NationalWatch

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley responded on Sunday to pressure to love or hate former President Trump, claiming that typical voters care more about issues.

Coming off a key endorsement by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Haley slammed the media’s preoccupation with Trump. 

“You guys are exhausting. You’re exhausting in your obsession with him. The thing is, normal people aren’t obsessed with Trump like you guys are,” Haley said of the media during a sit-down interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that aired on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “The normal people care about the fact that they can’t afford things. They feel like their freedoms are being taken away. They think government is too big. I know you all want to talk about every single word he says and every single tweet he does.”

“That’s exactly why we need a new generational leader,” Haley, who was Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, continued. “Because people don’t want to hear about every word a person says or every tweet. They want to know how you fought for them that day, and they want to know how their life is going to be different. And life would be a whole lot different if the media would stop this obsession with Trump.” 

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Haley’s remarks came after Karl pressed her on Trump campaigning on the idea of “retribution,” which Sununu argued distracts the media and voters from Trump’s record. 

“He does everything he can not to talk about issues. He almost acts like he wasn’t there. He doesn’t want to talk about building the wall and securing the southern border because he didn’t do it,” Sununu, interviewed alongside Haley, said of Trump. “He doesn’t want to talk about fiscal responsibility because he made a hard promise that he would do it in that debate, ‘I’m going to be known as the most fiscally responsible president this country’s ever seen’. He said he balanced the budget. Yeah, didn’t even try to balance the budget. And you know, the thing that for someone in New Hampshire where, you know, it’s not about big government, we love the idea that he was going to drain the swamp. That was an amazing opportunity. Didn’t even try. I mean, literally didn’t even try. So if he talks about those issues, he has to kind of own those failures. So he’s always going to talk about retribution and just kind of try to spur something up.”

DESANTIS ARGUES TRUMP ‘WILL SAY IT’S STOLEN, NO MATTER WHAT’ IF FORMER PRESIDENT LOSES IN IOWA OR NH

Earlier in the interview, Haley also addressed pressure from those who wished she would take a strong stance regarding Trump.

“Anti-Trumpers want me to hate him, pro-Trumpers want me to love him, but this is where I stand. There are things I agree with the president on. I had a good working relationship with him. There are things I don’t agree – I don’t agree with the fact that, yes, we had a good economy while he was there, but he put us $8 trillion in debt that our kids are never going to forgive us for. I don’t agree with how he handles national security. He focused on trade with China, but he did nothing about the fentanyl flow. He did nothing about the fact that fentanyl has killed so many of our Americans.”

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Positioning herself for the GOP endorsement, Haley said Trump “was the right president at the right time,” but stressed, “the world is on fire and chaos follows him, and we can’t have a country in chaos for four more years, so we won’t survive it.” 

A top Republican strategist for a PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announced he is resigning from the organization just weeks before the Iowa caucus.

“I am resigning my position effective immediately,” veteran GOP strategist Jeff Roe said in a statement posted to X late Saturday. “Governor DeSantis has been an exceptional governor and I hope he will be the 47th President of the United States. I wish the Governor, First Lady, and their entire team the best through the rest of the campaign.”

Roe’s departure comes amid a string of exits from Never Back Down, the main PAC supporting the Florida governor’s White House bid, coming just two weeks after the organization fired three top officials, including its chief executive officer. According to reporting from Politico, the PAC’s board chairman and also its president left the organization around the same time.

DESANTIS ARGUES TRUMP ‘WILL SAY IT’S STOLEN, NO MATTER WHAT’ IF FORMER PRESIDENT LOSES IN IOWA OR NH

The turmoil at the PAC was the subject of a Washington Post report Saturday, which detailed the sudden rash of departures and infighting that has plagued the organization as the Iowa caucus quickly approaches.

Included in the report was a statement from Never Back Down chairman Scott Wagner, who blamed the recent firings on “mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information.”

“Senior officials were terminated,” Wagner told the Washington Post. “We don’t have time to indulge false narratives from those with ulterior motives.”

But a lawyer for the fired employees accused Wagner of making a “categorically false” statement, leading to a revised statement with a different tone.

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“Following some opinions regarding mismanagement and conduct issues, including some who believed there appeared to be numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, NBD and some senior officials parted ways,” Wagner told the Washington Post.

“I cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down given the statements in the Washington Post today,” Roe said in his statement. “They are not true and an unwanted distraction at a critical time for Governor DeSantis.”

DeSantis entered the race with a $269 million war chest, according to the report, with $82.5 million coming through Never Back Down in an unprecedented new campaign strategy. The PAC has largely been responsible for funding most of the Florida governer’s advertising and field operations, while also paying for much of the candidate’s campaign travel.

According to the Washington Post report, Roe’s departure will not leave the PAC without experienced campaign veterans, with longtime DeSantis ally Phil Cox stepping into a senior adviser role while others are elevated to heightened roles.

Meanwhile, Roe expressed that he is “proud of the team” that was built at Never Back Down and the “incredible work and integrity of every devoted professional within the organization.”

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“This is a team of political warriors and their grind and dedication over the last nine months has helped put Governor Ron DeSantis in a strong position,” Roe said.

The DeSantis campaign and Never Back Down did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway is leading the charge to overhaul her party’s abortion strategy heading into the 2024 elections.

The top Republican strategist spoke with Fox News Digital after meeting with a number of GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week to discuss what she argues is the need to promote contraception and reach a consensus on the abortion issue lest Democrats continue to use it as a “turnout intensifier” in November.

“I think pro-lifers have to be very mindful to speak about two people being involved in an abortion — the baby and the mother. So, I’m urging opinion leaders and office holders and all their decision makers, as well as candidates, to speak with conviction and compassion. That’s the piece that’s missing,” Conway said when asked about the meetings.

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“The overwhelming data in contraception polling is meant to work in tandem with, not in lieu of, the pro-life abortion messaging,” she said, referring to polling showing widespread support for contraceptives across the country.

Conway’s effort to move Republicans toward a “winning” strategy comes as more states have held abortion-related ballot initiatives after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year and as Democrats continue to claim GOP lawmakers and candidates want to ban abortion. 

Strategists and operatives from both parties argue the issue has driven more voter turnout for Democrats in state and local elections across the country, evidenced by better margins for the Democratic position in those initiatives and other coinciding races.

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Conway says such ballot initiatives haven’t gone in Republicans’ favor because the left has pushed such measures under the guise of “reproductive freedom for all,” combined with the lack of exceptions for rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother in efforts to limit, or ban, abortion.

“To speak with conviction and compassion, to reflect consensus, to move hearts and minds, means that if you want to discuss a 15-week national minimum standard, then you are reflecting consensus,” she said, citing statistics that show a strong majority of Americans fall within the range that there should be no abortion at all and no abortions past 15 weeks.

“When you do that, you get up to 71% of America, and that reflects consensus. But it also shows conviction and compassion, because in 15 weeks, a woman knows she’s pregnant and the baby can feel pain,” she added.

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Conway argued that if Republicans could reach such a consensus, they would be “smoking out” Democrats who have “radical, extreme, out-of-step, out-of-sync positions on abortion, anyone, anytime, anywhere, anyhow.” 

She added, however, that it was a “mistake” to say all Democrats support abortion until the moment of birth, citing focus groups and polling that show the consensus across the country is against partial birth abortion and late-term abortion, especially after looking at the science showing babies can feel pain at “roughly 15 weeks.”

“They’re against taxpayer-funded abortion. They’re against sex selection abortion when a woman can learn she’s pregnant in the morning, learn the sex of the baby by noon and schedule an abortion for that afternoon. Now, people will say that’s not true because they don’t want it to be true. That is true. What I just said to you is a fact,” Conway said.

Conway also suggested a consensus, along with scientific understanding, could “move the hearts and minds” of Democrats supporting late-term abortion and shift their view.

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“When you give these shock-the-conscious anecdotes, and you couple that with warm-the-heart information, then you have a more winning message,” she said. “Pro-lifers should not be ostriches, they should be peacocks. They should not bury their head in the sand. They should be very proud that they’re on the right side of science and medicine and morality and common sense and consensus opinion.”

Despite that, Conway said she fully expects Democrats to continue claiming Republicans support banning abortion and contraception throughout the 2024 election cycle, but that, with her strategy, the GOP could get ahead of that messaging.

“We’re getting ahead of that by showing that this is a winning issue to say that you believe that women, and yes, men, but women, who can legally access contraceptive measures are able to do that now,” she said. “It is a losing formula to cede to the Democrats the women’s vote, women’s health, choice, women’s health care. And so we’re expanding what that means, and we are smoking out the Democrats.

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“When they say, ‘We’re for women, and we’re for women’s health,’ what they really mean is abortion. It’s all a euphemism for abortion. And if you don’t believe me, believe them. They cannot even condemn Hamas’ rape of women, beheading and baking babies and raping women. And the reason they’re not interested in that is because they’re interested in one thing — abortion.”

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

Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan wants to unfreeze the agency and help launch a massive and “historic” deportation program if former President Trump returns to the White House in 2025

Homan promised no illegal immigrant would be “off the table” for enforcement.

Homan was honored during the Obama administration for his role leading ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which arrests and removes illegal immigrants. A Washington Post article at the time said Homan “deports people. And he’s really good at it.” 

Homan, a former New York police officer and Border Patrol agent, calls that article a “badge of honor” and has it framed in his office.

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Homan went on to lead ICE during the Trump administration between 2017 and 2018 as it was given the green light and arrests skyrocketed. Since the Biden administration took over, deportations have plummeted from a high of 267,258 in fiscal year 2019 to 72,177 in fiscal 2022.

Homan has fiercely defended the agency’s conduct under his watch against left-wing attacks, getting into viral spats with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, during congressional hearings. He is also president and CEO of Border911, a nonprofit that aims to educate Americans on “the facts of a non-secure border.”

But Homan, also a Fox News contributor, could soon be back in government. Trump is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, is leading several polls in a head-to-head with Biden and is promising to launch a full-throated effort to secure the border, end the Biden-era border crisis and deport millions of illegal immigrants if re-elected.

Trump in September promised the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he’s back in the White House, and The New York Times recently reported that Trump met with Homan after announcing his campaign. Homan has repeatedly said he’d take the chance to be part of the administration. And he says removing those with a final order of removal from a federal immigration judge would be a priority.

“People say, ‘How are you going to remove millions?’ The answer is: One at a time,” he told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “No one’s off the table. If you’re in the country illegally in violation of immigration law, you are a target.

“It’s going to have to result in a historic — the biggest ever — deportation operation in the history of this country. That’s what happens. When you’ve got historic illegal immigration, well, that means you’ve got a historic removal program. It’s just that’s just the way it is. If we’re going to enforce our laws, that’s the way it is.”

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Homan stressed that ICE would continue to prioritize the most serious offenders as it has done during the Trump and Biden administrations and that operations wouldn’t involve indiscriminate “sweeps,” but targeted enforcement operations planned in advance, targeting specific criminal illegal immigrants. But those operations can also result in collateral arrests of other illegal immigrants.

“We’re not going to turn a blind eye to them if they’re in the country illegally. We take them into custody. That’s our job. So, it isn’t like we walk through a neighborhood looking for people who look different from us. These are targeted enforcement operations.”

In terms of logistics, he said the agency would need a lot more detention beds to detain people, more ICE agents to make the arrests, more technical support for those creating the targeted operations and more contractors to search databases. He also said there needs to be legislation that would make someone ineligible for future immigration benefits if someone ignored a judge’s removal order.

“That way, they’re not hiding out waiting for the next amnesty. They’re not hiding out waiting for someone to sponsor them for a visa,” he said. 

He also said sanctuary cities — jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE detainers — need to be “held accountable.”

Any such enforcement moves will likely produce massive opposition from left-wing activist groups and Democratic lawmakers who opposed similar moves in the Trump administration. But Homan argues that if people believe in due process of the asylum system then that includes the carrying out of deportations when they are found not to have valid asylum claims.

“Part of due process is executing the final decision of the court,” he said. 

“No one’s going to argue if they say, ‘OK, you’re awarded asylum, now you can come in.’ But they have a fit when they’re ordered removed,” he said. “So, all of a sudden, we’re supposed to forget about the due process? Look, if the court orders aren’t going to mean anything, what the hell are we doing? We might as well take the Border Patrol off the border and shut down the immigration courts because, obviously, there’s no enforcement of our immigration law.”

As for the scope of the task ahead, Homan is realistic about the likelihood of deportation of the millions of illegal immigrants who have entered the U.S. during the Biden era on top of the already existing illegal immigrant population.

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“I’m not fooling myself into thinking we can remove 20 million people. But, you know, we’re going to give it one hell of a shot and remove as many as we can,” he said.

Homan argued the enforcement of immigration law was not only just but the key to ending the border crisis by ending the primary pull factor drawing people to the border.

“The numbers are not going to stop until these countries start seeing plane loads of people coming home because they were ordered removed, and we removed them.”

Several high-profile hearings have taken place in the Senate hearing room where an alleged congressional staffer reportedly filmed a sex tape.

The U.S. Capitol Police told Fox News they were aware of an amateur pornographic video published by the Daily Caller on Friday, which shows someone identified as a congressional staffer, engaging in sex with another man in Hart Senate Office Building room 216.

The Daily Caller report states the video was leaked after being “shared in a private group for gay men in politics.” The men’s identities haven’t been confirmed. 

Social media posts claimed the alleged staffer worked for Sen. Ben Cardin’s office. Hours after the story broke, Cardin’s office announced that a legislative aide had been dismissed but did not address reports linking a member of his staff to the sex tape. 

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“We will have no further comment on this personnel matter,” his office wrote in a statement.

According to the Daily Caller, the explicit video was recorded in Hart 216. Here’s a look at some of the high-profile events that have taken place in that same hearing room:

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Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings

Now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Bret Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings were held in Hart 216, which took place from September 4-7, 2018.

Samuel Alito Confirmation Hearings

Now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearings took place in Hart 216 from January 9-13, 2006.

Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings

Now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings were held from July 13-16, 2009 in Hart 216.

Amy Coney Barrett Confirmation Hearings

Now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings took place in Hart 216 from Oct 12-15, 2020.

John Roberts Confirmation Hearings

Now-Chief Justice John Roberts’ confirmation hearings were held in Hart 216 from September 12-15, 2005.

Neil Gorsuch Confirmation Hearings

Now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings were held from March 20-23, 2017 in Hart 216.

Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmation Hearings

Now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings were held in Hart 216 from March 21 to 24, 2022.

Elena Kagan Confirmation Hearings

Now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings took place in Hart 216 from June 28-July 1, 2010.

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9/11 Commission

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, held several hearings in Hart 216.

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Former FBI Director James Comey Hearing

Former FBI Director James Comey appeared in a hearing inside Hart 216 on June 8, 2017, to discuss his interactions with former President Trump.

John Kerry Confirmation Hearing

Former Secretary of State John Kerry’s confirmation hearings were held in Hart 216 on January 24, 2013.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., introduced a resolution expressing that “regular journalistic activities” are protected by the First Amendment and that the U.S. government should end its prosecution against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of publishing classified U.S. military documents.

The bipartisan resolution introduced Wednesday was co-sponsored by Reps. James McGovern, D-Mass.; Thomas Massie, R-Ky.; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.; Eric Bulsison, R-Mo.; Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Clay Higgins, D-La.

“Whereas regular journalistic activities, including the obtainment and publication of information, are protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” the resolution reads.

Assange is facing 17 charges for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the Espionage Act and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The charges were brought by the Trump administration in connection with the 2010 publication of cables U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning leaked to Wikileaks detailing war crimes committed by the U.S. government in the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, Iraq and Afghanistan. The materials also exposed instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition.

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Wikileaks’ “Collateral Murder” video showing the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists, was also published 13 years ago.

The resolution cites that Assange, an Australian citizen, was charged by the U.S. government for the alleged conspiracy to commit computer intrusion on accusations he helped Manning access Defense Department computers without authorization even though Manning “already had access to the mentioned computer, that the purported breaching of the Defense Department computers was impossible, and that there was no proof Mr. Assange had any contact with” Manning.

“Whereas, in 2010, WikiLeaks, a media organization established by Julian Assange, published a cache of hundreds of thousands of pieces of information including Guantánamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, State Department cables, rules of engagement files, and other United States military reports,” the resolution said. “Whereas the disclosure of this information promoted public transparency through the exposure of the hiring of child prostitutes by Defense Department contractors, friendly fire incidents, human rights abuses, civilian killings, and United States use of psychological warfare.”

Assange has been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden over allegations he raped two women because Sweden would not provide assurances it would protect him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped.

If he is extradited to the U.S. after exhausting all his legal appeals, Assange would face trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and could be sentenced to up to 175 years in an American maximum-security prison.

The resolution comes after multiple other bipartisan efforts this year by lawmakers in the U.S. and Assange’s home country of Australia demanding the U.S. drop the charges and end its extradition requests.

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Last month, more than a dozen U.S. lawmakers signed a letter spearheaded by McGovern and Massie that was sent to President Biden urging him to end the prosecution against Assange. In September, a delegation of Australian lawmakers visited Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. officials and advocate for Assange’s freedom. And on the four-year anniversary of Assange’s arrest in April, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., led a letter to the Justice Department signed by some House members demanding it drop the charges.

In 2020, a similar resolution was introduced by Massie and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who was a Democrat while in office, that defended the free press and called for the charges against Assange to be dropped. Massie has also previously sponsored bipartisan legislation to reform the Espionage Act and protect whistleblowers and journalists.

No publisher had been charged under the Espionage Act until Assange, which many press freedom advocates describe as a dangerous precedent intended to criminalize journalism. U.S. prosecutors and critics of Assange have argued WikiLeaks’ publication of classified material put the lives of U.S. allies at risk, but there is no evidence that publishing the documents put anyone in danger.

“Whereas the successful prosecution of Mr. Assange under the Espionage Act would set a precedent allowing the United States to prosecute and imprison journalists for First Amendment protected activities, including the obtainment and publication of information, something that occurs on a regular basis,” Wednesday’s resolution said. “Whereas First Amendment freedom of the press is essential to promote public transparency and is a crucial safeguard for our Republic.”

“Whereas numerous human rights, press freedom, and privacy rights advocates and organizations have disclosed their sincere and steadfast support for Mr. Assange,” the resolution added.

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS GOVERNMENT STANDS FIRM AGAINST US PROSECUTION OF JULIAN ASSANGE

Additionally, the editors and publishers of these U.S. and European outlets that worked with Assange on the publication of excerpts from more than 250,000 documents he obtained in the Cablegate leak — The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País  — wrote an open letter last year calling for the U.S. to drop the charges against Assange.

The Obama administration decided not to indict Assange in 2013 over WikiLeaks’ publishing the classified cables in 2010 because it would have had to also indict journalists from major news outlets who published the same materials. Former President Obama also commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was released later that year.

But Former President Trump’s Justice Department later moved to indict Assange under the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.

During the Trump administration, the CIA allegedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of sensitive agency hacking tools known as “Vault 7,” which the agency said represented “the largest data loss in CIA history,” Yahoo reported in 2021. The agency was accused of having discussions “at the highest levels” of the administration about plans to assassinate Assange in London and followed orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo to draw up kill “sketches” and “options.”

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The CIA also had advanced plans to kidnap and rendition Assange and had made a political decision to charge him, according to the report.

WikiLeaks also published internal communications in 2016 between the Democratic National Committee and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign that revealed the DNC’s attempts to boost Clinton in that year’s Democratic primary.

Gosar’s resolution expresses that “regular journalistic activities, including the obtainment and publication of information are protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States,” that “First Amendment freedom of the press promotes public transparency and is crucial for the American Republic,” that the “Federal Government ought to drop all charges against and attempts to extradite Julian Assange” and that the “Federal Government allow Julian Assange to return home to his native Australia if he so desires.”

DES MOINES, Iowa – “If I win Iowa, I’m your next president,” Vivek Ramaswamy says. 

Ramaswamy has been adding that bold phrase to his stump speeches, one of many signs his campaign’s going all-in on Iowa. 

But there’s another phrase he’s added.

 “Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the RNC, should be fired for five failed years of leadership in a party that has become a party of losers,” Ramaswamy said.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY’S QUADRUPLES DOWN ON FIERY ATTACKS AT FOURTH GOP DEBATE, CALLS HALEY ‘FASCIST’

In the critical weeks before the Iowa caucus, the Ohio biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate has retooled his stump speech, adding harsh jabs at GOP leaders. In his appeal to “non-establishment” voters, he is the only Republican presidential candidate calling for McDaniel’s resignation. 

“I would have a role in making sure that she was sidelined and was no longer the chairwoman of the RNC [as president],” Ramaswamy said during a recent gaggle with reporters. “If you took an average person off the street, they would do a better job at that role than Ronna McDaniel. You’d be hard-pressed to say with that record that she’s the best person for the job.”

Ramaswamy is also calling out Republican Party leaders at the local level. 

He called out popular Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, challenging her to be forthright about her stance on eminent domain for carbon capture projects in Iowa. The use of eminent domain would allow the government to intervene to force landowners to allow the installation of carbon capture pipelines on their property. 

Iowa residents are overwhelmingly against the installation of pipelines and praise Ramaswamy for his stance. He spent nearly an entire 25-minute gaggle Nov. 29 in Des Moines, Iowa, on the issue, calling it “unconstitutional and illegal.”

“The deafening silence of other Republicans who have not even been able to articulate a stand on this issue. It says a lot about the broken — and I would go so far as to say corrupt — state of the establishment of the Republican Party in Republican politics today,” said Ramaswamy. “I challenge Gov. Reynolds to make clear — is she really on the side of eminent domain or not?”

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One attendee at Ramaswamy’s speech on the pipeline issue agreed. Amy said she campaigned for Gov. Reynolds and is disappointed in the lack of dialogue from the governor on the issue.

“I’d like to see the governor of our state follow through and be more open to the public about this issue,” said Amy. “I’m just going to urge her to be the person that we elected.”

Following his fourth debate appearance, Ramaswamy is back in the Hawkeye State creating an aggressive ground game in Iowa, holding more than two dozen campaign events in one week. He moved his campaign headquarters from Ohio to New Hampshire and Iowa. Earlier this month, he held the grand opening for his Des Moines-based campaign headquarters. This came after he rented an apartment in the Hawkeye State.

The looming question is will Ramaswamy’s last-minute effort make a difference. Jordan, from Mt. Ayr says he believes Ramaswamy’s efforts will matter in the upcoming caucus.

“He wants to move the country forward, and I think that’s what we need right now,” said Jordan.

“I’m with him all the way down the line. He’s just. He will touch, and he is ready to engage on things, no other politician will touch,” said Bill Rob from Webster City, Iowa.

RAMASWAMY SWIPES ‘GOP ESTABLISHMENT’ IN IOWA FOR SUPPORTING CO2 PIPELINES AS PART OF CLIMATE ‘HOAX’

Ramaswamy says he is on track to complete the “Full Grassley” twice by the Iowa caucus. The term, coined by longtime Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, is a staple in Iowa politics. The senator travels to all 99 counties in Iowa annually. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just completed the 99-county tour, saying, “I think I’m the only candidate that said he’s going to do it.”

Ramaswamy said he’s already completed it.

“It’s a very different mentality from the way other candidates think. My guess is it’ll end up being whatever the expression is, ‘Full Grassley’ and then some. But I’m not doing this to check a box and then wear a T-shirt and say I did it,” said Ramaswamy.

With the Iowa caucus nearly a month away, Ramaswamy is polling at 4% nationally and in Iowa, according to a Monmouth University Poll and Des Moines Register/NBC News Poll.

He is trailing Nikki Haley and DeSantis, who are tied for second in Iowa polls but are still double digits below frontrunner former president Donald Trump.

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Ramaswamy has made a point to broaden his stump speech to include topics from carbon capture pipelines to foreign policy and faith. Recently, he has suggested his audience at campaign stops ask him about his faith and foreign policy. The border and religion rank among the most popular topics asked at his campaign events.

But one attendee at Ramaswamy’s event was not on board with the candidate’s stance on these issues. Lou from Lake Mills, Iowa, says Ramaswamy does not have the right experience.

“I honestly think it lacks substance,” said Lou. “He didn’t serve in the military. He built businesses. He’s never had to stake anything or go over there and see what it’s like. So, I would say that he probably needs somebody to advise him better.”

Ramaswamy has been trying to win over Iowans on his Hindu faith and has not held back when discussing the topic. One member at a town hall in Ida Grove took the bait, asking if he believed in the “Judeo-Christian God of this country.” Ramaswamy thanked him for the question, before adding: “Thank you for asking because this feels like it’s an elephant in the room.” 

Ramaswamy delves into long-winded answers about his faith, often quoting the bible.

RAMASWAMY BLASTS GOP RIVAL DESANTIS FOR ‘SHAMEFUL’ BAN OF PRO-PALESTINIAN CAMPUS GROUPS

Winning over the evangelical vote in Iowa is critical, as a majority of Republican voters in the state are evangelical Christians. Ramaswamy is polling at 7% among evangelicals in the state, according to a Des Moines Register/NBC News Poll.

Sam, from Mapleton, Iowa, said she was taken aback when she found out about his faith. She said faith has a “tremendous” impact on who she will caucus for and says many Iowans feel the same.

“I was shocked when they said he was a Hindu. My heart kind of dropped because I thought, ‘This means I can’t support him anymore because he’s not a Christian.’”

Although she’s a fan of Ramaswamy, she isn’t set on caucusing for him.

“We will be caucusing. I think that we need to still listen to some more things,” said Sam. “I still have a few questions that I’d like answered from Vivek.”

Fox News asked Ramaswamy at a campaign event in Lake Mills, Iowa, if standing out to evangelical voters is a priority for him. 

“It is, and I think it’s through radical candor and honesty,” said Ramaswamy. “I think we’re going to be successful in winning many of them to our side.”

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If Ramaswamy is unsuccessful in winning the GOP nomination, voters are curious about what’s next for him.

“The only thing I want to know for sure is if we support him and Trump pulls through, is he still going to stay in politics or is he going to go back to being the CEO?” asked Sam.

This week’s vote entirely along party lines by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to formally launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden immediately impacted the president’s 2024 re-election campaign.

A fundraising email sent hours later by Vice President Kamala Harris instantly caught fire.

A source familiar with the Biden re-election team’s thinking told Fox News that the email was the most lucrative that has been sent so far this month.

“It was the best performing fundraising email the vice president has signed this cycle,” the source added.

HOUSE VOTES TO AUTHORIZE BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

The impeachment vote formalized an inquiry that began in September to investigate whether the president financially benefited from some of his family’s business dealings.

POLL: SUPPORT FOR BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY GROWS

Three Republican-led House committees are looking into connections between the president and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings from 2014-2017, during the elder Biden’s final three years as vice president, and after he left office.

Hunter Biden reiterated this week that his father was not involved in his dealings as a board member of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, or in his partnership with a Chinese private businessman.  

Republican investigators have so far not found any solid evidence that Biden personally benefited, but they argue there’s more to uncover.

While the vote to formalize the inquiry is apparently boosting Biden’s 2024 re-election fundraising, it may also pay dividends in other ways.

It could energize the base of a party that polls suggest is anything but energized by the president’s re-election drive. 

The Biden campaign launched a blistering broadside against House Republicans early this week, ahead of Wednesday’s vote, accusing them of doing the bidding of Biden’s likely GOP challenger next November – former President Donald Trump, the commanding front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.

“The only, single fact in this entire sham impeachment exercise is that it’s a nakedly transparent ploy by House MAGA Republicans to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler charged in a memo.

The memo spotlights a quote that went viral from Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, who said the impeachment inquiry would give the former president “a little bit of ammo to fire back.”

But the impeachment inquiry also provides plenty of downsides for Biden’s re-election effort. 

Republicans for years have viewed Hunter Biden’s controversies as a political liability for his father. And now, a formal impeachment investigation – with public hearings – could give the Biden campaign lots of headaches.

“It keeps the negative story about his family in the news,” longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News. “The impeachment inquiry highlights potential wrongdoing on the part of the president’s son and brother and tries to link it directly to him.”

Republicans can also leverage the impeachment proceedings – as well as Hunter Biden’s legal cases – to deflect attention away from Trump’s extremely serious court cases.

Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia — on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

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“It tries to distract from the serious legal issues Trump is facing and basically at the end of the day,” said Ryan, a veteran of multiple GOP presidential campaigns.

He emphasized that inquiry “shows voters both candidates are facing investigations. It muddies the waters. It tries to make things murky even though the criminal trials that President Trump is facing are much different than the Republican-led inquiry in the House.”

Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who’s running a long-shot Democratic primary challenge against the president, made a similar argument.

“I don’t see the evidence of it, but yes, when your own son and your own brother are clearly, at the very least unethical and at worst, doing illegal things — my goodness, of course the country pays attention to it,” Phillips said in an interview with the news website Semafor. “People do believe that it perhaps makes him unelectable — somehow, it conflates him with the Trump family’s indiscretions.” 

But Democratic strategist Chris Moyer, who served on a handful of presidential campaigns, disagreed.

“No one is Donald Trump when it comes to corruption, breaking the law, and violating his oath of office,” he argued, when asked if the inquiry lessens the sting of Trump’s own legal controversies.

Biden became the second straight president to face an impeachment inquiry as his re-election was underway, following Trump.

Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance spotlighted that “perhaps the biggest casualty of the recent vote is the impeachment process itself. Long gone are the days when impeachment was a last resort for members of Congress who have exhausted all other options of holding the President accountable.”

Lesperance, the president of New Hampshire-based New England College, said that “the frequency with which impeachment has occurred in recent years has reduced the process to yet another partisan tool for whichever party is in power. The real loser in these processes has become the American people, who continue to lose faith in their beleaguered system of government.”

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

Detractors refer to Washington, D.C., as “the swamp.”

But this is about another swamp – specifically, the Senate “swamp.”

The Senate swamp is a geographic location on Capitol Hill. It’s just across from the Senate steps and where some Senate officials park their cars. Those who work and operate on Capitol Hill have referred to this spot as the Senate swamp for decades.

DOJ’S HANDLING OF HUNTER BIDEN CASE IS ‘INEXPLICABLE,’ SAYS TURLEY, AS EX-PROSECUTR FACES QUESTIONING

They started calling the locale the Senate swamp in 1964.

Legendary congressional correspondent Roger Mudd covered the filibuster of the Civil Rights Act for CBS. Mudd often did his TV standups from the Senate steps with a large clock behind him to show how much time had elapsed (eventually two months) during the filibuster.

Southern senators complained about Mudd standing on the Senate steps. The U.S. Capitol Police moved Mudd and his compadres in the press corps across the plaza to a grassy area. Well, one day it rained. And the correspondent was named “Mudd.” So, they started referring to the area as the “Senate swamp.”

However, that site is anything but a swamp.

The area is paved. A panel of permanent, stainless steel TV jacks for networks to do live shots lines a narrow concrete façade. Reporters can face one direction and talk about Congress with the Capitol behind them. If reporters turn around, they can talk about legal opinions with the Supreme Court serving as a backdrop.

Or, someone like Hunter Biden can use the spot for a press conference, as he did Wednesday morning, publicly defying a House subpoena for a closed-door deposition.

The entrance to the Rayburn House Office Building is more than an eighth of a mile from the Senate swamp. A phalanx of reporters and photographers swarmed the halls of Rayburn, awaiting Hunter Biden’s anticipated arrival for a closed-door deposition. Another horde of journalists roamed the Rayburn “horseshoe,” a semi-circular driveway which curves up to a side entrance across from the Longworth House Office Building.

No one was 100% sure whether Hunter Biden would show up.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., issued a subpoena for Hunter Biden to “testify at a deposition touching matters of inquiry,” at 9:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday in the Rayburn Building. The subpoena added that “you are not to depart without leave of said committee or subcommittee.”

HOUSE VOTES TO AUTHORIZE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

In late November, Abbe Lowell — who is Hunter Biden’s attorney — countered Comer’s demand for a deposition with a demand of his own.

“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public,” wrote Lowell to Comer. “We therefore propose opening the door.”

The ultimatum appeared to catch Comer and Republicans on the Oversight Committee off guard. Comer said he would grant Hunter Biden the chance to testify at an open hearing, but a closed-door deposition must come first. Comer cited how Democrats conducted multiple, private depositions in their impeachment investigation of former President Trump in the fall of 2019, ahead of public hearings a couple of months later.

So, Hunter Biden indeed showed up on Capitol Hill around 9:30 am Wednesday — but not anywhere near the Rayburn House Office Building.

Hunter Biden materialized an eighth of a mile away at the Senate swamp — that same locale where the Capitol Police banished Roger Mudd to report on the Civil Rights Act filibuster.

Hunter Biden’s Senate swamp maneuver was a filibuster unto itself when it came to ignoring James Comer’s subpoena. But his appearance was both political stagecraft and legal scheme bundled into one.

Hunter Biden showed up on Capitol Hill at the assigned time. But he wasn’t going anywhere close to the room where Comer planned a multi-hour deposition. Materializing at the Senate swamp site with the Capitol dome glimmering behind him was an effort by Hunter Biden to demonstrate he was willing to appear — just on his terms.

ANDY BIGGS CALLS FOR CONTEMPT CHARGES AGAINST ERIC SWALWELL FOR AIDING HUNTER BIDEN

After a brief statement, Hunter Biden left the Senate swamp site, climbed into a van and departed.

Reporters and scribes were panting. Out of breath. Bent over. Hands holding their legs just above their knees like a gassed NBA shooting guard in the fourth quarter. They received word that Hunter Biden was coming to Capitol Hill. But most were over in the Rayburn House Office Building — nowhere near the spot where the news of the day unfolded.

So how and why did the Senate swamp become the hot venue for the story of the day?

It starts with Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.

Lawmakers are permitted to use the Senate swamp site and a similar location called the “House triangle” for press conferences and other events. The same with studios in the House and Senate Radio/TV Galleries inside the Capitol complex. However, the indoor locations generally require rank-and-file members to secure an invitation from a credentialed member of the congressional press corps.

It’s rare, but not unprecedented, for a House member to book an event on the Senate side. The same with a senator on the House side.

So Swalwell reserved the Senate swamp for a vague press event on Wednesday morning at 9:30. Only Swalwell had no intention of speaking to the press. This was Hunter Biden’s forum.

Those are the logistics.

But that doesn’t tell the full story.

There’s a reason why Hunter Biden showed up on the Senate side of Capitol Hill and not the House side.

Let’s say Hunter Biden ventured into the sea of reporters awaiting his prospective arrival at the Rayburn House Office Building, had his say and left. Or imagine if he had even done the same at the House triangle. The president’s son was already out of compliance with Comer’s subpoena by not attending the deposition. But showing up anywhere on the House side of the Capitol could have triggered a host of legal, constitutional and parliamentary issues for him.

JOE BIDEN FRUSTRATED AND ANXIOUS ABOUT HUNTER, SNAPS AT AIDES WHEN ASKED ABOUT INVESTIGATION: REPORT

You see, the House Sergeant at Arms has jurisdiction over the House side of the Capitol. Yes. The House and Senate meet in the same building. But constitutionally, they are distinct institutions. It’s conceivable that Comer could have argued to the Sergeant at Arms or the Capitol Police that his witness flaunted a subpoena if he showed up on House grounds — yet failed to testify.

It’s unlikely that congressional security officials truly would have done anything about it had Comer — or more specifically, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., demanded action for a witness defying a subpoena. The House does hold certain “inherent” enforcement powers when it comes to contempt of Congress. Congress used to arrest and hold people for contempt of Congress in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The last such action where Congress exercised its “inherent” contempt powers was with a Department of Commerce official in the 1930s.

But Abbe Lowell is no fool.

He knew that his client could earn the media attention he wanted by coming to Capitol Hill at the precise time dictated by the subpoena — yet not setting foot anywhere near the House of Representatives. Hence, the Senate swamp.

And being on the Senate side provided something of a legal shield to inoculate Hunter Biden, which he would not have enjoyed on House turf.

Yes, Hunter Biden defied a subpoena and failed to appear for a deposition. It’s possible the House will vote to hold President Biden’s son in contempt of Congress. Such a referral could go to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution.

But in resisting the subpoena, Hunter Biden showed up at the Senate swamp.

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It may be a swamp. But in this case, the terra firma of the Senate offered firmer legal footing to Hunter Biden than the marble floors of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay $148,169,000 to two women he falsely accused of committing election fraud in the 2020 election.

The former New York City mayor, and Donald Trump ally and former personal lawyer, was on trial for the defamation of two Georgia election workers this week at a federal court in Washington, D.C. 

Giuliani had accused Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, of fraud while advancing former President Trump’s unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen. 

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell had already awarded default judgment to Freeman and Moss in August. 

HUNTER BIDEN SUES RUDY GIULIANI OVER LAPTOP, ACCUSES EX-TRUMP LAWYER OF ‘HACKING’

Giuliani was also ordered to pay legal fees for Moss and Freeman, amounting to around $270,000.

Speaking outside the courthouse Friday, Moss said “the past few years has been devastating.”

“The flame that Giuliani lit with those lies and passed to so many others to keep that flame blazing changed every aspect of our lives, our home family, our work, our sense of safety and mental health,” Moss said. “And we’re still working to rebuild as we move forward and continue to seek justice.” 

HEAVILY REDACTED RECORDS SHOW FBI’S TARGETING OF CATHOLICS WENT BEYOND WHAT IT CLAIMED: WATCHDOG

“Our greatest wish is that no one, no election worker or voter or school board member or anyone else ever experiences anything like what we went through,” she added.

Giuliani said Friday he’d appeal the ruling.

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“The absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding, where I’ve not been allowed to offer one single piece of evidence in defense,of which I have a lot,” he said. “So I am quite confident when this case gets before a fair tribunal, it will be reversed so quickly, it’ll make your head spin and the absurd number that just came in will help that, actually.”

The purpose of this week’s trial was to determine how much money Giuliani would have to pay the women in damages.

Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

CONCORD, N.H. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he expects Donald Trump to try and “delegitimize” the election results if the former president ends up losing either the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary. 

“If Trump loses, he will say it’s stolen no matter what. Absolutely. He will try to delegitimize the results,” DeSantis told reporters on Friday during a question and answer session after holding a town hall in New Hampshire’s capital city.

DeSantis noted that Trump “did that against Ted Cruz in 2016,” as he referred to Trump’s tweet after narrowly losing the caucuses to the firebrand conservative senator from Texas that “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it.” 

The former president for three years has repeatedly made unproven claims that his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to a “rigged” election and “massive voter fraud.”

DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL 99 OF IOWA’S COUNTIES — BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP?

And Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia — on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

DeSantis argued that, “I don’t think people are going to buy it.

Trump remains the commanding front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, as he makes his third straight White House run.

DeSantis is currently a very distant second to Trump in the latest polls in Iowa, where the Jan. 15 caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar.

And in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and votes second after Iowa on Jan. 23, DeSantis is in fourth place, far behind Trump and also trailing former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, as well as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is making his second White House bid.

TRUMP HOLDS A MASSIVE LEAD IN THE POLLS WITH FIVE WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE IOWA CAUCUSES 

As the first votes in the race for the Republican nomination draw closer, DeSantis has been turning up the volume on his criticism of Trump.

In his conversation with the crowd at his town hall, and in answering reporter questions, he repeatedly jabbed at Trump for failing to follow through on campaign promises, for being too old to serve again as president, and for skipping out on debating his rivals for the Republican nomination.

“He’s promising the same things he did in ’16 that he didn’t deliver. And now he’s just running on the same stuff again,” he argued. “You know, we didn’t get a wall. We didn’t get the swamp drained. He said he was going to go after Hillary [Clinton] and then let her off the hook two weeks after the election.”

Speaking with reporters, DeSantis asked,”’Why won’t he [Trump] debate. Why not?’ And I do think he would not perform the way they remember the Trump from 2015 and ’16. I think that’s the real reason he’s not debating.”

And the governor argued that Trump is “a different guy now and I think he owes it to actually show up and answer questions.”

WAS THE REAL WINNER SO FAR IN THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES THE GUY WHO DIDN’T SHOW UP?

DeSantis also targeted Trump for not engaging with voters. 

“When is the last time he stood on a stage and just took questions from voters?” DeSantis asked. “Has he done that at any point in this campaign? He certainly hasn’t done it on a debate stage. How often has he been willing to go and really answer the tough questions… people want to see you earn it.”

Asked for a response, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung argued in a statement to Fox News that, “Ron DeSantis is acting out on his Lincoln Project fantasies and doing his best impression of a Never Trumper by reciting Democrat talking points peddled by Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign.”

And Cheung charged that “when Ron’s political career is finished in a few weeks, he can start moonlighting as a Democrat surrogate because he’s showing everyone his true colors.”

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The Lincoln Project is a political action committee formed four years ago by Republicans and former members of the GOP who oppose Trump.

DeSantis returned to New Hampshire three days after popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed Haley in the state’s Republican presidential primary.

‘WE’RE ALL IN’ – SUNUNU BACKS HALEY IN MAJOR 2024 ENDORSEMENT

Sununu, a vocal GOP critic of Trump, had said for weeks that he was deciding between Haley, Christie and DeSantis.

DeSantis told Fox News that Sununu’s backing of Haley wouldn’t change his campaign strategy in the Granite State, saying “I wasn’t necessarily expecting that.”

 “Chris is great, a great campaigner and all that,” DeSantis added arguing that “ultimately, Nikki Haley is an establishment candidate. That does not do well in these Republican primaries. That is starting to become more and more apparent to voters as she’s gotten more attention.”

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

The Biden administration on Friday finalized a plan to dramatically curb the number of offshore oil and gas lease sales over the next five years as it continues to aggressively push green energy development.

The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program schedules just three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029, marking the fewest number of sales ever included in such a plan, which the agency is mandated to issue periodically. According to the DOI, holding the sales will enable future offshore wind leases under an Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provision that tethers the two.

“President Biden’s approach to severely limit leasing significantly curtails access to a critical national asset,” Erik Milito, the president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents both traditional and renewable offshore energy producers, said in a statement Friday. “The White House simply ignores energy realities by once again limiting U.S. energy production opportunities.”

“With global demand at record levels and continuing to rise, regressive policies will harm Americans of all walks of life by putting upward pressure on prices at the pump, destroying good-paying jobs that form the fabric of Gulf Coast communities, and relinquishing geopolitical advantages of energy production to countries like Russia, Iran and China,” he continued.

ALASKAN NATIVE AMERICANS UNLEASH ON BIDEN ADMIN’S CLIMATE AGENDA: ‘COMMUNITIES AND CULTURE ARE AT RISK’

Milito added that policies limiting offshore production in the U.S. only serve to force greater reliance on energy imports, including from nations with higher emissions and worse environmental standards. 

“This jeopardizes our energy security, and economic prosperity, and undermines our efforts to reduce emissions and combat climate change — goals purportedly championed by the current administration,” he said.

OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS PERMITTING PLUMMETS TO 2-DECADE LOW UNDER BIDEN

Under the plan, the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold the three sales of parcels in the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, 2027 and 2029. It also rules out any leasing off the Alaskan coast, and in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in another departure from previous plans.

The administration, meanwhile, signaled that it could have pursued an even more restrictive five-year program if not for the IRA. That legislation — Democrats’ $739 billion climate and tax package signed by President Biden in 2022 — ties new offshore wind energy leases to new oil and gas leases, meaning the former could be threatened without consistent fossil fuel leasing.

Issuing a program with less than three sales — a possibility the DOI floated last year to the dismay of energy industry groups — may have jeopardized Biden’s plan to ensure the U.S. develops 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The nation currently has just two tiny pilot projects, one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other off Virginia’s coast, but the DOI has permitted several large-scale facilities since 2021 that are slated to come online in coming years.

APPEALS COURT FORCES BIDEN ADMIN TO HOLD OFFSHORE OIL LEASE SALE WITHOUT ECO RESTRICTIONS

“It’s now clear without a shadow of a doubt that without the IRA, this Administration would have ended federal oil and gas development completely,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said in September after the DOI proposed the plan finalized Friday.

“But instead of embracing the all-of-the-above energy bill that was signed into law, this Administration has once again decided to put their radical political agenda over American energy security, and the American people will pay the price,” Manchin, who was a lead author of the IRA last year, continued. “Granting the bare minimum of oil and gas leases will result in a minimum of renewables leases as well because the IRA tied the two together. You can’t have one without the other.”

Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal government is required to issue plans every five years laying out prospective offshore oil and gas lease sales. The most recent plan, which was implemented in 2017, expired in June 2022. 

The persistent delay in issuing a replacement plan, though, represented a departure from precedent set by both Republican and Democratic administrations, which have historically finalized replacements immediately after previous plans expired.

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The most recent two plans, both formulated under the Obama administration, included more than 10 offshore oil and gas lease sales each. And the Trump administration sought to hold a total of 47 lease sales across the Atlantic region, the Pacific region and the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coasts between 2022 and 2027.

GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said that the Satanic Temple “should not be recognized” as a religion by the U.S. government.

DeSantis made the declaration on X Friday morning, saying that satanism does not have a place in American society.

The Florida governor’s tweet came after Mississippi state House candidate Michael Cassidy admitted to tearing down the Satanic Temple’s display in the Iowa state capitol. Cassidy was arrested Friday and charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, KCCI reported.

SATANIC DISPLAY INSIDE IOWA STATE CAPITOL DESTROYED, MAN CHARGED: OFFICIALS

“Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a ‘religion’ by the federal government,” DeSantis tweeted. “I’ll chip in to contribute to this veteran’s legal defense fund.”

“Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit,” DeSantis continued.

DeSantis also addressed the Satanic Temple display at the Iowa state capitol during a recent CNN town hall event, pointing to former President Trump’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as to why the non-theistic religious organization is recognized as a religion.

In 2019, the IRS recognized the Satanic Temple as an official house of worship, granting the entity both tax-exempt status and protections under the First Amendment.

“So it’s interesting, I heard this, and then I was like, ‘Well, how did it get there? Is that even a religion?’” DeSantis said. “And low and behold, the Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion.”

“So that gave them the legal ability to potentially do it,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis said that “it very well may be because of that ruling” under Trump that the Satanic Temple “may have had a legal leg to stand on.”

“My view would be that that’s not a religion that the Founding Fathers were trying to create,” DeSantis said. “But I do think that IRS ruling, I was really surprised to see that they did that.”

Jake Tapper noted that the IRS granting tax-exempt status does not necessarily mean the government supports satanism.

“No, yeah, exactly,” DeSantis responded. “But they recognized it as a religion, because otherwise you wouldn’t’ve been able to do it.”

“I don’t think that was the right decision. Even as a religion, that’s wrong,” he continued.

Lucien Greaves, one of the Satanic Temple’s founders, told Fox News Digital that “DeSantis’s remarks are raw cowardice dressed up in false heroism.”

“He would like voters to believe that he is standing up against the Satanic Temple, but he is, in actuality, simply yielding to an angry, undemocratic mob that would rather see the fundamental pillars of democracy destroyed than suffer the nuisance of seeing a viewpoint they disagree with in a public forum,” Greaves said.

“It is cowardice that compels him to abandon his pledge of office to uphold constitutional law and religious liberty because he can not, or will not, articulate those ideals to voters, opting instead to appeal to their most base fears and ignorance,” he continued.

“I have announced that I am happy to debate DeSantis on these points at any time, but I suspect he is too cowardly for that as well,” Greaves added.

The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013 and does not express belief in Satan, God, or any higher power.

Instead, the atheist organization follows “seven tenets” that emphasize science and reason, and uses Satanic imagery to push their tenets and political goals, like abortion access and addressing “religious privilege.”

The organization has also been known to jab at Christians, and Greaves has openly stated that the group is “openly atheist,” in a 2015 Salon interview.

“Those who dislike us claim that we are not really a religion, but by what standard?” Greaves said. “These things beg for definition. In the Hobby Lobby case, there was no sincerity test at all, and no test that their exemption had some kind of spiritual basis.”

“In regard to our atheism, if you have a society that grants religious privilege and exemption, and you’re willing to give privilege and exemption to certain groups, then it’s unacceptable to give that only to people who believe in the supernatural,” Greaves said.

“We are openly atheist, but we have cultural identity and symbolic constructs that are deeply meaningful to our members,” he continued.

In a text message to Fox News Digital, Cassidy confirmed that he had torn down the satanic display, which was erected last week by the Satanic Temple of Iowa to represent the group’s right to religious freedom.

“It was extremely anti-Christian,” Cassidy told Fox News Digital when asked why he had torn the statue down.

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The former congressional candidate didn’t elaborate on why he had torn the statue down, but he posted a Bible verse Thursday night to X after being charged.

“1 Peter 5:8 KJV Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” he posted.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed reporting.

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Democrats warn Schumer

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is getting warnings from progressive Democrats who fear the ongoing negotiations for border policy changes could give too much away to Republicans. 

A small, bipartisan group of Senators have been meeting privately with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week, hoping to find common ground on immigration and border security measures. Republicans have insisted that additional funding for Ukraine and aid to Israel be attached to immigration reforms.

The negotiations have yet to produce a deal, but reports of the proposals have rankled several Democrats.

“[Schumer] and those Democrats who are contemplating these proposals need to understand that these Trumpian policies will do nothing to address our challenges at the border and will only exacerbate the problem. Immigration advocates should speak up — HELL NO is the message,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., — who is facing federal bribery charges — wrote on X on Thursday. 

White House

‘THREATS TO NATIONAL SECURITY’: Top Biden aide’s spouse involved with group pushing electric vehicle transition …Read more

‘UNDERMINING ISRAEL’: Sen Ted Cruz calls out VP Kamala Harris for Palestinian sympathy push …Read more

‘SWAMP’ GAME: Why Hunter Biden defied House subpoena from the House side of the Capitol …Read more

Capitol Hill

‘CRAZY MIND’: Kevin McCarthy takes parting shots at Matt Gaetz as he exits Congress: ‘He was psychotic’ …Read more

‘HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE’: Stefanik hits DC judge linked to Trump case with ethics complaint …Read more

‘UNACCEPTABLE‘: House Dem calls for answers from Mayorkas over denial of border funding extension to Arizona county …Read more

‘LONG OVERDUE’: Issa says passport reform ‘long overdue’ as bill moves through House committee with Dem backing …Read more

Tales from the Campaign Trail

PANIC MODE: Biden scrambles to win over Black voters as support from the traditionally blue bloc falters …Read more

‘LBJ MOMENT’: Cornel West predicts Biden will drop out before 2024 election …Read more

TARGETING RIVALS: Christie targets DeSantis and Haley for treating Trump with kid gloves …Read more

‘PARTY DOES NOT EXIST’: Illinois incumbent wants primary opponent disqualified for misspelling ‘Republican’ …Read more

Across America

‘HISTORIC CONNECTIONS’: Chinese official who praised CCP makes another appearance at top Ivy League school …Read more

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Some progressive Democrats are at odds with Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., over the ongoing negotiations that aim to add stricter border policy provisions in the national supplemental package. 

On Friday, White House officials, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Ct., Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and aides to Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., met in the Capitol for the second time this week to continue negotiations. 

But the discussions are not sitting well with several Democratic senators, who worry that their party will make too many concessions to Republican demands for policy changes.

“If [Schumer] thinks he can send us home for the weekend, quietly cave to Republicans’ anti-immigrant demands while nobody is watching, and then ambush Democrats expecting us to vote yes with a smile, he is TERRIBLY MISTAKEN,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., — who is facing federal bribery charges — wrote on X on Thursday. 

MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AGAIN TOP 10K IN A SINGLE DAY AS LAWMAKERS EYE NEW BORDER LIMITS

“[Schumer]and those Democrats who are contemplating these proposals need to understand that these Trumpian policies will do nothing to address our challenges at the border and will only exacerbate the problem. Immigration advocates should speak up — HELL NO is the message,” he continued. 

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., told Axios that what Democrats are hearing “is very concerning.” 

Former House Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is now running for governor of Texas, said on X: “If Democrats agree to these failed Trump immigration policies” it will cause increased crossing attempts, more migrant deaths and “depressed enthusiasm from progressive voters.” 

“This is a bad deal. Senate Dems and WH should reject it,” he wrote Friday. 

Schumer indicated Friday  that he would rework the “shell” of the supplemental package to advance the proposed border provisions, which have not been agreed to yet. However, with few details on which provisions will make it into the package, The Hill reported that Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., “is very concerned” about the details. 

He added, “We don’t know who’s going to be president” after 2024, leaving in limbo which party will be spearheading the enforcement of the new policies. 

Talks have been ongoing with senators and Biden administration officials this week, as Republicans have refused to pass some $60 billion in additional aid to Ukraine unless it is tied to strict border security measures, such as immediate screenings for asylum processing and quicker expulsions for illegal entrants. The total amount of supplemental aid the White House first requested in October amounts to roughly $106 billion and includes $14 billion to assist Israel. 

SCHUMER ANNOUNCES SENATE WILL CANCEL PART OF HOLIDAY RECESS AS BORDER TALKS CONTINUE

Lawmakers in the upper chamber were expected to recess Thursday, but Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that the Senate would cancel part of its holiday recess and stay in town to continue the negotiations and schedule a vote on the supplemental package next week.

Lankford, one of the lead negotiators for the GOP, told Fox News Digital in an interview this week that there are “basic elements” to tighten border security that Republicans are asking for: reform asylum processing by conducting immediate screenings, increasing detention beds for processing, and beefing up border patrol. 

The administration was reportedly open to a nationwide expansion of expedited removal, which allows for recently entered migrants to be quickly removed if they do not meet the initial asylum standard. Rapid expulsions are currently only being used near the border. 

GOP LAWMAKERS SKEPTICAL ABOUT VOTING ON BORDER DEAL BEFORE CHRISTMAS AS DEMS THREATEN TO DELAY BREAK 

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CBS reported this week that the White House was willing to mandate the detention of certain migrants as their claims are considered, as well as a new Title 42-style authority. Title 42 was the COVID-era order that allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border until the Biden administration ended the policy in May.

Meanwhile, migrant encounters at the southern border again topped 10,000 encounters in a single day on Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told Fox News.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report. 

A Supreme Court justice signed onto the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade minutes after receiving the draft decision.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, one of the six conservative-leaning justices in the body, signed on to the 98-page draft Dobbs decision 10 minutes after it hit his desk.

Justices send their draft opinions to their colleagues on the bench and can negotiate changes with them, sometimes using their votes as leverage.

SUPREME COURT’S SEMIAUTOMATIC WEAPON BAN RULING, PASSPORT REFORM TAKES NEXT STEPS AND MORE TOP HEADLINES

Gorsuch had no edits, according to the Times’ sources who reviewed the messages.

The next day, a cascade of conservative justices joined the draft opinion with no edits — beginning with Justice Clarence Thomas.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined next, and a few days later, Justice Brett Kavanaugh signed on.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Supreme Court for comment.

The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 overturned nearly 50 years of precedent based on the 1973 Supreme Court decision on abortion, Roe v. Wade.

With Roe’s demise, national abortion protections were no longer constitutionally enshrined by a judicial decision and the subject returned to the states and Congress to decide.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed an Illinois law banning high-powered semiautomatic weapons to remain in place.

In a Thursday order with no noted dissents or explanation of its decision, the Supreme Court denied a request from the National Association for Gun rights, which had asked for a preliminary injunction.

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The ban, signed by Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January, includes penalties for any individual who “carries or possesses, . . .manufactures, sells, delivers, imports, or purchases any assault weapon or .50 caliber rifle.”  

The law also includes statutory penalties for someone who, “sells, manufactures, delivers, imports, possesses, or purchases any assault weapon attachment or .50 caliber cartridge.”

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed reporting.

The No. 3 House Republican is calling for an ethics probe into a Washington, D.C., judge who has issued decisions in cases related to both former President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., lodged a misconduct complaint against DC District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday over a speech she gave in late November while accepting an award from the Women’s White Collar Defense Association.

Without using Trump’s name, Howell blamed the violence at the Capitol on “big lies” and warned of “a very surprising and downright troubling moment in this country when the very importance of facts is dismissed, or ignored.”

Stefanik called the speech “highly inappropriate,” accusing Howell of claiming that “re-electing President Trump will lead to fascism in America.”

IVANKA TRUMP TESTIFIES SHE WAS NOT INVOLVED IN DISCUSSIONS ABOUT HER FATHER’S FINANCIAL STATEMENTS  

“As outlined in detail below, Judge Howell’s partisan speech is obviously highly inappropriate election interference by a federal judge that undermines the public’s trust in our courts. Moreover, the public display of the cozy personal relationships between Judge Howell and her partisan friends who appear before her undermines public trust in judicial independence,” she wrote.

Howell was chief judge of the DC District Court from 2016 until March of this year. On her last day of the job, she turned over communications between Trump and his lawyer to Special Counsel Jack Smith in his investigation of the former president’s handling of classified documents, the Daily Beast reported in March. She also compelled the lawyer to testify before a grand jury.

She has also criticized federal prosecutors for being too lenient in sentencing recommendations for Jan. 6 protesters. 

In her letter, Stefanik pointed to Howell’s relationships with Obama-era Attorney General Loretta Lynch and current Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who were also at the event.

TRUMP LEGAL TEAM FILES MOTION TO PAUSE PROCEEDINGS PENDING APPEAL

Lynch had praised Howell for her handling of “the COVID-19 pandemic that closed the world, the January 6th insurrection and the resulting caseload, and the flurry of activity spurred by the Office of Special Counsel.”

“It’s particularly shocking to hear the former Attorney General of the United States praise a sitting federal judge for her handling of the grand-jury proceedings on pending federal criminal charges against a defendant (President Trump), the pending criminal cases against his January 6 supporters, and even make the legal conclusion that an ‘insurrection’ occurred on January 6–despite the fact even the over-the-top Biden Special Counsel Jack Smith never brought such charges against any January 6 defendant,” Stefanik wrote.

Howell also praised Monaco, who oversees Jan. 6 prosecutors in her role, in her speech – a fact Stefanik seized on in her letter to the Judicial Council of the District of Columbia Circuit.

SUPREME COURT: TRUMP MUST RESPOND TO SPECIAL COUNSEL’S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY PETITION BEFORE CHRISTMAS

“I’ve been in awe of how you remain a model of calm and grace when carrying enormous responsibility for the safety of so many,” the judge said of Monaco.

Stefanik wrote, “Judge Howell’s 16 minutes of substantive remarks had little to do with women representing white-collar criminal defendants – and they were hardly apolitical, let alone politically neutral.” 

Stefanik, perhaps Trump’s most vocal ally in Congress, previously filed an ethics complaint against New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron for his handling of a civil case brought against the former president and the Trump Organization by state Attorney General Letitia James.

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She told Fox News Digital of the most recent misconduct notice, “DC Obama Judge Beryl Howell gave a highly inappropriate speech in which she insinuated the election of President Trump will lead to fascism in America.”

“She also inappropriately allowed a public display of her cozy personal relationships with her partisan friends who appear before her, including the Biden Deputy Attorney General who supervises the January 6 criminal prosecutions,” she said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Washington, D.C., court system for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The spouse of a top aide to President Biden and first lady Jill Biden is involved with a group that views climate change as a national security threat and pushes for the transition to electric vehicles as part of its efforts, Fox News Digital has found.

David Wade, former chief of staff to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and the husband of Elizabeth Alexander, a deputy assistant to President Biden and the spokesperson for Jill Biden, is entangled with the Washington, D.C.-based American Security Project (ASP), which views “climate security” as a critical component of its endeavors.

While Alexander advises President Biden, who has directed his administration to aggressively push electric vehicles as part of its broader climate change agenda, Wade aids the ASP in similar endeavors from a national security-focused standpoint as a member of its board of directors.

The ASP’s tax filings show the group also paid Wade’s clean energy consulting firm, Greenlight Strategies LLC, $11,000 last year. An ASP spokesperson told Fox News Digital his company received the payment to engage in a project aimed at “providing a forum for bipartisan discussion about climate change and its threats to national security under his LLC.”

BEIJING-BACKED GREEN ENERGY FIRM IS EXPANDING IN US, POSING SERIOUS NATIONAL SECURITY RISK: REPORT

“We see climate as an accelerant to instability in vulnerable regions. We can see the impact it is having on farming and food supplies, even here in the United States,” the ASP spokesperson said. “Our military is concerned as they are often the first sent in to address instability. U.S. military bases around the world, including right here in the United States, are affected by climate change, as can be witnessed in sea level rise.”

Overall, ASP has supported an across-the-board transition to electric vehicles as part of its efforts to tackle climate change in the national security domain.

JOE MANCHIN GOES SCORCHED-EARTH ON BIDEN ADMIN OVER EV ACTIONS BOOSTING CHINA

In a fact sheet ASP released last year, the group said the “widespread adoption” of such vehicles will “keep the U.S. more secure by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and gas, and reduce financial incentives of petro-state autocracies like Russia.”

The document further stated that transportation accounts for 29% of national greenhouse gas emissions, making it a “critical sector in achieving national net-zero climate goals, and enhancing both energy and national security” while referencing the Biden administration’s goal of “transitioning half of America’s vehicles to electric by 2030.”

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital, “President Biden has warned for decades that climate change is a national security threat — in agreement with experts across the political spectrum such as Trump Administration Secretary of Defense James Mattis. The president is proud to be delivering on his campaign promise to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and cut Americans’ energy costs by taking on the climate crisis, including by ensuring that the United States wins the global competition for EV manufacturing.”

Shortly after taking office in 2021, Biden issued the goal of ensuring 50% of total domestic vehicle purchases are electric by 2030, a first-of-its-kind goal cheered by green energy industry groups and climate advocates. Since then, the administration has pursued various regulations that, while not explicitly mandating electric vehicles, would create strong financial incentives for manufacturers to produce more zero-carbon options and for consumers to transition to those options.

In December 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized rules that targeted heavy-duty trucks it said at the time were the “strongest-ever national clean air standards to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions” from such vehicles. The new standards went into effect March 27 and will be implemented for new trucks sold after 2027.

INTERNAL DEM MEMO CLAIMS GOP BILL OUTLAWING EV MANDATES MAY LEAD TO PREMATURE DEATHS

In April, the EPA proposed the most aggressive federal tailpipe emissions rules on light- and medium-duty emissions ever crafted. If finalized and implemented, 67% of new sedan, crossover, SUV and light truck purchases, up to 50% of bus and garbage truck purchases, 35% of short-haul freight tractor purchases and 25% of long-haul freight tractor purchases could be electric by 2032, the White House projected.

Months later, in July, the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued its most aggressive fuel economy standards ever, an action critics say would increase consumer costs.

And last year, the EPA also reinstated California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to implement its own emission standards and electric vehicle sales mandates, allowing other states to also adopt California’s rules. The state then approved regulations that mandated all car purchases in the state, which leads the country in annual car sales, be electric by 2035.

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Still, the electric vehicle industry has faced significant headwinds related to both the increasing costs associated with manufacturing and consumer hesitance around switching from gas-powered cars.

“It is not an overstatement to say that the federal government is subsidizing EVs to a greater degree than even wind and solar electricity generation and embarking on an unprecedented endeavor to remake the entire American auto industry,” a recent Texas Public Policy Foundation report concluded. 

“Despite these massive incentives, EVs are receiving a tepid response from the majority of Americans who cannot shoulder their higher cost.

“It’s time for federal and state governments to stop driving the American auto industry off an economic cliff and allow markets to drive further improvements in cost and efficiency.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Wade for comment.