NationalWatch

President Biden told a crowd in Las Vegas on Sunday that he recently met with Francois Mitterand, the French president who has been dead for nearly 30 years. 

The comments came while Biden was warning of the dangers of a potential second Trump presidency, as he aimed to shore up enthusiasm ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Nevada. 

Biden recounted a story he has told many times during his presidency, about a meeting he had with French President Emmanuel Macron during a G7 meeting in England, some months after Biden had taken over the White House. 

“I sat down and I said, ‘America’s back,’” Biden recalled. “And Mitterand from Germany – I mean from France – looked at me and said…” 

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE 2024 NEVADA REPUBLICAN CAUCUS AND PRIMARY

Biden appeared to trail off before collecting his thoughts to finish the sentence: “Well, how long are you back for?” 

The president continued, saying the “Chancellor of Germany” asked him how he – and by extension, the U.S. – would respond if, hypothetically, thousands of people stormed Britain’s House of Commons and killed two “bobbies,” or British police officers, to stop the election of a Prime Minister. 

François Mitterrand was France’s president between 1981 and 1995. He died in 1996. 

In Tuesday’s Nevada Democratic presidential primary, Biden faces only token opposition from author Marianne Williamson and a few relatively unknown challengers. He won Nevada in November 2020 by fewer than 3 percentage points. But he came to Nevada to rouse voters for the fall campaign as well.

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The state known largely for its casino and hospitality industries is synonymous with split-ticket, hard-to-predict results. It has a transient, working-class population and large Latino, Filipino and Chinese American and Black communities. Nevada has a stark rural-urban divide, with more than 88% of active registered voters — and much of its political power — in the two most populous counties, which include the Las Vegas and Reno metro areas.

South Dakota is poised to update its laws against child sexual abuse images to include those created by artificial intelligence, under a bill headed to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem.

The bill, which is a combined effort by Republican Attorney General Marty Jackley and lawmakers, also includes deepfakes, which are images or videos manipulated to look like a real person.

In an interview, Jackley said some state and local investigations have required federal prosecution because South Dakota’s laws aren’t geared toward AI.

KRISTI NOEM SHARES VISION FOR AMERICA IN NEW BOOK AMID SPECULATION ABOUT RUNNING AS TRUMP’S VP

The bill includes mandatory, minimum prison sentences of one, five and 10 years for first-time offenses of possession, distribution and manufacturing, respectively.

The GOP-held House of Representatives passed the bill with others in a 64-1 vote on Monday. The Republican-supermajority Senate previously passed the bill unanimously.

Another bill on Jackley’s legislative agenda also is headed to Noem, to make the animal sedative xylazine a controlled substance.

Last year the Office of National Drug Control Policy designated the combination of xylazine and deadly fentanyl as an ” emerging threat.” Jackley has said xylazine has “become a national epidemic” and has appeared in South Dakota, mainly in Sioux Falls.

Xylazine can cause health problems in humans, including difficulty breathing, dangerously low blood pressure, a slowed heart rate, wounds that can become infected and even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bill, which allows xylazine for veterinary use, would create penalties of up to two years in prison and/or a $4,000 fine for possession and use of xylazine.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously on Monday, after the House did the same last month. The South Dakota Health Department and Jackley brought the bill.

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Noem highlighted the xylazine issue in her State of the State address last month.

The next showdown in the Republican nominating fight between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley takes place in Nevada this week.

But because of legal disputes and political maneuverings, there are actually two contests.

Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination, is on one ballot on Tuesday, while Trump is on a different one on Thursday.

TRUMP DELIVERS UNIFYING MESSAGE AFTER LANDSLIDE CAUCUS VICTORY, RECEIVES BIPARTISAN PRAISE

Trump, the former Republican president, has almost clinched the nomination after victories in nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. Haley, a former U.N. ambassador who has no clear path to the nomination, has vowed to stay in the race and is aiming to make a potential last stand in her home state of South Carolina on Feb. 24.

Here are some key facts about why the Nevada race is such an anomaly this year:

WHY TWO CONTESTS?

The first contest is a state-run primary on Feb. 6. Haley is on that ballot. The second vote is a caucus on Feb. 8, organized by the Trump-friendly Nevada Republican Party, with just Trump on that ballot.

Even if Haley wins the primary on Feb. 6, it will be an empty victory, as only candidates competing in the party-run caucus on Feb. 8 can compete for the state’s 26 delegates.

That means Trump is almost certainly assured to win all of Nevada’s 26 delegates on Feb. 8.

There is a backstory as to why many of the Western state’s voters find themselves receiving two ballots in the mail, with Trump on only one of them, and Haley on the other.

The competing ballots are the result of a conflict between the state Republican Party – run by Trump allies – and a 2021 state law that mandates a primary must be held.

Nevada has long held caucuses to chose presidential candidates, but after reporting issues and other problems with the 2020 caucuses, the state legislature passed a law switching its voting system to a more straightforward, traditional primary vote.

The law was also aimed at making Nevada a more attractive option as it sought to move higher up the nominating calendar pecking order. Initially, the move appeared to be a success: for 2024, by setting a primary date of Feb. 6, the state captured the coveted spot of being third in the nation to vote.

But presidential nominating caucuses are run by state political parties, not the state, and the Trump-friendly Nevada Republican Party decided to stick with a caucus on Feb. 8. Party leaders viewed a caucus as helping Trump, because of his superior ground game in the state.

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They also ruled last year that any candidate participating in the primary on Feb. 6 would be barred from participating in the caucus, and thus could not compete for any of the state’s 26 delegates.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE NEVADA?

On one level, Nevada got what it wanted: third in line in the nominating process. But on another, it’s an empty prize: Haley is not campaigning there, Trump has made only one recent visit, and the national media are all but ignoring a contest the state Republican Party sewed up in Trump’s favor months ago.

Former President Trump reacted to the newly released Senate immigration bill by calling it “horrendous” and a “gift to Democrats” while calling for immigration and foreign aid to be dealt with in separate bills.

“Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday morning.. “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party. It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans. Don’t be STUPID!!!”

Trump continued, “We need a separate Border and Immigration Bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape, or form! The Democrats broke Immigration and the Border. They should fix it. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

In a follow up post, Trump called the bill a “highly sophisticated trap.”

MIGRANTS WHO FLED AFTER ALLEGEDLY BEATING NYC POLICE USE STOLEN PHONES TO BUY CARS, POOLS BACK HOME: REPORT

“The ridiculous ‘Border’ Bill is nothing more than a highly sophisticated trap for Republicans to assume the blame on what the Radical Left Democrats have done to our Border, just in time for our most important EVER Election,” Trump wrote. “Don’t fall for it!!!”

The long awaited release of the Senate immigration bill on Sunday night sparked backlash from conservatives including House Speaker Mike Johnson who called the bipartisan  $118 billion border security and foreign aid package is “even worse than we expected” and would be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.

Republicans have taken issue with a provision of the bill that states the border will be shutdown only when 5,000 illegal immigrants a day cross the border as well as the billions of dollars of spending attached that goes to Ukraine and Israel. 

What the bill text does is create a new “border emergency authority” to turn people away, which may be used if the average number of migrants encountered reaches an average 4,000 per day across a seven-day period. The authority would be mandatory if that number hits 5,000. 

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS LASHES OUT AT SENATE BORDER DEAL: ‘DUMPSTER FIRE’

Those powers can be used for up to 270 days in the first year of implementation, a number that gradually decreases before the authority sunsets altogether in three years.

“Let me be clear: The Senate Border Bill will NOT receive a vote in the House,” House Majority Leader Scalise wrote on X. “Here’s what the people pushing this ‘deal’ aren’t telling you: It accepts 5,000 illegal immigrants a day and gives automatic work permits to asylum recipients — a magnet for more illegal immigration.”

MUSK CALLS OUT UNFAIR BLUE STATE ADVANTAGE GAINED FROM ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

House Freedom Caucus members urged their conservative Senate colleagues to reject the recently unveiled border security compromise, claiming it does not go far enough to curb the migrant crisis.

“It’s clear why Democrats waited until the last minute to drop this dumpster fire of a bill, it’s far worse than we could have expected,” former Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital on Sunday night after the legislation was released. “The Senate must reject this American sellout.”

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Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford, a sponsor of the bill, defended the legislation in a Fox News appearance on Monday morning.

“This authority is a 5,000 authority to say if you get to 5,000, which we’ve been there every single day except for 7 in the last 4 months, that it completely closes the border down, it deports everyone,” Lankford said. “It changes the paradigm from right now what the Biden administration is doing catching and releasing everyone to actually catching and deporting everyone.”

“It literally flips the script on it.”

“The key aspect of this, again, is are we, as Republicans, going to have press conferences and complain the borders bad and then intentionally leave it open after the worst month in American history in December?” Lankford added. “Now we’ve got to actually determine, are we going to just complain about things? Are we going to actually address in a change as many things as we can if we have the shot?”

Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Lankford’s office regarding Trump’s social media post but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report

Nikki Haley’s Republican presidential campaign says this week’s dual GOP contests in Nevada aren’t on its radar.

“In terms of Nevada, we have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada,” campaign manager Betsy Ankney told reporters on Monday. “So Nevada is not and has never been our focus.”

And Ankney charges that Thursday’s caucuses run by the Nevada GOP are “rigged” for former President Donald Trump, whom Haley is challenging for the Republican nomination.

Trump, who is the commanding frontrunner for the GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run, is the only major candidate running in the caucus. And Haley, the former South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, is the sole remaining candidate listed on the state’s Republican primary ballot.

HALEY TOUTS FUNDRAISING BONANZA AHEAD OF FIRST RALLY IN SUPER TUESDAY STATE

The genesis of the competing contests dates back to 2021, when Democrats, who at the time controlled both Nevada’s governor’s office and the legislature, passed a law changing the presidential nominating contest from long-held caucuses to a state-run primary. 

The Nevada GOP objected, but last year their legal bid to stop the primary from going forward was rejected. In a twist, the judge in the case allowed the state Republicans to hold their own caucuses. No delegates will be at stake in the Republican primary, while all 26 will be up for grabs in the GOP caucus.

HALEY, TRUMP, TRADE SHOTS OVER WHO’S STRONGER AGAINST BIDEN

The state GOP ruled that candidates who put their name on the state-run primary ballot could not take part in the caucuses. 

Haley and some of the other now-departed Republican presidential candidates viewed the Nevada GOP as too loyal to Trump and decided to skip a caucus they believed was tipped in favor of the former president.

Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald and both of the state’s members of the Republican National Committee are supporting Trump.

“We made the decision early on that we were not going to pay $55,000 to a Trump entity that, you know, to participate in a process that was rigged for Trump,” Ankney argued.

WHAT NIKKI HALEY TOLD FOX DIGITAL ABOUT WHAT SHE NEEDS TO DO TO KEEP RUNNING

While Trump’s assured of winning all 26 delegates at stake, sources say he and his campaign advisers have some concerns. An unpleasant potential scenario for Trump, who won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary by double-digits, could be Haley grabbing more votes in the primary than Trump lands in the caucus.

While the GOP presidential candidates had to choose either the caucus or primary ballot, registered Republicans in Nevada can vote in both contests.

And in the GOP primary, there’s no vehicle for voters to write in Trump’s name. The choices on the ballot are Haley and a “none of these candidates” option. 

Trump’s campaign has been working to get the message out to supporters in Nevada that if they want to vote for the former president, they need to show up at the caucuses.

“Your primary vote doesn’t mean anything. It’s your caucus vote,” Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas late last month. “So in your state, you have both the primary and you have a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing.”

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Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is supporting Trump, told the Nevada Independent last month that he would vote for “none of the above” in Tuesday’s primary and would caucus for Trump in the state GOP’s contest on Thursday.

A source in the former president’s political orbit told Fox News that team Trump is “fortunate that Haley doesn’t have her act together in Nevada.”

Trump is expected back in Las Vegas on Thursday for a caucus celebration.

Haley is not campaigning in Nevada and hasn’t campaigned in the state since speaking in late October at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference.

Haley heads to California on Wednesday, where she’s scheduled to headline her first rally in any of the 15 states that hold nominating contests on Super Tuesday in early March.

Ahead of her western campaign and fundraising swing, Haley is aiming to spotlight her momentum as she faces a steep uphill climb for the 2024 nomination against Trump. 

Haley’s team says they hauled in $16.5 million in fundraising last month across all of their campaign committees, including $11.7 million from small-dollar grassroots supporters.

The January haul – Haley’s best fundraising month to date – was first reported Sunday by Axios and confirmed by Fox News. Haley’s campaign also said they added nearly 70,000 donors last month. 

Haley has seen her fundraising continue to increase since launching her presidential campaign a year ago. She raised $7.3 million during the April-June second quarter of 2023 fundraising, $11 million during the July-September third quarter, and over $24 million during the final three months of last year, as first reported by Fox News.

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans are supporting Nikki’s campaign because they don’t want two grumpy old men and all their chaos, confusion and grievances. They want a strong, conservative leader who will save this country,” Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas argued, as she took aim at the 77-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Biden.

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

FIRST ON FOX: A group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been hit with a complaint alleging they have violated Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules. 

The mysterious entity, called the Last Best Place PAC, recently jumped into the Montana Senate race and began spending millions to target former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy ahead of the state’s Republican primary. 

The Last Best Place PAC is financially driven by Majority Forward, a dark money nonprofit that has put hundreds of thousands toward the Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC for salaries, insurance and IT security. Federal records filed last week show Majority Forward funneled $2.14 million to the Last Best Place PAC and was its only funder.

Meanwhile, the group did not file a single independent expenditure report showing those actions, as required by FEC rules, and is now facing a complaint from Americans for Public Trust (APT) over the matter.

SCHUMER-ALIGNED GROUP PULLED IN $270M FROM SECRET DONORS IN RECENT YEARS AS HE DECRIED DARK MONEY

“Last Best Place PAC is masquerading as a local Montana operation while quietly laundering millions of dollars from DC liberals,” APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News Digital. 

“Spending massive sums of money to impact this election without filing the legally required reports flies in the face of the letter and spirit of our election laws,” Sutherland continued. “This behavior warrants an immediate investigation by the FEC in order to uphold the basic standards of transparency and public trust.”

BLAKE MASTERS’ CAMPAIGN SHARED MISLEADING FUNDRAISING NUMBERS, FAILED TO DISCLOSE CANDIDATE LOANED $1 MILLION

Within the complaint filed to the FEC on Monday morning, APT says that the Last Best Place PAC has “made independent expenditures aggregating $10,000 or more in a calendar year,” and reporting had indicated as much. Therefore, the Last Best Place PAC was required to submit independent expenditure reports displaying their ad buys but neglected to do so.

The Last Best Place PAC’s recently filed year-end report also shed light on its media expenditures. According to its filing, the PAC poured over $2.1 million into media buys and production costs between early September and late December with Waterfront Strategies and Mountain Media. 

APT’s complaint states the committee “is failing to meet the legal requirements and basic standards of transparency to which every other independent expenditure committee is required to adhere” and called on the FEC to immediately investigate and “determine and impose appropriate sanctions for any and all violations.”

The most recent attempt to stir up the Montana Republican primary, where Sheehy faces a potential challenge from Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., is only the latest of Schumer-tied groups receiving criticism for meddling in GOP races.

In the Big Sky State, Last Best Place PAC is reportedly planning to spend over $5 million attacking Sheehy in the race to unseat vulnerable Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., according to AdImpact.

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“The career politicians back in DC are terrified of conservative outsider Tim Sheehy because he’s going to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump to drain the swamp, save our country, and put America and Montana First!” Sheehy told Fox News Digital after the Senate Majority PAC confirmed to Fox News Digital they are behind the Last Best Place PAC.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Senate Majority PAC for comment on the complaint.

Nikki Haley heads to California on Wednesday, where the Republican presidential candidate is scheduled to headline her first rally in any of the 15 states that hold nominating contests on Super Tuesday in early March.

Ahead of her western campaign and fundraising swing, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in former President Donald Trump’s administration is aiming to spotlight her momentum as she faces a steep uphill climb for the 2024 GOP nomination against her former boss.

Haley’s team says they hauled in $16.5 million in fundraising last month across all of their campaign committees, including $11.7 million from small-dollar grassroots supporters.

The January haul – Haley’s best fundraising month to date – was first reported Sunday by Axios and confirmed by Fox News. Haley’s campaign also said they added nearly 70,000 donors last month. 

HALEY, TRUMP, TRADE SHOTS OVER WHO’S STRONGER AGAINST BIDEN

Haley has seen her fundraising continue to increase since launching her presidential campaign a year ago. She raised $7.3 million during the April-June second quarter of 2023 fundraising, $11 million during the July-September third quarter, and over $24 million during the final three months of last year, as first reported by Fox News.

WHAT NIKKI HALEY TOLD FOX DIGITAL ABOUT WHAT SHE NEEDS TO DO TO KEEP RUNNING

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans are supporting Nikki’s campaign because they don’t want two grumpy old men and all their chaos, confusion and grievances. They want a strong, conservative leader who will save this country,” Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas argued, as she took aim at the 77-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Biden.

Once a very long shot for the nomination, Haley enjoyed momentum in the polls in the late summer and autumn, thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates.

She’s the final major rival to Trump in a GOP presidential field that expanded to nearly 15 candidates last summer before shrinking.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race last month, two days ahead of the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary, making the nomination race a two-candidate showdown between Haley and Trump, who’s the commanding frontrunner as he runs a third straight time for the White House.

Haley captured 43% of the vote in New Hampshire, trailing Trump by 11 points.

She and her team have repeatedly spotlighted her grassroots fundraising in the days since the New Hampshire primary. And Haley held fundraisers last week with top dollar GOP donors in New York City and South Florida, with similar finance events scheduled for California this week, as well as Texas.

WHERE TRUMP AND HALEY STAND IN THE LATEST POLL IN A KEY REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY STATE

The next major contest on the Republican schedule is Haley’s home state, which holds its GOP primary on Feb. 24. The latest public opinion survey indicates the former president has a formidable 26-point lead over Haley.

But Haley said she doesn’t need to win in South Carolina to keep her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination alive.

“Success means being competitive. Closing the gap. Making sure we can continue to go forward as we go into Super Tuesday,” Haley emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview last Thursday.

Haley, speaking with Fox News after a campaign event at a popular eatery in the Palmetto State’s capital city, reiterated her goalposts.

“It’s just about keeping that momentum going. We got 20% in Iowa. We got 43% in New Hampshire. Let’s bring it a little bit closer so that we can get closer in to him [Trump] and make it more competitive going into Super Tuesday,” she emphasized.

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Thirty-six percent of all Republican presidential delegates will be up for grabs in the primaries and caucuses held on Super Tuesday, which this year will take place on March 5.

Since her 11-point loss to Trump on Jan. 23 in New Hampshire, Haley has faced calls to drop out, so Trump can start focusing on defeating President Biden in November’s general election.

But Haley emphasized that “we’re not going anywhere.”

“This is about just closing that gap,” she added. “We have a country to save, and I am determined to keep on going the entire way as long as we can keep closing that gap.”

Trump has repeatedly slammed Haley since she announced on primary night in New Hampshire that she would continue her presidential campaign.

On Sunday, Trump took to his Truth Social plaform to charge that Haley was a “Failed Political Candidate.”

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

President Biden’s support among Black voters has dropped significantly since 2020, and his supporters are beginning to blame the change on “disinformation.”

The Democratic Party in South Carolina, where the Black vote essentially saved Biden’s candidacy in the 2020 primary, launched a program seeking to “educate” the state’s Black voters this month. Party officials went on a 30-stop bus tour of the state in an effort to close “the information gap” among Black voters. 

“I think there’s a lot of disinformation out there,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison told NOTUS. “There are a lot of folks who don’t want this president for whatever reason, and I think some foreign and some domestic. They don’t want the record to be straight in terms of what this president has done and accomplished.”

“We needed to educate our voters and create a space for our candidates to come talk about their record,” Christale Spain, the Democratic Party chair in South Carolina, told the outlet. “That’s really why we launched this historic effort, to fill what I feel is an information gap and not an enthusiasm gap.”

BLACK VOTERS IN GEORGIA ‘DISAPPOINTED’ BY BIDEN: ‘IT MAKES ME WONDER WHY I VOTE’

Democrats argue Black voters need to be taught about what they say are Biden’s major successes, pointing to the Inflation Reduction Act, student loan forgiveness and other issues.

BIDEN’S POLLING PROBLEM: RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION IN 2024, THE PRESIDENT ENDS 2023 UNDERWATER

According to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released in January, Biden’s support among Black voters has fallen to just 63%, down from the 92% that Pew Research Center data shows he won in the 2020 presidential election. His support among Hispanic voters is down to 34% from 59%.

One student at South Carolina State University told NOTUS that she only began supporting Biden after finding out his record on appointing Black judges to the bench.

“I really didn’t know the information,” the student, Zyah Cephus, told the outlet. “I think those are things that the youth need to hear. I think, oftentimes, we’re kind of connected with the wrong things and disconnected with the right things. We know about Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion, but we don’t know about what’s going on in politics.”

Biden’s poll numbers more generally have remained historically low, with some Democratic commentators saying it is time to “panic.”

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“Precisely how scared Democrats should be about Biden’s standing depends on how his plight compares with those of presidents past. And there’s no sugarcoating it: This might be the worst polling environment for an incumbent president one year out from an election since the advent of the polling era in the 1930s and also the most dire situation facing any Democratic presidential candidate in decades,” David Faris, a writer and political science professor at Roosevelt University, said last month.

“Panic is entirely warranted,” he added.

Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is throwing his support behind Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno for the Ohio Senate.

Tuberville made the endorsement ahead of the state’s heated March primary race, where Moreno is challenging GOP candidates Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan for the Republican nomination.

“I’m endorsing Bernie Moreno for U.S. Senate because we need more Conservative fighters in Washington,” Tuberville said in a press release obtained first by Fox News Digital. “A successful businessman, proven leader, and political outsider, Bernie will join our fight against the Washington swamp.”

Republicans are putting an emphasis on red state Ohio as one of the GOP’s best Senate pickup opportunities of the 2024 cycle – a state won by former President Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

OHIO SENATE CANDIDATE SAYS GOP IMPEACHING ‘TRAITOR’ MAYORKAS A ‘NO BRAINER’: ‘GROTESQUELY UNQUALIFIED’

Moreno, who is running to unseat vulnerable Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, expressed gratitude for the support from “a relentless fighter against the Washington establishment.”

TRUMP ALLY MORENO PICKS UP NOEM ENDORSEMENT, RISES TO TOP OHIO REPUBLICAN VYING TO BOOT DEMOCRAT SHERROD BROWN

“I am honored to have the endorsement of Senator Tuberville, a relentless fighter against the Washington establishment,” Moreno said. “I look forward to standing strong for our conservative values in the Senate alongside Senator Tuberville, and I am grateful for his support.”

Tuberville’s backing followed endorsements from former President Trump, Gov. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.

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Tuberville has made several recent endorsements in prominent Senate races of the 2024 cycle, including backing Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy.

FIRST ON FOX: House Freedom Caucus members are urging their conservative Senate colleagues to reject the recently unveiled border security compromise, claiming it does not go far enough to curb the migrant crisis.

“It’s clear why Democrats waited until the last minute to drop this dumpster fire of a bill, it’s far worse than we could have expected,” former Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital on Sunday night after the legislation was released. “The Senate must reject this American sellout.”

The proposal is aimed at tightening current immigration and asylum laws while also fast-tracking eligible asylum claims. It also would give President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security authorities to temporarily shut down the border when it is overwhelmed.

However, a majority of House Republicans have insisted on border reform that goes even further, pointing to their H.R.2 border security bill passed last year.

SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES

Others, like Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., are still critical of its attachment to Democrats’ supplemental aid proposal that would also allocate $60 billion toward Ukraine and additional funding for Israel and elsewhere.

“Instead of fighting for a serious bill that combats the invasion we face, weak-kneed Senate Republicans got rolled by Democrats, letting their obsession with Ukraine get in the way of their duty to America,” Crane told Fox News Digital. “This pathetic excuse for [a] border security deal gives Ukraine three times as much as it allocates to the U.S. border.”

JOHNSON SAYS TRUMP IS ‘NOT CALLING THE SHOTS’ FOR HOUSE ON BORDER DEAL

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital, “At first glance, this ‘deal’ is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is a Ukraine border deal, not a U.S. border deal.” 

A big sticking point for critics even before the bill was released was the rumored authority to allow 5,000 migrants into the country per day before enforcing a Title 42-like expulsion authority. 

What the bill text does is create a new “border emergency authority” to turn people away, which may be used if the average number of migrants encountered reaches an average 4,000 per day across a seven-day period. The authority would be mandatory if that number hits 5,000. 

Those powers can be used for up to 270 days in the first year of implementation, a number that gradually decreases before the authority sunsets altogether in three years.

SOUTH DAKOTA GOV NOEM SEEKS TO BOLSTER TEXAS SECURITY EFFORTS AT US-MEXICO BORDER

“The acceptable number of illegal aliens allows into the U.S. should be zero. The proposal is an absolute slap in the face to Americans and no Republican (or Democrat, for that matter) should support it,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. 

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., Senate Republicans’ lead negotiator of the deal, called the notion that 5,000 people were “coming into the country” each day “absurd and untrue.”

“The emergency authority is not designed to let 5,000 people in, it is designed to close the border and turn 5,000 people around,” he said on X.

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However, it is not just GOP hardliners who are pumping the breaks on the bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called it a “nonstarter” and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., vowed it would not get a House vote.

GOP Conference Policy Chair Gary Palmer, R-Ala., wrote on X, “I cannot believe the Senate actually thinks this bill will secure our border. This poor excuse for a border security bill will continue to incentivize illegal crossings and will not have my support.”

Squad members Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., have both so far been out-raised by their more moderate Democrat challengers, as primary threats mount. 

Bush, a defund the police advocate under Justice Department investigation for shelling out tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to a security firm, was just narrowly outraised by her primary challenger, attorney Wesley Bell. 

Bell earned $492,149 in donations, compared to the $487,000 Bush raised during the last quarter of 2023, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission. 

“Missouri’s 1st District deserves a representative who shows up, does the work and gets things done,” Bell said in a statement to The Hill. “I’m honored by our fast-growing list of endorsements from community members and local officials, and energized by the incredible momentum of support driving our campaign.”

CORI BUSH BLAMES ‘RIGHT-WING’ WATCHDOG GROUPS FOR DOJ PROBE

Bowman, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after pulling an office fire alarm in the House – allegedly to pause a vote during the government shutdown debate – raked in about $724,000 in the last quarter of 2023, according to the latest FEC filings. That compares to the $1.4 million raised by his opponent in New York’s 14th Congressional District, George Latimer. 

“There is a fundamental weakness to Latimer’s fundraising,” Bill Neidhardt, a spokesperson for Bowman’s re-election push, told The Hill. “His connection to Republican Trump mega donors.”

“His money won’t go as far in a Democratic primary where the electorate wants to hold Donald Trump accountable,” Neidhardt added. 

A Westchester County Executive who entered the race in early December, Latimer traveled to Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks to show support for the Jewish state and earned the endorsement from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. 

Meanwhile, Bowman, who represents what is considered a safe blue seat, recently lost the endorsement of the progressive group J Street. 

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An organization that claims to be pro-Israel but has faced criticism because of its support for positions that allegedly favor Iran’s regime and the Palestinians, J Street rescinded its endorsement of Bowman on Jan. 30, arguing that the progressive congressman “crossed a line” in calling for a cease-fire and describing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a “genocide.” 

Other Squad members, Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., continue to rake in donations. 

Despite their fundraising setbacks and controversial anti-Israel remarks, Bush and Bowman are still considered tough – and likely costly – to beat as progressive incumbents. Their defeat, however, would signal a shift more toward the center of the Democratic Party in Congress. 

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“It’s a very small group to begin with,” Mark Mellman, a veteran Democratic pollster and leader of the Democratic Majority for Israel, told The Hill of members of Congress considered part of the progressive Squad. “It would be good for the party and good for the country if it got smaller.”

EXCLUSIVE: The United Nations Foundation, a nonprofit founded in the 1990s to support global U.N. initiatives, is quietly fueling climate change policies in top Democratic state government offices nationwide, Fox News Digital has learned.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization — which was “created to work closely with the United Nations” — houses the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of Democrat-led states launched to coordinate environmental policy after former President Donald Trump withdrew from the U.N. Paris climate accords. As part of the initiative, the United Nations Foundation has wired millions of dollars to state governors and agencies, in many cases even funding state officials’ salaries.

According to United Nations Foundation tax filings reviewed by Fox News Digital, the group wired a staggering $5.4 million to 12 state governments between 2020 and 2022, the most recent year with data available, with grants often being vaguely earmarked for “UN strengthening.” Further, information requests shared with Fox News Digital indicate another state, Michigan, received $451,000 from the group circuitously routed through the University of Michigan.

“What we see is that wealthy donors are providing layers of ‘staff’ to do what is supposedly government work, led by a U.N. ‘strategic partner’ no less boasting that these millions to staff government offices in the United States is for ‘UN Strengthening,’” D.C. lawyer Chris Horner, who filed the information requests on behalf of watchdog groups Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) and Power The Future, told Fox News Digital.

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“They are staffing governors’ offices, to set the policies, and regulatory agencies — including at least one cabinet official — to ensure that official reports and rules are climate-industry produced,” Horner continued. “Meanwhile, the risk of blackouts across the U.S. has soared as this U.N. ‘energy transition’ agenda is implemented, by people they have placed on the inside.”

Overall, United Nations Foundation filings show that, during the time frame with data available, North Carolina has been the largest beneficiary of the funding scheme, receiving nearly $1.2 million in U.S. Climate Alliance grants sent to the state’s Office of the Governor, Department of Commerce and Department of Transportation.

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In the same time frame, the nonprofit sent $853,000 to Maine’s Office of the Governor, Energy Office and Department of Agriculture. And New Mexico’s government received another $725,193, sent to its Environment Department and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

“It is extremely concerning that global government activists may be secretly influencing public policy in New Mexico,” New Mexico state Senate Republican Leader Greg Baca told Fox News Digital. “If these grants are funding employees within our state agencies, the people of New Mexico deserve to know about it. We call on the Governor to disclose the details of what these funds are being used for and why New Mexico was selected as a beneficiary.”

A spokesperson for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the state’s highest-ranking Republican, added that the United Nations Foundation and U.S. Climate Alliance funding structure raises concerns about how key climate policies are being crafted.

“The United Nations Foundation funneling $1.19 million into North Carolina for influencing the policy of our state raises serious concerns about the potential of unaccountable bureaucrats bypassing the legislature’s budgeting power to push political agendas,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Transparency is crucial – we need clear answers on how the funds are utilized.”

“Currently, there’s unease that the money might be funding salaries for state officials involved in developing climate policies,” the statement continued. “It’s essential to ensure that the government officials tasked with crafting policies to benefit North Carolinians are accountable to the taxpayers, not beholden to global activist organizations promoting agendas.”

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The information requests shared with Fox News Digital reveal additional details about the purpose of the United Nation Foundation’s “U.N. strengthening” grants to states. 

Documents obtained by GAO show that the Michigan state government signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Michigan in 2021 to use a U.S. Climate Alliance grant for $451,000 to hire two full-time climate policy staff through 2025. That same year, the United Nations Foundation reported sending that same amount to the Regents of the University of Michigan.

According to the contract, the staff, whose salaries of more than $100,000 a year were funded by the U.S. Climate Alliance via the United Nations Foundation, work at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Office of Climate and Energy (OCE), which was established by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2019 to “advance climate action.”

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Among their responsibilities under the grant, the staff are tasked with helping develop the Michigan Healthy Climate Plan. That plan lays out a broad plan for the state under Whitmer’s leadership to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and outlines other environmental policies including expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure, decarbonizing the residential sector and boosting conservation.

“These two [Climate Leadership Grant Program] positions are essential for supporting OCE’s work as it pursues the state’s decarbonization goals,” the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy wrote in an application to extend funding submitted with the U.S. Climate Alliance in December and obtained via information request. 

“I’m thrilled to let you know that the application has been approved for the full grant amount,” Katie Thomas, a senior U.S. Climate Alliance official, wrote to Michigan officials in an email on Dec. 20. “It’s clear that these two positions are critical to advancing all the great climate work happening in Ml and we are proud to support them.”

And the documents obtained by Power The Future, show a similar arrangement was green-lit in New Mexico. 

In September, the New Mexico Department of Energy, Minerals and Resources, and the United Nations Foundation signed a U.S. Climate Alliance grant agreement worth $307,300. According to the contract, the funding supports a new senior climate policy adviser who will work directly with Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham through January 2026.

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The contract includes a provision stating that the United Nations Foundation “may monitor and conduct formal evaluations of operations under this Agreement, which may include a visit from UNF personnel or other representatives, including representatives from the U.S. Climate Alliance, to observe Grantee’s projects.”

“If your government is up for sale, then you’re going to have a pretty corrupt group of bidders,” Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power The Future, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “The whole purpose of the government is to be above such deviousness. And yet these governors have sold their power to a global agenda, and they should be held accountable by their constituents.”

“It’s really just shocking and it’s traitorous,” Turner added. “To think governors would just sell out to third party groups — it’s just terrible behavior.”

In addition to Michigan, New Mexico, Maine and North Carolina, state offices in Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin have received funding from the U.S. Climate Alliance via the United Nations Foundation. Nevada withdrew from the U.S. Climate Alliance shortly after Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo succeeded former Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, last year.

On its website, the U.S. Climate Alliance boasts that member states have committed to uniform net-zero goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 26-28% by 2025 and 50-52% by 2030, while promoting equity and “environmental justice.”

In December, the alliance’s co-chairs, Govs. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Janet Mills, D-Maine, issued an annual report highlighting the coordinated actions member states had taken throughout 2023. The report pointed to the states’ aggressive electric vehicle mandates, shutdown of fossil fuel infrastructure and bans on natural gas hookups for new construction.

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U.S. Climate Alliance spokesperson Evan Westrup said the initiative’s funding — through both the Climate Leadership Grant Program, which “bolsters state-level staff capacity” for climate policy roles, and Technical Assistance Fund, which provides “policy support” for member states — is “critical” where staff capacity constraints persist. He added that grants are managed by individual states, not the U.S. Climate Alliance or United Nations Foundation.

“At a time when unprecedented heat, fires, and storms continue to threaten communities across America, it’s clear our leaders — both Democrats and Republicans — need every available resource at the ready to confront the climate crisis,” Westrup told Fox News Digital. “Our health, economy, and future depend on it.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Foundation’s tax filings reveal that it has itself received tens of millions of dollars from major left-wing pass-through organizations.

For example, in recent years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed more than $55 million, the Bezos Earth Fund has contributed nearly $6 million, and the Tides Foundation contributed nearly $4 million. Corporations such as Johnson & Johnson and Facebook, and government entities from the U.K., Canada, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands have contributed tens of millions of dollars more.

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But it appears the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Sequoia Climate Fund, two massive nonprofits dedicated to writing grants to fuel progressive causes in the U.S., have spearheaded the U.S. Climate Alliance initiative.

“The Hewlett Foundation is proud of our work to address climate change,” a Hewlett Foundation spokesperon said. “All of our grants and their purpose, including to the U.S. Climate Alliance, are public and listed on our website.”

A spokesperson for Maine Gov. Mills declined to comment. Governors’ offices in Michigan, North Carolina and New Mexico didn’t respond to requests for comment.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., criticized the Senate’s bipartisan $118 billion border security and foreign aid package after the text of the agreement was released Sunday night, stating that the proposal is “even worse than we expected” and would be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.

The legislation would allocate $20 billion for border security to give the federal government temporary authority to expel migrants when the average number of daily crossings exceeds a threshold. The border security component also includes ending “catch and release,” increasing standards for asylum screenings and attempting to process asylum claims quicker.

The foreign aid portion of the agreement includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel and aid for Indo-Pacific allies. Johnson said he would put $17.6 billion in emergency funding for Israel in a standalone bill up for a vote on the House floor next week.

“I’ve seen enough,” Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, ‘the border never closes.'”

SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES

“If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival,” the speaker declared.

The statement from Johnson echoes comments he made before the Senate released the text of the agreement Sunday night.

“If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway,” he wrote to House Republicans last month.

Shortly before Johnson’s statement, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said the Senate bill would not receive a vote in the lower chamber. Scalise oversees the schedule in the House.

“Let me be clear: The Senate Border Bill will NOT receive a vote in the House,” Scalise wrote on X. “Here’s what the people pushing this ‘deal’ aren’t telling you: It accepts 5,000 illegal immigrants a day and gives automatic work permits to asylum recipients — a magnet for more illegal immigration.”

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said a vote on the package in the Senate could come as early as Wednesday.

Johnson’s statement comes after a few Senate negotiators worked for months on a deal to address border security. Republicans had demanded that any aid for Ukraine be paired with legislation to help the illegal immigration crisis at the Southern Border.

In recent weeks, as negotiators were nearing a deal, Republicans became skeptical of the bipartisan talks, arguing that President Biden already has the resources to address the situation at the border and does not need new legislation. Some Republicans have also suggested that they do not want to support the border bill and give Biden a political win in an election year.

Former President Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, also urged GOP lawmakers to not support a border deal unless they receive “EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people.”

JOHNSON SAYS TRUMP IS ‘NOT CALLING THE SHOTS’ FOR HOUSE ON BORDER DEAL

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the lead GOP negotiator on the border deal, responded to Johnson’s comments on the proposal, saying that he was confused about how the bill could be worse than House Republicans expected.

“I’m a little confused how it’s worse than they expected when it builds [the] border wall, expands deportation flights, expands ICE officers, border patrol officers, detention beds how it creates a faster process for deportations, clears up a lot of the long-term issues and loopholes that have existed in the asylum law and then gets us an emergency authority that stops the chaos right now on the border,” Lankford told reporters.

“So I’m a little confused,” he continued. “I’ll have to get with the Speaker’s team on that and find out what part would be ‘worse than what we expected’ based on the actual text and hopefully they will all have had an opportunity to read through the text.”

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Prior to the release of the text, Lankford told Fox News the claim that the bill would allow 5,000 illegal crossings per day was “the most misunderstood section of this proposal.”

“It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day. This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day,” he said during a Jan. 28 appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is slamming Harvard for hosting a Palestinian professor who has blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. 

The Democratic lawmaker said he was “truly appalled” that Harvard’s Kennedy School would platform Dr. Dalal Saeb Iriqat, a columnist and associate professor at Arab American University Palestine. 

Dr. Iriqat is scheduled to speak at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs on March 7 for a seminar series called “Middle East Dialogues.” 

“I am truly appalled that the Kennedy School would platform an individual who celebrates and justifies Hamas’ October 7th killing of Israeli citizens—babies, children, the elderly, and the systemic rape, mutilation, and torture of young girls and women,” Fetterman said. 

Fetterman added that “this hate has absolutely no place in any sanctioned dialogue. Decency would demand it relegated to the sewer of social media fringe.”

“As an alumni and a member of the United States Senate, 25 years later, it’s hard to recognize my former university,” he said. 

PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS SHRUG OFF RAPIDLY RISING US ANTISEMITISM WHILE MANY WATCH IN DISBELIEF

Iriqat drew controversy for her statements downplaying the Hamas attack on Israel and blaming the Israeli government for the bloodshed on October 7, when 1,200 people were killed after Hamas terrorists infiltrated the country.

“Today is just a normal struggle 4 #Freedom,” Iriqat posted on X on Oct. 7, as Israelis near the border with Gaza cowered in their homes while terrorists went door-to-door butchering people.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Dr. Iriqat and Harvard for a response. 

In an online statement, Harvard said the event’s organizer, Professor Tarek Masoud, chose and invited the speakers for the series himself. 

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“The purpose of the series is to provide a venue for debate and discussion, recognizing that different views will be offered and challenged—including views that many at the Kennedy School and beyond may disagree with vehemently and even find repugnant,” Harvard said. 

The school noted that Dean Douglas Elmendorf finds Iriqat’s quotes personally “abhorrent.”

The speakers in the “Middle East DIalogues” series will include Jared Kushner, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump; Matt Duss, former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Salam Fayyad, former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority; and Einat Wilf, a former member of the Israeli Knesset.

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Harvard said all speakers must answer unfiltered questions from the audience as well as by the faculty member who invited them. An invitation to speak at the Kennedy School never implies an endorsement of a speaker’s views by the Kennedy School or members of the Kennedy School community. 

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Timing could benefit former President Donald Trump as he faces down four criminal trials that are mired in controversy and legal obstacles while Election Day 2024 creeps closer, legal experts say. 

“Does it eventually get so late in the election-campaign calendar that it would be too unseemly to start trial? I would hope so,” former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Andrew McCarthy, a Fox News contributor, wrote in an op-ed for National Review on Saturday.  

“The administration of justice in criminal cases is an important national priority, but it’s not the only one – or, necessarily, the highest one. How much intrusion on politics by the justice system should Americans tolerate – particularly under circumstances in which the intrusion is being orchestrated by the administration of the incumbent president against his campaign opponent?”

McCarthy’s op-ed was in response to a federal judge suspending Trump’s trial involving Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference investigation indefinitely last week, after it was set to begin on March 4. The move comes after Trump’s legal team filed an appeal arguing he is granted immunity from prosecution for actions in office. 

TRUMP TRIAL DELAYED IN CASE STEMMING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH’S JAN. 6 INVESTIGATION

“A president of the United States must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function,” Trump said last week on Truth Social in all caps. “Any mistake, even if well intended, would be met with almost certain indictment by the opposing party at term end. Even events that ‘cross the line’ must fall under total immunity, or it will be years of trauma trying to determine good from bad.”

An appeals court is reviewing Trump’s argument, tying the presiding judge’s hands from proceeding with the case. Trump filed an appeal in December, with a three-judge panel hearing arguments last month. No opinion has yet been issued, and the case could be sent to the full circuit court or Supreme Court for review, which would add additional time to proceedings.

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McCarthy has been arguing that Trump’s trial strategy is “delay, delay, delay,” adding that after the postponed trial, a midsummer trial date for the D.C. case is “ambitious”and will likely be closer to Election day. 

“The election-interference prosecution of Donald Trump, the former president and likely Republican presidential nominee, by the Justice Department of Joe Biden, the incumbent president and Trump’s likely Democratic opponent, is the most politically charged in American history,” McCarthy wrote in a January column for National Review. 

He argued Saturday in a column that the delay of the trial did not come as a shock, and only solidified what had long been anticipated due to Trump’s appeal. In addition to the appeal potentially being heard by the full 11-member Circuit Court or Supreme Court, pre-trial work could hold up the trial even longer, making a midsummer trial date “optimistic.”

“Why? Because there is a lot of pre-trial work, including administrative detail, that must be attended to for a case to get to trial. As I elaborated in my [January column] about Trump’s delay strategy, the pre-trial process includes discovery, motions to dismiss the case or suppress evidence, hearings on motions, and so on. Whenever jurisdiction is finally returned to Judge Chutkan, all of that will have to crank up again – it takes a long time to get through, and it’s not like this is the only case on Her Honor’s docket,” he wrote. 

McCarthy speculated whether the courts would allow the anticipated GOP nominee to languish in courtrooms for weeks as Election Day comes down to the wire. 

“​​Defendants have to be present in court for the entirety of criminal trials. Could we really have the Republican nominee stuck in a courtroom from, say, August through October? I’m sure that would be fine with the Biden Justice Department’s special counsel. The question may be whether the court will go along,” McCarthy concluded. 

The former assistant U.S. attorney told Fox Digital that Jack Smith “will push to go to trial in the Washington case no matter how late in the election campaign calendar it gets,” but noted Smith’s not in the driver’s seat when it comes to determining schedules. 

“But when the trial gets scheduled is up to the judge, not the prosecutor. The question will be whether the courts are content to be perceived by half the public as part of a partisan scheme to get Trump tried and convicted prior to Election Day,” he said. 

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In his op-ed, McCarthy also cited former prosecutor Bill Shipley – who has represented a handful of separate Jan. 6 cases – pointing to his X posts explaining it would be wildly difficult to seat a jury in the D.C. case. The courts will need to vet hundreds of potential jurors, including sending out questionnaires weeks ahead of the trial. That process cannot begin without a trial date, as the top question asked of jurors is whether they are able to serve for a two- to three-month period beginning on a certain date.

Shipley checked “scores” on Trump’s legal battles last week, and argued that cases against Trump in Georgia, Florida, D.C., and the New York Stormy Daniels case have been hit with legal obstacles and issues that benefit Trump. 

Shipley told Fox News Digital on Sunday that it “has been only 26 days since the Trump immunity appeal was argued,” and that the “average time between argument and opinion was 116 days,” meaning the appeals court will likely issue an opinion on his immunity appeal on May 12. 

“There is no legal basis for the proposition that Trump’s case should be decided ahead of other Circuit Court cases that were argued before Jan. 9.  Delays in appeals courts routinely force trial dates to be pushed back. The fact that it has happened to Trump’s trials means the appeals court is handling it like it would any other case,” he told Fox News Digital. 

In New York, Trump is accused of allegedly falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. The trial for that case is tentatively scheduled for March, meaning it would be the first of Trump’s four high-profile criminal trials following the postponement of the D.C. case. 

“Those are misdemeanors my good sir, and the statute of limitations expired in 2021,” Shipley wrote on X of the hush money case. Trump’s attorneys also noted last year that the statute of limitations would typically be subject to a five-year statute of limitations. New York, however, extends the statute of limitations if a defendant “was continuously outside this state.”

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McCarthy told Fox News Digital that after the postponement of the D.C. trial, it’s unlikely that Democrats will first head to trial against Trump in the New York case, as it’s “nakedly political” – but noted the door is open to that possibility. 

“It’s hard for me to believe Democrats want to go first with that trial: It’s such a ludicrous case that Trump could get acquitted, even in Manhattan; and if he gets convicted, it’s such a nakedly political prosecution that he won’t be hurt much by it,” he said. 

Trump was also charged in Georgia with allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which has recently been mired in controversy after the Trump team claimed District Attorney Fani Willis was having an affair with one of her top prosecutors. 

Willis admitted last week to having a personal relationship with the special prosecutor she hired, Nathan Wade, but denied the “salacious” allegations against her having “merit.”

Trump’s team is calling for the prosecutors to be disqualified and his charges dismissed. No trial has been set in that case. 

FULTON COUNTY DA FANI WILLIS ADMITS PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH PROSECUTOR BUT DENIES CONFLICT OF INTEREST

In Florida, Trump was charged for allegedly mishandling classified documents following his presidency, and is scheduled to face trial on May 20. The case may be postponed, however, with the presiding judge – a Trump nominee – saying she’d revisit the date during a March 1 hearing. 

Shipley also noted that having the presumed GOP nominee sit in courtrooms instead of campaigning late in the election cycle would be unprecedented, and has long speculated that Trump’s federal trials wouldn’t begin until after the start of August. 

“For several months I have been taking it at face value that no trial in either federal case would begin after Aug. 1. Both cases are expected to take 2-3 months, and trials in the Aug-Oct time period would be right in the middle of the general campaign.  Trump would be required to sit in a courtroom in Washington DC rather than – as the nominee of a major party – be out doing the usual kind of campaign events,” Shipley wrote on Twitter. 

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In December, Smith’s authority in the federal cases even came into question after former Reagan administration Attorney General Edwin Meese filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court arguing Smith’s appointment as special counsel wasn’t lawful and thus he can’t prosecute Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to the position as he was working as a private citizen, with Meese arguing he should have been selected by the president, then confirmed by the Senate and working within the Justice Department to serve as special counsel. 

Trump has repeatedly defended his innocence in the four cases, calling the charges a “witch hunt” at the hands of Democrats who seek to silence him. 

“Deranged Jack Smith, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, Alvin Bragg, the J6 Committee of Political Thugs (who have deleted and destroyed all evidence and findings), and all of the rest of the Biden prosecutors and ‘bad people who hate our Country,’ are just as guilty as Fani Willis. It’s Biden Investigations for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. 

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Amid the legal battles, Trump is also on the campaign trail. He holds a commanding 26-point lead in South Carolina over Nikki Haley, who served as governor in the state from 2011 to 2017, according to a Monmouth University-Washington Post poll. The state’s primary will be held on Feb. 24. Trump previously won the Iowa caucuses, as well as the nation’s first primary last month in New Hampshire. 

Former President Trump teased possible rallies in New York City at Madison Square Garden and in the South Bronx during an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday. 

“Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump if he believes he could flip blue states like New York and New Jersey, noting there is a rumor he is planning a rally in the South Bronx.

“Yeah, I think I will do that,” Trump said of the South Bronx rally. “And I think I’ll do one maybe at Madison Square Garden.”

“Do I think we have a chance? New York has changed a lot in the last two years. We have migrants all over the street. They are living on Madison Avenue,” Trump said. “Nobody can believe what’s happened to New York. The people of New York are angry. People that would have never voted for me because I’m a Republican. I mean, they’re Democrats. Their parents were Democrats. They would vote for Democrats. I think they’re going to vote for me. So I think we’re going to give New York a heavy shot. They’re very unhappy in New York. What’s happening? And they’re unhappy with the crime. You take a look at the crime in New York, it’s at record levels. The other thing is, and very importantly, New Jersey, I think New Jersey can be flipped. I think that Virginia can be flipped. I think that New Mexico could be flipped. And I think Minnesota could be flipped. And I’m not even sure that everything can’t be flipped.”

NEW YORK CITY TO HAND OUT $53 MILLION IN PRE-PAID CREDIT CARDS TO MIGRANT FAMILIES: REPORT

A native New Yorker whose real estate ventures helped build the New York City skyline, Trump has come under fire in the Empire State, where New York Attorney General Letitia James has been vying to drive the former president’s business from the state. Trump has repeatedly blasted James’ investigation as politically motivated. Also in New York, a jury ordered Trump to pay more than $83 million in the defamation case brought by his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, but Trump’s legal team has vowed to appeal the civil judgment. 

Trump’s remarks come amid a report claiming New York City will soon launch a $53 million pilot program to hand out pre-paid credit cards to migrant families housed in hotels. 

The New York Post, citing city records, reported on Saturday that 500 migrant families at the Roosevelt Hotel will receive pre-paid cards to help them buy food. The program is intended to replace the current food service provided there, the Post reported.

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“Not only will this provide families with the ability to purchase fresh food for their culturally relevant diets and the baby supplies of their choosing, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City more than $600,000 per month, or more than $7.2 million annually,” a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams told the newspaper in a statement.

The Big Apple was also riddled with controversy after a gang of migrants beat New York City Police Department officers in Times Square. One of those illegal migrants involved, 22-year-old Jhoan Boada, flipped two middle fingers to news cameras after he was released from a police precinct following his arrest over the attack. 

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Authorities reportedly believe at least four more of those migrants arrested and released after the incident have since fled on a bus bound for California.