NationalWatch

While crime and housing are often at the forefront of illegal immigration discussions, a top GOP lawmaker said this week that the toll it takes on public schools and students is wrongly being overlooked.

In a lengthy interview with Fox News Digital, Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., chairman of the House Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee, said the migrant influx from the porous southern border is “wreaking havoc” on U.S. schools.

“Right now, that we know of, 10 million illegals have entered the country illegally under Joe Biden for the last three years. We say ‘we think we know.’ We really don’t know,” he said.

“Because now there’s a term … gotaways. We believe that approximately 500,000 illegal children are now in this country. And one of the very first places we feel the impact of illegal immigration is our K-12 schools.”

FLASHBACK: PA REPUBLICANS DRAFT BILL DIVERTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM SECRETIVE BIDEN DHS FLIGHTS TO DELAWARE

Bean said his committee heard from representatives from school districts in both red and blue states who told shocking stories of how they have handled ever-increasing enrollments of foreign national juveniles.

“We heard [of] teaching in the hallways. We heard of massive use of resources to scramble to hire teachers that teach in foreign languages — In fact, one school district has over 17 different languages that they have had to hire for. That’s just a vast draining of resources.”

Bean’s Republican colleague, House Education Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., echoed some of his comments from his Wednesday interview. 

Foxx, whose Blue Ridge Parkway district is far-flung from Mexico, said every state is a border state given the current crisis.

“I’m very sorry for all of these children who are coming unaccompanied … they can’t find bilingual teachers … I’m from North Carolina, and it’s already hard enough to find any teachers, let alone teachers who can speak other languages.”

Bean also told the story of a teacher who recounted having a migrant student in her class who appeared to be in his 20s, while claiming to be 18 on his documentation.

“It’s just happening more and more. I think it is because everything’s out of control. Enough. Let’s fix this border. Let’s get back to American schools doing what we do best, which is teaching our students math, reading and science.”

ICE ORDERED TO HALT KNOCK-AND-TALK TACTICS FOR IMMIGRATION ARRESTS

“We’re hoping that Joe Biden was watching our hearing. If he didn’t, maybe he’ll be watching this news story — that illegal immigration is wreaking havoc on our K-12 school system. It’s got to stop.”

Bean said the negative effects of illegal immigration puts a further strain on U.S. schools, which are still reeling from COVID-19 lockdowns and the abrupt shift to remote learning. 

He said the results of both crises are seen in standardized test scores, which he calculated to be the worst in about 20 years.

“We’re now competing against China and India and other countries that want to do us harm. We’ve always banked on the fact that our educational system is among the best in the world. We can’t say that right now,” Bean said. “So why do we want to dilute the resources, the limited resources we [have] by this massive influx?”

Bean predicted that President Biden and some Democrats will argue that the White House is indeed taking action to stem the tide of illegal immigration and therefore lessen the blow to the public school system. However, he characterized Biden’s recent border-related executive order as a misnomer.

“I think [his order] has more holes than Swiss cheese,” he said. “The way it’s done, it really doesn’t shut down the border. It says, OK, we’re going to have 2,500 come back. How do you know that? The border is either shut down or it’s not. 

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“Hopefully, if Joe Biden can’t shut down the border, maybe there’s somebody that’s coming in behind him that can,” he said, in an apparent reference to former President Trump.

In regard to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Bean said he engaged in a game of “Congressional Blame-Game Bingo” during his Tuesday hearing, wherein he predicted a series of buzzwords and politicized terms that he would hear when his critics were presented with a viewpoint they disagreed with.

Bingo terms included “it’s Trump’s fault,” “xenopobia” and “blame Republicans.”

The latter, he said, stems from a common campaign allegation that the GOP does not seek to properly fund schools. Bean said that, instead, massive amounts of money are being spent on U.S. education with little to show for it.

During the hearing, Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., pushed back on Bean’s claims the influx of migrant students matriculating through the education system is a crisis.

“This idea that immigrant students are a hindrance on public education: I would challenge you to look across the country at your valedictorian or your salutatorian or your top 10 in any high school class, and you’re going to find a first generation immigrant,” Hayes said. 

“You’re going to find students who, as soon as they overcame the language barrier, showed that their lack of English proficiency was not a measure of intelligence.”

She also said former President Trump wants to abolish the Education Department, which she characterized as proof of Republicans’ unserious tact on the overall issue.

When asked to respond to Bean’s comments and the hearing writ-large, Rep. Robert Scott’s, D-Va., office directed Fox News Digital to Rep. Suzanne Bonamici’s opening statement at Bean’s hearing.

In her remarks, Bonamici accused committee Republicans of using the forum to undermine the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which affirmed education as a fundamental right regardless of immigration status.

Bonamici said Republicans are wrongly “scapegoating migrant children” and should instead focus on keeping kids safe by addressing gun violence and other issues.

In response to an inquiry about Bean’s hearing, the Department of Homeland Security pointed Fox News Digital to a recent interview between Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, in which the cabinet member told “Your World” it is imperative to resurrect and pass the most recent border control legislation.

“That bipartisan Senate bill would deliver for us changes to 30-year-old laws that are incredibly needed. We’re dealing with a terrifically broken asylum system, and it would deliver for us resources at a level that we desperately need that we do not have,” Mayorkas said in-part.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House but did not receive a response.

A lawyer and Republican candidate for a U.S. House seat in the swing state of Michigan has in the past defended a Chinese-owned firm linked to multiple espionage investigations.

Michigan-based attorney Paul Hudson, who is running in the GOP primary for Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, served as one of the attorneys defending Yubei (Xinxiang) Power Steering Sys. Co., in a 2015 lawsuit filed by Global Technology Inc., a Michigan company.

Yubei (Xinxiang) Power Steering is a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a defense contractor owned by the Chinese Communist Party that has faced multiple espionage investigations, including accusations the firm stole secret F-35 information to incorporate into Chinese aircraft.

A 2014 Fox News report on the incident noted that the alleged espionage took place in 2007, with a secretive Chinese military unit passing F-35 technology data to the AVIC that later turned up in China’s new J-20 stealth fighter jet.

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Teachers and students sing together to celebrate the founding day of the Communist Party of China at Wenhua Road Primary School in Zaozhuang, China. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

The Chinese firm’s involvement in the espionage case was one of several cases of Chinese companies spying in the U.S., eventually leading to President Trump signing a 2020 executive order that prohibited American companies from owning shares in companies the Defense Department listed as being linked to the People’s Liberation Army, including AVIC.

Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Hudson’s campaign argued the candidate “has represented a wide variety of clients in hundreds of cases in his 18 years of practicing law in Michigan.”

“In this decade-old case, Paul assisted a firm client in a limited appeal involving a contract dispute,” the spokesperson added. “The only issue at hand was a narrow jurisdictional issue in which the Sixth Circuit unanimously agreed with his client’s position, and the case was quickly dismissed.”

But the issue could play an outsized role for voters in Michigan, especially in the aftermath of a high-profile dispute between a small Michigan town and a Chinese company last year.

At issue in that case was a lawsuit filed by Gotion Inc., a subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-Tech, against Green Charter Township, Michigan. Voters in Green Charter Township, which is just north of Michigan’s 3rd District, fought back against plans led by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for Gotion to build an electric vehicle battery plant near an area military base after the company’s Chinese ties were revealed, leading to the case that generated national headlines.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

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The Gotion case was top of mind for Hudson’s GOP primary opponent, Michigan financial adviser Michael Markey, who argued Michigan “cannot afford to elect a congressman who is in the pocket of the Chinese Communist Party.”

“This is not just a concern for voters, it is a concern for national security,” Markey told Fox News Digital. “His ties to the Chinese Communist Party should be an immediate disqualifier for running for Congress.”

Markey argued that Hudson has demonstrated he will put his personal interests ahead of those of voters, noting China’s well-documented attempts to disrupt American interests.

“It is clear that Paul Hudson is a lawyer for sale to the highest bidder, and in this case, the highest bidder is the Chinese Communist Party,” Markey said. “Paul chose to defend the Chinese Communist Party to line his pockets at the expense and safety of Michigan and America.”

The campaign of the 3rd District incumbent, Rep. Hilary Scholten, D-Mich., did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Rep. Hillary Scholten (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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Meanwhile, the spokesperson for Hudson’s campaign pointed to the candidate’s long history of “opposing Chinese aggression and influence,” noting Hudson has been a strong advocate of rebuilding the Pacific Fleet and has supported increased defense spending to counter China, including support for the recent $8 billion aid package to Taiwan.

“Paul also supports the work and leadership of the Michigan congressman in his neighboring district, John Moolenaar, who heads the House Select Committee on the CCP and is doing important work to expose and counter China’s influence operations in our homeland,” the spokesperson said.

Michigan’s congressional primary elections will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., shared some sharp words with fellow South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson on the House floor Tuesday after he endorsed her primary opponent.

Fox News Digital spotted Mace and Wilson having what appeared to be a brief but tense exchange during House votes late Tuesday afternoon, hours after Wilson released a statement backing Catherine Templeton to unseat her.

Mace told Fox News Digital that she told Wilson she “would never do to him what he has done to me,” and “we needed to stop the infighting and unify so we can win it all in November.”

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Rep. Nancy Mace confronted Rep. Joe Wilson after he endorsed her primary opponent. (Getty Images)

“Too much at stake,” Mace added. “And that there is a place in the party for people like me, people like him, Trump, MAGA, independents, women, everyone. Oh, and that I was working hard to crush it Tuesday.”

Mace is facing two Republican primary challengers on June 11: Templeton, a former South Carolina state official, and Marine veteran Bill Young.

Wilson, the longest-serving South Carolina Republican, released a statement on Tuesday hailing Templeton as “smart, honest, and dedicated to President Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again.”

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Former South Carolina state official Catherine Templeton is challenging Mace. (Getty Images)

“As we face the peril of the Biden agenda — never ending inflation, taxes, crime, and illegal immigration, we need reinforcements in Congress who will always stand with conservatives, President Trump, and our beloved Lowcountry — we need Catherine Templeton in Congress,” Wilson’s statement said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Wilson’s office for comment on his exchange with Mace.

Mace was one of eight House Republicans who voted to successfully oust ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in October, invoking the ire of the former leader’s allies and other mainstream Republicans.

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Former President Trump endorsed Mace in March. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

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The South Carolina congresswoman secured Trump’s endorsement in March after she already endorsed his bid for president. Wilson and Trump also support each other, with Wilson being named to the former president’s re-election leadership team in South Carolina.

A recent Emerson College/The Hill poll also shows Mace leading her two primary opponents by double digits. The mid-May survey shows her with 47% support, while Templeton and Young trail with 22% and 7%, respectively.

As the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation commemorates the 20th anniversary of the former president’s death, both the pressing challenges facing Americans in 2024 and the milestone 80th anniversary of D-Day are front of mind for foundation leaders.

“It’s valuable to reflect on the tremendous successes of the Reagan presidency and to draw lessons for today,” foundation President David Trulio told Fox News Digital in an interview. “So, it’s important to recall that President Reagan won the Cold War. He unleashed an enormous economic boom. He helped restore America’s pride in itself, and he restored and earned the respect that other countries had for the United States.”

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President Reagan gave two speeches in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1984, including one of his most famous speeches that highlighted the heroic actions of “the boys of Pointe du Hoc.” (David Hume Kennerly/Contributor)

Trulio said the dawn of the Reagan era – the late 1970s into the early ’80s – was a time of “very significant economic challenges” in which “inflation was terrible” and a communist mindset began to seep into America’s consciousness.

“There was an assertive, expansionist, communist-led Soviet Union that was threatening America’s way of life, and there was a sense among many Americans that America’s best days were behind her,” Trulio said. “Those are really striking parallels, not a one-for-one comparison, but there are striking parallels to that era, to today where Americans feel the effects of inflation, of a challenging economy, a sense that the American Dream is under challenge or that our best days are behind us now.”

The foundation will feature several key political figures over the course of its two-day celebration of Reagan’s 20th anniversary and the 80th anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.

KT McFarland, former deputy national security adviser under former President Trump; Reagan administration budget official Stephen Moore; Carol Thatcher, daughter of late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; and Ben Mulroney, son of the late Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney are among the panelists at the foundation’s commemoration of Reagan.

Reagan gave two speeches in Normandy on June 6, 1984, when he delivered one of his most famous speeches highlighting the heroic actions of the “boys of Pointe du Hoc.”

“It’s really striking, going over those speeches today, how relevant they were not only in terms of what happened 80 years ago, not only in terms of how relevant they were to 1984, but how relevant they are today,” Trulio said. “He was a man of great principle who was able to work with people with whom he disagreed to get major legislation done and advance the interests of the American people.”

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Then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan, flanked by his executive assistant, Edwin Meese III, left, Alameda County Sheriff Frank I. Madigan, second from right, and California Highway Patrol Commissioner H.W. Sullivan, proclaims “a state of extreme emergency” exists at the University of California, Berkeley, on Feb. 6, 1969. (Sacramento Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Reagan, the country’s 40th president, died on June 5, 2004, at age 93 after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Known as “The Great Communicator,” he was elected to office in a landslide victory over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980 and is credited with revitalizing the country’s stagnant economy and forcing the end of the Cold War during his two terms in office from 1981 to 1989.

Ascending to the presidency on a pledge to restore “the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism,” Reagan – a former actor and two-term California governor – remade the Republican Party in his own image of fiscal and social conservatism. Reagan brought a grandfatherly warmth to Republican issues and values that attracted supporters across a broad political spectrum.

He successfully implemented most of his key campaign promises: reducing government bureaucracy and regulation, cutting taxes and building up a strong national defense while fighting the spread of communism. Reagan secured an even wider margin of victory with his 1984 re-election, winning 49 states. Aside from the District of Columbia, Reagan only lost Minnesota, which was the home state of his Democrat rival Walter Mondale, by a few thousand votes.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, NOVEMBER 4, 1980, RONALD REAGAN ELECTED PRESIDENT, HERALDING ‘MORNING AGAIN IN AMERICA’

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“The conflicts in the Middle East, the violence there, and in addition to that, there’s the war in Ukraine, and then we also have an expansionist People’s Republic of China led by the Chinese Communist Party,” Trulio said. “So, the keys to applying President Reagan’s principles involves understanding that it is crucial to be strong in order to deter the potential threats, and … if one can’t deter, then … be strong in order to prevail.”

“And part of what President Reagan spoke about in Normandy 40 years ago was the importance of having allies and that having allies is part of that strength,” Trulio added. “Allies who share those principles of freedom and democracy, we are stronger with allies who share our values. It’s always important to stay strong, because by staying strong, you really reduce the risk of having to embark on another terrible war, such as the one afflicting the world 80 years ago and the tremendous death and suffering that resulted from that.”

Previous Fox News reporting was incorporated into this report.

WILMINGTON, DEL. — Details about Hunter Biden’s relationship with a 24-year-old stripper, his need for crack cocaine every 20 minutes and how his spiraling addiction torpedoed his first marriage were on full display for the jury as it considers the first son’s three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018.

“He would want to smoke the second he woke up,” Biden’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, testified Wednesday. She met Biden when she worked at a gentleman’s club in New York City when she was 24 and he was 48.

The court heard continued testimony from FBI special agent Erika Jensen Wednesday and from Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, Kestan and gun shop employee Gordon Cleveland, as prosecutors worked to prove to the jury Biden lied about his drug addiction when he filled out a federal form to buy a Colt revolver gun in 2018. 

Biden is facing charges of making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally-licensed gun dealer and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. 

HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS 3RD DAY WITH CROSS-EXAMINATION OF FBI AGENT

Hunter Biden arrives to federal court with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Del.  (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Biden pleaded not guilty in the case. 

The total maximum prison time for the three charges could be up to 25 years. Each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release. 

Kestan detailed in her testimony that she met Biden in December 2017 after he booked a private room for 30 minutes at the strip club where she worked, ultimately sparking a relationship with the man she described as “charming and charismatic.” 

Kestan, who testified under immunity, walked the jury through Biden’s rampant drug abuse throughout the course of their relationship, including him smoking crack in hotel rooms, stealing away to public bathrooms to smoke crack and even how she helped pick up drugs for him. She said the crack cocaine he purchased often was the size of a “ping pong ball,” which he broke into pieces and lit up in glass pipes. 

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Kestan described to the court that Biden was a “super charming” man when she first met him and that she was “confused” how he was able to appear coherent and cognizant after smoking the hard drug. 

“I didn’t notice it. Sometimes I think that’s because I was catching feelings for him,” she told the court. 

Kestan said their whirlwind relationship was a “distraction” for Biden, as he allegedly smoked less with her when they were hidden away, sometimes for days at a time, in ritzy hotel rooms such as New York City’s Four Seasons location or in a bungalow at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont. 

Kestan wore a colorful scarf while detailing to the court the rise and fall of their relationship, including how he called on her to clean up one of the trashed hotel rooms that was littered with crack residue, pipes, snacks and alcohol and asking her to pick up his car after it was towed in Los Angeles in 2018. 

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A court sketch depicts Hunter Biden’s trial in federal court in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, June 5, 2024.  (William J. Hennessy Jr.)

Accompanying Kestan’s testimony were photos depicting crack pipes in hotel rooms often sitting next to bottles of liquor or beer, a photo of a bare-chested Biden in a bubble bath with Kestan and a screenshot of a FaceTime video showing Biden’s back tattoo that resembled claw marks. The jurors were told amid Kestan’s remarks that Biden learned how to cook crack cocaine and were shown a photo of baking soda in one hotel room used to cook cocaine into crack. 

Kestan said Biden often spoke about how he was an addict and wished to get sober, including his attempt to purge his body of drugs with frog venom called “kambo.” 

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Though Kestan knew Biden before and after the purchase of the Colt revolver in October 2018, the pair did not speak the month of the purchase, rekindling their relationship in November 2018 before it officially ended. 

A court sketch depicts Hunter Biden’s trial in federal court in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)

Hunter’s ex-wife of more than 20 years, Kathleen Buhle, with whom he shares three daughters, also took the stand Wednesday. Buhle and Biden divorced in 2017, after Buhle found a crack pipe on the side porch of their home in Washington, D.C., in 2015, she told the court. 

Buhle was soft-spoken and appeared emotional during her testimony as she detailed her suspicions of his rampant drug use after he was discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive for cocaine and the subsequent death of their marriage. 

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“I was definitely worried, scared,” she said, describing how she would scour his car for drugs and drug paraphernalia to ensure their daughters would not drive the vehicle around with the substances. 

Buhle said following the discovery of a crack pipe at their home in 2015, they participated in couple’s therapy before the marriage ended. Buhle said she does not remember the date they officially terminated their marriage, only saying it occurred on Good Friday of 2017. 

Hunter Biden’s former wife, Kathleen Buhle, departs the federal courthouse after taking the stand during the trial of Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Del., June 5, 2024.  (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Buhle was on the stand the shortest amount of time among witnesses and deeply exhaled as she quickly left the courtroom Wednesday morning. 

Jurors were apparently rapt by Buhle’s presence in the court following relatively dry continued testimony from Jensen, who discussed Wells Fargo bank records early Wednesday morning. Nearly all the jurors were jotting down notes or at least holding their notepads and pens when Buhle first took the stand. 

Following testimony from Hunter’s ex-wife and ex-girlfriend, prosecutors next called on Gordon T. Cleveland, the gun shop employee who sold Biden the revolver in October 2018. 

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Cleveland, who previously worked as a salesman at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Wilmington, detailed to the court the sequence of purchase events on Oct. 12, 2018, down to the detail of Biden driving a black Cadillac the day of the purchase. 

“I like guns, and I like cars,” Cleveland told the court when asked how he remembers what Biden was driving. The comment elicited chuckles among the jury, members of the media and others in the courtroom. 

Gordon Cleveland departs federal court Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Del.  (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Cleveland said Biden entered the store late in the afternoon in 2018 with the intention of buying a gun. Biden bought a Cobra Colt .38; a box of ammunition; a speed loader for the gun, a device that more quickly loads ammunition; and a BB gun. 

Cleveland said he gave Biden a federal gun form to fill out, explaining he instructed him to take his time and answer the form “truthfully.” Cleveland said he was about two feet from Biden as he filled out the form, including question 11 E, which asked whether he was an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs. Biden checked the box that said he was not addicted to drugs. 

A court sketch depicts Hunter Biden’s trial in federal court in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)

Cleveland laughed when defense attorney Abbe Lowell asked if he was “familiar with the phrase whale hunter?”

“Yes,” he responded, chuckling, before arguing that though he “didn’t do up-sales,” he was able to sell expensive guns to customers, such as two Desert Eagles in a single day.

When asked if Cleveland often sold ammunition along with a gun sale, the court again broke into laughter over the former salesman’s response. 

HUNTER BIDEN’S CRIMINAL TRIAL ON FEDERAL GUN CHARGES BEGINS WITH JURY SELECTION

​​”What are you gonna do? Throw [a gun] at somebody?” he quipped, noting ammo was often sold alongside a gun. 

In opening arguments on Tuesday, the defense team argued Biden’s gun purchase was hurried by gun shop employees seeking to make a sale. Cleveland, however, was confident in his responses to Lowell Wednesday that Biden was the one to ultimately choose the Colt revolver, the ammo and speed loader. The purchase of the BB gun, he said, was a decision solely made by Biden. The BB gun is one that had the appearance of an actual handgun, lacking the traditional orange tip found on most other BB guns. 

Jurors were shown the gun, box of ammunition and speed loader in court Wednesday. 

Biden was joined by stepmother Jill Biden for the third day. She again took a front-row seat behind the first son. She wore a bright pink suit and matching heels, casually chatting with family members and allies throughout the day, but she sat quietly with her legs crossed and hands clasped over her knees. She was again seated next to Biden’s second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. 

Hunter Biden, left, departs federal court with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Del.  (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Court resumes Thursday at 9 a.m. with continued cross-examination of Cleveland. Prosecutors announced late Wednesday they have six additional witnesses who will take the stand and could rest their case as soon as Thursday afternoon. 

Biden’s former romantic partner and sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, Beau Biden’s widow, could be among witnesses who take the stand Thursday. 

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The defense team’s witnesses will take the stand after prosecutors rest their case. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that she would stop the planned June 30 roll out of a congestion pricing program, reportedly due to concerns about backlash at the voting booth. 

“My commitment to a greener, more sustainable future is unwavering,” Hochul said at a press conference Wednesday, announcing that she directed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to “indefinitely pause” the congestion pricing program. “I have been more committed to combatting climate change and protecting our environment than any governor in our history.” 

“We will continue to find strategies to address congestion, and we will continue to find solutions that benefit both our planet and our people,” Hochul said. “This decision is about doing what’s right for the people who make our city thrive. It’s about standing up for the hardworking men and women who get up every single day, do their jobs and just want a fair shake. The little guy who feels like no one listens to them. I’m here to say, we are listening. This decision is about you. And to those cynics who question my motivation, I approach every decision through one lens: what is best for New Yorkers.”   

The stated goal of congestion pricing in the Big Apple is to get greener by improving air quality and reducing traffic, but Hochul is reportedly more concerned that what’s billed as an environmental policy could hurt Democrats in this year’s tight races.

A source familiar with the matter earlier told Politico that Hochul is responding to concerns brought by House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is vying to flip the House back blue come November. 

The GOP managed to reclaim a thin majority in the House two years ago largely due to several key Republican congressional victories in New York. 

The first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan was to take effect as New York City transit ridership has taken a nosedive due to public safety concerns. It had received serious blowback from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, former President Donald Trump and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indefinitely delayed implementation of a plan to charge motorists big tolls to enter the core of Manhattan, just weeks before the nation’s first “congestion pricing” system was set to launch.  (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

In a bid to seize power in the U.S. House once more, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity with Politico, said senior-level Hochul officials and staffers for Jeffries recently began floating the idea of delaying the congestion plan, which was projected to bring in $1 billion in revenue per year for the public transportation system. 

The move preemptively drew criticism from activists.

“Pumping the brakes on congestion pricing would be a massive betrayal of several million public transit riders,” Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director at Riders Alliance, which has spent years pushing for congestion pricing, told the New York Times. “It would also mean taking cues from the likes of Phil Murphy, Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump.”

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber warned in an interview with WABC-TV last month that there was “no Plan B” to raise the billions of dollars in funds the transportation authority needs for construction priorities – including making subway stations more accessible and buying clean electric buses – if a judge rules against the congestion pricing in one of at least eight federal lawsuits challenging the proposed program. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul blasted anyone “questioning my motives” in halting a congestion pricing plan, vowing she’s still committed to a “greener” future. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

To fill the gap from a nixed congestion program, Hochul is considering a new tax on businesses in New York City, where taxpayers are already burdened by some of the highest in the country, the Times reported. The new business tax would need approval from the state legislature. 

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Under the transit authority’s plan, trucks would be subject to a charge of $24 or $36 per trip, depending on their size. Most drivers in private passenger cars, in contrast, should expect to pay about $15, with lower rates for motorcycles and late-night entries into the city, according to the proposal finalized in March. 

“It’s a tax on people who commute to the city. It would have been detrimental to people who have to commute, especially police officers, firefighters, nurses, EMTs and people who have to pay for their trip to work,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who serves the county nearest to New York City on Long Island, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.

 “I’m just happy it’s now being put on hold. I hope it ends completely and that there isn’t some sort of substitute tax,” Blakeman added. “I would like to see the governor remove the $2.4 billion in her budget for migrants who have been here for 15 minutes and use that money for transportation, infrastructure, hospitals and schools, rather than migrants.” 

The latest lawsuit brought by the Trucking Association of New York last week argues the higher fees unfairly and unconstitutionally target the trucking industry, which will be forced to shoulder the increased costs, as truck operators don’t have flexibility on their driving routes or schedules, resulting in price increases on countless goods. 

Cuomo, who stepped down during a sexual harassment scandal, had urged a delay in the congestion pricing months ago. 

Pedestrians cross Delancey Street as congested traffic from Brooklyn enters Manhattan over the Williamsburg Bridge, March 28, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

In a March op-ed, he said “many things have changed since 2019 when we passed congestion pricing and while it is the right public policy, we must seriously consider if now is the right time to enact it.” 

“New York City still hasn’t recovered from COVID; office occupancy is still at only 48.9%. For many, traveling to the city is no longer a necessity — and for some it is an unwelcome hardship,” Cuomo wrote for the New York Post. What impact will an additional $15 entry surcharge have on New York City’s recovery in this moment — when the migrant crisis, crime, homelessness, quality of life and taxes are all pressing problems? More important, the policy’s success hinges on people’s confidence that mass transit — which is still operating 29% below pre-pandemic ridership levels — is a safe alternative.” 

Cuomo criticized progressives’ call to defund the police and its impact on public safety on the subways, also voicing the need to get “dangerous mentally ill homeless people out of the system.” 

Former Cuomo deputy, Melissa DeRosa, slammed Hochul, writing in an X post that there had been a “legitimate policy reason” for months to delay congestion pricing, but the governor had “doubled down.”

“This is exactly why @GovKathyHochul is so wildly unpopular,” DeRosa wrote earlier Wednesday. “There is — and has been for months — a legitimate policy reason to delay CP out of genuine concern for the fragile recovery of NYC’s economy. It is the right policy at the wrong time.”

“Instead, like an ostrich she & @MTA doubled down,” she added. “Now this will be seen for exactly what it (and she) is: transparently political.” 

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A Manhattan federal court judge in May heard arguments in lawsuits brought by unionized public school teachers, politicians and other New Yorkers.

In New Jersey, a federal court judge has also heard arguments in legal challenges brought by Murphy, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and others. Many of those lawsuits argue the tolling scheme was approved by federal transportation officials without proper scrutiny and the court should order transit officials to conduct a more comprehensive environmental study before rolling out the plan.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A top Senate Republican is taking Democrats’ claims about the GOP’s approach to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) head on.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is running to replace Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell as the leader of Senate Republicans, announced Wednesday his launch of a seven-figure ad buy to take the “real” GOP message about IVF to the people of his home state.

“Politics today is just full of it. Attack ads say the same crazy stuff about every Republican. ‘They hate women, birth control, even IVF.’ It’s ridiculous,” Scott says in the 30-second spot, titled “Every Republican.”

TRUMP ENDORSEMENT TAKES CENTER STAGE IN BRUTAL SWING STATE PRIMARY AS ACCUSATIONS OF ‘DISLOYALTY’ FLY

Sen. Rick Scott speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on May 22, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“Let’s get real. IVF — invitro fertilization — has brought beautiful babies to so many families. For me, it’s personal. My youngest daughter has been undergoing IVF treatments to grow her family. I’m Rick Scott, and this grandpa will always protect IVF. You can count on that,” he added.

Scott’s campaign told Fox News Digital the ad will run in media markets statewide and will serve as a path forward for Senate Republicans and candidates to fight back against Democrats’ efforts to define the GOP as anti-women’s and reproductive rights.

“I refuse to let any democrat try to lie about my stance on IVF and contraceptives in their desperate attempt to try to win an election,” Scott told Fox ahead of the ad’s launch. 

HALEY, CHRISTIE STAY SILENT ON TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT AS GOP OUTRAGE GROWS OVER ‘UN-AMERICAN’ SILENCE

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell takes questions after taking a break from a news conference because of lightheadedness, after the Senate luncheons on July 26, 2023. (Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“The Democrats can’t run on the economy because Biden killed it. They can’t run on safe communities because they have let hundreds of thousands of criminals cross the border illegally. They can’t run on strengthening our military because they are trying to make it woke and care more about supporting terrorist sympathizers on college campuses who hate Jewish people, so they have to resort to lying.” 

“Let’s be clear: the Democrats are the radical ones on these issues. Our leadership in the Senate refuses to fight and allows Schumer, Biden and radical Democrats to define us and our positions time and time again. I’m done with that and that’s why I’m fighting back so we can win in Florida, win back the senate and get President Trump back in the White House,” he added.

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Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott and former Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. (Getty Images)

Democrats have sought to make abortion and reproductive rights a central issue in this year’s elections, including claims that Republicans want a national ban on abortion and want to restrict access to IVF treatments, as well as contraceptives.

Scott is expected to face former Democrat Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the heavy favorite to win her party’s primary in August.

He is also locked in a three-way battle to be the next Senate Republican leader, with South Dakota Sen. John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn also vying for the role as well.

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

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested Democratic lawmakers could have incurred ethical violations when they made recusal demands of the Supreme Court after news broke of flags flown at Justice Samuel Alito’s homes.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., “potentially engaged in unethical professional conduct before the Court,” the Republican leader claimed in floor remarks on Wednesday. Both are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

“Three of our colleagues have taken it upon themselves to write to the Chief Justice and demand Justice Alito’s recusal in cases,” he explained. “One went so far as to tell the chief that he should strip Justices Alito and [Clarence] Thomas of the ability to write majority opinions unless they recuse from the cases liberals don’t want them hearing.”

“This goes beyond the standard disgraceful bullying my Democratic colleagues have perfected,” he said.

BALANCE OF POWER: MESSY GOP PRIMARIES COULD BOOST DEMOCRATS IN SWING STATE RACES

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, accused Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., right, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., of violating ethical standards by communicating privately with the Supreme Court. (Getty Images)

“These senators are telling the chief justice, privately, to change the course of pending litigation,” McConnell said, adding that this is “ex-parte communication.” He noted that such correspondence goes against the outlined American Bar Association code of conduct. 

This, McConnell said, presents an ethical issue because both Blumenthal and Whitehouse appear to be members of the Supreme Court Bar. Admission to the bar is necessary for any lawyer to argue before the court. Both senators have previously argued cases in front of the Supreme Court prior to their elections to the Senate. 

ROMNEY SCORCHES BRAGG’S ‘POLITICAL DECISION’ IN TRUMP CASE: ‘MALPRACTICE’

Sen. Dick Durbin, right, requested a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts to ensure that Justice Samuel Alito, left, recuses himself from election-related cases. (Getty Images)

“They are officers of the court and bound by a different set of rules than a mere senator,” he explained. 

According to McConnell, the ex-parte communications the senators have engaged in via letters could rise to the level of conduct that is considered “unbecoming” and perhaps subject to discipline. 

“I might suggest to our colleagues that unethical ex-parte communications seeking to change the course of pending litigation is such conduct. And that the Court should take any remedial action it feels to be appropriate,” the minority leader said. 

GOP’S MURKOWSKI LAMENTS TRUMP’S ‘BAGGAGE’ FOLLOWING GUILTY VERDICT

Democrats have targeted both Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, requesting their recusals. (Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images)

He further pointed to the larger issue of politicization among attorneys but reiterated that it is solely the jurisdiction of the court to ensure the ethics of those within it. 

“We don’t need to appeal to heaven to fix this problem. Just to the Supreme Court’s power to police the ethical practice of law among the members of its Bar,” he said, referencing the phrase featured on a historical flag at Alito’s beach home, which read, “appeal to heaven.” 

SOROS HEIR URGES DEMOCRATS TO HAMMER TRUMP AS ‘CONVICTED FELON AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY’

The Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Following several reports on an upside-down flag briefly flown at Alito’s Virginia home and the other at his vacation home, Democratic lawmakers promptly called on the conservative justice to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election. This comes as the court has yet to rule on former President Trump’s claim of immunity in his federal election interference case, and Alito’s vote could potentially decide the case one way or another. 

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Among those who made such calls were Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., along with Blumenthal and Whitehouse. Durbin and Whitehouse asked for a meeting with Roberts, asking that he ensure Alito’s recusal, while Blumenthal asked Roberts in his own letter “not to assign opinions or circuit justiceships to Justices Sam Alito or Clarence Thomas if they decline to recuse themselves from cases relating to January 6th and the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement.”

Neither Blumenthal’s nor Whitehouse’s offices immediately provided comment to Fox News Digital. 

In a major setback to the Fulton County District Attorney, the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday put a pause on any proceedings related to the 2020 election interference case against former President Trump and co-defendants until it hears the case to disqualify Fani Willis in October.

The appeals court has tentatively scheduled a hearing date of Oct. 4 for the appeal by Trump and his co-defendants to have embattled Willis disqualified from the case due to an “improper” affair with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade. 

The appeals court action all but solidifies that Willis’ sweeping racketeering case against the 45th president will not go to trial before the 2024 election in November. 

“The Georgia Court of Appeals has properly stayed all proceedings against President Trump in the trial court pending its decision on our interlocutory appeal which argues the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct,” Steve Sadow, lead defense counsel for Trump, said in a statement.

Trump was indicted in August along with 18 co-defendants out of the yearslong criminal investigation led by Willis and state prosecutors in Georgia into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.

TRUMP’S APPEAL TO DISQUALIFY FANI WILLIS FROM GA CASE GETS OCTOBER HEARING DATE

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and former President Trump. (The Washington Post-David Walter Banks | Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The charges include violating the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act; Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; and Filing False Documents.

But since then, Willis has hit nothing but roadblocks in her efforts to try Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, before the election.

Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee in March dismissed six of the charges and said that the state failed to allege sufficient detail for six counts of “solicitation of violation of oath by public officer.” 

REP JORDAN URGES CONGRESS TO ‘DEFUND LAWFARE ACTIVITIES’ OF TRUMP PROSECUTORS

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on March 1. (Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)

In February, Michael Roman, a GOP operative and co-defendant in the case, dropped bombshell accusations that Willis had an “improper” affair with Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute the case in November 2021. 

Other co-defendants made similar allegations, and that she had financially benefited from her relationship with him by taking lavish vacations together. 

Both Wade and Willis denied they were in a romantic relationship prior to his hiring and that the couple would split the costs of their shared travels; Willis said she reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips in cash.

After evidentiary hearings held in February, Judge McAfee ordered that Wade had to be removed in order to keep Willis from disqualification in the Trump election interference case in Georgia. 

“[T]he established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team — an appearance that must be removed through the State’s selection of one of two options,” he wrote, adding that Willis and her whole office can choose to step aside, or Wade can withdraw from the case.

Wade subsequently resigned from his post as special prosecutor.

In his March order, McAfee said while Willis’ “reimbursement practice” was “unusual and the lack of any documentary corroboration understandably concerning,” he ultimately decided that the defendants did not present “sufficient evidence” that expenses weren’t “roughly divided evenly.” 

He also said that “the evidence demonstrated that the financial gain flowing from her relationship with Wade was not a motivating factor on the part of the District Attorney to indict and prosecute this case.”

GEORGIA PROSECUTOR FANI WILLIS APPEALS AFTER JUDGE DROPS MULTIPLE TRUMP CHARGES

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis arrives to speak after winning the Democratic primary in Buckhead, Georgia, on May 21. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

“[T]he Court finds that the record made at the evidentiary hearing established that the District Attorney’s prosecution is encumbered by an appearance of impropriety,” McAfee wrote in his order.

“As the case moves forward, reasonable members of the public could easily be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the District Attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship has resumed.”

“Put differently, an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist,” he said.

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When the defense in March submitted a joint motion for a Certificate of Immediate Review, McAfee said that his Order on the Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss and Disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney issued March 15 “is of such importance to the case that immediate review should be had” and allowed the defendants to ask the Georgia appeals court for an opportunity to appeal, which the court granted last month.

Willis is also under investigation by two separate committees in the Georgia legislature, who say they are concerned about her alleged misuse of federal funds. Republican lawmakers in both chambers of the U.S. Congress have opened similar probes.

Meanwhile, Willis is up for re-election in November. Last month, she handily defeated her Democratic challenger in the state’s primary, setting her up to face a GOP challenger in the general election.

In a speech to a crowd of boisterous supporters on election night, the Democratic district attorney said that no one is above or “beneath” the law, in an apparent nod to her prosecution in the Trump trial.

“It’s a message that is p—ing folks off, but there is no one above the law in this country nor is there anyone beneath it,” Willis said.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Sarah Rumph-Whitten contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A top House Republican lawmaker is so sure that former President Trump’s recent criminal conviction has ensured his re-election that he invited the Manhattan judge who oversaw the trial to his inauguration.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a staunch Trump ally, blasted the Friday guilty verdict against the former president as “irresponsible and unethical.” 

He told Fox News Digital that he had his son, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, hand-deliver a note to New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan‘s bailiff late last month offering a place as his guest to a potential January 2025 Trump inauguration.

EX-TRUMP AIDE SUED BY HUNTER BIDEN WANTS BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE OFF LAPTOP CASE, FEARS ‘2020 ALL OVER AGAIN’

Rep. Joe Wilson, right, ripped the Trump guilty verdict and said Judge Juan Merchan, left, is helping former President Trump get re-elected. (Getty Images)

“My view of inviting him to the inauguration is to show my recognition that what Merchan is doing unintentionally is re-electing… Donald Trump,” Wilson told Fox News Digital. “In fact, I’ve got one of my grandson’s, Houston Wilson, ready to be with him and to make sure he has proper seating.”

Wilson pointed out that both Trump and aligned Republican groups have raked in massive campaign donations since a New York City jury ruled the ex-president was guilty on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Eric Trump announced earlier this week that the campaign brought in over $200 million in the first three days following the conviction.

Trump had been on trial for charges linked to accusations that he falsified documents to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

TRUMP ATTORNEYS REQUEST MERCHAN LIFT GAG ORDER AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, FOLLOWING END OF TRIAL

Former President Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

His allies have long criticized the case as political, and have argued the charges would not have been brought if he was not running for re-election in November.

“It should be concerning to every American, because if you can convict a former President of the United States on such bogus charges…every American of either party is at risk, whether they be a public official or not,” Wilson said.

“Why would it come up during an election year? Of course, it’s totally contrived to interfere with the election.”

Wilson said he didn’t know if Merchan would respond to his invitation.

TRUMP SAYS GUILTY VERDICT IS A ‘SCAR’ ON NEW YORK JUSTICE SYSTEM, VOWS TO ‘KEEP FIGHTING’

Wilson is a staunch ally of the former president. (Reuters/Julia Nikhinson)

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“And hey, I mean it to indicate to him that what he has done is wrong,” Wilson said. “I would urge him to come to see the response to the American people. I think people will be polite, but they will certainly let him know that his conduct is unethical and corrupt. Totally corrupt.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the New York City public court system for a response.

With the start of the Republican Party’s presidential nominating convention less than six weeks away, former President Donald Trump’s campaign is picking up the pace in vetting the potential running mates.

The process has started in earnest with documents being requested from several prospective contenders for the 2024 GOP vice presidential nomination, sources on Wednesday confirmed to Fox News. They add that paperwork is being exchanged and note that they are entering a different phase of the running mate search.

The sources say that among those being vetted by the Trump campaign are three names that often come up – North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

TRUMP HEADS TO BLUE BASTION TO RAISE CAMPAIGN CASH IN HIS REMATCH WITH PRESIDENT BIDEN 

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks at a news conference with fellow Republican governors, at an oil refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana on June 3, 2024 (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

File photos of Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida (left) and JD Vance of Ohio (right) (Getty Images)

But people close to the campaign and to the former president add that the list is longer than just those three names. They say that also being vetted are Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Tim Scott of South Carolina, Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Elise Stefanik of New York, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary in the Trump administration.

THIS IS HOW MUCH A TOP PRO-TRUMP SUPER PAC HAULED IN LAST MONTH

Asked if the Trump campaign had reached out to him regarding vetting, Donalds in an interview Tuesday night with Fox News Digital in Philadelphia, said “I’m not going to comment on that. I’m going to leave that one alone.”

Highly placed sources say the list of potential running mates will continue to winnow down, but it is fluid.

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As for the timing of the Trump decision on his running mate, the sources say the former president likely won’t announce his choice until just before or even during the convention, which starts on July 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Wildwood, N.J., Saturday, May 11, 2024.  (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

That’s in line with a handful of interviews in which the former president has said there’s “probably a pretty good chance” that he’ll announce his running mate “in Milwaukee.”

Asked to comment on the reporting from Fox News and other news organizations regarding the vetting process, Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said “anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump.”

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

Voters in three small South Dakota counties on Tuesday rejected initiated measures to require hand-counting of ballots in future elections.

The votes in Gregory, Haakon and Tripp counties were an unusual step even as other places in the U.S. have considered moving to hand-counting in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s claims of 2020 election fraud.

The measures sought to prohibit the use of tabulating machines and would require hand-counting, which local election officials said would cost more money and require more election workers, who might be difficult to find. Election experts say counting ballots by hand isn’t as accurate as machines tabulating the votes.

3 SOUTH DAKOTA COUNTIES TO VOTE ON RETURNING TO BALLOT TABULATION BY HAND

The measures might not be the only ones put to a vote in South Dakota. Citizens in dozens of other counties are circulating petitions for hand-counting measures, according to Jessica Pollema, president of SD Canvassing, a group which supports the efforts. Other hand-count initiatives could “possibly” appear on November ballots, she said. Pollema did not immediately respond to a phone message or email for comment on the election results.

Voters in three small South Dakota counties rejected a proposal to require all ballots to be hand-counted in future elections.

Todd and Tripp County Auditor Barb DeSersa, who opposed the measure, said, “Well, obviously, the voters have spoken, but I feel that they believe … we’d be going backwards in time and there is confidence in the machine. There was no reason not to have confidence.”

Turnout in Tripp County was 37%, which is typical for a primary election, she said. The three rural counties have a combined 7,744 active registered voters, according to an online report.

South Dakota’s primary election will be the first to undergo a post-election audit, a new process from a 2023 law that requires all counties to hand-count the results from two races in 5% of precincts to compare with the official results. But Tripp County will hand-count the whole election for its audit, per the county commission, DeSersa said. In 2022, Tripp hand-counted its general election ballots.

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Fall River County hand-counted its primary election ballots, after the county commission voted earlier this year to do so. County Auditor Sue Ganje said it took about 40 election workers over six hours to hand-count 1,913 ballots.

Former President Trump heads to Democratic-dominated California on Thursday evening to kick off a three-day fundraising swing as he builds resources for his 2024 re-election rematch with President Biden.

The former president will headline a fundraising dinner hosted by tech investors David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, two of the heaviest hitters in Silicon Valley and co-hosts of the hot “All-In” podcast.

Tickets at the sold-out event range from $50,000 per person to get in the door all the way up to $500,000 per couple for special access as part of the host committee. Sources tell Fox News the event is sold out.

THIS IS HOW MUCH A TOP PRO-TRUMP SUPER PAC HAULED IN LAST MONTH

Former President Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday after he was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his criminal trial. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

“I think it is just very telling; I would never have predicted that you’d have a sold-out fundraiser targeting tech leaders in Pacific Heights and for a Republican candidate,” Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican National Committee (RNC) member from California, told Fox News.

Dhillon, a longtime Bay Area-based attorney who’s part of Trump’s legal coalition, is attending the fundraiser.

TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT IN CRIMINAL TRIAL FIRES UP HIS FUNDRAISING 

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, a Trump ally and potential 2024 running mate who spent time a few years back in the San Francisco area working for hedge funds in the tech sector, was instrumental in putting the top-dollar fundraiser together.

Trump heads south to Beverly Hills for a Friday fundraiser and a Saturday finance event in Newport Beach in Orange County.

Former President Trump speaks to supporters at a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 11. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The trip doesn’t mean the Trump campaign thinks overwhelmingly blue California may be in play. 

Instead, Trump’s swing, like two sold-out fundraisers in the Bay Area on Wednesday headlined by Vice President Harris, and President Biden’s San Francisco area fundraisers last month, are the latest proof that the Golden State remains a crucial ATM for campaign cash.

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Trump’s campaign on Monday said it and the RNC, fueled in part by the former president’s guilty verdicts in his criminal trial, hauled in a stunning $141 million in fundraising in May.

Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.

The former president’s campaign highlighted that in the first 24 hours following Thursday evening’s verdict, it and the RNC brought in nearly $53 million in fundraising, which counted toward May’s total. 

President Biden and Vice President Harris wave at a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia on May 29. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Biden campaign has also been fundraising off of the Trump verdict, and a source familiar told Fox News that “the 24 hours after the verdict were one of the best fundraising 24 hours of the Biden campaign since launch.”

Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the RNC for the first time outraised the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee. 

And on Wednesday, Make America Great Again Inc., a leading super PAC supporting Trump’s campaign, said it raked in nearly $70 million in fundraising in May.

Fundraising, along with public opinion polling, is a key metric used to measure the strength of candidates and their campaigns. Money raised can be used to build up grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote operations, staffing, travel and ads, among other things.

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

Democrats’ contraception bill failed a key procedural vote on Wednesday as Republicans slammed the broad proposal over parental rights and religious liberty implications. 

The Senate voted 51-39 against moving forward with the “Right to Contraception Act.”

The bill needed to garner 60 votes in order to move forward in the upper chamber. 

JON TESTER CAMPAIGN ADMITS ‘HARD TRUTH’ SENATE RACE WILL BE EXPENSIVE AND CLOSE

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., is seated before a Senate Rules and Administration Committee. On Monday, he addressed a gun legislation deal that could become law. (Elizabeth Frantz/Pool via AP)

Ahead of the cloture vote, a majority of Republican senators had already signed onto a statement led by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., attacking the measure as an attempt to “score cheap political points.”

“Today every Senator must take a stand: if you agree all Americans deserve access to contraception, then vote yes on the Right to Contraception Act,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in floor remarks prior to the vote. 

‘PARENTAL RIGHTS’: GOP WARNS DEM SENATE BILL IS ABOUT MORE THAN CONTRACEPTION

A package of PlanB One-Step, an emergency contraceptive pill, is seen in security packaging at a CVS Pharmacy in Washington, on July 7, 2022. (REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger)

But Republicans claimed that it wasn’t quite that simple. 

Per the group of GOP lawmakers, the bill “infringes on the parental rights and religious liberties of some Americans and lets the federal government force religious institutions and schools, even public elementary schools, to offer contraception like condoms to little kids.”

DEMS IN HOT SEAT FOR ALLEGED ETHICS VIOLATIONS OVER ALITO RECUSAL DEMANDS

Sen. Rick Scott led more than 20 other Republicans in a statement condemning the Democratic contraception bill. (Getty Images)

Top Pro-Life group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America described the measure as “misleading” in a press release, noting the effect its provisions would have on the funding Planned Parenthood is eligible to receive and that which Pro-Life pregnancy centers are allowed. 

“It’s ‘show-vote’ season in the Senate,” Senate Pro-Life caucus Chair Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., said on Wednesday. 

BALANCE OF POWER: MESSY GOP PRIMARIES COULD BOOST DEMOCRATS IN SWING STATE RACES

Pro-life demonstrators hold signs while marching past the U.S. Supreme Court during the 46th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Jan. 18, 2019. People from around the nation gathered in Washington D.C. today for the annual rally against abortion, which included a video message from President Trump and an address by Vice President Mike Pence.  (Getty Images)

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“This is another example of Democrats bringing forward deeply deceptive legislation to make political points and try to offer cover to vulnerable Democrats,” she said. 

However, “The devil is in the details,” the senator explained. “This bill isn’t about access to contraception.  It’s about pouring more taxpayer dollars to abortion purveyors like Planned Parenthood, while further trampling religious freedoms and parental rights.”  

The first major swing state poll following former President Trump’s guilty verdict in his New York City trial last week revealed a solid lead for one candidate just five months ahead of the November general election.

Georgia voters favor Trump over Biden 49% to 44% in a head-to-head matchup, according to the Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, which was taken following the former president’s highly publicized and intensely scrutinized conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Trump’s lead over Biden grew to a six-point spread (43%-37%) with the inclusion of independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (8%) and Cornel West (3%), as well as the Libertarian Party’s Chase Oliver (3%) and the Green Party’s Jill Stein (2%).

TRUMP ENDORSEMENT TAKES CENTER STAGE IN BRUTAL SWING STATE PRIMARY AS ACCUSATIONS OF ‘DISLOYALTY’ FLY

Former President Trump, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and President Biden. (Getty Images)

The all-important independent vote was evenly split between Trump and Biden at 45% each.

Fifty percent said they agreed with the guilty verdict against Trump, while 44% said they disagreed. However, a whopping 54% said the verdict will have no effect on their vote, and 23% said it will make them more likely to vote for the former president.

Just 18% of independents and 5% of Republicans said the verdict made them less likely to support Trump.

HALEY, CHRISTIE STAY SILENT ON TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT AS GOP OUTRAGE GROWS OVER ‘UN-AMERICAN’ SILENCE

Former President Trump in attendance at UFC 302 at Prudential Center June 1, 2024, in Newark, N.J. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Concerning Trump’s election interference case in Fulton County, a 54% majority said they believed Trump did nothing illegal, but 25% believe he did act unethically. Forty-one percent said they believed Trump did something illegal.

Trump holds a double-digit advantage over Biden when it comes to which candidate would better handle voters’ top issues in the race, including immigration (56%-39%), the economy (58%-38%), the Israel-Hamas war (53%-39%) and the war between Russia and Ukraine (54%-41%).

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Voters also believe Trump would be the best candidate to preserve democracy (49%-46%), but Biden held a slight advantage on the issue of abortion (47%-45%).

Biden’s job approval in Georgia stood at 36%, with 60% disapproving.

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

Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s campaign ceded on Tuesday that it faces a significant challenge in trying to hold onto his Senate seat in the two-time, Trump-won state come November. 

“As we enter the general election, it’s clear Montana’s U.S. Senate race will be the most competitive in the country in 2024,” wrote campaign manager Shelbi Dantic in a memo following the Montana Senate primaries. 

Tester won the Democratic nod, while former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy officially received the Republican nomination as expected. 

‘PARENTAL RIGHTS’: GOP WARNS DEM SENATE BILL IS ABOUT MORE THAN CONTRACEPTION

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) speaks to reporters as he walks through the Capitol Building on February 05, 2024 in Washington, DC.  (Anna Moneymaker)

The Montana Senate race is considered one of the most competitive races in the country in the 2024 elections, with non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report labeling it as one of three “Toss Up” Senate matches. The blue lawmaker in a red state is at serious risk, particularly as Democrats contend with several other tough races to spend money on. 

If Sheehy manages to unseat Tester in November, it could help Republicans take back the majority in the upper chamber. 

“Here’s the hard truth: This will be an expensive and close race,” Dantic explained. 

DEMS IN HOT SEAT FOR ALLEGED ETHICS VIOLATIONS OVER ALITO RECUSAL DEMANDS

Sen. Jon Tester and Republican Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy (Kevin Dietsch/Louise Johns)

She blamed the skyrocketing cost of winning in Big Sky Country on “a tidal wave of outside spending and super PAC interference.”

“And like all of Jon’s races, Montana’s Senate election will likely be decided by just a few thousand votes,” Dantic added, laying out expectations for election margins. 

Tester’s campaign manager is confident he will win, nonetheless. According to Dantic, the organization and grassroots coalition necessary to pull off a victory will work in his favor. Dantic claimed Tester’s supporters include “Republicans, independents, veterans, Native Americans, women, rural voters, young voters, and seniors across the state.”

BALANCE OF POWER: MESSY GOP PRIMARIES COULD BOOST DEMOCRATS IN SWING STATE RACES

The Montana Senate race is considered one of the most competitive races in the country in the 2024 elections. (Education Images/Universal Images Group)

Following his easy primary win Tuesday, Sheehy said in a statement, “America is at a crossroads, and we need a new generation of leaders to save our country.”

“I am humbled and honored by all the support and look forward to finally retiring the #1 recipient of lobbyist cash and pro-Biden liberal Jon Tester,” he added. 

ROMNEY SCORCHES BRAGG’S ‘POLITICAL DECISION’ IN TRUMP CASE: ‘MALPRACTICE’

Former President Donald Trump and NRSC Chairman Steve Daines of Montana.  (Getty Images)

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National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman and Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines said in a Tuesday statement, “The clearest path to a Republican Senate majority runs through Montana. Tim Sheehy will deliver a Senate majority for President Trump, Jon Tester wants to deliver a Senate majority for Joe Biden. That is the choice in this election. President Trump is counting on Montana to elect Tim Sheehy.”

Conservative PAC the Sentinel Action Fund delivered another win for Sheehy on Wednesday, officially endorsing him and launching a seven-figure early and absentee voting initiative in the state. 

Jessica Anderson, President of the Sentinel Action Fund, announced in a statement, “The Sentinel Action Fund is thrilled to endorse Tim Sheehy for U.S. Senate in Montana, and we are committed to using our robust election infrastructure and SkipTheLineMT.vote to turn out voters for Sheehy through absentee vote-by-mail, ballot harvesting, and ballot chasing.”

Republicans slammed a bill being considered by the Senate Wednesday afternoon, claiming their Democratic counterparts are “fearmongering” over access to contraception in order “to score cheap political points.”

“There is no threat to access to contraception, which is legal in every state and required by law to be offered at no cost by health insurers,” more than 20 Republican senators said in a joint statement. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., informed senators on Sunday that they should expect to vote on a bill designed to protect the right to contraception during the week, and later announced that the bill was slated for Wednesday. 

DEMS IN HOT SEAT FOR ALLEGED ETHICS VIOLATIONS OVER ALITO RECUSAL DEMANDS

Sen. Rick Scott led more than 20 other Republicans in a statement condemning the Democratic contraception bill. (Getty Images)

“This is not a show vote. This is a show us who you are vote,” Schumer claimed at a press conference Wednesday ahead of the vote, in response to Republican criticisms of the leader for scheduling votes on messaging bills rather than bipartisan legislation with a higher likelihood of moving forward.

Republicans are criticizing the bill to be considered, the “Right to Contraception Act,” saying it “infringes on the parental rights and religious liberties of some Americans and lets the federal government force religious institutions and schools, even public elementary schools, to offer contraception like condoms to little kids.”

BALANCE OF POWER: MESSY GOP PRIMARIES COULD BOOST DEMOCRATS IN SWING STATE RACES

A package of PlanB One-Step, an emergency contraceptive pill, is seen in security packaging at a CVS Pharmacy in Washington, on July 7, 2022. (REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger)

“It’s just another way for Democrats to use activist attorneys and our courts to advance their radical agenda and that is why we oppose this bill,” the group of senators claimed. 

The group was led by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who is running for GOP leader in the new Senate, wherein Republicans have a good opportunity to regain the majority in November. 

Co-signers of the statement included Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Ted Budd, R-N.C., James Lankford, R-Okla., Jim Risch, R-Idaho., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Katie Britt, R-Ala., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., John Thune, R-S.D., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Steve Daines, R-Mont.

ROMNEY SCORCHES BRAGG’S ‘POLITICAL DECISION’ IN TRUMP CASE: ‘MALPRACTICE’

Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks during a news conference on the Right to Contraception Act outside the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.  (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Top pro-Life group Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America additionally blasted the bill in a letter, claiming it “seeks to guarantee funding to abortion providers by barring federal and state governments from redirecting contraception funding to life-affirming health care providers. Therefore, abortionists and abortion facilities would be entitled to taxpayer funding even if the representative government in their state has redirected such funding from abortion providers to life-affirming providers.”

GOP’S MURKOWSKI LAMENTS TRUMP’S ‘BAGGAGE’ FOLLOWING GUILTY VERDICT

‘Life is the human rights issue of our time and the pivotal issue in 2024 elections,’ Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told Fox News Digital in a statement. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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“The Democrats’ deceptive Payouts to Planned Parenthood Act has less to do with access to contraception than with funneling taxpayer dollars to the abortion industry and crushing dissent. Contraception is legal and available in every state and Congress funds contraception through numerous federal programs every year,” the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a statement. 

The measure is likely to fall short of the 60 votes necessary to move forward on Wednesday when the cloture motion gets a vote.

FIRST ON FOX: A former White House physician-turned-Republican lawmaker says President Biden’s mental fitness is a matter of “national security.” 

“The article’s just documenting what I’ve been saying all along: he’s not fit to be the commander-in-chief,” Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “He’s got significant issues, he shouldn’t have the job. You know, it’s a national security issue for us.”

It comes after a bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal that cited interviews with 45 people over the course of several months, claiming that congressional leaders and others who have met with Biden have noticed he “appears slower now” and is “someone who has both good moments and bad ones.” 

Before being elected to Congress, Jackson served as the top White House physician to former Presidents Obama and Trump. He also served as chief medical adviser for the latter.

BIDEN SAYS WORLD LEADERS ARE SCARED OF ANOTHER TRUMP PRESIDENCY, TELL HIM ‘YOU CAN’T LET’ TRUMP WIN

Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, left, and President Biden. (Getty Images)

The Journal’s report has prompted furious pushback from the White House and its allies, who have dismissed it as a GOP-led hit piece.

However, Jackson pointed out that some of the commentary apparently came from Democrats. The report said, “Most of those who said Biden performed poorly were Republicans, but some Democrats said that he showed his age in several of the exchanges.”

The Texas Republican speculated that it could be the beginnings of a political coup against the 81-year-old president.

“I think that the fact that it came out like this, and is so well sourced, tells me that this might be the left’s first attempt to start laying the groundwork to get rid of him,” Jackson said.

Jackson told Fox News Digital that he has sent five letters to the White House since Biden took office in January 2021, urging him to take a cognitive test and to make those results public. All five letters have gone unanswered, he said.

BIDEN ORDER TO BLOCK MOST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHEN CROSSINGS SURGE, AS ELECTION NEARS

President Biden’s mental fitness was called into question in a new report. (AP/Evan Vucci)

“I don’t know if it does any good to send another letter at this point,” Jackson said. “They’ve ignored them all.”

There have been several recent polls that show Biden’s age is a top concern for voters.

A March New York Times/Siena College poll found that 61% of respondents who voted for Biden in 2020 agreed with the statement, “Joe Biden is just too old to be an effective president.” 

White House spokesman Andrew Bates hit back at the Journal’s report, saying, “Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders and nonpartisan national-security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment.”

“Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues,” Bates said.

BIDEN SAYS TRUMP ‘SHOULD’ HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO APPEAL CONVICTION, GRINS AND IGNORES QUESTIONS

Former Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., defended President Biden. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., posted on X, “Many of us spent time with [the Journal] to share on the record our first-hand experiences with [Biden], where we see his wisdom, experience, strength and strategic thinking. Instead, the Journal ignored testimony by Democrats, focused on attacks by Republicans and printed a hit piece.”

“I made clear to the [Journal] regarding the January meeting on Ukraine that the President was absolutely engaged & ran that meeting in a way that brought everyone together. I’m not quoted — I wonder why,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., wrote on X.

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

President Biden’s cognitive performance is once again being thrust into the spotlight following a new report from The Wall Street Journal that the 81-year-old is showing signs of slowing down during private meetings. 

Many Republicans and even some Democrats said the president showed his age in those settings, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing conversations with 45 lawmakers and administration officials about the president’s mental performance. 

White House officials are dismissing many of the accounts, but here are five of President Biden’s recent gaffes.

President Biden reacts after reading “four more years, pause,” off a teleprompter on April 24. (Fox News)

May 20: Biden says Hamas hostage being held in Gaza is at the White House 

President Biden said at a Rose Garden event celebrating Jewish American Heritage last month that American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg Polin, who is currently being held captive by Hamas, was in attendance. 

“My administration is working around the clock to free the remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already. And here with us today is Hersh Goldberg Polin,” Biden said, before quickly correcting himself. 

BIDEN MOCKED AFTER ‘I’M IN THE 20TH CENTURY’ GAFFE

“And still he is not here with us, but he’s still being held by Hamas,” Biden then said, recognizing the 23-year-old’s parents, who were in attendance that day. 

May 19: Biden suggests he was vice president during the coronavirus pandemic 

President Biden appeared to claim during a campaign event in Michigan that he was vice president during the coronavirus pandemic and that former President Barack Obama dispatched him to Detroit to help battle the disease. 

“And when I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic,” Biden said. “And, what happened was Barack said to me: ‘Go to Detroit – and help fix it.’” 

But the coronavirus pandemic, numbered COVID-19 due to global health officials having deemed it an outbreak in 2019, transpired in the latter years of former President Trump’s term, not when Obama was president. Biden was last vice president in January 2017. 

April 24: Biden reads teleprompter instructions out loud 

President Biden, during a speech at a trade union conference in Washington, D.C., appeared to read teleprompter instructions out loud. 

“I see an economy that grows from the middle out and bottom up, where the wealthy pay their fair share, so we can have childcare, paid leave and so much more and still reduce the federal deficit and increase economic growth. Folks, imagine what we can do next, four more years, pause,” Biden said.  

BIDEN TAKES HEAT OVER GAFFE URGING AMERICANS TO ‘CHOOSE FREEDOM OVER DEMOCRACY’

The crowd then broke out in a chant of “Four more years!” while Biden did indeed pause. 

April 23: Biden asks crowd how many times does Trump have to prove ‘we can’t be trusted’? 

Biden, speaking during a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida, said that “now, in America today, in 2024, women have fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers had because of Donald Trump.” 

“Look, I don’t think we are going to let them get away with it, do you?” Biden asked the crowd, who shouted “No!” in response. 

“And folks, in a sense, I don’t know why we are surprised by Trump – how many times does he have to prove we can’t be trusted?” Biden then asked the crowd. 

Feb. 7: Biden claims he spoke with German chancellor who died in 2017 

Biden in 2021 claimed he spoke with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, while recalling past conversations during fundraising events. 

Biden attended three campaign reception events in New York, according to his schedule. At his second and third events, he told donors about conversations surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, at his first Group of Seven (G7) meeting as president, which took place in England in June of that year. 

The president said that the late German Chancellor Kohl asked him what he would say if he learned 1,000 people stormed the British Parliament in an attempt to deny the next prime minister from taking office. 

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The annual meeting was not attended by Kohl, as he had been dead for four years, but by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

Fox News’ Landon Mion, Charles Creitz and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.