NationalWatch

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening…

-Newsom pushes climate record abroad as Californians shoulder America’s highest gas costs

-How closed-door negotiations and a guarantee ended longest government shutdown on record

-Camelot or Cringe?: Meet JFK’s grandson turned congressional candidate for the scrolling generation

Progressive Democrats turn on party leadership after government shutdown ends without healthcare guarantees

Several Democrats broke ranks with their party to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history in a move that has triggered backlash from rising progressive stars, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who questioned whether the 43-day standoff had been worth it.

The intraparty revolt has exposed a widening rift between Democratic leadership and its left flank, as progressive candidates accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of surrendering leverage to Republicans and President Donald Trump in exchange for a funding deal that left key healthcare priorities unresolved.

“We have federal workers across the country that have been missing paychecks. We have SNAP recipients, millions of SNAP recipients across the country whose access to food stability was imperiled, and we have to figure out what that was for,” Ocasio-Cortez said, before adding, “We cannot enable this kind of cruelty with our cowardice.”…READ MORE.
 

White House

NO TAKERS LEFT: Prosecutor takes on Trump’s Georgia election case after Fani Willis disqualified

COURT BLOCKS RULES: Federal judge slams brakes on Trump admin rule limiting commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants

REVOLT RISING: Anti-Trump network behind mass protests cracks open war chest against Dems who backed reopening government

NEW SCRUTINY: Trump to ask DOJ to investigate Epstein ties to Democrats, banks

World Stage

DEADLY ALLIANCE: Kim Jong-un sends troops to Russia to clear deadly minefields for Putin’s war

AI GONE ROGUE: China leads first AI-driven cyber attack, Anthropic says

Capitol Hill

ROUND 2 COMING: Shutdown is over, but Washington’s budget brawl is just getting started

FAA FRENZY: Aviation expert warns shutdown turbulence could linger: Here’s how to prep for smooth travel this holiday season

PAYDAY REVOLT: GOP unity shattered by controversial measure in government shutdown bill

Across America 

FREE SPEECH FIGHT: Iowa special education aide fired over Charlie Kirk comment files lawsuit

RED VOID: Multiple democratic socialists line up to succeed Mamdani

Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

A judge on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss the criminal case against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., who is charged with assaulting federal agents during a visit to a New Jersey immigration detention center earlier this year. 

U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper wrote in a 41-page ruling that McIver failed to show the prosecution was vindictive and that her actions were “wholly disconnected” from her oversight role as a member of Congress. 

“Defendant has not met her burden of establishing that her predominant purpose in physically opposing the Mayor’s arrest was to conduct oversight or gather information for a legislative purpose. No genuine legislative purpose was advanced by Defendant’s alleged conduct,” Semper wrote.

MORE DETAILS REVEALED ON SUSPECTS IN INDEPENDENCE DAY ICE ATTACK IN TEXAS

Samper did not reach a decision on the congresswoman’s motion to toss the charges.

“From the beginning, this case has been about trying to intimidate me, stop me from doing oversight and keep me from doing my job,” McIver said in a statement. “It will not work. I will keep standing up to protect people, and the court’s denial of my motions does not change that fact.

“I am not in this fight only for myself, and I am concerned that this decision will simply embolden the administration,” she added. “This case is not over. I am committed to protecting my community, our people and our country.”

McIver has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her — three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. She has pleaded not guilty.  

WHITE HOUSE HITS BACK AT DEM MAYOR SUING US ATTORNEY AFTER ICE ARREST: ‘DESPERATE ATTEMPT’

She has maintained that the prosecution is part of a retaliation campaign by the Trump administration.

“It is clear this administration is treating Congresswoman McIver’s actions differently than the actions of those who are on their side,” McIver’s attorney, Paul Fishman, said in a statement. 

McIver was among several elected officials, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who attempted to visit the Delaney Hall detention center, a 1,000-bed facility, in Newark May 9. The officials were attempting to inspect the facility. 

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Baraka was arrested by federal agents while trying to gain access. McIver was among several people jostling in the crowd of people around Baraka as it happened.

Prosecutors claim McIver “slammed” her forearm into an agent and placed her arms around the mayor to try to stop his arrest.

A group of former federal judges sharply criticized a top Justice Department official this week for characterizing the court fights playing out in President Donald Trump’s second term as a “war” against so-called “activist judges,” remarks they described as unnecessarily inflammatory and amounting to “pouring oil” on an already fast-burning fire.

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, spoke colorfully last week during a fireside chat hosted by the Federalist Society. Blanche used his time to excoriate federal judges for pausing or blocking some of Trump’s biggest executive orders and actions since January and to urge young lawyers and law students in the audience to fight back. 

“It is a war,” Blanche said, “and it is something we will not win unless we keep on fighting.”

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

The judges “have a robe on, but they are more political, or as political, as the most liberal governor or DA,” Blanche added. 

His remarks prompted a rebuke from the New York State Bar Association and from the Article III Coalition, a group of 50 former federal judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents. 

This type of rhetoric, “especially when voiced by high-ranking officials — not only endangers individual judges and court staff, but also undermines the public’s trust in the judiciary as an impartial and co-equal branch of government,” the judges said in a letter. 

In a series of interviews this week, several former judges told Fox News Digital they were shocked by Blanche’s remarks, which they described as a departure from longstanding Justice Department norms and a threat to the judiciary both as an institution and to the individual judges who serve on the bench.

One judge said Blanche’s remarks were “wildly different from all prior decades and under all prior administrations” he experienced in his more than 60-year career in D.C.

“I’ve been in Washington since 1974, continuously, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Paul R. Michel, the former chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Michel served as a special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation, a role in which he personally interviewed former President Nixon. 

“It’s just startling for the deputy attorney general to be functioning as a PR ‘hatchet man’ instead of a law enforcement official,” he said of Blanche’s remarks.

Michel and others in the group of retired judges told Fox News Digital they fear the rhetoric used could further erode public trust in the judiciary, a branch that the framers designed to interpret the law impartially and to serve as a check against excesses of the other branches, regardless of politics or the administration in charge. 

They noted that while parties often disagree with a decision or a near-term temporary order or motion, both the Justice Department and the opposing parties have a readily available mechanism to seek relief via the appeals process. 

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

Parties looking to challenge a temporary order or other form of injunctive relief can proceed with having the district court evaluate a case on its merits, kick it to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and, in some cases, the Supreme Court, for review, Philip Pro, a former U.S. district judge in Nevada appointed by President Ronald Reagan, told Fox News Digital.

Federal judges have attempted to issue near-term or emergency orders temporarily blocking some of Trump’s top policy priorities, including on immigration enforcement, birthright citizenship and sweeping layoffs across the federal government. The administration has responded to the lower court actions by seeking emergency relief from the higher courts, via emergency stays, which Blanche also touted during his remarks last week. 

Judges are “totally reactive” by design, Pro said. “We’re sitting in our districts. The cases are randomly assigned.”

“There is nothing ‘rogue’ about these decisions,” Pro added. “Those wheels grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly well, and that’s the way you get resolution.”

Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law who attended the fireside remarks, told Fox News Digital in an interview he is sympathetic to the concerns voiced by the judges, but he also understands the broader issue Blanche may have been trying to get at, which is the power the courts have to review the actions of the executive branch. 

This has emerged as a particular pain point not only for Trump but for his predecessors, each of whom has sought to enact some of their policy priorities via executive order in a bid to sidestep a clunky and slow-moving Congress.

Those actions are therefore more vulnerable to emergency intervention from the federal courts, Blackman said, though the degree to which judges can or should act in this space is the subject of ongoing debate.

“I don’t see Blanche’s comments as calling for violence,” Blackman said. “I think it’s more trying to say that there’s just this struggle between the executive branch and the judiciary that is not normal.” 

COMEY SEEKS TO TOSS CRIMINAL CASE CALLING TRUMP PROSECUTOR ‘UNLAWFUL’ APPOINTEE

Trump is far from the first president to publicly complain about “activist” judges for hampering his policies. Such criticisms stretch back decades and include former presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, among others. 

Still, the judges say they are concerned by Blanche’s remarks, which are a stark departure from what they experienced in their own careers, including while serving as federal prosecutors.

“Calling judges ‘rogue’ because they apply the law in a politically unfavorable way is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the judiciary in our constitutional structure,” Allyson K. Duncan, a former judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, said in a statement. 

Michel, the former special prosecutor for the Watergate investigation, noted he worked for two successive deputy attorneys general in the “exact post Blanche now holds,” but who gave much different marching orders.

“Their instructions to me were, ‘Politics are outside the boundaries for Justice Department employees,’ and politics are ‘not to have any influence,'” he said. “We were not to pay any attention to what somebody in the White House might say, or in the media or elsewhere. We were to be a ‘politics-free zone.’

“That seemed to me to be entirely appropriate,” Michel said. “The power to investigate, the power to indict and the power to prosecute and convict are awesome, awesome powers,” he added.

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The group also cited concerns for their colleagues who remain on the bench at a time when public threats to judges have increased, according to data from U.S. Marshals. This includes online harassment, threats of physical violence and “doxxing” judges at their home addresses by sending them unsolicited pizzas. Some deliveries have been made in the name of a judge’s son who was shot and killed in 2020 after opening the door to a disgruntled individual disguised as a delivery person.

The number of threats made against federal judges in 2025 has outpaced threats from the past 12-month period, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, prompting a push for Congress to take action. 

“Deputy Attorney General Blanche’s remarks reflect a reality the Department of Justice confronts every day — a growing number of activist judges attempting to set national policy from the bench,” a spokesperson for the Justice Department told Fox News Digital on Friday in response to a request for comment. 

“The department will continue to follow the Constitution, defend its lawful authorities and push back when activist rulings threaten public safety or undermine the will of the American people.” 

President Donald Trump announced Friday night on Truth Social that he is withdrawing his support and endorsement of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling her a “ranting lunatic” and accusing the Georgia Republican of “complaining” instead of celebrating what he described as his administration’s “record achievements.”

The president claimed that Greene “has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore” in a long post where he ultimately vowed “Complete and Unyielding Support” to any conservative primary challenger leading into the 2026 midterm elections.

Trump claimed Greene had “gone Far Left,” citing her recent appearance on The View, and gave her the new nickname “Wacky Marjorie.”

Greene has been one of Trump’s most vocal allies since entering Congress in 2021, backing him during multiple impeachment attempts and campaigning with him across red states.

EX-GOP OFFICIAL TURNED DEMOCRAT TARGETS TRUMP IN BATTLEGROUND STATE GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

“It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement — which she wasn’t about to get!),” the president wrote. 

“She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day,” Trump added. 

Rep. Greene responded immediately on social media, writing on X that “President Trump just attacked me and lied about me.”

REP MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SAYS THERE ARE MANY ‘WEAK REPUBLICAN MEN’

“I haven’t called him at all, but I did send these text messages today,” Greene added with screenshots of text messages. “Apparently this is what sent him over the edge. The Epstein files. And of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next week’s vote to release the Epstein files. It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”

Greene seemed to have shut the door for any future working relationship with President Trump in her post, writing, “I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him.”

“But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump,” Greene wrote. “I worship God, Jesus is my savior, and I serve my district GA14 and the American people.”

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After touting his administration’s accomplishment since the beginning of his second term this January, the president quipped, “having created the “HOTTEST”  Country anywhere in the World from being a DEAD Country just 12 months ago (and so much more!), all I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!”

Trump’s move could open the door for Georgia Republicans seeking to challenge Greene next year in her ruby-red district. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Department of Justice leadership directed federal prosecutors to give them examples by Friday of hurdles they have encountered with judges when working on cases about attacks on law enforcement and Antifa.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office sent the order one day prior to some U.S. attorneys, according to a memo reviewed by Fox News Digital. The memo instructed the prosecutors to give “2-3 examples of unusual judicial system obstacles” their offices have encountered in the courts in certain areas. The memo was first reported by Reuters.

The areas were laid out in a bulleted list and included assaults on law enforcement, obstruction of immigration authorities, investigations into certain “domestic terror organizations, such as Antifa” or “interstate threats, doxxing, and/or hoaxes.”

EX-JUDGES BLAST TOP TRUMP DOJ OFFICIAL FOR DECLARING ‘WAR’ ON COURTS

The judicial obstacles, the memo said, should be those that cropped up when prosecutors were bringing charges, litigating cases or carrying out other legal processes.

The directive marks the latest instance of the DOJ targeting the judiciary as prosecutors fail to secure charges and convictions in some high-profile cases and as the Trump administration faces hundreds of lawsuits and frequent adverse rulings in the lower courts.

It also comes after Blanche railed against what he said were “rogue activist judges” and declared a “war” on them during a Federalist Society convention last week.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a DOJ spokesperson said “judicial activists — liberals in robes” were improperly blocking the administration’s work and undermining the Supreme Court at times.

“Courts exist to apply the law, not invent policy from the bench,” the spokesperson said. “The Department is committed to strengthening our litigation posture at every level so we can better defend public safety initiatives and prevent activist judges from undermining the rule of law.”

Prosecutors have encountered roadblocks in the courts in numerous areas, including on immigration, federal appointments and firings, government funding, transgender policies, fights with big law firms and more. On rare occasions, the administration has turned to the Supreme Court for temporary relief in pivotal cases and almost always won.

TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY FACES CRUCIAL TESTS AS SUPREME COURT BEGINS PIVOTAL TERM

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The DOJ filed misconduct complaints this year against two D.C. judges, Judge James Boasberg and Judge Ana Reyes, Obama and Biden appointees, respectively.

Judge Mark Wolf, a 78-year-old Reagan appointee, recently announced his retirement in the Atlantic and attributed it to his desire to speak out against Trump’s “assault on the rule of law.” Wolf said he now plans “to advocate for the judges who cannot speak publicly for themselves.”

For decades, military pilots, radar operators, and ordinary citizens alike have reported strange objects darting through the skies, often dismissed by officials or buried under classification.

Despite congressional hearings and government task forces, little clarity has emerged about what Americans are actually seeing.

Now, the director of a new explosive documentary is pulling back the curtain on that mystery. 

Director and producer Dan Farah sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday to discuss his new documentary, “The Age of Disclosure.”

UFO TRACKER MAPS EERIE CLUSTERS OF UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS LURKING BENEATH US SHORELINES: ‘WE’RE BEING LIED TO’

“For a very long time, the public, Congress, and even the President have been kept out of the loop on this subject,” Farah said. “In the last few years, senior members of Congress, senior members of the administration, thanks to whistleblowers, have found out what’s been going on, and they are now in pursuit of the truth for themselves and for the American people.”

The film explores an alleged “80-year global cover-up” of non-human intelligent life and a secret race among world powers to reverse-engineer advanced technology of non-human origin. It features interviews with 34 senior members of the U.S. government, military, and intelligence community — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Every single person I interviewed made it very clear that it was no longer a question of whether this was a real situation,” he said. “It’s a very real situation.”

Farah, who worked on the film for more than three years, said each person he spoke to had “direct knowledge of this issue” and “extreme credibility.”

“We’ve had repeated instances of something operating in the airspace over restricted nuclear facilities, and it’s not ours,” Rubio said in the trailer.

He said the film reveals how the U.S. government is engaged in a “high-stakes, secret Cold War race with adversarial nations like China and Russia to reverse engineer technology of non-human origin.”

HOUSE WITNESS TESTIFIES UFOS NEARLY ACTIVATED RUSSIAN NUCLEAR MISSILES DURING 1982 INCIDENT

“The first country that cracks the code on this technology will be the leader for years to come,” said Jay Stratton, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and director of the government’s UAP Task Force, in the film’s trailer.

Farah said some are calling it “the Manhattan Project on steroids.”

“The fear here is that if another nation wins this race it could really change the lay of the land in terms of power,” he said.

But skepticism surrounding UAPs remains. Farah said the question now isn’t whether UAPs exist, but where they come from, who controls them and what their purpose is.

He said joking about this topic is “the equivalent of laughing at a terrorist threat.”

“Who would do that?” he said. “It makes no sense when you think about it. You know, if someone said, ‘Hey, there’s this constant terrorist threat. Terrorists are penetrating the airspace over our nuclear weapons sites.’ Who would laugh at that? It makes no sense.”

JD VANCE SAYS UFOS, ALIENS COULD BE ‘SPIRITUAL FORCES’ AS VP VOWS TO ‘GET TO THE BOTTOM’ OF MYSTERY IN SKIES

High-level officials in the film claim the issue was moved away from presidential oversight, with defense contractors “gatekeeping information.” However, Farah said members of Congress and the Trump administration are now working to uncover answers.

“Now we have leaders in Congress and in the administration that are trying to get to the bottom of it, and there are people in this film who are respected in their fields, who say they have seen these craft and have seen the recovered non-human bodies,” he said.

He said on-the-record interviews are even more important in this digital age, with many people dismissing everything they see as fake or artificial intelligence. He hopes the film will serve as the evidence many believe doesn’t exist.

“Some officials go on record claiming to have seen craft and non-human beings with their own eyes, and these are people who are putting their reputation and their names on the line,” he said.

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Farah said he thinks President Donald Trump could be the first president to speak openly about this unexplained phenomenon.

“I think it’s only a matter of time at this point before we have a sitting president step to the microphone and have the biggest moment a leader can possibly have, which is telling all of humanity that we’re not alone in the universe and that the United States intends to lead the way,” Farah said.

The film will be released on Nov. 21 and will play in select theaters in New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles, and will also be available worldwide to purchase or rent on Amazon Prime Video.

Nevada Democratic representatives Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford are being mocked as “out of touch” for keeping silent after a national Democratic Party spokesperson dismissed no tax on tips as mere “crumbs.”

In a Politico article about the importance of the no tax on tips policy in congressional races in Nevada, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Lindsay Reilly appeared to dismiss the policy, saying, “D.C. Republicans are giving temporary crumbs to working families.”

Reilly added, “Meanwhile, millions of families are at risk of losing their health care, hundreds of hospitals could close, and countless Americans could lose their jobs — all to pay for permanent tax cuts for billionaires.”

The no-tax-on-tips provision in the big, beautiful bill establishes an income tax deduction of up to $25,000 on qualified tipped income through 2028.

WATCH: DEM LAWMAKERS ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN WHY STOCK MARKET IS BOOMING DESPITE TRUMP TARIFFS

With Nevada being the state with the highest share of tipped workers in the country, these comments ignited a firestorm of criticisms from Republican voices online.

“Marvel at just how out of touch Democrats are with reality. The DCCC thinks no taxes on tips is ‘crumbs,’” wrote conservative commentator Steve Guest.

“What makes this so bad, is that this is ACTUALLY what the Democrat party thinks,” wrote White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson.

National Republican Senatorial Committee advisor Nathan Brand added, “Nancy Pelosi peddled this same elitist ‘crumbs’ message in 2017 after Trump and Republicans cut taxes for nearly all working families.”

The Republican Congressional Leadership Fund challenged Titus, Lee and Horsford, saying, “Will you denounce the @dccc’s statement that cutting taxes on tips amounts to ‘crumbs?’ Many of your constituents rely on tips to support their families.”

National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Christian Gonzalez wrote, “The @dccc sneering that No Tax on Tips is ‘crumbs’ is peak Democrat elitism.”

KAMALA HARRIS-ENDORSED CANDIDATE IN HOT SEAT FOR MILLION-DOLLAR DC HOME HUNDREDS OF MILES OUTSIDE DISTRICT

Though all three Democrats have advocated for the no tax on tips policy, they voted against the big, beautiful bill in which the policy was included.

Gonzalez said that the Nevada Democrats’ “voting record says it all” and that “Out of touch Democrats Dina Titus, Susie Lee, and Steven Horsford are too scared of their radical, latte-sipping bosses in D.C. to stand with the workers who keep Nevada running.”

“Only a party run by latte-liberals who refuse to go into the office thinks hard-earned tip money is pocket lint,” he said.

The NRCC itself also asked: “Will Titus, Lee, and Horsford stand with workers?”

“National Democrats just mocked Nevada’s servers, bartenders, cooks, housekeepers, dealers, and hospitality workers, sneering that their right to keep their own hard-earned tip money amounts to nothing more than ‘crumbs,’” the NRCC said in a statement.

“This is the shameless party of Dina Titus, Susie Lee, and Steven Horsford. They can’t hide from their vote AGAINST No Tax on Tips for hardworking Nevadans. If Titus, Lee, and Horsford actually stood with workers, they’d condemn these comments and stand up for workers keeping more of their hard-earned money,” the NRCC went on.

‘SQUAD’ DEM SPENDS EYE-POPPING AMOUNT ON LUXURY LIMO SERVICES IN ONE YEAR

After its passage, Lee wrote in the Las Vegas Sun that she “rushed back to Washington to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill,” calling it “one of the least popular pieces of legislation in modern American history, giving massive, permanent tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and temporary crumbs for working families in Southern Nevada.”

In August, the three sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “to ensure the successful implementation” of the no-tax-on-tips policy. In a statement, Lee’s office said the letter highlighted that “the version of ‘No Tax on Tips’ passed by Republicans in Washington does not fully meet the needs of Nevadans.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Lee said, “I believe that no one should lose out on tips they earned. That’s why I support the TIPS Act to PERMANENTLY end taxes on tips.”

She said that earlier this year, she “called on Speaker [Mike] Johnson to bring the permanent fix ‘No Tax on Tips Act’ — which unanimously passed the Senate — to the House floor for a vote.”

PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS TURN ON PARTY LEADERSHIP AFTER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENDS WITHOUT HEALTHCARE GUARANTEES

“Instead, Republican leaders held it hostage so they could provide cover for themselves as they voted to pass the largest transfer of wealth in American history,” she said, adding, “The Republican ‘no tax on tips’ provision is a raw deal for tipped earners — it’s temporary, capped, and so much smaller than the tax breaks the wealthiest Americans got out of the Big Bulls**t Bill.”

“Let me be clear — our service workers can’t benefit from no tax on tips if they aren’t receiving tips thanks to our tourism slump or if they’ve lost their jobs,” she said.

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DCCC spokeswoman Lindsay Reilly also responded to the backlash, telling Fox News Digital “it’s sad that the out-of-touch operatives at the NRCC are having a meltdown when confronted with the facts.”

“Everyone knows the Big, Ugly Bill is a massive tax giveaway for the wealthiest few that sticks working families with the bill. That is fact, and it’s why everyone hates it,” she said, adding, “Voters can see through Republicans’ cheap spin and people know their bill fails to deliver meaningful relief to everyday Americans, while the billionaires cash out.”

In response to the knock on her 2017 “crumbs” comment, Pelosi’s office shared a statement from 2018, which accused President Donald Trump’s first-term tax breaks of being a scam and “a monumental theft from the middle class to enrich the wealthiest 1 percent.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to Titus and Horsford, but did not immediately receive a response.

EXCLUSIVE: After the U.S. Catholic bishops issued a statement opposing mass deportations, a prominent American Catholic group chided some of their colleagues for sowing “confusion” about the church’s official stance on law enforcement and called for a “more complete conversation on immigration.”  

On Wednesday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a “special pastoral message on immigration” in which the bishops said they felt “compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.”

In the message, the bishops stated unequivocally, “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” adding, “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.“

“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”

US CATHOLIC BISHOPS VOTE TO OFFICIALLY PROHIBIT GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENT AT CATHOLIC HOSPITALS

They also lamented that “some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status,” and noted, “we are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”

A day later, conservative advocacy group CatholicVote issued a report titled, “Immigration Enforcement and the Christian Conscience,” in which it said, “despite what some Church leaders in America have indicated, a faithful Catholic can support strong and humane immigration law enforcement — by means such as physical barriers, detention and deportation — without violating the teaching of the Church.”

While the U.S. bishops’ statement invokes the scripture verse “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,” in reference to the plight of migrants, CatholicVote’s report states that the “implications of this passage apply to all people — including those left poor, forgotten, unemployed and the victims of crime.”

The report posits that while “weak borders and lenient law enforcement are often presented as ‘humane’ and ‘compassionate’ policies demanded by Christian love,” such policies “frequently have a terrible human toll — such as when they enrich and empower the criminal cartels, clearly harming both Americans and foreigners in the process.”

It also makes the case for deportations even in instances that lead to the separation of families, saying, “In this regard, there is no essential difference between a prison sentence for other offenses and the deportation of illegal immigrants.”

“If legitimate law enforcement is disruptive to family life, the responsibility lies with those family members who broke the law,” the report states.

‘SHATTERED OUR WORLD’: FAMILY STILL WITHOUT ANSWERS AFTER INTOXICATED ILLEGAL KILLED MOTHER

The report laments that “Catholics who advocate strong but humane immigration enforcement are sometimes accused of disobeying their bishops or the pope, and even violating Church teaching.” It also says that “statements from individual Church leaders in America and abroad have also added to the confusion, particularly when they draw a moral equivalency between President Trump‘s immigration policy and, for example, the Democratic Party’s pro-abortion platform.”

Despite this, the report posits that “properly speaking, there is no such thing as an official ‘Catholic position’ on the practical details of immigration policy.” Instead, it frames individual Catholics’ stances on immigration enforcement as “a matter of prudential political judgment,” which it says is “an area of responsibility that belongs properly to Catholic laypersons rather than the bishops.”

CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt told Fox News Digital that the group “wants to foster a more complete conversation on immigration and give moral standing and freedom of conscience for Catholics and Christians who recognize a need to secure the border and the importance of the rule of law.”

Reinhardt said that “pastoral accompaniment on the part of the bishops and faithful Christians, however necessary, does not exhaust the Church’s moral vocabulary.”

BISHOPS, CATHOLIC GROUPS SLAM CARDINAL CUPICH’S PLAN TO HONOR PRO-ABORTION SEN DICK DURBIN: ‘GREAT SCANDAL’

“The responsibility to regulate borders for the sake of the common good is not a caveat tacked onto an otherwise humanitarian manifesto; it is an integral part of Catholic doctrine,” said Reinhardt, adding, “This is not a secondary or peripheral concern. As we argue, it is precisely the collapse of lawful order — not merely private prejudice — that has created the conditions in which exploitation flourishes, cartels thrive, and millions of migrants are pushed into a shadow-world without legal recourse or clear prospects.”

“The point, put bluntly, is this: a nation cannot honor the dignity of immigrants if it has effectively abandoned the rule of law under which immigrants might be protected,” she said.

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CatholicVote made headlines in 2024 for issuing its first political endorsement for President Donald Trump. The group’s founder, Brian Burch, currently serves as the Trump administration’s ambassador to the Vatican.

Fox News Digital reached out to the USCCB for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday announced the Department of Justice (DOJ) will probe prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, after new emails released this week revealed ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In an X post Friday afternoon, Bondi said Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, will take the lead on the investigation.

“Clayton is one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country,” Bondi wrote in the post. “As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”

Bondi’s response came after President Donald Trump took to social media to call for an investigation into notable Democrats and institutions allegedly connected to Epstein.

WHITE HOUSE SLAMS DEMS’ ‘BAD-FAITH’ EPSTEIN DOC RELEASE AS DEMAND FOR FILES INTENSIFIES

“Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Friday.

The president went on to call the situation “another Russia, Russia, Russia scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats.”

“Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!” he wrote.

TRUMP DOJ HANDING EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS TO HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON FRIDAY AS SUBPOENA DEADLINE LOOMS

JPMorgan Chase & Co. previously told Fox News Digital the government had “damning information” about Epstein’s crimes, but did not share the details with any banks.

“We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts,” Trish Wexler, head of policy and advocacy communications at JPMorgan Chase & Co, wrote in a statement. “We ended our relationship with him years before his arrest on sex trafficking charges.”

Oversight Committee Democrats on Wednesday released a trove of new emails related to the Epstein case, including one where Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell “the only dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” adding the now-president “spent hours at my house” with a victim.

TRUMP TO ASK DOJ TO INVESTIGATE EPSTEIN TIES TO DEMOCRATS, BANKS

In another email, Epstein penned Michael Wolff, explaining Trump “knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told Fox News Digital the Democrats “selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”

Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., released a fiery statement demanding the DOJ release all the Epstein files “immediately.”

“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover,” Garcia wrote in a statement. “These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president.”

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Representatives for Clinton, Summers and Hoffman did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

The head of the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council revealed on Friday that he appointed himself to take over the election case in Georgia against President Donald Trump and several others, a move that comes after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from it.

The council’s director, Peter Skandalakis, said he would take the case on after he was unable to find another prosecutor to do it.

“The filing of this appointment reflects my inability to secure another conflict prosecutor to assume responsibility for this case,” Skandalakis said. “Several prosecutors were contacted and, while all were respectful and professional, each declined the appointment.”

TRUMP ISSUES SWEEPING PARDONS FOR 2020 ELECTION ALLIES — WHAT THE MOVE REALLY MEANS

Willis charged Trump and 18 co-defendants in August 2023 with racketeering and other violations involving interfering with the 2020 election, but the case was whittled down significantly because of plea deals and dismissed charges.

The biggest blow to the prosecution came last year, however, when the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis, finding that she had an undisclosed romantic relationship with her lead prosecutor, Nathan Wade, and that it presented a conflict of interest. Her disqualification flipped the case into the hands of the state agency to decide what to do with it.

Legal experts had long predicted that finding a new prosecutor to step in and take on the sprawling, complex racketeering case against Trump and his allies would be difficult. Skandalakis said he wanted to do it to avoid the court dismissing the charges because of a lack of a prosecutor.

“The public has a legitimate interest in the outcome of this case. Accordingly, it is important that someone make an informed and transparent determination about how best to proceed,” Skandalakis said.

Court action against Trump while he is a sitting president is unlikely, but some of his co-defendants still facing charges, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, do not have that same type of protection.

ALVIN BRAGG DODGES MENTIONING SIGNATURE TRUMP CASE AS HE CAMPAIGNS FOR DISTRICT ATTORNEY RE-ELECTION

Trump this week pardoned Meadows, Giuliani and others facing accusations related to the 2020 election, but the president’s clemency only applies to federal charges.

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Trump’s defense lawyer Steve Sadow said in a statement he expects the Georgia case will still be tossed out.

“This politically charged prosecution has to come to an end,” Sadow said. “We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump.”

Claudia Kelly-Bazan contributed to this report.

A left-wing group behind the massive “No Kings” protests targeting President Donald Trump and his administration launched its largest primary undertaking: targeting Senate Democrats who joined Republicans to reopen the government. 

“This is no longer about them – it’s about us. We’re done waiting for Democrats to find their spine,” Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, said in a Monday press release. “We can’t afford a weak and cowardly Democratic Party while the authoritarians invade our cities, terrorize our communities, and threaten our democracy. We get the party we demand, and we intend to demand a Democratic Party that fights.” 

Indivisible is one of the key groups behind the massive “No Kings” protests that were held across the country earlier in 2025, including on June 14, when Trump held a military parade in Washington, D.C., and most recently on Oct. 18, when protesters railed against Trump’s immigration policies and reiterated claims that Trump conducts himself as a monarch as opposed to a president. 

The protests are supported by dozens of left-wing and liberal groups, with Indivisible, the 50501 movement and the No Kings Organization, itself, identified as the top organizers of the protests. 

SCHUMER PUSHES SHUTDOWN INTO RECORD BOOKS AFTER REJECTING GOP BILL A 14TH TIME

Indivisible launched in 2017, as Trump’s first term kicked off, and describes itself as a network of local grassroots groups that advocates for the elections of left-wing lawmakers, while advocating current lawmakers resist MAGA policies. The group is funded, in part, by left-wing billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, which delivered Indivisible a two-year grant worth $3 million in 2023 that works to “to support the grantee’s social welfare activities,” Fox News Digital previously reported. 

“Chuck Schumer and a critical mass of Senate Democrats surrendered,” Levin said. “For nearly six weeks, Republicans held the government hostage while threatening health care, food assistance, and basic services for millions of Americans.”  

“In these six weeks of the shutdown, Democrats had their best election night in over a decade, polls showed Republicans were losing this shutdown fight, and their base turned out for the largest protest in modern U.S. history with a resounding rejection of Trump and Republicans,” Levin continued in his comments. “Instead of standing with that energy, Senate Democrats surrendered — yet again. That’s why Indivisible is launching our largest primary program yet.” 

“Our democracy is facing an existential threat. We need leaders with backbone and conviction — not timidity and excuses,” Indivisible’s co-founder and co-executive director Leah Greenberg said of the primary plan. “Democrats can’t defeat authoritarianism by running from the fight. It’s in our hands to make sure those who can’t fight make space for the leaders who can. Indivisible is ready to clean house and build a party that actually has the energy to act like an opposition.” 

At the heart of the shutdown was a debate on healthcare. Trump and Republicans pinned shutdown blame on Democrats for working to include healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants in the package. Democrats denied the claims and argued the government was shut down due to Republicans failing to negotiate healthcare demands. 

The House voted later Wednesday to reopen the government. The bill then headed to Trump’s desk for his signature to officially end the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history. 

A handful of left-wing lawmakers and leaders slammed Senate Democrats for joining the GOP ahead of Trump’s signature, such as Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders describing Sunday as a “very bad night.”

JOHN FETTERMAN BREAKS WITH DEMOCRATS IN SHUTDOWN VOTE, SAYS IT’S AN ‘EASY CHOICE’ TO PUT AMERICA FIRST

“Pathetic. This isn’t a deal. It’s a surrender. Don’t bend the knee!,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s official press office X account posted Sunday evening. Newsom added on his own X account: “America deserves better,” as well as another message that just read, “pathetic.“

“As this vote moves to the House, I stand with Democratic leadership as they refuse to rubber stamp the full-scale Republican assault on Americans’ health care and I am proud of the majority of Senate Democrats who opposed this vote,” DNC Chair Ken Martin posted to X. 

“I’ve said it since the start of this shutdown — Republicans do not negotiate in good faith, and any deal that fails to protect healthcare is not a deal at all. For Democrats to cave now would be a complete betrayal of the American people,” Illinois Lt. Governor and Senate candidate Juliana Stratton posted to X. 

Others, including Indivisible and Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna, have called for Schumer to be replaced over the handling of the shutdown. 

Indivisible’s primary plan, which is dubbed as the group’s “largest” primary effort to date, includes calling on Schumer to step aside as Senate minority leader, and backing Senate candidates who hold a “clear commitment to abandon the status quo of feckless leadership, and use every tool available to fight MAGA attacks on our communities, our health, and our democracy.”

“Ahead of the 2026 primaries, Indivisible will be activating (it’s) (sic) network to support progressive fighters who are challenging feckless, status-quo-loving incumbents. In a recent movement survey, 98.67% of Indivisible’s base said they wanted Senate Democrats to keep fighting,” the group wrote, adding that its plan is coming together with more details, candidate endorsements and campaign efforts expected in the coming weeks.  

Fox News Digital reached out to Indivisible Wednesday morning for additional comment on the plan but did not immediately receive a response. 

SENATE RETURNS TO WORK AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN NEARS LONGEST IN US HISTORY OVER OBAMACARE FIGHT

When asked about the Democrat in-fighting over the lawmakers who joined the GOP, the White House reiterated that Trump has wanted the government to reopen since Oct. 1. 

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“President Trump has wanted the government reopened since the first day Democrats shut it down. The action in the Senate is a positive development and we look forward to seeing it progress,” a White House official told Fox Digital. 

Trump joined Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Monday evening, arguing the Republican Party “broke” Schumer. 

“I think he made a mistake in going too far,” Trump said during the interview. “He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him.”

Fox Digital reached out to Schumer’s office regarding outrage among some Democrats over the splintering vote and mounting calls for him to step aside but did not receive a response. 

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller and Leo Briceno contributed to this report. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in the midst of touting his state’s leadership on energy policies while in Brazil for a United Nations climate conference, while Golden State residents pay the highest gas prices in the U.S., which are largely attributable to state regulations. 

“While climate change may not resonate, I think affordability matters,” Newsom said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle earlier in November ahead of his trip to Brazil. “When you talk about energy efficiency, you’re talking about saving money.”

Newsom joined the COP30 summit, which is an annual U.N. climate meeting, in Belém, Brazil. Typically, federal U.S. officials attend the summit, but the administration skipped the event as President Donald Trump rails against climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”

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

“Absolutely,” Newsom said Wednesday when asked if California was standing in for the U.S. at the summit, the Los Angeles Times reported. “And I think the world sees us in that light, as a stable partner, a historic partner … in the absence of American leadership. And not just absence of leadership, the doubling down of stupid in terms of global leadership on clean energy.”

The governor’s office touted amid the trip that, “Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down 21% since 2000 — even as the state’s GDP increased 81% in that same time period,” and that “the state was powered by two-thirds clean energy” in 2023.

California currently has the highest average gas prices in the nation, data shows. 

The Golden State has long had notoriously high gas prices, and 2025 is no different. California currently has the highest average gas prices in the nation, at an average of $4.67 per gallon, followed by a list of other states, including Hawaii, Washington, Nevada and Oregon. 

Holiday travel is about to hit a fever pitch across the country as the aviation industry gets back on its feet following the historically long government shutdown that led to nationwide delays — with many travelers expected to hop in their cars for a road trip this Thanksgiving and Christmas season. 

LONGTIME NEWSOM CRITIC PUTS UN SUMMIT ON NOTICE IF DEM GOVERNOR IS ALLOWED TO SPEAK: ‘CLIMATE HYPOCRISY’

The White House slammed California’s high gas prices to Fox News Digital Thursday while Newsom was abroad.

“Governor Newscum is working overtime to cement his status as the worst governor in America,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. “Under his failed leadership, the great state of California is suffering with some of the highest gas and electricity prices in the country.” 

“In fact, California drivers pay $1.60 more than the national average for a gallon of gasoline,” she added. “Gavin, it’s time to abandon your failed Green New Scam experiment and embrace President Trump’s successful energy dominance agenda.” 

Newsom office spokesperson Izzy Gardon told Fox Digital Thursday that current gas prices in the state are lower than in 2019, when Newsom was inaugurated California’s top leader. 

“Year over year, in real dollars, gas prices in California today are lower than they were in the Governor’s first year in office — and Californians are getting up to $60 billion in utility bill rebates thanks to climate policies Trump is too lazy or too stupid to understand,” Gardon said. “While Trump tries to Make Black Lung Great Again, Governor Newsom is in Brazil fighting for clean energy, more jobs, and a livable planet.” 

The nation’s average gas price has fallen in recent months, sitting at about $3.08 as of Thursday, after reaching a high of $5 per gallon in the summer of 2022 under the Biden administration, according to Gas Buddy data. 

Red states currently report the lowest prices, including Oklahoma touting the lowest average price in the nation, at a state average of $2.48 per gallon, followed by four other red states with low average gas prices: Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. 

NEWSOM CLAIMS TRUMP IS ‘HANDING THE FUTURE TO CHINA’ AT BRAZILIAN CLIMATE CONFAB THAT WH SKIPPED

The U.S. Energy Information Administration, which is the Department of Energy’s statistical arm that publishes policy-independent data, attributed California’s higher prices at the pump to a spate of policies, including state taxes and fees, environmental requirements and special fuel requirements. 

Californians pay an extra $0.90 per gallon in local, state, and federal taxes as of March 2025, while the California Energy Commission estimated that residents pay an additional $0.54 a gallon in environmental compliance costs. The state also requires that fuel in the state be a special blend that cuts back on pollution, but also comes at a higher price tag, according to the Energy Information Administration. 

NEWSOM SET TO RALLY TEXAS DEMS WITH VICTORY LAP DAYS AFTER PROP 50 PASSES: ‘CALIFORNIA STEPPED UP’

Newsom and Trump have long been political foes, with their battles frequently focusing on energy policy, including Trump slamming Newsom over its water reserves in a state prone to devastating wildfires, and Trump signing a trio of congressional resolutions ending California’s restrictive rules for diesel engines and mandates on elective vehicle sales in July. 

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Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment on the matter but did not immediately receive a response.

Several weeks into the government shutdown, the notion of reopening seemed impossible. 

Both Senate Republicans and Democrats were deeply entrenched in their positions for 41 days and 40 nights, and neither side wanted to appear to be caving to the other. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus wanted a guaranteed deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued that the government needed to reopen first. 

SENATE DEMOCRATS CAVE, OPEN PATH TO REOPENING GOVERNMENT 

But an explosion of bipartisan talks, pushed by external pressures of federal workers going unpaid, federal food benefits in jeopardy, and air travel grinding to a standstill, invigorated a working group of senators to build an off-ramp out of the historic closure.

The result was a bipartisan deal that included a trio of spending bills meant to jump-start the government funding process, an extension of the original House-passed continuing resolution (CR) to Jan. 30, 2026, to provide time to fund the government the old-fashioned way, and a renewed guarantee that Senate Democrats would get their vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies. 

In the end, the shutdown dragged on for 43 days, with the climactic vote to end it and send the package to the White House unfolding in the House on Wednesday. 

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., who was part of crafting the final spending deal, said discussions on those three bills had begun “long before” the shutdown. 

“We certainly had some knotty issues, a hemp issue, disagreements on funding levels and all that. But for the most part, we worked those through. And I would tell you from our side and I would assume from the other, the three big players were the Cardinals themselves,” Cole said, referring to the three House Republican subcommittee chairs who led discussions on the three individual bills.

DEMOCRAT LAWMAKER BLASTS SENATE COLLEAGUES FOR CAVING IN SHUTDOWN DEAL

“Our Democratic colleagues that voted against the bills had plenty of input in the bills. The real question will be in the next package — can you guys bring any votes? If you’re not going to bring any votes, our negotiation will be a waste of time, and we’ll be required to construct a coalition that’s all Republican.” 

Nevertheless, most of the eight Senate Democrats that crossed the aisle viewed the guarantee of a vote on Obamacare as the turning point, though it lacked the guaranteed outcome that Schumer and the majority of the caucus sought. 

“There was no vote that we were going to get on the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said on Sunday, referring to Obamacare. “We have a guaranteed vote by a guaranteed date on a bill that we will write, not that the Republicans will write.”

SENATE VOTE TO END GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IGNITES DEMOCRAT CIVIL WAR 

For Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who proved the decisive Democratic vote that sealed the deal on the proposal in the Senate, it was provisions that would rehire and protect workers fired by the Trump administration. 

Kaine recalled that it was just hours before the Senate was set to take a key test vote on the CR that he changed his mind. Up to that point, the White House had not wanted to include language that would have reversed the reductions in force (RIFs) that had been ordered at the start of the shutdown. 

But it was through Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who was a key negotiator in the Senate, that Kaine got the White House on board. 

“I said, I’m a no if you don’t do that, I’m a no, and you know that it was 4:45 p.m. in the afternoon on Sunday when they told me they would do that,” he said.

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Kaine noted that with 320,000 federal workers in Virginia and 2 million nationally, he recognized it was a big ask. 

“And I told her, and when I explained it to her, she said, that’s a reasonable ask, but that the White House didn’t want to do it,” he said. “And she was a little bit of a go-between and helping me.”

Several members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) appear to be lining up to clinch Zohran Mamdani’s New York State Assembly seat after the 34-year-old stunned the political landscape to become the city’s next mayor.

Rana Abdelhamid, an Egyptian American and Muslim community organizer, has filed to run for Assembly District 36, the western Queens district that covers the Astoria neighborhood, according to City & State, citing state Board of Elections records.

Meanwhile, DSA leaders have already recruited former Queens DSA co-chair Diana Moreno to run for the seat, while local reports indicate that Mary Jobaida, a past candidate for a neighboring district, may also run.

Abdelhamid is a member of the New York City chapter of the DSA. The chapter is the largest in the country, with more than 11,200 members, including Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Tiffany Cabán, the Astoria neighborhood’s city council member, is also a DSA member.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI LANDS KEY ENDORSEMENT IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL RACE

A DSA win in this race would mark another step in the group’s growing influence over New York politics.

Abdelhamid previously mounted a 2022 primary challenge against then-Rep. Carolyn Maloney, whose district included both the Upper East Side and western Queens. She dropped out of the race after the district’s boundaries were redrawn to exclude Queens, the outlet reported.

Abdelhamid is deeply involved with the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) community in Astoria and helped lead a successful push for the state to collect more accurate demographic data on MENA communities, per City & State.

She also founded a women’s self-defense organization called Malikah and previously told the outlet that she grew up in Astoria, in a part of the neighborhood nicknamed “Little Egypt.”

Sources told the outlet that Moreno will likely receive the DSA endorsement.

LINDA SARSOUR TELLS FOLLOWERS SHE WILL ‘HOLD ZOHRAN ACCOUNTABLE’ IF MAMDANI WINS NYC MAYORAL RACE

Moreno, who also lives in Astoria, was co-chair of NYC-DSA’s Queens branch from 2021 to 2023 and served as the organization’s communications coordinator from 2023 to 2024. She is also the former deputy director of the immigrant advocacy group New Immigrant Community Empowerment.

“I’m preparing to run for Zohran’s Assembly seat so our future mayor has an unwavering ally in Albany committed to helping him deliver an affordable NYC!” Moreno posted on Instagram two weeks ago, sharing a story about her candidacy on City & State.

“As a Queens mom, an immigrant organizer, and a democratic socialist, I’m ready to fight for the working people of Queens! LET’S WIN THIS.”

Moreno said she was initially approached by the DSA to run but declined, citing the demands of traveling to Albany given that she has a young child.

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She said she changed her mind because of what she described as the Trump administration’s “rising authoritarianism” and a need to deliver for working families in her district. Her top legislative priority is free and universal child care.

Moreno’s profile shows her participating in several pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the city.

The House is expected to vote next week on repealing a controversial measure in the bill that ended the government shutdown. 

It caused heartburn for House Republicans in the final days of the shutdown and provided fresh ammo for Democrats hoping to delay their federal funding legislation in its final hours.

The provision, tucked into the Legislative Branch appropriations bill and dubbed “Requiring Senate Notification for Senate Data,” would allow senators directly targeted in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation to sue the U.S. government for up to $500,000. 

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., who was involved in crafting part of the successful funding deal, told Fox News Digital he had even been afraid it could derail the final vote to end the shutdown.

PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS TURN ON PARTY LEADERSHIP AFTER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENDS WITHOUT HEALTHCARE GUARANTEES

“It had been done without our knowledge. I mean, it had been added in the Senate without our knowledge,” Cole said. “It was a real trust factor … I mean, all of a sudden, this pops up in the bill, and we’re confronted with either leave this in here, or we pull it out, we have to go to conference, and the government doesn’t get reopened.”

It was placed into the bill by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and given the green-light by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sources confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

Thune put the provision into the bill at the request of members of the Senate GOP, a source familiar with the negotiations told Fox News Digital, which included Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. 

It was a big point of contention when the House Rules Committee met to prepare the legislation for a final vote on Tuesday night. Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Austin Scott, R-Ga., and Morgan Griffith, R-Va., all shared House Democrats’ frustration with the measure, but they made clear it would not stand in the way of ending what had become the longest shutdown in history.

Those Republicans agreed with the motivations behind their Senate counterparts wanting to sue but bristled over the notion that it would come at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

SENATOR RON JOHNSON WARNS GOP WILL BE IN ‘BIG TROUBLE’ IF PARTY IGNORES DEMOCRATS’ PLAN TO ‘NUKE’ FILIBUSTER

Roy told Fox News Digital that he brought his concerns to the Senate GOP himself.

“Well, they heard them,” Roy said when asked how those concerns were received. “I mean, you know, the lords don’t like to be told by mere commoners what to do. But we’re going to have to take a pretty strong stand on this one.”

The measure’s inclusion was enough for Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., to vote against the final bill, telling reporters, “I’m not voting to send Lindsey Graham half a million dollars.”

Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., among the GOP lawmakers outside the Rules Committee who made their concerns public, introduced legislation to repeal the provision.

“The American people should not be asked to make compensation to United States senators, the ultimate insiders, if you will — who have been wronged, no doubt in my mind … this provision does not allow other Americans to pursue a remedy. It does not even allow the President of the United States, who was equally wrongfully surveilled and pursued by the Justice Department — they didn’t even include President Trump in this,” Rose told Fox News Digital. “They saved this special treat for themselves. And, you know, frankly, the right answer is that they should all disavow that immediately.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared equally, if not more, annoyed when asked by reporters about the measure. He said a vote on repealing it would be fast-tracked next week and hoped his Senate counterparts would do the same.

“I was just as surprised by the inclusion of that language as anyone. I had no prior notice of it at all,” Johnson said. “I was frustrated, as my colleagues are over here, and I thought it was untimely and inappropriate. So we’ll be requesting, strongly urging, our Senate colleagues to repeal that.”

But there was an appetite among Senate Republicans to respond to Smith’s investigation where senators were not notified that their records would be requested without notification. And the provision is narrowly tailored to just include senators and would require that they be notified if their information is requested by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The idea is to prevent the abuse of the DOJ to go after sitting senators now and in the future. 

Graham, when asked if he would be filing a lawsuit, told reporters in South Carolina, “Oh, definitely.” 

“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” he said. 

When asked for comment on the matter, Cruz’s office pointed Fox News Digital to comments he made in a recent Politico report. 

“Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators,” Cruz told Politico.

Several senators were unaware of the provision’s inclusion, including Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the top Democrat on the Legislative Branch appropriations subcommittee. 

“I am furious that the Senate Minority and Majority Leaders chose to airdrop this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour — with zero consultation or negotiation with the subcommittee that actually oversees this work,” Heinrich said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This is precisely what’s wrong with the Senate.”

TRUMP SIGNS BILL ENDING LONGEST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN US HISTORY

Most of the eight senators who did have their phone records subpoenaed as part of Smith’s investigation were also unaware of the provision until the legislation was unveiled over the weekend and have no intent to file a lawsuit. 

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, “first learned about this provision when he and his staff were reading the bill to open the government,” Amanda Coyne, a senior advisor for the lawmaker, told Fox News Digital. “The senator has no plans to sue.” 

And Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has pressed for a full disclosure of the probe alongside Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital in a statement, “I have no plans at this time” to sue. 

“If I did sue, it would only be for the purpose of using the courts to expose the corrupt weaponization of federal law enforcement by the Biden and Obama administrations,” he said. “With the full cooperation in our congressional investigations from the Trump DOJ and FBI, that shouldn’t be necessary.”

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But he noted that he supports the provision, “As a deterrent to prevent future misuse of federal agencies.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sought a declaratory judgment, rather than monetary, over her phone records being requested by Smith before the provision was added into the bill. She said she would support plans to repeal the provision. 

“If the Senate votes on the bill to undo the Arctic Frost provision in the government funding bill, I will support the effort to reverse it,” she said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This fight is not about the money; it is about holding the left accountable for the worst weaponization of government in our nation’s history.”

Legendary college football broadcaster Paul Finebaum is taking heat for allegedly being a “Trump-hating” weak Republican amid widespread rumors that he is planning a run for the U.S. Senate in Alabama.

The 70-year-old ESPN host, best known as the foremost authority on SEC football, has not yet announced an official run. However, he has revealed he is intrigued by the idea of such a run and admitted in an interview with OutKick to “thinking about it constantly.”

For some Republican insiders in Alabama, this has been sufficient to start raising alarms about why they believe Finebaum would be a poor choice for a Senate candidate.

Dale Jackson, a prominent Alabama radio politics talk show host, told Fox News Digital that though “Finebaum is a radio legend and a fixture in the South … nobody knows what he believes.”

TOMMY TUBERVILLE PRAISES PAUL FINEBAUM AS ANALYST CONSIDERS SENATE RUN AFTER CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION

“The guy is a legend,” Jackson continued. “[But] I’ve been doing radio and talk radio for almost 20 years in Alabama, and I couldn’t tell you what Paul Finebaum knows or believes about anything political.”

“The minute he starts talking about what he believes. It’s going to be picked apart, and I don’t know if he’s necessarily ready for what that means,” said Jackson.

Finebaum’s record on political stances is mixed. In 2016, he stated, “this country is not oppressing Black people,” but then later apologized on ESPN, saying his “eyes are wider open,” according to RealClearPolitics.

In 2017, he remarked that President Donald Trump “does behave like a child,” per FanBuzz. 

In 2020, Finebaum went on the record praising a video in which Nick Saban encouraged COVID-19 social distancing and masking, according to 247Sports. He also spoke favorably of Saban’s decision to lead an athletes’ social justice march in which many players wore Black Lives Matter shirts, according to local outlet Bham Now.

Finebaum told the outlet that “Nick Saban leading that march was one of his finer moments”

“The video was very powerful. There was a lot of blowback. I had Alabama fans call in and say they’ll never support the team again. We all hear the same arguments about Black Lives Matter,” Finebaum went on. “I say that because he did it without making a political statement. He didn’t overdo it, he did it quietly. He was supporting his players, and to me that’s the most important thing. It’s what a coach is supposed to do, and I think that, to me, speaks very well of him. In a state like Alabama, it’s not the same as if he was doing it in Michigan, but he didn’t let it affect him.” 

Yet, Finebaum told OutKick that he voted for Trump in 2024 and that it was Charlie Kirk’s murder that is motivating him to seriously consider running for the Senate.

“It’s hard to describe, not being involved in politics, how that affected me and affected tens of millions of people all over this country. And it was an awakening,” Finebaum said of Kirk’s assassination.

ESPN STAR PAUL FINEBAUM RECALLS LEANING ON TIM TEBOW FOLLOWING CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION

Finebaum also said in the interview that if Trump told him, “Paul, you’re my guy,” he would find it “impossible to tell him no.”

“There’s no way I could. I would tell him yes,” he said. 

If he enters the race, Finebaum would be running to replace another football star, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, best known for leading Auburn University in an undefeated season crowned by an SEC championship in 2004. Tuberville, who has been an outspoken conservative voice in the Senate since his election in 2021, is seeking the Alabama governorship in 2026.

Others already declared in the Alabama Senate race include state Attorney General Steve Marshall and Alabama Republican Rep. Barry Moore.

Jackson said that while Tuberville had a prior record of political stances, he sees Finebaum as an “unknown entity.”

“Finebaum is basically just like I’m famous. I’m a big-time radio guy, people like me. Why can’t I be senator? And it’s just kind of an odd thing,” said Jackson.

When contacted for comment, Finebaum told Fox News Digital, “I will circle back when I have something substantive to say.”

For his part, Tuberville has spoken highly of Finebaum. 

“Paul is smart. He loves the country,” Tuberville said on the “War Room” podcast. “Again, been a friend of mine for a long time. I have not talked with him about it. I did an interview with him, 30 minutes, about two months ago, face to face. It went well.”

“I tell you, he’s got 100% name ID in Alabama. He’d have a lot of big people behind him. He would be a force in the race if he decided to get into it. … Paul is a good guy, a good friend.”

Some voices, meanwhile, have been much more critical of the possibility of a Finebaum campaign. A national Republican strategist who works on U.S. Senate races told Fox News Digital, “You can’t hate President Trump and Republican voters and win a Republican primary.”

ESPN STAR PAUL FINEBAUM SAYS NETWORK AXED POTENTIAL TRUMP INTERVIEW IN 2019

“Paul Finebaum trashed President Trump, promoted tyrannical masking during COVID and proclaimed his support for Black Lives Matter,” said the strategist, adding, “Finebaum’s experience as a sports analyst doesn’t translate into analyzing his own political prospects apparently. This Trump-hating RINO [Republican-in-name-only] has virtually zero chance of winning an Alabama GOP primary.”

Former state Rep. Ed Henry, who served as then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign co-chair for Alabama, told Fox News Digital that when he heard Finebaum was considering a Senate run, “I chuckled, because I thought, ‘Oh great, we have another person in this race who caves every time pressure is put on him.’”

“I think he’s a great guy; he’s said some good things. But when the pressure is on, he breaks, he caves, he buckles, and that’s not what we need,” Henry added.

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The former representative said that what Alabama needs is “somebody who has been through fire, who has been tested, who has found to be true to their word.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday the launch of Operation Southern Spear, a new mission targeting narco-terror networks across Latin America. 

Hegseth said on X that U.S. Southern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Spear will lead a mission to defend the homeland and dismantle narco-terrorists networks across the Western Hemisphere.

“This mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said.

The U.S. carried out its 20th strike on alleged drug-tracking boats earlier this week, according to a Pentagon official.

US CARRIES OUT MORE ‘LETHAL’ STRIKES ON ALLEGED DRUG BOATS IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS, SECRETARY HEGSETH SAYS

U.S. forces carried out the most recent strike in the Caribbean, killing four suspected narco-terrorists.

The Navy announced in January it would lead Operation Southern Spear under U.S. 4th Fleet and Southern Command using “long-dwell robotic surface vessels, small robotic interceptor boats, and vertical take-off and landing robotic air vessels.”

US DEPLOYS FORD CARRIER STRIKE GROUP TO COMBAT NARCO-TERROR IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE

The U.S. will use warships in the region, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

CBS News reported that President Trump was briefed on potential options for operations in Venezuela, including possible land strikes, but no final decisions have been made.

Top Democrats voiced support for the strikes against narco-trafficking near Venezuela earlier this month.

TOP DEMOCRAT BACKS US INTEL ON NARCO-TRAFFICKING STRIKES, FAULTS BIDEN FOR ‘NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH’ ON MADURO

“I frankly think the Biden administration didn’t go far enough after the Venezuelan people voted overwhelmingly to get rid of Maduro,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said.

“The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it,” Hegseth said.

Lawyers for the Trump administration on Thursday withdrew an emergency Supreme Court appeal centered on whether it must fully fund the nation’s largest anti-hunger program during the government shutdown — ending a roughly three-week court fight over a benefits program that impacted millions of Americans. 

The Justice Department said in withdrawing its emergency request that it considers the issue moot after Congress passed a bill to reopen the government, ending a 43-day government shutdown that is now the longest in U.S. history.

Trump signed off on the bill shortly after the House lawmakers voted 222-209 to approve it.

“That law, among other things, fully funds SNAP through the end of the fiscal year,” DOJ lawyers said. “Because the underlying dispute here is now moot, the government withdraws its November 7 stay application in this Court.”

TRUMP, STATES BACK IN COURT OVER SNAP AS BENEFITS REMAIN IN LEGAL LIMBO

The bill Trump signed Wednesday night reverses widespread federal layoffs and will allow furloughed employees to receive paychecks and backpay for the first time in roughly six weeks.

 It will also relieve travel for millions of U.S. travelers whose flights were canceled or severely delayed as a result of the reduced workforce. 

Crucially, it also restores full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which lapsed on Nov. 1 for the first time in the program’s 60-year history.

Roughly 42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits, prompting more than two dozen states to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture late last month to keep the program fully funded.

Lower courts had ordered USDA to tap various contingency funds to fully fund SNAP benefits while the shutdown dragged on, prompting the Trump administration to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court for emergency intervention.

STATES SUE TRUMP ADMIN OVER BILLIONS IN LOOMING CUTS TO SNAP, FOOD STAMPS

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer had urged justices to stay the lower court orders, citing progress Congress had made in recent days to forge consensus on a bill to reopen the government.

Justices this week agreed to stay the lower court order through Tuesday at 11:59 p.m., and later, extended it for two additional days at the administration’s request.

The end of the shutdown keeps the government funded through January, even if it does not resolve the concerns over Obamacare subsidies that were a sticking point for most Democrat holdouts. 

DOJ ACCUSES FEDERAL JUDGE OF MAKING ‘MOCKERY OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS’ IN SNAP APPEAL

The news is likely to be welcome relief for the tens of millions of low-income Americans that rely on SNAP benefits to purchase groceries and keep their families fed. 

The Trump administration on Saturday threatened to slap economic penalties or fees on states that did not immediately undo efforts to distribute full SNAP benefits for the month of November, in compliance with a lower court order one day earlier. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture previously agreed to pay just 65% of SNAP benefits for the month using the agency’s contingency fund.)

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The result was a patchwork system of benefits that varied from state to state, and as a result of various court orders — injecting fresh uncertainty and confusion over the benefits.

To contextualize the number of people that receive SNAP in his state, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin told reporters that there “are more children in New Jersey on SNAP than consists of the entire population of our state’s largest city.”

EXCLUSIVE: Former special counsel Jack Smith met with then-FBI Director Christopher Wray months after he began investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and the 2020 election, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital exclusively reviewed the document that FBI Director Kash Patel recently shared with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson containing the new development.

EXCLUSIVE: JACK SMITH TRACKED PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS, CALLS OF NEARLY A DOZEN GOP SENATORS DURING J6 PROBE, FBI SAYS

Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., are currently reviewing the documents as part of their joint investigation into Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe.

The information was included as part of a “significant case notification” drafted by the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division on May 25, 2023.

“On 5/24/2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith met with FBI Director Wray,” the document reads.

The meeting took place just a day before the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division created the “significant case notification” document.

An FBI “significant case notification” is an internal record used by the bureau to alert senior leadership and FBI field offices about a case of high public interest. This notification provided a case update on “Arctic Frost,” which the bureau considered a “sensitive investigative matter.” 

“Jack Smith claims he wants to tell his story to Congress, but when I asked him point-blank if he ever met with Garland, Monaco, or Wray as part of his investigation, he refused to answer,” Grassley told Fox News Digital.

JACK SMITH DEFENDS SUBPOENAING REPUBLICAN SENATORS’ PHONE RECORDS: ‘ENTIRELY PROPER’

The revelations are significant, as Grassley, in October, sent a letter that specifically asked Smith whether he had met with Wray, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco or then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

Smith replied to Grassley, but declined to share information about any of his meetings with those officials.

“Either Smith has a bad memory, or he’s simply not willing to come clean about his actions,” Grassley told Fox News Digital, adding that if Smith “really wanted the American people to hear the truth, he’d be cooperating with my straightforward congressional oversight requests instead of making excuses.”

EXCLUSIVE: JACK SMITH PUSHES FOR PUBLIC TESTIMONY TO CONFRONT ‘MISCHARACTERIZATIONS’ OF TRUMP PROBES

“I’m going to continue investigating to ensure the public gets full transparency,” Grassley said.

Smith, in October, requested to testify in open, public hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

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“Given the many mischaracterizations of Mr. Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Mr. Smith respectfully requests the opportunity to testify in open hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees,” Smith attorneys Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski wrote.

Smith did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

California is set to revoke commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) issued to 17,000 immigrants after pressure from the Trump administration. 

The licenses that are expected to be revoked would have expired after the driver was legally allowed to be in the country.

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses.”

The Transportation Department said that those impacted by the decision have been notified that their licenses no longer meet federal requirements and will expire in 60 days. However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a post on X that the federal requirements referenced were not in effect when the licenses were issued.

EXPERT REVEALS HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER MAY HAVE GOTTEN COMMERCIAL LICENSE BEFORE FATAL FLORIDA CRASH

In the scathing social media post, Newsom’s office slammed Duffy over the Transportation Department’s statement on the matter, highlighting each point that it deemed to be a “lie.”

The first point that Newsom’s office pushed back on was the department’s assertion that the California Department of Motor Vehicles “admitted to illegally issuing” the 17,000 CDLs in question. Newsom’s office claims that the licenses were withdrawn because they were inconsistent with California law.

Newsom’s office also rejected the department’s statement that the drivers who received the licenses were illegal immigrants, saying that they were present in the U.S. legally and “had been granted work authorization by the federal government.”

Additionally, Newsom’s office disputed the claim that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) analysis showed that “more than one in four of the non-domiciled CDL records sampled in California failed to comply with federal regulations.” The California governor’s office claimed that FMCSA’s analysis was “based on retroactive application of its new rules” and said “FMCSA also faults California for following guidance explicitly approved by DHS.”

Duffy, however, hit back, saying, “We’ve said all along, [DOT] is reprimanding California for violating [FMCSA’s] ORIGINAL rules.”

“My emergency rule came as a consequence in part for California’s total disregard of those federal laws — it was THAT BAD,” Duffy added.

BLUE STATES DEFLECT BLAME IN TRUMP PROBE AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER CRASH KILLS 3 IN FLORIDA

California’s move to revoke the licenses came just one day before Harjinder Singh, who crossed into the United States illegally in 2018 and is accused of causing a fatal accident that left three people dead, faced a docket call hearing as the court reviews discovery issues and interpreter concerns.

Singh was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide after he allegedly attempted to make an illegal U-turn through an “Official Use Only” access point in Fort Pierce, Fla. When making the turn, Singh allegedly caused what Homeland Security called a “brutal wreck.” In August, Singh was extradited from California to Florida, where the accident took place.

Just days after the accident, officials investigating the wreck said that Singh failed English and road sign tests.

BLUE STATE INVESTIGATES HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER GOT LICENSE BEFORE DEADLY FLORIDA CRASH

“During [FMCSA’s] interview with the driver, investigators administered an English Language Proficiency (ELP) assessment in accordance with FMCSA guidance,” the Department of Transportation said in a statement. “The driver failed the assessment, providing correct responses to just 2 of 12 verbal questions and only accurately identifying 1 of 4 highway traffic signs.”

In another instance, Jashanpreet Singh, an illegal immigrant from India who received a CDL from California, was charged with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence after allegedly driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that left three people dead.

Multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Singh was first encountered by Border Patrol agents in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022 and released into the interior of the country pending an immigration hearing.

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Police say Singh never hit the brakes before slamming into the traffic jam, citing toxicology tests that confirmed impairment.

Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca and Jasmine Baehr and Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.