NationalWatch

The Department of Justice failed to bring an indictment against Letitia James on Thursday after a federal judge tossed out the initial indictment last week, according to a DOJ source.

The DOJ attempted to persuade a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia to indict James a second time, the source said, after Judge Cameron Currie found that the prosecutor who brought the first indictment, Lindsey Halligan, was serving unlawfully as interim U.S. attorney.

The revelation that a grand jury did not indict James, one of President Donald Trump’s top political foes, is a blow to the DOJ as it is rare that grand juries do not find enough probable cause to bring charges.

It is possible the DOJ could attempt to bring charges again. Fox News is told that prosecutors intend to continue the effort to re-indict James.

FEDERAL JUDGE DISMISSES JAMES COMEY, LETITIA JAMES INDICTMENTS

“I’d say don’t celebrate just yet,” one source said.

The attempt to re-indict the state attorney general also marks a shift for the DOJ after Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt vowed to immediately appeal the judge’s finding that Halligan was an invalid appointee and that James’ indictment was therefore also invalid.

COMEY DENIES CHARGES, DECLARES ‘I AM NOT AFRAID’

James was previously charged with bank fraud in Norfolk, Virginia. She pleaded not guilty and had argued the charges should be tossed out on numerous grounds.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ and James’ attorney for comment.

The Supreme Court signaled that Texas is likely to prevail in defending its new congressional map, faulting a lower court for misreading evidence and ignoring required legal inferences as the state races toward 2026 election deadlines.

In a brief order that keeps Governor Greg Abbott’s redrawn districts in place for now, the Court said the District Court committed two major errors – first by failing to apply the presumption of legislative good faith when considering disputed evidence, and second by declining to draw a near-dispositive inference against challengers who offered no alternative map that met Texas’s partisan goals.

The stay is temporary while the merits proceed, yet Justice Elena Kagan warned in dissent that the ruling effectively locks in the contested boundaries for the 2026 midterms because of looming state deadlines.

“This Court’s eagerness to playact a district court here has serious consequence,” Kagen said. “The majority calls its ‘evaluation’ of this case ‘preliminary.’.. The results, though, will be anything but.

DOJ BACKS TEXAS IN SUPREME COURT FIGHT OVER REPUBLICAN-DRAWN MAP

“This Court’s stay guarantees that Texas’s new map, with all its enhanced partisan advantage, will govern next year’s elections for the House of Representatives. And this Court’s stay ensures that many Texas citizens, for no good reason, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race,” Kagen continued. “And that result, as this Court has pronounced year in and year out, is a violation of the Constitution.”

The ruling arrives amid a broader, unprecedented national redistricting battle driven by current sitting president Donald Trump’s effort to fortify the GOP House majority heading into 2026 — a campaign that began in Texas before rapidly spreading to other states.

Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections, Trump in June first floated the idea of rare but not unheard of mid-decade congressional redistricting.

ABBOTT SIGNS TEXAS REDISTRICTING MAP INTO LAW, SECURING MAJOR GOP VICTORY AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Texas was Trump’s first target.

A month later, when asked by reporters about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map. Democratic state lawmakers broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill.

TEXAS FILES EMERGENCY SUPREME COURT PETITION AFTER TRUMP-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL MAP BLOCKED BY FEDERAL JUDGES

The legislature eventually passed the bill, and Abbott signed it into law in late August.

But the new map immediately faced legal challenges, and the plight of the Texas lawmakers who fled the state energized Democrats across the country.

Among those jumping into the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

California voters a month ago overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw its maps.

REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE TORCHES COLLEAGUES IN TEXAS MAP FIGHT

But the fight has spread beyond Texas and California.

Right-tilting Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push. The legislature in red-leaning Indiana meets this week to try and pass redistricting, while Florida and Kansas are also mulling redrawing their maps.

“We must keep the Majority at all costs,” Trump wrote on social media last month.

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Illinois and Maryland, two blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature, are also taking steps or seriously considering redistricting.

And in a blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge last month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday announced the arrests of multiple Afghan nationals, released into the U.S. by the Biden administration during Operation Allies Refuge and Operation Allies Welcome, with convictions for crimes including kidnapping and child fondling.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the Biden administration created “one of the worst and most complex national security crises in American history,” which the Trump administration has been working to remedy.

The announcement comes after it was uncovered the suspect accused of killing one National Guard member and wounding another in a Nov. 26 Washington, D.C. ambush, was an Afghan national vetted by the CIA in Afghanistan.

The Department of State has paused all visas for individuals traveling on Afghan passports.

PATEL BLASTS BIDEN’S ‘EMBLEMATIC FAILURE’ AFTER AFGHAN NATIONAL CHARGED IN GUARD SHOOTING

“Under Secretary [Kristi] Noem, DHS has been going full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and criminal illegal aliens that came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement. 

“When Joe Biden let 190,000 Afghan nationals in, they didn’t do criminal background checks or vet social media, someone just vouched for them and they took the words as truth,” she continued. “We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out—and we are. We are working around the clock to get these public safety threats out of our country.”

According to DHS, some of the Afghan nationals arrested by ICE include:

Qesmat Din Zafran

On Aug. 29, ICE arrested Qesmat Din Zafran, a criminal illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Refuge in September 2021. 

His criminal history includes a conviction for lewd or lascivious acts with a minor under 16.

THIRD AFGHAN NATIONAL FROM BIDEN-ERA PROGRAM ARRESTED IN A WEEK BY ICE AGENTS IN VIRGINIA: DHS

Mansour Walizada

On Oct. 2, ICE arrested Mansour Walizada, a criminal illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Refuge in 2021. 

His criminal history includes two convictions for sexual battery and an arrest for child fondling.

Mohammad Tabesh Rasoli

On June 8, ICE arrested Mohammad Tabesh Rasoli, a criminal illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Refuge in September 2021. 

His criminal history includes a conviction for hit-and-run with serious bodily harm. 

Per the arrest report, Rasoli hit a pedestrian going about 50 mph.

Javid Ghamgeen

On May 8, ICE took custody of Javid Ghamgeen from the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Ghamgeen, a criminal illegal immigrant, entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome in 2021. 

His criminal history includes convictions for two counts of possession of methamphetamine, burglary and aggravated assault against a public officer.

Asirullah Khalid-Khan

On Oct. 9, ICE arrested Asirullah Khalid-Khan, a criminal illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome in 2021. 

His criminal history includes a conviction for kidnapping and an arrest for rape.

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Said Mohammad Tanai

On July 21, ICE arrested Said Mohammad Tanai, a criminal illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Refuge in 2021. 

His criminal history includes a conviction for assault with intent to commit sex abuse.

As President Donald Trump promises U.S. military action targeting cartel operations within Venezuela’s borders, a national security expert warned there could “absolutely” be reprisals against U.S. citizens on the home front.

The Trump administration has been unleashing deadly strikes on the cartel’s drug boats from Venezuela in the Caribbean for months. Now, the president is saying he will take the fight to Venezuela proper.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, former senior Trump national security advisor Victoria Coates said that though she believes the president has sweeping authority to carry out these operations, there is a possibility that the cartels will attempt to retaliate by targeting U.S. citizens for terror activities.

Coates, who now serves as vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, pointed to the deadly shooting by an Afghan national of two National Guard soldiers just blocks from the White House during Thanksgiving week.

GOP SAYS TRUMP FACING TOUGHER SCRUTINY FOR CARIBBEAN STRIKES THAN OBAMA DID FOR DRONE PROGRAM  

“We don’t know all of what has come into the country during the Biden administration and the open border policies they pursued, but certainly there’s been a lot of latitude for the cartels,” she said.

Coates added that the Trump administration is well aware of these threats and is on high alert for any possible reprisals from cartels or forces supporting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The U.S. government has repeatedly linked Maduro to cartel activity. In November, the State Department designated the Cartel de los Soles, allegedly headed by Maduro, a foreign terrorist organization. According to the administration, the Cartel de los Soles “provides material support” to other terrorist organizations known to be in the U.S., including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, both of which have been behind several high-profile violent crime incidents across the country. In 2024, members of Tren de Aragua allegedly seized control of an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, and were terrorizing and extorting the residents.

In late November, Trump delivered a stern ultimatum to Maduro to leave Venezuela immediately before announcing the country’s airspace should be closed, according to the Miami Herald. According to the outlet, Washington’s warning was delivered in a phone call with Caracas and offered guaranteed evacuation for Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores, and their son, but only if the dictator agreed to resign on the spot. 

Maduro, in turn, framed the escalation as “imperialist” aggression from the U.S. and vowed that “if the empire attacks us, we will defend every inch of our territory.”

This resistance could also manifest within the U.S., according to Coates, especially with the known presence of Venezuelan organized crime groups in the country.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS BACK TRUMP’S VENEZUELA MOVES FOR NOW AS ESCALATION UNCERTAINTY LOOMS  

“They obviously have cells in the United States, both for human trafficking and for drug trafficking. And so that is a very, very deep concern,” explained Coates.

Coates said that she knows the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are closely monitoring these threats and “are being hyper vigilant about it.”

Regarding additional actions the administration should take to mitigate the threat, Coates answered that this is why Trump’s deportation agenda and cartel crackdown are so important.

“That’s what they’re actually doing,” she explained. “They’re trying to track and deport as many of these bad actors as they can. So, that work is ongoing.”

“Identifying where the cartels are active, what their assets are in the United States, and doing everything we can to disrupt that activity, that’s what our professionals in the FBI do. That’s their job. So, they are doing it.”

HEGSETH DEFENDS LETHAL STRIKES AGAINST ALLEGED DRUG TRAFFICKERS: ‘BIDEN CODDLED TERRORISTS, WE KILL THEM’

“This is a new kind of threat, a drug cartel that is associated with a foreign government,” she said. “That’s why the president is taking the actions that he has.”

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“The administration [has] kind of [been] feeling their way a little bit to figure out how to get after this threat. But they’re the first ones who have actually confronted it, and I think it’s critically important,” she said.

“What I think is critical for the American people to realize is this has morphed internationally into something that’s more than a drug enforcement issue,” Coates added. “We’re losing 100,000 citizens a year to the drugs that are coming in. Everyone knows fentanyl; it’s also record amounts of cocaine that are coming out of Venezuela. And it’s gone from being a nuisance to being a major national security threat.”

Senate Democrats attempted to derail a batch of dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees, but ended up giving Senate Republicans a surprise victory in the process.

Republicans were on the way to starting the long procedural process of confirming 88 of Trump’s picks but were blocked by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., over an issue with one of the nominees in the group.

When Senate Republicans went nuclear and changed the rules surrounding the confirmation process earlier this year to break through Senate Democrats’ blockade, they limited the scope to only sub-cabinet level positions that would be advanced through a simple, 50-vote majority.

SENATE CONFIRMS DOZENS OF TRUMP NOMINEES IN FIRST TEST OF NEW NUCLEAR RULES

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said ahead of the vote that Democrats’ failed blockade of Trump’s picks could be chalked up to “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

“Democrats and their base still can’t deal with the fact that President Trump won last November,” Thune said. “And so they have held up every single one, every single one of his nominations in revenge. But Republicans have not been daunted. We’ve just continued plowing ahead on nominations, helping us rack up a historic number of votes this year in the process.”

But one of the nominees in the group, Sara Bailey, was considered a “level 1” nominee, meaning she would hold a cabinet-level position. Trump tapped Bailey in March to be his drug czar as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

SENATE GOP LEADER MOVES TO LOWER FILIBUSTER THRESHOLD FOR TRUMP NOMINEES THROUGH NUCLEAR OPTION

Her inclusion in the package meant that in order for the 87 other nominees to be confirmed, Republicans would have to break the 60-vote filibuster threshold, which was unlikely given Senate Democrats’ wholesale disapproval of many of Trump’s picks.

Senate Republicans took advantage of the opportunity and have decided to tack on even more of the president’s picks in a new, beefed-up package that will include 97 of Trump’s nominees. 

“I think we’ll add some more and do it next week,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told Fox News Digital. “You know what happened was, you can’t have cabinet-level, and I think drug czar is a cabinet-level now, and so the name was on the list, we just sort of invalidated the list.”

SCHUMER UNVEILS DEMOCRATS’ OBAMACARE FIX PLAN, LIKELY DEAD IN THE WATER

Bennet’s objection still pushes back Senate Republicans’ timeline to confirm the batch of nominees. Lawmakers had planned to move through the procedural steps and finish the process by the end of next week, but now the timeline is expected to stretch into the third week of December.

Once the process is finished, Republicans will have confirmed over 400 of Trump’s picks, putting him well ahead of former President Joe Biden, who at the same point last year had roughly 350 of his nominees confirmed.

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And even though Senate Democrats believed they scored a win against the administration, Republicans are relishing the unexpected victory.

“Senate Republicans will now have the opportunity to confirm even more qualified nominees! Thank you to the Democrats for making this possible,” a spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a bid to block President Donald Trump from unilaterally launching any attacks against Venezuela.

“The Constitution gives Congress — and only Congress — the power to declare war. Trump’s illegal boat strikes and threats of land invasion in Venezuela are a clear overreach of power. I filed a bipartisan War Powers Resolution to stop Trump from starting another forever war,” Kaine said in a post on X.

The Trump administration has conducted numerous lethal strikes against what it has alleged were drug-trafficking vessels of suspected narco-terrorists mostly in the Carribean.

TRUMP WARNS US MAY LAUNCH LAND OPERATIONS INSIDE VENEZUELA ‘VERY SOON,’ SAYS REGIME SENT ‘KILLERS’ TO AMERICA

“Although President Trump campaigned on no more wars, he and his Administration are unilaterally moving us closer to one with Venezuela — and they are doing so without providing critical information to the American people about the campaign’s overall strategy, its legal rationale, and the potential fallout from a prolonged conflict, which includes increased migration to our border,” Kaine said in a statement. 

“The Administration claims that military action is needed to address the real scourge of drugs in our communities, but at the same time, pardons convicted narcotraffickers, slashes funding for substance use and drug court programs, and chooses against interdicting these alleged drug boats that would allow us to find and prosecute the kingpins responsible for trafficking drugs,” he added. “We should not be risking the lives of our nation’s servicemembers to engage in military action within Venezuela without a robust debate in Congress. This is why the Framers gave the power to declare war to Congress, not the President.”

“The American people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela without public debate or a vote,” Paul added. “We ought to defend what the Constitution demands: deliberation before war.”

During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president placed blame squarely on drug traffickers for U.S. drug-related deaths last year but said “those numbers are down” since his administration began its strikes on suspected trafficking boats.

“And we’re going to start doing those strikes on land too,” Trump told reporters. “The land is much easier. And we know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live, and we’re going to start that very soon too.” 

VENEZUELA RESUMES ACCEPTING US DEPORTATION FLIGHTS AFTER TRUMP CLOSES AIRSPACE TO COUNTRY

He made the point again on Wednesday when asked about Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley’s decision in September to launch a follow-up attack on a suspected drug smuggling boat, killing two survivors of an initial strike. Bradley, who was serving as the commander of Joint Special Operations Command at the time, was expected to brief Congress behind closed doors on Thursday about the operation. 

“I think you’re going to find that this is war, that these people were killing our people,” Trump said, referencing the deaths of Americans by the “poison that they’ve been fed.”

“I think you’re going to find that there’s a very receptive ear to doing exactly what they’re doing, taking out those boats,” Trump said of the War Department’s operation. “And very soon we’re going to start doing it on land, too, because we know every route, we know every house, we know where they manufactured this crap. We know where they put it all together. And I think you’re going to see it very soon on land also.”

SENATORS VOW PUSH TO PROHIBIT US MILITARY ACTION IN VENEZUELA IF TRUMP PURSUES STRIKES AGAINST THE COUNTRY

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

“As President Trump has said, all options are on the table as he works to combat the scourge of narcoterrorism that has resulted in the needless deaths of thousands of innocent Americans each year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement in response.

“All of these decisive strikes have been in international waters against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores. The cumulative impact of these hostile acts directly threaten the interests of the United States. Pursuant to his authority as Commander-in-Chief and Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations, the President has full authority to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country,” she added.

The joint resolution put forward by the four senators states in part, “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities within or against Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.”

It also notes, “Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the United States from defending itself from an armed attack or threat of an imminent armed attack.”

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Kaine, Paul and Schiff previously pushed a proposal with the same aim earlier this year, but that effort fell flat when all but two Republicans — Paul and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted against advancing the proposal past a procedural hurdle.

President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the signing of the “Washington Accords” peace deal at the United States Institute of Peace Thursday, saying that the U.S. agrees to buy rare earth minerals from the two nations.

Trump said the Washington Accords deal formalizes the terms the two countries agreed to in June, including a permanent ceasefire, the disarmament of non-state forces, provisions for refugees to return to their homes, and justice and accountability for those who have committed illegal atrocities.

This is a breaking news story; check back for updates.

 

First lady Melania Trump announced Thursday that an additional seven Ukrainian children have returned to their families in the war-torn country as part of a Russia-Ukraine youth reunification initiative.

“My dedication to guaranteeing the safe return of children to their families in this region is unwavering,” Melania Trump said in a statement shared by the White House, which noted that six boys and one girl were involved.

“I commend the leadership and persistent diplomacy of Russia and Ukraine in the pursuit of the reunification of children and families. Their bridge-building has created a tangible collaborative environment — an anchor for optimism. This cooperation will continue to drive the process forward through the next phase,” she added.

“In close partnership, my representative and I have provided humanitarian support from the United States to enhance the reunification initiative’s outcome. My hope is that, ultimately, our collective efforts will lead to broader regional stability,” Melania Trump also said.

SENS KLOBUCHAR AND GRASSLEY: AMERICA CAN’T IGNORE RUSSIA KIDNAPPING UKRAINIAN CHILDREN

The first lady previously wrote a “peace letter” to Russian President Vladimir Putin telling him “it is time” to protect children and future generations around the globe, Fox News Digital reported in August.

President Donald Trump then hand-delivered the message to the Russian leader before their summit in Alaska that month.

FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP’S ‘PEACE LETTER’ TO PUTIN: ‘IT IS TIME’

In October, Melania Trump said eight Ukrainian children displaced during the ongoing war with Russia had been reunited with their families.

“Each child has lived in turmoil because of the war in Ukraine. Three were separated from their parents and displaced to the Russian Federation because of frontline fighting. The other five were separated from family members across borders because of the conflict, including one young girl who has now been reunited from Ukraine to Russia,” Melania Trump said at the time.

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“My ongoing mission is twofold: to prioritize and optimize a transparent, free flow of health-related information surrounding all children who have [fallen] victim to this war, and to facilitate the reunification of children with their families until each individual returns home,” Melania Trump said. 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.

Republican Kentucky lawmaker Andy Barr’s 2021 claim that the U.S. had an “obligation” to welcome Afghans after the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal is resurfacing and complicating his high-stakes 2026 Senate campaign after the footage went viral.

“We have failed in our obligation to help many of these Afghans who risked their lives and, in many cases, died for the cause of their own country in assistance to the United States, and we owe them to help them get into our country with these visas, and the P1 and P2 visas as well,” Barr said in a 2021 interview with Kentucky Educational Television of Afghans. “And I voted for these special immigrant visas because it would send a terrible message to our allies around the world that we’re going to abandon you if you help us in your time of need.” 

Many Afghans worked as interpreters, cultural advisors and offered other assistance to the U.S. during the Afghan war. Dozens of Republican lawmakers and leaders supported welcoming Afghan allies amid the withdrawal, while simultaneously stressing the need to vet the refugees, including then-former President Donald Trump.

Barr’s 2026 Republican Senate opponent, Nate Morris, slammed him as having “blood on his hands” for his comments and previous support of a bill broadening special visas for Afghan refugees. 

STATE DEPARTMENT ‘IMMEDIATELY’ HALTS ALL AFGHAN PASSPORT VISAS FOLLOWING DEADLY NATIONAL GUARD ATTACK

But Barr’s campaign hit back against the criticisms in a comment to Fox News Digital, underscoring he did not vote for Biden’s Afghan resettlement program and that he wholeheartedly supports Trump’s immigration policies. 

“Andy Barr voted against Biden’s Afghan resettlement program,” the spokesperson said. “Andy Barr supports President Trump’s common sense border security plan — deporting all illegals and reforming our legal immigration system.” 

‘SEE THE RESULTS’ 

Footage of Barr’s interview has spread like wildfire on social media. It’s racked up millions of views following the horrific shooting in Washington, D.C., the day before Thanksgiving when two National Guard members were shot, leaving one soldier critically injured and leaving Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom dead. 

Authorities identified Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, as the suspect in the shooting, which unfolded just blocks from the White House.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. legally in 2021 under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, a program that evacuated and resettled Afghan refugees as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. He reportedly worked with various U.S. government entities, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Afghanistan, Fox Digital previously reported. 

Other refugees who entered the nation under Operation Allies Welcome have been arrested for suspected terrorist ties. The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that ICE arrested a suspected ISIS-K Afghan terrorist, marking the third “Afghan national terrorist arrested in recent days.” 

Barr came under fierce scrutiny online recently as his 2021 comments spread.

“WTF!???” Donald Trump Jr. posted to X on Black Friday. 

“Andy Barr voted to flood America with unvetted Afghans while our borders were wide open. Now we see the results. This blood is on establishment RINOs (Republican in name only) like Barr who sided with Biden & McConnell over America First,” another conservative account posted. 

Others pointed to the remarks as evidence that Barr should not be elected to the Senate during the 2026 midterms. Barr is among a handful of Republicans running to replace retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. 

Some Barr critics rallied around Morris, the CEO of Kentucky-based company Morris Industries, as the conservative candidate to replace McConnell. 

“Compare Barr to Nate Morris who is calling for an immigration moratorium and there’s literally no comparison,” Turning Point USA spokesman and executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show” Andrew Kolvet posted to X. “That’s why Charlie went out of his way to endorse @NateMorris. Our number one mission must be to save America, not destroy it through unfettered mass migration.”

VANCE’S PAST WARNINGS REIGNITE AFTER AFGHAN NATIONAL NAMED AS SUSPECT IN DC GUARD SHOOTING

Morris said, “Barr knows that he has been exposed for his role helping Biden bring these dangerous Afghan refugees to America and so now he’s trying to pretend that it never happened, but we’ve all seen the video footage. Just like Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, Andy Barr has blood on his hands.”

Barr’s campaign hit back at Morris’ remarks in comments to Fox Digital Wednesday, including highlighting that the lawmaker did not vote for an Afghan resettlement program under the Biden administration. 

“Nate Morris is spiraling and lying again,” a Barr campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

“Andy stands with Trump 100% on immigration; Nate Morris does not. If Nate Morris doesn’t support President Trump’s policies 100%, he can’t be trusted to vote with him in the U.S. Senate.”

Barr voted against H.R. 5305 in September 2021, which provided more than $6 billion to resettle Afghan refugees, beyond people who assisted the U.S. during the war. 

He was among 192 Republicans who supported the Averting Loss of Life and Injury by Expediting SIVs Act of 2021, which expedited the special immigrant visa process for Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. government or NATO in Afghanistan and increased the number of available special immigrant visas to 8,000. 

The bill passed the House, but did not become law. President Joe Biden instead signed a spending bill that added 8,000 Afghan special immigration visas and eased some of its rules. 

On Aug. 29, 2021, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome, a Department of Homeland Security led-project to “support vulnerable Afghans, including those who worked alongside us in Afghanistan for the past two decades, as they safely resettle in the United States.”

Trump dropped the hammer on the visa program shortly after the recent D.C. shooting that took place at the end of November. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that officials are “actively re-examining” all the Afghan nationals who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. More than 76,000 Afghans were evacuated and processed into the country, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Barr published a statement denouncing the shooting in Washington, D.C., while simultaneously offering his support to Trump for vowing to pause immigration applications from “Third World Countries.” The Trump administration officially halted immigration applications from 19 countries on Tuesday. 
 
“President Trump is right to pause immigration from countries we can’t vet. As I’ve said repeatedly, ‘If we can’t vet them, they don’t belong here.’ That’s why I voted against Biden’s $6 billion Afghan resettlement package that rushed unvetted arrivals into the country. President Trump is cleaning up Biden’s mess and I fully support him,” Barr said in the Friday statement, which also offered his condolences to Beckstrom. 

Morris continued in his comments to Fox Digital that the “future of Western Civilization is at stake.”

“I’ve been campaigning on an immigration moratorium and a plan to deport all illegals since I launched my campaign for U.S. Senate,” he said. “I’m honored to say that it was one of the main reasons that Charlie Kirk endorsed my campaign at our launch event.”

EX-FBI SPECIAL AGENT EXPLAINS AFGHAN VETTING FAILURES IN WAKE OF NATIONAL GUARD AMBUSH: ‘TICKING TIME BOMB’

“My opponent, Andy Barr, on the other hand, actually went on TV just a few months ago and called me a ‘nativist’ for supporting an immigration moratorium. In 2021, while President Trump, Vice President Vance and the entire MAGA movement was fighting to stop Biden from bringing Afghan refugees into our country, Andy Barr was siding with his “mentor” Mitch McConnell and telling Kentuckians that we ‘owed it’ to the Afghan people to bring them here,” he said. 

Fox News Digital also reached out to Republican former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s Senate campaign regarding Barr’s 2021 comments. 

“Kentuckians remember exactly what happened during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Andy Barr is a classic say whatever it takes Washington politician. He’s voted with Nancy Pelosi over 1,200 times in Congress and was strongly supportive of opening wide our borders to unvetted Afghans during Biden’s reckless and dangerous withdrawal. Daniel Cameron would have never voted for that,” Cameron’s Senate campaign said. 

Cameron’s team added that Morris is “a fake on immigration” who “doesn’t have any real beliefs — just whatever is politically convenient to him.” 

The campaign added that Cameron “has by far the most conservative record on illegal immigration,” citing how he sued the Biden administration for “dismantling President Trump’s border policies” when he served as state attorney general, fought the Customs and Border Protection “One App that streamlines illegal entry” and the Biden administration’s “unlawful abuse of immigration parole.”

‘A DEBT OF HONOR’

The Afghan withdrawal widely has been viewed as one of the biggest failures under the Biden administration, leaving 13 U.S. service members killed at the Abbey Gate bombing, as well as abandoning millions of dollars in military equipment that ultimately landed in the hands of the Taliban. 

ALLEGED DC SHOOTER ENTERED US UNDER AFGHAN RESETTLEMENT PUSH MAYORKAS VOWED WOULD BE DONE ‘SWIFTLY AND SAFELY’

But Barr wasn’t alone. Other Republicans also signaled support for welcoming Afghans to the U.S. in 2021, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who said at the time during an interview on Fox News: “We owe a debt of honor and gratitude to every one of the Afghan soldiers who stood with the brave men and women that fought in Afghanistan.”

Some Republicans, such as now-Vice President JD Vance, however, predicted the plan could end in disaster. Vance was not yet elected to the Senate at the time of his remarks. 

“So let’s have an honest question about what exists in Afghanistan,” Vance said in a video message in August 2021. “According to Pew, 40% of the people there believe that blowing yourself up, committing a suicide bombing, is an acceptable way to solve the problem. So, yes, let’s help the Afghans who helped us, but let’s ensure that we’re properly vetting them so that we don’t get a bunch of people who believe they should blow themselves up in a mall because somebody looked at their wife the wrong way. That is not real leadership.”

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Trump said at the time the U.S. should prioritize bringing home American citizens but also assist Afghans who aided U.S. forces. 

“I’m America first. Okay? The Americans come out first. But we’re also going to help people that helped us, and we have to be very careful with the vetting, because you have some rough people in there,” he said during a 2021 appearance on Fox News. 

The Pentagon’s account of the September 2 “double tap” strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat is coming under renewed scrutiny after ABC News reported that a military lawyer was present when Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley authorized the follow-on strike. The new detail raises a sharper legal question: if real-time legal counsel was available, what advice did the judge advocate general (JAG) provide when Bradley approved a second round of lethal force?

Pentagon officials have framed the operation as a counterterrorism mission targeting members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua criminal network. Experts say that distinction matters because U.S. counterterrorism missions normally embed a JAG in the operations center to determine whether a target remains lawful — oversight not typical for routine maritime counter-narcotics patrols.

Todd Huntley, a former Navy JAG officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, said the presence of a lawyer would fit that framework.

“In normal maritime counter-narcotics operations, a JAG isn’t advising in real time because those missions rarely involve lethal force,” Huntley said. “But these strikes are being handled as counterterrorism strikes. The targets just happen to be on the water.”

In those missions, he said, the JAG participates directly in the real-time targeting cycle. “The JAG works with intelligence and operations personnel to make sure the target is lawful, that the planned strike is lawful, and whether the commander has the authority to approve it or needs to send it higher.” He emphasized that commanders, not attorneys, ultimately make the call. “JAGs only advise. They can’t override the commander’s decision.”

TRUMP ANNOUNCES US MILITARY CONDUCTED ‘LETHAL STRIKE’ ON VENEZUELAN DRUG BOAT IN CARIBBEAN

The central legal dispute now turns on the condition of the survivors at the time of the second strike. According to ABC News, U.S. personnel believed the two men in the water may have been calling for help, potentially attempting to bring reinforcements. The Pentagon did not respond to Fox news digital’s requests for comment. 

Under the U.S. Law of War Manual, attacking persons rendered “helpless” due to “wounds, sickness or shipwreck” is explicitly prohibited and described as “dishonorable and inhumane.” Shipwrecked individuals are protected unless they resume hostile action or otherwise regain the capacity to pose an immediate threat.

Calling for help does not automatically remove those protections. Legal experts say the key question is whether U.S. forces had credible evidence that the survivors were attempting to direct further hostilities — or whether they were simply clinging to debris and making distress calls.

The Pentagon has said Bradley authorized the second strike that killed the two alleged traffickers, and that War Secretary Pete Hegseth was not involved in that decision. Officials say Hegseth monitored the first strike but did not view the footage of the follow-on strike.

Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force JAG who advised on operations at U.S. Central Command, said she “would be surprised that there wasn’t a JAG” present if the administration viewed the mission as armed conflict. With ABC now reporting that a lawyer was in the room, she said attention shifts to what the operations center understood about the men’s status in the water.

SPEC OPS CHIEF ORDERED DEADLY CARIBBEAN STRIKE ‘IN SELF-DEFENSE’ WITH HEGSETH’S SIGN-OFF, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

But she cautioned that the presence of an attorney does not change the underlying legal standards. Shipwrecked personnel, she said, remain protected unless they take clear steps to rejoin the fight. “Whether a JAG was consulted is almost irrelevant here,” she said. “You don’t need a lawyer to know you can’t kill shipwrecked survivors. This is the classic example we use in professional military education of a clearly unlawful order.”

“Even if they’re the worst criminals in the world, you don’t kill them once they’re helpless and clinging to the side of a boat,” she said. “Killing shipwrecked persons is a textbook war crime.”

She also rejected the Pentagon’s claim that the survivors could have summoned additional boats. “The idea that survivors could have called for backup is absolutely irrelevant,” she said. “Unless they were actively shooting, they remained protected and could not be lawfully targeted.”

Hegseth and Bradley have continued to defend the operation. Hegseth wrote on X that Bradley “is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support,” adding that he stands by Bradley’s decisions “on the September 2 mission and all others since.”

President Trump has also repeatedly highlighted the strikes, releasing video of the second engagement on Truth Social and praising the campaign against what he calls “narcoterrorists.”

With new reporting that a JAG was physically present, and with legal experts emphasizing that shipwrecked personnel retain protection unless they rejoin the fight, the unresolved issue is what specific intelligence the operations center relied upon when Bradley approved the second strike.

Did the JAG conclude that the survivors had regained the capacity to pose an imminent threat? Did the attorney object? Did the operations team interpret the alleged call for help as an active step toward hostile action?

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Until the Pentagon releases a fuller accounting, the legality of the follow-on strike — and the role of the military lawyer who reportedly witnessed it — remains sharply contested.

Absent direct military action, President Donald Trump is running low on options amid his standoff with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to experts.

Strikes near Venezuelan waters aimed at drug traffickers, sanctions and a $50 million bounty have so far been unsuccessful in forcing Maduro, whom the U.S. has designated as a leader of the Tren de Aragua drug cartel, to step down from power.

After repeated threats, adversaries may now view a lack of direct military action as a sign of weakness from the U.S. But Maduro is in an equally difficult position — his own military capabilities are dwarfed in comparison to Trump’s, and experts say China and Russia lack the will to directly challenge the U.S. in its own hemisphere.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking: Trump’s unprecedented military buildup in the Caribbean — including sending the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the region — is taking away resources from other theaters.

WASHINGTON’S SHADOW WAR: HOW STRIKES ON CARTELS THREATEN TO COLLAPSE MADURO’S REGIME

Katherine Thompson, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, said that there are very few tools left at Trump’s disposal to oust Maduro, aside from a targeted strike against the Venezuelan leader or a land invasion. 

While the White House has not directly said that it is seeking regime change, recent media reports indicate that Trump and Maduro have spoken about the Venezuelan leader departing his post.

Thompson noted that previous efforts to squeeze out Maduro, including imposing sanctions on Venezuela and backing opposition leader Juan Guaidó during Trump’s first term, have proven unsuccessful. 

“It does not seem like there is — outside of the military option — anything new on the table that hasn’t really been tried,” Thompson said.

Even so, Thompson cast doubt on whether military action would prove successful. 

“If the offer on the table from the Trump administration is we’re going to potentially execute an invasion unless you talk to us, perhaps that’s a strong enough diplomatic, strategic move that gets Maduro to capitulate,” Thompson said. “But it just doesn’t seem like we’re picking up that many signals from the Maduro regime that that is going to be palatable.” 

Meanwhile, Thompson said that adversaries like Russia and China are probably confused about why the Trump administration has fixated on the Maduro regime, which doesn’t jeopardize U.S. interests as much as other actors, when the Trump administration has adopted an “American First” mantra. 

“I imagine for them, it’s probably a bit puzzling, if they’re looking at it through a real, brass tacks, realist lens, why this administration would be prioritizing ousting the Maduro regime, as opposed to conflicts in other theaters,” Thompson said.

TRUMP UNLEASHES US MILITARY POWER ON CARTELS. IS A WIDER WAR LOOMING? 

As a result, the Trump administration’s actions focusing on Venezuela likely leave a bit of “befuddlement” on the part of Russia and China about how serious the U.S. is about putting American interests first, Thompson said.

She added that China may be wondering if the U.S. diverting resources, such as directing the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to the Caribbean, could provide an opportunity for it to invade Taiwan if the U.S. is tied up with operations in Venezuela. Multiple U.S. officials have said they believe China will be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027. 

Will Russia and China back Venezuela? 

While there may be greater interest from China to take action within its own theater, experts agreed it was unlikely that Russia or China would actually get involved and back Venezuela should military operations between the U.S. and Caracas escalate — even though Moscow and Beijing are strategic allies with Venezuela. 

Some analysts said Maduro would find himself largely isolated if Trump launched military strikes against Venezuela. Russia, still consumed by its war in Ukraine, is unlikely to offer anything beyond denunciations of U.S. action, and China, despite years of deep economic engagement with Caracas, is also expected to stop well short of military involvement, they said. 

From Moscow’s perspective, there is both ideological and strategic discomfort with an American intervention — but little appetite or capability to counter it.

“Moscow opposes unilateral U.S. military intervention, especially when aimed at toppling a friendly authoritarian regime. That said, Russia lacks the will and ability to stop U.S. intervention in this part of the world should Trump decide to go that route,” said John Hardie, a Russian military analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

TRUMP GAVE MADURO ULTIMATUM TO FLEE VENEZUELA AS LAND OPERATIONS LOOM: REPORT

Hardie said Russia is watching Washington’s internal debate carefully. 

“Analysts in Moscow interpret the internal debate in Washington over Venezuela as evidence that although Republican views on foreign policy are shifting, the more traditional, hawkish camp still retains influence,” Hardie said. “This whole episode probably also reinforces Russian views of Trump as unpredictable and impulsive, though I suspect Moscow is glad to see Trump prioritizing the Western Hemisphere over other regions more central to Russian interests.”

China’s likely response would mirror its recent behavior in other conflicts. Beijing has major financial stakes in Venezuela but has shown little willingness to risk confrontation with the United States, especially in the Western Hemisphere.

Jack Burnham, a China analyst at FDD, said Maduro should take note of how China behaved during the 12-Day War, when Iran came under intense U.S.- and Israeli-led strikes.

“If Maduro is expecting support from China, he should have had his expectations corrected by Tehran’s recent experience under fire,” Burnham said. “Despite China providing key war-related materials to Iran prior to the 12-Day War, once the conflict escalated, Beijing stood down, content to stand on the sidelines and offer statements.”

Burnham said that same pattern would likely apply now: “If American military action accelerates, look for Beijing to engage in a war of words rather than send badly needed supplies to Caracas.”

Trump’s crusade against drugs

The Trump administration has beefed up its military presence off the coast of Venezuela and has adopted a hard-line approach to address the flow of drugs into the U.S. For example, it designated drug cartel groups like Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

The Trump administration has repeatedly said it does not recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state, but instead, a leader of a drug cartel. In August, the Trump administration upped the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million, labeling him “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world.”

On Sunday, Trump confirmed that he spoke to Maduro over the phone last week, after The New York Times reported that the two had talked, but declined to provide specifics on what they discussed. However, The Miami Herald reported on Sunday that Trump gave Maduro an ultimatum, guaranteeing the Venezuelan leader and his family safety — if he resigned immediately. 

MADURO BRANDISHES SWORD AT RALLY AS HE RAILS AGAINST ‘IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION’ AMID RISING TENSIONS WITH US

The White House did not provide comment when asked if the Trump administration is pushing a regime change, and whether Maduro had been offered any incentives to step down. However, the officials said all options are on the table to mitigate the influx of drugs into the U.S. 

“President Trump has been clear in his message to Maduro: stop sending drugs and criminals to our country,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “The President is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding in to our country.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on The Miami Herald’s report. 

Additionally, the New York Post reported on Tuesday that U.S. officials are discussing potentially sending Maduro to Qatar, although officials familiar with Qatar’s role in the negotiations said Maduro will not head there. It’s unclear where Maduro would flee to, and no countries have confirmed they will accept him. 

Trump’s reported negotiation with Maduro comes as the strikes in the Caribbean are facing heightened scrutiny from the legal community and lawmakers.

TRUMP PUSHES PEACE IN EUROPE, PRESSURE IN THE AMERICAS — INSIDE THE TWO-FRONT GAMBLE 

While lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes since the beginning, the attacks have come under renewed scrutiny after the Washington Post reported on Friday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth verbally ordered everyone on board the alleged drug boat to be killed in a Sept. 2 operation. The Post reported that a second strike was conducted to take out the remaining survivors on the boat. 

On Monday, the White House confirmed that a second strike had occurred, but disputed that Hegseth ever gave an initial order to ensure that everyone on board was killed when asked specifically about Hegseth’s instructions.

The White House also said Monday that Hegseth had authorized Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley to conduct the strikes, and that Bradley was the one who ordered and directed the second one. 

At the time of the Sept. 2 strike, Bradley was serving as the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, which falls under U.S. Special Operations Command. He is now the head of U.S. Special Operations Command. 

According to Hegseth, carrying out a subsequent strike on the alleged drug boat was the right call. 

“Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth said Tuesday. 

Altogether, the Trump administration has conducted more than 20 strikes against alleged drug boats in Latin American waters, and has enhanced its military presence in the Caribbean to align with Trump’s goal to crack down on drugs entering the U.S.

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The last confirmed strike occurred on Nov. 15. Hegseth said Tuesday that although there has been a pause in strikes in the Caribbean because alleged drug boats are becoming harder to find, the Trump administration’s crusade against drugs will continue. 

“We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they’ve been poisoning the American people,” Hegseth said Tuesday. 

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday announced an investigation into what he called a “troubling incident,” in which a Midwestern school allegedly vaccinated a child without their parent’s consent.

In a video statement on X, Kennedy said that HHS is taking “decisive steps” to defend parents’ rights to guide their child’s health decisions following the alleged incident.

“A school administered a federally funded vaccine to a child without the parent’s consent and despite a legally recognized state exemption,” he said. “When any institution — a school, a doctor’s office, a clinic — disregards a religious exemption, it doesn’t just break trust, it also breaks the law.”

“We’re not going to tolerate it,” he added.

RFK JR. ACCUSES BIDEN ADMIN OF PUTTING ‘SPEED OVER SAFETY’ IN MIGRANT CHILD CASES

Kennedy did not identify the state, the school or the vaccine said to be involved.

Kennedy said that the Trump administration will ensure that health care providers and institutions will not ignore parental rights when it comes to their children’s health.

“We will use every tool we have to protect families and restore accountability,” he said.

WEST VIRGINIA RESTORES EXCLUSION OF RELIGIOUS REASONS FOR SCHOOL VACCINE EXEMPTIONS AFTER LATEST COURT RULING

Kennedy said HHS is launching compliance reviews of major providers and healthcare systems to ensure that they give parents timely access to their children’s information. He said a letter will be issued reminding providers of “their clear legal duty” to share medical records with parents — with “no delays, no secrets, no excuses.”

A second letter from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) went to HRSA grant recipients, stressing that federal dollars require compliance with laws protecting parental rights.

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HHS is also reviewing how states and districts process medical and religious exemptions to ensure the federally funded Vaccines for Children program complies with federal and state law.

Kennedy added that parents may file complaints with the HHS Office for Civil Rights if they believe their rights — or their children’s — have been violated.

The U.S. military commander involved in a deadly Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean is expected to tell lawmakers Thursday that a follow-up attack was ordered against two survivors because he believed they were attempting to continue their drug run, a report said. 

The version of events that Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley plans to describe to members of Congress in a closed-door briefing would push back on claims from some legal experts that the killing of the two survivors in the second strike could have amounted to a war crime, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The newspaper, citing two defense officials, reported that Bradley will say that he and his legal adviser concluded that the two survivors were attempting to press forward with their drug run, making them and their already-damaged boat a legitimate target for a follow-up attack. 

The officials added that Bradley, as part of his decision, considered that “enemy” boats were nearby and the survivors were believed to be communicating by radio with others in their drug smuggling network.

TRUMP BACKS RELEASE OF SECOND CARIBBEAN STRIKE FOOTAGE AS SCRUTINY OVER OPERATION INTENSIFIES

The Sept. 2 attack was the Trump administration’s first use of military force against a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean and the only one in which survivors are known to have been targeted and killed in a follow-up operation, according to the Journal. 

The defense officials told the newspaper that the Coast Guard rescued two survivors of another strike in mid-October on a submersible because they were deemed unable to fight. 

The White House said Monday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized the second strike, but Bradley ordered and directed it. At the time of the strike, Bradley was serving as the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, which falls under U.S. Special Operations Command.

SPEC OPS CHIEF ORDERED DEADLY CARIBBEAN STRIKE ‘IN SELF-DEFENSE’ WITH HEGSETH’S SIGN-OFF, WHITE HOUSE SAYS 

“Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since,” Hegseth wrote on X on Monday night. 

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“Adm. Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth added during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. 

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who is currently running for governor, slapped down the idea that she might retire from Congress early.

“Retiring is a BIG FAT NO from me – not sure why the internet is running with this like wildfire – for the clicks I suppose,” Mace said in a post on X.

The New York Times reported that Mace told individuals that she is so frustrated by House Speaker Mike Johnson and sick of the manner in which he has run the lower chamber, particularly the treatment of women there, that she plans to speak to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., next week about following her path and leaving the House early. 

MACE CAMPAIGN STAFFER QUITS GOVERNOR BID TEAM, ACCUSING HER OF DISLOYALTY TO TRUMP

Fox News Digital reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s offices to request comment from the lawmaker.

Greene announced last month that she will leave office early next year, but Mace has repudiated the notion that she plans to follow in the Georgia Republican’s footsteps.

JOHNSON POINTS TO OBAMA-ERA DRONE PRECEDENT AS CONGRESS PROBES DEADLY CARIBBEAN STRIKE

“Media catches one tiny piece of an overheard conversation and loses it. Confirmed: There’s frustration that discharge petitions are the only way to move things through the House. Confirmed: There’s frustration we haven’t codified Trump’s Executive Orders. We did Gulf of America. Cool. Look at Elise Stefanik or Anna Paulina Luna comments this week. Not confirmed: That anyone is retiring. Goodness. And God bless!” she said in posts on X.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN MOVES TO FORCE VOTE ON LAWMAKER STOCK OWNERSHIP, TRADING BAN

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“Case in point. I signed a discharge petition to ban stock trading today. Why does something so easy ethically and morally to support, take forcing it down the throats of leadership when it’s just common sense? Members of Congress shouldn’t line their pockets with insider trading…” Mace said in posts on X.

While some Democrats described Aftyn Behn’s single-digit loss in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, a district that President Donald Trump won by 22 points last year, as an “overperformance,” a team of Democratic researchers and analysts called the special election a “missed opportunity” for the party.

Republican Matt Van Epps defeated Behn by about 9 percentage points on Tuesday, closing out a high-profile special election to replace former Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn. Despite losing, Democrats said Behn’s inroads in the ruby-red district — along with November’s gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia — proves their party is “on the offense.” 

This is where Welcome, a pro-Democratic Party organization, disagrees. In an October report entitled “Deciding to Win,” they cautioned their fellow party members that far-left positions are turning off voters. And on Wednesday, they poured cold water on the echo chamber that framed Behn’s loss as a win.

“The point is to win,” said Liam Kerr, co-founder of Welcome when asked by Fox News Digital about the Tennessee election results. “Running a far-left candidate clearly did not put Democrats in the best position to win.”

DECISION DAY: TRUMP, SPEAKER JOHNSON, AOC BLITZ CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN MUST-WIN SPECIAL HOUSE ELECTION FOR GOP

Kerr and his colleagues argued in the “Deciding to Win” report that Democrats should moderate their positions on identity politics and cultural issues while embracing affordability, border security and public safety ahead of competitive midterm elections expected next year.

TRUMP-BACKED REPUBLICAN KEEPS CRUCIAL CONGRESSIONAL SEAT IN GOP HANDS WITH SPECIAL ELECTION VICTORY

“Aftyn Behn was a missed opportunity,” Simon Bazelon, a research fellow at Welcome and a lead author of the report, said in a statement following Behn’s loss. “Republicans were unusually vulnerable, but the right message isn’t enough with the wrong track record. Democrats in red districts can’t just talk about affordability and hope voters don’t notice they walk left on everything else.”

Behn, a state representative and former healthcare community organizer, told supporters at a local Democratic Party office in Nashville on Tuesday morning that “whatever happens, win or lose, you’ve inspired a country. You’ve shown people the South has something to say.”

“For me, we’ve already won over the hearts and minds of so many Tennesseans and across the country,” Behn told Fox News Digital minutes later when asked if she’s a winner even without an election victory. “What starts here changes this country.”

Despite Behn running an effective affordability campaign fueled by grassroots support and a savvy social media presence, Bazelon said that “Republicans will make sure the voters know” if Democratic candidates do not match their district.

In the final days of her campaign, Behn dodged accountability for her past comments, including those calling to dissolve the Nashville police department, and was plagued by a resurfaced clip where she lamented that she hated Nashville.

“I hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an ‘it’ city to the rest of the country. But I hate it,” Behn said in a 2020 podcast.

“Despite a well-run race and significant investment, Tennessee voters knew Aftyn Behn did not share their views,” Bazelon said.

Elaborating on Bazelon’s critique, Kerr told Fox News Digital that it was “obvious that her stances on immigration and crime that are so out of step with the broad American public, not to mention a red district like Tennessee’s 7th, would come back to haunt her and make it almost impossible for her to win.”

“It’s not just that she’s out of step with the district, she’s completely out of step with the American public on crime and immigration,” the Democratic strategist said, in light of the resurfaced clip of Behn “bullying” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

While Republicans relentlessly focused on Behn’s past comments in the lead-up to Election Day, high-profile national Democrats, including former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris and Al Gore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., campaigned for the “AOC of Tennessee.”

And while Democrats were successful in firing up the far-left base who are fed up with Trump’s sweeping, second-term agenda, Kerr said that momentum isn’t enough to deliver a win.

“Persuasion is a way to turn people up,” he said. “Only trying to turn out your base is not a recipe for success, and so replicating what happened in November, not what happened in December, means persuading people who have supported President Trump in the past to pull the lever for a Democrat.”

Kerr described the recipe for Democratic success in the 2026 midterm elections as nominating “conservative Democrats,” and explained that Govs.-elect Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won, in part, because they are “hard to caricature as leftists.”

“We need centrist democrats to more aggressively intervene to bring the party back to where the American public is, particularly in red districts,” he said, describing Behn as “not just the fringe” but the “fringe of a fringe” candidate for the Democratic Party.

Moving forward, Kerr said the “achilles heel for the Democratic Party” will be the “myth that you can just talk about affordability and forget your extreme, unpopular positions, and that they won’t be raised to voters.”

While Welcome’s Democratic strategists are urging candidates back to the center in hopes of winning back the House and Senate in 2026, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee both took Tuesday night’s results as proof the party is on the “offense” – despite losing.

“Tonight’s election results prove exactly what the DCCC has known all along – Democrats are on offense not just in the standard swing districts but in red terrain across the country. Our expansive battlefield shows that Democrats are ready to fight in rural districts, in Latino communities, in Trump country, and everywhere in between. House Republicans are officially on notice – Democrats are taking back the majority in 2026,” DCCC Spokesperson Madison Andrus said in a statement.

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Meanwhile, DNC Chair Ken Martin called the win “historic and a flashing warning sign for Republicans heading into the midterms,” by centering her campaign on affordability.

“Democrats are all gas and no brakes as we head into next year, organizing everywhere and competing in elections across the country,” Martin said.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

California has launched an online portal for members of the public to report misconduct by federal authorities amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign that has pitted the White House against local and state officials. 

The portal was announced Wednesday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta, both frequent critics of President Donald Trump and the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents going after illegal immigrants across the state. 

“We’re not going to stand by while anyone — including federal agents — abuses their authority in California,” Newsom said in a statement. “This new portal gives Californians an easy and safe way to speak up, share what they see and help us hold people accountable. No one is above the law.” 

TRUMP ADMIN SUES OVER CALIFORNIA LAW BANNING ICE FROM WEARING FACE MASKS TO SHIELD IDENTITIES

The site allows the public to upload images and video footage to assist the California Department of Justice create a record of potential unlawful conduct by federal agents in an effort to determine possible legal actions the state may take.

Newsom and other California Democrats have said that some federal agents have abused their authority by targeting illegal immigrants for deportation in a series of raids across the state. 

The Trump administration has maintained that federal agents are going after illegal immigrants with criminal records, some of whom have committed violent crimes and have sexually abused children. 

“Gavin Newscum and the state of California should be more concerned with the dangerous criminal illegal aliens they’ve allowed to invade American communities, rather than attacking law enforcement officers,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. 

NEWSOM ON COURTROOM COLLISION COURSE WITH TRUMP OVER ICE MASK BAN

“ICE officers are facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them because of dangerous, untrue smears from elected Democrats,” she added. “ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism. Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals are simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.” 

In a separate statement, Bonta said the Trump administration has engaged in a “campaign of terror and fear that has left some California communities scared to go about their daily lives.”

“From unmarked military-style vehicles to detainments that more closely resemble kidnappings, Californians are rightly concerned that federal agents may be crossing the line and abusing their authority,” he said. “The president’s actions these past 10 months only lend support to this conclusion.”

In response to the portal announcement, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, noted the FBI has a similar portal. 

“We have a portal too,” Essayli wrote on X, citing a link to an FBI tip website. “People can report California state officials engaged in illegal activity at the following link.”

Since Trump took office Jan. 20, California has filed 48 lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s actions. 

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In response to Trump’s immigration agenda, Newsom signed a bill in October to prohibit licensed childcare facilities and state preschools from collecting immigration-related information from students and families. He also signed a bill to block authorities from wearing masks during immigration enforcement operations, which is being challenged in court. 

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday ordered two Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by President Donald Trump to be refunded in full for restitution payments made and fines incurred as part of their earlier criminal cases. 

It was a reversal from just months earlier, when the same judge rejected their bid for repayment.

Boasberg used a memo order Wednesday to outline the fairly complex case history for Cynthia Ballenger and her husband, Christopher Price, both of whom had been tried and convicted on misdemeanor charges in connection with events of Jan. 6, 2021, and ordered to pay hundreds of dollars in assessment fees and restitution.

Boasberg’s order effectively clears the way for the government to refund them both in full.

JUDGE BOASBERG TO WEIGH TRUMP CONTEMPT IN DEPORTATION CASE THIS WEEK

The new decision, he said, is the result of an appeals court decision, as well as the timing of Trump’s pardon, which came at the same time as their case had been pending appeal before the D.C. Circuit. 

“Having viewed the question afresh, the court now agrees with the defendants,” Boasberg said.

Both defendants, Ballenger and Price, had been in the process of appealing their convictions when Trump took office for a second time this year and issued a sweeping pardon for the roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants. 

In July, Boasberg rejected their request to be refunded the $570 each in restitution payments and other fees paid as a part of their convictions.

They later asked the court to reconsider, clearing the way for Wednesday’s new ruling.

Boasberg, in the new memo order, cited the same precedent from July, which states that a pardon alone is not sufficient to entitle a former defendant to any property or compensation lost as a result of the conviction. 

“By itself, defendants’ pardon therefore cannot unlock the retroactive return of their payments that they ask for here,” he noted Wednesday, reiterating that the court’s ruling on this portion of the appeal remains unchanged.

Rather, he said, the reversal hinged on the fact that both their cases had been pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit when Trump granted the pardon, “thereby moot[ing] their appeals” and causing their convictions to be vacated completely by the higher court.

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“So even if defendants’ pardon does not entitle them to refunds, the resulting vacatur of their convictions might,” Boasberg wrote, adding that it is true regardless of the reason for the vacatur. “In plain English, vacatur — unlike a pardon — ‘wholly nullifie[s]’ the vacated order and ‘wipes the slate clean.'”

The memo order goes one step further, however, as Boasberg considers not only whether a court can theoretically order repayments in the cases of vacated convictions, but if doing so is legally sound under the appropriations clause and with respect to issues of sovereign immunity, which protects the government from being sued without its consent.

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Boasberg concluded that the court has the power to order such repayment.

“Because the court could order defendants to pay assessments and restitution, it can order those payments reversed,” he said. “Those are two sides of the same action, and sovereign immunity does not stand in the way.”

The new memo order is likely to be seen as a win by some Trump allies, who have sought to cast Boasberg and other judges who have blocked or paused some of Trump’s most sweeping actions as rogue or “activist” judges.

“Having viewed the question afresh, the Court now agrees with defendants,” Boasberg said Wednesday. 

“When a conviction is vacated, the government must return any payments exacted because of it.”

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Some Democrats in Congress sharply criticized Trump’s pardons earlier this year, with the late ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Gerald Connolly, arguing in a letter that the pardons let Jan. 6 participants “off the hook” for an estimated $2.7 billion in estimated damages to the U.S. Capitol. 

The Small Business Administration is investigating a network of Somali groups in Minnesota that it says is tied to a massive COVID fraud scandal highlighting alleged systemic failures by Gov. Tim Walz’s team to properly audit public funds.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has become embroiled in a scandal that has already led to charges against dozens of people – mostly Somali – and prompted allegations from civil servants in his administration who have spoken of retaliation against whistleblowers and institutional negligence.

“Numerous individuals and nonprofits indicted in the $1 billion Minnesota COVID fraud scandal, including Feeding Our Future, received SBA PPP loans in addition to other state and federal funding,” Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced on X. “I have ordered an investigation into the network of Somali organizations and executives implicated in these schemes.”

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She added: “Despite Governor Walz’s best efforts to obstruct, SBA continues to work to expose abuse and hold perpetrators accountable, full stop.”

An SBA spokesperson confirmed the probe to Fox News Digital, saying the agency is “investigating all individuals and organizations indicted as part of the $1 billion Minnesota COVID fraud scheme to identify any that may have also fraudulently obtained PPP loans – evaluating their citizenship status, the legitimacy of their nonprofit work, and other requirements for eligibility.”

“The agency will provide additional details as the scope of fraud across these Somali networks are uncovered – and remains committed to clawing back all funding that was illegally obtained on behalf of American taxpayers,” SBA spokesperson Maggie Clemmons said.

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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the Somali community in Minnesota was “garbage,” eliciting sharp responses from local officials including Minneapolis Councilman Jamal Osman – who claimed that “everyone knows that our president is racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic.”

Walz did not reply to a Fox News Digital request for comment about Loeffler’s announcement. 

Previously, the governor said he would “welcome” a Treasury Department probe into whether his administration enabled millions of taxpayer dollars to reach Somali terror group Al Shabaab.

“If they want to help us, I welcome that,” Walz said. “Do an investigation, find out. But I don’t think anybody really believes their motive or timing is about actually doing something about this.”

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A separate report from City Journal, which also broke the Walz story, noted a 2015 study by a House Homeland Security Committee task force found more foreign-fighter terrorism-related travelers came from the Land of 10,000 Lakes than any other state.

Of those charged with seeking to join ISIS at the time, the outlet reported that they were “sophisticated users of social-welfare benefits.”

Two suspects had allegedly used federal financial aid to pay for their travel as they were preparing to depart Howard Beach, N.Y., for Syria.

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Minnesota, however, is far from the only state with PPP troubles.

Federal authorities in 2020 arrested a group of New York nail salon owners near JFK Airport in a scheme that allegedly combined smuggling Vietnamese immigrants for low-wage labor with misappropriating COVID-19 relief funds, according to the New York Post.

Dat Ho, Peter Nguyen and Victoria Ho were charged with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud after allegedly inflating payroll to secure $13 million in PPP loans, according to the New York Post.

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In May, an Iowa man – who was alleged to be a former Cuban military officer who entered the U.S. 20 years ago by crossing the border after a denied visa application – was arrested as a figurehead of an Iowa COVID-benefit fraud ring, according to an indictment statement from the Justice Department.

Yovany Ciero of Mason City was convicted on dozens of counts, including wire fraud, money laundering and engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from a specified unlawful activity.

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Prosecutors said Ciero and co-schemers stole an estimated $2.4 million, which entailed more than 100 Cuban immigrants who obtained PPP loans under false pretenses as “self-employed businesspeople” while they worked at the same meatpacking plant.

Authorities say Ciero recruited people for the scheme, and then passed that information to others who submitted the fraudulent loan applications to the feds. He faces up to life imprisonment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa.

Former Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker — a progressive Democrat who has advocated far-left policies, including “Medicare for All” and the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — has launched a U.S. Senate bid to succeed outgoing Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who announced earlier this year his current term will be his last.

“Now more than ever, we need leadership that is committed to the work of ending generational poverty and uprooting structural racism, delivering on system-changing policies like Medicare for All, Universal Basic Income, Reparations, and Universal Childcare,” Booker asserted in part of a lengthy statement on his campaign website.

“We need leadership that will drive the charge for bold policies like 40 for 40, so that anyone working a 40-hour work week will make a guaranteed minimum of $40,000 a year,” he declared.

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Booker declared in an X post last month that “ICE really does need to be abolished.” 

In another post, he wrote, “It really is a damn shame that we still don’t have universal healthcare in the U.S. of America. We need Medicare for All.”

His latest bid may be a long shot. Kentuckians have not had a Democrat representing them in the Senate so far during the 21st century.

It is Booker’s third run for Senate.

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In 2022, Booker was decisively defeated by incumbent Republican Sen. Rand Paul. 

Booker lost the 2020 Democratic U.S. Senate primary in the Bluegrass State to Amy McGrath, who lost to incumbent Republican Sen. McConnell in the general election later that year. 

McConnell, 83, has served in the Senate since 1985. 

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In September, Booker announced, “For over two years, I have had the distinct honor of serving the people of Kentucky in the office of Governor Andy Beshear. 

“I am humbled and excited to announce that today was officially my last day.”

The Booker campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Democrats waltzed into Tennessee and tried to swipe the seat held by Former Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., this week.

Winning special elections for House seats is a delicate dance. But Rep.-elect Matt Van Epps, R-Tenn., defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn by nine points.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., noted that the Cook Political Report rates that district to favor the GOP by about 10 points.

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“It’s not an R-plus-25. The President won it by 22 points. It’s actually rated to be a slightly Republican district. So, winning it by nine points is almost exactly on the nose of what we might expect,” said Johnson.

In other words, Republicans won the special election by the precise margin expected. That’s even though Republicans fretted that a Democratic surge could serve as a weather vane as to how popular the party is, if there are dents in the Trump coalition and what the path looks like in the 2026 midterms.

“Democrats put millions of dollars in. They were really trying to set the scenario that there’s some sort of wave going on. There’s not. We just proved that there’s not,” said Johnson.

Maybe. Maybe not. Special elections are special. A snapshot of where a given district stands at a point in time — often without the benefit of the regular electorate, which shows up in November every two years. That’s why House special elections are sometimes closer than what can be expected in the general. And the party out of power often dumps truckloads of cash into these contests to win. 

If nothing else, it forces the other party to burn lots of money too. But trying to make a race seem important gins up the base and concocts an illusion that things aren’t going well for the other side. Maybe people believe that voters are fed up and are demanding a change.

A special election is kind of like checking the score of a football game partway through the second quarter. Maybe one team’s passing game is really clicking. That may dictate the outcome. But we haven’t yet seen the two fumbles in the second half. That’s to say nothing of the botched snap on the field goal and blocked punt.

A lot can happen.

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Frankly, flipping seats in House special elections is arduous. The party out of power in the House or opposite of who occupies the White House often makes a race of it. That can signal a weakness in the party in power or even the president as you approach the next election. One of the best examples of this came in 2017. House Democrats came close to flipping four special elections in solid Republican seats ranging from Montana to Kansas to South Carolina to Georgia.

But Democrats didn’t capture any of those seats.

However, Democrats did make a few of them closer than you might think.

In fact, one of the best examples involved Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan.

President Donald Trump tapped former Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., to serve as CIA director and, later, secretary of state. Estes ran to succeed Pompeo. Pompeo won his district with 61% of the vote in 2016. Estes held off a challenge from Democrat James Thompson, vanquishing his opponent by six points and scoring 52% of the vote. 

Despite the defeat, Democrats and political observers noted the relative strength of Thompson in the special election. Many wondered if this was an omen about a 2018 Democratic wave.

But the Kansas district is a Republican stronghold. Democrats gained control of the House in the 2018 midterms. However, Estes won re-election the next year by nearly 19 points.

And despite the clamor surrounding special elections, there have truly only been four major “flips” in House special elections in the past 18 years. And one of those in a Hawaii special election was an anomaly where the Republican won in a three-way contest while two Democrats siphoned votes from one another.

But back to Tennessee.

Could Democrats have scored more success with a moderate candidate? Behn was progressive. A centrist may have had a better shot at winning a district like this, especially when one considers the success of Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., last month.

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Could a Van Epps win encourage other Republicans to quit? The House majority will be 220-214 once Johnson swears him in on Thursday. But some in the GOP are itching to leave. They may think there’s enough of a cushion, even though Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., departs in January. 

Fox is told there are several House Republicans who want to head for the exits. Some are upset at the White House controlling the entire agenda and Johnson keeping the House at bay for weeks during the government shutdown. Another factor: President Trump’s approach to the war in Ukraine.

Moderate Republicans may look at the Tennessee result and insist on the party addressing healthcare in the coming weeks. That’s a looming factor considering that Democrats withheld their votes to fund the government over healthcare this fall. It’s also possible that moderate Republicans in California and New York might see the relative Democratic strength in this contest as a signpost that they face a tough re-election next year. As we said, Democrats flipped the House seven years ago after coming close in several special elections.

Then there is redistricting and gerrymandering. The Van Epps win underscores the concept that drawing favorable lines for your party works. 

But this redistricting took place several years ago. Tennessee Republicans drew former Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., a Blue Dog, and any other Democrat out of a Nashville-area district. The GOP trifurcated Nashville and the suburbs, diluting the Democratic vote among several GOP districts. That served as a safety valve to assure a GOP win Tuesday. It also explains the risks of the current wave of redistricting by both parties. Plus, it underscores how redrawing the lines can make some contests closer than they should be.

Both sides are now dancing around with interpretations of what unfolded Tuesday. Republicans say this is why they will hold the House next year. Democrats say they won – even though they lost. And that’s why they will capture the House in the midterms.

Call it the Tennessee “waltz.”

But special elections loom in Texas, New Jersey and Georgia.

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It’s doubtful that those seats are in play.

So don’t expect the Texas Two-Step, the Garden State Stomp or The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia.