NationalWatch

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

–Abrego Garcia to remain in US for high-stakes ‘vindictive’ prosecution hearing

-NYC mayoral hopeful Mamdani hit with criminal referrals over alleged illegal foreign donations

-Whistleblower warns illegal immigrants are sending ‘shockwave’ through crucial industry

Schumer again blocks GOP bid to reopen government as air traffic controllers go unpaid

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked Republicans’ 13th attempt to reopen the government after having nearly a week to mull their options — and with a series of pressure-point deadlines rapidly closing in.

On the 28th day of the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., tried to advance the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) and was again foiled by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Democratic caucus.

Failure to reopen the government on Tuesday came as air traffic controllers missed their first payday. The military is set to miss its first full payday on Friday. Then there is the looming cliff for federal nutrition benefits on Saturday — the same day as open enrollment begins nationwide for Obamacare…READ MORE.
 

White House

DEBUNKED: Walz repeats debunked claim that Trump considers White House ballroom ‘top priority’

HIDDEN NUMBERS: Top Trump officials urged to close ‘critical gaps’ in illegal alien crime reporting: ‘Growing problem’

LEGAL SHOWDOWN: Trump files ‘powerhouse’ appeal in Manhattan DA case to toss ‘most politically charged prosecution’ in history

SANCTIONS THREAT: Federal judge threatens Bondi, Noem with sanctions over Abrego Garcia comments

World Stage

ROCKET MAN REDUX: Trump dangles ‘big as you get’ carrot in bid to tempt Kim and jump-start new North Korea talks

GLOBAL GAMBLE: Trump predicts ‘very happy’ outcome ahead of face-to-face with China’s Xi after tariff threats

PEACE VIA POWER: Trump rallies US military’s might, floats armed forces pay raise as he addresses sailors in Japan

Capitol Hill

BLAMING ICE: Senate Dem Dick Durbin accuses Trump admin of ‘terrorizing people in their homes’

TIME IS MONEY: Banks, credit unions urge Congress to end government shutdown as economic fallout grows

WITCH HUNT PAYBACK: House Democrats accuse Trump of trying to ‘steal’ $230M from taxpayers through DOJ

MONEY TALKS: Bombshell video surfaces of Biden aide admitting he stood to receive millions for 2024 victory

SOCIALIST VS SPEAKER: Mamdani accuses Johnson of trying to ‘distract’ as House Speaker calls Jeffries’ endorsement the end of Dems

CITIZENSHIP PROBE: House Republican demands Zohran Mamdani be stripped of citizenship, deported over ‘anti-Israel’ stance

Across America 

SCANDAL-OPOLY: LOOK: Republicans hand out ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ cards mocking Virginia AG hopeful Jay Jones’ scandals

RED TAPE: Businessman-turned-gubernatorial candidate reveals how Dem regulations destroyed his family’s company

TROUBLING DISCOVERY: Ohio uncovers over 1,000 noncitizens registered to vote, sends cases to DOJ for prosecution

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

Virginia Democrats who once championed redistricting reform are now drafting a constitutional amendment to let them redraw the state’s U.S. House district maps — a reversal critics say undermines their own 2020 push for an independent commission.

The legislature reconvened in a special session in Richmond this week, where Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas sparred with critics on X, ripped former President Donald Trump and mocked Republicans with a GIF of herself dancing to Famous Dex’s “Hoes Mad.”

Lucas, of Portsmouth, previously heralded the state’s successful Democrat-led 2020 effort to create an independent redistricting commission to draw decennial legislative maps – but claimed more recently that Trump was to blame for her change of heart.

“These pieces of enabling legislation create a complete redistricting package to work alongside the historic constitutional amendment,” Lucas said at the time, calling the original plan a populist, “equitable, transparent and bipartisan process.”

TEXAS GOP LAWMAKERS POISED TO FINALIZE TRUMP-BACKED MAP AFTER DEM REDISTRICTING WALKOUT ENDS

Critics on X locked on to her and other Democrats’ past support for the redistricting commission, with one writing that “Louise doesn’t care about democracy.”

More than two-thirds of voters approved the original commission at the ballot box, as one critic quipped that Lucas “now wants to throw all those votes in the trash.”

“No Kings (Or Queens) Amirite?” the critic quipped.

Lucas retweeted the critic, and blamed Trump for her apparent flip-flop:

“Yep, that would be correct! Did you not read my previous post? When D. Trump pushed for Texas to redistrict prior to the midterms, all of that went right out the window,” Lucas said.

“So you can bet your a– that Democrats are ready for this fight,” she said, as Gov. Glenn Youngkin repeatedly decried the maneuver as a power grab, and Virginia’s entire federal Republican delegation convened in Richmond to speak out against it.

FORMER DEMOCRATIC ADVISOR SAYS PARTY’S RHETORIC ON REDISTRICTING IS GETTING ‘A LITTLE OUT OF CONTROL’

The Democrat responded by slamming the congresspeople, posting with a GIF of CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer announcing “breaking news,” which transitioned into a grinning Lucas tossing a paper and dancing as “Hoes Mad” played in the background.

Lucas separately added that the lawmakers – Reps. Morgan Griffith of the New River Valley, Jennifer Kiggans of the Hampton Roads-Tidewater area, John McGuire of Southside Virginia, Rob Wittman of the Northern Neck and Ben Cline of the Shenandoah Valley, should be more concerned about the government remaining shut down.

She shared an image of a 10-1 Democratic map of Virginia that a data scientist created that would leave only Griffith in office if implemented – with a GIF captioned “taking notes.”

“This rank hypocrisy only serves to strengthen our position. They can join the unemployment line with the federal employees they have turned their backs on,” Lucas said.

Lucas said Republicans are “nuts” to believe Democrats will be “steamrolled.”

“Donald Trump started this mess so we will fight fire with fire.”

DEMS SUGGEST GOP REDISTRICTING HAS FORCED THEM TO PLAY PARTISAN POLITICS, REPUBLICANS ARGUE NOTHING’S CHANGED

Both Democratic groups in favor – like Blue Virginia – and some other observers had dubbed the current effort a “Scott-mander” or “Scotty-mander” – after House Speaker Don Scott, D-Norfolk and Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon.

Surovell had motioned to block the official reading of a message from Youngkin to the legislature as it reconvened, according to Virginia Mercury reporter Markus Schmidt.

Surovell reportedly called Youngkin the “most partisan” governor in state history and a man more concerned about presidential aspirations.

One Surovell critic remarked on X that notorious former Confederate officer Gov. “Extra Billy” Smith would like a word, in regard to hyper-partisanship.

Beyond Senate leadership, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger’s past support for the 2020 redistricting commission — whose maps are now under threat — resurfaced as Youngkin accused her of being “bought and paid for by the far left” after a PAC tied to Obama ally Eric Holder poured money into her campaign.

OBAMA’S ‘WINGMAN’ DUMPS $300K INTO NEW VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING FIGHT AS DEMS CALL LAWMAKERS BACK

“All it took was $150,000 from the Democrat Redistricting Committee to change her position,” Youngkin said, warning voters to support Winsome Earle-Sears as his successor.

Spanberger originally said: “Gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy and weakens the individual voices that form our electorates.”

State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Midlothian, mocked Spanberger by retweeting her original opposition to gerrymandering – adding the response: “Update?”

Back in Democratic leadership, state Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton – who co-sponsored the original commission amendment — wrote in 2018 that “citizens… need to have the ultimate say in how these lines are drawn,” and that she hoped other lawmakers would agree with the creation of the commission that is now in jeopardy.

State Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Short Pump, also previously opposed gerrymandering, saying at the time of the original commission’s founding that Virginia Democrats rightly made “fair elections part of their campaigns.”

In a 2020 column for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, VanValkenburg said that as a high school civics teacher, his own students dubbed partisan redistricting efforts “cheating with maps.”

NEWSOM-STYLE REDISTRICTING EFFORTS CRITIQUED BY CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS AS RECENTLY AS JULY, STATEMENTS SHOW

“Make no mistake, it’s on us to end this practice,” he wrote at the time. “Let’s live up to our own high standards… and pass meaningful reform now.”

Five years later, VanValkenburg offered a different take in Monday comments about the GOP delegation’s visit to Richmond in protest.

“These GOP members could be back in D.C. voting on a bill to end mid-decade redistricting to stop all states, including GOP ones,” he said.

“A bill was introduced to do just that! But they really only care about helping Trump. Not representing Virginians. Miss me with these crocodile tears.”

On the campaign trail, Republican lieutenant governor candidate John Reid slammed Democrats for calling lawmakers back to Richmond.

He also highlighted a short clip of state Del. Bonita Anthony, D-Norfolk, who offered brief honorific remarks during Monday’s session to praise a group that helps what she called “birthing people.”

Elsewhere, critics of the sudden redistricting effort shared other historical quotes warning of such politicking.

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One came from the most famous Virginia Democrat in history, President Thomas Jefferson – who once offered a premonition:

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., questioned the validity of pardons granted by former President Joe Biden after the release of a high-profile report by the House Oversight Committee.

“It sounds like a terrible novel or something, but this is reality,” Johnson said in response to the House GOP’s allegations that Biden’s inner circle conspired to hide signs of mental decline in the former president.

“And so the pardons, for example, he pardoned categories of violent criminals and turned them loose on the streets, and he didn’t even know who. He didn’t even know what the categories were, apparently, much less the individual people, that he pardoned.”

Johnson said the pardons were “invalid on their face.”

“I mean, I used to be a constitutional litigator. I would love to take this case,” he said.

The committee’s GOP majority released a 100-page report on Tuesday morning detailing findings from its months-long probe into Biden’s White House, specifically whether his inner circle covered up signs of mental decline in the ex-president, and if that alleged cover-up extended to executive actions signed via autopen without Biden’s full awareness.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., heaped doubt on whether Biden actually signed off on all of his executive actions when the autopen was used — in particular, the thousands of clemency orders he authorized during his term.

Comer said Biden’s autopen-authorized actions should be considered “void” and called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review the matter.

Asked at his press conference about whether there was a legal avenue to nullify Biden’s executive actions signed by autopen, Johnson signaled that he saw such an opportunity as it related to Biden’s pardons specifically.

“You can’t allow a president to check out and have unelected, unaccountable, faceless people making massive decisions for the country,” Johnson said.

A Biden spokesperson pushed back on the committee’s conclusions in a statement to Fox News Digital made Tuesday morning, however.

“This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency. There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no wrongdoing. Congressional Republicans should stop focusing on political retribution and instead work to end the government shutdown,” the spokesperson said.

In an interview with The New York Times in July, Biden affirmed he “made every decision” on his own.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford may be the Navy’s newest carrier, but it hasn’t shied away from conflict since its first full-length deployment in 2023.

That year, the Ford originally departed for a deployment to Europe in May, but eventually spent the tail end of it in the Eastern Mediterranean after Hamas’ initial Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Now, the Navy’s most advanced carrier finds itself at the foreground of yet another critical conflict as it heads to the Caribbean amid President Donald Trump’s crusade against drugs, which is exerting even more pressure on Venezuela.

The Trump administration has enhanced its naval assets in the Caribbean in recent months, and sent several U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers to boost its counter-narcotics efforts there starting in August. 

TRUMP TOUTS US STRIKE AS MADURO SLAMS MILITARY ‘THREAT’ OFF VENEZUELA

And on Friday, the Pentagon announced it would send the Ford from Europe to the Caribbean as operations there heat up in U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). To date, the U.S. has conducted more than a dozen strikes against alleged drug boats in the region.

The deployment signifies a massive step for the Trump administration as it claims it is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug smugglers, and brings a host of new capabilities and firepower to deter any aggression at Latin America’s doorstep. 

The Ford is the first carrier of its class, and is equipped with more than 20 brand-new technologies, and key design updates, which aim to increase air operations while also accommodating a smaller crew. The carrier’s command center for the ship is placed closer to the rear of the Ford to create more space on the flight deck, so more aircraft can be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Additionally, the carrier is outfitted with a new electromagnetic aircraft launch system, or EMALS, which is designed to offload aircraft from the ship rather than using a steam-powered catapult system, like the ones installed on every other carrier.

During its deployment to the Caribbean, the Ford likely will be conducting strike operations on land, and providing close air support for special operations troops, according to experts. While the new technologies aren’t likely a huge game changer in the Caribbean conflict, the carrier’s presence does give the U.S. military additional flexibility to conduct operations there, according to experts.

US BOLSTERS MILITARY PRESENCE IN CARIBBEAN NEAR VENEZUELA AMID TRUMP’S EFFORTS TO HALT DRUG TRAFFICKING

“I estimate the FORD will be doing strike operations against narcotics trafficking and manufacturing sites ashore as well as providing close air support to special operations troops,” Bryan Clark, director of the Hudson Institute think tank’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, said in a Monday email to Fox News Digital. 

Clark said the carrier’s new technologies will prove “helpful” during the deployment, but aren’t expected to make a “big difference” in the Caribbean. But the carrier’s presence there does indicate the U.S. is keeping a closer eye on the region, which could suggest the U.S. is more prone to work with regional governments to curb human trafficking and illegal immigration.

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

Brent Sadler, a senior fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, said that the carrier’s deployment will allow Trump additional resources to target cartels. Meanwhile, Trump routinely has said for weeks he is considering employing land operations against Venezuela, following his directed strikes at sea.

“The Ford’s arrival in SOUTHCOM area is not unprecedented but given the ongoing attacks on Cartel boats significant. I see this move as intended to deter Venezuela from escalating the crisis and providing the President extra options should he want to increase the attacks on the Cartels,” Sadler said in an email to Fox News Digital on Monday. “That said, I would anticipate the Ford’s air wing being very active in air surveillance and defense.”

Presidents have the authority to direct deployments of military assets, and both Republican and Democratic presidents have done so. For example, former President Joe Biden ordered the Ford to head to the Eastern Mediterranean after the Israel-Hamas war broke out in 2023.

US MILITARY BUILDUP IN CARIBBEAN SEES BOMBERS, MARINES AND WARSHIPS CONVERGE NEAR VENEZUELA

Even so, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns about the legality of Trump’s recent strikes. For example, Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a war powers resolution this month that would prohibit U.S. armed forces from engaging in “hostilities” against Venezuela.

“The Trump administration has made it clear they may launch military action inside Venezuela’s borders and won’t stop at boat strikes in the Caribbean,” Schiff said in an Oct. 17 statement.

However, Trump has brushed off lawmakers’ concerns about the legality of the strikes. Instead, he told reporters Oct. 14 that the alleged drug vessels are “fair game” because they are “loaded up with drugs.”

The Trump administration has sought to crack down on the flow of drugs into the U.S. and designated drug cartel groups like Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa, and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

After news broke that Trump was deploying the Ford to the region, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused Trump of “fabricating a new eternal war.”

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“They promised they would never again get involved in a war, and they are fabricating a war,” Maduro said in a national broadcast on Friday.

The Trump administration refuses to recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state, and has said he is a leader of a drug cartel instead.

FIRST ON FOX: With one week until the high-stakes Election Day in New York City, a campaign finance watchdog group, the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, filed two criminal referrals against the Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday.

A review of finance reports earlier this month revealed that Mamdani’s campaign had accepted nearly $13,000 from at least 170 donors from outside the United States, raising questions about his campaign’s financial compliance, as only U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents are permitted to contribute to American political campaigns.

“These are not isolated incidents or clerical errors,” Dan Backer, a national campaign finance expert and president of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “This was a sustained pattern of foreign money flowing into a New York City mayoral race which is a clear violation of both federal law and New York City campaign finance rules. Mamdani’s campaign was on notice for months that it was accepting illegal foreign contributions, and yet it did nothing meaningful to stop it.”

CRF sent the criminal referrals to Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday morning, citing potential violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which makes it unlawful to “accept or receive” contributions from foreign nationals in any federal, state or local election.

MAMDANI PROPOSES MASSIVE AMOUNT OF LEGAL DEFENSE FUNDING FOR IMMIGRANTS IN ‘TRUMP-PROOFING’ NYC PLAN

“The law is crystal clear that foreign nationals may not participate in American elections, and that includes making contributions. Yet Mamdani’s campaign repeatedly accepted donations from individuals abroad,” Backer added, arguing that “whether through negligence or intent, this conduct undermines the integrity of the democratic process.”

ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S $1M FUNDRAISING HAUL FUELED BY OUT-OF-STATE DONORS, DATA REVEALS

The DOJ referral calls for a criminal investigation “into potential FECA violations,” while the Manhattan referral cites “possible violations of New York Election Law § 17.152, which makes it a misdemeanor for two or more persons to conspire to promote an election by unlawful means.”

“Foreign money in American elections is not just a technical violation, it is a threat to self-government,” CRF Chairman Shaun McCutcheon said. “Every dollar illegally funneled into a campaign from abroad dilutes the voice of lawful American voters. This case must be investigated immediately, and those responsible held accountable.”

According to a Fox News Digital review of New York City Campaign Finance Board filings, Mamdani’s campaign collected roughly $13,000 from donors listing foreign addresses, including one $500 donation in January from his mother-in-law in Dubai, which was refunded four days later.

As of Oct. 14, filings revealed 91 of the foreign donations had been refunded, totaling $5,723.50.

The New York Post was the first to report on the out-of-town donations. The Mamdani campaign told the outlet last month that “we will of course return any donations that are not in compliance with CFB law.”

But CRF argued that “returning questionable donations doesn’t cure the violation.”

“CRF respectfully urges you to investigate and prosecute Mamdani’s apparent acceptance of illegal contributions from foreign nationals for his mayoral campaign,” Becker wrote in the criminal referrals.

While acknowledging that some of the donations from outside the country could be from “U.S. citizens living abroad who are legally entitled to contribute,” Becker argued that “the totality of the circumstances suggests a reasonable likelihood a substantial number of these contributions are illegal.”

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“Despite being well aware of this influx of illegal foreign contributions, it appears he did nothing throughout most of 2025 to prevent his campaign from accepting them in the first place,” Becker charged.

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

House Democrats accused President Donald Trump on Monday of attempting to use the Department of Justice to improperly pay himself for legal damages he has incurred over the past decade, and they demanded senior department officials recuse themselves from the matter.

In a public letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and senior official Stanley Woodward, House Judiciary Committee Democrats called the possible payout “a blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal” millions of dollars from taxpayers.

Trump’s interest in the payout was first reported last week by the New York Times, which said Trump began seeking what amounted to $230 million through an administrative claims process that top DOJ officials would typically need to approve. Trump filed the claims in 2023 and 2024, before he took office, according to the report.

The committee Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., warned of repercussions for paying Trump and demanded a slate of nonpublic information about Trump’s reported requests, laying the groundwork for a possible future investigation if they were to take the majority and gain subpoena power in a year.

TRUMP SUGGESTS DOJ OWES HIM MONEY FOR PAST CASES

“You could face civil liability, ethics investigations, professional discipline, and potential criminal liability for conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the lawmakers wrote.

They have been among many Democrats, and some Republicans, to scrutinize the president for potentially accepting the lump sum from a department he now runs.

Trump recently addressed the report in the Oval Office, saying “it would be awfully strange” to pay himself. Trump is reportedly seeking payments for damages incurred by the DOJ’s investigations into alleged Trump-Russia collusion and former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations.

“In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you’re paying yourself in damages?” Trump said. “But I was damaged very greatly. And any money that I would get, I would give to charity.” 

TRUMP, DEMOCRATS LOCKED IN ENDLESS CYCLES OF PAYBACK AFTER COMEY INDICTMENT AND TARGETING PRESIDENT’S ENEMIES

House Democrats countered that Trump “does not get the right to take a bribe or kickback just by promising to give the proceeds to charity.”

They also demanded Blanche and Woodward, who worked on Trump’s legal defense team during his criminal prosecutions, recuse themselves from any decisions about compensating Trump.

Asked for comment, a spokesman for committee Republicans accused the Democrats of fixating too much on Trump.

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“Democrats should focus on opening the government and paying federal workers, many of whom live in Ranking Member Raskin’s district, rather than obsessing over President Trump who clearly did nothing wrong,” committee spokesman Russell Dye said. “But sadly, their priority will always be attacking President Trump instead of paying the troops, air traffic controllers, and families who are hurting because of the Democrat shutdown.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked Republicans’ 13th attempt to reopen the government after having nearly a week to mull their options — and with a series of pressure-point deadlines rapidly closing in.

On the 28th day of the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., tried to advance the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) and was again foiled by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Democratic caucus.

Failure to reopen the government on Tuesday came as air traffic controllers missed their first payday. The military is set to miss its first full payday on Friday. Then there is the looming cliff for federal nutrition benefits on Saturday — the same day as open enrollment begins nationwide for Obamacare.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS MISS FULL PAYCHECK BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, DUFFY SAYS

In the background, Republicans are considering a series of one-off bills to pay the troops, certain federal workers, air traffic controllers and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, but whether they make it to the floor remains to be seen.

Thune threw cold water on the prospect of the piecemeal “rifle shots” coming to the floor. Republicans will discuss the bills during their closed-door lunch later Tuesday, which will be attended by Vice President JD Vance.

“There’s not a high level of interest in doing carve-outs or so-called rifle shots,” he said. “Most people recognize the way to get out of this mess is to open up the government.”

Still, lawmakers with bills that could pay portions of the federal workforce were hopeful their legislation would get a shot. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose bill would pay air traffic controllers, said, “I certainly hope so,” when asked if it would get a vote.

FLIGHT DELAYS WORSEN AS UNPAID AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS FEEL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN PAIN

And Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., whose bill to pay working federal workers and the troops was blocked last week, but could get a second wind this week.

He and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., are working at arm’s length — Johnson said they last spoke Friday — on a compromise version of the bill, but he wasn’t hopeful that it would see the light of day despite agreeing to concessions demanded by Democrats.

“I want to make this permanent. Let’s stop, again, let’s take the ability to punish federal employees because of our dysfunction away forever. We’ll add furlough employees, and we’re not changing anything in terms of the president’s authority — that would be adjudicated in the court,” Johnson said. “So the question is, will they take ‘yes’ for an answer?”

FEDERAL WORKERS BRACE FOR MISSED PAYCHECK AS SHUTDOWN ENTERS 5TH WEEK

Schumer railed against Republicans ahead of the vote, and blamed President Donald Trump for being overseas this week as a reason that no forward progress was being made on reopening the government.

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He also went after Thune for again bringing the same bill to the floor and reiterated that Democrats’ position, which is to get an ironclad deal to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies, hadn’t changed.

“It’s a partisan bill and does nothing, most importantly, does nothing to solve the [Obamacare] crisis,” Schumer said. “Just now, here on the floor, the Republican leaders seemed perplexed about what precisely it is that Democrats are pushing for. He knows damn well what Democrats want. It’s the very same thing that a vast majority of Americans want, including nearly 60% of MAGA voters. We want lower healthcare costs now.”

FIRST ON FOX: As Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones faces mounting backlash over multiple scandals, Republicans are handing out Monopoly-style cards to voters mocking the Democrat’s controversies.

Fox News Digital obtained images of the cards from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), which first distributed them during its “Hit the Road, Jay” media tour in Roanoke and the neighboring Shenandoah Valley.

Four cards, designed to resemble those in Charles B. Darrow’s famous board game based off Atlantic City real estate, include images of Jones taking the place of “Uncle Pennybags.”

“RAGA is spotlighting that it’s rules for Jay, but not for thee, whether it’s zero accountability for murderous text messages or zero punishment for crimes that land most Virginians behind bars,” RAGA executive director Adam Piper told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

MIYARES DEMANDS JONES’ OUSTER AFTER COURT DOC INDICATES RECKLESS DRIVING CASE UNDER FURTHER CRIMINAL PROBE

Some of the cards included an orange “Chance” card reading “Rules for Jay but not for thee” – “Community service for political gain” – “Paid by law firm for community service” – “Now under criminal investigation for fraud.“

That card references criticism of Jones having filed 1,000 hours of community service with his own political action committee and the NAACP following a 116-mph reckless driving arrest.

Critics have suggested there is more to the sworn affirmation of those service hours as the second county prosecutor in a week filed a recusal request from the otherwise murky ongoing investigation.

JAY JONES’ ‘TWO BULLETS’ SCANDAL OVER VIOLENT TEXTS EXPECTED TO DOMINATE VIRGINIA AG DEBATE

A Fox News Digital freedom of information request for New Kent County seeking communications and records between the signatories of those sworn hours and the county itself remains outstanding.

Two other cards – one in “Community Chest” yellow and the other in “Chance” orange — mimic the well-known “Get out of jail free” card but featuring Jones’ face instead of Pennybags.

A fourth card modeled off of Monopoly’s “Community Chest” selections includes a recounting of the substance of Jones’ scandalous texts that came to light earlier this month:

“Jay Jones believes: [checkmark] political opponents should die, [checkmark] political opponents’ kids should die, [checkmark] cops should die.”

“No wonder Jay Jones voted for no-cash bail.”

LIBERAL MEDIA DOWNPLAYS SCANDAL OF DEM VIRGINIA AG HOPEFUL JAY JONES’ TEXTS FANTASIZING MURDER OF GOP LAWMAKER

A RAGA official told Fox News Digital that the cards continue to be distributed among many of Virginia’s county and independent-city Republican Party offices to share with the public.

A moving billboard featuring the card images was also dispatched to roam around the capital city of Richmond this week.

That timing coincides with Virginia Democrats reconvening a special session that never officially closed earlier this term in order to ram through a constitutional amendment that would allow them to redraw congressional district boundaries.

JAY JONES INVOKES TRUMP NEARLY 50 TIMES DURING VIRGINIA AG DEBATE, TIES MIYARES TO ‘MAGA’

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is running for governor and currently presides over the otherwise Democratic-majority state Senate, condemned the move and called it a ploy to try to pull her off the campaign trail.

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She is expected to hold a campaign rally with Gov. Glenn Youngkin near South Boston, Va., later Tuesday.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jones’ campaign for comment.

New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani accused House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday of seeking to “distract” Americans from Republicans’ “lack of results” by lambasting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for endorsing the democratic socialist’s progressive campaign platform. 

During Johnson’s daily press conference on the 27th day of the government shutdown, the House GOP leader ripped Jeffries for endorsing Mamdani’s mayoral campaign on Friday, calling it the “clearest sign yet that this radical insurgent movement in the Democrat Party is succeeding.”

“Speaker Johnson should be sitting members of Congress, as opposed to using his time to try and attack our campaign,” Mamdani fired back from Manhattan on Monday. “But I understand if I was one of the leaders of the Republican Party that had led a campaign that promised Americans a lower cost of living and cheaper groceries, and all I could deliver for them was a government shutdown, then I, too, would be looking to distract in any way that I could from those lack of results.”

After withholding his endorsement for months, Jeffries, who represents Brooklyn in the U.S. House of Representatives, on Friday affirmed his support for the Democratic mayoral nominee, applauding Mamdani’s focus on “addressing the affordability crisis” and representing all New Yorkers.

CLINTON CAMPAIGN ALUM URGES JEFFRIES, SCHUMER NOT TO ‘TAKE THE BAIT,’ GET ‘BULLIED’ INTO MAMDANI ENDORSEMENT

“I endorse the Democratic ticket,” Jeffries said.

Johnson told reporters on Monday that Jeffries’ endorsement represents the end of “what has always been known as the Democrat Party in America.”

ZOHRAN MAMDANI LANDS LONG-WAITED KEY ENDORSEMENT IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL RACE

“After a months-long pressure campaign from the far left, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries finally relented. He gave in, and he gave his endorsement to the socialist running to be mayor of New York City. The House Democrats, they’ve shown the world what they really believe. There is no longer a place for centrists and moderates in their party,” Johnson added.

“He is a Marxist,” Johnson claimed, while criticizing his record.

“Zohran Mamdani is expected to take the helm of one of the most important cities in the world and the largest city in America, and he now has the full blessing of the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives. It is shocking, and that leader and all the other Democrats are going to co-own the consequences of what they do to America’s largest city.”

Johnson urged reporters to question House Democrats about whether they agree with Jeffries’ endorsement of the “Marxist agenda.”

“What we’re witnessing is truly the end of the Democratic Party, as we’ve known it,” Johnson warned.

And Johnson charged Democrats, once again on Monday, of bending the knee to the “Marxists in their party.”

“Just like they decided to save their own skin that they had to endorse the Marxist Mamdani in an unprecedented move, they have also decided they had to shut down the government in an unprecedented move, no matter the pain it inflicts upon hard-working American people,” Johnson added.

Democrats have said they would not accept any federal funding bill that does not also include an extension of Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic — but which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Republicans’ plan, a short-term extension of FY2025 federal funding called a continuing resolution (CR), passed the House on Sept. 19 but has since stalled in the Senate.

The GOP has relentlessly blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for shutting down the government to appease the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, as Mamdani maintains the lead in New York City’s mayoral race and buzz swirls regarding Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s political ambition.

Republicans have accused Democrats of holding Americans and the government hostage over partisan demands, while Democrats warned that the GOP would be responsible for hiking healthcare costs for millions of Americans if the enhanced COVID-era subsidies are allowed to expire.

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While Jeffries finally endorsed Mamdani on Friday, Schumer has yet to endorse the democratic socialist candidate. 

As Axios reported last month that Ocasio-Cortez is gearing up to run for Schumer’s Senate seat or for president in 2028, prompting Republicans to accuse Schumer of maintaining a red line on continuing resolution (CR) negotiations in order to appease his party’s progressive wing.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jeffries and Johnson for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

A federal judge in Tennessee is threatening Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and other Department of Justice and DHS employees with sanctions if they make any prejudicial statements about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s criminal case.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who is overseeing the case, wrote in a filing Monday that, “DOJ and DHS employees who fail to comply with the requirement to refrain from making any statement that ‘will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing’ this criminal prosecution may be subject to sanctions.”

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national deported earlier this year before being returned to the U.S., is facing federal charges of human smuggling and conspiracy. Bondi has described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips transporting women, children and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the U.S.

“The high-profile nature of his immigration case resulted in government officials and those supportive of Abrego regularly commenting to the media. Now that he has been indicted in this District, Abrego asks the Court to freeze extra-judicial comments to ensure his Constitutional right to an impartial jury,” Crenshaw wrote in a memorandum opinion.

TOP TRUMP OFFICIALS SUBPOENAED IN ABREGO GARCIA HEARING FOR ‘VINDICTIVE’ PROSECUTION

In that filing, the judge wrote, “Media attention about Abrego started in March 2025 when the United States sent him to El Salvador, months before his indictment in the Middle District of Tennessee.”

“Government employees have made extrajudicial statements that are troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate. These statements made allegations regarding Abrego’s ‘character or reputation’ and expressed government officials’ views on Abrego’s ‘guilt or innocence,’” the judge said.

DOJ SIGNALS IT WOULD RATHER DEPORT ABREGO GARCIA THAN PROSECUTE HIM

The judge continued, “For example, the DHS Secretary stated that Abrego is a ‘MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator’… Similarly, on June 6, 2025, the Attorney General stated that Abrego played ‘a significant role in an alien smuggling ring … [that] this was his full-time job, not a contractor … [that] [h]e was a smuggler of humans and children and women … [and that] [h]e made over 100 trips.’”

Crenshaw also declared the Trump Cabinet members were in violation of a local court rule limiting remarks from government officials relating to an active criminal case, although he stopped short of issuing a gag order, according to Politico.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Justice Department and Homeland Security for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: Following several high-profile, deadly auto accidents involving illegal alien truck drivers, a commercial trucking industry leader is blowing the whistle on the devastating “shockwave” illegal drivers carrying sanctuary state licenses have had on the industry.

Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, which is based in Illinois, told Fox News Digital that in addition to endangering American roads, illegal alien commercial drivers have been “killing the trucking business.”

He said that though the problem has only recently been brought to the forefront of the public consciousness in recent months, drivers and trucking businesses have been feeling the impacts for years.

“We knew there was an issue right after COVID because the rates dropped down, and we just thought, ‘Okay, look, it’s just inflation … the wars, etcetera, all these aspects causing the volumes to be down. We’re thinking, ‘Okay. In the long run, these volumes will go back up to what they were pre-COVID conditions or just go back to regular volumes, and we’ll be back in business.’ But what happened? The complete opposite happened,” he said. “They went down and stayed down, and we never knew, as truckers, what was the problem.”

WHITE HOUSE SAYS CALIFORNIA GRANTED LICENSE TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER CHARGED IN FATAL DUI CRASH

Now, with recent revelations from the Trump Department of Transportation and Secretary Sean Duffy about rampant illegal alien truckers on American roads, Kucharski said the truth is finally out.

Duffy issued a bombshell report on Thursday accusing California of violating federal law by issuing a commercial driver’s license to a foreign asylum seeker whose semi-truck crash killed three people last week.

The report alleges that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration ignored a federal order to halt noncompliant licenses and revoke improperly issued credentials, a failure that, according to Duffy, cost “three innocent souls.”

Federal regulators uncovered flaws in how California licenses were obtained by certain commercial truck drivers. The 2025 Annual Program Review and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) concluded that the state’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) system suffered from “systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors” when it came to handling non-domiciled licenses.

In an audit letter dated Sept. 26, 2025, investigators also discovered that California had issued CDLs to non-domiciled drivers that were valid even after their federal work authorization expired.

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

Kucharski explained further that, though a heavily regulated industry, illegal alien truck drivers can exploit a “loophole” in the system by obtaining non-domiciled commercial drivers’ licenses from states such as California and New York. They are then able to outcompete legitimate trucking businesses by charging lower prices, leading to the demise of many American small businesses in the industry.

“As a business owner, I was thinking, ‘Well, who is taking all these loads?’ Now I could figure it out that this is another shockwave that’s hitting the truck industry after COVID and violent volatility, these [non-domiciled] drivers are coming in and doing it for cheaper because they don’t care, and … they don’t have social security numbers, and I assume they’re probably not filing for taxes. So, if you’re not going to pay all your bills, of course, you can do it cheaper and keep on trucking.”

“All our truckers are fighting for the same load, and it goes to the lowest bidder,” he went on. “If you have these drivers coming in that are non-domiciled, they have no family here, they have no home, they live in their truck … They’re saying, ‘Okay, look, all the market’s doing for $2,000, we’ll do it for $1,700.’ So, it’s putting small trucking businesses out of business every day.”

“We’re over-regulated, honestly, in the trucking industry. And if you’re overregulated, you think, ‘Well, there’s no way that this could happen, and it is happening, right now as we speak,” he said. “It’s eye-opening, disturbing and jaw-dropping.”

Kucharski called on Duffy as well as other industry leaders to take action.

Along with the report last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency interim final rule that tightened standards for non-domiciled CDLs nationwide. In the rule, stipulations changed and limited eligibility to applicants holding certain employment-based visas. It requires every state to verify their legal status through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.

Under the new rule, any non-domiciled commercial learner’s permit or CDL must expire no later than the end date on the driver’s federal immigration record or after one year, whichever comes first. It also maintains that states must keep proof of their lawful presence on file for at least two years.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCK DRIVER IN FATAL CALIFORNIA CRASH SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAD LICENSE: DOT REPORT

In response to Kucharski’s criticisms, a spokesperson for Newsom told Fox News Digital that “California continues to follow federal rules regarding CDLs.”

“Lost in the immigrant-bashing is the fact that drivers holding a California-issued CDL are involved in fatal crashes at a rate far lower than the national average.  If the focus were on safety, California should be a poster child, not a scapegoat,” the spokesperson said.

“Consistent with federal law, California issued commercial driver’s licenses only to drivers if the federal government confirmed their legal presence,” the spokesperson went on, adding, “The Trump administration didn’t like these federal rules and just recently changed them to restrict refugees, DACA holders, and others from being able to apply for a CDL.”

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“This is a very serious crisis issue,” Kucharski said. “The trucking industry depends on trust. That means ensuring every driver on the road is properly licensed, well-trained, and mentally and physically fit to operate heavy equipment.”

“All I can say is strategies like this remind us that reform isn’t just about policies, [its] about human lives. And it’s on all of us, from the regulators to the fleet owners, to the driver trainers, to ensure the system works the way it should.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to Hochul’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Christina Shaw contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and Iraq War veteran Jennifer-Ruth Green says she’s “ready to finish the mission” as she launches a second Republican congressional bid in northwest Indiana for a seat long held by Democrats.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Green said in a campaign launch video shared first with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, as she jumped into the U.S. House race in Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, which is represented by three-term Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan.

Green, who came within five points of defeating Mrvan in the 2022 midterm elections, says her rematch in Indiana could be crucial in deciding if the GOP keeps control of its fragile House majority next year.

“When we fire Frank Mrvan and take back northwest Indiana for the first time since 1928, Republicans will keep the House and stop radical Democrats from impeaching President Trump,” Green emphasized in her video.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM INDIANA

And in an interview with Fox News Digital, she added, “I firmly believe that the control of the House might just come down to Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, and I want to be on the team to make sure we can have a credible agenda to support President Trump.”

Green launched her campaign the day after Republican Gov. Mike Braun called state lawmakers back for a special legislative session to redraw the GOP-dominated state’s congressional districts.

It’s part of a broad Republican effort orchestrated by President Donald Trump and his political team to pad the GOP House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats. Democrats need a pickup of just three seats to win back control of the House.

FIVE KEY RACES TO WATCH IN THE 2025 ELECTIONS

Trump is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections. Democrats, fighting back, aim to blunt the GOP effort by pushing redistricting in blue-leaning states.

Republicans currently control seven of Indiana’s nine congressional districts, and any new map passed by the state’s GOP super majority in the legislature would likely shift the 1st Congressional District from blue-leaning to a red-leaning seat.

“We believe Indiana’s First District… will become much more Republican,” a memo from the Green campaign states.

And Green, in her Fox News Digital interview, argued, “I am in support of redistricting. I really believe that it’s time for us to fight fire with fire, and we’ve seen how Democrats around the country have taken this opportunity … in their states to gerrymander.

Green, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, joined the Air Force. A 2005 Air Force Academy graduate, she began her military career in aviation before transitioning to serve as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and deploying to Baghdad during the Iraq War.

She’s currently a lieutenant colonel in the Indiana Air National Guard and “as Indiana’s first secretary of public safety, I supported our first responders and helped the Trump administration remove dangerous illegal immigrants from our streets.”

She also founded a faith-based nonprofit to “help at-risk youth through aerospace training.”

Green, who outraised Mrvan in her 2022 campaign, is the only major Republican candidate to jump into the 2026 race. Pointing to her fundraising prowess, her campaign memo touts that Green “is the only candidate Republicans can put forward in this race to raise the money needed to win a hard-fought battle for this seat.”

“When we fire Frank Mrvan and take back northwest Indiana for the first time since 1928, Republicans will keep the House,” Green said in her campaign video.

And she pledged, if elected to Congress, to “stand shoulder to shoulder with our president to rebuild American manufacturing for middle class jobs, fight for bigger paychecks and lower prices, support our farmers and rural communities, secure the border and deport violent, illegal immigrants, back the blue, and defend the right to life and the Second Amendment.”

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Green, in her Fox News Digital interview, praised Trump, saying, “I believe that he’s doing a great job. He is taking care of our country, leading it in the right direction.”

Asked if she would like the president’s help on the campaign trail, she said, “I look forward to bringing him out to northwest Indiana if he would come.”

FIRST ON FOX: Dozens of parental rights organizations have signed onto a letter sent to all 50 states calling for top-to-bottom statewide audits of education laws and policies warning that DEI, poor hiring practices, and discrimination based on sex and gender continues to be prevalent in K-12 schools nationwide. 

The letter, sent by Defending Education along with over 20 other parental rights in education groups, urges leaders in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., to repeal or revise any provisions that allow race or sex-based preferences in hiring and programming, violate titles VI, VII, or IX of the Civil Rights Act or Equal Protection Clause, and undermine student safety with poor vetting in hiring practices. 

“It has become common practice for states to violate federal law in the name of diversity,” Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital. 

“With so many ideological bullies in state government and in our schools, cowardice and ignorance have ruled the day for far too long. State laws, regulations and practices that promote (and even require) race and sex-based discrimination must be exposed and eliminated. It’s time that every state cleans up the mess they’ve made in the name of DEI.”

BOMBSHELL REPORT EXPOSES ‘DEEPLY CONCERNING’ MIDWEST UNIVERSITY INITIATIVE PUSHING FAR-LEFT K-12 LESSON PLANS

Teacher vetting is a top concern voiced in the letter, specifically the resignation of Des Moines, Iowa, Superintendent Ian Roberts after he was detained last month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a brief car chase. He was taken into custody because he had “a final order of removal and no work authorization,” authorities said at the time.

Roberts entered the United States illegally from Guyana and was not legally authorized to work in the U.S. after his employment authorization card expired in 2020.

Homeland Security officials said that Roberts faced weapon possession charges from Feb. 5, 2020, and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in May 2024. After his arrest, authorities said they found a loaded handgun in his vehicle.

Additionally, numerous examples of teachers being accused of sexually abusing children have been reported in recent years. The letter states that “a public school employee who sexually abuses children is, on average, passed to three school districts and can abuse up to 73 children before they are fired or face legal consequences.”

“Collective bargaining agreements negotiated between teacher unions and school districts are a key contributor to the problem, as they often allow for scrubbing of personnel files, so no record of abuse is left once an offender leaves the system,” the letter says. “This widespread lack of transparency in educational employment is staggering and unacceptable.”

NEW K-12 SCHOOL FOCUSES ON PROMOTING AMERICAN PRINCIPLES, ELIMINATING ‘WOKE IDEOLOGY’

Some of the groups signed onto the letter include School Boards for Academic Excellence, Parents Unite, Protective Parent Coalition, Conservative Ladies of America, Awake Illinois, Power2Parent, and Californians for Equal Rights Foundation. 

The Trump administration has taken efforts to roll back DEI practices across the board, including with an executive order combating the practice in the federal government, in the military, and in schools.

As a result, Fox News Digital has reported on several examples of companies and schools failing to eliminate their DEI programs, but instead rebranding them using different terminology and moving DEI employees to other departments.

“It is the exact same toxic nonsense under a new wrapper, and they’re just hoping to extend the grift, because a lot of these people, I would say most of the people, working in DEI are useless,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild told Fox News Digital earlier this year.

“At first, they just pushed back on, tried to defend DEI itself, but when that became so obvious that what DEI really was was anti-White, anti-Asian, sometimes anti-Jewish discrimination in hiring and promotion, they abandoned that. Now what they’re trying to do is simply change the terminology that has become so toxic to their brand. So we’re seeing a lot of companies move from having departments of DEI, for example, to ‘departments of belonging’ or ‘departments of inclusivity.’”

CRITICS SAY K-12 ETHNIC STUDIES PUSH TEACHING STUDENTS ABOUT CISHETERONORMATIVITY, BLACK PANTHER PARTY

Additionally, Defending Education warns that many current state laws are not in line with federal guidance.

Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital, “Our assessment of state education laws coast-to-coast reveals a troubling reality: many state laws are at odds with federal anti-discrimination provisions and are going to invite federal scrutiny. State laws like those in Iowa, Illinois, and Maine demand race and sex-based preferencing in everything from programs to sports, scholarships to employment.”

“The Civil Rights Act’s mandates of equality in educational programs aren’t being realized in too many American classrooms, and the duty to secure those promises lies with the state leaders tasked with passing and enforcing state laws. It’s time for states to clean house — because at bottom, education is, and always has been, a state proposition.”  

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Over the last several years, a few dozen DEI consultant groups have racked up over a hundred million dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts from K-12 schools across the country, according to a report from Defending Education earlier this year, first reported by Fox News Digital.

In total, the groups collected over $123 million from public schools in 40 states. The report found public school DEI contracts in both red and blue states, from Florida and Alabama to California and Washington.

“Public education is a state responsibility,” Defending Education wrote in a press release, along with links to the letters sent to each individual state. 

“Yet every state that accepts federal funds must follow federal civil rights law. Too many states are out of compliance, whether through race-based hiring and programming, restroom/locker room and athletic policies that violate sex equality or the scrubbing of personnel records that allow predators to move between schools undetected. Our organizations are calling for ‘legal housekeeping’ to ensure that schools operate lawfully, transparently, and in the best interests of students and families.”

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is demanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) conduct a “comprehensive” investigation into former President Joe Biden’s autopen use.

The committee’s GOP majority released a 100-page report on Tuesday morning detailing findings from its months-long probe into Biden’s White House, specifically whether his inner circle covered up signs of mental decline in the ex-president, and if that alleged cover-up extended to executive actions signed via autopen without Biden’s full awareness.

“Faced with the cognitive decline of President Joe Biden, White House aides — at the direction of the inner circle — hid the truth about the former president’s condition and fitness for office,” the report said.

The report also detailed a “haphazard documentation process” for pardons made by Biden, which the committee argued left room for doubt over whether the former president made those decisions himself.

RON KLAIN DODGES REPORTERS AFTER MARATHON GRILLING IN BIDEN COVER-UP PROBE

“In the absence of sufficient contemporaneous documentation indicating that cognitively deteriorating President Biden himself made a given executive decision, such decisions do not carry the force of law and should be considered void,” the GOP report said.

“The Department of Justice should immediately conduct a review of all executive actions taken by President Biden between January 20, 2021, and January 19, 2025. Given the patterns and findings detailed herein, this review should focus particularly on all acts of clemency. However, it should also include all other types of executive actions.”

In addition to concerns about who signed off on Biden’s executive actions, Comer spent part of the report raising concerns about Hunter Biden’s role in the pardon process.

Fox News Digital previously reported that ex-Biden Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told investigators that Hunter Biden was in the room for some pardon discussions — specifically the controversial preemptive pardons the ex-president gave to his relatives.

“It was towards the end,” said a portion of Zients’ transcript included in the report. “What comes to mind is the family discussions. But I don’t know — that doesn’t mean that was it. It was the pardons towards the end, very end of the administration. And I think it was a few meetings, not many meetings.”

Comer’s report said, “Zients testified that President Biden included his son, Hunter Biden, in the decision-making process for and meetings about pardons.”

“This apparently included the meeting to discuss the pardons of five Biden family members, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the members of Congress who served on the Select Subcommittee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol, and their staff,” the report said.

The Oversight Committee called a total of 14 witnesses across three months, mainly consisting of top Biden administration aides — including some who had known him for decades.

Despite nearly 47 hours of interviews and sworn depositions, however, Comer suggested he believed aides covered for Biden even in the committee room.

LONGTIME BIDEN AIDE SAYS HE STOOD TO EARN UP TO $8M HAD PRESIDENT WON RE-ELECTION

“Throughout the Committee’s investigation, senior Biden White House aides presented a perspective of President Biden’s cognitive health completely disconnected from that of the American public,” the report said.

“Not one of the Committee’s 14 witnesses was willing to admit that they ever had a concern about President Biden being in cognitive decline. In fact, numerous witnesses could not recall having a single conversation about President Biden’s cognitive health with anyone inside or outside of the White House.”

Comer spent a significant amount of time in the report criticizing former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor. O’Connor’s sworn deposition was among the shortest sit-downs of the investigation, with the doctor having invoked the Fifth Amendment for all questions save for his name.

In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital alongside the report, Comer called for the D.C. Health Board of Medicine to investigate O’Connor — and potentially bar him from practicing medicine.

The GOP report called O’Connor’s alleged decision to not conduct a cognitive exam with Biden during his four-year term “reckless” and accused him of making “grossly misleading medical assessments.”

“His refusal to answer questions about the execution of his duties as physician to the president — combined with testimony indicating that Dr. O’Connor may have succumbed to political pressure from the inner circle, influencing his medical decisions and aiding in the cover-up — legitimizes the public’s concerns that Dr. O’Connor was not forthright in carrying out his ultimate duties to the country,” the report said.

“The Committee recommends that the District of Columbia Board of Medicine review the actions taken by Dr. O’Connor while serving as the White House physician to President Biden for any potential wrongdoing in the medical care of the former president –– including whether Dr. O’Connor produced false or misleading medical reports to the American people.”

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O’Connor’s lawyers previously told Fox News Digital that he invoked the Fifth Amendment over concerns that the scope of the committee’s probe could run afoul of doctor-patient confidentiality standards.

Biden’s allies have repeatedly denounced Comer’s probe as political and having no basis in reality. 

Multiple people who spoke with the committee have argued that concerns about Biden’s mental acuity were made worse by the media and Republican pundits, particularly after his disastrous June 2024 debate against current President Donald Trump.

In an interview with The New York Times in July, Biden affirmed he “made every decision” on his own.

The U.S. Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missile would put Moscow well within target range if President Donald Trump were to fulfill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request.

The Tomahawk has long been one of the most recognizable weapons in America’s arsenal. At $2 million per missile and $6 million per launcher, it can strike up to 1,500 miles into enemy territory.

If the United States were to authorize Ukraine to use it, it would mark a dramatic escalation in both capability and psychology. For the first time, Russian forces and strategic sites far beyond the front lines — including inside Russian territory — would fall within reach of a Western-supplied, precision long-range weapon that Moscow has no reliable defense against.

Unlike the shorter-range Storm Shadow or ATACMS systems already used by Kyiv, the Tomahawk would give Ukraine the ability to strike targets hundreds of miles inside Russia — air bases, ammunition depots, logistics hubs and naval assets supporting the war in Ukraine. That reach would instantly change the strategic balance.

TRUMP MULLS TOMAHAWK DELIVERIES TO UKRAINE IF RUSSIA KEEPS WAR GOING

Critically, it would give Ukraine the ability to hit at Russia’s energy industry, which, through exports to nations like China, Iran and India, funds the war effort.

Ukraine has used ATACMS systems to strike behind enemy lines in Russian-occupied Ukraine and near Russia’s borders — helicopter shelters, ammunition depots and runways. But even as missiles regularly rain down on Kyiv, its defense forces have not been able to respond in kind to Moscow, leaving the Kremlin hub unscathed and largely secure after three and a half years of war.

Recently, Ukraine used U.K.-made Storm Shadow missiles to strike a gun depot in Russia. The U.S. supplies targeting data for the Storm Shadow, and The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration had lifted a ban on using the missiles to strike inside Russia.

“Transferring Tomahawks to Ukraine would mark a major inflection point for Western support of Ukraine,” Hudson Institute defense analyst Can Kasapoglu wrote in a recent essay. “The Tomahawk is one of the most effective missiles in the arsenals of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations.”

Kasapoglu noted that the Tomahawk’s strategic appeal “lies less in its raw explosive yield and more in its precision.”

For Moscow, the implications would be profound. Russia’s military doctrine has long depended on the assumption that its homeland infrastructure — especially command and logistics networks — would remain beyond direct threat from Western-supplied weapons. The introduction of Tomahawks into Ukrainian hands would destroy that assumption overnight.

The missile’s ability to fly low and evade radar would make it extremely difficult for Russian defenses to stop. Even advanced systems like the S-400 or S-500, already stretched across multiple fronts, could not guarantee interception. Each missile launched would carry not only destructive power but psychological weight — forcing Russia to divert resources away from its offensive operations in Ukraine to protect bases hundreds of miles away.

REBECCA GRANT: HOW TOMAHAWKS WORK AND HOW THEY COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING FOR UKRAINE

“Such a move would inevitably free up airspace for the Ukrainian Air Force’s growing fleet of F-16 aircraft and Western-supplied ground-attack smart munitions,” Kasapoglu wrote.

It would also inject uncertainty into Russian planning. Commanders would have to assume that every major staging area — from Belgorod to the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol — could be targeted. That uncertainty erodes confidence, slows operations, and imposes constant strain on air defense assets.

Trump explained on Wednesday why he did not provide Tomahawks to Ukraine despite speculation that he would do so.

“There is a tremendous learning curve with the Tomahawk. It’s a very powerful weapon, very accurate weapon,” Trump said Wednesday. “And maybe that’s what makes it so complex. But it will take a year. It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it. And we’re not going to be teaching other people. It will be just too far out into the future.”

Trump also made clear he believes the U.S. has few to spare.

“We need Tomahawks for the United States of America too. We have a lot of them, but we need them.”

The U.S. supply of Tomahawks is classified. But analysts say providing Ukraine with the missiles would weaken preparations for conflict in the Indo-Pacific. 

“Tomahawk is one of the few munitions (Patriot is another) that would be useful both in Ukraine and the Western Pacific,” an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said. 

The Department of War has already established a review process to ensure that weapons offered to Ukraine do not weaken what it regards as higher priority needs. 

“This review process will almost certainly raise objections to this transfer, and presidential intervention may be required,” the analysis found. 

Over the weekend, Zelenskyy told Axios Ukraine would welcome other long-range missiles as well. 

“We speak not only about Tomahawks. The U.S. has a lot of similar things that doesn’t require much time for training. I think the way to work with Putin is only through pressure,” Zelensky said.

Earlier in the week, he expressed skepticism that Ukraine could win the war.

“They could still win it. I don’t think they will, but they could still win it,” Trump told reporters Monday.

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Putin’s calculus depends heavily on escalation control — the belief that NATO will stop short of providing weapons capable of directly threatening Russian territory. Tomahawks would shatter that red line. For the Kremlin, it would signal that Washington is prepared to move from containment to punishment — just after Trump triggered sanctions on Russia’s lucrative energy exports.

Putin told journalists this week that if Russia were attacked with Western long-range missiles, the response would be “very serious, if not overwhelming. Let them think about it.”

Former President Joe Biden suggested that the U.S. is currently facing “dark days.”

During a ceremony where he was honored with a lifetime achievement award for inspired leadership from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, Biden described the current state of affairs as the “worst” he has seen in his many decades of “elected public life,” opining that “our very democracy is at stake in my view.”

“Friends, I can’t sugarcoat any of this. These are dark days,” Biden asserted.

JOE MANCHIN LAMENTS BIDEN PRESIDENCY AS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY SQUANDERED BY ‘FAR-LEFT’ WHO HAD PRESIDENT’S EAR

But the Democrat said the U.S. is one of the only nations that comes out of each crisis it faces “stronger” than before.

Biden said he believes the U.S. will “emerge… stronger, wiser, more resilient, more just, so long as we keep the faith,” urging people to “fight like hell.”

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE HAS NO WHITE HOUSE REGRETS, DECLARES ‘I DON’T TAKE ANYTHING BACK’

The lifetime achievement award recognizes Biden for serving 36 years as a senator, eight years as vice president alongside President Barack Obama, and four years as president. Before his time in federal posts, he served on the New Castle County Council in Delaware.

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Biden, who left office earlier this year at the age of 82, was the oldest person ever to serve as president in American history.

As the Trump administration makes moves to change the H-1B visa program to benefit American-born workers, Skillstorm CEO Justin Vianello backed those efforts in an interview with Fox News Digital while offering his expertise on other issues that need to be addressed with work visas.

Vianello told Fox News Digital that one of the “biggest challenges” with the current H-1B system is the “impact” on college hiring, particularly with computer science and computer engineering graduates.

Vianello explained that the unemployment rate for college graduates with those degrees is significantly higher than the average for all college graduates and there is a “concerning” level of unemployment with college graduates in IT. 

“So that basically means they didn’t need degrees for the jobs that they’re currently in, being significantly under employed,” Vianello said. “How does the H-1B visa program impact that? Well, firstly, rough estimates are that there are about 730,000 H-1B holders in the U.S. and about 550,000 dependents. Most of them, in excess of 70% of them, are in IT.”

TRUMP’S H-1B VISA REFORM PLAN NEEDS TO PUT AMERICANS FIRST

Vianello went on to explain that data shows H-1B visa holders are paid “significantly less” than their counterparts doing equivalent IT roles, which gives them a leg up with employers who are looking to pay less. 

“I think it gets a little more broadly than that,” Vianello said. “In addition to competing with H-1B visa holders, college graduates, especially in IT, are also competing with OPT visa holders. This is optional practical training, basically an extension of the F-1 visa, which is a student visa, which allows you, if you’re a STEM graduate, to work in the U.S. for three years following your graduation.”

“Now, the OPT visa holders don’t pay Social Security or Medicare taxes, so they’re automatically 15% cheaper, and they are typically paid 42% less than their U S counterparts. So as a college grad, you’re fighting this three-headed monster. You’re graduating with student debt, you’ve got H-1B visa holders and OPT visa holders who have the ability to take your job and cost an employer significantly less, and then you’re competing with the third one, which is the ability of an employer to simply offshore that work.”

Many tech companies have embraced the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, but critics of the program say H-1B holders are often chosen over U.S. citizens for jobs. One of the reasons for this is that foreign workers are tied to their respective employers via the H-1B visa – as a company is required to sponsor the visa – and therefore quitting the job could ultimately see foreign workers losing their visa and their ability to legally remain in the country.

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“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk posted on X last year as a rift inside the MAGA movement was raging on the issue.

“The intention was good around bringing in people with skills and retaining people in the US that are doing skills and are studying in the universities,” Vianello said. “But the outcome to college grads that are competing for those roles has been really bad.”

Earlier this year, the Trump administration unveiled a proposal designed to nudge employers toward offering higher salaries or reserving H-1B petitions for jobs that require advanced skills. The rule change, formally published in the Federal Register, came just days after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation introducing a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.

The $100,000 fee — a one-time charge applying only to new H-1B petitions — will take effect in the next annual lottery, the system the U.S. government uses to select applications once the annual visa cap is reached. 

“The whole idea is no more will these Big Tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers. They have to pay the government $100,000, then they have to pay the employee, so it’s just not [economical],” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters on Friday as Trump signed the order. 

Vianello told Fox News Digital, “Certainly I think that the $100,000 fee on any new applications is gonna go a long way toward changing behavior, but that’s focused on H-1B.”

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“We’ve seen quite a bit of news recently around changes to the OPT visa program as well in terms of limiting the number of visas and limiting the countries that they come from. That’s gonna have a significant impact on the pipeline of people coming through as well. And so I believe those measures are gonna start changing the behavior of many of the employers.”

The argument from H-1B supporters that the United States is bringing in the “best and the brightest” is a sentiment Vianello pushed back on. 

“In the last 18 months, according to layoffs.fyi, these large companies have laid off 250,000 tech professionals, but at the same time, the cap for H-1B visas was secured before the end of 2024 for the entire 2025, which is 85,000 people,” Vianello explained. “So you’re laying off 250,000 U.S. tech workers, but you’re applying for the maximum cap that you can for H-1B visa holders. That doesn’t make sense. If there’s a shortage of skills, why are you laying off 250,000 people? So you can see the way it’s structured. It’s being used as a labor arbitrage to bring down these large companies’ tech costs.”

Vianello, who came here on a visa, told Fox News Digital he is not opposed to worker visa programs in general, but stressed they shouldn’t leave American workers behind.

“I fully support using visas to attract top-tier technologists to the U.S. I came here on a Specialty Occupation Visa myself, which required my employer to invest significantly to bring me over,” Vianello said. “What I oppose is the misuse of programs like H-1B and OPT as tools for labor arbitrage, which undercuts entry-level opportunities for U.S. tech graduates and distorts the talent market.”

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

The Trump administration is warning that millions of Americans could lose out on federal food benefits within days if Democrats do not accept Republicans’ plan to end the government shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it does not have the ability to independently reshuffle funds into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, according to a recent memo obtained by Fox News Digital.

“Due to Congressional Democrats’ refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), approximately 42 million individuals will not receive their SNAP benefits come November 1st,” the memo said.

“This jeopardizes all SNAP recipients in November, including those that have applied for benefits in the last half of October, and furloughed Federal employees who will not receive their combined October/November benefits.”

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Democrats had been pressing the Trump administration to use the federal government’s SNAP contingency fund, which they said contains about $5 billion, to cover at least some of the shortfall.

It takes about $8 to $9 billion per month to cover all SNAP benefits.

But the USDA argued that the emergency funding was not “legally available” for use.

“SNAP contingency funds are only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover, benefits. The contingency fund is not available to support [fiscal year (FY) 2026] regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists,” the memo said.

“Instead, the contingency fund is a source of funds for contingencies, such as the Disaster SNAP program, which provides food purchasing benefits for individuals in disaster areas, including natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, that can come on quickly and without notice.”

The department also argued that shuffling existing funds from other areas would harm Americans who rely on those programs.

“Transfers from other sources would pull away funding for school meals and infant formula,” the memo said. “This Administration will not allow Democrats to jeopardize funding for school meals and infant formula in order to prolong their shutdown.”

USDA emphasized its point with an announcement on its website seen Monday morning that said, “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).”

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“Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance,” the department said.

A letter signed by nearly all House Democrats sent to the USDA on Friday said the SNAP contingency fund was available “precisely for this reason.”

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“We urge USDA to use these funds for November SNAP benefits and issue clear guidance to states on how to navigate benefit issuance. Additionally, while the contingency reserve will not cover November benefits in full, we urge USDA to use its statutory transfer authority or any other legal authority at its disposal to supplement these dollars and fully fund November benefits,” they wrote.

Democrats have said they would not accept any federal funding bill that does not also include an extension of Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic — but which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Republicans’ plan, a short-term extension of FY2025 federal funding called a continuing resolution (CR), passed the House on Sept. 19 but has since stalled in the Senate.

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris both remarked in the past few days that they’re keeping their options open for potential 2028 presidential runs. 

“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom told “CBS News Sunday Morning” when asked if he would give “serious thought” to a 2028 presidential run after the 2026 midterms. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not — I can’t do that.”

“I have no idea,” Newsom said of whether he would decide to run, adding that he has not let academic struggles from across his life prevent him from working to ascend the political ladder. “The idea that a guy who got 960 on his SAT, that still struggles to read scripts, that was always in the back of the classroom, the idea that you would even throw that out is, in and of itself, extraordinary. Who the hell knows? I’m looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that’s the question for the American people.”

Newsom long has been floated as a likely Democrat nominee for the presidency, most notably after the unprecedented 2024 race when President Joe Biden dropped out of the running amid heightened concerns over his mental acuity, and then-Vice President Harris took up the mantle in his absence. President Donald Trump ultimately swept the seven battleground states and won the popular vote and the Electoral College. 

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM REVEALS WHEN HE’LL START THINKING ABOUT A POTENTIAL 2028 RUN

Harris also left the door open to a potential 2028 presidential run while speaking with the BBC in an interview that aired Saturday. Harris is a longtime California Democrat who has served as San Francisco district attorney, the California attorney general, and a U.S. senator representing California before ascending the political landscape as the nation’s vice president in 2021. 

“I am not done,” Harris told the British outlet. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service, and it’s in my bones.”

Harris said during the interview that her grandnieces would see the first female president “in their lifetime, for sure,” and that she could “possibly” be that woman, according to the BBC. 

Harris brushed off polling that shows her as a 2028 Democrat outsider, saying during the interview that she historically has not listened to polling data.

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“If I listened to polls I would have not run for my first office, or my second office — and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here.”

The 2024 presidential election threw the Democrat Party into a tailspin as it continues searching for its next de facto leader. Harris published a memoir in September detailing her 107 days on the campaign trail after Biden dropped out of the race, which included a handful of shots at the former president that has caused rifts within the party to grow deeper as it looks for fresh leadership. 

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Both Newsom and Harris are longtime political foes of Trump, who has railed against both of them for promoting left-wing West Coast policies. 

Trump, who is term limited and in the midst of his second presidency, welcomed a potential Newsom presidential run back in May, but said the California high-speed rail project intended to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles would prevent him from proceeding in a presidential race.

“I would love him to run for president,” he said. “I’d love to see that, but I don’t think he’s going to be running because that one project alone — well, that, and the fires and a lot of other things — pretty much put him out of the race.”

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The “one project alone” refers to the high-speed rail project that has been plagued by delays and increased costs, with the Trump administration pulling the funding plug on the project in July. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the respective offices of Newsom and Harris Monday morning for additional comment on their 2028 remarks and has yet to receive replies. 

Next week’s governor races may tell us more about where the shutdown fight is headed than the shutdown itself will show about those elections.

While the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia will look largely untouched by the lapse in government funding, their results could serve as a barometer for public perception over who’s at fault for the standoff dragging out in Washington, D.C.

But only if the results stand out. 

Bill Wichterman, former special assistant to President George W. Bush, said the two parties seem entrenched in their positions with no signs of blinking anytime soon. Having seen past shutdown conflicts up close as a policy advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and a chief of staff for other offices, he believes the election results would have to look dramatic to change the resolve of lawmakers.

“Let’s say it’s normally a 5-point win, and it turns out to be a 15-point win,” Wichterman said, speaking to the possibility of a Democrat winning in both races. “Yeah, that will get people’s attention. But if it’s like a normal 5-point win, whatever the norm is, I don’t think Republicans will look at that as alarming.”

Both Democratic candidates, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, lead their Republican challengers with just a week to go until Election Day. Republicans Winsome Earle-Sears, the Virginia candidate, and Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey both trail by under 10 points. 

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In the aftermath of a presidential election, Wichterman said a good performance by the minority party isn’t particularly surprising; that would fit the historical trend for how the public reacts to a new president of either party. 

“A Democratic win in those two states? Does that freak out Republicans? No, they’re both blue states,” Wichterman said. 

But if Republican gubernatorial candidates can pull upsets, Wichterman believes that changes things.

“I think Democrats would look at that and say, ‘My gosh, we’re not doing well. What’s going on here?’ That would be disruptive.”

Government funding ran dry on Oct. 1 when lawmakers failed to reach an agreement over a Republican-led short-term spending bill that would have kept the government open through Nov. 21. Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have opposed the measure on 12 separate occasions, demanding Congress first consider the extension of COVID-era emergency subsidies for Obamacare premiums.

Republicans have rejected those demands out of hand, maintaining that the subsidies have nothing to do with the question of government funding.

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Despite the lapse in funding, state-level elections will remain largely unaffected. 

On a practical level, the federal government largely leaves states to carry out their own elections and plays a minimal role in their administration. In many cases, the federal government awards funding for states to update, modernize or shore up security for elections.

In one of the most notable examples, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) doesn’t directly help organize state-level elections. Instead, it helps provide funding for security and infrastructure-related expenses through grants established by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). 

New Jersey and Virginia have each already received $272,700 through HAVA grants in 2025. Congress approved that funding in appropriation legislation earlier this year.

Wichterman believes that another way that the election could tip the scales for the shutdown is how the White House reacts. Even if lawmakers in Congress stay put after the election, President Donald Trump’s direction over government funding could force a change in position for lawmakers.

So far, Trump hasn’t budged and has his focus elsewhere. On Monday, Trump traveled to Japan to meet with the country’s emperor, among other officials.

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“I think Democrats have been waiting for Trump to crack [on the shutdown],” Wichterman said. “And he’s not. I’ve been in lots of shutdown fights starting back in ‘95. I know what it feels like when you’re part of a party that’s taking on water. Doesn’t feel that way on the Republican side yet.” 

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Democrats expressed similar thoughts as they shot down a supplemental funding bill to pay essential government workers. To them, the gridlock on Capitol Hill likely will remain until something provokes Trump to get personally involved in negotiations. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., believes the president is the only Republican voice that matters.

“He says, ‘Jump,’ they say, ‘How high?’ And so, he’s the one that needs to come to the table,” Van Hollen said when asked about shutdown-ending negotiations.