NationalWatch

Senate Republicans pushed back against a leaked report that President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran did not obliterate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, but still wanted more information on the full extent of the damage done to the key facilities.

A widely reported “low confidence” assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) suggested that the weekend strikes, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, did not completely destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

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Trump has remained firm that the sites were “totally obliterated,” and the White House has strongly pushed back against the report. And both the Israeli and Iranian governments agree that the sites were badly damaged.

Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee told Fox News Digital that they were confident in the president’s assessment and pushed back against the DIA’s findings.

“First of all, one of the things I’d consider is the DIA said that Ukraine would be wiped out in three days,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital. “And second, whatever the damage to Fordow is, the damage to the [nuclear] capabilities of Iran are devastating.”

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Cramer said that the effectiveness of the bombing, which was carried out by several B-2 bombers armed with bunker-busting bombs, could not be “overstated,” and warned that lingering questions surrounding the effectiveness of the operation were just “fodder for political discussion.”

“I think the mission was accomplished,” he said.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., had not yet read the report, but called the DIA’s finding and subsequent news reports “bogus.” Wicker’s sentiment came just after Senate Republicans met behind closed doors with Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.

“We just spoke to the Israeli ambassador to the United States just a few moments ago, and his assessment is that their capability has been destroyed for years,” Wicker said.

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Still, just how damaged the nuclear facilities are, particularly the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant buried deep under layers of rock, is a question lawmakers want answered and believe would only come from a true boots-on-the-ground assessment.

Senators are set to receive a briefing Thursday afternoon from Trump officials on the strikes, and expect to learn more about the true extent of the damage.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital that he’d seen all the evidence and there was not “an inconsistency” between the president’s assertions and the materials he had seen.

He said that the briefing would allow lawmakers “a chance from multiple sources to glean what’s actually down deep underneath,” but noted that until more clear information was available, absolute confirmation of the total damage wrought by the bombs was not complete.

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Whether another strike should be authorized should further intelligence show that the program was not fully destroyed, Rounds said, “another strike depends on what the other options would be.”

“I don’t think you ever take anything off the table for the president, but there might be other ways of handling it as well, because we’ve really opened that place up now,” he said.  

Spotlighting his accomplishments and highlighting his pushback against President Donald Trump‘s sweeping and controversial agenda, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday launched his campaign for a third term as Illinois governor.

“I’m ready for the fight ahead,” the governor said, announcing his 2026 re-election bid in the blue state. Pritzker is a billionaire and a member of the Pritzker family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain.

Pritzker said that “Illinois is standing at the center of the fight: the fight to make life more affordable, the fight to protect our freedoms, the fight for common sense.”

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Pritzker has become one of the Democratic Party’s most vocal Trump critics during the opening months of the president’s second tour in the White House.

Pointing to Trump and the Republicans who control Congress, Pritzker argued that “in Washington, all they’re offering is chaos and craziness. Their tariffs are hurting farmers and small businesses, stripping away health care from seniors and working families and proposing even bigger deficits than before, all to give big tax breaks to the wealthy.”

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“Donald Trump has made clear that he’ll stop at nothing to get his way,” the governor charged. “I’m not about to stand by and let him tear down all we’re building in Illinois.“

Pritzker, who started several of his own venture capital and investment startups before running for office, touted that “we don’t just talk about problems. In Illinois, we solve them.” In another jab at Trump, Pritzker said, “We know government ought to stand up for working families and be a force for good, not a weapon of revenge.”

In his video, the governor touted that during his two terms in office, “we’ve balanced seven straight budgets and got nine credit upgrades. We raised the minimum wage, capped the cost of insulin, banned assault weapons, protected abortion rights, and eliminated the state grocery tax, lowered prescription drug costs and added tens of thousands of jobs.”

However, the Republican Governors Association (RGA) does not see it that way.

“People are fleeing Illinois by the hundreds of thousands and Illinois families continue to suffer the consequences of JB Pritzker’s abject record of failure at home while he spends his time on a national vanity project trying to further his own political career,” RGA Rapid Response Director Kollin Crompton said in a statement to Fox News.

Crompton also charged that “opportunities for working Illinois families are in the garbage, criminal illegal immigrants are protected over law-abiding citizens, and Pritzker’s tax hikes are destroying family budgets.”

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Illinois, which is the nation’s sixth most populous state, does not have term limits for statewide officials. However, there has not been a three-term governor in the state in more than three decades, since GOP Gov. Jim Thompson won four terms as governor in the 1970s and 1980s.

Pritzker is seen as a potential contender for the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nomination – and the launch of his 2026 gubernatorial re-election campaign is not expected to derail him from potentially running for the White House.

He was a high-profile campaign surrogate in the 2024 cycle on behalf of former President Joe Biden, as well as former Vice President Kamala Harris after she replaced Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee last summer. 

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Those efforts brought Pritzker to Nevada, a general election battleground state and an early-voting Democratic presidential primary state, and New Hampshire, which for a century has held the first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

Additionally, Pritzker’s return to New Hampshire this spring to headline a major state Democratic Party fundraising dinner sparked more speculation about a possible 2028 presidential run.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, an octogenarian Democrat who represents Washington, D.C., in the House but cannot vote to pass legislation, said that she will seek re-election — but then her office walked back her comment.

NBC News’ Sahil Kapur noted in a Wednesday post on X that Norton said, “Yeah, I’m gonna run for re-election.”

But Axios reported that later, Norton spokesperson Sharon Nichols told the outlet, “No decision has been made. She wants to run but is still discussing it with people closest to her.”

The same sort of back-peddling occurred earlier this month as well: Kapur noted in a June 10 post on X that Norton said she will run. 

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But then her office walked Norton’s comment back, according to Axios, which reported that Nichols noted that Norton “wants to run again, but she’s in conversations with her family, friends and closest advisers to decide what’s best.”

The New York Times reported that in a statement after saying she would run, Norton seemed to backtrack, noting that “through thoughtful discussions with my friends, family and closest advisers, I’m still considering my options for the next election cycle.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Norton’s office on Thursday morning.

Norton, who just turned 88-years-old this month, has served as the D.C. delegate in the House since 1991. 

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“DC’s Delegate in the US House of Representatives (currently Eleanor Holmes Norton) can sit on and vote in Committees, can introduce legislation, can participate in legislative debates, but she cannot vote on bills being considered by the full House,” according to statehood.dc.gov.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth excoriated reporters at a Pentagon press briefing on Thursday, accusing them of rooting for the failure of President Donald Trump and the military’s recent strikes against Iran’s three key nuclear sites.

Hegseth addressed recent media reports citing a leaked low-confidence preliminary report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that suggested U.S. strikes against Iran likely put the country back mere months.

“You, the press, specifically you, the press corps, because you cheer against Trump so hard,” he said. “It’s like in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump because you want him not to be successful so bad. You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes. You have to hope maybe they weren’t effective.”

A DIA source previously told Fox News that the “low confidence” assessment was based on just “one day’s worth of intelligence reporting” and more intelligence has been gathered in the days since through other sources and methods.

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Hegseth accused the press of misrepresenting the facts. 

“Maybe the way the Trump administration is represented isn’t true. So let’s take half truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it,” Hegseth said of the media. “Spin it in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind, over whether or not our brave pilots were successful.”

He also criticized the media for not shining a light on the American service members who carried out the strikes on Saturday and defended Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar from Iran’s counterattack.

TRUMP THRASHES CNN AS ‘GUTLESS LOSERS’ FOR COVERAGE OF US STRIKES ON IRAN

Hegseth then chided reporters, alleging “the fake news” of acting irresponsibly with their coverage, saying “classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad.”

“What’s really happening is you’re undermining the success of incredible B-2 pilots and incredible F-35 pilots and incredible refueling and incredible air defenders who accomplished their mission, set back a nuclear program in ways that other presidents would have dreamed,” he said. “How about we celebrate that?”

Hegseth described the Iranian nuclear sites targeted in Operation Midnight Hammer were “destroyed,” “defeated,” and “obliterated” in what he called “a historically successful attack.”

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“We should celebrate it as Americans, and it gives us a chance to have peace, chance to have a deal and an opportunity to prevent a nuclear Iran, which is something President Trump talked about for 20 years,” he said. “And no other presidents had the courage to actually do so.”

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

Vice President JD Vance is leveraging the social media platform Bluesky, which is an X competitor commonly used by liberals, to troll Democrats just one week after joining the platform and subsequently becoming its most blocked user, Fox News Digital found. 

“Hello Bluesky, I’ve been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I’m thrilled to be here to engage with all of you,” Vance said in his inaugural Bluesky post June 18, before sharing a quote from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ solo concurring opinion earlier in June upholding a Tennessee law banning transgender surgeries for minors. 

“To that end, I found Justice Thomas’s concurrence on medical care for transgender youth quite illuminating. He argues that many of our so-called “experts” have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth,” Vance said. “I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids. What do you think?”

Bluesky is a social media alternative to X that is dominated by liberal voters and Democratic elected officials after they fled X following President Donald Trump‘s November 2024 victory. 

X is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who was a top Trump ally on the campaign trail and who previously oversaw the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration. 

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Vance’s first BlueSky post followed the platform mistakenly banning his account after it was flagged as a potential Vance impostor account, Fox Digital previously reported. 

“We welcome the Vice President to the conversation on Bluesky,” the company told Fox News Digital in an email response, noting, “There have been many past attempts to impersonate Vice President JD Vance on Bluesky as he is a public figure, and the jd-vance-1.bsky.social account was flagged as part of that pattern by our automated systems, and temporarily suspended.”

“The account was quickly reinstated within 20 minutes of the suspension, and we’ve also added a verified badge to help users confirm the authenticity of the profile,” the statement added.

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Vance has become the most-blocked person on Bluesky since he first joined just a week ago, according to data posted by ClearSky, which keeps tabs on social media accounts that have been blocked by fellow users. Vance’s Bluesky account has been blocked by nearly 150,000 other accounts, ClearSky data reviewed by Fox Digital Wednesday afternoon showed. 

In the week since Vance joined the platform, he has repeatedly trolled Democrats, including following New York City’s mayoral primaries, when democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani trounced top competitor and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the polls. Mamdani’s victory is viewed as the Democrat Party moving farther to the left in New York City after national voters sounded off in the 2024 election that the party’s embrace of some left-wing policies alienated Americans. 

“Congratulations to the new leader of the Democratic Party,” Vance quipped on Bluesky while tagging Mamdani.

A handful of other Republicans also took to social media Wednesday to mock Democrats for nominating the most liberal candidate in their pool of prospective mayors, including New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and the National Republican Congressional Committee, Fox Digital previously reported. 

Vance took another apparent shot at Democrats Monday, when he posted to Bluesky, “President Trump just said to Iran’s nuclear program: no way jose.”

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The message followed outrage among Democrats a few days prior on June 20, when Vance referred to Democrat California Sen. Alex Padilla as “Jose” Padilla when asked about the senator’s removal and detainment from a Department of Homeland Security press conference earlier in June to protest federal immigration raids in Los Angeles. 

“I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,” Vance said during a press conference on June 20 when asked about Padilla, calling him by the wrong first name. “I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t a theater. And that’s all it is.”

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Padilla and fellow Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, criticized Vance for using the wrong first name. 

“He knows my name,” Padilla said Saturday during an interview on MSNBC, adding, “He’s the Vice President of the United States — you’d think he’d take the situation in Los Angeles more seriously.”

Vance had only posted nine messages to his Bluesky account as of Wednesday afternoon, including messages that were also posted to his far more frequently used X account. 

“I wonder if other VPs had as much excitement as I do,” he posted to X and Bluesky on Tuesday after Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire following the U.S. ordering strikes that destroyed a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities. 

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Vance added in another Bluesky message also found on his X account Tuesday, “We are seeing a foreign policy doctrine develop that will change the country (and the world) for the better: 1) clearly define an American interest; 2) negotiate aggressively to achieve that interest; 3) use overwhelming force if necessary.”

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo, Paul Steinhauser and Marc Tomasco contributed to this report. 

Former President Bill Clinton, who backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo ahead of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, congratulated state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani following the candidate’s apparent win in the contest.

“Congratulations @ZohranKMamdani on your victory in yesterday’s primary election and a well-run campaign. I’m wishing you much success in November and beyond as you work to bring New Yorkers together to tackle the city’s challenges and shape a stronger, fairer future,” the 42nd president declared in a Wednesday post on X.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, beat Cuomo and others in round one of the ranked choice contest, unofficial results indicate. Cuomo has said that Mamdani “won.’

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Mamdani’s X account bio declares that he is “Running for Mayor to freeze the rent, make buses fast + free, and deliver free universal childcare.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has expressed support for him.

“Zohran’s inspiring campaign showed what grassroots movements can achieve when we fight for bold policies. His focus on government serving the people—not billionaires—will make life more affordable for NYC. I strongly support @ZohranKMamdani. He’ll be a fantastic mayor!” she declared in a Wednesday post.

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Mamdani noted that Warren’s support means a lot to him. 

“This means a great deal to me, @ewarren,” Mamdani said in a post responding to the senator. “Thank you for your leadership, your fight for working families, and your support.”

NEW YORK DEMOCRATS SAY MAYORAL CANDIDATE ZOHRAN MAMDANI ‘TOO EXTREME TO LEAD’

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President Donald Trump called Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court 10 years ago voted to extend the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, a landmark 5-4 ruling that changed the course of U.S. history — touching off profound changes in public opinion, as well as seismic cultural shifts. 

“No longer may this liberty be denied,” Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “The court now holds that same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry.”

The June 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges ensured same-sex couples were guaranteed the same protections and benefits as their heterosexual peers. 

However, the ruling is not without its detractors. In fact, 10 years after the high court’s decision, recent polling shows that public opinion on same-sex marriage is more divided than ever. 

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The 10-year anniversary of Obergefell also comes at a tense political moment. The White House and Congress are governed, as of January 2025, by a new conservative majority — sidelining progressives and emboldening at least some Republican lawmakers who have signaled interest in challenging the Supreme Court’s landmark decision. 

It also comes as the conservative-majority Supreme Court has taken up important cases involving LGBTQ+ eduction, gender-related care and more. 

Ten years after the court’s landmark decision, here is a look at where things stand. 

Public opinion

The nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage has made such unions more visible, increasing the number of Americans with personal connections to couples directly affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling.

In fact, the number of married, same-sex couples in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2015, according to data from the Williams Institute at UCLA’s College of Law.

In the decade since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Obergefell, public support for same-sex marriage has continued to climb, driven in large part by support from Democrat and Independent voters, though voters across all parties and demographics have seen an uptick, according to data from Gallup surveys over the past 10 years.

Nearly 7 in 10 U.S. voters, or 68% of Americans, said this year that they support same-sex marriage, according to a Gallup poll conducted last month — an 8% increase compared to the 60% majority who said the same in 2015.

Buoyed by popular support, then-President Joe Biden codified same-sex marriage protections at the federal level in 2022 by signing the Respect for Marriage Act, which required the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages performed in states where they are legal.

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While the law stops short of ordering states or territories to marry same-sex couples, it does require them to recognize the marriages as legitimate, so long as they are valid in the state which they were performed. 

However, that is not to say these actions have been without detractors. 

Increasing opposition at state and federal level

Support for same-sex marriage has dropped among Republicans in recent years, with the number of registered Republican voters who said they support same-sex marriage dropping from a 55% majority in 2021 to just 41% in 2025, according to data compiled by Gallup. 

It is unclear what exactly prompted the shift. However, at least some Republican lawmakers in state legislatures across the country have urged the high court, via symbolic resolutions, to revisit Obergefell and change the nationwide right to same-sex marriage.

In fact, state legislatures in 2024 introduced more than 500 “anti-LBGT” bills, according to the ACLU. Though few of those bills were passed, supporters of same-sex marriage fear that backlash is growing to LGBTQ+ protections — and suggesting it could be an indicator of future opposition — preempting a legal challenge to Obergefell that could, eventually, make its way back to the Supreme Court.

Court precedent, executive actions 

Recent Supreme Court decisions have yielded more speculation as to how a conservative-majority court might rule on same-sex marriage, should they decide to take up any cases challenging Obergefell. 

Justices sent shock waves through the nation in 2022 when they overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. The decision also sparked renewed fears that the high court could revisit same-sex marriage protections.

Justice Clarence Thomas, for his part, explicitly suggested the court should do so in his concurring majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case that overturned Roe, writing that the court has “a duty to ‘correct the error’ established” in Obergefell and other similar cases. 

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents … [including] Obergefell,” he added. 

President Donald Trump has declined, in large part, to weigh in publicly on the matter.

He has, however, taken action to reverse course on Biden-era actions, including signing an executive order on his first day in office declaring that the U.S. will recognize only “two sexes,” male and female, according to a copy of the text.  

Next steps 

Experts told Fox News Digital they would not be surprised to see Republican-led challenges to Obergefell, with some pointing in particular the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month in United States v. Skrmetti — another pivotal case in which justices on the high court voted 6-3 to uphold a Tennessee law banning certain medical care, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to transgender adolescents in the state.

Skrmetti was one of the most closely watched cases of the Supreme Court’s term, and advocates for LGBTQ+ organizations such as the ACLU and Lamda Legal, which argued the case in December, have cited fears that the decision could serve as a legal pretext for future cases involving LGBTQ+ protections — including whether sexual orientation qualifies as a “protected class” on par with race or national origin.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody tried to unwind marriage equality,” Ethan J. Leib, a professor at Fordham Law, told Fox News Digital in an interview following the court’s decision last week. 

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He noted that the justices who joined John Roberts in the majority opinion — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — “seemed like they did not want to decide whether trans people are a quasi-suspect classification.”

“My guess is that, if they get another case that’s really about transgender adults,” they might be willing to see the “technical differences” between them — which he said could carve out room for the justices to distinguish themselves from other conservatives on the court. 

He also noted Roberts seemingly went to great lengths to determine what counts as a sex classification, which could ultimately make it “much harder” for them to undo Obergefell in the near-term.

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At the end of the day, Leib said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tried to unwind marriage equality” and the protections provided under federal law.

“I think I’d be surprised if there were five votes for it,” he said of securing the majority votes to overturn Obergefell. “But you know, but I could, I could see a way of counting to five.” 

The Medicaid debate among Senate Republicans continues to rage on, but a new proposal geared toward sating concerns over the survivability of rural hospitals could help to close the lingering fissures within the conference.

Senate Republicans are sprinting to finish their work on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which is filled with key priorities like making his first-term tax cuts permanent, funding his immigration and border security agenda, and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse across a variety of programs.

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But lawmakers are still at odds over changes made in the Senate’s version of the bill to the Medicaid provider tax rate and the effects that it could have on rural hospitals, threatening to derail the legislation near the finish line.

A proposal making the rounds from the Senate Finance Committee obtained by Fox News Digital would create a separate stabilization fund that would go toward aiding and upgrading rural healthcare.

The committee’s proposal would allocate $3 billion annually to states that apply to the program over the next five fiscal years.

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But that amount is too low for some senators and far too much for others.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has been working on a similar proposal but would prefer a much higher fund of $100 billion. That number is unlikely to pass muster with her colleagues and still isn’t high enough for her.

“I don’t think that solves the entire problem,” she said. “The Senate cuts in Medicaid are far deeper than the House cuts and I think that’s problematic as well.”

Collins would prefer a return to the House GOP’s proposed changes to the provider tax rate, rather than the Senate’s harsher crackdown.

The Senate changes to the provider tax rate hit close to home for Collins, whose state’s rural hospitals are already in jeopardy because the state of Maine failed to advance its budget in time, leaving roughly $400 million in Medicaid funding that would have gone to rural hospitals in limbo.

“Obviously any money is helpful. But no, it is not adequate,” she said.

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Indeed, the changes to the Medicaid provider tax rate, which were a stark departure from the House GOP’s version of the bill, angered the Republicans who have warned not to make revisions to the health care program that could shut down rural hospitals and boot working Americans from their benefits.

The Senate Finance Committee went further than the House’s freeze of the provider tax rate, or the amount that state Medicaid programs pay to healthcare providers on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries, for non-Affordable Care Act expansion states and included a provision that lowers the rate in expansion states annually until it hits 3.5%.

However, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and some Senate Republicans have argued that the provider tax rate is a scam rife with fraud that actually harms rural hospitals more than it helps.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., was in the same camp, and has argued that the rate should be nixed completely. He has similarly pushed for a separate fund but wasn’t keen on the cost of the current proposal.

“I don’t know that we need $15 billion,” he said. “But this needs to be run by CMS.”

And others wanted to see more money injected into a stabilization fund.

“I think $5 billion a year would more than make them whole,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said.

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He contended that, as the only lawmaker who has run a rural hospital, there are only roughly 12 million people on Medicaid in rural America, and that lawmakers should “tighten things up” when it comes to funding the health care program.

He said that being on Medicaid was “not the same as having healthcare,” and added that “at best, two thirds of doctors accept Medicaid, and even many of the specialists, when they say they do, they won’t give you an appointment for six months or a year.”

“Medicaid is not the solution,” he said. “It’s the most broken federal system up here.” 

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told ‘Fox News @ Night’ Wednesday he believes fears over Zohran Mamdani’s win in the Democratic primary are greatly exaggerated. 

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, claimed victory in New York City’s Democratic mayor primary Tuesday after former New York governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the race. 

While the race’s outcome will still need to be decided by a ranked count on July 1, Mamdani’s far-left policy proposals have caused angst among more moderate Democrats. 

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De Blasio downplayed these fears, arguing that many of Mamdani’s proposals – such as creating free bus networks, expanding grocery stores and implementing rent control – have been tried in other cities. 

“These are not staggering ideas. If he wants to tax the wealthy, he has to get the approval of the legislature. They may or may not give it,” de Blasio said, arguing that the “wealthy” are poised to get generous tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which passed in the House last month. 

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“I just think there’s a lot of exaggeration here. And we’re not going to see people leaving in droves,” de Blasio said. “They said it would happen when I became mayor. It didn’t happen. I just don’t buy it.” 

De Blasio, who served as New York City Mayor between 2014 and 2022, argued that Mamdani’s success was due to his focus on “kitchen table issues” – something Democrats paid the price for forgetting in the 2024 election cycle. 

“Here’s someone who actually talked all day long about affordability, talked about rent. He talked about the basics of life, food, the whole thing that people are struggling to make ends meet,” de Blasio said. 

The former mayor predicted that police would not be defunded under a prospective Mamdani administration. 

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“I think in the end, he’s going to laser focus on the kinds of things that everyday New Yorkers want across the ideological spectrum here, across demographics, because this place is incredibly expensive, and working-class and middle class people are struggling to live here,” de Blasio said. 

A New York state lawmaker called out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., over her upbringing after she referred to herself as a tough “Bronx girl” during an internet spat in which she traded jabs with President Donald Trump. 

State Assemblyman Matt Slater, a Republican, called out the progressive firebrand, who represents portions of the Bronx and Queens, shared an image of her during her freshman year in suburban Yorktown High School, almost an hour north of the Bronx. 

“If you’re a BX girl then why are you in my Yorktown yearbook? Give it up already,” Tweeted Slater, who was a senior at the same school when Ocasio-Cortez was a freshman.

‘I’M JUST A SILLY GIRL’: AOC FIRES BACK AFTER TRUMP CALLS HER ‘STUPID’

Slater’s move came after Ocasio-Cortez got into a social media spat with Trump after she called for his impeachment for ordering strikes over the weekend that targeted Iranian nuclear sites. 

“When I saw the tweet making her out to be this tough Bronx girl, I’d just had enough,” Slater told Fox News Digital. “I literally just reached behind me and grabbed my yearbook, clicked the photos and said: ‘Listen, enough is enough.’” 

“You’re from Yorktown,” he said. “Let’s end this charade and come clean.”

Prior to Slater’s post, Ocasio-Cortez traded barbs with Trump via social media. 

In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump criticized the congresswoman, calling her “stupid” and “one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress.”

“When we examine her Test Scores, we will find out that she is NOT qualified for office but, nevertheless, far more qualified than Crockett, who is a seriously Low IQ individual, or Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our Country, yet the Failed Country that she comes from doesn’t have a Government, is drenched in Crime and Poverty, and is rated one of the WORST in the World, if it’s even rated at all,” Trump added.

In response, Ocasio-Cortez, who graduated from Yorktown High School in 2007, wrote a series of posts on X criticizing Trump.

AOC’S CONSTITUENTS WEIGH IN ON PRESIDENTIAL RUN, RECALL HER STUNNING 2018 POLITICAL UPSET

“Also, I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully,” she said, referring to Trump’s Queens roots and upbringing.

The constant references to the Bronx disrespect the congresswoman’s Yorktown upbringing, Slater said. 

“That fact that she continues to go on this charade, I think disrespects this town,” he said. “I think that’s part of the problem these days. People just want real leaders, and not manufactured, fake folks who feel like they have to hide their past or create this false narrative to score points or votes and get attention.”

“I went to college in New Hampshire. I don’t say I’m from New Hampshire,” he added. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Ocasio-Cortez’s office. 

Ocasio-Cortez often touts her Bronx roots despite living a good chunk of her life further north. She lived in the borough’s Parkchester planned community until she was 5 before moving to Yorktown Heights, a suburb in Westchester County, for better schools, the New York Times previously reported.

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“It is nice. Growing up, it was a good town for working people,” she said in reference to Yorktown in a 2018 tweet questioning her Bronx upbringing. “My mom scrubbed toilets so I could live here & I grew up seeing how the zip code one is born in determines much of their opportunity.”

Slater noted that candidates for public office often have to seem relatable to voters. 

“Clearly, hiding or distorting her roots was done for a very specific reason and obviously that reason was to help her get elected,” he said. “That fact that she keeps putting up this front. I just got to that point where I was like ‘enough is enough.’ If you’re not going to be honest about it then we’re going to be honest for you.”

The country is, once again, divided along partisan lines, this time over the U.S. joining Israel in military strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. 

Such was the case on Capitol Hill this week as congressional Democrats railed against the “unconstitutionality” of President Donald Trump ordering attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran, while most Republican lawmakers celebrated his bold move to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capability. 

Forty-two percent of voters support the U.S. strikes against Iran, while 51% oppose them, according to the Quinnipiac University poll, conducted between June 22-24 in the days after the U.S. strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in Iran. 

The results were split along party lines, with 81% of Republicans supporting the strikes compared to 75% of Democrats opposing them. Sixty percent of independents opposed the strikes, while 35% supported them. 

MOST REPUBLICANS SUPPORT TRUMP-ORDERED MILITARY STRIKE ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM: POLL

“No ambivalence from Republicans on the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites. By a large margin, GOP voters give full-throated support to the mission,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement. 

AMERICANS FOUND TO HAVE INCREASING APPETITE FOR ACTIVE US GLOBAL LEADERSHIP, LED BY MAGA REPUBLICANS: REPORT

Half of voters, at 50%, think the strikes would make Americans less safe, while 42% said they would make Americans safer. 

Results were once again split along party lines. Seventy-six percent of Democrats said striking Iran’s nuclear program would make Americans less safe, while 80% of Republicans said it would make Americans safer. 

According to the poll, nearly 8 in 10 voters are either very concerned, 44%, or somewhat concerned, 34%, about the U.S. getting dragged into war with Iran. Only 22% of voters are not concerned. 

“American voters, most of whom are not supportive of the country joining in the Israel-Iran conflict, are extremely troubled by the possibility that involvement could metastasize and draw the U.S. into a direct war with Iran,” pollster Malloy said. 

Forty-two percent of voters think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, while 45% say support for Israel is about right. Only 5% say the U.S. is not supportive enough. 

The percentage of voters calling the U.S. too supportive of Israel is at an all-time high since Quinnipiac University first posed the question to registered voters in January 2017. The percentage of voters calling the U.S. not supportive enough is an all-time low since then, the poll reveals. 

Half of voters, 50%, support Israel’s military strikes against nuclear and military sites inside Iran, while 40% oppose them. Eighty percent of Republicans support them, while 60% of Democrats do not. 

The Quinnipiac University Poll included 979 self-identified registered voters nationwide who were surveyed from June 22-24, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. 

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Trump announced the U.S. successfully struck Iran’s nuclear sites Saturday night. Israel had launched a series of coordinated attacks on Iran the previous week, which Iran had retaliated against, prompting the countries to exchange strikes. After the U.S. struck Iran, the Islamist country launched retaliatory attacks on a U.S. air base in Qatar. 

The president indicated a ceasefire between Israel and Iran earlier this week, touting a successful mission to hinder Iran’s nuclear sites without engaging the U.S. in an escalatory Middle East conflict. 

Kari Lake isn’t backing down.

In blunt testimony before Congress Wednesday, Lake declared the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the $950 million agency for which she is the senior advisor overseeing Voice of America (VOA), is “rotten to the core” and on track to be gutted by 2026.

“This place is rotten. It’s rotten to the core,” Lake told the House Oversight Committee. “President Trump has asked me to go in and help clean it up, and he’s also issued an executive order to reduce this agency down to its mandate, to what is mandated, statutorily required. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I don’t care if they attack me.”

She’s not acting alone. Lake provided Fox News Digital with a letter from House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., demanding records on USAGM’s foreign hires, conflicts of interest and its handling of disinformation and national security.

EXCLUSIVE: KARI LAKE SAYS VOA’S PERSIAN NEWS SERVICE ‘RISING TO THE OCCASION’ AMID IRAN-ISRAEL CONFLICT

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to say, “Why would a Republican want Democrat ‘mouthpiece,’ Voice of America (VOA), to continue? It’s a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER — No Republican should vote for its survival. KILL IT!”

Lake didn’t hold back in describing what she found within USAGM.

“It’s really like a rotten piece of fish,” she said. “And you’re looking at it, and you’re saying, ‘Is there anything we can pull out of here and eat?’ And it’s best to just scrap the whole thing and start over.”

APPEALS COURT BACKS VOA OVERHAUL KARI LAKE SAYS WILL ‘MODERNIZE’ AGENCY: ‘HUGE VICTORY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’

She argued that instead of defending American values abroad, the federally funded national and international news agency had become compromised with hostile actors potentially influencing what gets broadcast on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime.

“The [Chinese Communist Party] has more control over what we put out editorially than people who are management at the agency,” Lake said. “Are any of these VOA employees who acted on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party … still employed? It’s possible. We’re working to try to figure that out.”

She accused the grantees — including VOA, Radio Free Asia and the Open Technology Fund — of resisting oversight and stonewalling basic financial reviews.

“Nearly $400 million, the hard-earned taxpayer dollars of hard-working American people, are going to these grantees, and they’ve stonewalled us from getting any information until the eleventh hour,” Lake said. “Finally, last night, knowing I would be sitting here, they finally agreed to say, ‘Oh, we’ll let you look at our books now.’ It’s a joke what’s going on.”

Lake found no shortage of support from Republicans on the committee, including Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who said the agency should’ve been shut down years ago.

“We might as well be riding a Model T down the middle of the street. It might be … it looks good, and it brings back old memories, but, dadgum, it’s not very efficient,” Burchett said.

Lake agreed, adding, “It’s a relic.”

Democrats accused Lake of dismantling a strategic asset and repeating anti-VOA rhetoric similar to that used by China.

Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., said, “You just want to reduce it to its statutory minimum. And then you said … that it will be gone by 2026. You want it gone. The president wants it gone by 2026. … You’re a propaganda machine for the Trump administration.”

Dean said she had “no questions” for Lake, adding, “You have misled this committee. … You’ve lost your credibility. You have poured it out in buckets.”

Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, claimed layoffs would “cede all of our soft power in the world to our adversaries,” arguing, “354 million people listen to [VOA] every week.”

Lake replied bluntly, “Those are government numbers. And I don’t trust those numbers.”

Johnson shot back, “That’s a sad state of affairs when you don’t trust the government that you’re representing.”

Lake defended the cuts, saying they follow the law and common sense.

“We are doing what is statutorily required,” she said. “The statutory minimum President Trump put forth in his executive order … and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., expressed concern that cutting grantee staff could weaken U.S. influence in hot spots like Iran and North Korea. 

“We can do it with a smaller staff.,” Lake replied. “This newsroom should have been downsized a long time ago. … It’s over. Too many people were working in the newsroom, and we’ve shrunk that down.”

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She added that many grantee roles were redundant.

“Why do we need RFA to be doing a Mandarin news service when we at VOA are doing Mandarin?” Lake said.

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., closed with a comparison. iHeartMedia runs a national operation at $90 million per year. USAGM’s budget? Nearly $1 billion.

Lake’s closing message was direct.

“We can do this smarter, leaner and with loyalty to American values,” she said. 

North Central Florida U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack shared on social media Wednesday night that her office was evacuated following death threats against her, her family and her staff.

The Congresswoman alleges she has been a repeat victim of the threats following an exclusive with the Wall Street Journal in which she spoke about an expelled pregnancy in May of last year, according to a post on social media platform X.

“These threats erupted after the Wall Street Journal reported on my life-threatening ectopic pregnancy—a nonviable pregnancy with no heartbeat. Since then, we’ve recieved thousands of hate-filled messages and dozens of credible threats from pro-abortion activists, which law enforcement is actively investigating,” Rep. Cammack’s Press Office posted.

PRO-LIFE ALLY: PRO-ABORTION ASSAULT RESPONSE ‘TROUBLING’; TRUMP’S PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDING CUT ‘GREAT STEP’

Her interview with WSJ occurred shortly after the state’s abortion law went into effect and could be a possible contributor due to rumors circulating around reports that Cammack voted for Florida’s heartbeat law, something she claims is not true.

“To those spreading misinformation: I did not vote for Florida’s heartbeat law; I serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, not the Florida Legislature,” she claimed. “Let me be clear: I will not be intimidated. I won’t back down in the fight for women and families. Ensuring women have the resources and care they deserve is critical. We need real conversations about maternal healthcare in America—conversations based on truth, not fear.”

In her post, Cammack included photos displaying the types of harassment she has received.

SPATE OF HEALTH SCARES AND VIOLENT THREATS HIGHLIGHT GROWING VULNERABILITIES FOR LAWMAKERS ON CAPITOL HILL

The congresswoman said during the WSJ interview that she had an ectopic pregnancy and that after speaking with medical professionals she had initially refused to terminate her pregnancy.  She says she had fears that she would be violating state law due to the fact she was five weeks along at the time of the termination.

Although the nature of her condition was considered fatal, she was still afraid, she said, and blames pro-choice messaging.

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“It was absolute fearmongering at its worst,” she told the publication. “There will be some comments like, ‘Well, thank God we have abortion services,’ even though what I went through wasn’t an abortion.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Congresswoman Cammack’s office for comment but they have not immediately responded.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was ebullient Tuesday afternoon.

The South Dakota Republican just concluded a lengthy lunch meeting with fellow GOPers and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about the Big, Beautiful Bill.

“Good afternoon. Everybody having fun yet?” Thune asked the Congressional press corps as he approached the microphone in the Ohio Clock Corridor of the Capitol for his weekly exchange with reporters.

“Ask us around 3:45 Sunday morning,” suggested yours truly.  

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: MARATHON WEEKEND AWAITS SENATE AS JOHNSON PREPARES HOUSE FOR ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ BATTLE

If you are an insomniac…

Or don’t want to see the National Symphony Orchestra Pops perform Dolly Parton’s musical canon at the Kennedy Center…

Or you don’t have tickets to see the Savannah Bananas play at Nats Park this weekend…

The U.S. Senate may be the place for you.

Action on the Big, Beautiful Bill could happen at any time of the day or night this weekend.

The Senate is attempting to pass the Big, Beautiful Bill sometime on Saturday or Sunday. Maybe even early Monday.

Presuming Senate Republicans can pass the bill.

“If the bill is going to pass, do you expect that you at least have two or three members on your side who would vote no?” I asked Thune.

“Could be,” replied Thune.

“Why?” I countered.

“Well, we’ve got a lot of very independent thinking senators who have reasons and things that they’d like to have in this bill that would, in their view, make it stronger,” answered Thune. “Hopefully when push comes to shove and everybody has to say yes or no, we’ll get the number of votes that we need.”

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES GO TO WAR WITH SENATE OVER TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

There’s more political pushing and shoving in the U.S. Senate than there is in a line of fourth graders waiting for the water fountain after recess. And senators may advance beyond pushing and shoving to actual fighting as Republicans grouse about the bill’s contents.

It’s about the math. Senate Republicans can still lose three votes and pass the bill with a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Vance. Fox was told that the bill was in trouble if there are ten potential noes now. But if the universe of prospective nays is only five, they can probably whittle that down enough to pass the bill.

Here are the GOP senators worth keeping an eye on because of possible problems they could have with particular provisions in the legislation:

Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Mike Lee, R-Utah, John Kennedy, R-La., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, John Curtis, R-Utah and Jim Justice, R-W.V.

That’s 11. And many of those on the list could vote yes. They may hold out until the end to either score a provision in the bill they want. Or, they want to understand the final product.

“We don’t know what’s in the bill. The parliamentarian has thrown out some provisions,” said Kennedy. “Look, I’m labor. I’m not management. But I got one vote, the same as management does. And I’m willing to work nights. I’m willing to work weekends. But what I’m not willing to do is have someone pat me on the head and say ‘shut up and just vote for it.’”

Kennedy said he unearthed “a few things in this bill that we weren’t told about. And I’m not happy.”

With hat tips to boxing analysts Al Bernstein and Larry Merchant, Thune reverted to discussing the physicality of senators.

“When push comes to shove, you’re looking at whether or not you’re going to allow the perfect to become the enemy,” said Thune. “You have to recognize that this is a process whereby everybody doesn’t get everything they want.”

SENATE GOP AIMS TO APPROVE MAJOR LEGISLATION NEXT WEEK AS TRUMP TOUTS PARTY UNITY

One of the most outstanding issues remains SALT, the deduction for state and local taxes in high-tax states.

“We’ll have a solution on that in 24 to 48 hours,” said Bessent after his huddle with GOP senators.

“I know that there are a lot of conservatives who don’t like it,” said White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Fox Business. “A lot of very important people in the House, who want it as big as it can be. And, Secretary Bessent is in there working with people to find exactly the right number that’ll land the bill.”

So when does the Senate finish?

“The question of when will the Senate get it done, that’s a great question,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo. “They’ve had it for over six weeks. I’m waiting.”

The Senate will likely take a procedural vote to formally get on the bill on Friday. If the Senate votes to get on the bill, 20 hours of clock time starts to run under special Senate budget rules. The procedural vote only needs a simple majority.

The 20 hours of time is split. Democrats will probably burn all 10 of their hours. Republicans will use a few of their hours. So, the Senate probably begins its “vote-a-rama” on the bill late in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

A “vote-a-rama” is where the Senate takes hours and hours of consecutive roll call votes on amendments to the package.

It would culminate with passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill in the Senate late Saturday or early Sunday.

SENATE REPUBLICANS LOOK TO SWEETEN MEDICAID POT TO SILENCE DISSENT ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Note that it is impossible to game out when this could happen. But frankly, a final vote could come at any time of the day or night all weekend long – if not early Monday.

Also, this scenario presumes everything goes swimmingly.

The most recent vote-a-rama ran just under ten hours earlier this year. A 2021 vote-a-rama consumed 14 hours and 48 minutes, with the Senate considering a total of 40 amendments.

We believe this vote-a-rama might be on the longer end.

Here’s the other wild card:

How fast can the House pivot to pass the bill and align with the Senate?

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., signaled the House may aim to vote on Tuesday.

Also, the “72-hour rule” to allow the House to read the bill before voting does not apply. The Senate is sending back to the House an “amendment” to the original House plan. Thus, the “72-hour rule” is not in play under these circumstances.

However, the question is if Johnson faces pressure to let the bill marinate for a few days.

TRUMP PRESSURES CONGRESS TO PASS ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,’ INSISTING ‘NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE’

But some House conservatives aren’t happy with the Senate measure.

“We’re not going to get jammed on this. We’re just not,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, believes the Senate should just accept the House measure – since the House could barely pass its version in May.

“We did the hard work of threading a very tight needle with this legislation. So it does not need to come back looking too much different from what we ended up passing out of the House,” said Pfluger.

So the question is whether the Senate can pass its bill. And if the House can accept whatever the Senate passes.

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So, as I said, if you don’t have a lot to do this weekend, Capitol Hill may be the spot to be.

Especially at 3:45 Sunday morning.

In response to accusations from Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the Trump Department of Homeland Security is pushing back against an “absolutely false” media report about a pregnant immigrant who was allegedly denied prenatal care while she was detained by ICE.

The Nashville Banner reported in May that Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant in her thirties, gave birth to a stillborn baby boy mid-term “after pleading for medical help for days.”

According to the outlet, Monterroso-Lemus had a September due date but was arrested by ICE in Lenoir City, Tennessee, in April. After being arrested, Monterroso-Lemus was transferred several times to facilities in Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama and finally to the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, according to the Banner.

The outlet claims that the Richwood center has a “long history of documented abuse” and that Monterroso-Lemus’ account of her treatment while there “echoed many of those issues.” In the article, Monterroso-Lemus claims that she was malnourished while incarcerated and that rather than helping her when she voiced concerns about her pregnancy, she was mocked by the guards who gave only minimal medical intervention.

HOSPITALS IN SANCTUARY CITIES COULD BE MOST VULNERABLE TO IRAN TERROR ATTACKS, WARNS EXPERT

The outlet reported that Monterroso-Lemus was eventually given a regimen of 12 pills to take daily. A few days later, she began experiencing contractions, and days after that, she delivered a stillborn baby while at the Ochsner LSU Health – Monroe Medical Center.

Monterroso-Lemus is now residing in Guatemala, according to the outlet.

Commenting on the story, Jayapal said, “This is absolutely disgusting and we should all be outraged.”

LA POLICE UNION DEMANDS RESIGNATION OF LOCAL OFFICIAL WHO ALLEGEDLY INCITED GANGS AGAINST ICE

“A pregnant woman lost her baby after ICE refused to give her prenatal care,” said Jayapal. “She begged for help and was denied. She was fed food full of cockroaches. She was forced to sleep on the floor.”

However, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, responded to Jayapal’s post by saying her claims were “absolutely FALSE.”

According to McLaughlin, Monterroso-Lemus “had FULL medical, prenatal care.”

BORDER PATROL COULD FACE KEY RECRUITMENT CHANGE AS CONGRESS DEBATES NEXT IMMIGRATION MOVES

McLaughlin said that DHS has documentation proving her claims. The DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request to see the documentation.

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McLaughlin further stated that Monterroso-Lemus has been arrested multiple times for child abuse and is wanted on an active warrant for homicide.

Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House, also chimed in, telling Fox News Digital that “we’ll call out their bogus narratives every time.” 

“President Trump’s immigration policies are popular – it’s why the American people elected him. Democrats know the facts aren’t on their side, so they resort to lying,” said Jackson. 

Neither Jayapal nor the Nashville Banner immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint challenging laws in Minnesota that provide free and reduced in-state tuition to illegal aliens, claiming the laws are unconstitutional.

Under federal law, higher education institutions are prohibited from providing benefits to illegal aliens not offered to U.S. citizens.

According to the DOJ, Minnesota’s laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens and are in direct conflict with federal law.

“No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “The Department of Justice just won on this exact issue in Texas, and we look forward to taking this fight to Minnesota in order to protect the rights of American citizens first.”

DISCOUNTED COLLEGE TUITION FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS POLICY LEADS DOJ TO SUE KENTUCKY

By filing the lawsuit, the DOJ is demanding that Minnesota stop the enforcement of a law requiring public colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates and free tuition based on certain income circumstances to immigrants in the country illegally who maintain state residency.

Federal law prohibits higher education facilities from providing education benefits to illegal immigrants, which are not offered to U.S. citizens.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after the DOJ took actions against Texas for providing similar benefits to illegal immigrants.

DOJ SUES TEXAS FOR OFFERING IN-STATE COLLEGE TUITION TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN ALLEGED VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW

Both lawsuits have been filed in response to two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump since returning to the Oval Office in January.

The executive orders were signed to ensure illegal immigrants cannot receive taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment.

One of the orders, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” ordered all agencies to “ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.”

The other order, “Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens,” directs officials to “take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.”

TRUMP ADMIN SUES COLORADO, DENVER OVER ‘SANCTUARY LAWS,’ ALLEGED INTERFERENCE IN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

Ultimately, Texas complied with the DOJ and stopped enforcing the Texas Dream Act, which was originally introduced in February 2001.

The legislation, signed by Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, June 16, 2001, removed federal immigration status as a factor in determining eligibility to pay in-state tuition at Texas public colleges and universities for students who graduate from a Texas high school and who meet the minimum residency, academic and registration criteria.

While the state immediately stopped enforcement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has since intervened.

On Tuesday, the ACLU of Texas, alongside organizations like the Texas Civil Rights Project and Democracy Forward, filed a motion to intervene in the litigation to defend the constitutionality of the Texas Dream Act against the DOJ.

The ACLU said the DOJ’s order was agreed to by Texas without proper process and creates “sweeping uncertainty” for students and colleges.

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“As students prepare to attend school in the fall, the failure of neither the DOJ nor the attorney general to defend the Texas Dream Act threatens their ability to afford tuition – and suddenly threatens their dreams of pursuing higher education,” the ACLU said in a press release. “By moving to intervene, these groups and individuals hope to challenge this abusive litigation strategy and defend the Texas Dream Act, which has enabled a generation of Texans to grow their careers and become leaders in our communities.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office for comment on the matter.

Anthony Bernal, the former advisor to former first lady Jill Biden, is refusing to appear before the House Oversight Committee to be questioned about the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s mental decline.

Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said in a press release Tuesday that Bernal was refusing to appear on June 26 for a transcribed interview, as part of the committee’s investigation into the Biden cover-up, and also the potentially unauthorized use of autopen for executive actions and pardons.

“Now that the White House has waived executive privilege, it’s abundantly clear that Anthony Bernal – Jill Biden’s so-called ‘work husband’ – never intended to be transparent about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and the ensuing cover-up,” Comer said. “With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth. The American people deserve answers and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will not tolerate this obstruction.”

The chairman added that if Bernal does not wish to come on his own, he will issue a subpoena to compel Bernal to provide testimony before the committee.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS INCH CLOSER TO ANSWERS AS FORMER BIDEN ADVISORS LOSE EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE SHIELD

Letters obtained by Fox News Digital from a source familiar with the matter show the Trump administration will not allow the people of interest in Comer’s probe to use their past White House work as a legal shield.

Deputy Counsel to the President Gary Lawkowski sent the letters to former Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, former senior advisors Anita Dunn, Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Annie Tomasini, Bruce Reed, Ashley Williams and Bernal.

“In light of the unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the House Oversight Committee,” the letters said. “Those subjects include your assessment of former President Biden’s fitness for the office of the President and your knowledge of who exercised executive powers during his administration.”

TOP BIDEN OFFICIALS SUMMONED TO TESTIFY ABOUT ALLEGED COVER-UP OF FORMER PRESIDENT’S MENTAL FITNESS

Congressional Republicans and the White House are investigating whether the senior Biden aides in question played any role in keeping concerns about the former president’s mental acuity shielded from the public eye and even from lower-level White House staffers.

“Just yesterday, we heard from our first witness, Neera Tanden, the former Staff Secretary who controlled the Biden autopen,” Comer said Wednesday. “Ms. Tanden testified that she had minimal interaction with President Biden, despite wielding tremendous authority. She explained that to obtain approval for autopen signatures, she would send decision memos to members of the President’s inner circle and had no visibility of what occurred between sending the memo and receiving it back with approval.

“Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the President’s obvious decline,” Comer continued. “We will continue to pursue the truth for the American people.”

HOUSE GOP SECURES FOUR KEY WITNESSES IN BIDEN MENTAL-DECLINE PROBE AS FORMER AIDES AGREE TO TALK

Bernal’s team previously confirmed he would appear for a transcribed interview on June 26, 2025, according to Comer’s office. But yesterday, the White House counsel’s office notified Bernal that it was waiving executive privilege regarding the Oversight Committee’s investigation.

Bernal’s legal team then told the committee he would no longer appear for the interview.

Comer’s team said in the press release that during the last Congress, the chairman subpoenaed three key White House aides, including Bernal, who allegedly ran interference for Biden to cover up his decline.

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Despite the subpoenas, the White House under Biden allegedly obstructed the committee’s investigation by refusing to make the aides available for interviews or depositions.

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

Zohran Mamdani’s win over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo represents a victory for the new guard, progressive wing of the Democratic Party, but his record in public service could leave much to be desired by Democrats who were hoping to see someone with substantial experience, like Cuomo, win the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.

“You have to know how to make government work, and if you have no experience whatsoever in making government work, if you have never really had a job, you are a two-time assembly person who has passed three bills — most assembly people pass three bills by mistake,” Cuomo said of Mamdani’s resume while speaking to reporters before he lost Tuesday night’s primary race. “You’ve missed more days at work in two weeks than I missed in 11 years [as governor]. You’ve never dealt with the City Council; you’ve never dealt with the Congress; you’ve never dealt with Donald Trump, but now you’re going to run New York City?”

After graduating from Bowdoin College in Maine with a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies, where Mamdani helped launch the school’s first Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, his resume, which was shared with the New York Times, shows “a patchwork of jobs” Mamdani worked for before joining the state assembly.

NEW YORK DEMOCRAT SAYS MAYORAL CANDIDATE ZOHRAN MAMDANI ‘TOO EXTREME TO LEAD’

In 2014, Mamdani did a four-month stint as an organizer for the left-wing advocacy group MoveOn in Seattle. He subsequently spent two months organizing with another group out of Houston called TexPIRG, while working an ongoing tutoring gig as well.

In 2015, Mamdani began his post-grad foray into political campaign work, but it is unclear if these were paid jobs or simply volunteer opportunities. He first knocked on doors for City Council candidate Ali Najmi and also did campaign field work for Khader El-Yateem’s City Council campaign. Mamdani reportedly spent some time as a field organizer for Tiffany Caban’s District Attorney campaign around 2019 as well.

While committing time to these campaigns, Mamdani also reportedly worked as a music supervisor and “third assistant director” on a Disney film about an Indian chess prodigy that was directed by his mother, Mira Nair, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. He was also given an on-screen cameo role in the film.

“I actually created a playlist for Mira, who also happens to be my mother—you know, nepotism and hard work goes a long way,” Mamdani quipped during a radio interview in 2016, around the time of the movie’s release.

REPUBLICANS USE MAMDANI BOMBSHELL VICTORY OVER CUOMO AS AMMUNITION TO BLAST DEMOCRATS AS EXTREMISTS

At that time, Mamdani was also reportedly pursuing a rap career, going by the moniker “Mr. Cardamom” and “Young Cardamom.” One of his songs was eventually featured on his mom’s movie.

Mamdani continued his rap aspirations until at least 2017, but according to the mayoral candidate’s recent tax returns that were reviewed by the New York Post, he still rakes in a minor amount of royalties on his music. As a member of the New York state Assembly, Mamdani earned a salary of around $131,000, while his royalties amounted to around $1,200 last year, the Post found. 

Mamdani’s campaign work got more serious when he became campaign manager for Ross Barkan’s losing State Senate bid in 2018. Mamdani also spent time that year working at a foreclosure prevention community group called Chhaya, where he worked as a counselor for South Asian and Caribbean families facing potential foreclosure of their homes. Mamdani reportedly left after about a year to run for the New York State Assembly seat in Astoria, New York.  

Mamdani’s experience in the state assembly has not escaped criticism either.

FLASHBACK: NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE ZOHRAN MAMDANI VOWED TO ARREST NETANYAHU IF HE VISITED THE CITY

He reportedly missed 50% of the assembly’s votes in 2025 while focusing on his mayoral campaign, according to the New York Post. Meanwhile, during his entire three years in the New York State Assembly, Mamdani reportedly only ushered in three bills that eventually got passed into law, according to the New York Times. 

While Mamdani’s public service experience may be lacking, according to critics, he has been praised for his ability to market himself digitally across social media and other online platforms, with the New York Times dubbing him “a TikTok savant” during a profile piece they did on him in March.   

During a debate earlier this month among all the Democratic Party candidates running to be New York City’s next mayor, the candidates were asked if they had any regrets during their time working in politics. 

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“I regret not running for mayor in 2021,” State Sen. Jessica Ramos responded. “I thought I needed more experience. But turns out you just need to make good videos.”

If Mamdani wins the general election, he would be the city’s youngest leader since 1917 at 34-years-of-age. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign repeatedly for comment on this story but never received a response.

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is predicting property values in Palm Beach will “skyrocket” if Democratic socialist nominee Zohran Mamdani wins the mayor’s race in New York City this November.

Mamdani, a Ugandan immigrant and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won the Democratic Party’s nomination for New York City mayor on Tuesday night. Running a campaign in which he promised a slew of free services, Mamdani defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was highly favored to win. His victory has caused alarm among both Republicans and Democrats, with some predicting a Mamdani administration would lead to a mass exodus from America’s largest city.

“Just when you thought Palm Beach real estate couldn’t go any higher…” DeSantis said on X in response to Mamdani taking the lead over Cuomo, a quip playing off south Florida as a long-favored relocation destination for New Yorkers.

Speaking shortly before the primary election on Tuesday, DeSantis said, “if this socialist mayor candidate wins in New York City, you’re going to see real estate values skyrocket in Palm Beach because people are going to get out of that city.”

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“As bad as De Blasio was,” DeSantis went on, “this guy is going to be way, way worse.”

“He doesn’t think that we should have law enforcement in dangerous parts of the city, that you should send in social workers. See how that works out for you, it ain’t going to work out well. So, they’ve made a lot of dumb decisions, and we’ve benefited from it,” he quipped.

Florida’s Voice reported DeSantis also commenting, “if this guy gets in, we may need to up our police recruitment bonuses” because “you’re going to see a flood of people.”

DeSantis added that “when you have a candidate who wants to abolish the NYPD,” that “ain’t going to end well.”

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A look through Mamdani’s platform, available on his campaign website, lives up to his socialist affiliation and endorsements by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.  

He has promised to immediately freeze rent prices for more than 2 million New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments, implement free public transit, create a network of city-owned grocery stores that are “focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit” and institute free universal childcare for children from ages 6 weeks to 5 years.

He has also promised to create a New York City Department of Community Safety that he says will deploy outreach workers in 100 subway stations, expand gun violence prevention programs, and increase funding to “hate violence prevention programs” by 800%.

Mamdani has also pledged to champion a law to raise the minimum wage in New York City to $30 an hour by 2030.

REPUBLICANS USE MAMDANI BOMBSHELL VICTORY OVER CUOMO AS AMMUNITION TO BLAST DEMOCRATS AS EXTREMISTS

Mamdani’s website says that he plans to raise the corporate tax rate to 11.5%, which he says will bring in an extra $5 billion. He plans to further set a flat 2% tax on those earning above $1 million annually, which he believes will bring in an extra $4 billion a year in taxes. He has also said he will hire more tax auditors, end no-bid contracts and crack down on fine collection from “corrupt landlords” to raise an additional $1 billion.

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Republicans and Democrats alike have criticized Mamdani’s record. Trump has also weighed in, saying that “this is a big moment in the History of our Country” in which “the Democrats have crossed the line” with Mamdani’s nomination.

“Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous. He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart, he’s got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him.”

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian migrant who was erroneously deported to El Salvador before being returned to the U.S. earlier this month to face prosecution, was ordered to be placed into the custody of his brother should he be released from custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Abrego Garcia appeared in federal court on Wednesday after the Trump administration challenged a federal judge’s orders to release him pending criminal trial.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said Sunday that the government failed to prove its case during an arraignment hearing earlier this month that Abrego Garcia was a “serious risk” of fleeing or obstructing justice if he were to be released pending trial for the criminal charges.

“Abrego, like every person arrested on federal criminal charges, is entitled to a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial,” Judge Holmes said in her order. “The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.”

RETURNED SALVADORAN MIGRANT KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA ARRAIGNED ON FEDERAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING CHARGES IN TENNESSEE

Lawyers for the Trump administration almost immediately appealed that order. 

Regardless of the court’s order, Judge Holmes acknowledged her decision was likely little more than an “academic exercise,” as it is almost certain that Abrego Garcia will not be released.

She noted that the Trump administration previously vowed that he would be taken into ICE custody “subject to anticipated removal proceedings that are outside the jurisdiction of this Court.”

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During Wednesday’s hearing, Holmes ordered that Abrego Garcia be placed in home detention, in the custody of his brother, if he is released by ICE. If that were to happen, Abrego Garcia will be tracked using location monitoring, such as an ankle monitor.

Under the conditions of release, Abrego Garcia will not be required to pay cash bail. He also cannot violate state or federal law, must cooperate in giving DNA samples, and cannot change any of his contact information, including his telephone number.

Abrego Garcia is permitted to seek employment, must submit a passport to pretrial services, and will be limited to travel in the Middle District of Tennessee and the District of Maryland, and permission to travel must be granted ahead of time.

FEDERAL JUDGE CALLS DEPORTATION OF SALVADORAN MAN IN MARYLAND ‘WHOLLY LAWLESS’

Additionally, he is required to enroll in anger management counseling, cannot possess firearms or have them in his residence, is not allowed to use drugs without a prescription, cannot have contraband, must remain in contact with law enforcement and cannot communicate with any members of MS-13, Tren de Aragua or any other gangs.

Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. by Trump officials earlier this month. Upon return, he was immediately taken into custody for federal crimes stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. Court documents show the Justice Department filed the charges against Abrego Garcia on May 21, prompting a flurry of questions as to when the investigation and impaneling of a grand jury would have taken place.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador in March was the result of what officials acknowledged was an administrative error. Still, it kicked off a months-long court fight to secure his release and return to U.S. soil, despite a federal court order, and a Supreme Court ruling ordering the administration “facilitate” his return to the U.S., which the government eventually did after months of delay and threats from a federal judge in Maryland to pursue potential contempt proceedings.

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In many ways, his case has become a national flashpoint for President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration crackdown in his second White House term.