NationalWatch

Republicans are clinging to a razor-thin 218-213 House majority.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson shouldn’t expect many reinforcements anytime soon.

This month’s shocking early House retirement of MAGA firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and the unexpected death of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California further shrunk the GOP’s margins in the chamber.

And that has House GOP leaders keeping a tight leash on the party’s rank and file members.

DEMOCRATIC TAKEOVER FEARS SOAR AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS CLING TO FRAGILE MAJORITY

“They’d better be here,” Johnson recently said of his members. “I told everybody, and not in jest, I said, no adventure sports, no risk-taking, take your vitamins. Stay healthy and be here.”

And House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office confirmed it is advising members that “outside of life-and-death circumstances,” they expect Republican lawmakers to be on Capitol Hill.

REP. LAMALFA’S DEATH FURTHER SHRINKS REPUBLICAN HOUSE MAJORITY

There are currently four vacant House districts, which means four special elections to fill the seats. But it’s the Democrats rather than the Republicans who will likely benefit more from the ballot box results in the short run.

Here’s a look at the special elections that are on deck:

Jan. 31

Voters in Texas’ Democrat-dominated 18th Congressional District, which is anchored by downtown Houston and surrounding areas, head to the polls on the last day of January to choose a successor to fill the seat left vacant when Rep. Sylvester Turner died last March.

Democrats Christian Menefee, a former attorney for Houston’s Harris County, and former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards are facing off in the special election. They were the top two finishers in a field of 16 candidates that faced off in an initial election in November.

While Texas has redrawn its congressional maps for the 2026 midterms, as part of the high-stakes redistricting battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats, the special election will use the state’s current district lines.

FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER MCCARTHY WARNS MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE IS ‘THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE’

The winner of the special election will give the Democrats one additional House member, giving Republican leadership further headaches.

Feb. 5

Eleven candidates are running in the Democratic Party primary in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.

The seat was left vacant after now New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill stepped down after winning November’s gubernatorial election in the Garden State.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face off with Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, the only Republican to file for the special election, which will be held on April 16.

The suburban district in northern New Jersey leans to the left, with Sherrill winning re-election in 2024 by 15 points, the same margin she carried the district in November’s gubernatorial showdown.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: HOUSE EXODUS THREATENS JOHNSON’S GRIP ON POWER AS OVER 40 MEMBERS HEAD FOR EXIT

But then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by just eight points in the 2024 presidential election, giving the GOP some hopes of possibly flipping the seat.

March 10

A whopping 22 candidates, including 17 Republicans, are running in a special election in the 14th Congressional District, in the race to succeed Greene.

According to Georgia state law, all the candidates will run on the same ballot. If no contender tops 50% of the vote, a runoff election between the top two finishers will take place on April 7.

The district in northwestern Georgia is solidly Republican, with Greene winning re-election in 2024 by nearly 30 points and Trump carrying the district by 37 points.

June 2

Primary Day in California for the 2026 elections will also include a primary for the special election in the state’s 1st Congressional District, in the race to fill LaMalfa’s seat. The general election will be held on Aug. 4.

The district, in northeastern California, is solidly Republican.

Similar to Texas, California is also altering its congressional maps as part of the redistricting wars, but the special election will be held under the current district lines.

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The White House and congressional Republicans criticized the decision by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to not hold a special election to fill LaMalfa’s seat until August, six months after the late congressman’s death.

But Democrats similarly complained about Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas not scheduling the special election to fill Turner’s seat until eight months after the late lawmaker died.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkins contributed to this story.

The Department of the Navy issued an apology letter Friday to former military personnel “unjustly removed” from service because of the COVID vaccine mandate during the Biden administration.

Under Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao emphasized that the Department of War is committed to “righting past wrongs” and welcoming back former service members who were dismissed during the pandemic.

“To the sailors and marines who were wrongfully discharged during COVID, we failed you,” Hung said in a video posted on X. “We will never allow this to happen again, not on my watch. We are ready for you to come back, and we want to correct your records.”

Cao, the Department of the Navy’s chief operating and chief management officer, overseeing roughly one million Navy, Marine Corps and civilian personnel, acknowledged the impact of the mandate on those it forced out.

HEGSETH ORDERS ABOUT FACE ON PENTAGON’S SLIPPING GROOMING STANDARDS

“We are righting this wrong and it starts with this formal letter of apology,” he said.

President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14184 shortly after returning to office last January, directing federal agencies to identify service members affected by the former vaccine requirement and take steps to reinstate them or restore certain benefits.

The order applies to former members of the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Space Force and Coast Guard who were discharged solely for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

VA REVERSES BIDEN ADMIN POLICY PROVIDING ABORTION SERVICES AGENCY CALLS CONTRARY TO FEDERAL LAW

The former secretary of defense mandated in 2021 that all service members receive the COVID-19 vaccine, a policy that was rescinded in 2023.

“The military unjustly discharged those who refused the vaccine, regardless of the years of service given to our Nation, after failing to grant many of them an exemption that they should have received,” Trump’s executive order states.

The Department of War issued guidance to all the secretaries of military departments to contact former service members with information about potential reinstatement and to correct their discharge records.

TRUMP DECLARES ‘REAWAKENING’ OF ‘WARRIOR SPIRIT,’ UNWAVERING SUPPORT FOR MILITARY: ‘I HAVE YOUR BACKS’

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 8,000 service members were separated after the Biden administration’s Department of Defense issued the vaccination mandate.

“It is unconscionable that thousands of former Service members who held true to their personal and religious convictions were not just separated, but separated with general (under honorable conditions), rather than honorable, discharge characterizations,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a December memo. “While many have applied for and received relief from our Military Department review boards, I believe the onus is on us to make this right.”

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Hegseth said he directed a proactive review of personnel records to identify individuals involuntarily discharged solely for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and facilitate appropriate discharge upgrades.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Navy for additional information.

As President Donald Trump aims to build a ballroom at the White House, federal Judge Richard Leon on Thursday reportedly asked Justice Department lawyers to point to what authority allows the president to engage in a construction project at the White House.

“Where do you see the authority for the president to tear down the East Wing and build something in its place?” the judge asked, according to The Washington Post. 

While the outlet reported that Leon said he could issue a decision next month, NBC News reported that the judge promised that he would issue a decision in February.

WHITE HOUSE RESPONDS TO REPORTS TRUMP NAMED NEW BALLROOM AFTER HIMSELF

Attorney Thad Heuer, who represents the National Trust for Historic Preservation, contended that the president lacks the constitutional power to rip down the East Wing and build a ballroom, according to NBC News, which quoted Heuer as saying, “He’s not the owner.”

The outlet reported that the judge seemed to be leaning in the direction of pausing the project.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Friday.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS EAST WING DEMOLITION WAS NECESSARY DUE TO STRUCTURAL ISSUES

“The president didn’t want $400 million in taxpayer money to be used for this,” Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth said, according to NBC News. 

“He wanted to use donations,” Roth noted.

The project began last year at the behest of Trump, but he has asserted that it is being funded by private donations, not taxpayer dollars.

WARREN-LED INQUIRY DRAWS NEW DETAILS ON TRUMP BALLROOM DONATIONS FROM MAJOR CORPORATIONS

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“I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer!” Trump declared in an October Truth Social post. “The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!” 

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., is expanding a probe into social services fraud allegedly perpetrated in Minnesota, according to a press release.

“The Committee requests a staff-level briefing, as well as all underlying documents and communications related to any review the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) conducted regarding the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) and allegations of fraud in the State of Minnesota,” Comer noted in a letter to Minnesota Legislative Auditor Judy Randall.

The state’s Office of the Legislative Auditor issued a report earlier this month about a performance audit regarding Department of Human Services Behavioral Health Administration grants during a period spanning July 1, 2022, through 2024.

TRUMP CITES MINNESOTA FRAUD CASES TO WARN AGAINST MIGRATION FROM ‘FAILED’ SOCIETIES

The report’s conclusion asserts, “The Behavioral Health Administration did not comply with most requirements we tested and did not have adequate internal controls over grant funds.” 

Comer also issued a letter calling for temporary Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services Shireen Gandhi to deliver “testimony at an in-person transcribed interview on January 30, 2026.”

‘YOU HAVE FAILED’: COMER CLASHES WITH DEMOCRAT AS MINNESOTA FRAUD PROBE SPARKS SHOUTING MATCH

“If you do not voluntarily appear for the interview, we will be forced to evaluate the use of the compulsory process,” the letter warns.

The committee’s investigation was launched last month before independent journalist and YouTuber Nick Shirley released a viral report about alleged widespread fraud in the state.

JOURNALIST WHO EXPOSED ALLEGED MINNESOTA FRAUD SAYS NEWSOM, CALIFORNIA ARE HIS NEXT TARGETS

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“Criminals in Minnesota have stolen an estimated $9 billion in taxpayer funds intended to feed children, support autistic children, house low-income and disabled Americans and provide healthcare to vulnerable Medicaid recipients,” the congressional committee’s press release noted.

A federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration this week from detaining or otherwise “retaliating” against pro-Palestinian academics and student protesters on college campuses nationwide, saying in a new court order that plaintiffs have the right to challenge any attempts to remove them from the U.S. in federal court. 

U.S. District Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee, had ruled last fall that the Trump administration’s actions violated the First Amendment and amounted to what he described as an “unconstitutional conspiracy.” 

“There doesn’t seem to be an understanding of what the First Amendment is by this government,” he said.

FEDERAL JUDGE LAUNCHES SCATHING BROADSIDE OF TRUMP’S EFFORTS TO DEPORT PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS

The new order codified what Young described last week as “remedial sanctions” that he said he planned to issue to protect “certain plaintiffs’ noncitizen members” from “any retribution for the free exercise of their constitutional rights.” 

The judge’s order applies to pro-Palestinian noncitizen academic protesters and students on college campuses whom he previously ruled had been “illegally” and “intentionally” targeted by Trump officials.

Young ruled in September that noncitizens in the U.S. have the same free speech protections as citizens, and vowed to enshrine those protections in a court order. 

The new order says all the plaintiffs in the case have the right to seek relief via the federal courts before any retaliatory removal.

The only caveats, he said, are that the individuals in question must show that they are a member of either the American Association of University Professors, or the Middle East Studies Association — the two academic groups that sued the Trump administration last year. They must also submit documentation proving that their U.S. immigration status had not expired, and showing that they had not been accused of any crimes since last September.

“Upon such proof, it shall be presumed that the alteration in immigration status is in retribution for the exercise during the course of the present case of their First Amendment rights,” Young said. 

JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA

Young’s remedial order comes after he ruled last fall that the Trump administration had unlawfully targeted noncitizen pro-Palestinian academic protesters on college campuses, in violation of the First Amendment.

He scheduled a hearing last week to craft a remedy protecting the noncitizens in question from deportation or changes to their immigration status, barring certain circumstances.

But what transpired over the hours-long affair was a remarkable dressing-down of top Trump officials, including President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. 

“I find it breathtaking that I have been compelled on the evidence to find the conduct of such high-level officers of our government — cabinet secretaries — conspired to infringe the First Amendment rights of people with such rights here in the United States,” Young said during the hearing.

“These cabinet secretaries have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution,” he added. 

Lawyers for the Trump administration have argued that their actions are part of a broader fight against antisemitism, including on college campuses, and that the individuals in question were “pro-Hamas.”

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BAN FOR ALL INFANTS, TESTING LOWER COURT POWERS

In response to Young’s remarks, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital that it’s “bizarre that this judge is broadcasting his intent to engage in left-wing activism against the democratically elected President of the United States.”

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, fired back at the judge in a statement provided to Fox News Digital late last week.

“There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here,” she said.

During last week’s hearing, Young said he plans to make public a large amount of the materials used as evidence in the case, overruling the administration’s request that they remain sealed.

Trump and his senior advisors have adopted a “fearful approach” to freedom of speech to “exclude from participation everyone who doesn’t agree with them,” Young said.

His ruling is almost certain to be appealed to a higher court.

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It’s not the first time Young has raised eyebrows for his sharp criticisms of the president.  

In June, Young ruled that the Trump administration acted illegally when it slashed funding for NIH research grants and ordered the funding to be restored.

He also used the order to describe the cuts as “appalling” evidence of what he described as “racial discrimination” and discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

The Supreme Court later ruled 5-4 to lift the injunction, and two justices chastised Young for the manner in which he issued the opinion.

It all started back in the summer. A furor erupted over releasing the Epstein files.

The House began its summer vacation a day early. That halted spending bills. Congressional Republican leaders were concerned that bipartisan lawmakers wanted to attach provisions to the measures to compel release of the Epstein files.

But there was a weird détente — if you can call it that — on the House Oversight Committee.

COMER RIPS ‘PAID DISRUPTER’ AS BRIEFING ON CLINTON CONTEMPT PUSH DEVOLVES INTO CHAOS

On what turned out to be the final day for the House before the lengthy “August recess,” which consumed lots of July, all of August and some of September, the Oversight Committee conducted a hearing on international trafficking.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., popped a surprise on the committee. She engineered a plan to subpoena the Epstein files.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., countered Lee’s effort. He concocted an amendment to subpoena former President Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with other luminaries who may have some information about the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and the sexual abuse of underage girls in 2005. Epstein later secured what critics termed a “sweetheart deal,” by then U.S. Attorney and future Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. Among those Perry wanted to hear from in depositions were former Attorneys General Merrick Garland, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales. Perry also asked to hear from former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller.

That’s quite a list.

Most never came in for interviews. Some simply had communication with the committee that they had no knowledge of Epstein or the original prosecution.

HILLARY CLINTON EXPECTED TO DEFY EPSTEIN PROBE SUBPOENA, RISKING CRIMINAL CHARGES

But the Clintons were another matter.

Particularly former President Bill Clinton.

Firstly, he’s a former president. Secondly, he traveled periodically with Epstein and was documented in photographs together. Third, the former president has a lot of baggage after his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

The Clintons were supposed to meet with House Oversight Committee investigators in October. But that was moved until mid-December. The couple then begged off because of a funeral. The Oversight Committee assigned the duo separate dates in mid-January. Both failed to materialize. So House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., threatened them with contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena.

“It always seems that the Democrat Party has rules for thee, not for me,” said Rep. John McGuire, R-Va. “But we have oversight and we have subpoena power. And we can put a case and give it to the DOJ and let them prosecute. They need to hold them accountable.”

Of course, Democrats screeched that former Trump advisors Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro didn’t comply with subpoenas from the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The House then voted to hold Bannon and Navarro in contempt of Congress.

“What do you suppose ol’ Steve Bannon has to say about contempt of Congress? They either need to show up or go to jail,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis. They’re like extra super special people? Hell no they’re not. They’re American citizens. We are a country of laws. They break the law. They go to jail. I don’t care who it is.”

CLINTON SPOKESMAN LASHES OUT AT COMER OVER EPSTEIN PROBE AS CONTEMPT VOTE NEARS

In 2022, the same Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., along with Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Perry and former Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., for depositions about the riot. All refused to comply with the subpoena because they were members of Congress. The Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause inoculates lawmakers from having to fulfill such demands. Moreover, it was argued that the House could always refer them to the Ethics Committee for not adhering to a congressional mandate. The Constitution stipulates that the House can discipline its members and establish codes of conduct.

Those lawmakers argued that the Jan. 6 committee wasn’t valid because former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vetoed McCarthy’s picks for the panel: Jordan and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who served in the House at the time.

So the Oversight Committee voted to hold both the former president and former Secretary of State in contempt of Congress. There were two extraordinary votes.

“Subpoenas are not mere suggestions,” said Comer. “He is not above the law.”

Nine Democrats voted alongside all Republicans to hold the former Democratic president in contempt.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., was among them.

“I’m just focused on survivors,” said Pressley. “We want to hear from anyone who has information. And that should not be limited to party lines.”

Lee joined her.

“I do believe that our subpoena is legally binding,” said Lee. “I did not feel like I could let one off.”

A contempt citation must go before the entire House. If the House approves it, the body makes a criminal referral to the Department of Justice for prosecution. That’s what happened with Bannon and Navarro. But some Democrats predict that potentially prosecuting a former President will backfire.

“If we launch criminal contempt proceedings, we will not hear from the Clintons. That is a fact. It’ll be tied up in court,” said Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif.

‘THE VIEW’ HOSTS CALL ON CLINTONS TO COMPLY WITH SUBPOENA, TESTIFY ON EPSTEIN

The Clintons may have ducked multiple depositions as part of the Epstein probe. But Comer doesn’t think they can skip out forever. Especially since the House likely has the votes — on a bipartisan basis — to refer them to DOJ for prosecution.

“I think the Clintons probably are thinking more about how they can get out of this today than they were for the last five months, because the court of public opinion is not on the Clintons’ side,” said Comer.

Of course, there are legal issues about prosecuting a president. And even a former president.

But some Democrats believe all the focus on the Clintons is an effort to divert attention from releasing all Epstein documents.

“It’s about protecting one man: Donald J. Trump,” said Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va.

And since the documents aren’t out, some Democrats believe the committee should target someone else. And no. It’s not Trump.

“The only person who should be held in contempt right now is [Attorney General] Pam Bondi. We need to be releasing these files,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

But at least one Democrat casts a broader net.

“We should hold everybody in contempt that had anything to do to cover this up,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. “All I needed to do is hear the survivors tell us, ‘Please, do something.’ These are people that have impacted their lives forever.”

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Comer broke news that the committee will hold a virtual deposition with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell on Feb. 9. Any member of the committee can ask questions. And Comer also announced that the House Judiciary Committee will hear from Bondi in mid-February, too. Expect the Epstein issue to be prominent there as well.

The calendar is now pressing up against February. And even though it’s the dead of winter, Congress is still wrestling with the same issue that sidetracked things last July.

The Pentagon said in an unclassified national defense strategy document titled “Restoring peace through strength for a new golden age of America” on Friday, that it plans to shift more of the responsibility of deterring North Korea to South Korea.

The U.S. would take a “more limited” role in keeping North Korea in line, the Pentagon said in the document obtained by Fox News Digital.

“With its powerful military, supported by high defense spending, a robust defense industry, and mandatory conscription, South Korea is capable of taking primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited U.S. support,” the document said.

It added, “South Korea also has the will to do so, given that it faces a direct and clear threat from North Korea. This shift in the balance of responsibility is consistent with America’s interest in updating U.S. force posture on the Korean Peninsula. In this way, we can ensure a stronger and more mutually beneficial alliance relationship that is better aligned with America’s defense priorities, thereby setting conditions for lasting peace.”

IRAN ALLEGEDLY AIRS 97 ‘COERCIVE’ CONFESSIONS’ AMID RECORD-BREAKING NORTH KOREA-STYLE INTERNET BLACKOUT

The new policy plan on North Korea followed similar strategies for other parts of the world, with the wide-ranging document adding that the department will “no longer be distracted by interventionism, endless wars, regime change, and nation building. Instead, we will put our people’s practical concrete interests first.”

The document clarified the policy doesn’t mean “isolationism,” but rather a “strategic approach to the threats our nation faces.”

Further down it added, “We will insist our allies and partners do their part and lend them a helping hand when they step up.”

NORTH KOREA TEST LAUNCHES HYPERSONIC MISSILE SYSTEM IN FRONT OF KIM, NATION SAYS

The document said under a section titled “Increase Burden-Sharing with U.S. Allies and Partners” that it plans to deter China “through strength, not confrontation,” and as the “Department rightly prioritizes Homeland defense and deterring China, other threats will persist, and our allies will be essential to dealing with all of them. Our allies will do so not as a favor to us, but out of their own interests.”

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On Russia, it said the country “will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO’s eastern members for the foreseeable future,” and on Iran, it stated that President Donald Trump has made it clear that Iran won’t be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

This year, South Korea raised its military budget by 7.5% while around 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed there in defense of North Korea.

Minnesota’s alleged fraud scandal continues with the blue state now “on the clock” to comply with federal officials.

“We asked Minnesota for evidence that child care funding goes to legitimate providers,” Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), wrote in an X post video alongside HHS Assistant Secretary Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Alex Adams. “Six weeks later, they still have not sent this information.”

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP FROM CUTTING CHILDCARE FUNDS TO DEMOCRATIC STATES OVER FRAUD CONCERNS

The ACF sent a “preliminary notice of non-compliance” to the state, according to O’Neill.

“We are no longer asking, we are demanding,” Adams said. “Since Minnesota refused to comply with their federally approved state plan and regulations, ACF has sent a preliminary notice of non-compliance to Minnesota.”

O’Neill said the state has 60 days to send the desired documents to federal officials.

“We put Minnesota on the clock,” O’Neill said in the video. “If their response is insufficient, we’ll pursue full penalties under the law against the state.”

O’Neill said HHS sends approximately $20 billion to the state annually.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS CALL MINNESOTA FRAUD PROBE ‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’ AS MORE BLUE STATES FACE SCRUTINY

“Every dollar that the state diverts into fraud is stolen from the intended Minnesota recipient. The status quo was to trust the state to stop fraud. That clearly did not work,” O’Neill said.

On Dec. 30, O’Neill and Adams announced a childcare payment freeze to the state after an alleged fraud scandal was exposed, involving daycare centers in the state.

“Intrepid journalists have made shocking, incredible allegations of extensive fraud in Minnesota’s childcare programs,” O’Neill said in a Dec. 30 video posted on X. “We believe the state of Minnesota has allowed scammers and fake daycares to siphon millions of taxpayer dollars over the past decade.” 

Last month, O’Neill demanded Gov. Tim Walz turn over a comprehensive audit of certain daycare centers, including attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

MINNESOTA’S WELFARE FRAUD DISASTER EXPOSES A NATIONAL SYSTEM DESIGNED TO FAIL

A spokesperson for Walz’s office told Fox News in December that they felt the investigation was politically motivated.

“Fraud is a serious issue. But this is a transparent attempt to politicize the issue to hurt Minnesotans and defund government programs that help people,” the spokesperson said.

Adams said the ACF has a team on the ground in the state conducting an “on-site monitoring visit,” where the department plans to attempt to gather records the state has not provided.

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“We will continue to pursue every credible lead, and we will restore integrity to programs that serve America’s most vulnerable people,” O’Neill concluded.

The ACF and the state Department of Health office of the inspector general did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

A letter delivered to a local Republican Party chapter in Northern California called for an all-out war against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including the use of homemade explosives to send them “home in a body bag.”

The 12-page letter, titled “A Real American Response to Foreign Terrorist Invasions,” was sent to the Sonoma County Republican Party. The lengthy document mocks ICE agents for “living out their ‘Call of Duty’ fantasy army roles, only with real assault weapons.”

No name or return address was listed, and there was no mention of Sonoma County in the document, the local GOP said.

NEW JERSEY TWINS CHARGED IN THREATS TO KILL DHS OFFICIAL, ‘SHOOT ICE ON SIGHT’

“NOTE: No official of any party had anything to do with the composing or distributing of this document; it is strictly a private ‘patriotic effort,’ like Donald Trump’s January 6th Washington, D.C., insurgents,” the letter states on page seven.

The letter’s opening line mentions the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month. The Department of Homeland Security said Good was trying to ram her vehicle into an ICE agent when he opened fire in self-defense.

“It is clear that every private citizen’s life, immigrant or not, is at risk of annihilation by these low-IQ, trigger-happy domestic terrorists, with no restraints from their commanders in the field. NO ONE IS SAFE NOW,” the writer states.

The sender also accused ICE of inflicting a “real foreign invasion–style war” on unarmed men, women, and children.

WHITE HOUSE BLAMES DEMOCRATS FOR ICE VIOLENCE AS MINNEAPOLIS ERUPTS, INSURRECTION ACT THREAT LOOMS

“They now need to feel real war, just as any foreign invading army would,” the letter said, before condemning Republican congressional lawmakers for backing the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The letter then went on to urge violence against ICE personnel.

“Since ICE-DHS make so light of our innocent citizens’ lives, then it is time to show ICE how light and worthless their lives are,” the letter said, while also calling those who support the agent “fair game.”

“ICE agents and their backers need to become the targets,” the letter continued. “IED’d, run over with vehicles, shot at by snipers, sprayed with toxic chemicals.”

ANTI-ICE THREAT SPRAY-PAINTED ON VEHICLE BELIEVED TO BE USED BY FEDERAL OFFICERS DURING MINNEAPOLIS UNREST

Several Trump administration officials are also mentioned, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, as well as Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who has been sharply critical of ICE and the Trump administration’s crackdown on criminal illegal immigrants. 

Pages two and three give detailed instructions on how to make a chemical improvised explosive device (IED) in a section of the letter titled “Carrying the War Back to the ICE Invader Murderers and Protecting Our Personnel.”

The anonymous person or group responsible for the letter included several images of ICE agents carrying out their duties.

“A shrapnel device guaranteed to shred the legs, genitals, face, eyeballs, and hands of murdering ICE agents and their bosses,” one note said.

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The Sonoma County GOP reported the letter to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Department, which has not responded to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Earlier this month, DHS said ICE is facing a 1,300% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats toward its agents.

The Texas border town sheriff and brother of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who was pardoned by President Trump earlier this year after the Biden Justice Department indicted him on federal bribery charges, is now facing his own public corruption charges.

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar Jr. was indicted after he and his assistant chief, Alejandro Gutierrez, allegedly used public funds, staff and resources to run a for-profit disinfecting business called Disinfect Pro Master during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Justice Department (DOJ). 

Disinfect Pro Master entered into service agreements with local businesses, even a school district, but allegedly never had any employees or supplies of its own. The school district contract secured Cuellar and Gutierrez a half million dollars, but the DOJ said they completed the work using county staff and resources. 

Cuellar is a border town sheriff out of Laredo, Texas, which is also part of his brother’s congressional district. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife were recently pardoned by President Trump after they were accused by the Biden administration DOJ of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan government-controlled oil and gas company and a Mexico City-headquartered bank. 

WATCH: DEM LAWMAKER THANKS TRUMP FOR PARDON, SAYS IT CAME AS A SURPRISE AMID RE-ELECTION BID

In a statement released by the sheriff after he appeared in court this week, Cuellar vehemently defended himself and insisted that he would be “fully vindicated.”

“Over the course of my career — as a Texas State Trooper, a narcotics Sergeant investigator, Narcotics Lieutenant and now as your Sheriff — I have learned the difference between what is right and what is wrong, and I know what I did and did not do,” the statement says. 

“While this process moves forward, I ask the public to let the facts — not rumors, not speculation — guide their judgement. My responsibility remains the same as it was yesterday and the day before. … I remain fully engaged in my duties and in communication with the community. Public safety does not pause, and neither does my commitment to this office.”

Congressman Cuellar’s office also released a statement echoing his brother’s comments, adding that he has “a deep respect for the law” and would be vindicated in the end. 

“Under our constitution, he is innocent until proven guilty,” the congressman’s statement said. “My brother Martin has served our community as a peace officer for more than forty years with integrity, professionalism, and a deep respect for the law. He is an honest man.”

TRUMP ENDORSES CUELLAR OPPONENT AFTER PARDONING DEM REP

If convicted, Sheriff Cuellar could face up to 10 years in federal prison and could incur up to a $250,000 fine. Cuellar was also charged with money laundering, which would carry an additional maximum 10-year sentence and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the amount of money involved in the transactions, according to the DOJ.

President Trump previously said he had pardoned Congressman Cuellar because he believed the Biden DOJ had been weaponized against him for speaking out against the former president’s open border policies. Trump also indicated he was influenced by a letter from the congressman’s daughter urging him to grant her father and mother clemency. 

However, after Cuellar decided a few days later to run for re-election as a Democrat, the president had some choice words for him. 

“Such a lack of LOYALTY,” Trump subsequently posted on his platform, Truth Social.

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When reached for comment, the White House referred Fox News Digital to the Justice Department.

“The Cuellar Crime Family will screw over small businesses and local schools if it means enriching themselves,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Zachary Kraft said.

“South Texans deserve leaders focused on serving taxpayers, not those focused on finding new ways to illegally funnel money into their own pockets,” he continued. “Voters are going to send a strong message in November that they’ve had enough of the family who puts their self-interests above South Texas values.” 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Friday the state is filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) asserting federal jurisdiction over two state oil pipelines and green lighting their restart.

The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has “unlawfully given the company Sable Offshore Corp. the green light to restart pumping oil through to onshore pipelines that originate and terminate within California, starting in Santa Barbara County and ending in Kern County,” Bonta said in a news conference at Dockweiler State Beach.

He noted that one of the two Los Flores pipelines ruptured in 2015 due to corroded pipes, causing that Refugio oil spill disaster that “dumped more than 100,000 gallons of heavy crude oil into the environment and at least 21,000 gallons of oil into the ocean.”

Bonta claimed PHMSA’S approval of the restart of the pipeline the “latest example of Trump doing the oil industry’s bidding.”

NEWSOM VOWS TO BLOCK TRUMP’S REPORTED ENERGY PLAN IN CALIFORNIA, EXPERTS PUSH BACK

Bonta claims because the pipelines are located solely in California without crossing state lines and without going into federal waters, “oversight of the pipelines is controlled by California, not the federal government.”

“The Trump administration unlawfully undermined California’s authority, unlawfully federalized the pipelines, and usurped state control and unlawfully issued Sable a sham emergency permit to begin pumping oil when there’s absolutely no emergency,” he said. 

TRUMP ADMIN URGES JUDGE LIMITING ICE IN MINNESOTA WOULD BE ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ OVERREACH

Bonta added, “In short, the Trump administration broke the law again, which is why we are suing again.”

Bonta said this marks the 55th lawsuit California has brought against the Trump administration.

He said the lawsuit isn’t about whether the pipelines should be restarted, but whether California or the Trump administration gets to make the decision.

“The answer is clear: the state of California gets to decide,” Bonta said.

He explained that Sable asked the Trump administration to declare the pipelines “interstate,” meaning “the pipelines are part of a larger system that extends into federal waters on the outer continental shelf. That is a fantasy. That is not true.”

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He called it a “pretext to usurp state oversight.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is taking a big step toward holding its first-ever midterm convention.

The RNC on Friday approved a change to the party’s rules that would allow Chair Joe Gruters to convene a convention during a midterm election year.

National political conventions, where party delegates from around the country formally nominate their party’s presidential candidates, normally take place during presidential election years.

But with Republicans aiming to protect their narrow control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in this year’s elections, President Donald Trump announced in September that the GOP would hold a convention ahead of the midterms “in order to show the great things we have done” since recapturing the White House.

FIRST ON FOX: GOP TAKES BIG STEP TOWARDS HOLDING MIDTERM CONVENTION

As first reported by Fox News Digital, the rule change was adopted Thursday evening by the RNC’s Rules Committee during the party’s winter meeting in Santa Barbara, California.

The full RNC membership, meeting Friday during the confab’s general session, approved the rule change in a unanimous vote.

RNC CHAIR BETS ON ‘SECRET WEAPON’ TO DEFY MIDTERM HISTORY, PROTECT GOP MAJORITIES

A memo obtained by Fox News Digital highlighted “the possibility of an America First midterm convention-style gathering aligned with President Trump’s vision for energizing the party this fall.”

And speaking with reporters on Friday, Gruters called the convention a “Trump-a-palooza” where “we can really highlight all the incredible things that this president has done.”

But the president’s approval ratings remain well underwater, with many Americans giving him a big thumbs down on the job he’s doing with the economy and the issue of affordability.

“Trump has historically low approval ratings because he has put America last, sold out working families to hand out favors to billionaires, and made life unaffordable,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin told Fox News Digital in a statement.

The party in power, in this case the Republicans, normally faces stiff political headwinds in the midterms. And the hope among Trump and top Republicans is that a midterm convention would give the GOP a high-profile platform to showcase the president’s record and their congressional candidates running in the midterms.

Gruters, in a statement to Fox News Digital, touted that the RNC’s winter meeting “shows how completely united Republicans are behind President Trump and our efforts to win the midterms. The RNC has been aggressively focused on expanding our war chest, turning out voters and protecting the ballot in this fall’s elections. We’re building the operation needed to protect our majorities and give President Trump a full four-year term with a Republican Congress.”

Details on the date and location of the midterm convention will come at a later date and will likely be announced by the president.

But a Republican source told Fox News Digital it’s probable the convention would be held at the same time as the RNC’s summer meeting, which typically occurs in August.

The DNC may also hold a midterm convention. Sources confirmed to Fox News Digital last summer that Martin and other party leaders were quietly pushing the idea of a convention ahead of the midterms.

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Democrats held a handful of midterm conventions in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chaos engulfing northeastern Syria has sparked fresh security fears after Syria’s new governing authorities moved against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, forcing the U.S. military to rush ISIS detainees out of Syria and into Iraq.

The U.S. military launched an operation Wednesday to relocate ISIS detainees amid fears that instability could trigger mass prison breaks. So far, about 150 detainees have been transferred from a detention center in Hasakah, Syria, with plans to move up to 7,000 of the roughly 9,000 to 10,000 ISIS detainees held in Syria, U.S. officials said.

The operation comes as Syria’s new government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, ordered the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — Washington’s longtime partner in the fight against ISIS — to disband following a rapid offensive over the weekend that severely weakened the group.

Syrian government forces have since assumed control of several detention facilities previously guarded by the SDF. At least 120 ISIS detainees escaped during a breakout at the al-Shaddadi prison in Hasakah this week, according to Syrian authorities, who say many have been recaptured. U.S. and regional officials caution that some escapees remain at large.

The deteriorating security situation has also raised alarms around al-Hol camp, a sprawling detention site housing the families of ISIS fighters and long viewed by Western officials as a breeding ground for radicalization.

US, SYRIAN TROOPS COME UNDER FIRE WHILE ON PATROL: REPORT

Kurdish forces announced they would withdraw from overseeing the camp, citing what they described as international indifference to the ISIS threat.

“Due to the international community’s indifference towards the ISIS issue and its failure to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter, our forces were compelled to withdraw from al-Hol camp and redeploy,” the SDF said in a statement.

The camp is currently home to about 24,000 people, mostly women and children linked to ISIS fighters from across the Middle East and Europe. Many residents have no formal charges, according to aid groups, and humanitarian organizations have long warned that extremist networks operate inside the camp.

TRUMP VOWS ‘VERY SERIOUS RETALIATION’ AGAINST ISIS AFTER DEADLY SYRIA AMBUSH KILLS US SOLDIERS

The SDF said guards were redeployed to confront the threat posed by Syrian government forces advancing into Kurdish-held territory. On Tuesday evening, Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops agreed to a four-day ceasefire, though officials warned the truce remains fragile.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials are weighing whether to withdraw the roughly 1,000 American troops still stationed in Syria, raising questions about Washington’s long-term ability to secure ISIS detainees as local alliances shift.

Two U.S. Army soldiers were killed in Syria in December by a lone ISIS gunman.

ISIS lost its last territorial stronghold in Syria in 2019, when U.S. forces and their SDF partners overran the group’s enclave in Baghouz. While the defeat ended the group’s self-declared caliphate, U.S. and allied officials say ISIS has since regrouped as a decentralized insurgency, repeatedly targeting prisons and detention camps in Syria and Iraq.

Western governments have cautiously backed al-Sharaa — a former militant once designated as a terrorist — since his forces overthrew longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, framing the support as a pragmatic security calculation rather than an endorsement of his past.

U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack urged Kurdish leaders to reach a permanent deal with the new Syrian government, emphasizing Washington’s focus on preventing an ISIS resurgence rather than maintaining an indefinite military presence.

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“The United States has no interest in a long-term military presence,” Barrack said, adding that U.S. priorities include securing ISIS detention facilities and facilitating talks between the SDF and the Syrian government.

With the March for Life marking nearly three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Kentucky has launched an investigation into out-of-state groups advertising mail-order abortion pills, citing a post-Dobbs law that bans the drugs’ delivery into the state.

The march’s organizers now see new meaning in their annual demonstration following the landmark Dobbs decision, and states around the country are taking sides on whether abortion should be “safe, legal and rare,” as then-President Bill Clinton put it, or liberally permitted or strictly prohibited. In Kentucky, lawmakers responded by passing House Bill 3 in 2022, banning the mailing or delivery of abortion-inducing drugs.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman told Fox News Digital on Friday that he is citing the law in launching an investigation into organizations that could be participating in unlawful activity in that regard, as reproductive health groups have been advertising at gas stations in both the Bluegrass State and its Appalachian neighbor, West Virginia.

In recent months, a New York-based nonprofit called Mayday Health that advertises “abortion pills by-mail” announced it would buy advertising at more than 100 gas stations in the two rural states — with the phrase: “Pregnant? Don’t want to be?” and inviting customers to contact them.

TRUMP ADMIN STOPS FUNDING FOR RESEARCH THAT INVOLVES ABORTED BABY TISSUE

SEN JAMES LANKFORD: WHEN WE MARCH FOR LIFE, WE MUST FIGHT FOR THE HYDE AMENDMENT

Coleman told Fox News Digital on Friday his probe is intended to discern whether the mail-order abortion ban and/or Kentucky’s consumer protection laws are being violated by these groups. 

“Out-of-state activist groups who are targeting the vulnerable here should be on notice: Keep your illegal pills out of our Commonwealth or face the full weight of the attorney general’s office,” Coleman said, issuing subpoenas to the various fuel stations as well.

“These deadly and unlawful pills cannot be allowed to continue flooding into Kentucky through the mail, and we will thoroughly pursue every lead to hold bad actors accountable,” he continued, adding the ads may also violate Frankfort’s consumer-protection laws.

TRUMP URGES GOP TO BE ‘FLEXIBLE’ ON HYDE AMENDMENT, IGNITING BACKLASH FROM PRO-LIFE ALLIES

Coleman said that any resident who sees such ads should report them to his agency’s consumer-protection office.

Liv Raisner, executive director of Mayday, told Fox News Digital in response that “it turns out [Coleman] doesn’t like free speech as much as he says,” adding her group similarly advertised at South Dakota gas stations and won a temporary restraining order against that state.

“We think everyone in Kentucky, and South Dakota, and around the country, should know that abortion pills are safe and available,” Raisner said.

On the other side of the Tug Fork River, West Virginia itself previously took action to pass a near-total ban on abortion drug Mifeprestone — a policy that was later upheld by a court — along with hefty restrictions on abortions themselves.

Mississippi, where the Dobbs case originated, had passed the Gestational Age Act in 2018, banning most abortions after 15 weeks, which set up a legal battle after the Tupelo State’s only clinic sued. The result of that case before the high court opened the floodgates to other localized changes nationwide.

PRO-LIFE ORGANIZATION CALLS ON HHS AND FDA TO SUSPEND ABORTION PILL APPROVAL, TIGHTEN SAFETY RULES

Upon the decision in favor of Dobbs, Mississippi’s pre-Roe ban became enforceable once more, as did a slew of other states’ so-called “trigger laws.” Those include Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and North Dakota. 

Other states moved in the opposite direction. Arizona lawmakers decided to repeal their state’s ban after the Dobbs decision came down, while the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a pre-Civil War law there that essentially provided for felony charges for anyone who “intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child.” Illinois moved to protect abortion pills and expand the roles of medical providers, while Montana voters passed a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights.

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Virginia voters will decide on a similar amendment this year, after lawmakers in the Democratic-majority legislature passed such a resolution.

Several other states have expressly protected abortion in their state constitutions since the Dobbs decision, further expressing the Tenth Amendment dichotomy of regulating issues not expressly delegated to the federal government by the Constitution that the high court’s ruling indicated.

Air Force One experiencing a minor mechanical issues as President Donald Trump began his trip to Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday evening proved his point that the U.S. needs to update its presidential plane, the White House told Fox News Digital. 

“The minor mechanical issue proves that President Trump was right again,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly tolf Fox News Digital. 

“The new Air Force One will be a welcome donation to the United States Air Force, not just for the President, but for the entire Air Force One crew,” she added. 

The Department of Defense in May 2025 formally accepted a 747 jetliner from Qatar to serve as a new Air Force One, which can serve as a replacement for the two current Air Force Ones. 

TRUMP UNLOADS ON BIDEN POLICIES FROM DAVOS, WARNS EUROPE TO DROP THE OLD PLAYBOOK

The new jet will be set to take to the skies in the summer of 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, following the Pentagon retrofitting the jet and combing through it for security and spying devices. 

Both Democrats and Republicans criticized Trump after he announced the Department of Defense planned to accept the jumbo jet from the government of Qatar in May 2025, arguing the gift is riddled with both espionage concerns and constitutional questions. 

“The Air Force remains committed to expediting delivery of the VC-25 bridge aircraft in support of the Presidential airlift mission, with an anticipated delivery no later than summer 2026,” an Air Force spokesperson told the outlet. 

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

TRUMP’S ‘SMALL ASK’ FOR GREENLAND WOULD BE THE REAL ESTATE DEAL OF A LIFETIME

Air Force One experienced a “minor electrical issue” after takeoff at 10:20 p.m. and returned “out of an abundance of caution,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday evening. 

Reporters on the flight said the lights in the cabin went out before the plane returned to Maryland around 45 minutes into the trip. 

Leavitt joked aboard the plane that a Qatari jet sounded “much better” at the moment, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Trump recently left Davos, Switzerland, after attending the World Economic Forum, which attracted foreign government leaders, celebrities and business titans to discuss the world’s economy. Trump’s trip came as he pressures European nations to ink a deal that would hand control of Greenland to the United States from the Kingdom of Denmark. 

TRUMP TELLS DAVOS US ALONE CAN SECURE GREENLAND, INSISTS HE WON’T ‘USE FORCE’

The plane’s issue comes after a yearslong saga by Trump raising concerns that the current presidential plane is decades old and in need of repairs, while pinning blame on Boeing for failing to swiftly build a new fleet. 

“We’re very disappointed that it’s taking Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One,” Trump said during a press conference in May. “You know, we have an Air Force One that’s 40 years old. And if you take a look at that, compared to the new plane of the equivalent, you know, stature at the time, it’s not even the same ballgame.” 

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg acknowledged Trump’s dissatisfaction with the speed of building two Boeing 747 jumbo jets in February 2025, and said the company was working to speed the process along. The U.S. government continues to hold a contract with Boeing for the planes, with the Air Force reporting in December 2025 that the first jet should be delivered by mid-2028, according to Air and Space Forces Magazine. 

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Trump had railed against a government deal with Boeing to build a new fleet of Air Force Ones ahead of his first administration, posting on social media in December 2016 that the “costs are out of control, more than $4 billion” to build the two aircraft.

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

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, nearly handed Democrats a victory to restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers in Venezuela by initially failing to appear for votes on Thursday.

It’s a continuation of a pattern of absences that’s added instability to a razor-thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives as Hunt spends time in Texas campaigning in a competitive Republican Senate primary.

Hunt had already missed two key votes earlier in the day by the time he rushed into the House chamber 20 minutes late for the Venezuela resolution. His vote was key to killing the bipartisan effort — which nearly succeeded by a one-vote margin.

CORNYN TORCHES DEMOCRATIC FIELD, SAYS PARTY NOW ‘RULED BY SOCIALISTS’

If successful, the resolution would have directed Trump to remove U.S. military forces from Venezuela, despite the administration saying there are no boots on the ground as is.

When asked before the vote if he was representing his constituents well, Hunt declined to answer, saying that he had returned to make sure lawmakers and their staff could leave town on schedule.

“I just want to make sure that y’all are OK when the storm hits, because it’s coming, especially here in D.C. It’s gonna hit y’all really, really hard,” Hunt said, referring to a snowstorm forecast to hit the nation’s capital over the weekend.

Having cast his vote, Hunt immediately left the chamber.

DEMOCRAT TAKEOVER FEARS RISE AS GOP CLINGS TO SLIM HOUSE MAJORITY

“Y’all be safe. Y’all be safe. Y’all be safe. This storm is coming,” Hunt said as he got into a car.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Hunt’s absence did not make his job “any easier” after the Texas Republican missed a separate vote that Republicans narrowly won earlier in the day.

With the recent death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., and the resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Republicans can only lose two votes to pass legislation without Democratic help. Notably, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif., also missed votes on Thursday — although Stefanik arrived to cast a vote for the Venezuela resolution.

But Thursday’s debacle is part of a longer pattern for Hunt this Congress.

In 2025, Hunt missed 87 votes, accounting for 25.1% of all measures in the year. Notably, he was absent for a vote on condemning antisemitism in June, the passage of an anti-deepfake porn bill in April and even some procedural votes to advance President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in May.

His longest streak of absences last year came in September when he missed 22 votes over a period of two days as the House considered a water and energy spending bill.

So far in 2026, he has only voted on two days.

Fortunately for leadership, Hunt has a pattern of missing votes that are expected to pass on a wide bipartisan basis — considerations that require supermajority support under a process called “suspension.”

Because these bills usually pass without controversy, Hunt’s vote doesn’t usually threaten to make or break the result. 

That changed on Thursday when he missed a procedural vote needed to advance spending legislation and avoid a government shutdown. That measure passed by just one vote hours before Hunt’s arrival during the chamber’s consideration of the Venezuela resolution.

KAINE VOWS NEW WAR POWERS FIGHTS AFTER SENATE BLOCKS TRUMP VENEZUELA CHECK

Hunt’s office stressed that the congressman has taken special care to avoid missing critical votes.

“Zero bills, resolutions, or GOP priorities have been delayed or stopped because of Rep. Hunt’s priority to barnstorm Texas to retire John Cornyn,” Hunt’s office said in a statement.

The office also contended that GOP leadership had said Hunt would not be needed in D.C. during the week and that Johnson had called Hunt personally on Thursday afternoon, informing him that the picture had changed.

“In the middle of his campaign to retire a career politician of over 40 years, Hunt left the campaign trail, rushed to Washington and delivered the deciding vote that nuked the radical Democrats’ plan to block President Trump from securing the Western Hemisphere,” Hunt’s office said.

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Hunt is running to unseat Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. In response to Hunt’s absences, Cornyn blasted Hunt’s behavior on Thursday in a post to X.

“Fortunately for Republicans, Hunt’s vote wasn’t needed to ensure the final spending package was approved, but [he] nearly handed Democrats a PR coup and created chaos on the House floor as GOP leaders were forced to hold open a vote on a measure to block U.S. military presence in Venezuela,” Cornyn wrote.

States that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement push ICE onto the streets to search for subjects, fueling avoidable agitator unrest that is absent in places where local authorities have a working relationship with DHS, several states’ officials told Fox News Digital.

Their comments follow a New York Times analysis showing that “at-large” ICE arrests — operations conducted in communities rather than jails — have surged most sharply in states that bar local authorities from honoring immigration detainers or working with federal agents.

The analysis pointed to California, Illinois and New York as the most common sites for at-large arrests, citing laws there blocking local authorities from cooperating or handing over prisoners to federal immigration enforcement.

The states with a 90%-or-more share of at-large arrests included Illinois, New York, Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Alaska, according to the paper.

TOM EMMER BLASTS MINNESOTA DEMOCRATS AFTER ‘TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE’ CHURCH DISRUPTION

“If Dems would just honor the detainers, ICE would pick up illegal aliens from jail, where they’re already in custody,” Republican strategist Tim Murtaugh remarked on the findings.

“But because they don’t, ICE has to find the illegal aliens in the community after they’re released,” he said. “ICE didn’t bring the chaos. The chaos is what brought ICE.”

Prosecutors and lawmakers in states not mentioned in the analysis agreed; there is no smoke in their jurisdictions because there is no fire.

DHS BRASS BLASTS CHICAGO MAYOR FOR BLAMING ICE CHIEF AS CRIME RISES AFTER ‘SAFEST SUMMER’ CLAIM

“Law enforcement works best when it works together, focusing on the mission and not limited by what it says on our badges,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman told Fox News Digital.

“As threats grow, zealous collaboration amongst federal, state and local law enforcement is necessary to keep American families safe.”

Coleman said cooperation with ICE in Kentucky is helping keep the peace, and avoid the kinds of violent scenes seen in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

MINNESOTA POLICE CHIEFS ALLEGE SOME ICE AGENTS RACIALLY PROFILED US CITIZENS, INCLUDING OFF-DUTY OFFICERS

The dynamic, he said, “could work in other states too.”

And it has, according to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who said the Yellowhammer State proudly “stands united with ICE and all federal law enforcement partners.”

“[We share a] mission to remove dangerous criminal aliens, child predators, and human traffickers from our streets,” Marshall said, contrasting the lack of such unrest in Montgomery and Mobile versus Minneapolis.

BORDER PATROL CHIEF URGES ILLINOIS TO FOLLOW LOUISIANA BLUEPRINT AS THREATS AGAINST AGENTS SURGE

“You have to be truly sick and deranged to call yourself a leader while actively welcoming such predators into your cities and states. That will never happen in Alabama.”

Virginia, however, may become the test case for what happens after a tidal shift in such policy, current and former officials there said.

Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin entered Virginia into a 287(g) agreement, which authorizes cooperation between state law enforcement and ICE to identify and transfer criminal illegal immigrants from custody. He was backed by GOP state officials, including former Attorney General Jason Miyares, who welcomed ICE into the Old Dominion and collaborated as often as possible.

Miyares said in a statement that Virginia’s “streets have become less safe with the stroke of a pen,” after Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger reversed Youngkin’s action this month after taking office.

“This is a disaster for the public safety of the Commonwealth. Mark my words, there will be Virginians who will be robbed, raped and murdered as a result of this anti-public safety executive order. No one should be surprised.”

Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore agreed, telling Fox News Digital he can “absolutely” envision scenes of unrest at home in the future, now that DHS is no longer welcome.

DHS DEMANDS MN LEADERS HONOR ICE DETAINERS, ALLEGES HUNDREDS OF CRIMINAL ALIENS HAVE BEEN RELEASED UNDER WALZ

“With local law enforcement [cooperation], DHS can identify and just send a small team in,” Kilgore said, adding that dynamic happened a lot under Youngkin when ICE was allowed to surgically pursue MS-13 gangsters due to cooperation from Richmond.

“I would encourage [Spanberger] to rethink this because it’s making Virginians less safe – period.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger for comment. Previously, she said that “state and local law enforcement should not be required to divert their limited resources to enforce federal civil immigration laws.”

Leaders in states where chaos has erupted have defended their stance, with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison citing a “federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota [that] must stop.”

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta called ICE-involved unrest in Los Angeles part of a pattern of attacks on immigrant communities by President Donald Trump and said the immigration enforcement operations are “not about safety and justice” but “quotas” for DHS.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul previously referred to federal agents as “occupiers” who “often violently question residents” without warrants or probable cause.

President Donald Trump has turned up the heat on European leaders as he looks to ink a deal for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, including a specific focus on French President Emmanuel Macron in recent weeks. 

Trump was in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum Wednesday and Thursday, delivering a speech and holding bilateral meetings with foreign leaders at the annual conference that attracts foreign dignitaries, business leaders and celebrities to discuss the world’s economy. 

The president’s visit to Switzerland came as he threatened to impose tariffs on eight European nations if no deal on the U.S. acquiring Greenland was achieved by Feb. 1. Initial tariffs would have begun at 10% on goods from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and was set to increase to 25% by June 1 if there is no deal by that point. 

Trump has put many of Europe’s top leaders on notice as he looks to secure the deal, but he has taken an outsized focus on Macron. 

TRUMP SAYS FRAMEWORK OF ‘FUTURE DEAL’ ON GREENLAND REACHED AFTER NATO TALKS AS TARIFFS PUT ON HOLD

The French president has meanwhile vowed from Davos that France will stand up to “bullies” and added that U.S. threats to impose tariffs in a bid to acquire Greenland was “fundamentally unacceptable.”

Trump announced Wednesday that he would not impose tariffs that were set to take effect, citing a “framework of a future deal” with NATO involving Greenland and the Arctic region.

“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The French president was pulled into more U.S. headlines in early January, after the U.S. military successfully captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, which opened the floodgates to heightened discussions of the U.S. making moves to acquire Greenland from Denmark. 

Days after Maduro’s capture and as talks of Greenland mounted, Trump joined House Republican lawmakers Jan. 6, when he imitated Macron’s accent while recounting how Trump pressured Macron to raise drug prices in France in 2025 as the U.S. looked to bring parity to its sky-high prescription costs compared to other nations.

“He’s a nice guy,” Trump said before launching into an accent and recounting their conversation in a viral moment. 

Trump again put on a French accent to recount the same conversation he held with Macron Jan. 16 during a rural healthcare roundtable at the White House. 

“I said, ‘Emmanuel,’” Trump recounted. 

“‘Yes, Donald, Donald. Thank you so much for calling,” he continued, using an accent to indicate Macron was speaking.

“I said, ‘You’re not going to like this call,'” Trump continued. 

TRUMP’S ‘SMALL ASK’ FOR GREENLAND WOULD BE THE REAL ESTATE DEAL OF A LIFETIME

Trump recounted the story to show his long history as the deal-maker-in-chief and pressure Macron to raise France’s ultra-low government-set prices that Trump said let pharmaceutical companies shift costs onto Americans. 

France was listed among eight countries facing additional tariffs if no Greenland deal is made on Saturday. Trump singled out France early Tuesday morning when he shared a text message Macron sent Trump, which included the French leader saying, “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.”

“My friend, We are totally in line on Syria(.) We can do great things on Iran(.)” Macron wrote, according to the screenshot. “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland(.) Let us try to build great things: 1) i (sic) can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us.”

The president also shared a text from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on social media, who told Trump that he was “committed to finding a way forward on Greenland.”

“It just made my point,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Post of why he shared the messages. “They’re saying, ‘Oh gee, let’s have dinner, let’s do this, let’s do that.’ It just made my point.”

Simultaneous to talks on potentially acquiring Greenland, Trump extended invitations to a swath of foreign leaders to join the Gaza Board of Peace, which is styled as a new oversight body tied to the next phase of the Gaza peace plan that the Trump administration ironed out in 2025. 

Macron turned the invitation down, with his office saying the Board of Peace proposal “goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be called into question,” according to Politico.  

TRUMP CHALLENGES CARNEY AT DAVOS, ASSERTS CANADA SHOULD BE ‘GRATEFUL’ FOR GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE

Trump, again, targeted Macron with fiery comments when asked about the declined invitation. 

“Oh, did he say that? Well nobody wants him because he’s gonna be out of office very soon. That’s alright. What I’ll do is if they feel like hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join. But he doesn’t have to join. If he said that, you’re probably giving it to me a little bit differently, but if he actually did say that– but as you know, he’s gonna be out of office in a few months,” Trump said.

Macron’s term ends in 2027, and he is unable to run for a third consecutive term under French law. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the president’s rhetoric focused on Macron and France’s role in a potential Greenland deal but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Trump underscored from his speech in Davos Wednesday that “no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States.” Trump is looking to acquire the island from Denmark for national security purposes, citing its strategic location between the United States, Russia and China.

“All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland,” Trump said Wednesday from his speech at the World Economic Forum. “Where we’ve already had it as a trustee, but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago after we defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians and others in World War II, we gave it back to them.”

Trump also took a shot at Macron during his address to the body, remarking on the French president wearing sunglasses during public events before again recounting his prior discussion with him regarding drug prices. 

TRUMP TELLS DAVOS US ALONE CAN SECURE GREENLAND, INSISTS HE WON’T ‘USE FORCE’

“I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses,” Trump said to the crowd. “What the hell happened?” 

Macron spoke before the World Economic Forum Tuesday while wearing aviator sunglasses, sparking mockery and memes online. Macron’s office said he wore sunglasses due to a burst blood vessel and need to protect his eyes. 

“Competition from the United States of America through trade agreements that undermine our export interests, demand maximum concessions, and openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe,” Macron said from Davos in a hit on Trump. “Combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable – even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Élysée Palace for comment from Macron’s office regarding Trump’s remarks but did not immediately receive a reply. 

He’s not on the ballot this year, but President Donald Trump promises he’ll be on the campaign trail “a lot” on behalf of fellow Republicans running in the midterm elections.

“I’m gonna do a lot of campaign traveling,” Trump told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One, as he pointed to his effort this year to help the GOP defend their narrow Senate control and razor-thin House majority. “We’re going to work hard.”

But Trump appeared to downplay the GOP’s ballot box expectations as he acknowledged that the party in power, in this case the Republicans, normally faces stiff political headwinds in the midterms.

“For whatever reason, it’s a deep-down psychological reason, sitting presidents … don’t seem to do well in the midterms,” the president noted.

SCOOP: GOP TAKES FIRST STEP TOWARD HOLDING HISTORIC MIDTERM CONVENTION

Trump made stops last month and earlier this month in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Michigan, to highlight his accomplishments during his first year back in the White House, and to tout his efforts to combat rising prices, a key issue with voters.

And next week the president travels to Iowa, where Republicans aim to defend open Senate and gubernatorial seats in November’s elections.

RNC CHAIR BETS ON ‘SECRET WEAPON’ TO DEFY MIDTERM HISTORY, PROTECT GOP MAJORITIES

Sources in the president’s political orbit confirmed to Fox News Digital last month that Trump would be making regular stops on the campaign trail this year. And earlier this week, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who served as co-campaign manager of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, signaled that Trump would be making weekly stops.

That’s a big change from Trump’s first term, when the president didn’t start his campaign travel blitz until Labor Day.

Republicans lost control of the House in the 2018 midterms, something Trump is aiming to avoid in his second term.

Part of Trump’s strategy includes holding a first-ever Republican midterm convention this year.

As first reported by Fox News Digital, the Republican National Committee, at the winter meeting on Thursday, took the first formal step to change to the party’s rules, which would allow Chairman Joe Gruters “to convene a special ceremonial convention outside a presidential election cycle.”

HOUSE GOP CAMPAIGN CHAIR WANTS TRUMP ‘OUT THERE ON THE TRAIL’ IN MIDTERM BATTLE FOR MAJORITY

National political conventions, where party delegates from around the country formally nominate their party’s presidential candidates, normally take place during presidential election years. And the hope among Trump and top Republicans is that a midterm convention would give the GOP a high-profile platform to showcase the president’s record and their congressional candidates running in the midterms.

The GOP is dealing with a low propensity issue: MAGA voters who don’t always go to the polls when Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot.

But Gruters emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this month that “the President of the United States is our secret weapon… He’s laser focused.”

“We got to make sure we turn our voters out, and we got to make sure that we have people energized. And there’s nobody that can energize our base more than President Trump.”

Trump on Thursday touted that “nobody had a better first year than I did.”

“Look at what we’ve done. We have the greatest economy in the world. We have the greatest investment in a country, in history, by many times — nobody’s ever had that,” he added.

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But the president’s approval ratings remain well underwater, with many Americans giving him a big thumbs down on the job he’s doing with the economy and the issue of affordability.

“One year into his second term, Donald Trump has made one thing unmistakably clear: He doesn’t care about everyday Americans,” DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer argued in a statement. “Voters won’t forget Trump’s betrayal come midterms — and Republicans will have to answer for it.” 

Former special counsel Jack Smith spent hours publicly defending the parameters of his investigation into President Donald Trump on Thursday in the face of sharp questions from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee — including one lawmaker in particular who repeatedly accused Smith of “spying” on certain lawmakers. 

During one of the most contentious portions of the hearing, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., pressed Smith over the so-called “tolling records” Smith sought as part of the special counsel investigation, which included investigating Trump’s alleged attempts to subvert the results of the 2020 election. 

Unlike wiretaps, tolling records are phone logs that reveal the phone numbers of incoming and outgoing callers, as well as the time and duration of calls. Republicans have zeroed in on the tolling records in recent months, blasting them as an aggressive tactic by Smith and an act of “political weaponization,” which Smith vehemently denied.

TRUMP STRIPS SECURITY CLEARANCES FROM LAW FIRM TIED TO JACK SMITH CASES

Issa, in particular, excoriated Smith for the decision to seek the tolling records of Republicans in the House and Senate — which he said Thursday was tantamount to spying on his political “enemies.”

Smith, for his part, defended the tolling records as “common practice” in such investigations.

“Maybe they’re not your political enemies, but they sure as [heck] were Joe Biden’s poltiical enemies, weren’t they?” Issa asked Smith. “They were Harris’s political enemies,” he said, referring to the former vice president. “They were the enemies of the president — and you were their arm, weren’t you?” 

“No,” Smith said. 

JACK SMITH SUBPOENAED FOR DEPOSITION WITH HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

“So, you spied on the speaker of the House and these other senators and so on, and informed no one — and in fact, put a gag order in — so they couldn’t discover it,” Issa said.

Smith attempted to respond before Issa continued. 

“Why did Congress, a separate branch that you, under the Constitution, have to respect — why is it that no one should be informed — including the judges?” Issa pressed. “As you went in to spy on these people, did you mention that you were spying on, [that you were] seeking records so you could find out about when conversations occurred between the U.S. Speaker of the House and the president?”

“Did you inform the judge?” Issa continued. “Or did you hold that back?”

“My office didn’t spy on anyone,” Smith said, before Issa cut back in. 

“Wait a second,” he interjected sharply. “The question I asked you, Mr. Smith, was pretty straightforward.”

Before Smith could respond again, the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, interjected to address House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan. 

“Mr. Chairman, would you please instruct the gentleman to allow the witness to answer the question?” he said. “The witness has the right to answer the question.”

FBI AGENTS SUE TRUMP DOJ TO BLOCK ANY PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES WHO WORKED ON JAN. 6 INVESTIGATIONS

Smith previously said that the Public Integrity Section had signed off on the subpoenas, a point corroborated by previously released public records. Those records also showed that the Public Integrity Section told prosecutors to be wary of concerns lawmakers could raise about the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which gives Congress members added protections.

The subpoenas to the phone companies were accompanied by gag orders blocking the lawmakers from learning about the existence of the subpoenas for at least one year.

Smith previously told the House lawmakers in a closed-door hearing that the D.C. federal court, which authorized the gag orders, would not have been aware that they applied to Congress members. 

“I don’t think we identified that, because I don’t think that was Department policy at the time,” Smith said.

Asked during the earlier deposition about who should be held accountable for lawmakers who felt that the seizure of a narrow set of their phone data was a constitutional violation, Smith said Trump should be held accountable.

“These records are people, in the case of the Senators, Donald Trump directed his co-conspirators to call these people to further delay the proceedings,” Smith said.

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“He chose to do that. If Donald Trump had chosen to call a number of Democratic senators, we would have gotten toll records for Democratic Senators. So responsibility for why these records, why we collected them, that’s — that lies with Donald Trump,” he said at the time.