NationalWatch

The unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump resumes Tuesday morning after the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee was again held in contempt of court, fined, threatened with jail time for future gag order violations, and told he’ll be required to sit in the Manhattan courtroom for at least another two weeks. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges stem from a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The charges are related to alleged payments made to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels about an alleged 2006 extramarital affair with Trump before the 2016 presidential election.

NY V TRUMP: JUDGE THREATENS JAIL TIME FOR ‘POSSIBLY THE NEXT PRESIDENT’ FOR FUTURE GAG ORDER VIOLATIONS

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg must convince the jury that not only did Trump falsify the business records related to alleged hush money payments but that he did so in furtherance of another crime, conspiracy to promote or prevent election, which is a felony.

On their own, falsifying business records and conspiracy to promote or prevent election are misdemeanor charges. 

Monday’s day in court began with Judge Juan Merchan ruling on remaining alleged gag order violations, and ruling, once again, that the former president violated that rule.

Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump before the trial began, ordering that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses with regard to their potential participation or about counsel in the case – other than Bragg – or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.

The judge on Monday fined Trump another $1,000 for a Truth Social post about the trial and said he will begin to “consider a jail sentence” for the former president should he violate the gag order again.

“The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.” 

“The magnitude of that decision is not lost on me,” he continued. “Your continued willful violation of the court’s order … constitutes a direct attack … and will not be allowed to continue. … It is not allowed to continue.”

Trump and his defense attorneys have argued that the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee should not be bound by the gag order, saying it violates his First Amendment rights as well as the First Amendment rights of his supporters.

EX-TOP BIDEN DOJ OFFICIAL NOW PROSECUTING TRUMP WAS ONCE PAID BY DNC FOR ‘POLITICAL CONSULTING’

Trump has been fined a total of $10,000 for gag order violations so far.

Also on Monday, the prosecution called its 10th witness in the case: Jeff McConney, who served as senior vice president controller at the Trump Organization until his retirement last year. McConney handled tax returns for the company.

McConney testified that he was directed by then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg to give ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen $35,000 per month. He said they switched from making payments from Trump’s trust account to his personal account. A total of $420,000 was sent to Cohen – a number McConney said was “grossed up” for tax purposes.

But McConney said Trump “did not” personally task him with carrying out any payments in 2017.

“Michael Cohen was a lawyer?” Trump defense attorney Emil Bove asked McConney during cross-examination. 

“Sure, yes,” McConney responded. 

“And payments to lawyers by the Trump Organization are legal expenses, right?” asked Bove.

“Yes,” said McConney.

“President Trump did not ask you to do any of the things you just described … correct?” Bove asked.

“He did not,” McConney replied.

NY V TRUMP: DA’S WITNESS TESTIFIES TRUMP DID NOT DIRECT HIM ON COHEN REPAYMENTS

Next, the prosecution called Deborah Tarasoff, a Trump Organization accounts payable supervisor, who allegedly helped arrange hush money payments to Cohen.

Tarasoff labeled the payments to Cohen as “legal expenses” or “retainer” at the time they were made.

Tarasoff said that “only Mr. Trump” could sign checks from his personal account and added that if he “didn’t want to sign a check, he didn’t sign it.” Tarasoff also testified that she did not have any decision-making authority and only followed instructions.

Meanwhile, the prosecution said Monday it would need at least two to three more weeks to make its case against the former president.

“So, we just found out the government just said that they want two to three more weeks. That means they want to keep me off the trail for two to three more weeks,” Trump said after the jury was released for the day Monday. “The judge is so happy about two to three more weeks because they all want to keep me off the campaign trail.”

He added, “That’s all this is about. This is about election interference.”

Also after court on Monday, Trump addressed Merchan’s threat of jail time over gag order violations, telling reporters he would make the “sacrifice” of a prison sentence to defend free speech.

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Speaking to reporters, Trump said they asked him “a simple question” and that he would “like to give [an answer], but I can’t talk about it because this judge is giving me a gag order and says you’ll go to jail if you violate it.”

“And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day,” Trump said.

A group of 13 U.S. federal judges appointed by former President Trump have vowed not to hire law school students and undergraduates from New York City-based Columbia University due to the school’s handling of the anti-Israel protests that ultimately led to an academic hall being occupied.

In a letter obtained by Reuters which was addressed to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and Law Dean Gillian Lester, the 13 conservative judges said they lost confidence in the university as an institution of higher education, saying instead it has become “an incubator of bigotry.”

“Since the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, Columbia University has become ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, antisemitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints on campuses across the nation. Disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults, and destroyed property,” the letter reads. “As a result, Columbia has disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country.”

The judges offered the administrators guidance on how the university could reclaim its “once-distinguished” reputation, starting with punishing students and faculty with profound consequences for those who participated in campus disruptions and violated established rules regarding the use of university facilities and public spaces as well as threats against fellow members of the school community.

NYC COUNCILWOMAN BLASTS FAILURE OF ‘MODERN PROGRESSIVISM’ AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL HIGH SCHOOL RIOT

They explained that in the past, citizens were warned that trespassing on public spaces was enough to warrant incarceration, and the same conduct should warrant lesser measures like expulsion or termination.

“After all, elite universities purport to train not just law-abiding citizens but future leaders,” the letter reads. “Universities should also identify students who engage in such conduct so that future employers can avoid hiring them.”

The judges also offered their stance on free speech, saying the university should offer neutrality and nondiscrimination when protecting free speech and enforcing the rules of conduct on campus.

NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER FIRE FOR FAILING TO ADDRESS ANTISEMITISM: ‘NOT SEEING ANY ACTION’

“Freedom of speech protects protest, not trespass, and certainly not acts or threats of violence or terrorism. Speech is not violence, and violence is not speech,” the judges wrote. “It has become clear that Columbia applies double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct.

“By favoring certain viewpoints over others based on their popularity and acceptance in certain circles, Columbia has failed as a legitimate, never mind elite, institution of higher education,” they added.

The third thing the judges suggested the school do is change the composition of its faculty and administration to restore confidence in Columbia.

NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS BLASTS STUDENTS’ ‘VILE SHOW OF ANTISEMITISM’ THAT FORCED TEACHER TO HIDE IN OFFICE

Recent events show that “ideological homogeneity” throughout the university “has destroyed its ability to train future leaders of a pluralistic and intellectually diverse country.”

Administrators and professors have been on the front lines of the protests, the judges wrote, while encouraging the spread of bigotry and antisemitism.

“Considering recent events, and absent extraordinary change, we will not hire anyone who joins the Columbia University community – whether as undergraduates or law students – beginning with the entering class of 2024,” the letter reads, noting that the objective is not to hamper academic freedom but instead to restore it at Columbia.

William A. Jacobson, president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation and founder of EqualProtect.org, told Fox News Digital he has mixed feelings about judges getting involved in issues not presented to them in the courtroom.

NYC JEWISH COMMUNITY ON HIGH ALERT FROM PROTESTS THREATENED WITH TRIO OF BOMB THREATS AT SYNAGOGUES

“I actually agree with them on the substance, but I do find it a bit concerning that the judiciary gets involved with these, sort of, counter boycotts,” he said.

Just like everyone else, he explained, judges have First Amendment rights, so there should not be any ethical issues, but he finds it concerning when judges get involved with issues involving protests.

While he may not blame a judge for not wanting to hire from Columbia, the collective action of them getting together and issuing a statement rubs him the wrong way.

But Jacobson also said he has no sympathy for the students and faculty at Columbia, many of whom endorsed boycotting Israel.

“What goes around, comes around, and the student body, not all of them, but a significant percentage … support the boycott of Israel,” the professor said. “I have no sympathy for Columbia as an institution. But a boycott is a blunt instrument, and therefore you would be boycotting students who are not participating in this, and that’s, again, another thing that I have very mixed feelings on.”

ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED

Eventually, there will be a protest of the protesters or counterprotesters, Jacobson said.

The student and faculty protesters are “so aggressive and so hostile” toward Israel, and so determined to drive Israelis and supporters out of civil society, that he believes it is inevitable that pushback is on the horizon.

Federal judges tend to hire from top tier schools like Columbia, which has become “the poster child” for everything that has gone wrong in academia, Jacobson said.

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“I think it’s a little curious that it ends up being 13 federal judges who are the first to send that warning, but I think it is a warning that, and I’ve said this many times before, that academia has become so radicalized that it cannot be reformed internally,” Jacobson said. “The only way to reform it is from outside pressure. I’m not even sure that will work, but it cannot be reformed internally. Places like Columbia are too far gone, and society is going to have to address that. The issue moving forward is not how we are going to reform our universities, because that is going to be a generational effort, but how can we protect society from our universities.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

The election might well be slipping away from Joe Biden.

And that’s the view among some who want the president to win a second term.

Biden’s passivity, and his reluctance to communicate, are fueling a narrative that he is a weak leader, and that’s now tied to a larger theme that will be difficult to shake by November.

For years, Biden’s refusal to take dramatic action – unilateral or otherwise – on the record-breaking illegal migration at what has become an open border, has been his greatest liability. It also happens to be Donald Trump’s strongest issue.

BIDEN’S LACK OF RESPONSE TO ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS GIVES SENSE AMERICA’S ‘OUT-OF-CONTROL’: HOWARD KURTZ

Then came the violent protests and antisemitic hatred that swept across college campuses like wildfire, and the president stubbornly remained silent for two long weeks. This has been the biggest and most alarming story in America, and Biden felt no need to address it as college buildings were being occupied and police were making mass arrests of pro-Hamas protesters.

The core concern here is that America feels out of control. The outbreak of lawlessness is heightened by a sense that no one is in charge. 

Despite the White House spin, Biden said nothing about the campus protests as a deputy spokesman put out releases under his own name. His two-sentence answer to a shouted question could barely be heard amid the background noise.

A Barack Obama adviser once told the New Yorker, fairly or unfairly, that Obama’s approach to Libya amounted to “leading from behind.” That seems to describe Biden’s approach to the violence and arrests at Columbia, NYU, Yale, Darthouth, USC, UCLA and many other colleges. His words were fine and well-crafted, but it felt like too little too late.

UNIVERSITIES CAVE TO ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS TO END OCCUPATIONS, WHILE SOME ALLOW ENCAMPMENTS TO CONTINUE

Now, it would be crazy to make predictions about an election six months away. Trump’s law-and-order stance is marred by his having to sit through the first of four criminal cases, the hush money trial. What’s more, the election will probably be decided by perhaps 50,000 voters in five swing states. 

Andrew Sullivan wants Biden to be re-elected, but doesn’t see it happening:

“Biden had an opportunity to move to the center on illegal immigration – his core vulnerability – and decided to move, with his entire party, to the extreme left,” he wrote on his Substack. Besides, it was too late for Biden to have “serious cred” on the issue.

As for the president’s brief and belated speech on violent campus protests, “it was given only when he had no choice, after Trump goaded him, and it reminded me of his sad attempts to distance himself and his party from the rioting and looting in the hellish summer of 2020. He was reactive, not proactive. His quiet words were overwhelmed with the noise of the streets.”

All this, says Sullivan, “will help Trump get an Electoral College landslide, just as the new left handily elected Nixon in 1968 and 1972…

“Biden is losing this election, deservedly. And if he cannot pull off an almighty pivot – and I suspect at this point, he really can’t – this election really is Trump’s to lose.”

Another Andrew – former prosecutor and National Review writer Andy McCarthy – is opposed to a second Trump term. He thinks the former president should have been impeached and convicted after Jan. 6:

“I don’t want a Trump presidency,” the Fox News contributor said. “It’s a historic, even if inevitable, blown opportunity by Republicans not to have nominated a reliable conservative who might have ushered in eight-to-16 years of restorative administrations. But a second Biden government, which would likely become a Harris government, would be a disaster.”

ABC HOST ISSUES STERN WARNING ABOUT 2024 ELECTION: ‘NO MORE CRYING WOLF’

Okay, he’s torn, but it’s a binary choice. McCarthy is now hedging his bets on his previous prediction that Trump can’t win a general election.

His original reasoning: Trump’s ceiling continues to be around 46 to 47% in major polls. Plus, he’s at minus-10 in favorability ratings. It’s not clear how much Trump’s numbers will dip after a potential felony conviction, but it would be “negligible” if it’s D.A. Alvin Bragg’s “farcical” case, McCarthy said.

“The Dems haven’t yet unleashed the torrents of negative messaging that are coming. That is not going to help him reel in at least some of the close to one-in-five Republicans who are dead set against him — the voters he needs to have any chance of winning… Put it all together and I still think Trump’s a 2024 also-ran.”

I don’t agree – or at least I’d say that Trump is highly competitive despite running against an incumbent, who happens to be 81, and who has a substantial record of legislative accomplishment.

What’s more, the major issue for voters remains inflation. Unfortunately for Biden, prices are again creeping back up, even though we’re in a record stretch of unemployment below 4%.

There’s one other potential parallel to 1968, beyond the fact that it was exactly 56 years since the first time Columbia protesters seized control of Hamilton Hall.

The Washington Post reports that “pro-Palestinian activists are ramping up plans for a major show of force at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, increasingly worrying Democrats who fear the demonstrations could interfere with or overshadow their efforts to project unity ahead of the November election.”

If “unruly” protests erupt in late August, “especially if they feature inflammatory rhetoric, property damage or police intervention — they could strike at the heart of the Democratic message that President Biden represents competent and stable leadership” while Trump is “an agent of chaos and confusion.”

THE ANTI-TRUMP MOVEMENT’S SECRET ZOOM CALLS GIVE THEIR TARGET AMMO

Uh, remind me again why the Dems are holding the convention in Chicago, with its horrible echoes, when Illinois is a blue state? Wouldn’t Detroit or Philadelphia have made more sense?

The paper quotes William Daley, whose father, the senior Mayor Richard Daley, sent out the cops who wound up busting heads, as minimizing the comparison. That convention took place not long after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and Bobby Kennedy, and the National Guard was sent in to quell the riots.

“To analogize what’s going on in the country today with 1968 is ridiculous,” Daley said. “Only people who weren’t alive in ’68 have that idiotic perception.”

But even less violent protests could utterly distract from Biden’s renomination, and cement the perception that, as with the porous border and campus demonstrations, the president is failing to keep the country safe.

When Biden ran four years ago, it was based on the notion that a president didn’t have to be in the public’s face all the time, commenting on everything from basketball protests to awards shows.

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But, somehow, that gradually evolved into avoiding interviews (except with the likes of Howard Stern), terse answers to shouted questions and remaining silent or taking no action as lawless events swirl around him. Whether his staff is shielding him or not, he operates slowly by digital-age standards, his instincts appearing dulled.

And that often makes the president seem like a bystander to grave events. 

EXCLUSIVE: The Democratic National Committee paid Trump prosecutor Matthew Colangelo thousands of dollars for “political consulting” in 2018, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Colangelo delivered opening statements in the unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump and currently serves as a top prosecutor with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Office on the case. 

Colangelo joined Bragg’s office in December 2022 after the resignations of Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne — prosecutors who were investigating Trump and resigned in protest of Bragg’s initial unwillingness to indict the former president. Colangelo left a senior role at the Biden Justice Department to join Bragg’s team. Bragg afterward brought charges against the former president in April 2023, raising questions among some in the GOP about alleged politicization of the case. 

House Republicans are investigating Colangelo and his past work as he prosecutes Trump. 

NY V. TRUMP: HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATES BRAGG PROSECUTOR WHO HELD SENIOR ROLE IN BIDEN DOJ

According to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Fox News Digital, DNC Services Corp/Democratic National Committee paid Colangelo twice on Jan. 31, 2018. Colangelo was given two payments of $6,000, for a total of $12,000. 

The “description” for the purpose of payment is labeled “Political Consulting.” 

Neither the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office nor the DNC immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

At the time, Colangelo was serving in then-New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman’s office as the deputy attorney general for social justice, assuming the role from Bragg. Bragg, at the time, was appointed as chief deputy attorney general. 

TRUMP PROSECUTOR QUIT TOP DOJ POST FOR LOWLY NY JOB IN LIKELY BID TO ‘GET’ FORMER PRESIDENT, EXPERT SAYS

Schneiderman resigned in May 2018 amid allegations of sexual assault. Barbara Underwood replaced him as New York attorney general. 

Just months after Colangelo received the payments from the DNC, in June 2018, Underwood, with Colangelo as executive deputy attorney general, filed a lawsuit against the Trump Foundation. The lawsuit claimed that Trump used the foundation’s charitable assets to pay off his legal obligations. The Trump Foundation ultimately agreed to dissolve in December 2018.  

BRAGG ‘ALLOWED POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS’ TO ‘INFECT’ PROSECUTION OF TRUMP, HOUSE JUDICIARY GOP SAYS

Colangelo stayed in the New York Attorney General’s Office after Underwood’s tenure, and under the leadership of current Attorney General Letitia James, who took over in 2018, when he continued to work on Trump lawsuits and investigations. 

However, on Jan. 20, 2021, the first day of the Biden administration, Colangelo began serving as acting associate attorney general in the Justice Department. 

Colangelo then became the principal deputy associate attorney general at the Biden Justice Department. Colangelo helped to oversee multiple departments, including the Civil, Civil Rights, Antitrust and Tax Divisions. 

Colangelo joined Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office in December 2022. 

TRUMP TRIAL: FORMER PRESIDENT ‘INNOCENT,’ DEFENSE SAYS AS DA ALLEGES ‘CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY’

Prior to his work in New York and in the Biden Justice Department, Colangelo worked in the Obama administration, serving in a number of different roles. Colangelo worked in the DOJ’s civil rights division and served as the chief of staff to then-Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who later served as chair of the DNC in 2017. 

Perez was DNC chairman at the time Colangelo was paid for “political consulting.” 

Colangelo also worked as a deputy assistant to then-President Obama and as the deputy director of the White House Economic Council. 

The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is demanding that Attorney General Merrick Garland turn over records related to Colangelo’s employment at the Justice Department as it conducts “oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials.” 

Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. 

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

A charge of falsifying business records typically is a misdemeanor, but Bragg, Colangelo and New York prosecutors must convince the jury that Trump allegedly falsified those records in the furtherance of “another crime.” 

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Prosecutors suggest that the other crime was in violation of New York State law — to prevent or promote election. On its face, as a stand-alone offense, that charge is also typically a misdemeanor. 

Coupling the alleged falsification of business records with alleged prevention or promotion of election becomes a felony crime, according to Bragg. 

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., found himself in hot water Monday after he was accused of perpetuating a racist stereotype about Asians in a now-deleted post on X.

The post had been in response to a CBS Mornings’ interview with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, discussing her request to remove an excerpt from her forthcoming book, “No Going Back,” about supposedly meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

The Republican governor, who is rumored to be a potential vice president pick for Donald Trump, told the interviewers she “should not have” included that anecdote in the book, and refused to answer directly whether the meeting had in fact taken place. 

It was the latest controversy Noem is facing over her book, after receiving bipartisan backlash for a story of how she once shot her hunting dog.

NOEM ADDRESSES FEELING ‘THREATENED’ BY NIKKI HALEY, A CONTROVERSIAL DOG KILLING, TRUMP VP SPECULATION IN BOOK

Weighing in on the controversy, Moskowitz responded in a post on X: “Why am I getting the feeling that she wanted to eat dog with Kim Jong Un.” 

Moskowitz deleted the post after some backlash. 

Politico reporter Nicholas Wu wrote that Moskowitz’s tweet used a stereotype about Asians and dogs. 

In response, Moskowitz wrote that he had “tremendous respect for Nick as a fantastic journalist.” 

“I made a joke about 2 specific people. No one else,” Moskowitz wrote. “However, I would never want to be insensitive and feed into a stereotype. He called me out, deserved.” 

Wu later shared a statement from Democratic Reps. Andy Kim of New Jersey and Marilyn Strickland of Washington. 

“While we appreciate our colleague standing up to GOP extremism, we cannot perpetuate harmful stereotypes in the process,” wrote the two lawmakers. “We thank Rep. Moskowitz for apologizing and taking down his tweet.”

Moskowitz deleted another post on X in March involving an edited photo of President Biden. 

It featured side-by-side pictures of actress Sydney Sweeney wearing a revealing outfit on her recent Saturday Live Appearance and the president, looking shocked as he arrived to give his State of the Union address. 

The original photo depicted Biden’s reaction to seeing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., at the address.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Noem and Moskowitz for further comment. 

Kentucky Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams, who worked to expand early voting in the Bluegrass State and has spoken out against election denialism in his own party, has been chosen to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this year.

In its announcement Monday, the JFK Library Foundation said Adams was recognized “for expanding voting rights and standing up for free and fair elections despite party opposition and death threats from election deniers.”

MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER TO RECEIVE JFK ‘PROFILE IN COURAGE’ AWARD DESPITE RECENT COVID-19 SURGE

Adams — whose signature policy objective is to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat — was at the forefront of a bipartisan effort with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear that led to the enactment of 2021 legislation allowing for three days of no-excuse, early in-person voting — including on a Saturday — before Election Day. Adams hailed it as Kentucky’s most significant election law update in more than a century. About one-fifth of the Kentuckians who voted in last year’s statewide election did so during those three days of early, in-person voting, Adams’ office said Monday.

As his state’s chief election officer, Adams has pushed back forcefully against false claims about rigged elections, referring to election skeptics as “cranks and kooks.”

“There’s a lot of irresponsible chatter out there and demagoguery about us having hacked elections,” Adams said in a 2022 interview on Spectrum News 1. “It’s all hogwash. Our elections have never been hacked and are not hacked now.”

First elected in 2019, Adams won reelection by a wide margin last year after dominating his party’s primary, which included a challenger who promoted debunked election claims.

Adams, a Kentucky native and graduate of Harvard Law School, said Monday that Kennedy’s “admonition to put country before self still resonates today, and rings true now more than ever.”

“I am honored to accept this award on behalf of election officials and poll workers across America who, inspired by his call, sacrifice to keep the American experiment in self-government alive,” he added.

Adams is part of an effort begun after the last presidential election that seeks to bring together Republican officials who are willing to defend the country’s election systems and the people who run them. They want officials to reinforce the message that elections are secure and accurate, which they say is especially important as the country heads toward another divisive presidential contest in November.

“It’s an obligation on Republicans’ part to stand up for the defense of our system because our party — there’s some blame for where we stand right now,” Adams said recently. “But it’s also strategically wise for Republicans to say, ‘Hey Republicans, you can trust this. Don’t stay at home.’”

During a recent campaign rally, former President Donald Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for president this year — repeated his false claim that Democrats rigged the 2020 election.

Just 24% of Republicans said they had a great deal or quite a bit of confidence that votes will be counted accurately in the 2024 presidential election, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in December.

Adams is seen as a potential candidate for governor in 2027, when he and Beshear will be term-limited in their current jobs.

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Honorary JFK Library Foundation President Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg, will present the award to Adams on June 9 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

President Kennedy’s book, “Profiles in Courage,” recounts the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled stands for unpopular positions. Past winners of the Profile in Courage Award include former U.S. presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama.

• Thousands more signatures than required were submitted in favor of a “top two” primary system in South Dakota.
• Under the proposed system — already implemented in states like California and Washington — candidates from all parties would appear on a single, nonpartisan ballot, and the top two would advance to the general election regardless of affiliation.
• Deanna “De” Knudson, a registered Republican sponsoring the measure, stated her belief that the current nomination system “excludes about half of the voters from the real race, and we just really believe that this is a fairness issue.”

Supporters of a “top two” primary election system in South Dakota that would replace the current partisan process with one open to all voters have submitted thousands more petition signatures than required to bring a vote this fall on their ballot initiative.

On Monday, South Dakota Open Primaries sponsors said they submitted petitions with 47,000 signatures to Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office. The measure group needs 35,017 valid signatures to make the November ballot. Johnson’s office has until Aug. 13 to validate the measure, a proposed constitutional amendment.

Under South Dakota’s current primary election system, candidates in gubernatorial, congressional, legislative and county races compete in a partisan primary. The measure would allow all candidates to compete against each other in one primary, and the top two vote-getters in each race or for each seat would advance to the general election. A similar measure failed in 2016.

NOEM ADDRESSES FEELING ‘THREATENED’ BY NIKKI HALEY, A CONTROVERSIAL DOG KILLING, TRUMP VP SPECULATION IN BOOK

Other states such as California and Washington have “top two” primary elections similar to the measure proposed in South Dakota.

Measure sponsor Deanna “De” Knudson, a registered Republican, said she doesn’t think the state has a fair system, in that it “excludes about half of the voters from the real race, and we just really believe that this is a fairness issue.”

Republicans control South Dakota’s Legislature and hold all statewide elected offices and congressional seats. Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since 2008, when former U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin won reelection to their last terms.

South Dakota has nearly 602,000 registered voters, including 304,000 Republicans and 144,000 Democrats, but people registered as “no party affiliation” or “independent” total nearly 150,000 voters, according to online voter registration tracking.

State Republican Party Chairman and state Sen. John Wiik said he vehemently opposes the measure. He said he sees “no good coming out of it for the Republican Party.” The state GOP’s central committee unanimously opposed the measure, he said.

“I want Republicans to be able to choose the Republican candidate, and Democrats to choose the Democrat candidate,” Wiik said. “If you want to be an independent, then you’re independent of the decisions that affect your lives.”

Knudson said the measure would bring a much more competitive process and “will make sure that the winning candidate is the one most South Dakotans agree on.” She questioned the balance of power in the Legislature, where Democrats hold 11 of 105 seats, and whether that is truly reflective of voters’ will.

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State Democratic Party Executive Director Dan Ahlers said the party hasn’t taken a stance on the measure. The Democratic Party allows “no party affiliation” and independent voters to vote in its primary, along with registered Democrats.

Saying that “today I am announcing my intention to seek another term” in the Senate, longtime independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday formally launched his bid for re-election.

The 82-year-old progressive champion who caucuses with the Democrats is running for a fourth six-year term representing the blue state of Vermont in the Senate.

Sanders, the runner-up for the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nominations, is the chair of the Senate’s top health care committee, a senior member on both the Budget and Veterans committees, and is part of the Democrats’ leadership team in the chamber. 

“I have been, and will be if re-elected, in a strong position to provide the kind of help Vermonters need in these difficult times,” Sanders touted in an on-camera announcement posted on social media.

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BERNIE SANDERS

Sanders emphasized that “in recent years, working together, we have made important progress in addressing some very serious challenges. But much, much more needs to be done if we are to become the state and the nation our people deserve.”

The senator, who has long worked to push the Democratic Party to the left, pushed for trillions in spending during the first two years of President Biden’s administration, as the nation rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic. But his efforts to pass legislation expanding Medicare and weakening the filibuster were unsuccessful.

But Sanders has also worked to seek compromise with more moderate members of the Democratic conference and at times with the GOP minority.

While a Biden ally, Sanders has been a vocal critic of the White House and Democrats in recent months over their push to provide aid to Israel as it battles Hamas in the war in Gaza.

BIDEN CAMPAIGN BUSHES OFF SANDERS TAKE ON COLLEGE CAMPUS PROTESTS

Sanders acknowledged that “Israel had the absolute right to defend itself from this terrorist attack,” as he pointed to the bloody October attack by Hamas that left of 1,200 Israelis dead.

“But it did not and does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people,” he added, as he pointed to the Israeli war in Gaza that has reportedly left over 34,000 Palestinians dead. “U.S. tax dollars should not be going to the extremist Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people.”

Sanders, a former Socialist mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, later served in the House of Representatives before winning election to the Senate in 2006.

He was narrowly edged by Hillary Clinton in a marathon and divisive 2016 Democratic presidential primary battle, and was the last candidate standing against Biden in the race for the 2020 nomination.

Democrats currently control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map this year, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. 

6 KEY SENATE SEATS REPUBLICANS AIM TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER 

Three of those seats are in red states that former President Trump carried in 2020 – Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election. And five more are in key general election battleground states.

Democrats are also defending an open seat in blue Maryland, where popular former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is running for the Senate.

With Sanders running for re-election, Vermont’s seat is not considered in play and he’s expected to easily win another term.

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Republican Gerald Malloy, who lost the 2022 election in Vermont, is running again.

Framing his re-election effort, Sanders highlighted what’s at stake.

“There are very difficult times for our country and in world. And, in many ways, this 2024 election is the most consequential election in our lifetimes. Will the United States continue to even function as a democracy, or will we move to an authoritarian form of government?” the senator asked. 

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

Former President Trump said he’d make the “sacrifice” of going to jail to defend free speech amid his trial in Manhattan where the 45th president is under a gag order that he has slammed as “unconstitutional.” 

“I have to watch every word I tell you people. You ask me a question, a simple question I’d like to give it, but I can’t talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and [says] you’ll go to jail if you violate it,” Trump said in remarks outside the courtroom Monday afternoon.  

“And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.”

Earlier Monday, presiding Judge Juan Merchan said he will consider a jail sentence for Trump if he continues to violate the gag order. The gag order prevents Trump from making or directing others to make public statements about witnesses and their potential participation or remarks about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.

LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP ORG EMPLOYEE TAKES STAND AS PROSECUTORS BUILD TO MICHAEL COHEN TESTIMONY

The DA’s office argued that Trump violated the order more than a dozen times, with the judge ruling last week that Trump violated the order nine times, resulting in a combined $9,000 fine. Merchan fined the former president another $1,000 for an additional violation on Monday, arguing that it’s “clear” the $1,000 fines for each violation are not effective.

“The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.”

In the judge’s initial gag order ruling last Tuesday, he threatened Trump with jail time if he continued to violate the order, lamenting not being able to fine Trump more than $1,000 for each violation.

Merchan wrote in the Tuesday order that if Trump carries out “continued willful violations” of the gag order, he could face “incarceratory punishment” if “necessary and appropriate.”

NY V TRUMP TO RESUME MONDAY AFTER EVENTFUL 3RD WEEK OF TESTIMONY, THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF GAG ORDER FINES

In the text of his order, Merchan said the fines’ costs “unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford such a fine.”

Merchan continued in the order last week that it would be “preferable” if the court “could impose a fine more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor.”

“In some cases that might be a $2,500 fine, in other cases it might be a fine of $150,000. Because this Court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment,” he wrote, highlighting again that Trump could face time behind bars if he continues to violate the order.

HOPE HICKS: COHEN CALLED HIMSELF ‘MR FIX IT’ ONLY BECAUSE HE ‘BROKE IT’

Trump, who is standing trial over 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, has railed against the gag order as “unconstitutional” and accused Merchan of “election interference” while slamming the case overall as a “scam” promoted by the Biden administration.

Trump said in his remarks Monday that the trial will last an additional two to three weeks, which he said delighted Merchan because it will keep Trump away from the presidential campaign trail.

“So, we just found out the government just said that they want two to three more weeks. That means they want to keep me off the trail for two to three more weeks. Now, anybody in there would realize there’s no case. They don’t have a case. Every legal scholar says they don’t have a case. This is just a political witch hunt. It’s election interference. And this is really truly election interference. And it’s a disgrace,” Trump said, noting his high poll numbers.

NY V TRUMP: WITNESS SAYS COHEN DREAMED OF WHITE HOUSE JOB DESPITE DENYING AMBITIONS IN HOUSE TESTIMONY

“The judge is so happy about two to three more weeks because they all want to keep me off the campaign trail. That’s all this is about. This is about election interference.”

JUDGE DOUBLES DOWN ON NOT SHOWING TRUMP ‘ACCESS HOLLYWOOD’ TAPE TO JURORS

Monday marked the beginning of the fourth week of the trial in which Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The case focuses on Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, paying former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

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Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony.

EXCLUSIVE: Rumble, a popular video-sharing and cloud service platform, has revealed a number of censorship demands it’s received from the governments of countries that may surprise many.

The major tech company shared the details of those demands with Fox News Digital, as well as CEO Chris Pavlovski’s prepared remarks for his testimony on Capitol Hill this week, which will take place at a House hearing centered on rising censorship and free speech concerns in Brazil.

“Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are the cornerstones of a democratic society,” Pavlovski is expected to tell members of the House Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations on Tuesday.

WAR VETERAN IN CRUCIAL BATTLEGROUND RACE EXPANDS CAMPAIGN, SETS SIGHTS FIRMLY ON VULNERABLE DEMOCRAT

“Freedom of expression is so important, that not only is it the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, but it is also Article 19 in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he is expected to say. “It is extremely troubling to me that in 2024 I have to come before the U.S. Congress to testify that these fundamental rights are being threatened.”

Of those threats Pavlovski is expected to mention – most of which would be considered the norm by countries like China, Russia or North Korea – the perpetrators are actually liberal democracies where personal freedoms have typically been held in high regard.

According to Rumble, it’s become a common theme for those countries to try and control what can and cannot be said online, especially if the content happens to be politically unpopular or inconvenient for their respective governments.

One such demand came from the French government, which wanted Rumble to essentially take action reminiscent of the Chinese Communist Party by removing content posted on its site by Russia Today – an outlet funded by the Russian government – despite none of its posting policies being violated.

Rumble is in the midst of a legal battle with the French government over the demand despite trying to engage with it over the content, and has temporarily suspended its service in the country.

FORMER TRUMP OFFICIAL ANNOUNCES MAJOR ‘DEPORT THEM ALL’ BORDER INITIATIVE AMID BID TO FLIP CRUCIAL SENATE SEAT

A similar situation has played out in Brazil following President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election victory in 2022 and subsequent protests by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro that some likened to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol.

According to Rumble, whose services are also suspended in the country amid ongoing legal challenges, the Brazilian government has attempted to censor political opponents and journalists on the site.

Additionally, Rumble has faced pressure from the Australian and New Zealand governments to remove content from its site, including the viral video of a Sydney bishop being attacked while conducting a church service, and data released by a government whistleblower concerning the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The company is challenging those governments as well.

In his congressional testimony, Pavlovski is expected to inform the committee about the efforts by France, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil to block the availability of certain content from their respective citizens, and will emphasize the “overt” nature of governments’ censorship attempts.

GOP IN BATTLEGROUND STATES RIP TRUMP TRIAL JUDGE’S ‘DANGEROUS’ RULING

“Governments are acting in ways we only imagine happening 50 to 60 years ago, openly asking platforms to censor and take down disfavored content. They are back in the business of thinking they know what’s best, dictating and controlling conversations, and stripping the human right to speak and share freely,” Pavloski is expected to testify.

“These are not theoretical fears. These things are happening, and I know this personally as the CEO of a platform that receives demands from governments around the world,” he will say. “Countries in every hemisphere, all of them members of the United Nations, are no longer upholding the human right to freedom of expression. This is getting out of control, and it should alarm everyone in this room.”

Pavlovski is expected to call on the U.S. government to no longer remain “silent” on the issue of defending freedom of speech, and will issue a stark warning that although Rumble is facing these demands today, it could be other outlets in the future.

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“Today it is Rumble, yesterday it was X, but tomorrow it could be The New York Times. The platform shouldn’t matter; the universal right to freedom of speech and expression – the core of Western democracy – is at stake. America needs to step up and take a leading role,” he will add.

Members of Congress are looking to take action against a United Nations agency serving Palestinian refugees in Gaza, amid reports the international organization assisted the Hamas terror group.

Reps. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., are introducing legislation that would demand the U.S. State Department does everything it can to return American tax dollars that went to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

“For way too long, UNRWA has masqueraded as a relief organization, while in reality serving as an incubator for Palestinian terrorists. Intelligence reports indicate that as many as 10% of UNRWA workers have direct links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihadists,” Mast said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

He added: “It’s ludicrous that our hard-earned American tax dollars were going to fund this crap. The State Department needs to do everything it can to recoup this money.”

DOSSIER REVEALS INFORMATION USED TO EXPLAIN UN AGENCY’S DEEP TIES TO HAMAS IN GAZA

The legislation comes after allegations surfaced that at least a dozen UNRWA employees joined or otherwise assisted Hamas terrorists during their overnight attack on Israeli border communities on Oct. 7. The attack left more than 1,200 people dead, and Hamas took more than 200 hostages from a music festival and from their homes back into Gaza.

After reports that some UNRWA members helped Hamas, the Biden administration announced on Jan. 26 that it would stop additional taxpayer dollars from going to the agency.

Just days before the freeze, however, the administration had already transferred $121 million to UNRWA.

Mast and Gottheimer’s bipartisan bill hopes to recoup that sum to the U.S.

The legislation is part of a continued effort from the U.S. — and other countries — to separate itself from the agency.

ISRAEL URGES PALESTINIANS TO EVACUATE RAFAH AHEAD OF EXPECTED GROUND OPERATION IN HAMAS STRONGHOLD

U.S. intelligence in February said it was likely some employees of UNRWA participated in the attack, but it also said it could not verify Israeli allegations of wider links between the agency and UNRWA, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In March, the Israeli government named 12 UNRWA employees who had ties to and assisted Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in a dossier that it shared with several of its allies. Three were suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of the hostages or keeping them in their homes.

The agency fired the 12 employees named in the allegations, but the damage was already done and UNRWA lost hundreds of millions of dollars from donors after the dossier was sent.

The information includes allegations that approximately 1,200 employees shared some connection with Hamas — including around 17% of UNRWA teachers (out of a total 8,300) and around 20% of UNRWA school principals and deputy principals (out of a total 500) are members of Hamas. Ties to the group extend to UNRWA workers in positions related to relief and humanitarian aid, with about 10% of the 151 relief workers, and members of UNRWA’s health services.

The dossier also included excerpts from textbooks used in the agency’s school curriculum that allegedly include glorification of martyrdom and antisemitic tropes. Maps provided to children in their textbooks show a singular land where Israel and the Palestinian territories exist but labeled as a singular Palestine.

After the report surfaced, Congress passed legislation to defund UNRWA until 2025. 

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Other governments similarly cut financial ties to UNRWA.

The report and subsequent response comes years after former President Trump took action against UNRWA when he was serving in the White House.

Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump did not personally direct a Trump Organization executive to set up reimbursement payments to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, according to witness testimony Monday in the NY v. Trump case. 

“Michael Cohen was a lawyer?” defense attorney Emil Bove asked former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney Monday at the start of the fourth week of the trial.

“Sure, yes,” McConney responded. 

“And payments to lawyers by the Trump Organization are legal expenses, right?” asked Bove.

“Yes,” said McConney.

LIVE UPDATES: EX-TRUMP ORG CONTROLLER TAKES STAND AS PROSECUTORS BUILD TO MICHAEL COHEN TESTIMONY

“President Trump did not ask you to do any of the things you just described … correct?” Bove asked.

“He did not,” McConney replied.

NY V. TRUMP TO RESUME MONDAY AFTER EVENTFUL THIRD WEEK OF TESTIMONY, THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF GAG ORDER FINES

Trump is in Manhattan for the fourth week of trial, where he is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records. The NY v. Trump case focuses on Trump’s former attorney Cohen paying former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony. 

McConney, who served as the Trump Organization’s controller for more than two decades, took the stand Monday, where he was grilled by both prosecutors and the defense team. 

HOPE HICKS: COHEN CALLED HIMSELF ‘MR. FIX IT’ ONLY BECAUSE HE ‘BROKE IT’

McConney testified that he was directed by former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg to reimburse Cohen with $35,000 per month payments, with the last being sent to Cohen in December of 2017.

McConney also detailed that Cohen was initially reimbursed through a trust, before switching to payments from Trump’s personal account. An email from McConney to Cohen was entered into evidence, which showed the controller replying to Cohen and confirming that checks would have to be sent to the White House to be signed by Trump.

Cohen was paid a total of $420,000, according to the testimony, a sum that was “grossed up” so Cohen wouldn’t lose money through taxes. 

NY V. TRUMP: WITNESS SAYS COHEN DREAMED OF WHITE HOUSE JOB DESPITE DENYING AMBITIONS IN HOUSE TESTIMONY

His testimony during cross-examination bolstered the Trump team’s defense, with the executive outlining that the 45th president did not have an active role in the reimbursements to Cohen. 

“And as far as you know, President Trump did not ask anyone to do those things?” Bove continued, as prosecutors objected. 

“In none of the conversations that you had with Mr. Weisselberg, did he suggest that President Trump had told him to do these things?” Bove pressed.

HUSH MONEY TRIAL JUDGE DOUBLES DOWN ON NOT SHOWING TRUMP ‘ACCESS HOLLYWOOD’ TAPE TO JURORS

“Allen never told me that,” McConney said.

TRUMP DELIVERS PIZZA TO NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTERS IN CAMPAIGN STOP AFTER DAY IN COURT

McConney is the prosecution team’s 10th witness since the trial began in mid-April. Last week, the court heard from Keith Davidson, an attorney who once represented Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal; computer forensic analyst for the DA’s office, Doug Daus; bank executive Gary Farro; and Hope Hicks, who worked for the Trump Organization and later served as Trump’s press secretary during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

The Trump trial is expected to last at least six weeks. Trump has railed against the case as a “scam” promoted by the Biden administration ahead of the 2024 election. 

Earlier Monday, presiding Judge Juan Merchan said he will consider a jail sentence for Trump if he continues to violate a gag order. The gag order prevents Trump from making or directing others to make public statements about witnesses and their potential participation, or remarks about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP 

The DA’s office argued that Trump had violated the order more than a dozen times, with the judge ruling last week that Trump violated the order nine times, resulting in a combined $9,000 fine. Merchan fined the former president another $1,000 for an additional violation on Monday, while arguing it’s “clear” that $1,000 fines for each violation are not effective.

“The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.” 

Fox News Digital’ Brooke Singman and Michael Lee contributed to this report. 

New York City has become the epicenter of campus protests at the hands of radicals denouncing Israel and Jews worldwide, forcing the NYPD to juggle yet another public safety concern and hundreds of arrests, in addition to ongoing crime trends, the immigration crisis, police understaffing and even security surrounding the unprecedented trial of former President Trump in Manhattan. 

“We believe that they, too, should contribute to the cost,” Democratic Mayor Eric Adams said last week when asked if Columbia University should foot the bill for a recent massive NYPD operation to remove radicals from campus. 

“One way to prevent the costs from escalating is to have a zero tolerance. As soon as the tents go up, it comes down. Do not allow this to continue to expand,” Adams continued. “That is what we saw at Columbia University and that is what we saw at CUNY as well.”

“[I]f this summer turns out to be a very hot summer on the crime front, I mean, that can be particularly disastrous at a time in which the department is spread as thin as it is.” 

Just last month, anti-Israel protests on Columbia University’s campus spiraled, with students and outside agitators seen on camera with a poster outlining that Jewish students on campus would become Al-Qasam’s “next targets,” referring to terrorist organization Hamas’s military wing. That same weekend, a rabbi at Columbia warned Jewish students to leave campus immediately until the situation was quelled. 

NYPD RELEASE VIDEO SHOWING PROFESSIONAL ‘PROTEST CONSULTANT’ AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

“The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” Rabbi Elie Buechler wrote. “It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”

The situation did not dramatically improve. Instead, an encampment on campus dubbed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” grew and radicals overtook a building on campus, Hamilton Hall. The encampment and occupation of Hamilton Hall only ended when the NYPD stormed the campus, clearing the encampment and removing throngs of agitators from the building. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROTESTS: REP. ELISE STEFANIK URGES TRUSTEES TO REMOVE SHAFIK AFTER MOB SEIZES BUILDING

Between Columbia’s and The City College of New York’s campuses last week, police arrested 282 people and worked to dismantle illegal encampments. The NYPD revealed half of those arrested were outside agitators not affiliated with the universities. 

Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael Mangual told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this month that the NYPD is spread thin as it juggles safety concerns revolving around the protests, in addition to a handful of other public safety issues in the city. 

“The department being spread as thin as it is, is really going to constrain its ability to respond to any kind of major shift,” Mangual said. “Again, we’re hoping … that the beginning of this trend of a crime decline continues. But if this summer turns out to be a very hot summer on the crime front, I mean, that can be particularly disastrous at a time in which the department is spread as thin as it is.” 

IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS’ PROTESTS SPIRAL INTO ‘ACTUAL TERROR ORGANIZATION,’ PROFESSOR WARNS

Adams has praised the police for their strong showing and ability to shut down the protests, while denouncing the agitators on campus disrupting the city. 

“They are attempting to disrupt our city, and we are not going to permit it to happen,” Adams said last week. “And we’re proud to say they have been removed from the campus. The NYPD is precision policing ensured that the operation was organized, calm, and that there were no injuries or violent clashes.”

The protests come after the NYPD saw historical losses of staffers leaving the force or retiring in recent years. In 2022, roughly 3,700 officers retired or quit — the largest figure recorded in the last 20 years, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Police leaving the NYPD has been an issue stretching back decades, with Mangual explaining that staffing levels sat around 40,000 members in the early 2000s, before falling to under 34,000. 

COLUMBIA RABBI TELLS JEWISH STUDENTS TO LEAVE CAMPUS, WARNS THAT SCHOOL, NYPD ‘CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SAFETY’

“I think there’s no question that resources are getting strained. The NYPD is certainly a beneficiary of its very, very high levels of staffing. But it’s also important to remember that that high level of staffing has been pretty steadily decreasing for two decades now. I mean, I think of the year 2000, the department had about 40,000 officers, close to 41,000 at one point in the early aughts, and they’re down to about 33,500,” he said. 

The staffing issue woes are illustrated by how response times for calls of service have increased in recent years, along with the number of actual calls for service skyrocketing, Mangual reported in a New York Post opinion piece in March. 

Mangual compared NYPD response times in January 2018 to December 2023, finding response times for critical calls increased by 22% in December, “serious” calls for service response times increased by 45.5% and non-critical calls by 28.7%, sitting around 27 minutes or more for officers to respond. 

The NYPD also fielded a whopping 1 million more calls for service in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic 2018, Mangual found. 

“The NYPD fielded a million more calls for service in 2018,” Mangual told Fox News Digital. “Most police departments, you know, are fielding maybe 100,000 calls for service ready at a midsized Police Department in an American city. The NYPD is like the LAPD, it’s a mega department. So you’re talking about 7 million calls for service a year.”

“That’s an enormous amount. And … that growth in calls for services is coming at a time in which the number of officers on the street has been declining. And it’s important to understand, too, that that 33,500 number includes all uniformed members of service, not all of whom are patrol officers who are going to be responding to these calls.”

New York City was among cities across the nation following 2020 that saw crimes increase, including murders increasing by nearly 47% in 2020 compared to 2019, burglaries increased by 43% that year, and grand larceny of vehicles by 66%. 

Violent crimes such as murder have since fallen in the city, which Mangual celebrated, but noted that crime overall only ticked down 0.3% last year compared to 2022. 

NYPD SEES LARGEST STAFF EXODUS IN DECADES WITH LEADERS ‘REFUSING TO ACKNOWLEDGE’ MOUNTING CRISIS: UNION BOSS

“Lots of people are sort of hyper focused on the homicide decline, the shooting decline” he told Fox News Digital. “And they should be, you know, those are important developments for sure. You know, I don’t want to deemphasize that at all because I do think that that’s an important sign of improvement. But if you look in 2023, for example, the year-end crime data for New York City showed that overall major crime, which are the seven major offenses that the NYPD tracks, was only down 0.3%. Despite those really sharp declines in homicides and shootings, and that’s because car thefts, larcenies, burglaries, robberies, and non-shooting assaults are still very, very elevated.”

Israel activist, New Yorker Lizzy Savetsky, told Fox News Digital that protests and radicals on campuses are challenging “the fabric of our public safety” while promoting antisemitism and hate of the U.S.

“These antisemitic, pro-Hamas encampments on campuses across New York City are directly targeting the Jewish community and are anti-American. The NYPD’s stretched resources are a testament to the disruptive nature of these mob encampments, which not only challenge the fabric of our public safety but also embolden antisemitic and anti-American sentiments. It’s unacceptable that our city’s security and the well-being of its Jewish residents are being compromised by such targeted hate,” Savetsky said. 

Simultaneous with the city’s crime trends and protests, the Big Apple is also grappling with a migrant crisis, as illegal immigrants have continuously flooded the nation under the Biden administration, as border states such as Texas bused the migrants to left-wing cities with “sanctuary” status. 

COLUMBIA STUDENT RECOUNTS HAVING ‘FRONT-ROW SEAT TO THE MADNESS’ OF ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS

More than 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since 2022, while roughly 7.3 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. since President Biden took office in 2021, Fox News Digital reported in February. The total number of migrants in the nation outpaces the population of 36 individual states. 

The city is also juggling security surrounding the high-profile and unprecedented trial of former President Trump in Manhattan, where he faces 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and slammed the case as a “scam” promoted by the Biden administration ahead of the 2024 election. 

“They’re very spread thin. And so, I think the real vulnerability is … we won’t be able to be very nimble, should something big happen.”

The trial has resulted in mass media attention, while supporters and protesters have also gathered outside the courthouse. During the first week of the trial last month, a man set himself on fire outside the trial. He succumbed to his injuries shortly after. 

COLUMBIA STUDENTS TRIED TO DELAY MOB TAKEOVER OF HAMILTON HALL, BUT SAY ‘POLICE NEVER CAME’

“So not only do we have these more regular instances of protests, which demand a large police presence,” Mangual said. “We’ve had bridges shut down, the tunnel shut down, mass gatherings at Penn Station and Grand Central Station, the campuses,” Mangual continued. “But you also have these very, very high security events like Trump’s trial, the UN every year. So they’re all these things that are sort of consistently happening that are further constraining the NYPD’s ability to respond for to calls for service, and those calls for service have been growing.”

Mangual warned that though the NYPD can handle the events currently unfolding in the city, the Big Apple would be left vulnerable if a mass tragedy strikes or if riots similar to those in 2020 broke out. 

“They’re very spread thin. And so, I think the real vulnerability is … we won’t be able to be very nimble, should something big happen. Should there be another series of riots like in 2020. Should there be, God forbid, a terrorist attack,” he said. 

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The mayor’s office told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the NYPD has made clear they can handle the situations on campus, while still attending to the entire city’s needs without issue, which the office noted makes the force “the greatest police department in the world.” 

With six months to go until Election Day 2024, the rematch between President Biden and former President Trump is as close as it can get.

The race is tied, according to a new national poll released by USA Today and Suffolk University on Monday.

Biden and Trump each stand at 37% support among registered voters, with Democrat turned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 8%, and 5% backing other independent or third party candidates.

HAS BIDEN FLATLINED IN THE LATEST POLLS?

“We’re basically at the doorstep of the election, and the outcome is a coin flip,” Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos said.

The survey is the second in a day to indicate an extremely close contest between the Democratic incumbent in the White House and his Republican predecessor.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING IN THE 2024 ELECTION

According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, Trump held a 46%-44% advantage among adults, but Biden has the edge 46%-45% among registered voters and up 49%-45% among those likely to vote in the presidential election.

In a five-way contest that includes Biden, Trump, Kennedy, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West, Trump has the slight edge among all adults, he is tied with the president among registered voters, and Biden holds the edge among likely voters.

DO THE LATEST POLLS SPELL TROUBLE FOR BIDEN?

The Suffolk poll suggests that nearly a quarter of voters (24%) say they might change their minds ahead of the fall election, with 12% saying they have not made their choice yet in the presidential race.

“When we think about the race tied with just 26 weeks to go, we have to consider that people tune out politics and the party conventions in July and August,” Paleologos emphasized. “That leaves just 17 weeks for candidates to actively campaign, and it’s actually 13 or 14 weeks when you consider states where early voting starts weeks before Election Day.”

While national surveys garner plenty of attention, the race for the White House is a battle for the states and their electoral votes, which places a spotlight on battleground state polling.

The most recent polling in the key swing states, including surveys from Fox News, indicate close contests.

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

House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to meet privately, one-on-one, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday at 3:30 p.m. amid speculation that she may trigger a motion to remove him from his post, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

Over a month ago, Greene filed a motion to vacate, accusing the Louisiana Republican of having “betrayed the confidence” of the House GOP Conference by ushering through a bipartisan $1.2 trillion federal funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Her resolution earned two co-sponsors in Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., after the House passed a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine earlier this month. Last week, Greene announced plans to trigger the motion this week, as early as Monday evening.

“We need leaders in the House of Representatives that are gonna get this done,” Greene said last week, holding up a red “Make America Great Again” hat. “Not working for Hakeem Jeffries. Not working for Joe Biden, and not going to be twisted and lulled into continuing the disgusting practices of Washington, D.C.”

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FILES MOTION TO OUST SPEAKER JOHNSON

Johnson said in a statement after her announcement, “This motion is wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country.”

Greene responded to accusations that her push would fuel more chaos for congressional Republicans by arguing that House Republicans would lose the majority in November if Johnson remained at the helm.

She also denied that she was defying former President Trump, who backed Johnson in comments on a radio show last month.

Greene’s push to oust Johnson just six months after he took the gavel mostly fell flat within the House GOP, with even Johnson’s critics showing little appetite to go through another three weeks of chaos and disorder that followed the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in early October last year.

HOUSE DEMS SAY THEY’LL BLOCK MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FROM OUSTING SPEAKER JOHNSON

The Republican Main Street Caucus, including Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas., announced they would hold a press event Monday following floor votes to discuss the motion to vacate. Crenshaw on Sunday told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that Greene “needs her time in the spotlight” and is a “last-ditch effort to get a little attention.” 

Crenshaw said there’s a “large and strong majority” who will likely table the motion, noting that there is very little support for Greene and Massie’s effort.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE CALLS JOHNSON’S FOREIGN AID PACKAGE HIS ‘3RD BETRAYAL’ OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

“And it’s based in what exactly, that Mike Johnson brought bills to the floor that were necessary for our national security, that the vast majority of members wanted to vote on? So allowing the democratic process to move forward is apparently the crime of the century, according to these people,” Crenshaw chided. 

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“They make it impossible for us to have any leverage with our very slim majority, and then they turn around and punish the speaker when they can’t actually make a deal that we want,” Crenshaw added. 

“It’s a game, and voters have to stop falling for it.”

Judge Juan Merchan on Monday said he will consider a jail sentence for former President Trump if he continues to violate the gag order imposed upon him in his unprecedented criminal trial. 

Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump before the trial began, ordering that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses with regard to their potential participation or about counsel in the case – other than Bragg – or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.

NY VS TRUMP: THE EVIDENCE PROSECUTORS CAN PRESENT IF FORMER PRESIDENT TESTIFIES

Bragg and prosecutors have alleged more than a dozen violations of the gag order, and have already fined the former president $9,000 for those violations. 

Merchan, on Monday, fined the former president $1,000 for an additional violation, but said it is “clear” that the fine — $1,000 per violation — is not effective.

The filing states that Trump is “hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration.” 

Merchan said Monday that going forward, the court will have to consider “a jail sentence.” 

TRUMP SAYS BIDEN ‘SHOULD BE IN JAIL’ AND ‘ON TRIAL,’ WHILE BLASTING NY CASE: ‘THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING’

“The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said. “You are former president and possibly the next president.” 

Merchan, though, said that he worries about “that step” for Trump, pointing to Secret Service protection. 

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“The magnitude of that decision is not lost on me,” Merchan said. “Your continued willful violation of the court’s order…constitutes a direct attack…and will not be allowed to continue…It is not allowed to continue.” 

Trump and his defense attorneys have argued that the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee should not be bound by the gag order, saying it violates his First Amendment rights as well as the First Amendment rights of his supporters. 

FIRST ON FOX: The GOP Senate primary in battleground Michigan is becoming more combative as a wealthy investor making his second bid for office is pouring big bucks into a major statewide ad blitz that takes aim at the front-runner in the race, who’s backed by former President Trump.

And a new campaign commercial from businessman Sandy Pensler, which launches statewide on Monday in Michigan, hits former Rep. Mike Rogers for his role a decade ago as chair of the House Intelligence Committee in the congressional investigation into the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The ad, shared first with Fox News on Monday, is the latest from the deep-pocketed entrepreneur who’s self-funding his Senate bid. The spot is part of what Pensler’s campaign says is a seven-figure ad buy on broadcast and cable TV and digital.

Rogers, a former FBI special agent before serving in Congress, enjoys the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP. And in March, Rogers landed the endorsement of Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Rogers has teamed up with the former president twice in the past month at Trump campaign events in the crucial Great Lakes swing state.

TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE AIMS TO FLIP DEMOCRAT HELD SEAT IN KEY SENATE BATTLEGROUND

Besides Rogers and Pensler, the crowded GOP primary field also includes former Rep. Justin Amash. The eventual Republican nominee will likely face off in November with Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the race to succeed longtime Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who is not seeking re-election this year.

The seat is one of a handful that Republicans are aiming to flip from blue to red in November as they push to regain the Senate majority they lost in the 2020 cycle.

The 30-second ad alleges that Rogers helped Hillary Clinton cover up key facts involving the Benghazi attack. Clinton was secretary of state in then-President Obama’s administration at the time of the attack in which Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service officer Sean Smith and two CIA contractors were killed.

The narrator in the Pensler spot calls the attack “Hillary Clinton’s worst scandal” and charges that “Mike Rogers helped Hillary cover it up.”

WHAT HAPPENED DURING AND AFTER THE 2012 BENGHAZI ATTACK

The ad includes a video clip of Kris Paronto, a former Army Ranger who was one of a handful of CIA contracted guards defending the consulate during the attack. Paronto and fellow guards said in a book that they were told to stand down by CIA and State Department officials for 20 minutes while the attack was unfolding.

“I looked Mike Rogers in the eyes and said that if we would have not been delayed, we would have saved the ambassador’s life,” Paronto says in the clip.

The spot’s narrator says that “Rogers called our soldiers liars.”

Rogers is then heard in an audio clip saying that “it’s just all nonsense. This didn’t happen the way they said back then.”

The report from the heavily polarized House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence investigation into Benghazi spotlighted that bureaucratic and interagency blunders contributed to the Americans’ deaths but didn’t specifically blame Clinton or any other American officials.

“The Obama administration’s White House and State Department actions before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attack on September 11, 2012, ranged from incompetence to deplorable political manipulation in the midst of an election season,” Rogers wrote in an op-ed piece following the publication of the report.

Pensler’s commercial is his second in a week. The previous ad, which went up as Rogers joined Trump at a rally in Michigan, targeted Slotkin for failing to condemn Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for controversial comments the far-left “Squad” House member made about the war between Israel and Hamas.

“Rashida and Elissa, you have no moral compass,” Pensler says in the ad. “You’re an embarrassment to Michigan and America.”

6 KEY SENATE SEATS REPUBLICANS AIM TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER 

As they work to win a Senate election in Michigan for the first time in three decades, Republicans were hoping to avoid a potentially costly and combustible primary, especially with Slotkin facing little competition for the Democrat nomination.

Former Rep. Peter Meijer recently ended his campaign, and former Detroit Police Chief James Craig dropped out of the race in February.

But Pensler is vowing to run ads straight through the Aug. 6 primary.

“He’s going to spend a serious amount,” Pensler campaign senior adviser Stu Sandler told Fox News. “We’re just going to keep putting them on the air.”

NRSC spokesperson Mike Berg said the committee would “do what it takes” to make sure Rogers is the party’s nominee.

And NRSC Chair Sen. Steve Daines of Montana said during a recent Christian Science Monitor breakfast in the nation’s capital that “I think the Trump endorsement of Mike Rogers really seals the deal in that primary.”

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But Sandler, who was NRSC political director last cycle when Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was steering the committee, said “the Michigan voters are going to decide this.”

The NRSC had a hands-off policy in GOP Senate primaries in the 2022 cycle, which many blamed for a handful of divisive primary battles that critics said contributed to the party’s failure at winning back the Senate majority. 

This cycle, Daines and the NRSC have been hands-on, elevating candidates and mostly avoiding nasty primaries.

When it comes to Trump, Pensler’s campaign says its candidate is a major supporter of the former president.

This is Pensler’s second run for the Senate GOP nomination in Michigan. He lost his 2018 bid to now-Rep. John James after James ran ads attacking Pensler for slamming Trump “behind closed doors.”

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

Former President Trump’s criminal trial will resume Monday after an eventful third week that saw key witnesses testify and thousands of dollars in fines against the presumptive Republican nominee — with the possibility of additional fines looming. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges stem from a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. 

The charges are related to alleged payments made to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels about an alleged extramarital affair with Trump before the 2016 election. 

HOPE HICKS: COHEN CALLED HIMSELF ‘MR. FIX IT’ ONLY BECAUSE HE ‘BROKE IT’

DA Alvin Bragg must convince the jury that not only did Trump falsify the business records related to hush money payments, but that he did so in furtherance of another crime, conspiracy to promote or prevent election. 

On their own, falsifying business records and conspiracy to promote or prevent election are misdemeanor charges. 

Prosecutors, during the third week of the trial, called a number of witnesses to testify, including Keith Davidson, an attorney who once represented Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. 

Davidson said Daniels’ denial of an affair with Trump was technically true. He also testified that the money ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid her was not a payoff, but a “consideration.” 

Trump’s defense attorneys, during cross-examination, played audio recordings of Davidson, in which he can be heard admitting Cohen did not need authority from Trump to make the payment to Stormy Daniels. 

NY V. TRUMP: WITNESS SAYS COHEN DREAMED OF WHITE HOUSE JOB DESPITE DENYING AMBITIONS IN HOUSE TESTIMONY

Before Davidson, the jury heard testimony from Doug Daus, a computer forensic analyst for the DA’s office, who testified about examining two cellphones that belonged to Cohen. 

During Daus’ testimony, an audio recording was played.  

“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” Cohen said during the call. “So, I’m gonna do that right away. I’ve actually come up and spoken to Allen Weisselberg. … I’m all over that. I’ve spoken to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be—” 

Trump replied: “Listen, what financing?” 

HUSH MONEY TRIAL JUDGE DOUBLES DOWN ON NOT SHOWING TRUMP ‘ACCESS HOLLYWOOD’ TAPE TO JURORS

Last week, the jury heard testimony from bank executive Gary Farro, who said he assisted Cohen in setting up an account for Essential Consultants, LLC, the shell company Bragg alleges Cohen used to make the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. 

But Farro testified that there was nothing to indicate that the account would be used to make a payment on behalf of a political candidate, to purchase a media story or to pay an adult film actress. Farro testified that had the account been intended for those matters, there would have been additional scrutiny and delays in opening it, and he admitted it was possible the account would never have been opened. 

Farro also testified he was unaware the account was being done on behalf of Trump. 

The week ended with testimony from Hope Hicks, who worked for the Trump Organization and later served as Trump’s press secretary during the 2016 presidential campaign. Hicks later served as White House director of strategic communications. 

“He knew what he wanted to say and how to say it, and we were all just following his lead,” Hicks said of Trump. “He deserves the credit for the agenda.” 

TRUMP DELIVERS PIZZA TO NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTERS IN CAMPAIGN STOP AFTER DAY IN COURT

Hicks was asked about the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape featuring controversial comments from Trump that came out in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election. 

Hicks said she was “a little stunned” when she saw the tape and said it was a “damaging development” to the campaign, adding it “obviously wasn’t helpful.” But she noted it was two guys talking privately and insisted it was locker room talk that wasn’t meant to upset anyone. 

The 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape came to light ahead of the 2016 election and showed Trump boasting to host Billy Bush that he could kiss and grope women due to his star power.

Judge Juan Merchan previously prohibited the prosecution from showing the tape to jurors, saying in March, “It is not necessary that the tape itself be introduced into evidence or that it be played for the jury.”

Hicks also said Trump told her the claims of him having an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal were “unequivocally untrue.”

Hicks also blasted Michael Cohen, saying he was not involved in the 2016 campaign but would try to insert himself at certain moments. Hicks said the campaign had its own lawyers, and Cohen was instructed to focus on Trump’s private business credentials. 

NY V TRUMP: REMAINING ALLEGED GAG ORDER VIOLATIONS HANG IN BALANCE AS TRIAL RESUMES

Hicks said Cohen “used to like to call himself Mr. Fix it, but it was only because he first broke it.”

Hicks also testified that, with regard to allegations about Stormy Daniels, Trump did not want “anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed about anything on the campaign.” 

“He wanted them to be proud of him,” she said. 

Trump was fined $9,000 for violating a trial gag order imposed upon him. Judge Merchan still needs to consider four additional alleged violations of the order, which could come this week. 

The former president has blasted the trial as rigged and in coordination with President Biden’s White House. Trump says the case, and others against him, are “election interference.”

As for the gag order, Trump calls it “unconstitutional” and said he will appeal the order altogether, arguing it is a violation of his First Amendment rights. Trump has called on the judge to recuse himself, saying he is “totally conflicted.” 

The former president has said Democrats want to keep him confined to the courtroom and off of the campaign trail. 

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Court does not meet on Wednesdays. Trump has taken advantage of that arrangement and last week held rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan. 

After hours in court last Thursday, Trump delivered pizzas to FDNY firefighters at a midtown Manhattan firehouse to honor first responders. 

Fox News’ Maria Paronich and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report. 

Five vulnerable Democrats who voted against measures to strengthen border security in the past have seemingly changed their tune as they seek re-election to their posts in the lower chamber.

Following President Biden’s signing of a $95 billion package with aid to both Ukraine and Israel last week, five Democrats – Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Mary Peltola of Alaska, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Don Davis of North Carolina – released a joint statement agreeing with calls for Congress and the president to “act and bring order to the southern border.”

“Beyond defending our allies, we strongly agree with the National Border Patrol Council that Congress and the President must act and bring order to the Southern border,” the lawmakers stated. “That is why we also voted for H.R. 3602 on Saturday, and why we all voted last month for $19.6 billion for Border Patrol so that it could ramp up its efforts to secure the border.”

The comments from the five Democrats – three of whom (Golden, GluesenKamp, and Davis) are engaged in tough re-election battles that have been labeled “toss up” races by the Cook Political Report, and another two (Peltola and Gonzalez) competing in races labeled “lean Democrat” – came after each one of them voted against the Secure the Border Act of 2023.

VULNERABLE HOUSE DEMS DO A U-TURN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AFTER CALLING CRISIS ‘NON-EXISTENT THREAT’

That bill, which passed in the House, would have expanded the type of crimes that make someone ineligible for asylum, limited the eligibility to those who arrive at ports of entry, mandated a system similar to the E-Verify employment eligibility verification system, and created additional penalties for visa overstay.

In addition to not supporting the Secure the Border Act, the same five Democrats voted on two different occasions against GOP-led efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom many Republicans have argued is largely responsible for the migrant crisis at the southern border.

Certain Democrats, like Gluesenkamp Perez, who was first elected to Congress in 2022 and co-chairs the Blue Dog Coalition with Golden and Peltola, have made dismissive comments about the border crisis in recent years.

The Washington lawmaker previously faced criticism from Republicans over border-related comments she made in March 2023 during an appearance on Pod Save America, which came prior to the ending of the Title 42 public health order.

“Listen, nobody stays awake at night worrying about the southern border,” she said at the time. “That’s just not… people stay awake at night worrying that their kid is gonna relapse or that, you know, someone’s going to drop out of school or they’re going to lose their house.”

Gluesenkamp Perez was also one of many Democrats who defended Mayorkas amid calls for his impeachment earlier this year, saying it was “frustrating to see” Republicans push for his ouster because “he doesn’t set policy, he implements it.”

Despite her past remarks, Gluesenkamp Perez has been critical of Biden’s handling of the border crisis in recent months, saying in April that she voted in support of H.R. 3602, which provides for criminal penalties for certain conduct that interferes with U.S. border control measures, because “President Biden has failed to end the crisis at our Southern Border.”

“Every country has an obligation to protect its citizens and secure its sovereign borders, and H.R. 3602 focuses on the urgent need to restore operational control of the Southern Border. Unlike the unworkable and un-American immigration proposals pushed by far-right extremists, this bipartisan bill doesn’t create burdensome government mandates that would harm small businesses, agricultural employers, rural communities, and our economy,” she said at the time.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a member of the congresswoman’s press team insisted that she has “called on the [Biden] Administration her entire time in office to fix the crisis at our Southern Border, and for Congress to do its job to pass meaningful border security legislation.”

BIDEN ADMIN CONDEMNED FOR CONSIDERING PLANS TO ACCEPT PALESTINIAN REFUGEES: ‘A NATION COMMITTING SUICIDE’

The spokesperson also touted the Washington lawmaker’s introduction of the “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act to restore operational control at the Southern Border by restoring expulsion authority for Border Patrol and requiring the President to reinstate Remain in Mexico,” as well as her support for the End Fentanyl Act.

“Marie continues to urge Congress to get back to work to address the real crisis at our border and end the petty gamesmanship,” the spokesperson said.

Gonzalez is another Democrat who made dismissive remarks prior to the expiration of Title 42, which provided the ability for American officials to bar migrants from entering the country during a health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a July 2023 stop in Edinburgh, Texas, Gonzalez reportedly shot down questions and concern over whether Biden was doing enough to secure the southern border amid an overwhelming influx of illegal immigrants.

“We have seen major improvements along the border.… If you go to the border now, in our region, it’s pretty unremarkable what you see,” Gonzalez said, according to the Rio Grande Guardian. “When they lifted Title 42 and implemented Title 7, which I advocated against… I’ll be the first to admit that I was wrong. What the president did, what Secretary Mayorkas has done, has positively impacted our border and that’s a fact.”

“People could point fingers and say things, but the reality is, undocumented crossings are down by 70%,” he added at the time.

A little more than a week after Gonzalez gave those remarks, the Texas Tribune reported that Border Patrol agents “made more than 130,000 arrests along the Mexico border [in July 2023], preliminary figures show, up from 99,545 in June.”

Gonzalez is one of 154 Democrats who voted this January against the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, which would have created hefty federal penalties for illegal migrants who evade U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers during motor vehicle pursuits. The measure was named after a Border Patrol officer who died in a vehicle crash in Texas last year during a pursuit.

Along with Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez, Gonzalez was one of 201 Democrats who voted in July 2023 against the Schools Not Shelters Act, which would have prohibited “the use of the facilities of a public elementary school, a public secondary school, or an institution of higher education to provide shelter for aliens who have not been admitted into the United States, and for other purposes.”

Peltola joined 218 Republicans in voting in favor of that measure at the time, while Davis did not vote.

“I remain dedicated to addressing the border crisis. However, we must not inflict harm on American agriculture in the process,” Davis said in a statement to Fox. “Initially, I had concerns about the e-verify provision in HR-2, but it was removed, allowing me to fully lend my support, along with just four other Democrats, to H.R. 3602, the Bipartisan End the Border Catastrophe Act.”

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Asked whether he believes Biden is responsible for the border crisis, Davis said his “votes speak for themselves.”

CBP records show the first six months of fiscal year 2024 had 1,340,801 total encounters, exceeding the first six months of fiscal year 2023, which set a record of 1,226,254 total encounters.

A highly anticipated 2024 ticket, a controversial dog tale, and feeling “threatened” by Nikki Haley – Gov. Kristi Noem’s, R-S.D., newest book unpacks her role in leadership and experience behind the scenes of D.C. politics.

Noem’s book, titled “No Going Back” details her life lessons through her family farming business, service in congress, and current role as Governor. And despite not yet hitting the shelves, the conservative’s book has already stirred up the news cycle.

The Governor hunkered down on her support for former President Donald Trump, who she described as a “bull in a china shop” in the book, shared with Fox News Digital ahead of its release Tuesday.

Trump recently confirmed the Republican governor was on his shortlist for vice president, and when asked about the coveted position, Noem said she wants the former president “to pick who’s going to help him win.”

DEFIANT KRISTI NOEM DEFENDS KILLING FARM PUP AMID CRITICISM FROM DEMS, GOP

“He knows that I’ll do whatever I can to help him win. But every day, it’s clear to me that our way of life is under attack. And unless he gets in the White House, this country is going to see some very challenging times ahead,” Noem told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview ahead of the book launch.

Ahead of the book launch, there was one released excerpt in particular that drew serious controversy – a story of Noem putting down her hunting dog.

VP STAKES: TRUMP MEETING WITH POTENTIAL RUNNING MATES THIS WEEKEND

The story went as follows. Noem had a young dog, Cricket, who she described as “untrainable” and having an “aggressive personality.” One day, the dog jumped out of her car, proceeded to kill several of her neighbors’ chickens, and nearly bit Noem as she tried to control it. So Noem decided to put the dog down, along with a “demon goat” on her farm.

Lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, criticized  the governor on social media for the story, with a bipartisan group even launching the Congressional Dog Lovers Caucus just days after the excerpt was released. The governor defended including the story in her book, telling Fox “it was a difficult decision and a vulnerable story.”

“I’m not surprised that those who have always attacked me are attacking me. Republicans and Democrats who attacked me during Covid are the same ones who are attacking me now,” Noem said when asked about the backlash from the story. “But I think the average citizen, when they read that story will recognize that I put the safety of people in my hands above an animal that was killing livestock and attacking people.”

TRUMP EYES 2 BATTLEGROUND STATES AS HE LOOKS TO TEAR DOWN DEM ‘BLUE WALL’ AGAIN

Noem also recalled a phone call with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, revealing that she felt “threatened” by the former presidential candidate.

“That’s the thing with Nikki Haley: you never know who she’s going to be tomorrow,” Noem wrote. “She’s going to be whatever the polls or donors tell her to be. And that should be very scary to the American people. The people who know her the best, including some colleagues in her home state, seem to have the same concerns.”

After Haley’s team told Politico the story was a “twist” of the conversation, Noem told Fox News Digital that she was “not surprised” by the response.

“I think Nikki says whatever is convenient for Nikki that day,” Noem told Fox. “I’ve watched this for years now. You never know who she’s going to be tomorrow. She tends to be motivated by what works and what the polling says, and that’s not the kind of politicians we need leading our country.”

Reflecting on GOP losses in the 2022 midterms, Noem wrote that “the fact that our party did not achieve a majority in the US Senate was a failure by the Republican National Committee.” Noem added “Donald Trump and a handful of brave folks broke politics. But what do we do now? Instead of “fixing” politics by going back to the “good old days,” let’s step into the chaos and move the nation forward. Our best days truly are ahead.”

Noem’s book will be officially launched on Tuesday, May 7th.

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“The new book is called No Going Back. And it’s about what’s wrong with politics and how we’re going to move America forward. It talks a lot about how Donald Trump really when he entered the political stage, he broke politics,” she told Fox. “And this book is the how-to guide to everyday Americans how they can be a part of moving this country forward.”