the new regulations constitute a mandatory transition from internal combustion to electric power.

A White House spokesperson echoed much of the EPA’s sentiment, telling Fox News Digital that 
Biden is “investing in a future that is made in America by American workers as we position the United States to lead the clean energy future.” They credited the Inflation Reduction Act with making electric cars more affordable and claimed more American drivers are purchasing EV cars every day.

Several congressional Democrats who publicly voiced support for Biden’s new regulations did not return requests for comment on the president’s recent remarks.

The U.S. Senate will once again vote on a bipartisan border security bill this week after previous efforts collapsed when Republicans withdrew their support, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a letter to colleagues Sunday. 

In the letter, Schumer said the Border Act had received endorsements from the likes of the National Border Patrol Council and that congressional Republicans and Democrats alike were “prepared to join arms and act to secure our nation’s border.” 

Schumer took shots at his Republican colleagues, who he accused of acquiescing to former President Trump after he “demanded [that] congressional Republicans kill the legislation.”

He said Democrats’ commitment to act “never waned.”

RUBIO BACKS DEPORTATION PLAN, REVERSING PREVIOUS STATEMENTS: ‘INVASION OF THE COUNTRY’

“That is why the Senate is prepared to take up the bipartisan Border Act as a standalone measure this coming week,” Schumer said. “We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border.” 

REPUBLICANS BLAST BIDEN ADMIN’S SNUB OF REQUEST FOR INFO ON TERROR WATCH LIST NATIONALS

The Border Act would reform U.S. asylum laws, hire thousands of border agents and seek to curtail fentanyl smuggling, among other measures, the Democrat leader said.

The previous legislation, which was tied to U.S. foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel, stalled in the Senate after Trump told Republicans not to support it. The bill to be voted on this week would stand alone, Schumer said.

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Record numbers of migrants have been caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since President Biden took office in 2021, and border security has become one of the leading issues in the presidential campaign.

Trump is seeking to return to office by challenging Biden in the Nov. 5 election.

Reuters contributed to this report.

House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., on Sunday defended a recent speech she delivered to the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem, torching President Biden’s “betrayal of the importance of the U.S.-Israel alliance.” 

Stefanik, who is meeting with Israeli leaders at the same time Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is also visiting Jerusalem, appeared on “Fox News Sunday” after speaking at the parliament building. Fox News host Shannon Bream asked the third-highest ranking House Republican if the concept broadly adopted in the 1940s of leaving partisan politics at the water’s edge and minority leaders refraining from criticizing a sitting American president while abroad was now “out the door.” 

But the congresswoman, reportedly on former President Trump’s 2024 VP shortlist, shot back that she had been “invited to talk about my work when it comes to combating antisemitism and my strong record when it comes to U.S./Israel support.” 

“The world needs to know, and Israel needs to know, that the House Republican majority stands strongly with Israel,” Stefanik said. “That this equivocation, this weak, failed leadership that we are seeing from Joe Biden, that’s not where the American people are, that’s not where the United States Congress is. And it’s not reflective of the legislation that we passed that Joe Biden signed into law. So, it is important for the world to hear. The world is looking for moral leadership, Shannon. And it’s important that House Republicans step up to fill that void, which we have under Speaker Johnson’s leadership.” 

IN ISRAEL VISIT, STEFANIK TO TOUT TRUMP’S RECORD ON JEWISH STATE, REJECT BIDEN POLICIES: ‘NO EXCUSE’
 

Stefanik said the main focus of her speech “was that the American people stand strongly with Israel, as do House Republicans,” referencing how on Thursday the House passed legislation that rebuked Biden for pausing a shipment of bombs to Israel, seeking to force the weapons transfer. 

Debate over the bill showed Washington’s deeply fractured outlook on the Israel-Hamas war. The White House and Democratic leadership scrambled to rally support from a House caucus that ranges from moderates frustrated that the president would allow any daylight between the U.S. and Israel to progressives outraged that he is still sending any weapons at all. The bill passed comfortably 224-187 as 16 Democrats joined with most Republicans to vote in favor. Three Republicans voted against it.

“You’ve had equivocation after equivocation from Democrats, led by Joe Biden, or whether it’s Chuck Schumer calling for a new leader replacing Prime Minister Netanyahu, that is not the place – that is not the type of leadership we need to be seeing from the highest levels of the United States of America,” Stefanik said. “And that’s one of the focuses that I had today in my speech at the Knesset, that House Republicans stand strongly with Israel at their time of existential need.”

NETANYAHU RIVAL THREATENS TO QUIT WAR CABINET OVER GAZA STRATEGY

“Oct. 7 was the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” she added. “We want to make sure Israel has all the resources, no equivocation that it comes to eradicating Hamas.” 

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Amid concern that tens of thousands of people have been injured and killed in Gaza, Bream noted that Amnesty International sounded the alarm that U.S. weapons are being used in violation of international and U.S. laws. Stefanik, in response, said Hamas uses civilians as shields, while “Israel has great respect when it comes to human rights” and “that’s why the United States stands fully with Israel, and that’s why they need to be a voice of truth, as those antisemitic propaganda are being shared around the world and being shared by perpetrators who support this terrorism.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, shifted gears from his previous stance on former President Trump’s deportation plans, which he had panned as “not a workable plan.”

“Yes,” Rubio said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, where he was asked whether he supports Trump’s plan to use the military to deport illegal immigrants from the country. “We cannot absorb 25, 30 million people who entered this country illegally. They’re here illegally, what country on earth could tolerate that?” 

The comments were seemingly in stark contrast to Rubio’s previous stance on the issue, most notably as a primary rival of Trump’s in 2015. Then, Rubio was critical of the Trump plan to round up and deport the millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States.

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL CARRY OUT THE ‘LARGEST DOMESTIC DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY’ IF ELECTED

“We have 12 or 13 million human beings who have been here for a long time. There’s not really a realistic way of rounding up and deporting 12 or 13 million people and our nation wouldn’t want to do that anyway. It does need to be addressed and it does need to be addressed in a series of manners; we’re not going to be able to do it in one big piece of legislation – we learned that two years ago, the last time we tried,” Rubio said while campaigning in Iowa in 2015, according to a report from Politico.

Trump has vowed to implement a plan of mass deportation if he wins November’s election, promising last month to use the National Guard if needed to deport illegal immigrants from the country.

Rubio acknowledged that there were millions more people in the country today compared to when he gave the NBC interview, but argued that the dangers of the U.S. being unable to properly vet the flow of incoming migrants justified “dramatic” action.

THOUSANDS OF VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS GATHER UNDER TEXAS BRIDGE AS BORDER NUMBERS SKYROCKET

“We’re going to have to do something dramatic to remove people from this country that are here illegally, especially people we know nothing about,” Rubio said.

Asked why his stance has changed since campaigning against Trump nearly a decade ago, Rubio argued that the situation itself has changed since then.

“When I said that back in 2013 when I was involved in immigration reform, we had 11, 12 million people that had been here for longer than a decade, now we’ve had almost that number in the last three years alone,” Rubio said, noting that he believes some of those who have entered the country more recently could include “terrorists.”

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“This is not immigration, this is mass migration,” Rubio said. “This is an invasion of the country.”

Rubio’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Critics on social media dragged President Biden over video footage showing what appeared to be a small showing of supporters greeting the president’s motorcade in the deep blue city of Atlanta, where he held a fundraising event and delivered Morehouse College’s commencement speech. 

“Crooked Joe Biden – dazed and confused, as usual – shuffles down the short stairs in Atlanta ahead of his day of pandering. He ignores questions,” RNC research posted Saturday as Biden landed in the city. 

“If a presidential motorcade passes through town but absolutely nobody cares – did it really pass through town?” RNC Research asked in a follow-up question, accompanied by video footage showing largely empty streets dotted with some people filming the motorcade. 

Biden held a fundraiser in the expensive Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead on Saturday, where he lauded Georgia voters as the reason he won against former President Trump in 2020. 

BIDEN INTERRUPTED BY PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTER AT ATLANTA RALLY: ‘I DON’T RESENT THE PASSION’

“If you ever doubt the power of the vote, I say come to Georgia. You are the reason I won. Georgia is the reason I’m president right now,” Biden told the supporters at the event, AJC reported.

Footage showing the apparent lack of fanfare over Biden’s motorcade sparked criticisms on social media. Videos circulating online only show short clips of city sidewalks as the president drives by. 

“Biden arrived in Georgia to participate in a campaign event, and his motorcade drove through deep blue Atlanta. Nobody cared,” one X user named Julia posted. 

“Mobs gather in Atlanta to see Joe Biden’s motorcade,” X user Collette Harrington posted tongue in cheek. 

“Haha. Man, can Biden draw a crowd. The only people there are waiting to cross the street,” another user wrote, mocking the footage. 

“​​MASSIVE crowd of almost 4 people line the streets as Biden’s motorcade passes through in Atlanta,” another critical tweet read. 

Biden joined supporters at Mary Mac’s Tea Room in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon before heading to the Arthur M. Blank Family Office for the fundraiser. 

TRUMP ATTENDS SLAIN NYPD OFFICER JONATHAN DILLER’S WAKE: ‘NEED LAW AND ORDER’

“You all brung me to the dance,” Biden told supporters at the tea room, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You really made a gigantic difference. 

“It’s easy to forget, but I don’t forget.”

TRUMP RAISES MILLIONS IN RITZY ATLANTA NEIGHBORHOOD THAT WANTS TO SECEDE OVER VIOLENT CRIME

Biden’s trip to Atlanta has also been marked by protests and outrage – before he even landed in A-Town – when students at Morehouse College sounded off earlier this month that Biden’s commencement speech at the historically Black college was political.

“The general feeling on the ground is that we don’t want him here,” a student named Malik told WSB-TV in Atlanta earlier this month when Biden’s speech was announced. “It’s very obvious that we’re being used to score political points and get more Black votes. It is so obvious that it’s just about the presidential campaign.”

MOREHOUSE STUDENTS PROTEST BIDEN’S UPCOMING GRADUATION SPEECH: ‘BEING USED’ TO ‘GET MORE BLACK VOTES’

“We don’t want Biden. We don’t want politics. And we definitely don’t want Biden to come speak politics,” one student said.

Another remarked, “There’s a lot more other prominent figures right now that can come to our colleges and universities and speak to us as Morehouse men.”

Students and faculty also held a protest Friday criticizing the U.S.’s handling of the war in Israel ahead of Biden’s speech. 

“I definitely understand from a political aspect why he is coming, but from a human and moral level, it makes no sense for the college to invite him or give him an honorary degree,” Morehouse student Anwar Karim told Channel 2. 

BIDEN TO DELIVER MOREHOUSE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AS PROTESTS DISRUPT GRADUATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Anti-Israel agitators have carried out protests on college campuses nationwide since last month. Morehouse’s president warned that if disruptive protests broke out on campus Sunday, he would shut down commencement proceedings. 

“What we won’t allow is disruptive behavior that prevents the ceremony or services from proceeding, in a manner that those in attendance can partake and enjoy. So, for example, prolonged shouting down of the president as he is speaking. I have also made a decision that we will also not ask police to take individuals out of commencement in zip ties,” ​​Morehouse College President David Thomas said last week. “If faced with the choice, I will cease the ceremonies on the spot if we were to reach that position. But this will not be a place where there will be a national photo op of individuals being taken out of the Morehouse campus in zip ties by the police authorities.”

VP HARRIS CALLED OUT OR ‘PANDERING’ TO BLACK VOTERS WITH ‘EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN’ DINNERS

Biden’s visit to Atlanta comes after a New York Times poll found Trump is leading Biden in a majority of key battleground states, including, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Trump’s support among Black voters has also surged, sparking shock from CNN last week when a poll found the 45th president’s support more than doubled to 22% compared to 2020. Biden has seen a 12% drop in support among Black voters, but still holds a 47-point lead.

TRUMP’S SURGE IN POLLS WITH BLACK VOTERS STUNS CNN ANALYST: ‘TRULY HISTORIC’

Trump also visited Atlanta last month, and was notably surrounded by supporters during his trip – including at a Chick-fil-A, where he bought patrons chicken and milkshakes. He also made a stop for a fundraiser in Buckhead, a neighborhood that tried to secede from Atlanta due to spiraling crime in recent years. 

TRUMP VISITS ATLANTA CHICK-FIL-A, BUYS CUSTOMERS CHICKEN AND SHAKES

Dubbed the “Beverly Hills of the South,” residents of the Atlanta district tried to secede from the city in 2021 through last year, as violent crimes such as homicides continued an upward trend, as well as when vehicle thefts and shoplifting spiked.

The effort to secede received support from some local Republican leaders, and notably received the backing of Trump, who railed against “RINO” politicians who did not come to the aid of residents demanding assistance with crime trends. 

“What is happening in the City of Atlanta is nothing short of disgraceful. It’s national news and a regional embarrassment. The good people of Buckhead don’t want to be a part of defunding the police and the high crime that’s plaguing their communities,” Trump wrote in February 2022. “However, RINOs like Governor Brian Kemp, the man responsible, along with his puppet master Mitch McConnell, for the loss of two Senate Seats and 2020 Presidential Vote, Lt. Governor Jeff Duncan, Speaker David Ralston, and State Senators Butch Miller, Jeff Mullis, and John Albers always talk a big game but they don’t deliver.”

MASSIVE TRUMP BEACH RALLY IN DEEP-BLUE NJ DRAWS STARK CONTRAST TO BIDEN’S BEACH WEEKEND: ‘BIDEN COULD NEVER’

Trump has been tied up in a Manhattan courtroom since last month, facing 34 counts of falsifying business records. The case focuses on the prosecution team working to prove Trump falsified business records 34 times to conceal a $130,000 payment to former pornography star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an affair with Trump. 

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Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case. 

The trial has largely kept him from the campaign trail, but he did hold what has been described as an historic rally in deep blue New Jersey last week, when at least 80,000 supporters joined Trump on the beaches of Wildwood. He is expected to hold his next rally in the Bronx, another historically deep blue area, which will be his first New York rally since 2016. 

President Biden’s assertion of executive privilege to prevent recordings of his interviews with special counsel Robert Hur from being released shares some similarities with former President Trump’s attempts to use privilege while in the White House, according to one legal expert.

Though transcripts of Biden’s interview with Hur have already been released to a committee, the White House asserted executive privilege to block the audio recordings from becoming public while arguing in lockstep with Attorney General Merrick Garland that “law enforcement files like these need to be protected.”

“The same arguments were made during the Trump years as are being made now. It’s just that the roles are reversed,” former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy told Fox News Digital. 

“For example, during the Mueller investigation, Trump made available Don McGahn, who was the White House counsel. They not only let Mueller interview McGahn at length, but McGahn took voluminous notes of his conversations with Trump, which they also turned over. And then Democrats wanted to subpoena McGahn to come to the House Judiciary Committee, and the Republicans fought it.

BIDEN’S PRIVILEGE CLAIM TO KEEP SPECIAL COUNSEL INTERVIEW UNDER WRAPS A ‘CRUDE POLITICS’ MOVE: EXPERTS

“What they said was giving information to an executive branch prosecutor doesn’t waive the privilege as to Congress,” he added. “The Democrats all said that this was an obstruction of justice, that it was outrageous, that he’d already waived the privilege by allowing McGhan to speak to the prosecutor.”

Executive privilege has been around since the earliest days of the country and gives the executive branch the ability to withhold certain internal discussions and documents from scrutiny by the courts and the legislative branch. It allows the president some breathing room for his own deliberations with staff.

“The fact is that since the Republic started, presidents have been withholding information from Congress,” McCarthy said.

Congress has a variety of tools it can use to pry information out of the executive branch, including by holding people in contempt. 

“Congress has a whole arsenal of stuff from the Constitution, powers that it can use to fight back and pry information out of the executive branch,” McCarthy said. “You know, you can slash budgets or hold up appointments, and if it gets bad enough, you can start holding people in contempt. … The final option, obviously, is impeachment.”

McCarthy warned, however, that if the president’s party has enough influence in Congress, those efforts can be more challenging.

“If the president’s party has enough sway in Congress that you can stop that arsenal from being used, then the whole thing is just a political calculation,” he said. “Like for Biden here, it’s how much worse would I be hurt by letting the tape come out or the recording come out than by stonewalling. It looks like the tape is so bad, he’s decided that even though he’s going to be damaged by stonewalling, that’s better than letting the tape out.”

McCarthy also highlighted how the media has reacted to Biden’s assertion of executive privilege, saying they’ll report on the matter in an attempt to preserve their integrity and then move on from it to “help Biden bury it.”

“The usual problem that you always have here is that when Republican administrations stonewall, the media gets all whipped up about it, and when Democratic administrations stonewall, they feel like they have to cover it for a day or two so that they can say they covered it but then move on to another subject and help Biden bury it, or at least they’ll try,” he said.

Garland on Thursday defended Biden’s decision to assert executive privilege, saying the subpoena for audio recordings “is one that would harm our ability in the future to successfully pursue sensitive investigations.”

“There have been a series of unprecedented, frankly, unfounded attacks on the Justice Department. This request, this effort to use contempt as a method of obtaining our sensitive law enforcement files is just the most recent effort to threaten, defund our investigations, and the way in which there are contributions to an atmosphere that puts our agents and our prosecutors at risk,” he added.

“It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the President’s claim of executive privilege cannot be prosecuted for criminal contempt of Congress,” Associate Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter Thursday to GOP Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer, chairmen of the Committee on the Judiciary and Committee on Oversight and Accountability, respectively.

That “longstanding position,” however, was challenged following Trump’s term in the White House and the Capitol protests Jan. 6, 2021. 

Two individuals who served in the Trump administration and raised executive privilege claims — former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former Trump adviser Peter Navarro – have been convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to serve jail time for their refusal to comply with subpoenas issued by the now-defunct House select committee investigating the Capitol protests.

TRUMP ALLY STEVE BANNON LOSES APPEAL ON CONTEMPT CONVICTION AS HE FIGHTS TO STAY OUT OF PRISON

Bannon, 70, was sentenced to four months in prison in October 2022 and a $6,500 fine for ignoring a congressional subpoena.

Bannon’s appeal was denied last week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released a 20-page opinion that said granting Bannon’s appeal would “hamstring Congress’s investigatory authority.”

Bannon claimed he acted on the advice of his legal team and did not intend to break the law. Judge Bradley Garcia wrote the acting on “advice of counsel” defense is “no defense at all.”

The ruling will be appealed, Bannon’s attorney, David Schoen, told Fox News Digital last week.

Schoen noted that Bannon’s attorney at the time he received the subpoena, Robert Costello, advised his client that he was not permitted, as a matter of law, in any way to respond to the notice, saying executive privilege had been raised and that it was not his privilege to waive it. Costello wrote the committee to inform it that Bannon would comply if the panel worked out any privilege issues with former President Trump or if a court ordered him to comply, Schoen said.

Similarly, Navarro, who reported to prison in Miami in March following an order from the U.S. Supreme Court, was charged and convicted with contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a congressional subpoena demanding his testimony and documents relating to the events of Jan. 6.

Though Navarro is attempting to appeal his contempt of Congress conviction, the court refused to postpone his imprisonment until after the appeal is concluded.

Navarro claimed he could not cooperate with the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack because Trump had invoked executive privilege, an argument that lower courts have rejected.

The lower courts found that Navarro could not actually prove Trump had invoked executive privilege.

Biden’s decision to assert the privilege, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, came at the request of Garland. Jean-Pierre said it was Garland’s suggestion that “law enforcement files like these need to be protected.”

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a resolution to hold Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the subpoenaed audio recording of Biden’s interview with Hur. The vote advances the measure for a full floor vote.

Hur led the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents after his departure as vice president under the Obama administration. Hur announced in February that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, saying Biden is “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

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Hur wrote in the report that “it would be difficult” to convince a jury to convict Biden of any willful crime, citing his advanced age. 

The findings sparked widespread outrage that Biden was effectively deemed too cognitively impaired to be charged with a crime but could serve as president. Trump has meanwhile slammed the disparity in charges as a reflection of a “sick and corrupt, two-tiered system of justice in our country.“

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo, Elizabeth Elkind, Louis Casiano and Emma Colton contributed to this report.

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi experienced a “hard landing” on Sunday, according to Iranian state media.

Iranian media, according to multiple reports, said rescue teams were dispatched to the site, though there have been multiple conflicting reports regarding the incident. There has been no official word from the Iranian regime.

This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.

The Associated Press contributed

Deep blue New York is in play.

In a major throwdown to Democrats, former President Trump will host a campaign rally in the Bronx on Thursday as he sets his sights on flipping the Empire State Red this November, a situation that would have been unfathomable in 2021 when he departed the White House.

Trump’s campaign announced Friday night that Thursday’s rally will take place at 6 p.m. in Crotona Park, a 127 acre public park just blocks away from the boundary line of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district. The New York Post reports that the campaign has a permit to fit 3,500 people into the space. 

The move comes on the heels of a record-breaking Trump rally which brought up to 100,000 supporters together in the Democratic stronghold of New Jersey last week. 

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It will mark Trump’s first rally in the state since an upstate Buffalo event in 2016. Biden topped Trump with 76% of the city’s vote in the 2020 election. Statewide, Biden took 60.87% of the vote.

In announcing the rally, Trump’s campaign took several swipes at President Biden’s record over the last three and a half years in relation to crime and inflation.

“Both New York City and the state at large have been ravaged by monumental surges in violent crime as a direct result of Biden’s and Democrats’ pro-criminal policies,” the campaign said in the announcement. “Murders in New York City are up 23.1 percent from 2019 levels, while felony assault is up 35.4 percent. These upticks are incomprehensible and devastating.”

The campaign highlighted Trump’s fondness of the state he once called home until he switched his permanent residence to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida in 2019. Although he has been forced back to stand trial in his “hush money” case and his defamation case with E Jean Carroll.

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“The Empire State, a place near to President Trump’s heart, has been decimated by Biden,” the statement continues. “President Trump will ease the financial pressures placed on households and re-establish law and order in New York! We can Make America Great Again by tackling lawlessness head-on, ceasing the endless flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border, and reversing the detrimental effects of inflation by restoring people’s wealth.”

The rally announcement has been met with mixed responses. 

Rep. Ritchie John Torres, a Democrat who represents New York’s 15th congressional district where the rally is being held, blasted the former president in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“The South Bronx has no greater enemy than Donald Trump, who is on a mission to dismantle the social safety net on which Bronx families depend for their survival,” Torres said. “Trump is and has always been a fraud.  The South Bronx – the most Democratic area in the nation – will not buy the snake oil that he is selling.

Many business owners in the borough, however, didn’t know that the rally would be taking place when contacted by Fox News Digital this morning.

Liz Adreu, a manager at the Bronx restaurant Chocobar Cortes was one of those unaware but said she would “probably” vote for Trump. 

Reggie O, the owner of Aduanipa African & Caribbean Grill, said he supported Trump’s policies when he was in office, although he didn’t want to say who he would be voting for, adding that he thinks there’s a very real chance that the state could be flipped at some point in the future, adding that his eatery has just opened and hasn’t been on the receiving end of any crime.

Inflation is putting many businesses under financial strain, especially after they weathered the economic storms of pandemic-era lockdowns. Families too are suffering, Trump’s campaign said.

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“New Yorkers have suffered greatly thanks to Biden’s failed policies. With prices in the Empire State up by 17.5 percent since Biden took office, New York families continue to suffer from high inflation on everyday goods,” the statement reads.

Trump last month telegraphed he would be campaigning in the Big Apple when he visited Sanaa Convenience Store in Upper Manhattan. A former clerk, Jose Alba, was attacked by an ex-con there in a July 2022 incident before he infamously stabbed the perp to death in self-defense.

“We’re going to come into New York, we’re making a big play for New York,” Trump told reporters outside. “I love this city, and it’s gone so bad in the last three years, four years, and we’re going to straighten New York out.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes confirmed that Rudy Giuliani was indicted in connection to the 2020 election case centered around former President Trump.

“The final defendant was served moments ago. @RudyGiuliani nobody is above the law,” Mayes, a Democrat, wrote on X late Friday, confirming Giuliani is the 18th defendant charged in the state’s fake electors case.

Mayes responded to a since-deleted post by Giuliani that read, “If authorities can’t find me by tomorrow morning: 1. They must dismiss the indictment; 2. They must concede they can’t count votes,” FOX 10 Phoenix reported. The former New York City mayor was celebrating his 80th birthday over the weekend. 

Sharing photos of party-goers and 80th birthday balloons in another post Saturday, Giuliani wrote to his 1.7 million followers, “FAKE NEWS ALERT: Contrary to reports from journalists who weren’t there, our early 80th birthday celebration wasn’t ‘ruined’ or interrupted. It was an incredible night w/ friends, including Steve Bannon & Roger Stone. It felt like a strategy session on how to save America!”

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Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman, however, confirmed in a statement reported by the Associated Press that Giuliani was served Friday night after his 80th birthday celebration as he was walking to the car.

“We look forward to full vindication soon,” Goodman said in a statement Saturday.

The attorney general’s spokesman Richie Taylor said in an email to the Associated Press on Saturday that Giuliani faces the same charges as the other defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

The indictment alleges that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona legislators and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to change the outcome of Arizona’s election and that he was responsible for encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.Taylor said an unredacted copy of the indictment will be released Monday. He said Giuliani is expected to appear in court Tuesday unless he is granted a delay by the court.

Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, is among others who have been indicted in the case.

Neither Meadows nor Giuliani were named in the redacted grand jury indictment released earlier because they had not been served with it, but they were readily identifiable based on descriptions in the document. The Arizona attorney general’s office said Wednesday that Meadows had been served and confirmed that he was charged with the same counts as the other named defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related to the election.

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Among the defendants are 11 Arizona Republicans who submitted a document to Congress declaring that Trump won in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election — including a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers. The other defendants are Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations, and four attorneys accused of organizing an attempt to use fake documents to persuade Congress not to certify Biden’s victory: John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis.

Trump himself was not charged but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.

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Giuliani faces other legal proceedings, and a bankruptcy judge this past week said he was “disturbed” about the status of the case and for missed deadlines to file financial disclosure reports. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay $148 million to two former election workers for spreading allegedly false information about their role in the 2020 election.

Giuliani was also indicted last year by a grand jury in Georgia. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden will deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College on Sunday as protests continue to disrupt graduation ceremonies across the country.

Biden’s speech at the historically Black college is an opportunity to shore up his flagging support among Black voters ahead of the 2024 election. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that Biden had been working on his speech with senior advisors for several days.

The speech is “an opportunity to lift up and to give an important message to our future leaders,” Jean-Pierre said.

“He’s been working on these remarks for the past couple days, I can assure you, with his senior advisers. He’s taking this incredibly seriously,” Jean-Pierre added. “It will meet the moment. And I think you will hear directly from the president on how he sees obviously the future of this country, and also the community that they represent.”

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The commencement comes just days after Biden announced $16 billion in new funding for historically Black colleges and universities across the country. He mentioned Morehouse by name in remarks about the funding initiative last week.

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“Morehouse was founded after our nation’s Civil War to help prepare Black Americans who were formerly enslaved to enter the ministry, earn an education and usher them from slavery to freedom,” Biden said. “The founders of Morehouse understood something fundamental. Education is linked to freedom. Because to be free means to have something that no one can ever take away from you.”

Biden’s appearance comes as anti-Israel protests have overtaken campuses across the country. Morehouse itself has also seen its share of unrest. The student body is divided even about Biden’s appearance at graduation. Dissatisfied students are reportedly attempting to organize a silent protest during Biden’s speech that would see students turn their backs on the president, according to NPR.

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“I think it’s kind of insulting that our star alumnus is Dr. King, but Biden has been on a tirade in the Middle East,” one student, DeAngelo Fletcher, told the outlet. “Bringing him here — especially during an election year … to get the young Black vote especially, it’s kind of insulting.”

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Hundreds of Morehouse alumni also signed a letter calling on the college to rescind its invitation to Biden earlier this year. Students and faculty at the college have accused Biden of assisting Israeli “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza during the war that was sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.