NationalWatch

Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s “hero” Supreme Court justice, isn’t closing the door on the United States Postal Service (USPS) enacting Trump’s ballot-mail rules in the future, although he agreed with the majority that implementing them ahead of the 2026 midterm elections is too soon.

“In my view, based on the briefing the Court has received at this interim stage, there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority,” Kavanaugh wrote in his concurring opinion in United States Postal Service, et al. v. California, et al.

The concurrence comes roughly three months after Kavanaugh laid out a legal pathway for Trump to implement his executive order curtailing birthright citizenship in his concurrence in Trump v. Barbara. Kavanaugh also offered a blueprint for implementing Trump’s sweeping tariffs in his dissent in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump.

“I would note though that Justice Kavanaugh threw the government a lifeline by saying that he views it as likely that they do have the statutory authority. And I think if you read the dissent, you can see where Justices Thomas and Alito are on questions like that as well,” Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital.

TRUMP BLASTS SUPREME COURT ‘DISASTER’ AFTER JUSTICES RULE AGAINST HIM ON MAIL-IN VOTING

The Supreme Court on Monday denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to lift a lower court injunction blocking the U.S. Postal Service rule, ruling that the government was “unlikely to succeed on the merits” of its challenge.

The decision leaves the rule blocked for the 2026 midterms after ballots have already been sent. But as the litigation continues, the case could return to the Supreme Court.

“I think there’s a fair chance that it winds back up in front of the Supreme Court eventually,” Snead told Fox News Digital.

A dissent written by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by Justice Clarence Thomas also raised questions about whether the policy could ultimately survive the legal challenge and take effect before 2028

“I do think that as a practical matter, the rule is not going to be implemented in time for the midterms. I think that’s a done deal at this point. But I do hold out hope that there will be some additional litigation over this that could allow this rule to be implementing ahead of the 2028 presidential election,” Snead said.

The Postal Service rule requires federal ballot-mail envelopes to include an election-mail logo, be scannable by high-speed processing equipment, and carry a specialized barcode unique to each voter. States would also have to upload certain voter information to a Postal Service portal.

A coalition of 24 Democratic state attorneys general sued the Trump administration, alleging the rule violates the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which grants Congress the power to regulate elections. The Trump administration argued the USPS is regulating the mail, not election procedures.

TRUMP SCORES SUPREME COURT WIN ON MAIL-IN VOTING RESTRICTIONS BEFORE MIDTERMS

“So this case is still alive and well, and I think that Kavanaugh has given us all some hope that as it progresses eventually, this rule might be allowed to go into effect hopefully in time for the 2028 election since the left has successfully killed it for 2026,” Snead continued.

Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan also pointed to timing as a major factor, noting that earlier litigation and an injunction in Massachusetts delayed the Postal Service’s ability to publish the final rule.

“So I’m not surprised now, close to the deadline when ballots have to go out to people that the Supreme Court took the approach of maintaining the status quo, although I think that Justice Alito’s dissent highlights a lot of issues with the approach taken by the majority, and I would not be sure that the same result would be what the Supreme Court reaches in advance of, for example, the 2028 election,” Wessan said.

Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented, arguing that the government had made the necessary showing for a stay. He also questioned whether some plaintiffs had standing and described that those plaintiffs relying on a “Hail Mary pass” the Supreme Court has previously said “rarely succeeds.”

FEDERAL JUDGE AGAIN BLOCKS TRUMP’S MAIL BALLOT ORDER JUST BEFORE MIDTERMS

“The hail mary passes seem to be succeeding to a certain extent,” Wessan said. “So the president’s executive order was issued five months ago, and the injunction followed pretty shortly after. And as the Supreme Court recognized in the litigation earlier, that injunction against the executive order was improper.”

“But the amount of time that it took to get that resolved by the Supreme Court put the Postal Service in a very tough spot timing-wise with rolling it out for the election coming up in November, especially because states are on the verge of having to send ballots out, whether to the armed services or otherwise,” Wessan continued.

Abhishek Kambil said the lack of a fuller explanation from the court’s majority stood out to him.

“I think the biggest surprise was the fact that it came with an unreasoned order, especially right after they granted a stay in Missouri, which was also on an unreasoned order. So, in cases like this, where there’s a lot at stake, you would hope that in in in a stay opinion that the Supreme Court would explain its reasoning,” Kambil said.

JACKSON RIPS INTO SUPREME COURT COLLEAGUES’ ‘SERIOUS LEGAL ERROR’ ON TRUMP MAIL-IN VOTING ORDER

“So, I think the biggest thing that surprised me was the lack of explanation, especially given Justice Alito had a pretty methodical dissent explaining all the ways the majority got wrong, and we don’t know exactly how the majority decided to deny the stay,” Kambil told Fox News Digital.

Wessan said that he expects the rule to remain sidelined this year while leaving open the possibility of a different outcome later.

“This rule won’t be in effect for the 2026 election, but it very well may end up in effect for the 2028 election, and this is just one of many actions the administration is taking to help with voter integrity,” Wessan said.

Snead argued that without a looming election, Democratic states may have a tougher time fighting against implementing the USPS rules.

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“So they’re going to have a difficult time and a steeper hill to climb if they’re trying to explain in 2027, for instance, why they can’t possibly comply with basic rules like this over a two-year time frame,” Snead told Fox News Digital. “And just so folks understand what we’re talking about. We’re talking about taking best practices about mail ballot envelope design that have been long standing and making that mandatory guidance.”

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“And we’re also talking about getting lists of eligible mail voters that states already have so that the Postal Service can essentially create manifests and that will allow them to know who they’re sending ballots to and it will allow those ballots to be tracked. So this is a very basic, very simple thing,” Snead continued.

Criminals can turn stolen identities bought on the dark web into seemingly legitimate businesses — then use those companies to bill taxpayers for healthcare and other services that were never provided, according to a fraud expert who detailed the scheme to Fox News Digital.

The companies can hide in plain sight: Criminals create LLCs using information that may receive little scrutiny, pair them with stolen identities and submit fraudulent claims for everything from wheelchairs and diabetes treatments to childcare and autism services, according to Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions Government.

But Talcove said the financial losses are only the beginning, warning the schemes can fuel “criminal enterprises.”

“They are using our money against us, whether it’s in social media campaigns, whether it is for human trafficking, drugs, disrupting our economy,” Talcove told Fox News Digital.

STOLEN IDS SOLD FOR ‘HAPPY MEAL’ PRICES FUEL BILLIONS IN US BENEFIT FRAUD

“When you think about fraud, don’t think about, ‘It’s great that we stopped a fraud ring that stole $5 million.’ Think about that as a criminal enterprise that goes beyond just stealing out of a benefit program.”

Despite fraud schemes surfacing nationwide, Talcove said Minnesota was “particularly egregious” because the state had little incentive to stop the fraud.

“Minnesota was particularly egregious once they started looking because it was really easy to find,” he said.

Talcove said one factor allowing the schemes to flourish in Minnesota and across the country is weak verification during the LLC registration process and reliance on “self-reported information.”

“In the case of Minnesota, you went and got your LLC, you opened up a childcare facility, and then the next thing you knew you were billing CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] for childcare or autism care, and nobody checked.”

The Trump administration launched an anti-fraud crackdown this year after Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future scandal, creating a task force led by Vice President JD Vance. The scheme allegedly stole $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition program during the pandemic, and many of those charged have since been convicted or sentenced to prison.

Without third-party audits, Talcove said many criminals slip through the cracks, racking up millions before they’re caught.

“One of the fundamental problems with these programs that are literally spending trillions of taxpayer dollars, they have nobody doing investigations or such a small, tiny amount of people that it’s not even possible to investigate,” he said.

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But Talcove said when these schemes are investigated, they expose much more than fraud.

“They’re not just involved in stealing Medicare, Medicaid, or food stamps, or unemployment insurance,” he said. “They have other interests.”

Talcove alleged some criminals use stolen funds to finance sex trafficking by bringing women from other countries and “renting them out” across the U.S., all while profiting from their “ill-gotten gains.”

“What they have to look for is beyond the fraud that they found to see if they’re involved in drugs, human trafficking, threats to our democracy, weapons,” he said.

Calling the fraud a “national security issue,” Talcove said some investigations have uncovered criminal groups involved in benefit fraud, including foreign cybercrime organizations such as APT41, a Chinese-linked hacking group.

“When you start looking at the criminal groups that are involved, APT41 and some of their peers and associates, as well as some of the other groups from North Korea and other countries, it is, right now, a national security issue,” he said.

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However, not all the money is sent to “overseas criminal organizations,” according to Talcove.

“Now, some of it, granted, is being used for luxury goods, homes, cars, vacations, but a lot of it is just going right back to the transnational location that it came from,” he said.

Talcove warned that unless investigators dig deeper, fraudsters will continue to exploit the system.

“They tend to get away with it because the investigation stops once you find the fraud,” he said.

Turning to the government’s role, Talcove said Democrats and Republicans must work together to tackle the nation’s growing debt, starting with stronger efforts to combat fraud.

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“My hope is the fiscal situation that we’re currently in, driven by what’s going on with the bond market, is going to force elected leaders at the state and federal level to start paying attention,” he said.

House Democrats are moving to stop data centers from receiving lucrative federal tax breaks as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom accelerates their expansion nationwide.

The moves put Democrats at odds with President Donald Trump as he makes data centers central to his American AI agenda. The administration has sought to accelerate data center development and streamline permitting as the U.S. competes for dominance in the emerging tech industry.

Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Mich., and Don Davis, D-N.C., unveiled legislation Wednesday that would block data centers from tapping certain federal investment incentives.

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The incentives in question weren’t created specifically for AI or data centers. But the industry’s massive infrastructure investments can qualify for these substantial tax benefits, which prompted Democrats to push to exclude data centers as concerns grow over electricity demand, water use and local development.

The bill is backed by 21 additional House Democrats, including Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif.

“Washington is giving handouts to Big Tech companies while American families are drowning. I hear that word in my district more than any other,” McDonald Rivet said at a news conference Wednesday.

“From rising costs, groceries, gas, housing, healthcare and a lot more. These are backward priorities, and they perfectly encapsulate everything that is wrong with the way Washington works, serving interests of big corporations and special interests at the expense of working people.”

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Speaking alongside McDonald Rivet outside the Capitol, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., pointed to concerns over data center development in her Raleigh-area district, accusing tech companies of buying land without disclosing their plans in a plot to sidestep local input.

“They’ve sought to bypass local citizens’ right to provide input on putting a data center in their towns and cities,” Ross said.

The lawmaker also argued that the industry’s rapid expansion is straining electricity and water resources while developers benefit from federal and state tax incentives.

“It’s Americans struggling to get by, not Big Tech who need tax breaks,” Ross said.

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Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., argued that data center development is contributing to higher costs for his constituents as the facilities place growing demands on electricity and water supplies.

He also said communities should have more control over where the facilities are built.

“Our cities and towns shouldn’t have these data centers shoved down their throats without any recourse,” Pappas said. “They deserve the right to decide what’s appropriate for their community.”

More than 20 states are suing the Trump administration over a new Department of Homeland Security rule that would give immigration officials wider discretion in determining what constitutes a public charge, a statute that allows the government to deny visas or green cards to applicants it determines are likely to become dependent on government assistance.

The rule, which is set to take effect on Friday, would expand the list of possible government aid that officials could point to when deciding to disqualify an applicant.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 21 states and Washington, D.C., in suing the administration over what they describe as punishment for immigrants’ law use of public assistance. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani led a separate lawsuit filed by a coalition of cities challenging DHS’ rule.

James said the rule would allow immigration officials to consider an immigrant’s use of benefits like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and participation in school meal programs when determining whether they could become dependent on government aid. She also said it could lead to more fear of interacting with the government for people who are part of an immigrant family.

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“Hardworking families should not be forced to go without the support they need because they fear asking for assistance will get them deported,” James said in a statement. “This rule preys on that fear and counts on families forfeiting the food assistance, health care coverage, and other public benefits to which they are legally entitled. My office fought this exact policy once before and won, and we are leading the nation to ensure the Trump administration cannot inflict this harm on families again.”

The public charge ground applies to certain immigrants seeking admission or adjustment of status. Most undocumented immigrants are ineligible for federal means-tested public benefits, although limited exceptions exist under federal and state law.

The states argue they would lose billions of dollars in federal funding if immigrants pull from programs over fears about the public charge rule.

Immigration officials under the Biden administration’s 2022 public charge rule generally considered only cash assistance for income maintenance, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), along with government-funded long-term institutionalization, when determining a public charge.

The rule does not specify a fixed list of public benefits that immigration officials may consider. Instead, it states that officers may consider the receipt of any means-tested public benefits as part of a public charge determination, giving them broader discretion in evaluating applicants.

The states’ and cities’ lawsuits asked the courts to declare the rule unlawful and prevent DHS from using it.

“It’s very hard to predict how courts will look at this issue. It is very unusual regulation though,” Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies David Bier told Fox News Digital. “I think from that standpoint the states have a good argument that we had a well defined public charge rule and the administration didn’t replace it with some other well defined rule, it replaced it with nothing. So now there’s just discretion to the officers to do whatever they want with the underlying statute. There’s no regulation that clearly says this is what it means to be a public charge in the United States.”

“The rule as it was before this new regulation was you had to be primarily dependent on certain government benefit programs. This rule removes that definition and doesn’t replace it with anything. So now people and applicants, lawyers who are applying to the government on behalf of applicants, they don’t know really what the law is,” he continued.

The states’ lawsuit argues that DHS is exceeding its authority because Congress did not approve a broader interpretation of what it means to be a public charge. The states say the new rule is arbitrary and that the agency ignored the harmful consequences of the change.

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“Cruelty is the point,” James said at a press conference on Monday. “Having a chilling effect on immigrants is the point. Letting individuals know that they are not welcome here is the point. Immigration animus is the point. The fact that you’re going to deny individuals who are sick and hungry and homeless benefits just is beyond the pale.”

DHS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment in time for publication.

Bier said the rule does not prohibit immigrants from receiving welfare and is only used as an officer’s projection about someone’s likelihood of future welfare use in the U.S., warning that it could lead to self-sufficient applicants being denied.

“Whether someone is currently using benefits or not doesn’t matter under this evaluation. It’s this probabilistic determination of the future that they’re using in order to deny people legal status and legal permanent resident status in the United States. That’s a much more difficult assessment to make. That’s going to result in arbitrary denials. It’s just not possible to do this type of assessment and not result in people who would be self-sufficient being denied status,” he said.

This comes as President Donald Trump pursues a broader immigration crackdown that has extended beyond illegal immigration to legal immigration pathways. While Trump campaigned in 2024 on curbing illegal immigration, his administration has also imposed additional restrictions on legal immigration, including higher fees for certain work visas and new limits on how long some foreign students and journalists can remain in the U.S.

The administration has also pursued visa revocations and removal proceedings in cases involving political activity and speech, including some anti-Israel activists. Those efforts have prompted court challenges in which plaintiffs allege violations of First Amendment free speech and Fifth Amendment due process protections.

“It’s very clear that this administration wants to restrict both illegal immigration, which obviously it’s done at the border, and through deportations, but also legal immigration,” Bier said.

Last month, the administration directed U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to postpone immigrant visa interviews while consular officers complete training on new public charge guidance, temporarily stalling applications that had reached the interview stage.

“The primary population that’s going to be affected by this public charge rule are spouses of U.S. citizens and their kids who are trying to receive green cards so they can live with their American spouse or parent here in the United States. That’s the overwhelming majority of the people who are going to be affected by the rule. It’s going to result in many of those immigrant families being separated from their American spouse or parent,” Bier said.

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The public charge provision stems from the Immigration Act of 1882, when federal lawmakers sought to ensure that immigrants would be able to take care of themselves and not become a public burden.

After years of only considering cash benefits, the first Trump administration widened the categories of benefit programs that could be considered a public charge, including Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. But the Biden administration in 2022 published a rule that returned to the previous guidance. The rule set to take effect this week would rescind the Biden administration’s rule.

The new rule is more broad than the one from the first Trump administration, as it does not specify which safety nets should be considered and only states that DHS “will consider the receipt of any means tested public benefits.”

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“One of the most important things to understand is that during the first Trump administration, they had a public charge rule that was well defined that really did explain exactly what you were supposed to do in order to not be deemed a public charge or who was a public charge. This is completely different from that. It’s essentially the Wild West. No one knows what’s going on, no one knows what the law is now,” Bier said.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles announced Wednesday that she is cancer free, six months after revealing she had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.

“Some personal news I’m grateful to share,” Wiles wrote. “After a medical appointment at the Mayo Clinic this week, my pathology results came back clear.

“I am cancer free.”

Wiles thanked her family, friends, doctors and everyone who prayed for her, checked in and supported her along the way.

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“A special thank you to President Trump for his unwavering support,” she added. “I am deeply grateful and will continue to work to advance his America First Agenda.”

TRUMP’S BEHIND-THE-SCENES ENFORCER PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN IN RARE PUBLIC MOVE

The announcement quickly drew an outpouring of support from administration officials, lawmakers and other prominent figures.

Vice President JD Vance called the news an answer to prayer and praised Wiles for remaining a source of strength throughout her cancer fight.

“Usha and I are very happy to hear this news and the answer to our prayers,” Vance wrote. “Thank you Susie for remaining a symbol of strength and leadership throughout this battle. Your indomitable spirit is something we can all learn from and strive to replicate.”

Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling called Wiles “a fighter.”

“I’m grateful to hear that Susie is cancer free and I look forward to continuing to work with her and @POTUS to put American Workers First!” Sonderling wrote.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon celebrated the announcement as the “best news of the week.”

“Thank God!” Dhillon wrote.

Country music star Lee Greenwood said he and his wife, Kim, were “thrilled” by the news.

“She works tirelessly every day in service to the American people and the President, and her strength throughout this fight has been remarkable,” Greenwood wrote. “Susie is a true fighter, and we couldn’t be happier for her and her family.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., called the announcement “an answered prayer.”

“Anne and I are so relieved to hear our good friend, @SusieWiles47, is cancer free,” Scott wrote. “Susie is tough. She’s always been a fighter and her grace and strength in this battle with cancer has been an inspiration to so many.”

Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., also celebrated the news and wished Wiles “continued strength and good health as she serves President Trump and our country.”

“May God bless her,” Harris wrote.

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Wiles announced in March that she had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer after it was detected early and said she had received a strong prognosis.

Trump publicly rallied around Wiles throughout her cancer battle, including in a prerecorded message played May 7 when she received the Barbara K. Olson Woman of Valor Award from Independent Women.

“It’s been especially inspiring to see her courage and toughness in recent weeks, and she’s been winning a battle with cancer and winning it decisively,” Trump said. “It was an early diagnosis, so she’s going to be in great shape.”

Trump also praised Wiles’ performance as his chief of staff and her years of work at his side.

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“Not only is Susie the first female chief of staff in American history, she’s also one of the best White House chiefs of staff ever in history,” Trump said. “I say the best, actually.”

“I’m tremendously grateful for her friendship, loyalty and support every single day,” he continued. “She’s a real professional.”

Trump credited Wiles with playing a critical role in each of his presidential campaigns, particularly his successful 2024 White House bid.

“Susie played a key role in every one of my campaigns for president, but especially in 2024, when she helped lead us to perhaps the most consequential election victory in modern times,” Trump said. “Everything we have done here in the White House has been with her help and her leadership.”

“Susie, [when] we have a problem. I say, ‘Go to Susie,’” Trump added. “We owe her a tremendous debt, and what she’s done is just incredible for our country.”

Wiles received the award before participating in a sit-down conversation with Independent Women Chairman Heather Higgins.

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Trump selected Wiles to become the first female White House chief of staff following his 2024 election victory.

A longtime Florida-based Republican strategist, Wiles ran Trump’s Florida operations during his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns before helping lead his 2024 campaign.

Her political career stretches back to former President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential bid, when she worked as a campaign scheduler.

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Wiles also ran Sen. Rick Scott’s successful 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly managed former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign.

The U.S. accused Russian intelligence operatives of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot targeting a Kremlin critic believed to be living in Washington, D.C.

In documents unsealed on Tuesday, federal prosecutors claim the conspiracy was part of a broader global network that recruited people to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks on behalf of Moscow. The five men charged in the incitement allegedly worked for Russia’s intelligence services, and are accused of being paid and attempting to pay others in the U.S. and abroad to surveil and kill Russian dissidents.

Three of the defendants also face conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire charges. All five defendants remain at large, according to the Justice Department.

According to prosecutors, the alleged operation reached the nation’s capital in late August, when suspected Russian intelligence operatives directed a U.S.-based Venezuelan citizen to secretly film two Washington-area locations tied to a Kremlin critic before allegedly offering him $40,000 to carry out the killing. The recruit completed the surveillance but refused to commit the murder himself, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors allege the five defendants were members or associates of a Russian intelligence-directed network that financed terrorism and coordinated violent operations across multiple countries.

The recruiter walked the operative through the surveillance step by step, prosecutors say, and allegedly instructed him to put his phone in airplane mode, begin recording before entering the neighborhood, slow as he passed the target’s home and delete the messages afterward.

The indictment says the conspirators used coded language, referring to the assassination as “construction” and the surveillance as “measuring a plot of land.” When the recruit declined to carry out the murder himself, prosecutors allege the network sought other U.S.-based recruits while noting it also had “people in Mexico” available for the job.

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In addition to the alleged murder plot in Washington, the indictment accuses members of the network of supporting attacks on civilian and military infrastructure in Europe and carrying out surveillance of Russian dissidents abroad.

The case marks one of the most serious publicly alleged Russian intelligence operations targeting an individual inside the U.S. in recent years.

The indictment names five alleged members of what prosecutors call the Russian Intelligence Services Network (RIS). They are Yuri Khrameev, a former Russian intelligence colonel known as “Colonel Yuri”; his son, Kirill Khrameev, an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB); Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national living in Russia whom prosecutors describe as coordinating attacks for the network; Yaidel Delgado Suarez, known as “Viking,” and Angel Eduardo Castro.

Russia has repeatedly been accused by Western governments of targeting political opponents and defectors abroad.

Among the highest-profile cases was the 2018 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. British authorities blamed Russian military intelligence for the attack, an allegation Moscow denied.

U.S. officials have also accused Russia of orchestrating killings of Kremlin critics overseas and conducting covert influence and espionage operations inside the United States, though prosecutors say the alleged Washington murder plot represents a rare instance in which Russian operatives sought to recruit someone on U.S. soil to carry out an assassination.

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Prosecutors say the alleged Washington murder plot was part of a much broader Russian intelligence campaign that has operated since at least 2024. According to the indictment, the same network recruited a U.S. citizen in Lithuania to surveil another Kremlin critic before allegedly offering about $25,000 to kill him.

After that recruit refused, prosecutors say the network shifted to soliciting sabotage attacks against infrastructure in countries supporting Ukraine, including alleged plots targeting electrical substations , warehouses and transportation hubs.

The indictment comes as Western governments have warned that Russia has expanded its use of covert operations, sabotage and assassination plots beyond the battlefield since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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U.S. prosecutors allege the network shifted its focus from targeting Russian dissidents and defectors to attacking countries “aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine.”

Roughly three-quarters of voters have rated economic conditions negatively for the past year, and more than three times as many say they are falling behind financially as getting ahead, according to a Fox News survey released Wednesday. 

And by a wide margin, the Democrats are considered the party that would better handle inflation at a time when the cost of living and the economy are voters’ top concerns.

Costs of everyday items are a hardship for voters: 61% say gas prices are a major problem, up from 48% two years ago, while 52% say the same for healthcare costs, up from 44%. Majorities also view housing costs (54%, down from 60%) and grocery prices (62%, down from 66%) as major problems.

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Views on tariffs have grown more negative since last summer, with a high of 64% saying tariffs hurt the U.S. economy, up from 57%. Most Democrats and independents say tariffs hurt, while views among Republicans are mixed (41% help, 36% hurt, 21% no difference).

FOX NEWS POLL: COOL YOUR SERVERS! VOTERS REJECT DATA CENTERS

Overall, nearly two-thirds of voters (63%) say the Trump administration has made the economy worse, including a quarter of Republicans.

All of this contributes to greater pessimism about the future. The portion saying life will be worse for the next generation has risen from 53% two years ago to 62% last year and 68% today, just two points below the high of 70% in 2022.

Only 8% are enthusiastic about how the government is working, with another 23% satisfied. A 68% majority is unhappy, including a high of 33% who are “angry” — driven by 56% of Democrats and 36% of independents vs. just 9% of Republicans.

Despite these economic headwinds and with 48 days until Election Day, maybe the good news for the Republicans is that the Democrats’ advantage on the congressional ballot has stayed in the single digits. If the election were today, 51% say they would back the Democratic candidate in their House district and 44% the Republican. The Democrats’ 7-point edge is just outside the survey’s margin of sampling error. Since January, the Democrats have been preferred by 5-7 points.

Women, those under age 35, Hispanic voters and Whites with a college degree give Democrats their edge, while White men and non-college Whites are strengths for the GOP.

Party loyalty slightly favors the Democrats, as more of them (97%) than Republicans (92%) support their party’s candidate. Independents favor the Democratic candidate 53-31%, with 14% undecided.

Higher engagement boosts Democrats: 64% are extremely interested in the election compared to 53% of Republicans (+11 D margin). And more Democrats (71%) than Republicans (65%) rate their likelihood of voting as a 10 on a 10-point scale, meaning they feel certain they will vote (+6 D margin).

Among those certain to vote, the Democrats’ lead in the generic ballot grew to 11 points (54-43%). 

The edge holds among those in “close” counties, where the 2024 presidential vote between President Trump and former Vice President Harris was within 10 points; the Democratic candidate is favored by 9 points, 52-43%.

“When pundits and analysts talk about the fundamentals favoring the Democrats in this midterm, they are mostly referring to the economy,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson. “Time is running out for the administration and its supporters to convince voters that things are improving.”

Those with a negative view of both the Democratic and the Republican Party (“double haters”) favor the Democratic candidate in their district by a 26-point margin.

Voters trust Democrats on most issues in the survey: inflation (by 15 points), large AI data centers (+14), corruption (+11), and foreign policy (+10). The parties are about evenly rated on immigration (R +1).

Prior to this summer, the Republicans held a four-year advantage on immigration, and they led on foreign policy until January of this year. Four years ago, Republicans were preferred by 9 points on inflation.

Democrats have improved their ratings on inflation by 5 points just since July.

Voters trusting Democrats on inflation are more likely to attribute this to Republican failures (51%) than confidence that Democratic policies are likely to reduce prices (47%).

Those views contribute to Trump’s 39% job approval (61% disapprove). His approval has not exceeded 39% since April, when it stood at 42%. His current rating trails former President Biden’s 43% at this point in 2022 and aligns with former President Obama’s 38% before the 2014 midterms. Trump received 43% approval on immigration, 37% on foreign policy (one point above his record low), and 24% on inflation (matching a previous low).

Trump’s standing puts him in a difficult spot to help GOP candidates this year. He lags his party in popularity, holding a 24-point net negative favorability rating (38-62%), unchanged since July.

Sixty percent of voters think the U.S. made the wrong decision in taking military action against Iran, and 77% of that group favor the Democratic candidate in their district.

Four years ago, more voters said a Trump endorsement made them less likely to support a candidate by a 15-point margin. Today, that’s a 26-point gap (25% more likely, 51% less likely).

Still, Trump’s approval matters within the GOP: 52% of Republicans and 75% of MAGA Republicans say it increases their support.

In addition, 53% say the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous administrations compared to 26% who say it is less corrupt.

Both major parties are viewed negatively: the Democratic Party is underwater by 11 points (44% favorable, 55% unfavorable) and the Republican Party by 17 (41-58%).

Nearly two-thirds support raising taxes on the wealthy to expand government programs (65%) and redistribute wealth (63%). However, 52% disagree with increasing taxes on the wealthy so that “nobody gets too rich.”

Still, dissatisfaction with capitalism has grown. Fifty-seven percent say the way capitalism works in the U.S. these days doesn’t give people a fair shot, up from 42% in 2019. That shift spans political views, increasing among Democrats (by 17 points), Republicans (+13), and independents (+22).

Poll-pourri

When asked what the most important issue is facing the country unprompted by a list, 34% of voters say the cost of living and 14% say the economy/jobs. The next closest are immigration (8%) and Republicans/Trump/MAGA (7%). Only a handful mention issues like the war with Iran (4%), corruption (4%), healthcare (4%), or AI/data centers (1%).

MAGA holds a 5-point favorability edge compared with the Democratic Socialists of America (35% vs. 30%), although 15% are unable to rate the DSA. Nearly 3 in 10 Democrats view the DSA negatively, and 3 in 10 Republicans view MAGA negatively.

Overall, 59% view labor unions favorably, including 48% of Republicans and 73% of Democrats.

Eighty-one percent of voters favor banning Congress members and their immediate family and staff from trading stocks (up from 75% in January), including 8 in 10 Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

CLICK HERE FOR CROSSTABS AND TOPLINE

Conducted September 11-14, 2026, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,211 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (96) and cellphones (821) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (294). 

Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education and area variables to ensure the demographics are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data.

Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

Some of the Democratic Party’s most prominent voices are pushing for tighter limits on artificial intelligence, including former President Barack Obama, who has joined calls for a slower pace of frontier AI development after years of Democratic leaders touting the technology’s economic and strategic potential.

“We need government — and specifically our leaders in Washington — to get proactive in coming up with concrete proposals, laws and regulations that deal with serious safety concerns, anticipate AI’s impact on jobs and our kids and make sure that AI’s benefits are widely spread,” Obama said in a statement Monday night.

Obama’s latest comments put greater emphasis on slowing frontier AI development than his White House did in 2016, when his administration highlighted the technology’s economic potential while also warning about disruption and calling for policy responses. 

AI EXTINCTION WARNINGS DOMINATE HEADLINES AFTER EX-ANTHROPIC EMPLOYEE’S VIRAL POST

Democrats have long paired enthusiasm for AI’s economic and strategic potential with warnings about its risks, but some of the party’s most prominent voices are now going further, calling for a slower pace of frontier AI development and tougher limits on how the technology is built and deployed.

Attorney General Todd Blanche argued Tuesday that Democrats’ renewed focus on the potential risks of artificial intelligence should not be treated as “breaking news,” suggesting the timing, months before the midterm elections, is politically significant.

“Every Democrat senator suddenly races to a microphone to talk about AI after being eerily silent for months and months, a month. So, to talk about the timing of this as being nothing but an effort to influence the midterms, I shouldn’t have to say that out loud, of course,” said Blanche.

The comments came as President Donald Trump has made rapid AI development and the data centers needed to power it a priority, while the administration promotes the technology’s potential economic benefits and faces growing political scrutiny over the cost and impact of expanding data-center infrastructure.

Obama issued a statement Monday on X, writing that AI is “moving at lightning speed – and even faster than those who are engineering it can keep up with.”

“Given what we know about technology, we can’t stuff AI back in a box. But we can collectively determine how it’s developed and how it’s used, rather than sitting back and letting AI and its fallout happen to us,” he wrote. 

He called for regulation, saying choices to slow down should not be left up to the tech companies.

Any “potential catastrophe will depend on the choices that we make right now,” said Obama.

ANTHROPIC CEO CALLS ON AI INDUSTRY TO SLOW DOWN TECH RACE, DRAWING SUPPORT FROM ELON MUSK, SAM ALTMAN

In 2016, Obama’s White House touted AI’s potential to open new markets and drive progress across industries while warning about job disruption and broader safety and policy challenges.

“Advances in AI technology hold incredible potential to help the United States stay on the cutting edge of innovation,” the White House said in its December 2016 Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy report.

“Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and related fields have opened up new markets and new opportunities for progress in critical areas such as health, education, energy, economic inclusion, social welfare, and the environment. … AI should be welcomed for its potential economic benefits,” the report added.

Similarly, then-Vice President Kamala Harris said in January 2025 that “it is imperative that the United States remain the global leader on AI” as the Biden administration moved to speed up the buildout needed to support large-scale AI operations.

The Biden administration announced an executive order aimed at accelerating AI infrastructure in the U.S., including large data centers and clean-energy projects, as the administration sought to keep the country ahead of its global competitors.

Harris has also recently called for slowing the pace of frontier AI development, arguing that the technology is advancing at an “alarming speed” and urging Congress to establish stronger oversight and safety standards.

“The frontier of artificial intelligence is advancing at an alarming speed. Over the weekend, industry leaders voiced support for an idea that the American people and many AI researchers in their own labs have been calling for: We must responsibly slow the pace of frontier AI development,” she wrote. 

SEVEN-FIGURE BLITZ AS GOP EMBRACES PUSH TO COMPETE WITH CHINA IN BOOMING NEW TECH SPACE

AI and data centers have quickly become a major midterm issue, as concerns over electricity costs, jobs and the rapid buildout draw increasing attention from candidates in both parties.

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President Donald Trump has pushed back on the Democrats’ urgency to caution about using AI, calling it a “hoax.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Obama, Harris and Schumer’s teams for comment.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Ratepayer Protection Act (RPA), a bill that looks to shield communities from higher energy electricity and grid infrastructure costs associated with data center development.

The bill, which succeeded with broad bipartisan support in a 417-3 vote, is likely one of the last pieces of legislation lawmakers will consider until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections. 

It also puts a spotlight on the data center issue, which has garnered attention as a proxy for affordability, energy and regulatory debates.

It marks the first data center-related bill passed in the 119th Congress.

WHO PAYS FOR US POWER BOOM? BLUE, RED STATES OFFER STARKLY DIFFERENT WAYS TO LOWER UTILITY BILLS AMID AI SURGE

In its current form, the bill does not seek to ban data centers, set limitations on their expansion or even set regulatory guidelines for them. Instead, it amends existing energy law, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), so states must consider a federal standard. Large data centers that consume 100 megawatts or more would pay the full extra cost of the generation, transmission and distribution upgrades built to serve them.

Companies would also be required to make financial assurances in the event a project is canceled or moved to prevent communities from being left holding the bill.

Its sponsor, Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., framed it as a needed step toward keeping data center energy costs from spilling over to local communities.

“As America races to lead the world in AI, we must build the energy infrastructure needed to support this innovation and stay ahead of competitors like communist China,” Evans said in a statement earlier this year.

“But Colorado families, farmers and small businesses should not be forced to cover the costs of new power generation driven by these developments. The Ratepayer Protection Act is a bipartisan, commonsense solution that protects everyday Americans and ensures our nation can continue to win the AI race.”

The bill’s Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., echoed Evans’ thinking.

AMERICA NEEDS AI TO SURVIVE. WORKING FAMILIES ALSO NEED TO SURVIVE IT

“My neighbors across Florida are grappling with skyrocketing electric bills. Ratepayers should not have to subsidize wealthy corporations’ growing energy demands, especially from AI data centers,” Castor said.

In recent months, candidates from both sides of the aisle have carefully framed their thinking about data centers. Democrats, in particular, have linked the issue to affordability.

Such is the case for Roy Cooper, former governor of North Carolina, who is now waging a bid for the seat of retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Cooper, once having celebrated data center expansion as an avenue for job growth in the Tar Heel State, has since qualified his support.

“Roy believes local communities must have the final say on new projects coming to their area, which includes local moratoriums, and data centers must pay for all of the energy they use without passing on any of their costs to consumers,” a spokesperson for Cooper’s campaign said in a statement to Fox News Digital earlier this month.

Republicans have also navigated the political noise around data centers with care.

Cooper’s opponent, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, also stressed allowing local communities decide for themselves about whether data center expansion is right for them.

MAGA BEGINS TO CRACK AS 2026 GOP ROSTER BACKS AWAY FROM TRUMP’S TECH VISION

“Michael Whatley’s standard is simple: Data centers pay their own way, families pay nothing and communities decide. That means Big Tech builds or buys every megawatt it needs and covers every dime of the grid upgrades to deliver it, with zero costs shifted onto residential ratepayers. It means no special subsidies and no sweetheart deals cut over the heads of taxpayers,” Whatley’s campaign said.

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Having cleared the House, the data center bill passed Wednesday heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain.

The Trump administration continues to crack down on voter fraud cases, including a noncitizen allegedly voting in a mayoral race he was fraudulently registered for and a noncitizen arrested for lying about her citizenship to vote in federal elections.

These allegations span a slate of federal election-related cases highlighted by the Justice Department in recent days, adding to a series of prosecutions targeting noncitizen voting, fraudulent voter registrations and other alleged election-related crimes. 

DOJ’s latest announcements span California, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas and Massachusetts, while federal prosecutors have brought a number of other cases across the country in recent weeks amid the Trump administration’s broader efforts to bolster election security ahead of the midterms.

The White House pointed to the new cases that continue to pile up as evidence supporting the administration’s crackdown.

DEMOCRAT NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR SAYS THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS DISCOVERED ON VOTER ROLLS, PURGED

“Despite extreme Democrats and the media claiming it never happens, the evidence of non-citizens registering and voting in our elections continues to pile up,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Any non-citizens found registering and voting in our elections will be arrested and held accountable. Only Americans should be electing American leaders.”

The more than a dozen defendants charged in cases announced this week face allegations ranging from illegal voting and false claims of U.S. citizenship, to fraudulent voter registration and alleged identity fraud. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche warned that individuals “gaming the election system, voting illegally, or committing voter fraud” will face prosecution, while federal prosecutors in Texas said their seven cases “send a clear message” that laws barring noncitizens from voting will be enforced.

Among the defendants were Louisiana mayoral candidate Bridget Johnson, who prosecutors allege fraudulently registered Jamaican noncitizen Michael Wedderburn before he went on to vote in the 2024 federal election and the same mayoral race in which Johnson was a candidate. Johnson allegedly submitted electronically a Louisiana voter-registration application in Wedderburn’s name on July 14, 2024, falsely stating that he was a U.S. citizen, according to court documents.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LEARNS FATE AFTER USING STOLEN IDENTITY TO VOTE IN US ELECTIONS FOR DECADES

Johnson was charged with fraudulent voter registration and voting by an alien, while Wedderburn was charged with voting by an alien. If convicted, Johnson faces up to five years in prison, while Wedderburn faces up to one year, along with potential financial penalties, according to federal prosecutors.

Other cases announced this week included allegations against three people in California accused in an alleged scheme that used stolen identities of registered voters to manufacture signatures on ballot-initiative petitions. California frequently uses ballot initiatives to put major policy questions directly before voters, with citizen-backed measures capable of changing state law or amending the state constitution. Recent initiatives have included Proposition 36, which increased penalties for certain drug and theft crimes, as well as measures dealing with the minimum wage and rent control.

Prosecutors allege James Brass and Courtney Price went to Los Angeles’ Skid Row, where they handed people stolen identities belonging to registered California voters and paid them to copy those voters’ personal information onto ballot petitions and forge their signatures. Brass and a third defendant, Jateisha Herron, then allegedly falsely certified that they had personally witnessed the registered voters sign the petitions. Brass allegedly received approximately $41,600 from coordinators working with a petition-management company helping collect signatures, according to prosecutors.

EX-NEW JERSEY MAYOR, HER HUSBAND CHARGED FOR USING FAKE BALLOT SIGNATURES AFTER SHE PLEADED GUILTY TO DUI

The case is the second election-related federal prosecution announced this year involving alleged payments to people on Skid Row. In May, federal prosecutors charged a longtime ballot-initiative signature collector with allegedly paying individuals, including homeless people living on Skid Row, to register to vote.

Meanwhile, in Kansas, prosecutors charged 24-year-old Peruvian national and U.S. permanent resident Mariana Alexandra Dewey with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, fraudulent election conduct and voting as an alien in a federal election, after arresting her earlier this month. In Massachusetts, federal prosecutors announced a case this week against Nigerian national Gladys Adaeze Okafor, who allegedly claimed to be a U.S. citizen while registering to vote before casting ballots in multiple federal elections.

A handful of cases were announced by federal prosecutors in Texas this week as well, including multiple cases where individuals registered to vote illegally when applying for a Texas driver’s license. On the same day those defendants were indicted, a Mexican national was also sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for aggravated identity theft, false statements of citizenship, and illegal voting by an alien, according to federal officials.

INSIDE HOUSE REPUBLICANS’ PLAN TO END RUN DEM OPPOSITION AND PASS TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID

The cases add to the growing list of federal election-related cases brought in the past few weeks, on top of other prosecutions earlier this year involving noncitizens accused of illegally registering or voting in U.S. elections. Less than two weeks ago, the Justice Department charged five people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Wisconsin in cases involving alleged illegal voting or fraudulent registration tied to the 2022 or 2024 elections. DOJ separately charged an Indian national in Minnesota last week with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in order to vote in the 2024 general election.

But, despite the mounting prosecutions, the Trump administration also faced a setback this week in its efforts to boost election security.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) could not implement the president’s stricter ballot-mail requirements for the 2026 elections, leaving a lower court’s nationwide injunction in place. The blocked rules would have required states to use specially designed ballot-mail envelopes with unique voter barcodes, submit envelope designs to USPS for review and provide it with information about intended ballot recipients.

The ruling, however, did not block a separate part of Trump’s March executive order directing the federal government to create citizenship lists for states to use in checking their voter rolls.

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Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was appointed by Trump, agreed the rules should not take effect for this year’s elections, writing that state and local officials did not have sufficient time to reasonably implement them. Nonetheless, Kavanaugh said there was “at least a fair prospect” that the Postal Service ultimately has the statutory authority to impose the requirements. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Trump blasted the decision Tuesday as another “bad decision” from the Supreme Court and praised Alito and Thomas as “legends,” while arguing the ruling would make cheating through mail ballots easier.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a series of exclusive interviews with Fox News Digital, lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sounded the alarm on a sprawling network of “Trojan horse” activists, nonprofits and social media influencers allegedly amplifying the hostile messages of foreign adversaries straight through the open gates of American democracy.

The warning came into sharp focus Tuesday when CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and two fellow activists walked into House Rayburn 2172 for a hearing on covert foreign influence operations, then strategically positioned themselves behind witnesses in T-shirts supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Communist Party of Cuba.

About 30 minutes into the hearing, South and Central Asia Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., stopped the hearing and had Capitol Police escort them out.

“They’re coming in, trying to look like one thing, but we know that once they’re inside the gates that those doors are going to spring open and there’s a whole other motivation for what they’re trying to do,” Huizenga told Fox News Digital.

At the center of the controversy is communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, who married CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans in a tropical wedding in Jamaica in 2017, soon after funneling $285 million to six pro-China, pro-communist, anti-American nonprofits in the U.S., including CodePink, according to a Fox News Digital investigation.

Lawmakers say the answer is transparency: following the money and exposing who finances the alleged “Trojan horse.”

In their series of interviews, Huizenga and other committee members explained how the modern “Trojan horse” isn’t made of wood but rather a network of activists, nonprofits, social-media influencers and other ostensibly American voices that foreign governments and foreign-linked actors can allegedly fund, amplify or exploit to carry their messages through the open gates of American democracy.

“They’re coming in, trying to look like one thing, but we know that once they’re inside the gates that those doors are going to spring open and there’s a whole other motivation for what they’re trying to do,” Huizenga told Fox News Digital.

LAWMAKERS THROW OUT ‘TROJAN HORSE’ ACTIVISTS THEY SAY ARE ENGAGED IN AMERICAN SUBVERSION

At the hearing, devoted to “Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America,” lawmakers expressed concern about how the Communist Party of China, Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Communist Party of Cuba spread their propaganda and influence in the U.S.

The phrase “Trojan horse” comes from the ancient Greek story of soldiers concealed inside a wooden horse presented to the city of Troy. Once the horse was brought behind the city’s fortified walls, the soldiers emerged and opened the gates, destroying Troy.

Huizenga stressed that Americans can hold sincere beliefs while also having those messages funded or amplified by foreign actors without necessarily knowing it. He argued that the answer to foreign influence is exposing the origins of the messaging through transparency and robust debate.

Rep. Huizenga: ‘It’s really about theatrics’

Inside the hearing room, as Fox News Digital reported, Benjamin and her fellow CodePink activists offered a vivid illustration of the debate over how political messages are created and amplified.

They sat directly behind the witnesses, placing their T-shirts in the sightline of the official committee cameras.

Benjamin then turned toward a television monitor on the side of the hearing room displaying the official video feed. She pulled out her phone, zoomed in on the image of herself and a fellow activist appearing behind the witnesses and took photo after photo of the screen.

HOUSE PANEL PROBES FOREIGN ‘TROJAN HORSES’ AS SINGHAM SCRUTINY WIDENS

Huizenga said he viewed the episode as political theater designed for an audience beyond the committee room.

“This isn’t about discourse. This is about disruption,” Huizenga told Fox News Digital. “It’s all planned out. You see people in the crowd filming with their phones, getting ready. You knew something was going to happen because all of a sudden the phones would come out.”

“It’s really about theatrics,” he added, arguing that confrontations can subsequently be circulated on social media to attract attention, donations and volunteers.

The episode captured the central tension running through the hearing: how does the United States expose genuine covert foreign influence without treating protected American political speech as foreign subversion?

“Transparency, transparency is the watchword,” he told Fox News Digital. “We really need to make sure that people know not only the why, but the who is behind all this.”

Rep. Baumgartner: ‘We need to know who’s behind it’

Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., told Fox News Digital that America’s open political system creates opportunities for foreign governments to try to influence legitimate domestic debates through social media, universities and other institutions.

“The American people need transparency and need to understand what is going on in this public policy discussions and whether it’s podcast hosts, certain actors on social media, or things going on our college campuses,” Baumgartner said. “We need to know who’s behind it and what their motivations are.”

Baumgartner pointed to “clear transparency on this issue” as a solution, adding that if evidence showed organizations were acting on behalf of foreign governments without complying with applicable disclosure laws, the matter could potentially be referred to the Justice Department, which oversees the Foreign Agent Registration Act, or FARA. The law requires that people and organizations acting on behalf of foreign interests register with the Justice Department.

Rep. Randy Fine: Trojan horses ‘poison people’s minds’

Other lawmakers said the modern Trojan horse doesn’t necessarily have to walk physically through the doors of Congress, but rather arrive via social media.

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., described social media, influencers and protests as potential channels through which foreign governments influence American political debate. He said that “it’s a real issue, whether it’s on social media, influencers, protests, these things are all designed to destabilize our country.”

Fine characterized what experts call “cognitive warfare” as “using our information platforms to try to poison people’s minds and to create division from within.”

Rep. Darrell Issa: ‘It’s a network’

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., focused on another battlefield: artificial intelligence.

“Trojan horses are things like the announcement that we should slow down on AI,” Issa told Fox News Digital, arguing that foreign adversaries can benefit when American political pressure slows U.S. technological development.

“We are in a war in which the other side uses all the clandestine tools,” Issa said. “They use their, quite frankly, their social media to our detriment.”

Huizenga similarly argued that Americans should view the organizations under examination not individually but as a network.

“It’s a network. It’s not independent organizations or even people,” he said. “You will see some of the same people at different organizations, rallies, or protests.”

‘Origins aren’t organic’

At the center of much of the hearing were findings from a Fox News Digital investigation into Neville Roy Singham, an American-born communist tech tycoon who lives in Shanghai and has pumped $285 million into six nonprofits including CodePink, the People’s Forum and other groups examined during the hearing.

Huizenga alleged in his official opening remarks that Singham uses his wealth and relationships in China to support organizations that promote communist ideology and destabilize American society. He explicitly described Singham, CodePink and a growing network of pro-communist, pro-China groups as “Trojan horses.”

‘TROJAN HORSES’ IN AMERICA: CONGRESS PROBES INFLUENCE NETWORKS TIED TO CHINA, IRAN AND CUBA

Singham and CodePink have denied taking direction from the Chinese government. Singham has said his activities reflect his own political beliefs, while Benjamin has said CodePink doesn’t receive money from the Chinese Communist Party.

As Fox News Digital reported in June, the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has convened a grand jury investigation into alleged money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud by Singham and the organizations he has funded.

No criminal charges have been filed against Singham or CodePink in connection with those allegations.

Huizenga argued that the funding relationships deserve scrutiny.

“Oftentimes it’s frankly the origins aren’t organic, or if there is a part of it being organic, this is getting fed by outside organizations, oftentimes even outside countries,” Huizenga alleged.

 

‘Transparency is the watchword’

Being escorted through the committee-room doors didn’t end CodePink’s political theater.

Outside the hearing room, Benjamin positioned herself beside the House Foreign Affairs Committee placard and began recording another video, pulling out a comb first to straighten her hair.

When Rep. Fine emerged from the hearing, Benjamin followed him down the hallway firing questions as another member of her team recorded the encounter.

After Fine disappeared into an office, Benjamin returned to the committee entrance, straightened her hair with a comb and resumed recording.

HOUSE COMMITTEE PASSES FOREIGN FUNDING TRANSPARENCY ACT TO EXPOSE FOREIGN DONATIONS TO NONPROFITS

About two hours after Capitol Police escorted the activists from the hearing, CodePink posted a carefully edited video of the day’s confrontation on social media, where activists in the broader network began sharing it.

The physical protest was over, but the images it produced were just beginning to travel.

That sequence was precisely why lawmakers said Americans should look beyond the spectacle to who finances and amplifies political messaging.

“This is theater for many of these people,” Huizenga said. He said he wanted Americans, through “transparency and disclosure,” to understand “not just the what they are doing, but their who is financing them.”

The lawmakers gathered to investigate modern “Trojan horses” said the lesson of the ancient story wasn’t simply to keep the horse outside the gates but also to understand what — and who — might be inside.

“Transparency, transparency is the watchword,” Huizenga said.

Lawmakers say ‘transparency and disclosure’ are the best defense against influence campaigns exploiting America’s democracy

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Fox News Digital’s Reagan Schroeder and Brooke Curto contributed to this report.

Several Democrats voted with Republicans to pass a sweeping sanctions package targeting Russia on Wednesday, handing President Donald Trump a key authority the left has long raged against.

The House of Representatives passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named after the late Republican senator who was one of Ukraine’s biggest champions in Congress until his sudden death in July.

It comes despite opposition from key Democrats over a provision giving Trump tariff authority over countries fueling Russia’s war in Ukraine.

HOUSE DEMS FACE TRUMP TARIFF DILEMMA AS MAJOR RUSSIA SANCTIONS BILL HEADS TO FLOOR

“What we’re not for is, giving more tariff authority to this president. There is no guarantee in this legislation that the president could not use these tariffs against Ukraine if he decided to do so. There is no guarantee in this legislation that the president can impose these tariffs on Russia, with the enthusiasm that our friends on the other side have offered,” Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said during debate on the bill.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said, “The manner in which this bill has been written doesn’t require the president of the United States to impose sanctions on Russia. In fact, there are so many loopholes written into the bill, I believe that it’s very unlikely that the sanctions relief contemplated in the legislation will ever see the light of day.”

LINDSEY GRAHAM’S FINAL MISSION TO PUNISH PUTIN CLEARS SENATE AFTER YEARLONG FIGHT

The bill was led in the House by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, a longtime supporter of Ukraine.

“This is a critical time in history. A time my friend Lindsey Graham described as a magic moment, a moment that we cannot afford to waste,” McCaul said during debate. “We shared a fundamental belief that America is strongest at home when it projects strength abroad. This legislation does exactly that.”

EUROPE BANKROLLS PUTIN’S WAR MACHINE EVEN AS NATO RACES TO BOLSTER DEFENSES

He continued, “It targets the money that fuels Russia’s war machine. It sanctions Russian officials and oligarchs, banks and financial institutions and the shadow fleet that helps cheap Russian energy moving and through precisely targeted tariffs. It also punishes countries providing financial support for the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. Why? Because, as we’ve heard from President Zelensky’s team, you can evade sanctions, which the Russians have done for years. But you cannot evade tariffs.”

The bill, which has gone through several iterations, still primarily focuses on kneecapping Putin’s war machine in Russia’s ongoing fight with Ukraine.

US TARGETS CHINESE REFINERY IN SWEEPING IRAN OIL CRACKDOWN, SANCTIONS ‘SHADOW FLEET’ TANKERS

But tweaks were needed to get sign-off from the White House.However, it reinserted sanctions targeting Iran’s weapons and energy sectors in the hopes of incentivizing a lasting peace deal as the war in the Middle East marches on.

Key components of the legislation allow for up to 500% tariffs on Russian imports; tariffs of up to 100% on the top five countries buying Russian energy, and it provides Trump flexibility for when to turn off some aspects of the sanctions.

The tariff authority has proven a hard sell for House Democrats, though their colleagues in the Senate largely bought in.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., helped create the bill and largely spearheaded Democrat support in the Senate.

PUTIN, RUSSIA PUT ON NOTICE AS SENATE TAKES CRUCIAL STEP TO GRIND DOWN THE KREMLIN’S WAR MACHINE

Blumenthal defended the tariff language in the bill to Fox News Digital, “If Donald Trump wants to break this law, he will be restrained by the courts, just as when he broke the law on tariffs previously.”

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It now heads to Trump’s desk for his signature.

At least two Democrats signaled early on that they would support the bill; Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., defied their party leaders on Tuesday to help Republicans break gridlock on advancing the legislation.

Their votes rescued the sanctions package from dying on the House floor amid a conservative rebellion over an unrelated issue. A similar move by the pair earlier this month earned a public reprimand by Jeffries, who called it a “breach of trust.”

“Congressman Golden has been a consistent supporter of America’s allies in Ukraine. He didn’t want to see the Russia sanctions bill die in a rule vote after passing with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate,” Golden’s spokesman told Fox News Digital of the vote.

FIRST ON FOX: Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who switched her party affiliation over unheeded warning signs about President Joe Biden’s decline in the 2024 election, says Democrats had internal polling showing that Kamala Harris was far from the party’s best shot at beating Donald Trump.

But that polling wasn’t convenient.

“The polling numbers went directly against the narrative that the party wanted to espouse,” Li said.

“They knew that skipping over Kamala Harris would be a slap in the face to the bedrock of the party, which is Black women in particular, and they just wouldn’t have it,” Li told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

EX-DEM INSIDER EXPOSES WHAT HARRIS TOLD TOP DONORS DAYS BEFORE BIDEN DROPPED OUT: ‘INSULTING’

Li is chronicling the months leading up to Biden’s withdrawal from the race in her new book, “Unburdened,” revealing that the party’s internal thinking behind why Harris was made the nominee and how many of the party’s top figures had long known that Biden’s age had created an unavoidable political liability.

Li recalled that former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Harris had been floated as possible replacements for Biden before Biden announced his decision to step down.

According to Li, Harris was at the bottom of the group.

“Kamala Harris came in dead last. It wasn’t even close. Pete Buttigieg, who hilariously received 0% support from the Black vote, did better than she did. And yet the party is so straitjacketed by DEI that they had no choice but to appoint her,” Li said.

As a top fundraiser for both Biden and Harris, Li worked closely with top donors, high-profile members of the party and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She recalled how the polling was guarded closely, but that it circulated among the party’s leading operatives and fundraisers like herself.

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“I’m part of the National Finance Committee. The list of membership is guarded like the papal conclave. But people talk. It’s a very small group of people. That poll was commissioned internally,” Li said.

“Most of the time I would say I don’t believe a candidate’s polling because it’s basically just funded propaganda. But in this case, we wanted an objective overview of who could actually mount the most formidable opposition to Trump.”

At the end of the day, Li believes that the decision to put Harris at the top of the ticket was made, at least partially, out of fear.

In addition to being the vice president and an obvious replacement consideration for Biden, Li recalled that Harris had devoted followers who would make it painful to explore other options.

“People were terrified of the online mob. The K-Hive isn’t that numerous, but they’re very, very toxic and they’re very coordinated. No one wants to be labeled as a racist,” Li said, referring to the nickname for Harris’ supporters.

Li believes that, using that fear and by positioning herself close to Biden’s donors, Harris made herself the choice the party couldn’t turn a blind eye to, despite knowledge of her weakness as a candidate.

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“Oscar-worthy. Honestly, truly Oscar-worthy,” Li said.

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Representatives for Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

FIRST ON FOX: Anxieties over data centers have cranked up considerably, and one Senate Republican wants to close a tax loophole that he argues tech giants are using as “corporate welfare” to build facilities throughout the country.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., plans on introducing legislation that would tie up a tax loophole for data centers first unleashed by Republicans in 2017 that he charged has been exploited by tech companies to build their sprawling data center facilities. 

It comes as the GOP wrestles with how to handle the data center and AI issue, which has become a major political wedge on the campaign trail, one President Donald Trump has called a “hoax.”

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That loophole, Hawley told Fox News Digital in an interview, is for Opportunity Zones, which he said are generally meant for “for low-income areas, low-income housing, low-income businesses or businesses in low-income areas.”

“These data centers have figured out a way that they think that they can access all of this money,” Hawley said. “So, let’s be clear. This is a form of corporate welfare. They don’t need any welfare. These people are rich. They can pay their own way.”

The tax breaks were first approved by Congress as part of Trump’s first-term tax cuts package, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. That initial bite at the apple established them as a means to spur investment into lower income or forgotten areas where tracts of land were dubbed Opportunity Zones.

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They were then made permanent last year through the “big, beautiful bill,” and though not explicitly intended to be used for data centers, have since provided a route for tech companies to defer, reduce or outright eliminate corporate gains taxes on their investments in the zones.

Since both tax packages were passed, 8,746 Opportunity Zones have cropped up in the U.S., according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, just under half of all zones are in rural areas, where tech goliaths have set their sights on building data centers.

And, according to a report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 14% of all data centers are in Opportunity Zones, while just over 17% of all permitted, approved and under construction data center projects are in the zones.

Hawley’s forthcoming bill would explicitly exclude data centers from being able to access the tax cuts, adding another barrier at the federal level in an attempt to try and slow their rapid development.

And it comes as Congress scrambles to answer the growing fears over unfettered AI development, which data centers play a key role in.

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Concerns have rippled through the halls of the Capitol since its return this week after a call from major players in the AI industry to slow development, which came after engineers at Anthropic revealed on X that there was a roughly 10% chance that AI could wipe out humanity within a decade. The topic of reining in the technology is not new.

Three years ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., convened several panels with tech CEOs, including one with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to hash out what AI legislation could look like in Congress.

Since then, there has been little to no legislative action taken.

Hawley argued that Congress needs to at least put guardrails on AI and give people the opportunity to sue tech companies if their data and personal information has been used without their consent.

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When asked why no real action had happened since Schumer’s series of AI summits, Hawley contended it was “because all the tech CEOs then promptly gave Schumer and the Democrats gobs and gobs money, and they decided that, you know what, maybe this industry is going fine.”

“And now what you see the same tech CEOs saying is they want an antitrust exemption so they can all talk together and work together,” Hawley said. ‘Any regulations, they want to write them themselves. And they’re out there saying, ‘The sky is falling, the sky is falling. You need to let us get together, write the regulations and figure out what we’re going to do.’ I’m pretty skeptical of that, I have to say.”

Are we playing with the old playbook or a new playbook in the midterm elections this fall?

That’s unclear. It’s hard to determine, simply because we’ve seen so much that’s “new” in politics lately.

Norms are cast aside. The American system quaked to its core in recent years. You’ve witnessed an American president win the election by prevailing in the Electoral College but losing the popular vote. To have that happen twice in 16 years (2000 and 2016) is astonishing, considering the fact that such an outcome only unfolded on three occasions before.

You then had a president impeached twice – yet return to office a few years later. There was the Capitol riot, as arguing continued about the 2020 election.

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If this is the old playbook, Democrats likely light up the scoreboard in November. The party of the President typically loses about 25 seats in a president’s first midterm. Midterm elections are frequently a referendum on the President. That’s why many Republicans are trying to keep President Donald Trump at arm’s length, considering that his polling numbers are anywhere from the mid-thirties to 40 percent on a good day. Gas prices are high. Grocery prices are skyrocketing. The war in Iran lingers. There’s a trade war with one of America’s best allies.

On the old playbook, this portends a disaster for the GOP in this fall’s midterms.

But what if we’re using the new playbook?

President Trump – and sometimes Republicans aligned with him – have shown a remarkable resilience to defy political gravity and norms. Control of the House could come down to just a few seats. What if there are questions about election security and the validity of who won and lost? There’s redistricting. On paper, Republicans probably redrew about five to six seats nationwide in their favor.

If things are tight, we might not know which party wins the House on election night. Perhaps a few days down the road – if not later. That is, unless it’s a Democratic blowout.

And, remember what we said a few moments ago about the president’s party losing so many seats in that first midterm? Yes, in a way, this is President Trump’s “first midterm.” But not really. He experienced a midterm in 2018. Not that things went in the GOP’s favor that year. There’s no contemporary data on how the party of a President might perform after he’s been out of office and rallied to victory a few years later.

Also, the sheer reduction by both parties of seats which are in play mitigates political “waves” which crash across the political shoreline in House midterm races. Think 1994 and 2010 for Republicans. 2018 for Democrats.Thus, even though many of the factors favor the Democrats, the possibility remains it could be tough for the party to flip the House.

In 2018, the Democrats’ carried an approval rating of 44%. For this time around, it’s 37%. That rivals polling related to the President. In 2018, voters had had enough of President Trump and wanted a change. But because of the polling parity this year, it’s not so obvious that voters are so turned off by President Trump that they automatically gravitate to the Democrats.

Here’s another factor: turnout.

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President Trump has worked hard to tell voters that he’s “on the ballot” this fall. That cuts two ways. President Trump’s presence on the ballot has historically driven people to the polls. In 2016, 60.1% of registered voters showed up. In 2020, an eye-popping 66.4% of all voters cast ballots. And in 2024, 64.3% of those registered to vote did so.

But considering the president’s unpopularity, the cognizance of voters that he’s “on the ballot” could also deter them from turning out. At least those who previously supported him. And those impacts ricochet down to House races. The President’s track record at turning out independent voters in races which count wasn’t great down ballot – even as he won the White House in 2024.

Consider that in the 2018 midterms, 50.1% of registered voters materialized. Just 46.1% voted in the 2022 midterms. It was 36.1% in the 2014 midterms — 41% in the historic 2010 midterms where Republicans won a record 63 House seats.

This “Trump on the ballot” initiative might not resound with voters. Especially since the President conceded – en route to his midterm convention in Dallas – that gas prices wouldn’t decrease until after the election. He also said the U.S. is stuck with the war in Iran through the midterms.

So how do we know what to anticipate in November?

It’s really hard to read if there’s not a clear wave coming. The best way to postulate control of the House is by going race to race. And that is a painstaking process.

For instance, will Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., have a district in which to run? Missouri Republicans tried to draw Cleaver out of his district earlier this year. Then a court ruled last week that the Show-Me-State must use the old Congressional districts – likely meaning that Cleaver was safe. Then another judge ruled that voters already cast ballots in primaries. So the new maps were back and Cleaver may be out.

All of this less than two months before the election.

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Is there a groundswell for Democrats in Iowa where the Senate seat and governor’s mansion are in jeopardy for Republicans? If that’s the case, Democrats might have a shot of claiming at least two if not three seats there: Republican Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn and maybe the seat that Rep. Ashley Hinson is vacating in her quest to become a senator.

How about Ohio? There are competitive gubernatorial and Senate contests. Does a Democratic surge boost Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio? Do the accusations of spousal and child abuse bounce embattled Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio., in what is otherwise a relatively safe Republican seat? Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, clung to her seat by fewer than 1,000 votes two years ago. But that was when President Trump carried the Buckeye State by 11 points – and Kaptur’s district. Redistricting actually turned Kaptur’s turf slightly more in her favor. But the 80-year-old Kaptur was in a car wreck in August, inhibiting her ability to campaign. Is that a factor?

How well do Democrats perform in Virginia? Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., faces former Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., who she vanquished in 2022. Could former Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., – who won in a 2008 upset in a differently-drawn district and promptly lost in 2010 – unseat Rep. John McGuire, R-Va.?

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is retiring. Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) is running for Golden’s seat. Does LePage benefit from Democratic chaos in the effort to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine? After all, President Trump won one of Maine’s three electoral votes in 2024, capturing that Congressional district over former Vice President Kamala Harris.

We could bounce around the map, district to district, all day like this. But sans a wave, that’s what you must do to properly filet the House races.

Most conventional arrows point in the direction of Democrats winning the House this fall. Yet it probably shouldn’t be this close.

That’s why you have to go by the playbook.

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The only question is if this is the old playbook or new playbook?

President Donald Trump’s latest surgeon general nominee, Dr. Nicole Saphier, defended the MMR vaccine and rejected claims that childhood vaccines cause autism during a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Saphier, a radiologist and a former Fox News contributor, would serve as the federal government’s top doctor and public health spokesperson at a time when measles cases are surging across the country.

“I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combatting measles,” Saphier said during her appearance before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the committee’s chairman, asked Saphier whether she agreed with Trump’s comments last month suggesting the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could be “quite lethal.”

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“As a physician, I can tell you that I do not believe the MMR vaccine to be lethal,” Saphier responded.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Saphier would serve under if confirmed, has said multiple times throughout his tenure that people should get the MMR vaccine.

“The two-dose MMR vaccine is our safest and most effective tool to prevent this highly contagious illness,” he told Fox News Digital in March 2025.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also continued to recommend the MMR vaccine, although the Trump administration eventually favors splitting it into three shots.

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Saphier also differed with some of Kennedy’s past statements about a potential link between vaccines and autism.

“Well, humbly, I don’t know what causes autism, but I have not seen reputable evidence that would suggest that vaccines cause autism,” Saphier said. “I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism.”

In a 2023 Fox News interview, while running for president as a Democrat, Kennedy told host Jesse Watters: “I do believe that autism does come from vaccines.”

Kennedy later backed away from claiming a definitive link between vaccines and autism, saying in his confirmation hearing last year that he would “do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.”

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Later, Saphier addressed a question from Cassidy, also a physician, about whether children should receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

“Chairman Cassidy, you’re speaking to someone who tells people they have cancer every day. And the hepatitis B vaccine is one of the most tangible ways we have to prevent cancer,” she said, adding, “The most tried and true way to prevent hepatitis B infection and effectively lower hepatitis B associated illness is universal birth dosing.”

Cassidy repeatedly pressed Saphier on whether she supported the Trump administration’s move in December to stop universally recommending the vaccine at birth for babies whose mothers test negative for hepatitis B.

Saphier stopped short of saying whether she believed the policy should be reversed.

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Under questioning from other senators, Saphier said that as surgeon general, she would promote early cancer screening, review data on the harms of flavored e-cigarettes and study the mental health effects of AI chatbots on children and adolescents.

Saphier was nominated by Trump in April after his earlier pick for surgeon general, wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means, failed to gain enough traction in the Senate to be confirmed.

Before that, Trump withdrew his nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, another former Fox News contributor, in May 2025.

As the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s location in Monmouth, New Jersey, Saphier would bring extensive medical experience to the role.

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She has also authored several books on health and wellness, including “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis,” published in April 2020, mere months after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Kennedy later adopted the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” as the slogan for his presidential campaign before bringing it into the Trump administration’s broader public health agenda.

Before being nominated, Saphier openly criticized Kennedy, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last year that she was “deeply concerned” about his approach after he described autism as an “epidemic” and pledged to identify the cause of the developmental disorder by September 2025.

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Specifically, she took issue with Kennedy hiring David Geier, a vaccine critic, to analyze CDC data on autism. She called his experience “limited” and said his research has been “widely criticized within the scientific and medical communities.”

A review of the Health and Human Services employment database shows Geier still works at the department as a “senior data analyst.”

“Families deserve more than passionate speeches and fringe science,” Saphier wrote in the op-ed. “If Mr. Kennedy truly wants to be a champion for families facing autism spectrum disorder, he should form partnerships with the nation’s most reputable researchers.”

Despite widespread predictions of major Democratic electoral victories this November, South Texas GOP candidate Eric Flores is predicting a “red tidal wave” in the Lone Star State, with controversial Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico as the most prominent Democrat at the top of the ticket.

Flores, a U.S. Army veteran running in Texas’ 34th Congressional District, called out Talarico for his recent “flip-flop” on some of his most controversial stances, including calling God “nonbinary” and saying there are six sexes. He argued that Talarico’s decision to walk back those statements is proof that he and other Democrats in the state “don’t have a record to run on.”

In an interview with Fox News last week, Talarico said he supports banning gender surgery for minors and opposed transgender-identifying men competing in women’s sports. He also addressed his controversial “God is non-binary” comment, saying, “I was being provocative with that statement. I get that,” and “what I was trying to say is that you can’t use human categories to define God, and that’s not controversial theologically. In fact, the late Charlie Kirk, the late Pope Benedict, all said the same thing.”

In response, Flores shot back, “Those aren’t provocative statements; those were statements that were made with intention, and that’s showing who he truly is.”

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Flores is running in a competitive race for a heavily Hispanic district that has long been a Democratic stronghold. The seat is currently held by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas. Despite long being considered a solidly blue district, President Donald Trump won it in 2024. Republicans have also narrowed Democrats’ advantage in the district over the past several election cycles. Flores argued that, with Talarico as the most prominent Democrat running statewide in Texas, this will be the year the GOP finally seals the deal.

“They’re saying that there’s a blue wave. Well, I got news for folks, there’s a red tidal wave coming because we’re going to be getting rid of the wrong type of Democrats like my opponent,” he said.

He credits the GOP’s rising chances in the district to eroding trust in Democrats in South Texas. He said, “the voters are finally asking the questions that South Texas deserves to hear.”

“Everything that I hear throughout Texas 34 is simple, and they are thinking about their pocketbook; they’re thinking about inflation and the cost of living,” he explained.

Flores’ pitch to try to break through the Democrats’ longtime hold on South Texas is “that this isn’t a contract election, it’s a contrast election.”

“What does that mean? That it’s common sense, which is the Republican Party, against communism and fake and the wrong type of Democrats like my opponent who are voting 80 to 85% of the time with AOC,” he said.

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In response, Gonzalez told Fox News Digital that “Eric Flores is a rubber-stamp intellectual lightweight that can’t think for himself. He will continue to support the Iran war and policies that raise the cost of living for hardworking South Texans. All while shamelessly taking his ‘Trump Endorsement’ language off all his political ads and sending fundraising messages asking for donors to help him pay back his personal primary campaign debt instead of trying to win his race.”

“That should certainly feel like an air of confidence to the party,” Gonzalez continued, adding, “Trust me, he’s not fooling Democrats or Republicans for that matter. And it won’t be long before he’s back representing child molesters in South Texas.”

Fox News Digital is not aware of any evidence that Flores represented child molesters in his capacity as either a private practice attorney or assistant U.S. attorney.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for comment.

Regarding Talarico’s Fox interview, Flores said, “They’re asking him, do you really think that there are six genders? Do you really support these gender surgeries against minors? That’s the same thing with Talarico and my opponent, when they get questioned, all they can do is flip-flop because they actually don’t have a record to run on other than this far-left woke DEI agenda.”

A spokesperson for Talarico’s campaign directed Fox News Digital back to comments he made during his interview last week. Fox News spoke with Talarico at a food drive campaign event in Dallas on Tuesday. Talarico’s event took place as the first-ever GOP midterm convention kicked off just miles away in downtown Dallas.

Asked whether he would vote as a U.S. senator in favor of a national ban on gender surgery for minors, Talarico answered, “Absolutely.”

He said, “I’ve been consistent on this issue,” explaining his opposition to a Texas bill to ban transgender surgeries on minors by saying the measure “was overly broad.”

“If you go back and check, I voted for a major amendment to limit the bill to banning surgeries for minors,” he said. “As a lawmaker, my job is to try to sift through everything the bill does. And sometimes there’s stuff in it that’s really harmful, and I have no choice but to oppose the bill as a whole.”

In 2023, as a member of the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico voted against Senate Bill 14, which prohibited certain gender surgeries, puberty blockers and certain hormone treatments for minors. Democrats proposed 18 amendments to the bill, all of which Talarico supported and all of which ultimately failed.

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“It’s why I try to use amendments, to narrow the focus of the bill so that it does exactly what we intend it to do,” he continued. “It’s what I tried to do with that piece of legislation, and unfortunately, the amendment I supported was unsuccessful.”

Talarico also told Fox News, “I supported amendments that would have given the power to make these decisions to local communities,” adding, “like conservatives used to believe, I believe in local control.”

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In the same interview, Talarico acknowledged that men in women’s sports is a significant issue in Texas. He said, “I oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness.”

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“Every sport has to be safe and fair. As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes. I care a lot about our students. And so, I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness,” he said.

Comparing himself to his Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico said, “I am proud of my legislative track record delivering for Texans. I brought Democrats and Republicans together to pass 60 bipartisan bills that lower people’s costs and get the economy back on track. I’ll put my record up against Ken Paxton’s every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”

“Doomer”-driven AI regulation could kneecap the U.S. against China while helping tech giants lock in their lead over smaller startups, a former Pentagon AI official who also worked for AI company Palantir Technologies told Fox News Digital.

The warning follows the resignation of an Anthropic researcher who said increasingly powerful AI could threaten humanity, while President Donald Trump called fears of rogue AI a “hoax” and compared those advancing such warnings to climate-change alarmists whose predictions, he argued, haven’t come true.

“The notion that I think the president and I share is that we should let the race play out, that the risk of global extinction is not real, it is in fact a hoax,” Will Thibeau, a former Palantir deployment strategist who later worked in the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office told Fox News Digital.

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“The stakes of losing to China, of losing the opportunity to transform our economy, are so high that we shouldn’t let ‘doomerism’ define public policy,” the retired Army Ranger added.

Thibeau’s position is not that Washington should take a hands-off approach to AI, but that the U.S. should race aggressively at the frontier while narrowly addressing concrete risks — threading the needle between denying China an advantage and preventing regulations backed by today’s leading AI firms from entrenching a “duopoly” at the expense of new American innovators.

“We must maintain an edge at the frontier, so our economy has the license on the first benefits of artificial intelligence. Enhanced manufacturing capabilities, enhanced processing power, decision-making in financial markets,” he said, disputing the idea that Beijing will not race full bore because the technology could countervail the CCP’s grip by incidentally empowering civilians.

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to redefine our economy and transform the country for the good,” Thibeau said, while rejecting both predictions that it will make life “unrecognizable” and that it poses an uncontrollable “extinction” risk.

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Those “hyperventilating” over either extreme, he argued, miss the “clearly defined middle path” for AI development.

Thibeau said some of AI’s most important applications are military, where it can process battlefield data quickly enough to give U.S. forces an advantage while helping preserve civilian life.

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“I’m very bullish, if you will, on how artificial intelligence can be applied for the military,” he said.

While Thibeau said fears of “drone swarms run amok” are not realistic, he acknowledged AI carries real risks that policymakers should address without allowing those concerns to justify sweeping rules that slow U.S. development or undermine its military edge.

The larger danger, he argued, is that leading AI firms can absorb regulations that smaller newcomers cannot.

“There is a duopoly, perhaps a triopoly if you include Google,” Thibeau said, naming Anthropic and OpenAI as the two companies clearly in the lead.

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“They want to slow the game so they can use their built-in advantages and their current lead to solidify this market dominance… to make it harder for new entrants to rise the market chain [and capture] the regulatory incentives of the government.”

Fox News Digital reached out to all three firms for comment.

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Anthropic policy documents outline concerns about biological risks, cyber risks, loss of control and the automation of research and development while also underlining that regulations must “protect innovation.”

In terms of government oversight, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday that AI should be the rare time for bipartisan collaboration on regulation.

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“If there’s ever a time for Republicans to break from their blinded allegiance to Trump, it is now. The world is in danger and Republicans are on the sidelines sucking their thumbs,” the Senate Minority Leader claimed.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris added in a statement that AI is “advancing at an alarming speed,” and signaled she sides with the Big Tech firms calling for pacing the “frontier” — which Thibeau warned about.

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“A slowdown is critical in order to ensure AI serves the public interest,” she said in part of a lengthy statement.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said guardrails are necessary for the AI sphere but that Congress should not respond with a heavy hand.

“We have to put up some guardrails, some safety measures in place to ensure that AI doesn’t run away …. But at the same time, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t lose our edge in the global competition on this with China,” he told NBC News.

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“It’s got to be done right, safely [and] wisely,” he said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a batch of unclassified emails between FBI agents stemming from Operation Crossfire Hurricane, a Justice Department investigation launched during the Obama administration into whether then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia during the 2016 election.

Grassley argued that the email exchanges, which included former FBI Special Agent Kevin Gounaud seeking to open an investigation into Elon Musk over the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), revealed that the “Deep State” was at work to undermine Trump.

“The previous Democrat administrations under Obama and Biden conducted secret, insidious and downright evil operations that almost took down our government,” Grassley said during an Oversight hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel. “That’s arguably worse than Watergate.”

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Over the past decade, the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the direction of Grassley, has released several rounds of documents from a few FBI operations such as Operation Arctic Frost and Round River, alleging that the Justice Department was being weaponized against Trump and Republicans.

“The overall sustained efforts by the Deep State in the dark corners of the bureaucracy is worse than anything Trump has been accused of. At least he’s upfront and open so people can judge,” Grassley said.

At the center of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s most recent document release are three former FBI agents: Gounaud, Walter Giardina, who was fired by Patel in August over accusations of political weaponization, and Timothy Thibault.

Gounaud, who left the bureau in February, according to his LinkedIn, sent an email in February 2025 seeking to begin a criminal investigation of Musk. At the time, Musk was a special government employee overseeing DOGE. Gounaud’s complaint centered on Musk announcing on X his plan to have all government employees share five things they worked on that day.

“Musk used a non government system (twitter) to relate information that allegedly was for official purposes. In doing so, because he is monetized (he is a majority owner of twitter) he likely generated income for himself based on Twitter’s monetization model and/or advertising revenues,” Gounaud wrote. “His use of twitter in this and other instances is conceptually similar to Hillary Clinton’s misuse of a private email server for government business.”

Grassley later criticized the former FBI agent in a post on X.

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“Here is an email I released 2day showing an FBI agent who was ready2 open a CRIMINAL CASE all bc Elon Musk asked govt bureaucrats 2 report 5 things they did in a wk,” Grassley wrote. “Compare that 2 Iowans who work frm sunup to sundown EVERY DAY Washington rlly is an island surrounded by reality.”

The document dump also shows that Giardina emailed at least seven times over the course of four weeks beginning in January 2017 asking to be assigned to Crossfire Hurricane. The findings of the investigation were handed off to Special Counsel Robert Mueller a few months later in May.

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The emails show that Giardina was in correspondence with Thibault, who Grassley had accused of violating the Hatch Act. The allegation, which was investigated and dismissed by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), stemmed from Thibault resharing a post on then Twitter by the Lincoln Project, which called Trump a “psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.”

Thibault is included in several emails sent by Giardina to former Supervising Agent Joe Pientka.

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“Based on the records known to date, that case didn’t advance,” Grassley said. “His efforts, as well as the case he tried to open on Senator Sinema, undercut public statements by former FBI officials that agents don’t get to pick their cases.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is ratcheting up his crackdown against sanctuary jurisdictions across the country.

Jordan is sending subpoenas to district attorneys in Boulder, Colorado, and Fairfax, Virginia, accusing both of giving “preferential treatment” to “criminal aliens” when weighing whether and how to prosecute wrongdoing.

“Despite repeated requests for responsive documents and communications, you have not produced a single document. Accordingly, because you have failed to comply with the Committee’s requests, the Committee is serving compulsory process,” he wrote in separate letters to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, both obtained by Fox News Digital.

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“Your office’s lenient treatment of foreign national criminals endangers communities and ensures that criminal aliens escape both criminal and immigration accountability for their actions.”

Jordan’s committee has for weeks investigated district attorneys who have been accused of taking immigration status into account when pursuing criminal complaints, even when the alleged crime has nothing to do with the suspect’s legal status.

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Descano, in particular, has recently made headlines after the stabbing death of 41-year-old U.S. citizen Stephanie Minter, whose accused killer came to the U.S. illegally from Sierra Leone in 2012. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the man had been arrested over 30 times before Minter’s killing.

Descano, who has led the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office since January 2020, issued plea bargaining guidance that year saying prosecutors should “consider immigration consequences where possible” and consider “the collateral immigration consequences of the specific crime(s) the defendant is charged with,” according to local outlet WTOP News.

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Meanwhile, Dougherty recently lost his Democratic primary campaign to be attorney general of the state of Colorado.

He told Boulder Reporting Lab in May that Jordan’s probe was “political theater that ignores serious failures within the federal immigration system.”

The city of Boulder issued an ordinance in January 2017, after President Donald Trump was elected, directing government employees not to work with federal immigration authorities or “inquire into a person’s immigration status.”

Boulder and Fairfax counties are known as a sanctuary jurisdictions, meaning local law enforcement is not bound to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

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Jordan’s probe is being conducted alongside Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., who chairs the Judiciary panel’s subcommittee on immigration enforcement.

Jordan previously told Fox News Digital that he would not rule out subpoenas if the district attorneys did not comply with Republicans’ requests for information.

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“There’s a process we always go through. We ask for things, we ask again, we explain why, we work with their office — in some cases their counsel — and back and forth,” he said in late August. “And then if we have to use subpoenas, we certainly will do that … but we want to know the facts.”