NationalWatch

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is filing an ethics complaint against special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday, accusing him of violating Department of Justice (DOJ) standards and trying to tip the election against former President Trump.

In a letter sent to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Stefanik urged the government watchdog to investigate Smith over accusations of “abusing the resources of the federal government to unlawfully interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”

“Jack Smith’s multiple attempts to rush to trial the federal January 6th case against President Trump violated long-standing, explicit Justice Department policy,” Stefanik wrote.

“Further, Jack Smith’s repeated violations of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia’s stay of proceedings are a lawless breach of trial ethics and lawyerly conduct. Jack Smith’s actions brought disrepute to the Justice Department and the federal government as a whole, and he should face discipline appropriately.”

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Smith’s case against Trump, stemming from accusations he tried to overturn the 2020 election, was supposed to go to trial in March but has been stuck in limbo as the Supreme Court weighs the ex-president’s claim he is immune to criminal prosecution for actions taken while in the White House.

The former U.S. attorney and human rights prosecutor petitioned the high court multiple times to reject Trump’s immunity claims and bid to delay his trial, including most recently on April 8.

Stefanik’s complaint accused him of first trying to influence the election in August 2023, when Smith petitioned for a Jan. 2, 2024 trial.

ERIC TRUMP WARNS BRAGG, WILLIS ‘WANT TO TORTURE MY FATHER’ BUT NO ONE ‘IS BELIEVING IT’

“There exist approximately thirteen million pages of discovery for President Trump to review, plus thousands of hours of camera footage. Prosecutors bringing a case of this complexity — with so many consequential and novel legal issues to sort out — would normally never seek to bring it to trial within five months,” she argued. 

“The only reason to push for such an early trial date was to work to get the case tried before the November election, and the Justice Department Manual clearly forbids Jack Smith from taking any action on that basis.”

She also cited Smith’s petitions with the Supreme Court and used his own comments in court that no American is “above the law” as further argument that he should support an investigation into his conduct.

FANI WILLIS SHOULD FACE GAG ORDER IN TRUMP ELECTION CASE, SAYS LEGAL ANALYST

“If that is true, then he should be open to, and welcome, an ethics investigation into conduct that, on its face, implicates potential violations of DOJ policy and multiple rules of professional conduct,” Stefanik said. “Biden special counsel Jack Smith’s highly unusual and clearly improper attempts to expedite trial, and his blatant violation of District Court orders, evidence his partisan attempt to influence the results of the 2024 presidential election.”

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The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, heard arguments in Trump’s immunity case last week. A final decision is expected in June — with the likelihood of a trial before the presidential election being slim.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

• Mississippi lawmakers are set to vote on a proposal to expand Medicaid coverage, potentially benefiting tens of thousands more people.
• The proposal includes a work requirement that might not receive federal approval.
• Georgia is currently the only state with a Medicaid work requirement.

Mississippi lawmakers are expected to vote this week on a proposal that would expand Medicaid coverage to tens of thousands more people, but it includes a work requirement that might not win federal approval.

The state House and Senate passed separate expansion plans earlier this year. With the four-month legislative session pushing into its final days, negotiators from the two chambers submitted a compromise moments before a Monday night deadline. They declined to answer questions after emerging from a closed-door meeting, but the proposal was filed in legislative clerks’ offices.

The plan would require the new Medicaid recipients to be employed at least 100 hours a month in a job that does not provide private health insurance. Or, they could fit into other categories, such as being a fulltime student or the parent of a child younger than 6.

HEALTH CARE OR HOUSING? MORE STATES ARE USING MEDICAID FUNDS TO HELP THE HOMELESS

If the federal government rejects Mississippi’s work requirement, the state Division of Medicaid would be required to continue seeking approval each year — an acknowledgement that a different federal administration might provide a different decision.

Georgia is the only state with a Medicaid work requirement, and it is suing the federal government to try to keep the mandate in place. The work requirement was approved by then-President Donald Trump’s administration, but the Biden administration announced in December 2021 that it was revoking the approval. That prompted Georgia officials to sue.

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and advocates say covering tens of thousands more people with Medicaid could help them manage chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes.

The federal health overhaul signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010 allowed states to expand Medicaid, largely to people who work low-wage jobs without insurance. Mississippi is among the 10 states that have resisted expansion.

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Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has said for years that he does not want to put more Mississippi residents on government programs. But dynamics in the Republican-controlled Legislature changed this year with the selection of a new House speaker, Jason White, who said expansion could help some of Mississippi’s financially struggling hospitals.

The House voted by a wide bipartisan margin in late February to expand Medicaid coverage to about 200,000 people who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or $20,120 annually for one person. Mississippi has about 3 million residents, and its Medicaid program covered 374,823 people in March.

In late March, the Senate passed its own pared-down version that would extend eligibility to people earning up to 100% of the federal poverty level, just over $15,000 for one person. Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, said about 80,000 people would become eligible for coverage but he thought about half that number would enroll.

A spokesperson for a Democrat mayor is defending a recent meeting with a controversial Chinese diplomat, who has repeatedly praised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“Met with Philadelphia’s Mayor Parker together with Tianjin’s Executive Deputy Mayor Liu Guiping,” Huang Ping, who’s been the consul general of China’s New York Consulate since 2018, recently posted on X.

“Exchanges at the subnational level keeps fueling China-US relations. Let’s keep it going,” he added.

Over the last year, Huang has appeared at several prominent universities to meet with officials despite his past statements as well as rising concerns from the American public about China’s aggressive presence in the United States.

HUANG PING, ‘PURVEYOR OF CCP PROPAGANDA,’ JOINS SCHUMER, TOP NEW YORK DEMS AT CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE

Huang, who met with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, has previously called the CCP a “great party” and has denied that China is targeting the Muslim Uyghur population in China.

“There are lots of lies here, fabricated by some people with their own political agenda,” Huang said in an August 2021 interview, denying the existence of genocide and internment camps targeting Uyghurs. “As I said, there’s no genocide, not a single evidence to prove that there’s a genocide or something there. It’s just a slandering.”

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the State Department under both the Trump and Biden administrations have assessed that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Since 2017, the Chinese government has reportedly imprisoned more than a million Uyghurs in concentration camps where, according to leaked documents from inside China, detainees are subjected to rape, torture, forced labor, brainwashing and forced sterilization.

PROMINENT NYC VENUES REPEATEDLY HOST CHINESE OFFICIAL WHO PRAISED CCP, DENIED UYGHUR GENOCIDE

“The Mayor and city officials engaged, as protocol and respect dictates, with the official representatives of China,” a spokesperson for Mayor Parker’s office told Fox News Digital in a statement when asked if the mayor was aware of Huang’s previous statements when she met with him.

“This meeting was about greeting and welcoming the representatives of our Sister City Tianjin and celebrate our 45th anniversary as Sister Cities – as we were amongst the first pairs of sister cities to be established following the reestablishing of diplomatic relationships between the U.S. & China,” the spokesperson added. “Also the occasion to cheer the 50th anniversary of the first tour of the Philadelphia Orchestra in China.”

In addition to praising the CCP, Huang has repeatedly promoted CCP talking points on X and amplified the agenda of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Huang previously met with Democrat lawmakers in Pennsylvania as well as with a local economic council. He has also met with a long list of officials at Ivy League and other prestigious universities. 

Earlier this year, Huang joined Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams during the Lunar New Year Parade in Manhattan. Huang has met with New York’s elected officials several times in the past. 

Last year, he stood beside Adams at the New York China Day Celebration Parade Festival. Fox News Digital previously reported that Hochul and Huang met in April 2019 when she was the lieutenant governor to discuss cooperation between New York and China.

Huang’s visits with top officials come amid growing concerns about China’s presence in the United States in a variety of sectors, from academia to government to health care to social media.

“The Chinese Communist Party is playing for keeps at the nuclear level and every layer below that,” Michael Sobolik, author of “Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance,” told Fox News Digital. “And it’s not just the universities. The Chinese Communist Party is looking to infiltrate every aspect of American society.”

“If we try to edit undo our way out of this whole list of infiltrations and threats that the CCP sends our direction that’s good policy work. We need to insulate ourselves. But good housekeeping is the bare minimum of waging a cold war and winning a cold war,” Sobolik continued. 

“If we’re serious about winning a cold war, it’s not enough to just address these problems that the Chinese Communist Party has created for America. American policymakers need to go on the offensive and create problems for the CCP to respond to. We need to seize the initiative of this competition.”

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“Mayor Parker cares about the many different communities and groups in our respective cities, and will engage with stakeholders who serve and may represent them,” Parker’s office told Fox News Digital when asked about her concerns over China’s growing presence in the U.S.

“President Biden and the Biden administration handle the foreign relations of the United States.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Huang’s office but did not receive a response.

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed reporting.

The historic and unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump is set to resume for its third week Tuesday. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the former president with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. 

Trump pleaded not guilty.

So far, opening statements have been delivered by Trump’s defense attorneys and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

NY V. TRUMP: TABLOID PUBLISHER TESTIFIES HE BOUGHT STORIES ON TIGER WOODS, EX-OBAMA CHIEF OF STAFF

Trump defense attorneys say the former president is “innocent.” 

Prosecutors must try to convince the jury not only that Trump falsified the business records related to hush money payments, but also that he did so in furtherance of another crime: conspiracy to promote or prevent election.

Prosecutors will try to prove that the alleged conspiracy was to conceal a conspiracy to unlawfully promote his candidacy in 2016. 

“Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,” New York Law 17-152 reads. 

Typically, on their own, falsifying business records and conspiracy to promote or prevent election are viewed as misdemeanors.

So far, the prosecution has called three witnesses – former American Media Inc. CEO and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. Pecker testified about an alleged “catch & kill” practice of buying negative stories about Trump, regardless of their legitimacy, and burying them to protect his reputation. Prosecutors are trying to convince the jury that Pecker’s actions were done with the intention of influencing the 2016 presidential election. 

Pecker, though, testified that he worked with Michael Cohen in his capacity as Trump’s personal attorney. 

NY PROSECUTORS REVEAL ‘ANOTHER CRIME’ TRUMP ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO CONCEAL WITH FALSIFIED BUSINESS RECORDS

On Friday, prosecutors called Rhona Graff to the stand for questioning. Graff is a former executive assistant to Trump and a senior vice president of the Trump Organization. She worked at Trump Tower for decades prior to Trump’s presidency. 

Later, they called Gary Farro, who, in 2016, was a senior managing director at First Republic Bank. 

Meanwhile, New York Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial, imposed a gag order on the former president, which prohibits him from making statements about court staff and potential witnesses.

Bragg has alleged Trump violated the order at least 14 times and is asking the judge to fine the former president $1,000 per violation. They also want Trump to be held in contempt of court.

Trump attorneys argue the gag order is a violation of the former president’s First Amendment rights.

The judge is expected to hold a hearing on the gag order and alleged violations on Thursday. Merchan has not yet ruled. 

In documents filed last week, prosecutor Christopher Conroy outlined four additional alleged violations that happened when Trump made statements to the press between his court appearances. The prosecutor pointed to comments Trump made to a local Pennsylvania news station about Cohen, who is expected to testify at trial later on.

“Well, Michael Cohen is a convicted liar, and he’s got no credibility whatsoever. He was a lawyer, and you rely on your lawyers. But Michael Cohen was a convicted liar. He was a lawyer for many people, not just me. And he got in trouble because of things outside of what he did for me, largely, it was essentially all because what he did in terms of the campaign. I don’t think there was anything wrong with that with the charges that they made. But what he did is he did some pretty bad things, I guess, with banking or whatever if that was a personal thing to him,” Trump said on Monday. 

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

Conroy called this a “knowing and willful statement” that violated Merchan’s gag order. The prosecutor also noted statements Trump made about Pecker.

“He’s been very nice. I mean, he’s been – David’s been very nice. A nice guy,” Trump said on Thursday. 

At trial, Conroy told the judge that Trump was sending a message to Pecker, instructing him to “be nice” or else Trump would use his platform to “say things like I said about Cohen.” 

Trump is required to attend every day of his criminal trial.

Because of this, last Thursday, Trump was forced to miss arguments at the Supreme Court on the issue of presidential immunity and whether he is immune from prosecution on charges stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference case. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

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

Trump had requested to attend, but Merchan rejected his request. 

On Friday, Trump missed celebrating the birthday of his wife, former first lady Melania Trump,

Trump wished her a “very happy birthday” on Friday morning from the courthouse. 

“I want to start by wishing my wife Melania a very happy birthday. It’d be nice to be with her, but I’m in a courthouse for a rigged trial,” Trump said Friday.

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Meanwhile, Trump has requested to attend his youngest son Barron Trump’s high school graduation on May 17. Merchan has not yet made a decision on whether the former president can attend to celebrate his son. The judge said he would consider the issue later based on how the trial is going. 

The court does not meet on Wednesdays. The former president is expected to hold campaign events Wednesday. 

The already narrowly divided Senate could see more gridlock in 2025, with several of the less partisan lawmakers from both sides of the aisle departing.

As Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., each prepare to leave the Senate, questions loom over the upper chamber’s future ability to legislate across party lines. 

“The Senate is trending to be much more of a hostile atmosphere as more moderate or independent-minded senators are retiring,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, former top spokesperson to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and former chief of staff of the Senate Republican Conference.

GOP SENATORS AIR ‘DEEP CONCERNS’ OVER NPR BIAS, URGE CEO TO ‘START A COURSE CORRECTION’

“More deadlock and stalemate” is a likely outcome if the aforementioned lawmakers are succeeded by “more polarized and polarizing figures,” said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University. 

Daniel Wirls, a politics professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said that “the number and degree of stalemates might be hard to predict.” He also said the moderate senators in each party “did not necessarily remedy or reduce the stalemates.” 

“In some instances, they may have complicated them,” he added.

TIM SCOTT SAYS BIDEN ‘WILLING TO TANK’ ECONOMY BY GETTING RID OF TRUMP TAX CUTS

Romney’s office pointed Fox News Digital to past comments he made about the future of the Senate.

“We got a lot of stuff done on a bipartisan basis,” Romney told CNN following news in March that Sinema would not seek re-election. “That is really over. That is not going to keep happening.”

The Utah Republican reminisced last year about a bipartisan effort during the COVID-19 pandemic, telling Politico in September, “That group was so productive. And it was so fun.”

“That little group, I think, is not going to be around. And so, time for new groups to form,” he said.

DEM SENATE CANDIDATE ELISSA SLOTKIN’S ‘SMALL CONSULTING BUSINESS’ MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN ACTIVE

Bonjean predicted that the three lawmakers who have bucked their parties on occasion will be succeeded by “more partisan and party-line voices.” He also said that such successors won’t necessarily be interested in looking for bipartisan ways to legislate “and instead dig into their positions.”

However, Reeher said Arizona, West Virginia and Utah each “can, and have, produced more moderate representatives over the years.”  

“So, perhaps similar senators will follow them,” he said. 

Another consideration for the Senate, sans Romney, Manchin and Sinema, is the fate of the controversial filibuster, which allows senators to effectively kill a bill that is unable to reach 60 votes on a procedural cloture measure.

“Through its filibuster rule, the Senate is also built to amplify the voice of moderates – at least in moments of great polarization. Senator No. 60 becomes more important than Senator No. 51,” Reeher said. 

TOP SENATE DEM CALLS FOR PROBE INTO MUSLIMS PROSECUTED BY DOJ FOR ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS

Manchin and Sinema have notoriously opposed efforts by Democrats to do away with the procedural device.

Reeher suggested that with the potential for “more polarized and polarizing figures” entering the upper chamber, “even Senator No. 60,” who would be needed to break a filibuster, “may not be a moderate.”

If the Senate does become more partisan with fewer lawmakers willing to diverge with their parties, it’s unlikely either Democrats or Republicans would get very far without a challenge. Reeher said it “doesn’t seem likely anytime soon” that either party will get 60 seats in the Senate and thus the ability to bypass a filibuster without bipartisan assistance.

Wirls predicted that if given the opportunity to control all three branches of government, Democrats could be expected to once again “revive efforts to reform if not eliminate the Senate filibuster.”

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But he cautioned that such a scenario is “hardly a given.”

Representatives for Sinema and Manchin did not provide comment in time for publication.

College campuses are the new southern border.

The way in which so many university presidents have surrendered to a small subset of Israel-hating protesters is the hottest issue in America.

It signals, without question, the breakdown of order in this country, especially at our elite institutions that once commanded respect and now are paragons of cowardice.

The tide is turning with hundreds of arrests – from NYU to Yale, from USC to the University of Texas – just as much of the public is fed up with students and outside agitators paralyzing one campus after another.

LAW ENFORCEMENT MOVES IN ON ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS AT UT-AUSTIN

At the epicenter is Columbia University. One day of arrests 10 days ago was followed by endless negotiations with demonstrators – including a few faculty members – who have effectively shut down the campus, with the school switching to hybrid classes and most Jewish students having fled the place. That impasse dragged on yesterday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, knowing he’d been heckled, created a moment by visiting Jewish students at Columbia and then addressing the media mob, calling for the resignation of the school’s leader, Minouche Shafik. President Biden should have gone there first.

The White House keeps saying Biden has denounced campus antisemitism, but he hasn’t in a meaningful way; these are mostly statements from a deputy press secretary. The only time the president has said something on camera was with a couple of hard-to-hear sentences in response to a question shouted by a reporter.

I get that the politics of the Israel-Hamas war are treacherous for Biden, but he knows how to get in front of the cameras when he wants to, such as claiming victory for the foreign aid bill for Israel and Ukraine (with crucial help from Speaker Johnson).

Biden could have had a Sister Souljah moment for his candidacy. During the 1992 campaign, the activist said after the L.A. riots: “If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill White people?”

Bill Clinton, speaking to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, denounced her: “If you took the words ‘White’ and ‘Black,’ and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech.”

(Some Democratic lawmakers visited Columbia and denounced the demonstrators before Johnson did.)

Fast-forward to last January, when a Columbia student and protest leader, Khymani James, met with university officials and said this, capturing it on video: “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” just like Nazis and White supremacists. “And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable calling for those people to die.”

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

What did the university do? Absolutely nothing. It wasn’t till last week, when the Daily Wire resurfaced the video, that the school put out a statement decrying the comments as unacceptable and barring James from the campus. Why no whisper of outrage earlier? Because Columbia was comfortable covering it up. And now it’s reported that the school gave James an “interim suspension.”

What do you have to say to get kicked out of Columbia? Calling for millions of Jews to die isn’t enough? Does anyone believe that if a student called for Blacks to be killed or gays to be killed, he or she would be gone in an instant? The double standard could not be more blatant.

(Khymani later issued a non-apology, saying he respects life but accusing Israel of genocide.)

Look, I’m a free speech guy. Peaceful protest is a fundamental right, no matter how odious the message, but setting up tent encampments in the middle of a quad is a violation of the rules. So is harassing law-abiding students with chants such as “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground” and that the Oct. 7 atrocities will happen “not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times.” 

And there are consequences. USC has canceled its graduation. Jewish students have now essentially evacuated some of these campuses. I went to Columbia Journalism School, and I’m now a bit embarrassed by that.

STUDENT REACTS AFTER COMMENCEMENT CANCELED DUE TO STUDENT PROTESTS

Some of this is Orwellian. Two months after the 9/11 attacks, Shafik said she could understand how terrorism is protest, but terrorism is the furthest thing from protest. It’s the murder of innocent civilians.

Columbia is infamous for the protests of 1968, when extremist elements of the anti-Vietnam War movement engaged in violence. But there are echoes today, and a Democratic convention heading for Chicago.

The political fallout can be measured in a pair of stories yesterday.

The Washington Post said Donald Trump and other Republicans are “seizing on the eruption of campus protests across the country to depict the United States as out of control under President Biden.”

Beyond the “disruption,” the paper says, “top Republicans have highlighted the anti-Semitic chants that have occurred at some of the protests. The issue is complicated by a debate over what constitutes anti-Semitism — and when criticism of Israel crosses that line — while some student organizers have denounced the chants or said they are coming from outside activists.”

Let me stop right there. The issue is not complicated. These are not just “chants.” It’s perfectly clear what antisemitism is, what the virulent harassment of Jewish students is.

Trump “has cited the protests to accuse Biden and Democrats of being unable to maintain order or quash lawlessness” – and that’s a fair political argument. Of course the former president, whose criminal hush money trial resumes today, has his own baggage on the law-and-order front. 

The New York Times looks at Biden’s party, saying the protests “are exposing fresh tensions within the Democratic Party over how to balance free speech protections and support for Gazans with concerns that some Jewish Americans are raising about anti-Semitism.”

Okay, gotta throw a flag here too. “Support for Gazans” is really support for Hamas, the terrorist group that launched the war, especially among those who engage in “from the river to the sea” rhetoric. This isn’t to say there can’t be sympathy, which I share, for the rising death toll in Gaza, especially among civilian families, and the growing hunger crisis.

But this phrase about “some Jewish Americans” raising concerns about antisemitism is insulting. Most Americans share their anxiety about this spreading poison. You don’t have to be Jewish to reject Hamas and the unspeakable tactics that caused the largest one-day death toll of Jews since the Holocaust.

“To some lawmakers who have visited encampments and attended demonstrations, the students are part of a long tradition of campus activism, and their free speech rights are at risk. Incidents of anti-Semitism, they say, do not reflect a broader movement that includes many young progressive Jews,” the Times said.

That’s right, it’s a “long tradition of campus activism,” not “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” as Khymani James put it. And the war has definitely damaged Biden because of the anti-Israel stance of many younger Democrats.

Free speech is indeed crucial, but when you look at the tent encampment that has choked off an entire section of Columbia’s Upper Manhattan campus, it is an invasion.

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After more than a week of dawdling, Columbia set a 2 p.m. deadline Monday for these protesters to leave or face immediate suspension. The deadline came and went with no movement by the NYPD or campus security. 

Late yesterday, Columbia said it had started imposing suspensions. 

The defiant protesters are telling reporters they feel emboldened that the demonstrations are spreading and are sticking with their goal of forcing Columbia to divest investment funds from any firms profiting from Israel.

But keep in mind, these suspensions tend to be temporary.

FIRST ON FOX: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was challenged to a primary debate rematch after she skipped a local Democratic debate to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C., her Democratic primary opponent said in comments exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.   

“There is no reason we can’t reschedule the debate,” Fulton County DA candidate Christian Wise Smith said in a press release exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital on Monday. “We are happy to work with her team to do it.”

The Fulton County Democratic Party held its first primary debate on Sunday, but Willis was a no-show, leaving her political opponent to take the stage alone, where he criticized her for hiring a romantic partner for the high-level prosecution of former President Donald Trump in Georgia. 

Wise Smith’s campaign lambasted Willis in the press release for skipping the debate to apparently travel to D.C. for the swanky White House Correspondents Dinner. 

ANTI-TRUMP DA’S NO-SHOW AT DEBATE LEAVES CHALLENGER FACING OFF AGAINST EMPTY PODIUM

“I have enormous respect for Willis’s busy calendar, but ignoring a community-organized event while violent crime escalates, to schmooze with politicos while an ‘SNL’ comedian roasts the entire political process, tells me where her allegiances lie — and it’s not with the voters of Fulton County,” Michael Ceraso, Christian Wise Smith’s communications director, said. 

AFTER JUDGE’S SCOLDING FOR PLAYING ‘RACE CARD,’ FANI WILLIS SAYS SHE’LL ‘TALK ABOUT IT ANYWAY’

Social media posts from an independent photojournalist and Black-focused news outlet The Grio on Saturday evening and Sunday showed photos of Willis attending the media event this weekend in Washington, D.C. Local media initially cited Willis’ participation in the second annual “Self Care Fair” with an Atlanta city councilwoman in honor of Crime Victims’ Rights Week on Saturday as reason for skipping the debate on Sunday.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DA’s office Monday for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Wise Smith’s campaign said in the press release that Willis’ office has its hands full with the Trump case, which has left “everyday Georgians trapped in a flawed criminal justice system to fend largely for themselves as the high-profile case gobbles up limited energy and resources.”

“The three biggest issues facing Fulton County residents right now are (1) failure to center victims in criminal prosecutions, (2) ending the school-to-prison pipeline, and (3) curbing mass incarceration,” Wise Smith said. 

JUDGE IN GEORGIA SLAMS FANI WILLIS’ ‘IMPROPER’ CHURCH SPEECH, ‘PLAYING THE RACE CARD’

Willis is the Georgia district attorney who brought forth the election inference case against Trump, charging him and 18 co-defendants with racketeering over allegations they tried to overthrow the 2020 election. Willis became embroiled in controversy when she was accused of having an “improper” relationship with the special counsel she hired, Nathan Wade. 

Willis and Wade both admitted to the affair amid testimony on the matter, but said they only made their relationship official in 2022, after charges were brought against defendants in the Trump case. Witnesses in the case, however, alleged the pair began their relationship before 2022. 

A judge ordered Willis last month to either remove herself from the case or fire Wade, with Wade ultimately resigning. 

“Politics do not keep the families and residents of Fulton County safe. Action does. Unfortunately, our system has over-policed, over-convicted, and over-incarcerated. Yet, I haven’t heard Fani Willis put forth a plan that indicates she’s concerned about the real issues keeping voters awake at night,” Wise Smith added in the press release. 

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE

Wise Smith took the debate stage solo on Sunday, where he criticized Willis for hiring a romantic partner for the Trump case. 

“That issue is important to us in Fulton County and a lot of people across the country,” Wise Smith said on the stage, Fox 5 reported.

​​”When you pay one attorney nearly $1 million to handle one case, that leaves the rest of us vulnerable. That hurts everyone in Fulton County,” he added. 

TRUMP BLASTS FULTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR FANI WILLIS AFTER ROMANTIC PARTNER ALLEGATIONS: ‘TOTALLY COMPROMISED’

Wise Smith did not take issue with Willis prosecuting Trump or the case itself, instead saying Willis has “to do things differently.”

Wise Smith is an attorney, who previously served as an Atlanta city solicitor and Fulton County prosecutor, and describes himself as a “prosecutor with heart.” 

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Willis and Smith will face off in the Democratic primary on May 28. Despite the controversy surrounding the Trump case, local polling shows Willis with strong leads over Smith, Fox 5 reported.  

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has revealed what he says is his path to the White House as he faces increased pressure from the Biden and Trump campaigns targeting what some have described as his “spoiler” candidacy.

“All we need to do is get to 33% to win the election,” Kennedy told Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo last week on his show “World Over,” which appears on EWTN Global Catholic Network.

“You don’t need 50%. It’s a three-way race — and it’s really a five-way race,” he added, referencing independent candidate Dr. Cornel West and Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein.

VOTERS IN MAJOR SWING STATE SOUND OFF ON TRUMP TRIAL: VIDEO

Kennedy told Arroyo he was already close to that 33% “in a bunch of states,” appearing to cite internal polling, and argued he has an advantage over President Biden and former President Donald Trump when it came to young voters.

According to a number of recent public polls, Kennedy is polling better than any third-party candidate has since Texas businessman Ross Perot’s back-to-back White House runs in the 1990s, and is doing particularly well with voters under the age of 35. He is, however, still trailing Trump and Biden in the demographic.

A Quinnipiac poll released last week found Kennedy with 16% support overall, with Trump and Biden each at 37%. He pulled significant support from Trump and Biden with voters aged 18-34, garnering 19% support, but still trailed the former president (34%) and president (30%).

BLACK REPUBLICAN WHO SHUNNED DEI BY IDENTIFYING AS ‘AMERICA’ SAYS DEMS’ ‘FREE PASS’ TO MINORITIES IS OVER

The same poll taken last fall showed Kennedy leading Trump and Biden with voters aged 18-34, getting 39% to their 27% and 32% respectively. However, that poll did not include West and Stein.

One former Bernie Sanders pollster, Ben Tulchin, recently sounded the alarm over Kennedy pulling so much young support from Biden. Last week, he told The New York Times he was worried about Biden’s chances of winning re-election because of Kennedy’s appeal to the demographic, as well as Latino voters.

“Young voters and Latinos respond really well to a hard-edge economic populist message — and that is not Biden’s message,” Tulchin said. “They’re dissatisfied about the political and economic status quo. And I see in that mind-set the potential opening to support a third-party candidate,” he said.

WHITE HOUSE DENIES SECRET PLOT TO OUST KARINE JEAN-PIERRE AS BIDEN FACES MORE BAD NEWS

To prevent that from happening, the Democratic National Committee launched an effort to silence the threat to Biden’s re-election from third-party candidates, namely Kennedy, in the form of a team that is expected to actively combat them with legal challenges and opposition research.

Likewise, Trump recently railed against Kennedy as a “wasted protest vote” in a post on Truth Social, and his campaign has launched a website targeting the latter as “radical f—–g Kennedy,” describing him as a “friend of left-wing extremists.”

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Additionally, Biden appeared alongside six members of Kennedy’s family as they endorsed him over their own, a clear snub in conjunction with the DNC’s efforts.

Both sides have also accused Kennedy of being a “plant” in order to help boost the other side, something he vehemently denies.

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

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged several questions during a press briefing on Monday, regarding the responses of many universities in the U.S. as anti-Israel protests, which sometimes turn violent, continue to flare up.

Colleges from coast to coast, including many Ivy League schools like Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Penn, have seen dayslong protests on campuses, with students demanding their schools completely divest from Israel as the death toll in Gaza continues to increase.

One reporter on Monday asked Jean-Pierre whether President Biden or anyone else in the White House had spoken with leadership at Columbia University, and if the president was happy with how school administrators are handling the situation.

“The president has always been clear that while Americans have the right to peacefully protest…he stands squarely, squarely against any rhetoric, violent rhetoric, any hate, hate threats and physical intimidation and hate speech,” she said, adding there is no place for antisemitism on college campuses or anywhere else. “It is a painful moment, we get that. But it is a painful moment that Americans are dealing with, and free expression has to be done within the law. And, you know, we’re going to continue to be very clear about that.”

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS FAIL TO REACH DEAL, PRESIDENT ASKS CAMP TO ‘VOLUNTARILY DISPERSE’

The press secretary did not answer the question about whether Biden was satisfied with how universities are handling the situation. And that was not the only question she dodged.

Jean-Pierre was asked if the White House thought it was fair that protesters at Columbia or other schools were being threatened with probation or other disciplinary actions, and whether students should leave a protest before a deadline being given by university personnel at Columbia.

To both questions, Jean-Pierre said she would not comment.

VIRGINIA TECH POLICE PHYSICALLY CARRY AWAY ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS AMID EFFORT TO RESTORE PEACE ON CAMPUS

“These are institutions. Some of them are private, some of them are public, and it is up to their leadership, university leadership and colleges, to make that decision,” she responded to the first question.

She nearly echoed her response to the second question.

“I’m just not going to comment on leadership at colleges and universities….that’s for them to decide,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ve been very clear.”

TRUMP SAYS 4 WORDS ABOUT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES AS ARRESTS SKYROCKET

Other topics that were dodged included whether the White House was concerned about safety at graduations; the response of the Biden administration to the use of police force in some of the college protests; the Biden administration’s reaction to the repercussions of the protests and how they have impacted students on campuses in terms of the University of Southern California canceling graduation and George Washington University moving exams; and if the White House supported having antisemitism monitors on campus.

In nearly every response, Jean-Pierre stuck to the message that Biden is in favor of peaceful protests and condemns antisemitism and any form of hate.

But this is nothing new.

CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY REVEALS ‘TRUE COST’ OF ANTI-ISRAEL MOB THAT TOOK OVER ACADEMIC BUILDINGS

On Sunday, the White House remained silent on if the administration plans to bar student protesters from eligibility for student loan forgiveness programs. One thing Biden campaigned on in 2020 was forgiving student loan debt, pledging to cancel at least $10,000 per borrower back in 2020.

While Biden denounced the protests, he came under criticism last week for also condemning those “who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

“I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden told reporters this month. 

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Critics have compared it to Trump’s remarks in 2017, following a two-day riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, when White nationalists descended on the city. Trump said at the time that the violence had “no place in America,” while adding there was “blame on both sides” and “very fine people, on both sides.”

Emma Colton of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

RENO, Nev. – Voters in one major swing state were not happy when asked about their views on former President Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York City as well as the multiple other prosecutions he faces.

Most of those voters, who Fox News Digital spoke to at a campaign event for Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown in Reno, Nevada, said they believed Democrats contrived the legal efforts against Trump in order to meddle in this year’s presidential election, which a number of recent polls suggest will be trouble for President Biden.

“I’ll tell you right now, I am so upset, all I want to do is cry. I feel it’s a sham. It’s a kangaroo court. They’re trying to keep him off the campaign,” one voter told Fox. Another argued the trial was “politically motivated,” and that they were “going after” Trump in order to “stop Biden from getting kicked out of the White House.”

BLACK REPUBLICAN WHO SHUNNED DEI BY IDENTIFYING AS ‘AMERICA’ SAYS DEMS’ ‘FREE PASS’ TO MINORITIES IS OVER

“It shows how the Democrats are using our political system in the wrong way,” another voter said.

A recent Quinnipiac poll found a plurality of voters (46%) said they believed Trump did something illegal regarding the 34 falsification of business records charges he is fighting in the trial, something one voter conceded when telling Fox there were people on “all sides” of the issue.

The poll also found a close 45% believe Trump did not do anything illegal, but that same voter said he believed there was a majority in Nevada who “will elect him from prison” if he’s convicted.

WHITE HOUSE DENIES SECRET PLOT TO OUST KARINE JEAN-PIERRE AS BIDEN FACES MORE BAD NEWS

“I believe it’s a smokescreen. I believe it’s a ploy to keep the focus on him and not on the horrible way that our government is being run by a president that should not be there,” another voter said. 

“It’s a crime in itself what they’re doing to him, but it’s only making people more sure of who they’re going to vote for. I think it’s turning people back to Trump,” she added.

Other voters described Trump’s trial as a “fiasco,” “a big joke,” “a slippery slope” and “a waste of money.”

REPUBLICAN MAKES MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT IN PUSH TO GROW GOP SUPPORT FROM ONCE-SOLID DEM VOTING BLOC

The anger over Trump’s trial comes as Biden was smacked with more bad news on Sunday in the form of a CNN poll that found him trailing the former president 49%-43% in a head-to-head matchup.

The poll found the lead for Trump grew to nine points (42%-33%) when including independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (16%) and Dr. Cornel West (4%) and Green Party candidate Jill Stein (3%).

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Nevada is likely to be one of the most closely watched states this election cycle with a Senate seat crucial to both parties on the line, and its six electoral votes possibly becoming a deciding factor in what is shaping up to be a close race for the presidency.

Elections analysts rate the state’s Senate race as either a tossup, “tilt Democratic” or “leans Democratic.”

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

Republicans are significantly more enthusiastic about the 2024 election rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump than either Democrats or independent voters, according to a new national poll.

And a survey released Monday by the Monmouth University Polling Institute also spotlights that enthusiasm among all registered voters in the Biden-Trump rematch — while remaining well under 50% — has jumped 12 points over the past year – to 39%.

“Enthusiasm for a 2020 rematch has increased slightly now that these two candidates are the presumptive nominees. But most voters are not looking forward to November,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray highlighted.

But the poll points to a glaring partisan divide in enthusiasm.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS SHOW IN THE 2024 ELECTION

Sixty-three percent of Republicans questioned said they were very or somewhat enthusiastic about the second straight face-off between the Democratic incumbent in the White House and his GOP predecessor.

That figure plunges to 36% among Democrats surveyed, and down to 27% among independents.

The poll is also the latest national survey to point to a close contest between Biden and Trump. Forty-four percent said they will definitely or probably support Trump in the presidential election, with 43% saying the same thing about Biden.

Forty-nine percent offered that they would definitely not vote for the president, with 48% saying the same thing about the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Eighteen percent of those questioned said that they would definitely or probably cast a ballot for Democrat turned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the longtime environmental activist and high-profile vaccine skeptic.  

“Support for Kennedy is not particularly strong even among voters who dislike both Biden and Trump. If he can’t score a decisive win with these voters, it’s unclear what role he can play in this election other than as a spoiler,” Murray highlighted. “The poll results suggest that the Kennedy effect is minimal. If the current situation holds, he would play a spoiler role only in a very close contest. Of course, everything is lining up for this election to be just that.”    

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Inflation (38%) and economic growth and jobs (37%) top the list of most important issues in the presidential election, according to the poll, followed by immigration (33%) and abortion (33%).

Immigration (56%) and inflation (53%) are the top ranking issues for Republicans when it comes to shaping their vote in the presidential election, while abortion (44%) is the most prominent issue for Democrats.

“When partisan voters name their top issues in this election, it is not about weighing the candidates’ positions. It’s more about which issues are motivating them to get out to vote. You have to focus on the small group of voters who are up for grabs to see which issue may actually sway voters. In this case, it appears to be inflation,” Murray noted.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted April 18-22, with 808 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

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

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published new guidance that details how an employer could be found liable for harassment if they require an employee to use a bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex, sparking backlash. 

“Women’s sex-based rights in the workplace are under attack—and from the EEOC, the very federal agency charged with protecting women from sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination at work. In its new harassment guidance, the Commission formally takes the position that for both private companies and federal employers, harassing conduct under Title VII includes ‘denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with [an] individual’s gender identity,’” EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas said in a comment provided to Fox News Digital. 

The new guidance published on Monday, “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace,” outlines that “sex-based harassment” includes “intentional and repeated use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s gender identity.”

“Harassment, both in-person and online, remains a serious issue in America’s workplaces. The EEOC’s updated guidance on harassment is a comprehensive resource that brings together best practices for preventing and remedying harassment and clarifies recent developments in the law,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows in a press release Monday. “The guidance incorporates public input from stakeholders across the country, is aligned with our Strategic Enforcement Plan, and will help ensure that individuals understand their workplace rights and responsibilities.”

PROMINENT US FIRMS FACE ALLEGATIONS OF WORKFORCE DISCRIMINATION OVER DIVERSITY EFFORTS

 Sex-based harassment would also include “the denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with the individual’s gender identity,” the document goes on to say.

“As we commemorate this year’s 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the guidance will help raise awareness about the serious problem of harassment in employment and the law’s protections for those who experience it,” said Burrows in the press release. 

FEDERAL COMMISSIONER FIRES BACK AT MARK CUBAN FOR DIVERSITY CLAIM, DELIVERS WARNING ABOUT DEI: ‘MORE PROBLEMS’

The EEOC had announced last year that it would update its guidance to include sexual orientation and gender identity, which sparked backlash from state attorneys general. 

US JUDGE’S SCHOOL PRIVACY RULING ALLOWS TRANSGENDER BATHROOM USE BASED ON GENDER IDENTITY 

Lucas, who was appointed to the EEOC by then-President Trump in 2020, continued in her statement that “the EEOC ignores biological reality.”

“Relatedly, the Commission declares that harassing conduct includes ‘repeated and intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with [an] individual’s known gender identity.’ The Commission’s guidance effectively eliminates single-sex workplace facilities and impinges on women’s (and indeed, all employees’) rights to freedom of speech and belief. In issuing this guidance, the EEOC ignores biological reality; dismisses the sex-based privacy and safety needs of women; disregards decades of safeguarding principles for women and girls; and fundamentally betrays its mission,” she continued. 

“Biological sex is real, and it matters. Sex is binary (male and female) and is immutable.”

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

With just over six months to go until Election Day, two new polls are spelling trouble for President Biden as he faces off against former President Trump in a 2024 rematch.

Biden trails Trump by six points, according to a CNN national survey.

And new numbers from Gallup indicate Biden had the lowest approval rating during the first quarter of his re-election year of any president in the past 70 years.

Trump leads Biden 49%-43% among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup, according to the CNN poll. 

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

And in a five-person race, the survey indicates Trump topping Biden 42%-33%, with Democrat turned independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at 16%, independent progressive candidate Cornell West at 4%, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 3%.

The CNN survey stands out from other national polls also conducted in mid-April by Quinnipiac University, Marist College, NBC News, and the New York Times/Siena College, which indicated a much closer contest between the Democratic incumbent in the White House and his Republican predecessor.

Trump, a longtime vocal critic of CNN, took to social media to write, “GOOD POLL NUMBERS, FROM CNN OF ALL PLACES”

Americans have a tendency to view past presidencies with more favorability over time, and that appears to be the case with Trump, whose combustible tenure in the White House ended over three years ago.

The CNN survey suggests that 55% of Americans now say they view Trump’s presidency as a success, with 44% seeing it as a failure, down 11 points from a CNN poll conducted soon after Trump left office and also following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

According to the new survey, 61% rate Biden’s presidency so far as a failure, with 39% calling it a success.

“Opinions about the first term of each man vying for a second four years in the White House now appear to work in Trump’s favor, with most Americans saying that, looking back, Trump’s term as president was a success, while a broad majority says Biden’s has so far been a failure,” CNN spotlights.

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Biden remains deeply underwater in the new poll, with a 40% approval rating and 60% giving the president a thumbs down on the job he’s doing in the White House.

According to Gallup, Biden averaged a 38.7% job approval rating during his 13th quarter in office, which began on Jan. 20 and ended on April 19.

“None of the other nine presidents elected to their first term since Dwight Eisenhower had a lower 13th-quarter average than Biden,” Gallup highlighted in their poll.

Of the four other presidents who had approval ratings under 50% in the first quarter of their re-election year, according to Gallup polling – Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump – only Obama won a second term in office.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from April 18-23, with 1,212 adults questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

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

Democratic Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ political opponent debated with an empty podium after Willis skipped the county’s first Democratic Party debate, local reports show. 

Willis is the Georgia district attorney who brought forth the election inference case against former President Trump, charging him and 18 co-defendants with racketeering over allegations they tried to overthrow the 2020 election. Willis became embroiled in controversy when she was accused of having an “improper” relationship with the special counsel she hired, Nathan Wade. 

A judge ordered Willis last month to either remove herself from the case or fire Wade, with Wade ultimately resigning. 

The Fulton County Democratic Party held its first primary debate on Sunday, but Willis was a no-show, leaving her political opponent to take the stage alone, where he criticized his fellow Democrat for hiring a romantic partner for the high-level case. 

ERIC TRUMP WARNS BRAGG, WILLIS ‘WANT TO TORTURE MY FATHER’ BUT NO ONE ‘IS BELIEVING IT’

“That issue is important to us in Fulton County and a lot of people across the country,” Smith said on the stage, Fox 5 reported. 

​​”When you pay one attorney nearly $1 million to handle one case, that leaves the rest of us vulnerable. That hurts everyone in Fulton County,” he said.

FANI WILLIS SHOULD FACE GAG ORDER IN TRUMP ELECTION CASE, SAYS LEGAL ANALYST

Smith did not take issue with Willis prosecuting Trump or the case itself, instead saying Willis has “to do things differently.”

Willis did not attend the debate event, which was sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club, to co-host the second annual “Self Care Fair” with an Atlanta city councilwoman in honor of Crime Victims’ Rights Week. Willis is also focusing on the continued prosecution of Trump, Fox 5 also cited as to why she was not present for the debate. 

AFTER JUDGE’S SCOLDING FOR PLAYING ‘RACE CARD,’ FANI WILLIS SAYS SHE’LL ‘TALK ABOUT IT ANYWAY’

Fox News Digital reached out to Willis’ media team for additional comment on the matter but did not immediately receive a response. 

Willis and Smith will face off in the Democratic primary on May 28. Despite the controversy surrounding the Trump case, local polling shows Willis with strong leads over Smith, Fox 5 reported.  

The Democratic champion of the primary will compete against a Republican challenger on Nov. 5. 

JUDGE IN GEORGIA SLAMS FANI WILLIS’ ‘IMPROPER’ CHURCH SPEECH, ‘PLAYING THE RACE CARD’

Willis and Wade both admitted to the affair amid testimony on the matter, but said they only made their relationship official in 2022, after charges were brought against defendants in the Trump case. Witnesses in the case, however, alleged the pair began their relationship before 2022. 

Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee said last month that there was a “significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team,” but did not find an “actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor.” McAfee ruled that either Willis step aside from the case or Wade be fired. Wade resigned last month. 

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE

Willis has brushed off criticisms of her affair with Wade, touting herself late last month as the only district attorney with the “courage” to prosecute Trump. 

TRUMP BLASTS FULTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR FANI WILLIS AFTER ROMANTIC PARTNER ALLEGATIONS: ‘TOTALLY COMPROMISED’

“There’s one district attorney in the state – and really around the country – that has had the courage to do this, and she continues to do it,” Willis told FOX 5 Atlanta last month. “The case landed in Fulton County, not by anything that I did, but by the actions of others, and when a case lands in my jurisdiction, I’m going to prosecute it, and that’s the end of that.” 

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Trump, meanwhile, has slammed the case as a “witch hunt” that is led by a “totally compromised” district attorney. 

FIRST ON FOX: A group of Republican senators shared concerns over ideological bias at National Public Radio (NPR), with the organization’s controversial CEO Katherine Maher following high-profile criticism from former senior editor Uri Berliner, who recently resigned from his role citing her “divisive views.” 

“We have deep concerns regarding the editorial direction under NPR’s national leadership,” wrote a group of Republicans in a letter on Monday led by Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

In the letter, also signed by Republican conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Bill Cassidy, R-La., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Eric Shmitt, R-Mo., they stressed that NPR’s “National leadership has allowed and cultivated an environment where ideological bias not only creeps in but takes center stage.”

TIM SCOTT SAYS BIDEN IS ‘WILLING TO TANK’ ECONOMY BY GETTING RID OF TRUMP TAX CUTS

Berliner first penned his essay for the Free Press on April 9, discussing why he believes the institution has lost public trust. He detailed his criticisms of the coverage of various events, including allegations of former President Trump’s collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, Hunter Biden’s laptop and the theory that COVID-19 actually began in a lab in China and was leaked. 

The 25-year NPR veteran further revealed that his research found there were “87 registered Democrats” in editorial roles in NPR’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and no Republicans. 

According to the senators, the ideological homogeneity at NPR is not just disappointing, but amounts to “an ethical failure.”

DEM SENATE CANDIDATE ELISSA SLOTKIN’S ‘SMALL CONSULTING BUSINESS’ MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN ACTIVE

The “decidedly left-leaning editorial stance” at the publication is a serious threat to “the integrity and diversity of thought,” they added. 

“If NPR’s goal was to become an echo chamber, mission accomplished. But as a publicly funded entity, you are responsible for providing impartial coverage that accurately informs all Americans, regardless of political affiliation,” the letter continued. 

TOP SENATE DEM CALLS FOR PROBE INTO MUSLIMS PROSECUTED BY DOJ FOR ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS

In closing, the Republicans called on Maher to begin a “course correction” to remedy the exposed lack of diversity at NPR. 

Maher has come under particular scrutiny due to her lack of editorial background, as well as her opinionated and overwhelmingly Democratic personal views, which she has publicly shared on social media over time. In 2020, she criticized news outlets for their coverage of looting during the riots following the death of George Floyd. “I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property,” she said at the time. 

JEWISH DEMOCRAT CALLS OUT BERNIE SANDERS OVER OPPOSITION TO ISRAEL AID: ‘NOW DO ANTISEMITISM’

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NPR did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital. 

In the wake of Berliner’s public criticism of his then-employer, several Republican lawmakers have renewed calls to restrict funding of the organization that provides grants for NPR, giving the outlet federal money. Blackburn recently revealed she is looking at legislative options with the intent of introducing a bill to address funding for NPR, and there are multiple measures in the House already looking to do so. 

Former President Trump weighed in on Monday about the anti-Israel demonstrations that are roiling U.S. college and university campuses.

While the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee is not due in the courtroom on Monday, he spent his morning on Truth Social weighing in on his trial. His posts also included a post about the students who are protesting Israel’s war with Hamas, the terror group that governs Gaza.

“Stop the protests now!!!” Trump said in an all-caps post.

The post comes as the number of students and antisemitic agitators arrested at the nationwide demonstrations approached 900 since New York police removed an anti-Israel protest encampment at Columbia University on April 18. 

VIRGINIA TECH POLICE PHYSICALLY CARRY AWAY ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS AMID EFFORT TO RESTORE PEACE ON CAMPUS

The students are protesting the rising death toll in Gaza amid Israel’s effort to eradicate Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack in the country’s history on Oct. 7, 2023. The subsequent war has resulted in more than 34,000 deaths, mostly civilian women and children.

The anti-Israel groups are calling on their respective colleges and universities to end any investments in companies that support Israel’s military and their actions in Gaza. Students have remained on campus despite several schools demanding they cease their encampments.

Trump’s comment on Monday morning came amid other posts about “Crooked Joe Biden,” who he called the “worst president in the history of the United States.” Trump also addressed the various lawsuits he is facing, which the Republican candidate described as “election interference.”

TRUMP, DESANTIS MEET PRIVATELY FOR SEVERAL HOURS IN MIAMI

Hundreds of protesters were arrested at various college campuses across the U.S. on Saturday, Sunday and into Monday morning as the disruptive demonstrations continued over the weekend. 

About 275 people were arrested on Saturday at Indiana University at Bloomington, Arizona State University and others.

Police in riot gear arrested approximately 102 students at an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, police removed masked protesters and arrested more than 100 people at Washington University in St. Louis, including students and university employees.

Late Sunday and into Monday morning, campus police at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, physically carried some protesters from an encampment and arrested them.

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The nationwide campus protests have surged since students at Columbia University, widely seen as the epicenter of the current protests, formed an encampment by pitching tents at the heart of campus. They have vowed to stay put until the university divests from Israel.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Biden administration is silent on whether students carrying out anti-Israel protests spiraling on college campuses nationwide will be barred from student loan forgiveness programs that have canceled billions of dollars in debt under the 46th president. 

“We say justice, you say how. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground,” protesters have chanted on Columbia University’s campus in recent days. “Hamas we love you. We support your rockets, too,” other chants have included. 

Colleges from coast to coast, including some of the nation’s most elite schools – including Harvard, Yale, Penn, Berkeley and others – have seen days’ long protests on campuses, where students demand their schools completely divest from Israel as the death toll in Gaza increases.

The protests come following terrorist organization Hamas launching war in Israel on Oct. 7, which initially fanned the flames of antisemitism on campuses in the form of protests, menacing graffiti and students reporting that they felt as if it was “open season for Jews on our campuses.” The protests have now heightened to the point where Jewish students are warned to leave campus for their own safety. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Sunday asking if the administration plans to bar student protesters from eligibility for student loan forgiveness programs, but did not receive a response. Biden, in part, campaigned in 2020 on forgiving student loan debt, including pledging to cancel at least $10,000 per borrower back in 2020. 

BIDEN ONCE RIPPED ‘ANTISEMITIC BILE’ BUT NOW FACES OWN ‘CHARLOTTESVILLE MOMENT’

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

Last year, the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s plan to give up to $20,000 in debt relief per person, though the administration has remained committed to canceling debt through other avenues, including through established relief programs. As of this month, the administration has forgiven roughly $153 billion in debt among about 4.3 million Americans, the Department of Education detailed in a press release on April 12 after the administration announced $7.4 billion in additional student loan debt relief for more than 200,000 borrowers. 

Fox News Digital asked the administration if they are weighing whether to bar anti-Israel protesters on campuses from such relief programs, but did not receive a response. Fox Digital also asked if the administration is weighing such an option, if students would be barred based on arrests or through college and law enforcement investigations. 

UT AUSTIN SUSPENDS PRO-PALESTINIAN STUDENT GROUP AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST

The anti-Israel protests intensified this month, including when the NYPD arrested more than 100 protesters on Columbia’s campus, and a school rabbi warned students last week to leave campus “as soon as possible,” noting that “what we are witnessing in and around campus is terrible and tragic.”

“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 to students last weekend. “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.”

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MOVES TO HYBRID LEARNING ON MAIN CAMPUS AMID ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS

A Columbia professor argued in comments to Fox Digital last week that student groups supporting anti-Israel protests had “crossed the line” and morphed into becoming “actual terror” organizations. He specifically pointed to an incident on Columbia’s campus earlier this month when a protester was seen holding a sign reading, “Al-Qasam’s (sic)next targets,” while pointing at a group of Jewish students who were singing and waving Israel’s flag. Al-Qassam is the military wing of Hamas.

Protesters across many of the campuses have established encampments on campus, dubbed titles like the “Gaza Solidarity encampment” or the “liberated zone,” which hearken back to 2020’s “cop free zones” in cities such as Portland and Seattle during the raging defund the police and BLM riots that year. 

GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JILL STEIN AMONG 100 ARRESTED PROTESTING AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

Arrests for the protests are mounting, with more than 100 protesters arrested at Boston’s Northeastern University on Saturday. The school said protesters were heard using antisemitic slurs, including “Kill the Jews.” Dozens more were arrested on Emory’s campus in Atlanta last week, including an economics professor, with police allegedly using tear gas and Tasers on the crowds. 

All in, more than 200 protesters were arrested on Saturday alone on campuses stretching from Arizona State University to Northeastern, the New York Post reported. 

As the protests intensify and video footage of the scenes spread on social media, critics have slammed debt bailouts under the Biden administration. 

“Your tax dollars at work,” State Auditor of Mississippi Shad White posted on X last week. “No more DEI (which is feeding this antisemitism). No more student debt bailouts. Fix our universities.” 

White’s comment came in response to popular conservative X account “End Wokeness” posting footage of protests on Columbia’s campus last week, captioning the video: “This is the scene at Columbia University right now. A literal cult is occupying the campus. Remember: We all paid their student debt.” 

“IDEA: If a student is arrested in an illegal protest or at least arrested for attacking police he is no longer eligible for student loan relief – he’s got to pay back his loans in full – no forgiveness,” conservative X account Amuse posted while tagging Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. 

ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS NATIONWIDE FUELED BY LEFT-WING GROUPS BACKED BY SOROS, DARK MONEY

“Supposedly ‘peaceful’ pro-Palestinian protesters outside Columbia University calling for the end of Israel. Remember, your tax dollars are going to forgive the student debt for these people,” publication Conservative Brief posted on X Friday.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the presidential election, has repeatedly slammed Biden as being responsible for the protests, calling the demonstrations and antisemtism a “disgrace.” 

“What’s going on at the college level… Columbia, NYU and others is a disgrace. And it’s really on Biden,” Trump said on Tuesday morning outside the Manhattan courtroom where he is facing 34 charges of falsifying business records in a case he’s calling a “witch hunt.” 

ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS IN SEATTLE DELAY CAMPUS ENCAMPMENT AFTER BEING CALLED OUT FOR LACK OF DIVERSITY: REPORT

“He’s got the wrong words. He doesn’t know who he’s backing. And it’s a mess. And if this were me, they’d be after me, they’d be after me so much, but they’re trying to get him a pass. And what’s going on is a disgrace to our country. And it’s all Biden’s fault, and everybody knows it. He’s got no message, he’s got no compassion and doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Trump continued, adding Biden is the “worst president in the history of our country.”

Biden has denounced the protests, but came under criticism last week for also condemning those “who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” 

“I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden told reporters this month. 

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Critics have compared it to Trump’s remarks in 2017, following a two-day riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, when White nationalists descended on the city. Trump said at the time that the violence had “no place in America,” while adding there was “blame on both sides” and “very fine people, on both sides.”

EXCLUSIVE: A Black Republican running for Congress is declaring an end to what he describes as Democrats’ historic “free pass” to minority voters.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Missouri state Rep. Justin Hicks, who became known last year for defiantly declaring he identified “as an American” during a heated debate with Democrats on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), said minority voters are beginning to wake up to the “false promises” fed to them by the opposite party.

Hicks, a candidate for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, answered “I do” when asked if he had noticed the often talked about shift in support from minority voters toward former President Donald Trump and away from President Biden.

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“The Democrats have had a free pass with a lot of minority groups, but I think a lot of the minority groups are starting to realize that the Democrats have, pretty much, false promises that they’re giving them,” he said, adding that “Republican values,” such as limited government, lower taxes, and “allowing you to live your life,” were resonating with people from all different groups.

“I think, come November, we’re going to see a big shift when it comes to minority groups,” he said.

The struggle against racialized politics has been an ongoing battle for Hicks, who serves as the only non-White Republican in the Missouri House and has faced what he described as harassment from Democrats in the chamber because of his race.

He detailed the instance last year in which he received applause during a floor debate on a bill opposing state funds for DEI initiatives after he refused to give in to efforts by a Democrat to get him to name the ethnicity he identifies as. 

“I identify as an American,” he said proudly.

REPUBLICAN MAKES MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT IN PUSH TO GROW GOP SUPPORT FROM ONCE-SOLID DEM VOTING BLOC

The exchange still rings loudly in Hicks’ mind. 

“It was a shocker. It took me back when that question was asked to me, because that’s not the country I fought for,” he told Fox, alluding to his time in the U.S. Army and deploying to the Middle East.

“That’s not the country that I fight every single day to ensure that we protect — one where we’re identifying each other based on arbitrary lines such as the color of your skin, or how you look, instead of who you are as in your character,” he added.

Hicks joined the Army at 18 years old and served for six years, an experience he says shaped his political views, and showed him the importance of building America’s military and maintaining its standing in the world.

“We really are a beacon of hope for so many different countries out there, and we have to remember that. I think we fail to realize that, as Americans, a lot of times, we get so caught up in what’s going on inside the country that we don’t actually look outside and see how blessed we are,” he said. 

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“We need to ensure that we’re protecting those things … making sure that we’re funding the military appropriately, making sure that we’re pushing back against a lot of the aggression that’s going on with China right now,” he added.

Hicks said his top priority, if elected, would be to advocate for a balanced budget in order to alleviate inflationary pressures on Americans, and avoid “passing the buck” of extravagant debt to younger generations. 

Included in that is his 1-year-old daughter, Liberty, who he credited as the main reason he decided to run for Congress.

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“The America that she’s growing up in is one where we have a lot of selfish leaders here in Congress that care more about doing political theater than actually delivering results here for Americans … where our freedoms are in jeopardy a lot of times, and many aspects that make us uniquely American are in jeopardy,” he said. 

Hicks faces a crowded Republican primary field, including two well-funded Republicans in Bob Onder and Kurt Schaefer. The winner of the primary is widely expected to win the November general election as analysts rate the race as either “solid” or “safe” Republican.

The primary will be held on Aug. 6.

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

The House of Representatives is back in session for four weeks straight on Monday after a brief recess — and for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., it will be the start of a legislative sprint with one less reliable House GOP vote.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who was regarded as a rising Republican star, shocked even some of his colleagues when he announced last month that he would leave Congress before the end of his term. The House announced his official departure on Friday.

Due to the timing of his retirement, his seat will not be filled until the next congressional term in January 2025.

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

Johnson’s public remarks and even leadership decisions have reflected that he’s keenly aware of the historically slim two-seat margin he’s been dealing with. 

It’s likely to get even smaller sometime over the next several weeks — at least for a time. 

The special election to replace retired Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., in New York’s 26th Congressional District is Tuesday. The heavily urban seat skews in favor of Democrats; President Biden won the Buffalo-area district by nearly 30 points in 2020.

House GOP leaders are expected to get some relief in late May, when two Republicans running to replace ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., face-off in a special runoff election. McCarthy left the House at the end of last year, but no candidate was able to secure a majority vote in the March race to replace him — by California state law, it triggers a runoff.

3RD REPUBLICAN CALLS FOR SPEAKER JOHNSON’S OUSTER OVER $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN

But if Higgins’ old seat stays in Democratic hands, it’s likely Johnson will have to navigate at least part of this four-week stint with just a one-vote majority. That means he’d only be able to lose one Republican lawmaker on any party-line vote.

A House GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital, however, downplayed potential concerns. They argued that Johnson has already successfully ushered through most critical legislation coming in the near future, save for the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the deadline for which is May 10.

“Absent the FAA reauthorization, which will pass later this year, Speaker Johnson has done the job entrusted to him,” the House GOP aide argued. 

TENSIONS ERUPT ON HOUSE FLOOR AS CONSERVATIVES CONFRONT JOHNSON ON $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN

“While his majority may shrink with another GOP resignation, he’s already won the tough legislative battles. Any dysfunction moving forward falls squarely on those who refuse to govern and prefer to complain.”

The aide was referencing members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus and their allies, who have wielded outsized influence over the House GOP’s thin majority by voting in small blocs to kill or block Republican leaders’ legislation in protest of their handling of critical matters like government spending and foreign aid.

The group has already signaled that they’re putting up a fight over another coming legislative battle — funding the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. 

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The Freedom Caucus put out a statement earlier this month demanding that any funding allocated by Congress be offset by spending cuts elsewhere, and that the funds would solely focus on bridge reconstruction.

It’s not immediately clear when a funding bill could take shape or how much leverage conservatives have, given the strong bipartisan support it’s expected to receive. But GOP rebels are expected to give Johnson a hard time if he tries to pass it through traditional mechanisms that rely solely on party-line votes.