NationalWatch

A spokesperson for first lady Melania Trump shut down a “completely false” theory that her husband, the president, is warring with Harvard University because her son, Barron, was supposedly not accepted to the school.

The Palm Beach Post first reported that first lady spokesperson Nicholas Clemens said, “Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false.”

This comes amid online rumors that President Donald Trump is targeting Harvard with federal funding cuts because Barron, who just finished his freshman year at New York University, was supposedly rejected by the school.

The Trump administration is asking all federal agencies to find ways to terminate all federal contracts with Harvard amid an ongoing standoff over foreign students’ records at the Ivy League school. Harvard has already sued in federal court seeking the restoration of about $3.2 billion in federal grant funding frozen by the administration since last month. 

HARVARD FOREIGN STUDENTS FACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE AMID TRUMP CAMPUS CRACKDOWNS 

A spokesperson for first lady Melania Trump shut down a “completely false” theory that her husband, the president, is warring with Harvard University because her son, Barron, was supposedly not accepted to the school.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump accused Harvard of being “very antisemitic” and said he was considering giving the school’s federal funding to trade schools “all across our land.”

“What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!” he wrote.

In a letter Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed Harvard’s leadership that the university had lost its “privilege” of enrolling foreign students as a result of the institution’s “refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security with pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.” 

On Friday, Judge Allison Burroughs, a President Barack Obama appointee, granted Harvard a temporary restraining order, preventing the government from revoking the Ivy League school’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The program permits the university to host international students with F-1 or J-1 visas to study in the U.S.

TRUMP RAMPS UP HEAT ON HARVARD: HERE ARE 5 REASONS FROM THE UNIVERSITY’S OWN INVESTIGATION

Harvard pro-Palestinian protests (Getty Images)

Trump said this week that Harvard is being “very slow” to turn over information on foreign students. 

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“We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump wrote.

“Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!” he wrote. “The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) – But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!” 

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

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

The White House ripped Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., for making a “shameful” Memorial Day trip to El Salvador in an attempt to visit deported illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The White House’s rapid response account said of Ivey’s trip, “This moron spent his Memorial Day trying (and failing) to visit a criminal illegal immigrant gangbanger in a foreign country. For Democrats, criminal illegals > American citizens every time.”

Ivey posted about the attempted visit on his X account, saying that he represents Abrego Garcia, and that the Salvadoran government stonewalled his efforts to conduct a welfare check.

“Today, I was denied access to seeing my constituent, Mr. Kilmar Abrego Garcia. If there is nothing to hide, cut the crap. Let his lawyer and I check on him,” he said. “I’m the congressman who represents Kilmar and I came all the way down from the United States after we contacted their ambassador, after we made formal requests through our ambassador to the El Salvadoran government, and we came here to visit him today.”

DEM IMMIGRATION TALKING POINTS FIZZLE AS DARK PICTURE OF ABREGO GARCIA EMERGES

The White House slammed Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., for making a “shameful” Memorial Day trip to El Salvador to attempt to visit deported illegal and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images and Fox News)

“We need to bring him home. I won’t stop until we do,” Ivey added in an X post.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation to his home country, El Salvador, has caused significant controversy. The Trump administration has pointed to evidence suggesting that Abrego Garcia was involved with MS-13 and human trafficking to justify his deportation. The administration has also cited court documents detailing Abrego Garcia’s alleged physical abuse of his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura. Democrats, meanwhile, say he is a “Maryland man” who was not given his due process in court before being deported. 

Since Abrego Garcia’s deportation, several Democrats, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., have made trips to El Salvador to conduct similar wellness checks and to advocate for his release.

The trips have stirred significant controversy as well, with many asking why Democrats are spending so much time advocating for a suspected gang member who was unlawfully present in the U.S.

MARYLAND DEMOCRAT IVEY FURIOUS NOT GIVEN ACCESS TO KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA IN EL SALVADOR

In this handout provided by Sen. Van Hollen’s Office, Van Hollen (D-MD) meets with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia (L) at an undisclosed location on April 17, 2025 in San Salvador, El Salvador. Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, was illegally deported by the Trump administration and has been held in prison in El Salvador since March 15.  (Sen. Van Hollen’s Office via Getty Images)

The video also caught the attention of White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson.

Jackson told Fox News Digital that “it’s shameful, and an insult to the American people, that a Democrat Congressman spent his Memorial Day trying to visit a deported illegal alien, MS-13 terrorist, human-trafficker, and wife beater.”

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“This pathetic stunt tells you everything you need to know about the priorities of the modern Democrat party – they’re putting criminal illegals over American citizens all the time,” said Jackson.

In addition to the wife beating evidence, Fox News Digital has previously reported on documents detailing Abrego Garcia being stopped by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper after he was “observed speeding” and unable to stay in his lane in 2022. The trooper noticed eight individuals in the car with Abrego Garcia, who said he began driving three days prior from Houston to Temple Hills, Maryland, via St. Louis to “perform construction work.” 

KILMAR ABREGO-GARCIA SUSPECTED OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN REPORT OBTAINED BY FOX NEWS

Fox News Digital has previously reported on documents detailing Abrego Garcia being stopped by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper after he was “observed speeding” and unable to stay in his lane in 2022. The trooper noticed eight individuals in the car with Abrego-Garcia, who said he began driving three days prior from Houston to Temple Hills, Md., via St. Louis to “perform construction work.”  (Tennessee Highway Patrol)

The report states that the trooper suspected it was a human trafficking incident, as there was no luggage in the vehicle. Additionally, the individuals in the car reportedly gave the same address as Abrego Garica’s home address.

When speaking with the trooper, Abrego Garcia allegedly “pretended to speak less English than he was capable of and attempted to put encountering officer off-track by responding to questions with questions.” After the incident, the officer decided not to give Abrego Garcia a citation for the driving infractions, but rather to give him a warning for driving with an expired license. 

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The White House has not held back in its criticisms of Van Hollen’s visit. In April, the White House tweeted side-by-side photos of Trump meeting with the mother of Rachel Morin, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023, and Van Hollen sitting with Abrego Garcia with the caption, “We are not the same.”

Rachel Morin was a Maryland resident, as is her mother, Patty, who said that Van Hollen had not reached out to her since her daughter was murdered.

Van Hollen responded to this criticism in a Fox News interview in which he said he “did have concern” for the Morin family and his “heart goes out to every Maryland family that is the victim of violence.” Van Hollen also said that “there is zero connection between the horrible murder of Rachel Morin and the situation with Abrego Garcia.” 

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

Two U.S. Secret Service officers have been suspended after reportedly fighting with each other in front of former President Barack Obama’s Washington D.C. mansion last week.  

The two uniformed officers were outside Obama’s residence around 2:30 a.m. on May 21 when one called for a supervisor to come immediately before “I whoop this girl’s a**,” according to an audio recording posted online. 

AUTHORITIES NAB WHITE HOUSE FENCE CLIMBER JUST TWO WEEKS INTO TRUMP’S NEW TERM

A Secret Service agent, Jul. 20, 2022, in New York.  (Julia Nikhinson/AP)

In addition to the audio, a video published Tuesday by RealClearPolitics shows the female officers punching and shoving each other.

“I need a supervisor out here… immediately before I whoop this girl’s a**,” one of the women said into the radio, the report states. 

WOMAN ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTING TO CLIMB FENCE OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE

Former President Barack Obama giving a speech.  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The Secret Service confirmed the fight with Fox News Digital. 

“The individuals involved were suspended from duty and this matter is the subject of an internal investigation. The Secret Service has a very strict code of conduct for all employees and any behavior that violates that code is unacceptable.”

“Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further,” the spokesperson added. 

Then-President Barack Obama is assisted by U.S. Secret Service agents. Two uniformed Secret Service officers were seen fighting outside of Obama’s Washington D.C. home last week.  (Getty Images)

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It wasn’t clear what prompted the fight between the two officers. 

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…

–‘The Kamala Excuse’: Tensions between Biden and Harris plagued their campaigns, new book reveals

-Former NY Democratic Rep Charlie Rangel dead at 94

-Dem strategy session to stop hemorrhaging of male voters ridiculed

Trump’s war with Harvard

The Trump administration escalated its war with Harvard University on Tuesday, announcing it will claw back the university’s remaining $100 million in federal funding – effectively ending all financial ties with the Ivy League institution.

“The government is out of business with Harvard University, fully,” a senior administration official told Fox News Digital.

At the center of the fight are accusations of Harvard failing to combat a campus culture of antisemitism. While the university accuses the White House of overreach and insists it is defending free speech, its own internal investigation appears to have handed Trump officials ammunition…Read more

President Donald Trump pictured in an illustration with scenes from anti-Israel protests on Harvard’s campus in the background.  (Getty Images)

White House

‘MONSTERS’: Trump fires off scathing all-caps Memorial Day message targeting ‘SCUM’ who sought to ‘DESTROY’ the US

HONORING HEROES: Trump honors fallen American heroes, praises God in Memorial Day address: ‘Great, great warriors’

CONVICTION UNDONE: Trump pardons former Virginia sheriff convicted of taking $75K in bribes

PULLING THE PLUG: Trump admin seeks to cancel all remaining contracts with Harvard University

A SECOND LOOK: FBI reopening investigation into cocaine found at Biden White House

A photo of the baggy of cocaine discovered in the White House on July 2. (U.S. Secret Service)

UNDETECTED: Biden’s presidential health reports showed no sign of recently revealed aggressive cancer

‘SQUANDERED’: DOGE sniffs out eye-popping spending on Biden DEI efforts in key agency

World Stage

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: GOP lawmaker blasts ‘dumb’ Trump comment on Zelenskyy despite ‘perfect’ criticism of Putin

RISING TENSIONS: Trump warns Putin is ‘playing with fire’ after declaring the Russian president has ‘gone absolutely CRAZY’

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Contributor/Getty Images | Photographer: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Fox News Digital)

DEMOCRAT DETOUR: Maryland Democrat Ivey furious not given access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador

Capitol Hill

TRUMP-APPROVED: Trump endorses House Republican who failed to vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

POLITICS AT PLAY: Vets groups torch Dems for holding up key VA picks, including memorials chief on Memorial Day

STORIES FROM THE HILL: Remembering Rep. Charlie Rangel – and a voicemail I’ll never forget

Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY 13th District) attends the National Action Network (NAN) national convention on April 8, 2015 in New York City.  (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

MALE ‘SYNTAX’: Dems drop $20M on bizarre ‘American men’ study in effort to dig out of 2024 political hole

DIVA DEMOCRACY: Jasmine Crockett shares bizarre song clip calling herself ‘leader of the future’

‘WEAK AND WOKE’: Rahm Emanuel calls Democrat’s party brand ‘weak,’ appearing to weigh White House run

Across America 

FARM ALARM: Key Trump voting bloc has concerns with MAHA report, as Trump officials give assurances

TOXIC BETRAYAL: Veterans of US’ ‘toxic soup’ Uzbekistan base still fight for proper healthcare 20 years after it was shuttered

ELECTION INTEGRITY: Texas governor makes it ‘crystal clear’ only U.S. citizens can vote in state elections

BUSTED BACKER: DOJ reaches plea deal with Dem donor who sought to bribe her way to Kennedy Center seat

‘UNSUSTAINABLE’: Illegal immigrant health care costs in blue state triggers intense budget debate

‘POLITICAL TARGETING’: Red state official recounts personal experience of being ‘debanked’ and why it ‘has to be stopped’

SPEECH SILENCED: Supreme Court declines to review free speech case involving student who wore ‘only two genders’ shirt

SCOTUS justices appear to favor straight woman in discrimination case. (iStock)

SPACE FORCE BATTLE: Battle over Space Command HQ location heats up as lawmakers press new Air Force secretary

‘MENACE TO OUR CITY’: Far-left candidate’s office accused of fostering toxic environment for women

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

The State Department is planning to bolster its efforts to vet and screen the social media of those applying for international student and exchange visitor visas to ensure applicants don’t pose a national security threat to the U.S., Fox News Digital has learned. 

To do this, the State Department is temporarily suspending new student and exchange visitor visa interviews as it evaluates enhanced social media screenings for the application process. 

The effort is the latest initiative from the Trump administration to crack down on immigration and revoke visas of those attending academic institutions in the U.S. Those who’ve publicly supported Palestine have faced increased scrutiny, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that the administration was reviewing the visa status of students who participated in pro-Palestine protests. 

The Trump administration has accused students who’ve participated in these protests of supporting Hamas — a designated foreign terrorist organization. 

The State Department is currently examining existing operations that go into screening and vetting student and exchange visa applications, and “based on that review, plans to issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applicants,” according to a Tuesday email obtained by Fox News Digital. 

TRUMP ADMIN STEPS UP OVERHAUL OF NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, WEEKS AFTER WALTZ’S DEPARTURE

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that the administration was reviewing the visa status of students who participated in pro-Palestine protests.  (Jose Luis Magana/The Associated Press )

As a result, the State Department is instructing consular sections to pause adding any additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued, “in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting,” the email said. 

“The next step is for posts to evaluate operations and processes in preparation for this expanded social media vetting of all student and exchange visitor (F, M, J) visa applicants,” said the email.

“Appointments already scheduled can proceed under current guidelines,” the email said. “However, appointments that are available, but not taken as of the release of this cable, should be immediately removed from availability.” 

RUBIO FIRES BACK AFTER DEM SENATOR SAYS HE REGRETS VOTING FOR HIM, SPARKING TENSE EXCHANGE

The State Department is instructing consular sections to pause adding any additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued, “in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting,” the email said.  (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency)

The email does not specify what additional steps would be involved in the more stringent social media screening process, but says that consular offices have been instructed to refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to the Fraud Prevention Unit for a “mandatory social media check.” 

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on what the existing social media policy is for applicants. 

Meanwhile, Rubio told lawmakers May 20 that he expects that the State Department has already pulled thousands of visas since January following President Donald Trump’s inauguration. That’s up from the 300 the administration had revoked as of late March. 

Rubio also said that his agency would continue to pull student visas, stating that a visa is not a right, it’s a “privilege.” 

“I don’t know the latest count, but we probably have more to do,” Rubio told lawmakers on the Senate appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign affairs. “We’re going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have said that the Trump administration’s effort to revoke visas is a violation of due process.

“I do think it’s a fundamental attack on freedom, because due process is the guardian of the gate to keep a government from taking away people’s life or liberty, and liberty is what happens when you take away a visa without due process,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told Rubio May 20. 

A student visa allows those outside the U.S. to study in the country for a specific amount of time at an academic institution. In contrast, a green card allows an individual already in the U.S. who is not an American citizen to remain in the country. 

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BEGINS NEW WAVE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT VISA REVOCATIONS: ‘NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO A VISA’

Democrats have said that the Trump administration’s effort to revoke visas is a violation of due process. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

The State Department’s effort aligns with executive orders that Trump signed in January to protect the U.S. from foreign terrorists and other national security threats, as well as one that aims to combat antisemitism, a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital. 

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One of the executive orders instructs the State Department, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, the attorney general, and the director of national intelligence, to “vet and screen to the maximum degree possible all aliens who intend to be admitted, enter, or are already inside the United States, particularly those aliens coming from regions or nations with identified security risks.” 

Additionally, the other executive order states that the U.S. will use “all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

A federal judge in Massachusetts chastised senior Trump officials Monday night for failing to comply with his court orders after a group of migrants was deported from the U.S. to South Sudan — the latest dust-up centered on deportations, due process protections and the administration’s willingness, or lack thereof, to comply with federal courts.

In a scathing, 17-page order, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy rejected Trump’s request to amend or withdraw the judge’s earlier decision requiring them to keep in U.S. custody six migrants who were deported to South Sudan without due process or notice. 

On Wednesday, Murphy ordered that the migrants remain in U.S. custody at a military base in Djibouti until each of them could be given a “reasonable fear interview,” or a chance to explain to U.S. officials any fear of persecution or torture, should they be released into South Sudanese custody. 

As of Monday night, he said, these interviews had not taken place.

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP’S REMOVAL OF BIDEN APPOINTEES FROM FEDERAL BOARDS

Demonstrators protest during a May Day demonstration against President Donald Trump and his immigration policies in Denver, May 1, 2025.  (Jason Connolly/AFP)

“It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than defendants anticipated,” Murphy said in his order, noting that the Trump administration is free to return individuals to have the interviews carried out on U.S. soil. 

He also took aim at Trump officials for attacking the courts, noting Monday night that defendants here have “mischaracterized” the court’s order, “while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry.”

The salvo comes as Murphy, a federal judge in Boston, presides over a class-action lawsuit from migrants who are challenging deportations to third countries, including South Sudan, El Salvador and other countries, including Costa Rica, Guatemala and others that the administration has reportedly eyed in its ongoing wave of deportations.

In considering the third-country removals, Murphy stressed that he has attempted to strike a delicate balance between due process protections under the U.S. Constitution and the Trump administration’s wave of eleventh-hour removals and deportations. 

Murphy noted that he allowed the Trump administration to keep the six deported migrants in South Sudan under the custody of U.S. officials, so long as they carry out the so-called “reasonable fear interviews,” and make a determination over whether the migrants’ concerns were adequate.

FEDERAL JUDGES IN NEW YORK AND TEXAS BLOCK TRUMP DEPORTATIONS AFTER SCOTUS RULING

U.S. judges have repeatedly ruled that the Trump administration has violated due process by failing to notify the migrants of their imminent removals.  (Getty Images)

“The court never said that defendants had to convert their foreign military base into an immigration facility,” Murphy wrote in his order Monday night. “It only left that as an option, again, at defendants’ request.”

Murphy also doubled down on his earlier orders as “sensible and conservative,” noting that he had repeatedly attempted to strike the right balance in weighing the Trump administration’s requests for the men to remain in South Sudan against their right to habeas proceedings and due process under the U.S. Constitution. 

He also cited DOJ’s seemingly fluid position as to what constitutes adequate notice for removals. He said Justice Department attorneys previously told the court that they believe that 24 hours is sufficient and meaningful notice to remove certain migrants, before breaking with that in removing the men to South Sudan. 

These individuals also do not appear to have any access to counsel. In one case, he said, plaintiffs declared Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had canceled at least one prerescheduled meeting with an attorney and her client.

“Class members likewise had no opportunity to learn anything about South Sudan, a nascent, unstable country to which the United States has recently told its citizens not to travel because of crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict,” Murphy said.

‘WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT’: US JUDGE REAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR DAYS-LATE DEPORTATION INFO

The judge’s order is the latest attempt by federal court judges to rein in the Trump administration as it continues to deport migrants to third countries, including El Salvador and South Sudan.  (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The judge’s order is the latest attempt by federal courts judges to rein in the Trump administration as it continues to deport migrants to third countries, including El Salvador and South Sudan. 

U.S. judges have repeatedly ruled that the Trump administration has violated due process by failing to notify the migrants of their imminent removals, or afford them any opportunity to challenge their deportations in court— a view reiterated, albeit narrowly, by the Supreme Court four separate times since Trump took office.

The judges have repeatedly ordered the Trump administration to facilitate their return to the U.S. To date, the Trump administration has not complied publicly with any of the requests to return the deported individuals.

White House officials, meanwhile, have blasted so-called “activist” judges as attempting to enact a political agenda, and have repeatedly rejected the notion that illegal immigrants are not entitled to due process. 

APPEALS COURT BLOCKS TRUMP ADMIN’S DEPORTATION FLIGHTS IN ALIEN ENEMIES ACT IMMIGRATION SUIT

President Donald Trump took aim at what he described as “USA hating judges” in a Truth Social post May 26, 2025, arguing that they “suffer from an ideology that is sick and very dangerous for our country.” (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Trump took aim at what he described as “USA hating judges” in a Truth Social post Monday, arguing that they “suffer from an ideology that is sick and very dangerous for our country.”

Earlier, he described Murphy as yet another “activist judge” who he said is trying to protect “criminal illegal immigrant monsters.” 

“The court recognizes that the class members at issue here have criminal histories,” Murphy wrote in an apparent response to these comments Monday night.

“But that does not change due process,” he wrote. “The court treats its obligation to these principles with the seriousness that anyone committed to the rule of law should understand.”

Murphy added in his order that the Trump administration is welcome to submit its arguments to the court in writing.

But he noted, “From this course of conduct, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that Defendants invite lack of clarity as a means of evasion.”

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As of Monday, he said, this step had not been completed. 

Democrats are spending $20 million on a study examining how to speak to “American men” after losing ground with the demographic during the 2024 election cycle, The New York Times revealed. 

“Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan” is a $20 million project crafted by Democrats to “study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces” of male voters, the Times reported Sunday. 

Known as “SAM,” the study will specifically examine young male voters and how the party can connect with the demographic. Additionally, the study advised rolling out pro-Democrat ads in video games. 

The study’s revelation was made in an overarching article detailing the uphill battle Democrats face after the 2024 election, which included Democrats scrambling to replace former President Joe Biden as the nominee with just more than 100 days left in the election cycle and ultimately delivering all seven battleground states to President Donald Trump. 

“The Democratic Party’s tarnished image could not come at a more inopportune moment,” the article detailed. “In this era of political polarization, the national party’s brand is more important and influential than ever, often driving the outcomes of even the most local of races.” 

DEMOCRATIC PARTY SCRAMBLES TO FIX IMAGE AS MEMBERS ACKNOWLEDGE PARTY ‘LOST CREDIBILITY’

Democrats are searching for a path forward after President Donald Trump’s election win. (AP Images)

In response, Democrat operatives and donors have gathered at swank hotels to craft plans on how to draw back the working class and male voters, the Times reported. 

Trump made big in-roads with the male vote during the 2024 election cycle. A Fox News Voter Survey published in November 2024 found that men aged 18–44 supported Trump at 53%, compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 45%. 

While The Associated Press found that more than half of male voters under the age of 30 voted for Trump instead of Harris — including roughly six-in-10 White male voters supporting Trump — about one-third of Black male voters supported Trump, as did about 50% of young Latino male voters. 

Trump’s support among young Black and Latino male voters jumped by about 20% compared to his 2020 support, the AP reported. 

Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he does not take issue with Democrats investing in voter engagement strategies but added that he found it “hilarious” that “people in suits are hanging out at luxury hotels asking how they can talk to day-to-day Americans.”

“We’re having an issue with the messenger more than the message,” Ceraso said, arguing that voters support longstanding Democratic policies such as affordable housing, but that “Democrats just need to take a reality check” on how they convey their messaging to voters. 

“I just don’t understand how, after all these years and all these Democrats who’ve been in the game, how we continue to make those same choices,” he added. “Like Rahm Emmanuel, or all these sort of big names, they’re just like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to figure out how to win in, you know, rural North Carolina by hanging out in a New York hotel.’ That makes no sense to me. And strategically, I don’t care how much money you spend on focus groups, if you’re doing that, you’re just negating any type of investment you’re putting into how to have a conversation with voters.” 

Democrats are reportedly spending millions on a study examining American men in an effort to win back voters. (Getty Images)

Democrats spending millions studying American male “syntax” sparked condemnation from conservatives and Democrats alike on social media, Fox News Digital found. 

FETTERMAN HITS PARTY’S LOSSES AMONG YOUNG MALE VOTERS: ‘IT’S UNDENIABLE THAT DEMOCRATS HAVE LOST A LOT’

“Democratic donors treating men like an endangered species on a remote island they need to study probably won’t rebuild trust,” MSNBC contributor Rotimi Adeoy posted to X in response to the Times’ report. “This kind of top-down, anthropological approach misses the point: people don’t want to be decoded, they want to be understood and met where they are.” 

“The idea that you can “fix” the male voter problem that exists with Black, Latino, and white men by spending $20 million to study their syntax like they’re a foreign culture is exactly why there’s a disconnect,” Adeoy continued. “These voters aren’t a research subject. They’re citizens.” 

Chief political analyst at the Liberal Patriot, Michael Baharaeen, posted to X, “This really says it all,” in response to a tweet quoting the article regarding how “Democratic donors and strategists have been gathering at luxury hotels to discuss how to win back working-class voters, commissioning new projects that can read like anthropological studies of people from faraway places.”

President Donald Trump made in-roads with young male voters during the 2024 election cycle. (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

“The fact that Democrats need to drop $20 million just to figure out how to speak to American men tells you everything you need to know. This is the same move they pull on black people. They don’t care about you they only care about your vote!” conservative podcaster DeVory Darkins posted to X. 

CRINGEWORTHY PRO-HARRIS AD SHOWCASING MALE SUPPORT FEATURES PROFESSIONAL ACTORS

“Democratic donors are planning to spend $20 million to figure out how to talk to dudes,” polster Frank Luntz posted to X. 

A handful of critics reposted a video from the 2024 campaign cycle that featured men declaring they were “man enough” to support Harris for president. The grassroots ad went viral in October 2024 as social media commenters panned it as “the cringiest political ad ever created” and pointed out it was created by a former producer for Jimmy Kimmel and featured actors vowing support for Harris. 

A Fox News Voter Survey published in November 2024 found that men aged 18–44 supported President Donald Trump at 53%, compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris at 45%. (Getty Images)

The video featured six self-described manly men who claimed they were so masculine that they ate “carburetors for breakfast” and were not “afraid of bears,” while adding they also do not fear women and would support Harris for the Oval Office.

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“Remember the month before the election and Democrats tried to relate to men?. Now they’re trying again spending $20 million,” one social media commenter posted this week, accompanied by the October 2024 video. 

A Maryland congressman has returned to the U.S. from El Salvador having failed in his attempt to meet deported illegal migrant and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Rep. Glenn Ivey said he was “stonewalled” in his efforts to check on the welfare of Abrego Garcia, whose deportation in March has become a deeply polarizing issue for Republicans and Democrats. The Trump administration accuses Abrego Garcia of also being a human trafficker and a wife beater, while Democrats say he is a “Maryland man” who was not given his due process in court before being deported. 

“I was very, not just disappointed, but angry, actually,” Ivey told reporters after returning from his trip Tuesday morning. 

Rep. Glenn Ivey speaks during a press conference to share insights from his visit to El Salvador, top right, Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, bottom right.  While in El Salvador, he met human rights defenders and community leaders.  (Truth Social, left, Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, top right, Fox News, bottom left,)

DEM IMMIGRATION TALKING POINTS FIZZLE AS DARK PICTURE OF ABREGO GARCIA EMERGES

Ivey, who said he did not use taxpayer money to fund his trip, said he had arranged with embassies in the U.S. and in El Salvador to meet Abrego Garcia in prison but was met with bureaucratic hurdles when he got there. Ivey said he was told he had to obtain a permit at a location 90 minutes away, which blocked his plans.

“And I won’t tell you what I said, but I mean, it’s ridiculous that an international delegation would get that kind of treatment, especially when we’re making this kind of request,” Ivey said. 

WATCH: Democrat Rep. Glenn Ivey fumes he was not allowed access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia

He didn’t say if he attempted to get a permit but added that locals also told them no one—not even families—were getting permits to visit loved ones in detention.

“It was a clear run around and not a way that a foreign government should be treating the Congress of the United States,” he said.

Ivey said he wanted to see Abrego Garcia to confirm the detainee’s condition, location and ensure he receives due process in U.S. courts. Several other Democrats, including Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, have rushed to meet with Abrego Garcia and decried what they said was a lack of due process extended to him.

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen meets with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia at an undisclosed location on April 17, 2025, in San Salvador. (Sen. Van Hollen’s Office via Getty Images)

WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BLUNTLY SHOWS WHERE PARTIES STAND ON IMMIGRATION AMID ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION

When asked about Abrego Garcia’s condition, Ivey told reporters, “Nothing’s been confirmed along those lines. We believe he is and we believe he’s at Santa Ana. But they didn’t confirm that yesterday. So it was kind of a runaround.”

In a video posted to X on Monday, Ivey wrote that he traveled to the Central American country to visit his “constituent” and called on the government there to “cut the crap.”

Abrego Garcia was sent in March to El Salvador’s notoriously high-security prison equipped to handle violent gang members, known as CECOT, which sparked Van Hollen to lead the surge of Democrats traveling there. The Trump administration has repeatedly cited court and police documents showing that the El Salvadoran man was not only in the U.S. illegally, but also connected to the MS-13 gang and that his wife had sounded the alarm to police about his violence.

Court records show Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed a protective order against her husband in August 2020. The order said their shared son and stepchildren needed protection from Abrego Garcia, accusing him of verbal and physical abuse against her and mental abuse against her children. 

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, speaks with Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., outside the United States District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 16, 2025.  (Michael A. McCoy for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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Some Democrats and left-wing media have characterized Abrego Garcia as a “family man” who was wrongly deported back in March and the following weeks. 

Ivey, meanwhile, also railed over what he said were more than 250 Venezuelans jailed in El Salvador after deportation from the U.S., claiming that around 50 of them have no criminal records and were sent to a country where they have no pending offenses. 

“That’s un-American. That’s not what we should be doing,” Ivey said. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

The Trump administration escalated its war with Harvard University on Tuesday, announcing it will claw back the university’s remaining $100 million in federal funding — effectively ending all financial ties with the Ivy League institution.

“The government is out of business with Harvard University, fully,” a senior administration official told Fox News Digital.

At the center of the fight are accusations of Harvard failing to combat a campus culture of antisemitism. While the university accuses the White House of overreach and insists it is defending free speech, its own internal investigation appears to have handed Trump officials ammunition.

Earlier this year, Harvard President Alan Gerber called the 2023–2024 academic year “disappointing and painful” as he unveiled the results of two separate task forces: one examining antisemitism and the other focused on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias. 

The report from the antisemitism task force painted a bleak picture of life for Jewish and Israeli students on campus. 

Many said they felt ostracized, harassed online and unsupported by the university. Some students told investigators they had been pressured by peers, and even the faculty, to disavow ties to Israel to prove they were “one of the good ones.” Others chose to hide their Jewish identity altogether.

Here is a look back at more findings of the report, released April 29.

1. Hostile environment for Jewish students

Jewish, Arab and Muslim students at Harvard reported feeling ostracized, pushed to the margins by their peers and experiencing online harassment. 

Jewish and Israeli students told the antisemitism task force the university’s response to complaints was “unclear and unconscionably slow.”

Some Jewish students, according to the report, had been told by peers and even faculty members they were associated with “something offensive, and, in some cases, that their very presence was an offense.”

Some decided to conceal their identities from classmates, while others were asked to renounce any ties to Israel to prove they were “one of the good ones.”

TRUMP SAYS HARVARD’S FOREIGN STUDENTS ARE FROM COUNTRIES PAYING ‘NOTHING’ FOR THEIR EDUCATION

“No other group was constantly told that their history was a sham, that they or their co-religionists or co-ethnics were supremacists and oppressors, and that they had no right to the protections offered by anti-bias norms,” read one section of the report. “Many Jewish students told us they feel like objects of suspicion.”

Harvard President Alan Gerber called the 2023–2024 academic year “disappointing and painful.” (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

One Jewish graduate student told the task force, “Jews are now being treated like Republicans were when I was in college.” 

That statement “of course points to another problem with which elite universities have been struggling,” the report said. 

At times, the anti-Muslim and antisemitism task force reports were seemingly at odds with each other. Muslim and pro-Palestinian students reported a widespread fear of doxxing, or having their personal identifying information shared publicly with the intent to intimidate or harm them. They reported often seeing pictures of their faces on the sides of trucks driven around campus by pro-Israel groups. 

Forty-seven percent of Muslim students reported feeling physically unsafe on campus during the 2023–2024 school year, compared with 15% of Jewish respondents. 

The antisemitism report called for a set of rules to govern permissible behaviors for instructors in classrooms, while the anti-Muslim and Arab bias task force called for the university to do more to protect academic freedom and free speech. 

JUDGE TEMPORARILY PAUSES TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL HARVARD STUDENT VISA POLICY AFTER LAWSUIT

2. Academic biases

The antisemitism report found Harvard classes often portrayed “partisan and one-sided pedagogy” that failed to account for Jewish and Israeli perspectives, particularly within the university’s divinity school and school of public health. 

The task force also documented instances when faculty canceled or ended class early on the day of a pro-Gaza protest or “gave time at the end of class for students to promote various solidarity groups” like the Palestine Solidarity Committee. 

The report recommended expanding courses on antisemitism, Judaism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to foster a more inclusive and comprehensive academic environment.

“Anti-Zionist views seem built into some classes,” one student noted. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Harvard for comment on the report. 

3. Political divides worsening 

In the 1980s and 1990s, the report found that at the university “pro-Israel organizers and pro-Palestinian organizers had disagreed strongly yet often worked together to build bridges and to imagine jointly a better future for the region.”

“Those efforts started to fade in the 2000s amidst the Second Intifada and through the Israel-Hamas wars of the 2010s, and by the time Hamas crashed through the Israeli border fence in 2023 the conditions at Harvard (as in the Middle East itself) were very different,” the report read. 

Some pro-Palestinian campus organizers viewed bridge-building activities “as a form of betrayal,” the report found. 

Some pro-Palestinian campus organizers viewed bridge-building activities “as a form of betrayal,” the report found. (Anibal Martel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The report found that many students, including Jewish ones, had “sympathy” for Israel’s “massive military response” that followed the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

However, campus protests “crossed a line from a call for freedom and security for Palestinians and Jews alike to a stereotyped notion: that Israel is not a state, but rather a ‘settler colony’ of white Europeans who have no real connection with the land they had stolen, that epitomized aggression, and was bereft of virtues.”

4. Admissions process led to dwindling Jewish population

The report found that changes in Harvard’s admissions policies meant that by 2023, the Jewish student community was much smaller than it was in the early 2010s. 

The hostility that some students had felt, the report found, was “degrading” to the university, and some Jewish students turned down offers of admission to Harvard over it. 

Some Jewish students vying for doctorate degrees said they decided to leave for private industry jobs because of the perception that academia is “unfriendly to Jews.” 

Some non-Jewish faculty members told the task force that Jewish candidates had turned down post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard and Jewish medical school students shied away from residencies at Harvard hospitals “because of the deep politicization of the climate.” 

The task force determined Harvard should change its admissions policy to reflect “what campus should look like: people listening to each other.” 

Pro-Gaza protests have persisted on Harvard’s campus since Israel’s offensive campaign to eradicate Hamas began after Oct. 7, 2023. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

5. Lack of educational oversight 

The task force also found a lack of oversight over seemingly university-endorsed educational content. 

The Harvard Chan School of Public Health, for example, launched a Palestinian program in 2022 that is run by a “leadership collective” of five individuals, none of whom hold a tenure-track faculty appointment at Harvard. 

“The use of the Harvard brand for a research or teaching project creates expectations among Harvard faculty, staff, students, and the broader public. Programs operating without the guidance and oversight of Harvard’s regular faculty with expertise risk falling short of these expectations,” the task force found. 

In another example, the task force found the coursework for a master’s degree in Religion and Public Life to be misrepresented. The program is advertised as offering students a better understanding of religion to illuminate a range of contemporary issues. 

Both faculty and students did not expect the program to be as focused on the Israel–Palestinian issue as it was, and some students found “program offerings and materials disproportionately presented Israelis and Jews as guilty of monstrous historical crimes, which require both repentance and redress.”

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The program “appears to have focused on non-mainstream Jewish religious perspectives that lack widespread support within the Jewish diaspora or in Israel.” It also linked Jews to “two great sins,” according to the task force: the creation of the state of Israel and participation in White supremacy, which staff “appeared to embrace openly.”

More than six months after the Democratic Party suffered major setbacks in the 2024 elections, the party is seeking a path to escape the political wilderness.

Part of that effort includes a recent gathering by top party consultants and donors trying to figure out how Democrats can improve outreach to male and working-class voters.

President Donald Trump won back control of the White House while Republicans flipped the Senate and defended their fragile House majority in November, and the GOP made gains among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as younger voters – all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base.

“Everything we’ve done up to this point has resulted in re-electing Donald Trump,” longtime Democratic strategist and communicator Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital.

OPINION: WHAT DEMOCRATS NEED TO DO TO WIN AGAIN

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris delivers her presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 22, 2024 in Chicago. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

“If anyone tells you that we don’t have to course correct, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” added Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

In the face of Trump’s sweeping and controversial moves since his return to the White House in January, an increasingly angered and energized base of Democrats is pushing for party leaders to take a stronger stand in leading the resistance to the president and Republicans.

The anger directed not only at Trump and Republicans, but also at fellow Democrats, appears to be a factor in the party’s polling woes, with Democratic Party favorable ratings sinking to historic lows.

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden at the DNC.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WATCH: DEMOCRATS’ PARTY CHAIR MAKES CASE IN ‘FOX NEWS SUNDAY’ APPEARANCE

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin vows the party will compete in all 50 states going forward. 

In an interview earlier this month on “Fox News Sunday,” Martin highlighted that the party’s focus right now is “squarely on making sure that we stand up for hardworking Americans who are being left behind in this Trump economy.”

A 2024 election DNC postmortem is currently underway, with the findings expected to be issued later this year. However, grabbing the spotlight in recent days was a gathering hosted by the Democrat-aligned super PAC Future Forward at a luxury resort along the California coast.

Among the strategy discussions at the gathering was a $20 million effort titled, “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan.”

The recommendations of the effort, which is code-named SAM, included having Democrats drop what is described as a “moralizing tone” toward male voters, changing the party’s language used toward men and purchasing more ads on video games as part of male outreach.

Some former key staffers on the 2024 campaign of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the party’s nominee last summer, heavily criticized the effort, which was first reported by the New York Times and later confirmed by Fox News.

“Instead of studying working-class voters and men, why doesn’t the Democratic Party donor class go out and meet some? What the hell is this?” James Singer, a spokesman for the 2024 campaign, wrote in a social media post. “As a Democrat, it’s embarrassing.”

It was a similar message from Ammar Moussa, another veteran Democratic strategist and communicator who worked on the Biden and Harris campaigns.

“This is embarrassing. Truly,” Moussa wrote on X.

Democrats have long had a problem attracting male voters in presidential elections. Trump won the male vote by 12 points over Harris in the 2024 presidential election, and according to the Fox News Voter Analysis, that margin ballooned to 15 points among men 45 and older.

Fast-forward to this spring, and the Democrats’ ratings stood underwater in the latest Fox News national poll at 41% favorable and 56% unfavorable in a survey conducted April 18-21.

That is an all-time low for the Democrats in Fox News polling, and for the first time in a decade, the party’s standing was lower than that of the GOP, which stood at 44% favorable and 54% unfavorable.

The figures were reversed last summer, when Fox News last asked the party favorability question in one of its surveys.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING

The Fox News poll was far from an outlier.

The Democratic Party’s favorable ratings were well in negative territory in a Pew Research national survey – 38% favorable, 60% unfavorable – conducted in early April and at 36% favorable, 60% unfavorable in a Wall Street Journal poll in the field a couple of weeks earlier.

Additionally, national polls conducted in February by Quinnipiac University and March by CNN and by NBC News also indicated the favorable ratings for the Democratic Party sinking to all-time lows.

However, there is more.

Confidence in the Democratic Party’s congressional leadership also sunk to an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll conducted early last month.

The confidence rating for Democrats’ leadership in Congress stood at 25% in the survey, which was nine points below the previous low of 34% recorded in 2023.

The semi-annual Harvard Youth Poll, which was released late last month, indicated that approval ratings for Democrats in Congress among Americans aged 18-29 nosedived.

An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-April indicated that more respondents trusted Trump (40%) than Democrats in Congress (32%) to handle the nation’s main problems.

Additionally, a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted late last month suggested Republicans hold a significant advantage over Democrats on two top issues: the economy and immigration.

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“If Democrats want to be competitive in this country and build lasting majorities in both chambers and be competitive for the White House, we’ve got to broaden the tent,” Caiazzo insisted.

He lamented that Democrats have “become hyper-focused on a certain set of issues that only speak to a certain set of people while letting the most important issues of the day fall by the wayside. Every single day, Democrats should be focused on how we make things better for working people. And the way we deliver that message has got to meet people where they are.”

FIRST ON FOX: House Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., is taking aim at Georgia’s senior senator in a new ad highlighting the vulnerable Democrat’s stance on transgender student athletes.

Carter, who is running for Senate, is releasing a 30-second advertisement titled, “Ossoff Fan,” which features a purported transgender woman complaining about Carter’s own Republican stances. It opens by showing a transgender woman, played by a stubble-chinned biological male wearing a wig and a dress, sitting in a living room beside a dumbbell watching Carter on Fox News.

“He’s been MAGA from the beginning,” the person says on the phone. “He’s been loyal to Trump, defended him during impeachment.”

The person on the other line says, “And Buddy helped Trump at the border with deportations.”

HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUT

Sen. Jon Ossoff is being targeted over his stance on transgender issues in a new ad by House Rep. Buddy Carter. (AP Photo/Buddy Carter For Senate)

The transgender person picks up a trophy and says, “And preventing people like me from competing in women’s sports. Buddy Carter even believes there’s only two genders.” 

“Now Buddy wants to help Trump in the Senate and beat Jon Ossoff,” the individual says. “It’s just not fair.” Meanwhile, the voice on the phone quips, “After all Ossoff has done for us!”

The ad ends with the transgender person picking up a sign with pink lettering that says, “Ossoff for Senate,” putting on a pair of wedge sandals, and stomping to their car.

The short but punchy advertisement signals that Republicans still believe the debate surrounding transgender inclusion is a potent issue for turning out voters in favor of the GOP. It proved to be a key issue in the 2024 general election, with moderate Democrats spending weeks after the fact decrying their own party’s intolerance to differing views.

Ossoff is a first-term lawmaker who was the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the Peach State in roughly two decades. Republicans now view Ossoff’s seat as one of the most viable flip opportunities in the upcoming 2026 midterm cycle, when the GOP hopes to keep and expand upon its thin majority in the upper chamber. 

The ad is meant to depict a transgender woman complaining about Rep. Buddy Carter’s pro-Trump stances. (Buddy Carter For Senate)

Carter was the first Republican to jump into the contest after Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was considered a heavy favorite to run against Ossoff, opted to forgo a Senate bid. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King is also running in the race as a Republican.

Ossoff joined with all other Democratic senators to filibuster the bill from Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, both Alabama Republicans, in March, effectively killing the legislation after it advanced out of the House earlier this year. 

Their bill, called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, is designed to bar transgender athletes from participating in federally funded school athletics at all levels, from elementary school to college.

It would amend Title IX to make it a violation for any school athletic program that receives federal funding to allow a biological male to participate in sports or activities that are meant for women or girls, and defines a person’s sex by their reproductive biology and genetics at birth. 

MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE

Rep. Buddy Carter is the first Republican candidate in the race to unseat Sen. Jon Ossoff. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

The measure is similar to an executive order from President Donald Trump in February that argued that the participation of biological men in women’s and girls’ sports was “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”

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The Carter campaign’s ad is also not the first time in the early days of the looming midterm cycle that the vulnerable senator has been targeted for his vote against the measure. 

One Nation, a nonprofit advocacy group closely aligned with Senate Republican leadership, ran an ad last month that accused Ossoff of “running point for the radical left” with his vote to block the men in women’s sports bill. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Ossoff’s campaign for comment on Carter’s ad but did not hear back by press time.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris had 107 days to convince the American people to elect her the next president. 

Tension between Harris’ team and former President Joe Biden‘s inner circle did not do her any favors, a new book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson reveals. 

“Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” has returned questions about Biden’s cognitive decline and his administration’s alleged cover-up to the national conversation. 

The book also pulls back the curtain on the complicated relationship between Biden and Harris, spotlighting the distrust that had been brewing between their teams since Biden tapped Harris as his running mate in 2020. 

NEW BOOK REVEALS BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE WORRIED ABOUT HIS AGE YEARS BEFORE BOTCHED DEBATE PERFORMANCE

Former Vice President Kamala Harris watches as former President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (en Cedeno/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The choice for Biden’s vice president came down to Harris or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., according to Thompson and Tapper.

NEW BOOK EXPOSES HOW TOP BIDEN COMMS STAFFER WAS ‘TIP OF THE SPEAR’ COVERING UP BIDEN’S COGNITIVE DECLINE

“Many on the Biden team felt that Harris didn’t put in the work and was also just not a very nice person. Several quietly expressed buyer’s remorse: They should have picked Whitmer.”

To Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, Whitmer represented the “next generation of Biden Democrats,” Thompson and Tapper said. 

Additionally, former first lady Jill Biden resented Harris after hitting him hard during the first Democratic primary in 2019 for opposing the Department of Education’s busing program to integrate public schools. “That little girl was me,” Harris said on the debate stage.

Former President Joe Biden shared an image of him and his wife Jill on Monday after it was announced he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. (X/JoeBiden)

“Still, Biden’s advisers did not fully trust her. Harris and her advisers felt it. Her aides got the impression that doing more than the bare minium to help was considered an act of disloyalty to Biden,” Tapper and Thompson said of Harris’ involvement in the 2020 campaign. “Some of that culture carried over into the White House.”

Biden privately called Harris a “work in progress” and was not confident she could beat then-former President Donald Trump in 2024. 

However, Harris’ team thought building up the vice president should have been a priority for Biden’s transitional presidency as a “bridge” for the next generation of Democratic leadership, as he said back in 2020. 

Former President Joe Biden reacts after his wife Jill Biden defended his record on “The View.” (ABC / Screenshot)

An excerpt of the book reads, “In the eyes of Harris’s team, the Biden White House was setting her up to fail. They gave her assignments her team considered politically toxic, such as dealing with the migration crisis, rarely offered to help, and knifed her to reporters along the way. Harris’s camp didn’t understand the hostility and the reluctance to offer her opportunities to shine.”

The Fox News Voter Analysis in 2024 found that 52% of voters said Trump was the better candidate to handle immigration, while just 36% said Harris. Additionally, it was a top issue for voters, with 20% saying it was the most important issue facing the country. 

Harris faced the brunt of criticism for the surge in border crossings during the Biden-Harris administration as the Trump campaign trolled her as the “border czar.”

When Biden dropped out of the race after his disastrous debate performance in summer 2024, Harris inherited his struggling campaign, and her old boss soon became a “liability.”

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“From the beginning of her campaign in July to the August weeks of picking a running mate, presiding over the convention, rolling out wave after wave of ads, and on through September debate prep, it was clear that Biden was a liability,” Tapper and Thompson wrote. 

Harris was caught in the crosshairs of Biden’s relentless gaffes and missteps as she tried to walk a fine line between loyalty to Biden and distancing herself from his failing campaign, as the journalists described. 

While Harris had “great affection for Joe,” her loyalty fired back when she told “The View” she would not have done anything differently than Biden as president. 

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said – an instant attack ad for the Trump administration as they highlighted the Biden-Harris administration’s record on immigration, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and inflation. 

Then-President Joe Biden, right, and then-President-elect Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (AP)

“What is he doing?” Harris asked her team after Biden donned a Trump 2024 hat at a 9/11 memorial gathering at the Shanksville Fire Station, less than a month before the election. 

“This is completely unhelpful. And so unnecessary,” Harris told her team, according to the book. “That would be, the Harris campaign decided, the last time she would do a public event with the president before the election.”

However, Biden still wanted a role in the campaign, Tapper and Thompson said, as he saw former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama speaking at rallies on the campaign trail. 

“He didn’t seem to understand what a liability he had become.”

Then-President Joe Biden reacts as supporters greet him with a light display showing Georgians’ love for Biden at his debate watch party at Hyatt Regency Atlanta on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta. (Derek White/Getty Images for DNC)

When one of Trump’s supporters called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a Madison Square Garden rally about a week before the election, what should have been a political layup for Democrats, became another mess for Harris to clean up. 

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said on a Voto Latino Zoom call.

While Biden was creating a political mess for Harris to clean up, Trump seized the opportunity to claim the narrative, sporting a high-visibility vest at a rally in battleground Michigan and hosting an impromptu press gaggle from the front seat of a garbage truck that was decked out in Trump decals. 

“By the end of the campaign, she had helped the Democratic Party, but her own candidacy was barely treading water. And the albatross that was Joe Biden kept getting heavier,” Tapper and Thompson said. 

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Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden’s cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up.

Representatives for Biden and Harris did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Former President Joe Biden‘s official health reports during his White House tenure did not show signs of aggressive prostate cancer, a Fox News Digital review of the health documents shows. 

Biden, who suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988 that nearly claimed his life, received clean bills of health in 2021, 2023 and 2024, according to former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor’s annual reports on the president’s state of health. 

Biden was scheduled to receive a physical by the end of January 2023 but delayed the evaluation due to a busy travel schedule, the White House reported at the time. The former president had a roughly 15-month period between his 2021 physical and one conducted in February 2023. 

Fox News Digital reviewed the three reports posted by the White House in 2021, 2023 and 2024 and found that there were no signs indicating aggressive prostate cancer was on the horizon for the 46th president — though concerns over skin cancer were a common theme throughout the three reports. 

‘SMALL NODULE’ FOUND IN BIDEN’S PROSTATE DURING ROUTINE EXAM, SPOKESPERSON SAYS

Former President Joe Biden shared an image of him and his wife Jill on Monday after it was announced he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. (X.com/@JoeBiden)

2021 

Biden’s White House physician released the president’s first annual health report in November 2021, declaring Biden a “healthy, vigorous” man. 

“President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” O’Connor wrote in the 2021 report. 

The report included routine screenings of Biden’s heart, eyes and teeth, as well as his occasional gastroesophageal reflux. 

TRUMP CALLS BIDEN’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS ‘VERY SAD’ WHILE QUESTIONING TIMELINE: ‘WASN’T INFORMED’

The report noted that Biden also underwent “routine” screenings for both colon cancer and skin cancer. Biden had multiple “localized, non-melenoma skin cancers removed” ahead of his presidency after spending a good deal of time in the sun as a youth, the report stated, but that there were “no areas suspicious for skin cancer” during the 2021 physical. 

The report did find that Biden was increasingly “throat clearing” and coughing during public events. O’Connor stated that Biden had long cleared his throat or coughed during speaking engagements, but such coughing or throat clearing “certainly seem more frequent and more pronounced over the last few months.” 

O’Connor said gastroesophageal reflux was likely the culprit behind Biden’s coughing after conducting multiple lung, oxygen and biological tests. 

The report also noted that Biden’s gait had become noticeably more stiff, which the doctor said required a “detailed investigation.” The stiffened gait was attributed to Biden’s wear and tear on his spine and mild sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet, which O’Connor said could be addressed with physical therapy and exercise. 

Then-President Joe Biden speaks during an event in 2021. That year, his White House physician declared him a “healthy, vigorous” man. (Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press)

2023 

O’Connor released details on Biden’s second physical as president on Feb. 16, 2023, roughly 15 months after the release of his first presidential physical. The delay between the health assessments was attributed to the president’s busy schedule. 

Biden was notably also diagnosed with COVID-19 in July 2022 during the interim period of his first and second physicals. Biden was reported to have mild symptoms that July and was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid. 

The February 2023 physical report found that Biden was in good health and “fit” to serve as president. 

“President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,” O’Connor wrote in his 2023 health memo.

OBAMA REACTS TO BIDEN CANCER DIAGNOSIS 

The report found that Biden’s gait had remained stiff since his last physical, though the issue had not worsened. The report overall found that his heart, lungs, eyes and teeth were all in good health. 

Biden underwent routine skin cancer surveillance, which found a small lesion on the president’s chest that required biopsy. The lesion was removed just a couple of weeks later without issue, a follow-up memo from O’Connor states. 

“As expected, the biopsy confirmed that the small lesion was basal cell carcinoma,” Biden’s doctor wrote in a memo after the lesion was removed. “All cancerous tissue was successfully removed. The area around the biopsy site was treated presumptively with electrodessication and curettage at the time of biopsy. No further treatment is required.” 

The 2023 physical health report also provided updates on Biden’s COVID-19 recovery, which the White House doctor said went smoothly in part due to Biden receiving the coronavirus vaccine and two booster shots before the infection. 

BIDEN HEALTH SUMMARY RELEASED BY WHITE HOUSE, PRESIDENT CALLED ‘HEALTHY, ROBUST’

The February 2023 physical report found that then-President Joe Biden was in good health and “fit” to serve as president. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/The Associated Press)

2024 

The report on Biden’s final physical examination as president was released Feb. 28, 2024 and again found the president in good health and able to serve as president. 

“President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” the most recent memo stated. 

Again, vital organs such as the heart and eyes received a clean bill of health, while Biden’s stiff gait did not worsen in the interim since 2023, though the doctor noted “arthritic changes” that were moderate to severe. 

O’Connor reported that he conducted a neurological exam and determined that no cerebral or neurological issues were compounding the president’s stiff gait. The test did support previous findings of peripheral neuropathy of the feet, the report stated. 

JOE BIDEN DIAGNOSED WITH ‘AGGRESSIVE FORM’ OF PROSTATE CANCER WITH METASTASIS TO THE BONE

The 2024 physical additionally noted that the lesion removed from Biden’s chest the year prior needed no additional treatment, as basal cell carcinoma typically does not metastasize. 

The report added that Biden had been using a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine when sleeping after he showed symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. The president had previously reported similar symptoms in 2008 and 2019, O’Connor stated, but that they subsided after sinus and nasal passage surgeries before his presidency.

He also underwent a root canal that year with no complications. 

Then-President Joe Biden, right, and President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2024. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)

Who is Dr. O’Connor? 

Dr. O’Connor has overseen Biden’s health since 2009 and built a close relationship with the president and his family, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

“I have never had a better commander than Joe Biden,” O’Connor said in a profile interview with his alma mater, New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, when Biden served as vice president. “All politics aside, he approaches his craft with such honor. He’s 100 percent ‘family first.’ He’s ‘genuinely genuine.’”

FLASHBACK: WHITE HOUSE PRESS SEC KARINE JEAN-PIERRE LAUGHS OFF QUESTION ON BIDEN’S HEALTH IN 2022

O’Connor overwhelmingly remained out of the spotlight during Biden’s tenure until the spring of 2024, when speculation mounted among both conservatives and Democrats that the president’s mental acuity was slipping, with pundits and the media subsequently demanding to hear directly from O’Connor on the state of Biden’s health. 

Physician Kevin O’Connor has overseen former President Joe Biden’s health since 2009. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

The White House physician is affectionately known to Biden and his family simply as “Doc,” and was requested by Biden in 2009 to stay on as his physician after serving in the White House Medical Unit under the President George W. Bush administration, according to the profile. 

O’Connor was first appointed to the White House Medical Unit in 2006 for what was intended to be a three-year military assignment, according to his profile published by the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, from which he graduated in 1992. 

Instead, “Vice President Biden asked O’Connor to stay on,” the profile continues. 

O’Connor complied, marking the beginning of their doctor-patient relationship that has reportedly evolved into a close relationship with the president’s large family. 

Biden’s 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad,” features the president reflecting on his close relationship with “Doc,” including O’Connor joining the family on their annual vacation to Massachusetts’ Nantucket in his capacity as the White House physician and balking at the family’s “browsing extravaganza” on the island. The White House medical unit always travels with a president to best protect his health and safety.  

The physician’s relationship with the family seemingly grew closer, according to the memoir, when the president’s son, Beau Biden, was diagnosed with brain cancer — which ultimately claimed his life in 2015. 

“Doc was good with Beau, who was still trying to get his bearings in those first few days. Real fear was starting to creep in. Sometimes Beau would grab him when everybody else was out of earshot to get his honest assessment,” Biden wrote in the memoir. 

“‘Whatever it is, this is bad,’ he told Beau, ‘but we’re gonna find out what it is. And once we find out what it is, we will have a plan.’” 

“‘Promise?’ Beau asked.”

“‘Promise.’” 

WHO IS WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN DR. KEVIN O’CONNOR AND WHAT ARE HIS CLOSE TIES TO THE BIDEN FAMILY?

In another excerpt, Beau Biden requested O’Connor “promise” to take care of his father if he should die. 

“‘Seriously, Doc. No matter what happens,'” Beau Biden said to O’Connor, according to the book. ‘”Take care of Pop. For real. Promise me. For real.’”

Back in 2018, Joe Biden’s sister-in-law, Sara Biden, described O’Connor as a “friend” who provided medical advice to members of the Biden family beyond the eventual commander in chief. 

“Colonel O’Connor was actually a friend and he — we would frequently ask for his recommendations if any of us had a medical issue, so it was not uncommon to ask him if he had a recommendation,” she said in a deposition related to a New York state medical malpractice case involving her daughter, Fox News previously reported. 

The state of Biden’s health now?

Biden’s office announced May 18 that the former president had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer, which set off concern that such a cancer should have been discovered sooner. 

“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” Biden’s team shared in a statement. “On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.” 

Former President Joe Biden’s office announced May 18 that the former president was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the statement said. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.” 

Physicians have remarked that they are “shocked” that the cancer had not been discovered sooner. 

“Thank God they found it. (Biden is) a fighter. He’s been through a tremendous amount in his life… with his son, with (his) wife, with (his) daughter,” Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel said May 19. “Two aneurysms, atrial fibrillation. He’s been through a lot health-wise, but I am absolutely shocked that they didn’t find this earlier.” 

A spokesperson for Biden confirmed to Fox News on May 20 that Biden’s last known prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which screens a patient for prostate cancer, was conducted in 2014. 

“President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014,” a Biden spokesperson told Fox News. “Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer.” 

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Biden posted to X on May 19 in his first message since publicly revealing the diagnosis to thank supporters. 

“Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” Biden wrote on X, accompanied by a photo with former first lady Jill Biden. “Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.” 

Outgoing United States Capitol Police (USCP) Chief J. Thomas Manger has sounded off on President Donald Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 defendants – calling the day of the sweeping pardons one of the most troubling moments of his career, according to a report. 

Manger, who will retire later this week, has been a vocal critic of those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and lamented Trump pardoning nearly all defendants shortly after his inauguration this year.

He told WTOP “I was angry and as frustrated about that as I’ve ever been professionally.”

U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger has criticized President Donald Trump for pardoning Jan. 6 defendants. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images, left, Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, right.)

TRUMP PARDONS NEARLY ALL JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS ON INAUGURATION DAY

Manger told the outlet that as discouraging as that was, it made him determined to continue to make improvements. “What it made me feel like is somebody’s got to stay here and stand up for these cops,” Manger said.

Manger has served as USCP chief since July 2021 and was hired to rebuild the force and implement reforms to enhance security and preparedness in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. The more than 100 reform recommendations included expanding intelligence, training and riot-response capabilities.

He has often condemned the attack, referring to it as an “insurrection” and an attack on democracy. Trump has referred to those who were imprisoned as “hostages.” 

“Some people in this country believe January 6 wasn’t that bad,” Manger told WTOP. “My cops know what happened on January 6. They know what happened. They were here.”

Manger’s police career stretches back to 1977, when he started out as an officer with the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia. He rose to chief of department in 1998 and remained in that role until 2004. Manger became chief of police in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 2004 and held the position until his retirement in 2019. 

Americans loyal to then-President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

US CAPITOL POLICE CHIEF TOM MANGER UPSET COLBERT CREW WAS SPARED

On July 23, 2021, he was appointed chief of the United States Capitol Police, succeeding Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman.

When news broke that the Justice Department had agreed in principle to pay $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, a former Air Force veteran who was shot dead during the Capitol Riot, Manger sent a message to his department’s officers writing that he was “extremely disappointed.”

“In 2021, the DOJ said that there was no evidence to show that law enforcement broke the law. After a thorough investigation, it was determined to be a justified shooting. “This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement officers across our nation — especially those who have a protective mission like ours,” Manger wrote, according to the Washington Post.

In December 2022, the USCP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal — the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress — for their bravery on Jan. 6, 2021. Manger accepted the honor on behalf of the department.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger is sworn in to testify before a Senate Rules and Administration Committee oversight hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, in Washington. Manger has sounded off on President Donald Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 defendants. (Tom Williams/Pool via AP)

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The USCP dates back to 1800, when the Congress moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., and a lone watchman, John Golding, was hired to protect the Capitol Building, according to USCP website.

After a number of incidents in 1827 that could have been prevented with sufficient security and surveillance, then President John Quincy Adams asked that a regular Capitol Police force be established. On May 2, 1828, Congress passed an act that expanded the police regulations of the City of Washington to include the Capitol and Capitol Square. It is on this date that the USCP commemorates its founding.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called Russian President Vladimir Putin “crazy,” expressing support for Ukraine and advocating for “Secondary sanctions & arms support NOW.”

“I agree with President Trump, war criminal Putin is crazy. The civilized world will not sit by for Putin’s imperial tantrum at the cost of more children’s lives. Secondary sanctions & arms support NOW. Grateful to stand with Ukraine as they continue to repel this unprovoked INVASION and work for peace in their homeland,” Wilson wrote on X on Monday.

President Donald Trump asserted in a Sunday night Truth Social post that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY!” and is “needlessly killing” many people. 

GERMANY’S CHANCELLOR ENDS WEAPONS RANGE LIMITS FOR UKRAINE DESPITE RUSSIAN NUCLEAR THREATS

Left: Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., leaves the Capitol Hill Club after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Tuesday, March 25, 2025; Right: President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks at the National Memorial Day Observance at the Memorial Amphitheatre in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on May 26, 2025 (Left: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Right: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump, who has been aiming to help bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the post as well, declaring, “Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”

In a Monday night post on X, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urged President Trump to act. 

“I’ve had enuf of Putin killing innocent ppl. Pres Trump Take action AT LEAST SANCTIONS,” Grassley said in the post.

GOP LAWMAKER BLASTS ‘DUMB’ TRUMP COMMENT ON ZELENSKYY DESPITE ‘PERFECT’ CRITICISM OF PUTIN

A massive bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators is supporting a proposed sanctions measure. Grassley is an original cosponsor on the Senate measure and Wilson is an original cosponsor on the House edition.

Zelenskyy is also advocating for sanctions.

RUSSIA, UKRAINE SWAP HUNDREDS OF PRISONERS HOURS AFTER MOSCOW LAUNCHES MASSIVE AERIAL ASSAULT

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“New and strong sanctions against Russia — from the United States, from Europe, and from all those around the world who seek peace — will serve as a guaranteed means of forcing Russia not only to cease fire, but also to show respect,” Zelenskyy declared Monday in a post on X.

I didn’t recognize the “917” New York number that called me.

But there was no question about who phoned after they left a message.

The caller on the voicemail was utterly unmistakable.

They didn’t say their name.

They didn’t have to.

“Chad, you’re the only one who missed me,” croaked the voice.

FORMER NY DEMOCRATIC REP CHARLIE RANGEL DEAD AT 94

It carried the sleekness of a stone crusher working over basalt in a West Virginia quarry.

The voicemail was from the late Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. And he was essentially calling to assure me that he wasn’t dead.

After all, I was apparently the only member of the congressional press corps who noticed that the New York Democrat hadn’t voted nor been anywhere near the U.S. Capitol in several weeks.

There was no article in Roll Call. Nothing in Politico. No statement from his office.

Rangel just wasn’t around.

Former Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. — a man whose tenure on Capitol Hill I have many fond memories of — died Monday. He was 94. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

So I called and wound up speaking to his communications director Hannah Kim and chief of staff George Henry.

I inquired if Rangel was all right. They assured me he was. But they didn’t quite give me the full story. That was for Rangel to do.

And then Rangel himself called — from his sickbed — so I could hear his signature jackhammer-chopping-through-the-asphalt-of-Manhattan voice to prove to this reporter he was still among the living.

“I wanted you to hear it from me,” said Rangel.

EX-REP. CHARLIE RANGEL, 94, QUESTIONS WHETHER BIDEN BELONGS IN NURSING HOME, NOT WHITE HOUSE

It was 2012. Rangel was out because of a back injury and a viral infection, which made it difficult for him to stand for long periods of time. From 2008 through late 2010, I dogged Rangel through the halls of Congress on a daily basis as the veteran congressman grappled with an ethics scandal. The ethics case culminated in the House censuring Rangel, permanently smudging his record as a war hero, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

First elected to the House in 1970, Rangel’s star had dimmed after the ethics scandal. But in 2012, any information about an elderly, legendary congressman like Rangel was newsworthy. So, as a reporter on the Capitol Hill beat, I appreciated the phone call as he described the excruciating pain that beset him.

It’s possible the Ethics Committee investigation and censure by the House were more agonizing for Rangel than the back problem. Rangel was so confident that he didn’t violate House rules that he referred himself to the Ethics Committee.

Rangel’s woes with the Ethics Committee might as well have been more painful for him than his back problems. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Rangel started to feel the ethics heat in 2008. He used his position as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to solicit funds for a school in his name at City College of New York. He failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes or rental income on a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic. 

A rent-controlled apartment in Harlem doubled as a campaign office. He improperly parked his broken-down, 1972 silver Mercedes-Benz in the garage of the Rayburn House Office Building. The House prohibits lawmakers from using the garage for storage. The Benz lacked plates, wasn’t registered and apparently hadn’t been driven in about four years. A Falls Church, Virginia, towing company lugged the car out of the garage on Sept. 19, 2008.

Video of the tow-truck hauling away the Mercedes-Benz from Rayburn would have made a juicy story the next morning on TV. But Rangel caught a break.

Sort of.

VIRGINIA DEMOCRATIC REP GERRY CONNOLLY DEAD AT 75

Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., summoned then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to Capitol Hill that night. The U.S. economy teetered on the verge of an epic financial collapse. By nightfall, it was clear just how bad the nation’s economy was. Everyone temporarily forgot about Rangel. In fact, the inoperable Benz may have been in better shape than some American car companies at that moment.

But the House Ethics Committee was investigating Rangel. An inquiry started in 2009 and culminated in his censure on the House floor in 2010. The House voted 333-79 to discipline Rangel. A somber Rangel presented himself in the well of the House chamber, hands folded in front of him as though he were about to receive Communion. Pelosi doled out her admonition from the dais and lightly rapped the gavel.

“He violated the public trust,” said then-Ethics Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

It was the first censure of a House member in 27 years.

Years after the fact, I half-jokingly suggested that Rangel could blame his Ethics Committee problems on me. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Years later, I half-jokingly told Rangel that he could blame me for his problems with the Ethics Committee.

As stated earlier, it was Rangel who believed his actions were beyond reproach. So he sent himself before the Ethics Committee to review his conduct.

I entered the Capitol one morning in 2008 and discovered his longtime aide, Emile Milne, wandering the basement. I asked Milne what he was looking for. He waived an overstuffed envelope at me.

“The Ethics Committee,” said Milne.

DEMOCRATS’ BOILING POT: A LOOK AT THEIR 2026 GAME PLAN

This was the actual “self-referral” to the Ethics Committee. And Milne was the courier of a dossier Rangel would use to defend himself.

I knew exactly where the Ethics Committee was located in those days in the Capitol catacombs. So I escorted Milne to the door.

As I said, I told Rangel he could blame all of his problems on me.

I recall one instance in which Rangel, hounded by the press, fired back at them with his name, rank and serial number — the only things a prisoner of war is obliged to provide. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

Between 2008 and 2010, I staked out Rangel somewhere at the Capitol nearly every day. The day Pelosi summoned him to her office. The day Pelosi removed him as Ways and Means Committee chairman. The day he spoke at length on the House floor to defend himself against the allegations after the ethics panel formalized its inquiry.

One night, a scrum of reporters caught Rangel in the hallway off the House floor and pelted him with a barrage of questions. Rangel briefly answered. Then deflected. He then decided he had enough as scribes fired questions at him with the speed of a Gatling gun.

Rangel sighed, exasperated at what to do.

“Sergeant Charles B. Rangel. 85718162!” hollered Rangel. “And that’s all I’m going to say about it!”

It’s unclear if the other reporters understood what just happened. But I did.

BY DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT: BATTLES TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ WILL FACE IN THE SENATE

Rangel served in the Army during the Korean War. He was wounded in the back by shrapnel and eventually led dozens of men out of a firefight and to safety. Multiple soldiers died, and others were taken prisoner. Rangel received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with valor.

Rangel survived that day. But back on Capitol Hill, the news cycle had effectively taken Rangel prisoner. So he complied with the terms of the Geneva Convention. A prisoner of war is only compelled to provide enemy captors their name, rank and serial number. And after absorbing heavy fire from the press corps, Rangel had only one option.

It’s notable that someone with Rangel’s military record and Army service passed away on Memorial Day.

Rangel, a decorated veteran, died on Memorial Day. (Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)

In August 2008, Rangel published his autobiography entitled “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since.” The book chronicles how a high school dropout joined the Army and was wounded on the battlefield. Rangel chose to continue — eventually winding up in Congress as one of the most important lawmakers of the last 50 years. But Rangel then faced one of the harshest punishments Congress could dole out. It cost him his chairmanship and upended his reputation.

But Rangel was often philosophical about his fate and transgressions in Congress. He argued that despite the trouble, he still hadn’t had a bad day since that fateful battle in Kunu-ri, Korea in late 1950.

Back in 2012, I may have been the only one who noticed that Rangel was absent when he was suffering from a back issue and viral infection.

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But I certainly won’t be the only one today.

A Republican lawmaker from Tennessee is calling for a federal investigation into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s handling of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, adding he will not back down.

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said in a post on X that with support from the House Judiciary Committee, he is formally requesting all documents and communications from O’Connell’s office pertaining to his alleged protection of illegal immigrants.

Specifically, Ogles is requesting documents related to “the amendment of Executive Order 30,” which he referred to as “an outrageous directive requiring Nashville employees and first responders to report all communication with federal immigration authorities directly to the mayor.”

Ogles also said he is requesting any internal discussions or documents concerning ICE enforcement actions in Nashville or Davidson County and all correspondence involving Metro employees and affiliated nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) pertaining to the arrests or detention of criminal illegal aliens within the city or county.

HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUT

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) is calling on federal agencies and committees to investigate Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s alleged obstruction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. (Michael M. Santiago)

Along with his post, Ogles shared a video of his announcement.

“We’ve heard it: the individuals that the mayor is standing with are murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, sexual predators, child traffickers…the list goes on,” he said. “Which is why I will always stand on the rule of law and with ICE. And I don’t just stand with ICE; I’ll stand in front of ICE because we the people have had enough.

“I choose my community, my state and my family over this type of nonsense, which is why, due to the remarks of Freddie O’Connell and the potential for aiding and abetting illegal immigration, the Homeland Security and the Judiciary Committees will be conducting an investigation into the mayor of Nashville, his conduct and whether or not federal dollars have been used in criminal enterprise,” Ogles continued. “I will not back down. I will not relent, and I will always stand with law enforcement. I want my community, and I want my country back.”

DHS FIRES BACK AT BLUE-CITY MAYOR UNHAPPY ABOUT ICE OPERATION, PROVIDES RAP SHEETS FOR THOSE CHARGED

Ogles’ announcement comes 10 days after he sent a letter urging for an investigation into O’Connell, whom the Trump administration has accused of supporting “pro-illegal policies.”

O’Connell’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.

Earlier this month, ICE agents working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested nearly 200 people who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said were illegal immigrants – many of them criminals with gang affiliations or other sordid pasts.

ICE CRACKS DOWN ON DC-AREA BUSINESSES, NEARLY 200 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agents detain an immigrant on October 14, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)

A DHS news release targeted O’Connell by name over comments he made in early May. “What’s clear today is that people who do not share our values of safety and community have the authority to cause deep community harm.”

After the arrests, O’Connell signed an executive order aimed at tracking peoples’ interactions with federal immigration authorities, according to WSMV4.

O’Connell also wrote a letter to the city about the ICE arrests.

“Our top priority is keeping people safe, and we’re deeply concerned that what appear to be federal actions are making that harder,” O’Connell wrote. “Overnight, we understand that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents detained people during enforcement actions in Middle Tennessee. As we learn more, I want to be clear: No [Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD)] personnel were involved in last night’s enforcement action.”

BLUE CITY MAYOR SAYS ICE ARRESTS OF DANGEROUS CRIMINALS ARE NOT ‘FOCUSED ON MAKING US SAFER’

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell criticized ICE raids in Nashville, saying they are not focused on making the city safer, but instead leave the community fearing law enforcement interaction. (Getty Images)

He added that the city’s police department does not have federal immigration authority, nor are its members trained to conduct immigration enforcement.

O’Connell also said the police department lacks access to federal immigration databases.

“This type of federal enforcement action is not focused on making us safer and leaves people in our community fearing any interaction with law enforcement when there is a crime occurring,” he added. “We will be seeking the names of those detained.”

DHS said the Nashville operation resulted in the arrests of a convicted child sex predator, an alleged member of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, an individual convicted of aggravated assault and multiple illegal aliens on drug charges.

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“The Nashville Mayor should want these criminal illegal aliens off American streets,” DHS posted on X. “Attacks and demonization of our brave law enforcement is wrong. ICE officers are now facing a 413% increase in assaults. President Trump campaigned on immigration enforcement, the American people voted for it, and DHS is delivering.”

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has put forth legislation amending the International Bridge Act of 1972 that would ​​expedite the presidential permitting process for all international bridges and land ports of entry.

The bipartisan bill from Cruz and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., will expand on legislation previously written by Cruz and passed into law that streamlined permits for international bridges in Eagle Pass, Laredo and Brownsville.

The new bill will streamline all permits for international bridges and ports of entry for Mexico and Canada.

TED CRUZ MOCKS ‘CRAZY TOWN’ DEMS, AS MARYLAND SENATOR GETS DEFENSIVE ABOUT ADVOCACY FOR ALLEGED MS-13 MEMBER

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has put forth legislation amending the International Bridge Act of 1972 that would ​​expedite the presidential permitting process for all international bridges and land ports of entry. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

In a news release, Cruz discussed how this new bill has been a top priority for him.

“This bill builds on and expands our success in securing presidential permits for four major international bridge projects in South Texas by streamlining the approval process for all future international bridges along the Texas–Mexico border,” Cruz said in a news release.

Cruz strongly urged his colleagues “to pass this bill so it can be sent to the President for signature.”

BIPARTISAN SENATE BILL TARGETS BORDER HUMAN, DRUG TRAFFICKING WITH INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., has co-authored a bill to expedite the presidential permit process for international bridges and ports of entry on the southern and northern borders. (Andrea Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Lujan said in a news release that he was proud to introduce bipartisan legislation that would deliver real investments to New Mexico.

“Ports of entry and international bridges are vital to the economic success of our border communities, supporting trade, business, and tourism,” Lujan said. “Yet, new border crossings are too often held up by the presidential permit process.”

Dr. Victor Treviño, Mayor of the City of Laredo, thanked both senators for putting this bipartisan bill together that strengthens the northern and southern border.

This new bill will streamline all permits for International Bridges and Ports of Entry for Mexico and Canada. (Matthew Busch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“This bill marks a critical step toward modernizing the development and expansion of cross-border infrastructure by bringing much-needed efficiency and predictability to the presidential permitting process—an essential reform for communities like Laredo, which continues to be on the front lines of international commerce as the #1 Port of Entry in the United States,” Trevino said in a news release.

Trevino also urged Congress to pass this bill so that President Donald Trump can sign it.

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The bill also includes a bar on future administrations from considering environmental documents, including documents created as part of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Cruz’s office for comment.

Nick Butler is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Do you have any tips? Reach out to Nick.Butler@Fox.com.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation on Monday which he said makes it “crystal clear” that only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in elections in his state.

“I just signed off on a joint resolution to make it crystal clear under the Texas Constitution that if you are not a citizen of the United States of America, you are not allowed to vote in Texas,” the governor said in a video posted to X.

Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell, a Republican, introduced Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 37 in January, and in the resolution, he proposed a constitutional amendment clarifying that voters in Texas elections must be citizens of the U.S.

Prior to the resolution, the constitution prohibited people who are under the age of 18, along with those who were determined mentally incompetent by a court or who were convicted of a felony, from voting in elections.

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER REQUIRING PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS: ‘AN HONOR TO SIGN THIS ONE’

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a joint resolution to amend the state constitution and make it a requirement for U.S. citizens to only be allowed to vote in elections in Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

But the amendment proposes adding a line to the classes of people who “shall not be allowed to vote” in Texas, which reads, “persons who are not citizens of the United States.”

Birdwell’s joint resolution was approved by the state senate in April, then by the state house in May.

Abbott signed the joint resolution on Monday, but it still has one more step. In fact, Texas citizens will have the final say in November on whether the state constitution can be ratified to include the requirement in the state constitution.

TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER ON VOTING BLOCKED BY FEDERAL JUDGE AMID FLURRY OF LEGAL SETBACKS

Texas voters will get the opportunity to have the final say on whether to only allow U.S. citizens to vote in elections in the state. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to Abbott’s and Birdwell’s offices for comment.

Last month, a federal judge blocked an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that would require documentary proof of citizenship before being allowed to register to vote.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia handed down the order in response to lawsuits filed by three separate groups of plaintiffs over five different provisions in a March 25 Trump executive order relating to election integrity. While Kollar-Kotelly dismissed requests to block three of the provisions, requests to block two other provisions pertaining to a proof of citizenship requirement for voters were granted. 

JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ELECTION ORDER DESPITE OVERWHELMING AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR VOTER ID

A voter fills out her ballot. (GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images)

The first blocked provision sought to compel the Election Assistance Commission to amend standardized national voter registration forms to require documentary proof of citizenship. The second sought to require federal agencies offering voter registration to people on public assistance to “assess” the individual’s citizenship status before doing so.

“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections. Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would affect many of the changes the President purports to order,” Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton-appointee, wrote in her order. “No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”

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Meanwhile, 25 states, including Texas, are considering some form of proof-of-citizenship legislation, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which is tracking such legislation. In total, 15 state constitutions have explicit prohibitions against non-citizen voting.

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he will pardon a former Virginia sheriff convicted of taking more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs within his department. 

In a Truth Social post, Trump said Scott Howard Jenkins, 53, of Culpeper, Virginia, was supposed to report to jail Tuesday but “instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”

Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, was convicted last year of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. He was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison.

JD VANCE SPELLS OUT WHAT TRUMP’S PROCESS TO ‘RECTIFY’ ‘UNFAIR’ JAN 6 PROSECUTIONS COULD LOOK LIKE

Former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins speaks during a gun rights rally in Richmond, Va. Jenkins has been granted a pardon by President Donald Trump after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking more than $75,000 in bribes.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In his post, Trump said the former sheriff and his wife have been “dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden” Justice Department.

“In fact, during his trial, when Sheriff Jenkins tried to offer exculpatory evidence to support himself, the Biden Judge, Robert Ballou, refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade,” Trump wrote. “As we have seen, in Federal, City, and State Courts, Radical Left or Liberal Judges allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and Rules of Evidence.”

“This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail,” he added. “He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’ This is why I, as President of the United States, see fit to end his unfair sentence, and grant Sheriff Jenkins a FULL and Unconditional Pardon.”

HOW MY JAN. 6 CLIENTS WERE ROBBED OF FAIRNESS IN DC BENCH TRIALS

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on March 24. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Federal prosecutors alleged Jenkins accepted cash bribes and bribes in the form of campaign contributions from co-defendants Rick Rahim, Fredric Gumbinner and James Metcalf, as well as at least five others, including two FBI undercover agents.

In exchange, Jenkins appointed the people paying the bribes as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law-enforcement position, and issued them official Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office badges and credentials, authorities said.

None of the payers were trained or vetted and did not render any legitimate services to the sheriff’s office, prosecutors said. 

The entrance to the Sheriff’s Office in Culpeper, Va. (Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images)

In April, Jenkins said he hoped that Trump would intervene in his case. 

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“I truly believe if I could get an hour of time with someone in the administration and lay out some facts with my attorney and I really believe if they could hear the other side which I couldn’t get in front of the jury — I believe wholeheartedly in the president,” he said during a webinar hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. “I believe if he heard the information, I know he would help if he knew my story.”