NationalWatch

The civil trial stemming from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against former President Trump and the Trump Organization is set to begin in New York City.

The non-jury trial, presided over by Judge Arthur Engoron, will begin Monday in Manhattan and comes after a New York State Appeals Court rejected the 2024 GOP primary frontrunner’s request to delay the civil trial.

The former president is listed among dozens of possible witnesses. 

NEW YORK AG SUES TRUMP OVER FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

Engoron last week ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization committed fraud while building his real estate empire by deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

Engoron’s ruling comes after James sued Trump, his children and the Trump Organization, alleging that Trump “inflated his net worth by billions of dollars” and said his children helped him to do so.

COURT REJECTS TRUMP’S REQUEST TO DELAY CIVIL TRIAL OUT OF NEW YORK AG JAMES’ INVESTIGATION

Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York. The judge said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has said the investigation was politically motivated and a “witch hunt.” The former president has argued that his assets are worth far more than what is listed on annual financial statements and argued the statements have disclaimers.

NEW YORK APPEALS COURT NARROWS NYAG CASE, DISMISSES IVANKA TRUMP AS A DEFENDANT, CUTS STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

“I have been unfairly sued by the Trump Hating Democrat Attorney General of New York State, Letitia James, over the false fact that I inflated my Financial Statements in order to borrow money from Banks, etc. The Judge in the case, Arthur F. Engoron, refused to allow this case to go to the ‘Commercial Division,’ where it belongs, because he is a Trump Hater beyond even A.G James who campaigned against me spewing horrible inflammatory statements which are False & Defamatory,” Trump posted Tuesday on his Truth Social after Engoron’s ruling. “I am not even allowed a Jury!” 

Trump went on to say the “facts of this case are simple.” 

Trump said he is “worth much more than the numbers shown on my financial statements,” and said the judge “didn’t even include my most valuable asset, my brand.” 

The civil trial stemming from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against former President Trump and the Trump Organization is set to begin Monday in New York City.

Trump also said the banks “were paid back in full, sometimes early, there were no defaults, the banks made money, were represented by the best law firms, & were very ‘happy.’” 

“There were no victims!” Trump wrote. “On the front page of the financial statements there is a strong ‘disclaimer clause’ telling all not to rely on these financial statements.” 

Trump said the disclaimer clause “tells anyone reviewing the data, including financial institutions, to do their own research and analysis —it is a non-reliance clause, and could not be more clear.”

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“Additionally to my being worth far more than is shown in the ‘fully disclaimed’ financial statements, again, not putting down a value for my biggest asset, brand, the company has hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, and very little debt,” Trump said. “It is a great company that has been slandered and maligned by this politically motivated Witch Hunt.” 

Trump was deposed as part of the lawsuit in April for the second time. During that deposition, the former president answered questions. The first deposition took place in August 2022, but Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

As Americans look ahead to the 2024 presidential election, the Supreme Court is reaching back to past constitutional conflicts, just in time to have major political implications for voters to consider.

This judicial déjà vu will include not only the court’s hot-button caseload, but the nine members’ own conduct and accountability.

“The Supreme Court is going to be tackling so many of the issues that have divided America on political grounds. They’re not shying away from the controversial cases,” said Thomas Dupree, a former top Justice Department official who frequently litigates before the high court. “And any time the Supreme Court starts wading into these political issues, people react strongly. It’s already shaping up to be a blockbuster term.”

The term kicks off next week — the so-called “First Monday in October”— when public courtroom sessions will begin anew.

SUPREME COURT DEALS FINAL BLOW TO ALABAMA GOP IN REDISTRICTING BATTLE

The argument docket includes: 

• Gun rights and whether those under domestic violence restraining orders can possess guns.
• The administrative state and separate appeals over curbing the power of the executive branch to interpret and enforce federal rules; and whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be effectively dismantled over its funding mechanism
• Election redistricting and a challenge to congressional seat boundaries in South Carolina, which could be a prelude to more voting fights, some possibly involving Donald Trump
• A free speech dispute over state laws that would force social media platforms to host third-party communications and prevent them from blocking or removing users’ posts based on political viewpoints

And another high-profile appeal could soon be accepted for final review, dealing with Food and Drug Administration approval authority over the abortion pill mifepristone.

All of these petitions could be decided by mid-2024.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE KAVANAUGH IS HOPEFUL FOR ‘CONCRETE STEPS’ TO ADDRESS ETHICS COMPLAINTS

BENCH PRESSURE

But when it comes to public scrutiny of the court, the docket has become a benchwarmer of sorts to the justices themselves. A summer of revelations over questionable personal travel and growing calls for ethics reform have further divided them and lawmakers over whether anything can be done to police the highest court in the land, besides its nine members.

Some justices think it is time. New ethics rules would “go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct,” Justice Elena Kagan said last week at a Notre Dame Law School event. “I hope we can make progress.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh a few weeks ago suggested his colleagues may take “concrete steps soon” to deal with the rising calls for reform. 

“We can increase confidence. We’re working on that,” he added.

In May, Chief Justice John Roberts said it was an “issue of concern.”

“There’s really no reason why members of the Supreme Court should not also have a binding ethical code that applies to other federal judges,” said Brianne Gorod, chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center. “But if they don’t act soon, I think it would be entirely reasonable for Congress to consider whether it’s appropriate for them to take some action to ensure that the court is being held to the highest ethical standards.”

But other members of the court have pushed back recently over calls for greater transparency.

Justice Samuel Alito in a recent interview resisted such suggestions.

“No provision in the Constitution gives [Congress] the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period,” he said.

SUPREME COURT PAUSES ORDER BANNING BIDEN OFFICIALS FROM COORDINATING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES

In a separate court filing this month, Alito also rejected calls for him to recuse himself in an upcoming tax case as “unsound” and that there was “no valid reason” for him not to participate. 

“Recusal is a personal decision for each justice,” he added.

David Rivkin, one of the lawyers in the appeal, co-authored recent articles published in The Wall Street Journal’s opinion section, which included exclusive interviews with the 73-year-old justice, including his comments on ethics. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., had urged Alito to step aside, citing the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The Democrats’ effort comes after the nonprofit news organization ProPublica began reporting on the activity of Supreme Court justices, including revelations Alito had taken a luxury vacation in Alaska with a Republican donor who had business interests before the court.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas have been embroiled over media reports about their book deals, travel and financial dealings.

The Senate Judiciary Committee in July advanced the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act to the full Senate.  The bill would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a code of conduct and create a mechanism to investigate any such alleged violations.

“There’s definitely been a lot of internal debate in recent years among the justices themselves about whether they should adopt a binding ethics code,” already applicable to other federal judges, says Dupree. “If so, what should be in that ethics code? And it wouldn’t surprise me if, in the next year or two, the Supreme Court does voluntarily adopt some sort of code along those lines.”

“LEGITIMATE” CONCERNS

Calls for greater openness also extend to the court caseload itself, especially its so-called “shadow” or emergency docket, an abbreviated decision-making process that has accelerated in recent years. These are cases that are presented to the justices on a time-sensitive basis in its earliest stages, lacking the transparency and deliberation of a typical appeal.

DESANTIS WARNS THE LEFT WILL ‘WEAPONIZE’ TRUMP’S REMARKS ON ABORTION

While designed to be temporary in nature, they can have an immediate effect by blocking nationwide enforcement of a challenged law or policy on issues like immigration,  pandemic restrictions and abortion access. These legal “applications” typically lack full briefing, oral arguments or written opinion.

Just this week, the high court is being asked to decide whether the Biden administration can continue working with social media companies to block digital disinformation amid claims conservative viewpoints were being suppressed. An enforcement injunction would remain in place until the case is fully litigated, a process that could take years to resolve.

While some justices have criticized the increasing use of the shadow docket on high-profile disputes, Alito has said critics have mistakenly labeled its use as “sneaky,” “sinister” and “dangerous.”

“And this portrayal feeds unprecedented efforts to intimidate the court or damage it as an independent institution,” added Alito, who joined the court in 2006.

A Fox News poll from late June found just 48% had confidence in the Supreme Court as an institution. It is the first time that number has dropped below 50% since the question was originally asked in 2014. Three years ago, 68% had confidence in the court, 83% in 2017. This erosion crumbles across the political spectrum, down 48 points among Democrats, 21 among Republicans and 37 among independents since 2017.

THE SUPREME COURT DECISION THAT COULD HELP US TAKE BACK OUR CITIES

“Confidence in major institutions has been diminishing for a decade or more, but the loss of confidence in the Supreme Court is striking,” says Democratic Pollster Chris Anderson, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Republican Daron Shaw. “With less than half of Americans confident in the court, and Democrats half as likely as Republicans to feel so, there is a clear perception the country lacks a non-political arbitrator of the laws of the land.”

Some progressives say that may be because the 6-3 conservative court seems overly eager to wade into controversial issues and overturn its own prior rulings.

The court last term prohibited affirmative action in college admissions; the term before, abortion rights from Roe v. Wade, concealed carry gun restrictions and clean-air standards were all tossed out, upsetting decades of Supreme Court precedent.

“There have been times recently where there have been ideological divides with one side overturning precedent,” Kagan said last week. “I’m hopeful that it won’t have that year after year, case after case — at least it shouldn’t.”

“There is a real concern today that the Supreme Court is suffering from a legitimacy crisis because there is this sense that the decisions that the court reaches depend on the composition of the court rather than what the law is and what the law requires,” said Gorod of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center. 

“And with new ethical questions popping up every day, new stories about potential conflicts of interest involving the justices, I think, undermine the court’s credibility in the eyes of the American people. And that’s a really, really troubling thing.”

WHO DECIDES?

The wild cards for the Supreme Court heading into 2024 are possible last-minute challenges to election laws: redistricting, voter registration requirements, provisional ballots, early voting and more.

Some court watchers see the potential of another Bush v. Gore, the 2000 presidential election case in which the Supreme Court effectively settled who would sit in the White House.  

And the wildest of wild cards — what is now just legal debate could soon turn into a monumental judicial debate over a provision in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, disqualifying anyone from the presidency who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” 

A lawsuit from Colorado voters seeks to keep Donald Trump off that state’s primary ballot over his role in the 2020 election interference.

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For now, the Supreme Court appears content to do its job quietly, free as much as possible from outside interference. It may be wishful thinking. 

“There’s a storm around us in the political world and the world at large in America,” Kavanaugh said this month. “We, as judges and the legal system, need to try to be a little more, I think, of the calm in the storm.”

The Supreme Court is scheduled to decide several key cases in its 2023-24 term, which starts Monday.

Nearly three dozen appeals are on the argument docket. 

Several dozen more are expected to be added in coming months. The caseload is usually settled by February, with the term effectively ending in late June.

Other important appeals that may be added to the court’s calendar cover such issues as abortion medication, social media regulation, affirmative action in secondary school education, 2020 election interference prosecutions and other 2024 election disputes. 

THE SUPREME COURT DECISION THAT COULD HELP US TAKE BACK OUR CITIES

Important petitions already on the Supreme Court’s argument docket:

SECOND AMENDMENT: U.S. v. Rahimi

Arguments Tuesday, Oct. 7

AT ISSUE: Major gun rights case challenging the constitutionality of a federal ban on gun possession by individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs). 

THE CASE: Zackey Rahimi, after being charged with separate state offenses in the alleged physical assault of his ex-girlfriend and another woman by use of firearms, pleaded guilty to a violation of federal law for later possessing a handgun despite an earlier restraining order. 

THE ARGUMENTS: This will be a key test of precedent from the high court’s 2022 ruling expanding gun rights outside the home. The Biden administration says “governments have long disarmed individuals who pose a threat to the safety of others.” Rahimi’s lawyers say the appeals court ruling striking down the DVRO ban was a “faithful application” of last year’s high court decision. 

OVER 100 FORMER CLERKS OF JUSTICE THOMAS SIGN OPEN LETTER DEFENDING HIS INTEGRITY, INDEPENDENCE

THE IMPACT: What the justices decide could affect defendants like Hunter Biden and whether current and former drug users can be denied gun ownership. 

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd.  

Arguments Tuesday, Oct. 3

AT ISSUE: Whether the federal law providing funding to the CFPB is unconstitutional under the Appropriations Clause, nullifying a regulation promulgated at a time when the agency was receiving such funding. 

THE CASE: The consumer watchdog agency was created after the 2008 financial crisis. The specific challenge involves when lenders have the power to withdraw payments from delinquent borrowers’ bank accounts. 

CHRISTIAN BAKER SUED FOR REFUSING GENDER-TRANSITION CAKE SAYS SUPREME COURT RULING PUTS LAW ON HIS SIDE

THE ARGUMENTS: CFPB’s unique funding process operates outside the normal congressional appropriations process. It gets its money directly from the Federal Reserve, which collects fees from member banks. The CFPB director who imposed the regulation was shielded from removal by then-President Trump under a statutory provision the high court later found was unconstitutional. The Biden administration says an adverse high court ruling could raise “grave concerns” for “the entire financial industry” and “calls into question virtually every action the CFPB has taken” since its creation.

THE IMPACT: Republicans have long chafed at the CFPB’s authority, saying it wields too much unchecked power. Backers say the agency has fulfilled its mandate by forcing errant banks to return billions to consumers. Other quasi-independent agencies not subject to annual federal funding, like the Federal Reserve, FDIC, Postal Service and the Mint, also could see their authority curbed.  

RACIAL GERRYMANDERING: Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP

Arguments Wednesday, Oct. 11

AT ISSUE: Challenge to the Republican-controlled South Carolina legislature’s redrawing of congressional voting boundaries, which civil rights groups say disenfranchised Black voters. 

THE CASE: A federal court in January ordered the state to create a new congressional map in time for the 2024 election. The three-judge panel found the coastal 1st Congressional District now held by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace was an unlawful racial gerrymander, when Republican lawmakers shifted a sizable number of Black voters from Charleston County over to the state’s 6th Congressional District, which became more solidly Democratic than it was before. That seat is held by Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat and longtime member of Congress who is Black. 

THE ARGUMENTS: The state in its appeal to the Supreme Court said the lower court “failed to apply the presumption of good faith” to the legislature when it created its map. Groups like the NAACP and ACLU challenging the boundaries said the GOP-led legislature adopted “perhaps the worst option of the available maps” for Black voters.

THE IMPACT: The ruling could broadly affect the 2024 elections and ongoing redistricting efforts in states like Alabama, Ohio, New York and Texas. There are more than two dozen pending lawsuits across 12 states challenging congressional maps. 

EXECUTIVE POWER: Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo

Arguments TBA

AT ISSUE: Potential far-reaching appeal over another legal effort to have the so-called “Chevron” deference overturned by the Supreme Court. That 1984 ruling says when congressional federal laws are not clearly defined, federal agencies should be allowed broad discretion to interpret and enforce those policies. 

THE CASE: Lead plaintiff Loper Bright Enterprises of New Jersey, represented by the Cause of Action Institute, challenges a federal mandate requiring Atlantic herring fishermen to pay more than $700 per day for monitors to ride their boats, observe their activities and report to the government.  

SUPREME COURT DEALS FINAL BLOW TO ALABAMA GOP IN REDISTRCTING BATTLE

THE ARGUMENTS: A federal appeals court found the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) interpretation of a federal fishery law to be “reasonable.” The fishermen argue Congress never granted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the authority to force fishermen to pay for monitors. Groups supporting them say the “Chevron” precedent forces courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of “ambiguous” statutes. Those supporting continued deference say an adverse ruling would sow “chaos” across the federal government and would concentrate rulemaking authority with unelected judges, who are not experts in specific policy matters.

THE IMPACT: Conservatives have long chafed at the “Chevron” decision. The high court has been incrementally reining in federal regulators, including a June 2022 decision limiting EPA authority over greenhouse gas emissions. Overturning “Chevron” or further weakening federal agency discretion would have enormous impacts on key areas like the environment, workplace safety, consumer protections, public health and immigration. The court has the option of broadly addressing the use of “Chevron” deference or clarify specific areas of its application by federal agencies.

OPIOID CRISIS-BANKRUPTCY: Harrington v. Purdue Pharma LP

Arguments December TBA

AT ISSUE: The Justice Department seeks to block a bankruptcy settlement for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, following thousands of lawsuits against the drugmaker dealing with the opioid crisis. Bankruptcy proceedings were paused by the high court until its final opinion is issued. 

THE CASE: The settlement has been criticized since it would shield the Sackler family, owners of the company, from personal liability over their role in the opioid epidemic.  

THE ARGUMENTS: The deal would allow Purdue Pharma to emerge from bankruptcy as a different company with its profits used to fight the health crisis. Members of the Sackler family would contribute up to $6 billion. The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee, represented by the Justice Department, opposes releasing the Sacklers from legal liability. 

THE IMPACT: Opioids have been linked to more than 70,000 fatal overdoses annually in the U.S. in recent years. The crisis was fueled in part by OxyContin and other powerful prescription painkillers. Recent deaths have been linked to fentanyl and other laced synthetic drugs, but the crisis widened in the early 2000s as OxyContin became prevalent.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ASKS SUPREME COURT TO TAKE UP MAJOR ABORTION PILL CASE

SOCIAL MEDIA: Moody (FL AG) v. NetChoice, LLC; NetChoice, LLC v. Moody; NetChoice LLC v. Paxton   

AT ISSUE: Whether social media platforms’ handling of user content is protected by the First Amendment. 

THE CASE: Separate laws in Florida and Texas would require large companies like X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook to host third-party communications and would prevent those businesses from blocking or removing users’ posts based on political viewpoints. 

THE ARGUMENTS: The laws aim to address what some lawmakers call “censoring” of conservative messages and banning politicians like former President Trump for violating policies over offensive or “problematic” content. A federal appeals court had ruled for the tech industry in the Florida case, saying as private entities, those companies were “engaged in constitutionally protected expressive activity when they moderate and curate the content that they disseminate on their platforms.”

IMPACT: Trump and a coalition of 16 states are among those filing separate amicus briefs supporting Florida. The Biden administration has opposed the state laws.

Pending appeal that could soon be added to the Supreme Court’s argument docket:

ABORTION MEDICATION: FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine 

AT ISSUE: Lawsuit seeking to restrict access to mifepristone, one of two drugs typically used to induce a medicated abortion.

THE CASE: The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 to end a pregnancy, and it is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol. That pill combination is approved for use up to the tenth week of pregnancy. 

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THE ARGUMENTS: Groups opposing the FDA say it failed to follow proper procedures when determining the drug’s safety risks. The Biden administration warned an adverse ruling would severely disrupt the way drugs are tested and brought to market. The Supreme Court has allowed the FDA to regulate the drug while the case is being litigated on its merits. While the case is still being litigated, a nationwide injunction could be issued by the judge, preventing medication abortions even in states where it remains legal. 

THE IMPACT: Any high court decision could impact 40 million women nationwide, and the Guttmacher Institute research group says more than half of all abortions in the U.S. use mifepristone. Supreme Court involvement in arguably the most contentious social issue could have enormous political implications in a presidential election year.

With the thresholds to qualify for the next Republican presidential nomination debate rising, and crucial fundraising reports from the campaigns due in the coming days, the still relatively-large field of GOP White House hopefuls may be slashed in the weeks to come.

Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who flirted with a 2024 run before deciding against it, has been saying for months that the field in the Republican presidential nomination race needs to shrink.

“If you don’t make the first couple of debates, then you probably have to have a tough conversation and get out of the race,” Sununu said.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who made the stage at the first two Republican showdowns, told Fox News in August that for his rivals who “haven’t made the stage” at the debates, “it’s time to go.”

THIS REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL LONGSHOT’S CONSIDERING A PIVOT TO A 2024 SENATE RUN

So far, only one White House hopeful has called it quits.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez suspended his campaign after failing to make the stage at the first Republican presidential nomination debate, a Fox News-hosted August 23 showdown in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the only one of the eight candidates on the stage at the first debate who failed to qualify for Wednesday’s second debate – a Fox Business co-hosted event held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California – says if he fails to make the stage at the third GOP presidential nomination debate, he’ll consider dropping out.

POLITICAL PUNDITS PICK WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM SECOND GOP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

“If I don’t make that, we’ll re-evaluate where we are,” Hutchinson told reporters this week as he referred to the third debate, which will be held Nov. 8 in Miami, Florida.

When asked for clarification if his response meant he would consider dropping out, Hutchinson answered, “Sure.”

Michigan businessman and quality control industry expert Perry Johnson, who failed to qualify for the first two debates, is now mulling a pivot to run for the open Senate seat in his home state.

“Obviously, it’s no secret that I’ve had a lot of calls to run for this seat because they do want to win this seat. But at this point in time, my focus is right on the presidential [race], and, believe me, that’s taking all my time and energy at this point,” Johnson told Fox News on Thursday.

Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, who previously served as an undercover agent in the CIA, also didn’t make the stage at the first two debates.

“My team and I are constantly evaluating whether we have the resources to chart a path to victory,” he wrote in a statement Wednesday. “I’m headed to New Hampshire to spread my message to the Granite State ahead of the First In the Nation primary. Educating voters on how to solve these existential issues is important, and hopefully other candidates will follow my lead.”

GOP contender Larry Elder, a former nationally syndicated radio host and 2021 California gubernatorial recall election candidate, also failed to qualify for the first two debates.

Former President Donald Trump skipped the first two debates as he pointed to his commanding lead in the GOP presidential nomination race and said this past week that he won’t attend the third debate. 

Sununu, a vocal Trump critic, envisions a smaller field by the end of the year, just ahead of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary — the first two contests in the Republican nominating calendar.

“I think by the time you get to the end of December, you’ll have five or six different candidates going into Iowa, maybe three or four coming into New Hampshire,” Sununu predicted. “If that’s the case, a huge opportunity for the Republican Party.”

The July-September third quarter of fundraising came to a close on Saturday, with the campaigns required to post their figures in the next two weeks. 

A lackluster fundraising report could be the death knell for some of the candidates struggling to make the debate stage.

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“I think a lot of these candidates are going to run out of gas as they try to drive to the next debate in Miami,” longtime Republican consultant Alex Castellanos told Fox News.

Castellanos, a veteran of numerous Republican presidential campaigns, said that some of the candidates will “soon have to take their ball and go home.”

“The time is coming soon for the smaller contenders to drop out so the field can begin to coalesce. Donald Trump can beat everybody, but he may not be able to beat somebody. That’s the test,” Castellanos emphasized.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Migrant encounters at the southern border hit an all-time record in September, Fox News has learned, with a massive 260,000 encounters as border officials struggle to cope with a historic crisis.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources tell Fox News that total migrant encounters for September have exceeded 260,000, which is the highest monthly total ever recorded. That number includes both Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry and Office of Field Operations (OFO) encounters at ports.

The record had previously been set last December, where officials encountered 252,320 migrants. Numbers lowered in 2023, and officials had pointed to a drop in May after the end of Title 42 as a sign its policies were working.

But numbers soared in July and August, with CBP announcing last week that numbers had hit 230,000 in August. As the agency announced those numbers, agents were dealing with new daily highs. Recently agents have been encountering between 10,000 and 11,000 migrants each day, resulting in releases of migrants onto the streets in some instances.

CBP officials tell Fox that this new surge could not come at a more critical time with Washington D.C. battling over a spending. Border Patrol Agents are essential employees dealing with national security issues. That means, if the government shuts down agents must still work but would not receive a paycheck until the government re-opens. 

For those agents on the frontlines who are traveling to other sectors and are staying in hotels, their government credit card bills are still due and they are responsible for paying them — despite not receiving their paychecks if the government shuts down.

The House passed a “clean” continuing resolution Saturday afternoon that extends funding at current levels through mid-November, when another shutdown would be triggered if Congress fails to reach a longer-term agreement.

SEN RICK SCOTT TO ROLL OUT MEASURES TO ‘KEEP OUR BORDER AGENTS PAID’ DURING POSSIBLE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

One agent told Fox that “a lot of us are being asked by our spouses, are we going to be okay? And the answer for many living paycheck-to-paycheck is ‘no.’”

Republicans in the House had been pushing for border security measures — particularly the House GOP’s signature border security and asylum reform legislation — to be included in any stopgap funding bill. A vote on a bill that included most of the “Secure the Border Act” failed on Friday after 21 hardline Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS HOUSE GOP PROPOSED CR WOULD ELIMINATE BORDER AGENTS, TRIGGER ‘WINDFALL FOR DRUG CARTELS’

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., meanwhile, rolled out a measure Friday that would ensure that CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff are paid in the event of a shutdown. The bill is cosponsored by Republican Sens. Jim Risch of Idaho, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Dan Sullivan of Arkansas and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and it has been endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council.

The new numbers are likely to increase pressure on the Biden administration over the crisis, which has faced conservative and Republican criticism for its handling of the border. Republicans have blamed the crisis on the administration’s rollback of Trump-era policies, as well as its policies narrowing interior enforcement and expanding releases of migrants into the interior.

The administration has said it is up to Congress to provide more funding and immigration reform to fix what it says is a “broken” system. The White House, meanwhile, has claimed that the border measures included by House Republicans would eliminate CBP of 800 agents, triggering a “windfall for drug cartels.”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

As they aim to flip a Democratic-held Senate seat in a crucial battleground state in 2024, the Pennsylvania GOP is working to prevent a repeat of last year’s crowded and combustible primary. 

Pennsylvania Republican committee members unanimously endorsed Dave McCormick Saturday as their party’s nominee in next year’s showdown against longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. The race could ultimately decide whether the GOP wins back the Senate majority.

“I am deeply humbled to receive the unanimous endorsement of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. United as one, Republicans across Pennsylvania will win. We will defeat Bob Casey and bring strong leadership to Washington on behalf of the commonwealth,” McCormick said as he accepted the state party’s endorsement as it met in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s administration, earlier this month launched his second straight campaign for the Senate. 

REPUBLICAN MCCORMICK LAUNCHES SENATE BID IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE IN CRUCIAL RACE

McCormick had been courted by national and state Republicans to run, and his candidacy gives the GOP a high-profile candidate with the ability to finance his own race that’s expected to be one of the most expensive in the country.

The Pennsylvania GOP’s endorsement will likely help McCormick avoid a crowded and combustible battle for the 2024 GOP Senate nomination like the one he faced last year. McCormick ended up losing the nomination by a razor-thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election in November to Democrat John Fetterman.

“It’s a gut check,” McCormick said, referring to last year’s narrow primary defeat.

BLUE TO RED: FOUR SENATE SEATS THE GOP AIMS TO FLIP TO WIN THE MAJORITY IN 2024

The Pennsylvania GOP stayed neutral in last year’s Senate nomination battle, and its unusually early endorsement of McCormick this time around is notable.

McCormick, soon after he announced his candidacy, also won praise from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP.

Casey, who served a decade as the state’s auditor general and then treasurer before winning election to the Senate in 2006, is not expected to face any serious primary challenge for the Democratic nomination. Casey, the son of a popular former governor, is running for a fourth six-year term in the Senate.

CHECK OUT THE FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE BATTLE FOR THE SENATE

McCormick on Saturday once again took aim at Casey, telling the crowd it lives in “one of the most consequential great states in this country, and we have one of the least consequential senators.”

He charged that Casey “has done virtually nothing” during his years in office and emphasized that the senator’s “voted lockstep” with President Biden.

Senate Democrats are defending their fragile 51-49 majority in next year’s elections.

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Republicans need a net gain of either one or two seats in 2024 to win back the majority — depending on which party controls the White House after next year’s presidential election. 

The math and the map favor the GOP, as the Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs, including three in red states and a handful in key general election battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

The 2024 presidential election will take place 401 days from now, and Republican candidates who are working to win their party’s nomination have outlined what they believe to be the key issue in determining who will serve as America’s next commander in chief.

Prior to the second Republican presidential primary debate Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation president David Trulio spoke with each GOP presidential candidate in sit-down interviews that covered a variety of topics.

Each of the candidates was asked what key message they wanted voters to hear from them. Many said they wanted voters to understand their approach to economic concerns, energy independence, restoring the American dream, the border crisis — but a few mentioned other issues.

RNC RAISING THE BAR FOR CANDIDATES TO MAKE THE STAGE AT NOVEMBER’S THIRD DEBATE

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: “Cutting against the trends of Bidenomics”

“We need to restore the American dream in this country. People can’t get ahead. These are people that are working hard, they’re trying to raise families, they’re doing everything right, and they’re falling further and further behind. If we can’t make America work for those people, we’re not going to be successful.”

“What I can tell people is, it’s not just rhetoric from me. I’ve actually done it in the state of Florida. Our economy is ranked number one in America. We’ve had more in-migration than any other state, we’ve cut taxes every year, budget surpluses – I’ve actually paid down almost 25% of our state’s debt. That’s why we’re doing very well, and we’re really cutting against the trends of Bidenomics. We need to take that knowhow to Washington to be able to do that for the whole country.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley: “The economy. . . . Everybody’s feeling it”

“The economy. Right now, you’ve got a lot of families hurting. We’ve got one in six American families that can’t pay their utility bill, 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, 50% of American families can’t afford diapers, rent is up, mortgage rates are up.”

“Everybody’s feeling it. That’s what we need to be talking about.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: “We don’t want a world that’s led by an authoritarian, communist dictatorship . . .”

“I want people to understand that America has to be a leader in the world – that it’s not optional. Because to leave a vacuum in leadership in the world means that our adversaries in China will fill it. We don’t want a world that’s led by an authoritarian, communist dictatorship that abuses its own people, tells them how many children they can have, tells them what they can listen to and speak to.”

“We want a world that has freedom, and liberty and opportunity. The only way to do that is to make sure we engage in the world. Whether that’s on the battlefield in Ukraine, helping the Ukrainians to defeat the Russian authoritarian regime, or whether it’s standing up for the Taiwanese to make sure that China knows that’s not a step they wanna take. The rest of the world is watching what America will do and what we won’t do. . . . A Christie presidency will be a presidency where America leads not just our country, but the world.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott: “We should finish our southern border wall . . .”

“I think the most important issue that we’re facing today is a crisis on our border. The fact of the matter is President Biden is selling off the construction material to finish the border. We should finish our southern border wall so that we stop the deaths of 70,000 Americans who have died in the last 12 months because of fentanyl.”

“Second, six million crossings. Reinstate Title 42 so that we reduce the number of illegal crossings, and then finally we have to stand toe-to-toe with China. It is not the strength of President Xi, it’s the weakness of President Biden.”

LIKELY GOP PRIMARY VOTERS SHARE WHO HAD BEST REPUBLICAN DEBATE PERFORMANCE: POLL

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy: “Answering who we are as Americans”

“The revival of our national identity. Answering who we are as Americans. Back to that revival of national character that Ronald Reagan spoke about four decades ago. I think that we have an opportunity to answer that question with conviction in a way that goes beyond black or white or Democrat or Republican even. I don’t think that’s the real divide in this country. I think the real divide in the country today is between the majority of us who love this country and the ideals that we’re founded on . . . the ideals that Reagan so eloquently spoke of – free speech, prosperity, economic growth, meritocracy, the American dream that you get ahead in this country not on the color of your skin but on the content of your character.”

“A fringe minority in this country rejects those ideals, that goes so far to apologize for a nation founded on those ideals. That’s the real divide in this country.”

“What I hope everyone takes away from our debate tonight, not just from me, but I hope from every candidate on that stage, is a conviction in who we are as Americans. And once we’re able to answer that question – to my generation and younger – to revive that missing sense of national identity and pride in this country, then yes, I think our best days will still be ahead of us, and our economic challenges and our foreign policy challenges will be that much easier for us to address. I’m volunteering to be the commander in chief who leads us there.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence: “A Republican time for choosing”

“Ronald Reagan gave a speech in 1964 about a time for choosing, and he set the stage for a change that would come in America in a decade and a half later. I think we’ve come, as I said in a speech in New Hampshire recently, to a Republican time for choosing. I think the Republican Party today has to decide whether or not we’re gonna chart a future based on the timeless principles Ronald Reagan governed on: Commitment to American leadership in the world, a strong defense, limited government, free market economics, and traditional values or whether we’re gonna follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles. . . .”

“It’s that Republican time for choosing that I think will not only determine the success of our party in 2024, but I also believe it will lay a foundation for whether or not we provide the kind of leadership that not only earns the right to lead America, but has the right policies and principles to bring America back.”

“I know the American people… I believe the American people still believe in those timeless ideals, and I’m going to continue to work my heart out to make that choice clear to the people of this country every day.”

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum: Biden’s “energy policies are empowering foreign dictators”

“The economy is our number one issue, but you can’t separate our economy from our energy policy, and you can’t separate our energy policy from national security because energy security is national security. But on the economy, with interest rates at the highest rates they’ve been in 22 years, inflation eating into every family’s budget, they’re paying too much for their food, too much for gas at the pump. Farmers are paying too much for diesel.”

“It’s gonna take not just a course correction, but actually a 180-degree turn from the Biden administration, because Biden’s policies are inflationary, their energy policies are empowering foreign dictators, they’re destabilizing the world, they’re raising the cost on everything for American consumers, and they’re actually not helping the environment. If they were helping the environment, you’d say, well maybe we would bear the cost of destroying our economy, but it’s not even doing that. I would say that’s a horrible trade-off when we are outsourcing our economic future to places like China, if we’re going to get all of our EV batteries from China, and China is the world’s largest polluter.”

“Why is the Biden administration attacking U.S. jobs, attacking U.S. energy, attacking U.S. innovation, and then pursuing an energy plan that appears to have been written by China? Why would we be doing that? It’s a 180-degree change in direction . . . our national security depends on it.”

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Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee (RNC) confirmed that the third GOP presidential debate will be held in Miami, Florida, in early November.

The frontrunner in the Republican race for the White House, former President Donald Trump, has yet to take part in any RNC-sanctioned debate. Trump has met all fundraising and polling requirements to participate, but he has refused to sign a loyalty pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee regardless of who wins the primary.

To participate in the third debate, each candidate must have a minimum of 70,000 unique donors to their campaign or exploratory committee, including 200 donors in 20 or more states. The RNC’s debate committee decided on the thresholds during a conference call earlier this month, according to sources with knowledge of the panel’s deliberations. 

The White House hopefuls must also reach 4% support in two national polls, or reach 4% in one national poll and 4% in two statewide polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina — the four states that lead off the Republican presidential nominating calendar.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Scott Hall, an Atlanta bail bondsman who is one of former President Donald Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia 2020 election interference case, pleaded guilty Friday.

He is the first defendant to take a plea deal. 

Hall, 59, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performing election duties. Prosecutors had accused him of trying to steal sensitive information from Coffee County, Georgia. He pled down from felony charges of racketeering and six conspiracy counts.

Under the agreement reached with prosecutors, Hall will receive five years probation and must testify in further proceedings. He was given a $5,000 fine, ordered to complete 200 hours of community service and is prohibited from administering elections again. 

GEORGIA INDICTMENT: FIRST TRUMP CO-DEFENDANT PLEADS ‘NOT GUILTY’

Hall must also write a letter of apology to the citizens of the state of Georgia and is under a gag order prohibiting him from speaking to the press.

He is a minor figure in the grand plot that District Attorney Fani Willis alleges Trump orchestrated to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and stay in power. Still, the plea deal is a win for Willis as she advances her racketeering case against Trump. 

Hall’s attorney Jeff Weiner, who was in court with him Friday, said that under the deal, his client’s record will be wiped clean after he completes probation. The agreement allows Hall to avoid the stress of “living under a serious felony indictment” without knowing when he might go to trial, the attorney told the Associated Press.

“This way, it’s over,” Weiner said. “He can sleep well and get on with his life.”

TRUMP DEMANDS COURT IGNORE DOJ REQUEST FOR GAG ORDER

Weiner told the Associated Press that his client does not know much about the alleged conspiracy and said he would be surprised if prosecutors were to call him to testify. 

The 98-page Fulton County indictment describes Hall as an associate of longtime Trump adviser David Bossie.

Hall is accused of conspiring to unlawfully access voter data and ballot counting machines at the Coffee County Election office on January 7, 2021. Trump allies had sought access to voting systems to support their claims that voting systems had been tampered with to steal the election. 

Authorities say that Hall and co-defendants conspired to allow others to “unlawfully access secure voting equipment and voter data.” This included ballot images, voting equipment software and personal vote information that was later made available to people in other states, according to the indictment.

SIDNEY POWELL AND KENNETH CHESEBRO TO BE TRIED SEPARATELY FROM TRUMP, 16 OTHER DEFENDANTS IN GEORGIA CASE

The District Attorney’s office has not commented on the plea deal. 

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

At another hearing Friday, prosecutor Nathan Wade revealed that the district attorney’s office planned to offer plea deals to lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro. The pair are due to be tried in court on October 23, even though their lawyers have argued that they do not know each other and are not accused of participating in the same acts, the Associated Press reported.

Powell faces charges related to a breach of election equipment in rural Coffee County. She allegedly hired a computer forensics team that copied data and software from the election equipment without authorization.

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Chesebro was indicted in connection to a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans falsely declare themselves “duly elected and qualified” electors and name Trump the winner of the state’s 2020 presidential election.  

Finally, on Friday, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones rejected requests by four other defendants, including former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, to move the charges against them from state court to federal court. 

Clark is charged with one count of racketeering and one count of criminal attempt to commit false statements.

Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LONG BEACH, Calif. – EXCLUSIVE – As he runs for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis likes to target one of his favorite foils – Gov. Gavin Newsom.

But DeSantis, in an exclusive interview with Fox News, said that his war of words with California’s two-term Democratic governor isn’t personal.

“To me this is all business. I understand how this game is played,” DeSantis emphasized. “For him, it may be a little bit different.” 

DeSantis was interviewed on Friday, minutes before holding a campaign event at the LA Grain Harbor Facility at the Port of Long Beach — to take aim at Newsom and President Biden over electric vehicle mandates in the Golden State.

DESANTIS VOWS TO DEPORT THOSE WHO CAME TO U.S. ‘ILLEGALLY’ DURING BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

“California and Florida just have two very different models, and we’ve seen the results of those models. People have fled California since he’s been governor. That’s never happened before. California used to be the state everyone aspired to go to. A lot of them have moved to Florida, which we never had before when I was growing up,” DeSantis reiterated.

DeSantis argued “that’s just a difference in leadership and policy” and that “I think it’s also a window into the country’s future because what they’re doing in California – this is just a few years ahead of what Democrats in Washington typically want to do. California is kind of the leading indicator.”

NEWSOM’S POTENTIAL PRESIDENITAL AMBITIONS FRONT AND CENTER AS HE TOUTS BIDEN AT SECOND GOP DEBATE

“So all the policies they’re pursing here that are not working, you can bet your bottom dollar in a Biden second term or if [Vice President Kamala] Harris or Newsom are the candidate, that’s what they would want to do. So the choice is really – our country’s going in the wrong direction. The California model will simply accelerate our country’s decline. The Florida model provides us a model for American revival and reversing the country’s decline.”

DeSantis’ reference to a potential Newsom 2024 presidential run is the latest rampant speculation from Republicans that Newsom’s secretly mulling a White House run in 2024 should something happen to Biden — but Newsom has repeatedly denied eyeing a presidential run next year.

The comments were the latest verbal fireworks in an increasingly bitter battle between DeSantis and Newsom — two governors with outsized national profiles who run the nation’s first and third most populous states.

The war of words between DeSantis and Newsom — which has been flaring for more than a year and a half — shows no signs of letting up.

Newsom went up with an ad on Florida airwaves last year that targeted DeSantis’ culture wars fueled politics and polices. “Freedom, it’s under attack in your state. Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,” Newsom argued in his spot.

Earlier this year, in taking aim at Newsom, DeSantis called San Francisco — the city Newsom served two terms as mayor — a “dumpster fire.”

The governors — who’ve long battled on social media over their very different COVID policies and restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic — this year have traded fire over the move by DeSantis to fly undocumented migrants from to California. The Florida governor has made border security a top issue in recent years and has repeatedly highlighted his efforts on the 2024 Republican presidential campaign trail.

“They’re perfect foils for one another. They both lead some of the biggest states in the country. They both have very prominent roles in their respective parties, and they both love attention,” longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News.

Williams, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns, noted that “it’s in their best interests to attack one another. It gets both of their bases riled up. And it gives them a national platform to fight with each other.”

Newsom, speaking with Fox News Digital in the spin room at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library following Wednesday’s second GOP presidential nomination debate, took a jab at DeSantis as he critiqued the Florida governor’s debate performance.

“Nikki Haley laid him out,” Newsom argued. “He had a bad night.”

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The two will debate each other in November.

Newsom, in an interview in June on Fox News “Hannity,” quickly welcomed a live showdown with DeSantis that was proposed by host Sean Hannity. When asked by Hannity if he’d agree to a two-hour debate with his rival from California, Newsom quickly responded “I’d make it three.”

After some cross-fire between the two camps, an agreement was recently struck to move ahead with the prime-time face-off.

Asked about the debate, DeSantis told Fox News Digital on Friday that “I think for me – he’s the one – you know Sean asked him to debate. He said yes. So then they asked me. I’m like ‘I’ll do it. Let’s do it.” And now he’s acting like ‘why do you want to debate me.’ Well I’m debating you because you asked to do it so let’s go and get it done.”

But DeSantis also emphasized “I do think it will be good, it will be instructive. These are the types of debates America really needs to have.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

LOS ANGELES – The road to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination run through deep blue California this week – and not just because of Wednesday’s second GOP primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina all addressed the California GOP’s Fall 2023 Convention in Anaheim on Friday with multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy set to speak on Saturday.

Behind the scenes at what’s being billed as the Golden State Republican Party’s largest convention ever is a brewing battle between allies of DeSantis and Trump over a recent state party rules change that could allow the former president to sweep all the state’s 169 delegates when California holds its presidential primary on March 5. California is the biggest prize among the dozen states holding Super Tuesday Republican presidential nominating contests.

While Trump — the commanding front-runner for months in the race to be the Republican Party’s 2024 standard-bearer — skipped the first two presidential debates, he made sure to show up at the convention, which will attract the state’s top conservative leaders and activists, some of whom will serve as delegates next year.

GRIZZLY TRANSFORMATION: HOW CALIFORNIA SWITCHED FROM ONE-TIME RED STATE TO BLUE BASTION

While Democratic dominated California will likely once again be an afterthought in the presidential election, the state’s GOP primary could potentially give Trump a decisive victory in the party’s nomination race. And DeSantis allies are crying foul.

“The Trump team came in to rig the rules in their favor,” said Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and deputy secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration who earlier this year founded the DeSantis aligned super PAC Never Back Down.

Last month Never Baack Down spokesperson Erin Perrine argued the rules change in California was a “Trump-inspired rigging”

FIRST ON FOX: THE RNC RAISES THE BAR FOR THE CANDIDATES TO MAKE THE STAGE AT THE THIRD PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

The Trump campaign did support the new rules, which state that a GOP presidential candidate who wins more than 50% of the primary vote will be awarded all 169 delegates up for grabs. If no candidate reaches that mark, the delegates will be divided proportionally.

That’s a dramatic switch from past California GOP primaries, where presidential candidates battled for delegates in each of the state’s congressional districts, as well as for the statewide vote. The winner in each congressional district secured three delegates, with the candidate who won the largest number of statewide votes landing roughly a dozen more delegates.

Asked in an exclusive interview Friday with Fox News about the rules change, DeSantis took aim at Trump’s allies, arguing that they are trying to “basically rig it for him. To me, I think it should just be an open fair process and let the best person win.”

California GOP chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson told Fox News Digital that “our goal in our rules change was, number one to get compliant with the RNC [Republican National Committee] rules. Our previous rules did not allow for us to have our full delegation. We would be struck down half of our delegation. So we had to change the rules.”

While plenty of California Republicans have railed against the new rules, Patterson predicts that they’ll motivate presidential candidates to come to California to campaign and drive turnout, to help make the Golden State a key player in choosing the 2024 Republican Party presidential nominee.

“We wanted to make sure the rules were fair for everyone,” Patterson emphasized. “We think this gives the best opportunity for an even playing field for the presidential primary.”

 Delegate rules will be finalized this weekend, on the final day of the convention. But changing the current rules won’t be easy and efforts by DeSantis supporters face very high hurdles.

DeSantis, in his Fox News interview, once again took aim at Trump for not taking the stage at the first two GOP presidential nomination debates.

“You’ve got to earn the nomination. Nobody is entitled to anything. I know voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. They expect to hear from the candidates. They expect you to stand up in these forums and make your case, answer questions, even spar with the other candidates. So I think it’s a big mistake that he’s ducking debates. I think it’s a big mistake that he’s sending the signals that really the voters don’t matter,” DeSantis said. 

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Trump, at the convention, once again touted his enormous polling lead over DeSantis and the rest of the GOP field.

“Have I done a number on that guy,” Trump said to the crowd. “Have we done a number on him.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

FIRST ON FOX: The NRA slammed President Biden’s launch of the first-ever federal office to address “gun violence prevention,” while criticizing the office’s director, who has repeatedly vowed on social media to help “defeat” the Second Amendment group.  

“The Biden administration’s new White House Office of so-called ‘Gun Violence Prevention’ might as well be renamed the ‘Federal Office to Disarm Law-Abiding Americans and Defeat the NRA.’ One doesn’t have to look far into Stefanie Feldman’s social media to see biases and agenda: a barrage of over 20 posts aggressively targeting the NRA, combined with promises of ‘big, bold’ executive action on gun control, paints a clear picture,” NRA spokesman Billy McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. 

Biden announced the creation of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention last week, with Vice President Kamala Harris leading the office and Stefanie Feldman serving as the office’s director. Feldman is a longtime Biden aide. 

“Every time I’ve met with families impacted by gun violence as they mourn their loved ones, and I’ve met with so many throughout the country, they all have the same message for their elected officials: ‘do something,’” Biden said in a statement leading up to the announcement. 

NRA DIGS UP HISTORY TO PUSH BACK ON KAMALA HARRIS’ CLAIM ON ‘ASSAULT’ BAN

Biden said the establishment of the office will “send a clear message about how important this issue is to me and to the country” and will “centralize, accelerate, and intensify our work to save more lives more quickly.”

A review of Feldman’s X account shows a handful of messages, going back to at least 2019, vowing to defeat the NRA, former President Trump and gun manufacturers, while others praised gun control activist groups that pledged support to Biden during the 2020 election. 

“Vote Biden. Defeat the NRA,” Stefanie Feldman posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2020, adding that, “The stakes are high.”

“Brady is officially on Team Joe! Together, we’ll defeat Donald Trump. Then we’ll defeat gun manufacturers and the NRA,” Feldman posted in March of 2020, referring to a gun control nonprofit supporting Biden’s presidential campaign. 

“Biden will be the gun safety president. He’s beaten the NRA before,” she wrote in another post in January 2020. 

“Joe Biden isn’t afraid of the NRA & gun manufacturers. He’s defeated them twice before (background checks & assault weapons/high-cap mag bans). As president, he’ll defeat them again. And, he’ll repeal the non-sensical liability protection for gun manufacturers,” she wrote in another post in 2019. 

BIDEN DOUBLES DOWN ON ‘ASSAULT WEAPONS’ BAN, SAYS HE’LL SEE THROUGH THE PROCESS LIKE ‘IN 1994’

Harris has issued similar posts, including a post last month saying, “@JoeBiden has taken on the @NRA and won. He can do it again,” which was accompanied by a campaign ad celebrating Biden’s determination to “ban assault weapons.” 

The post refers to Biden voting to ban semiautomatic firearms in 1994 as part of a major crime bill when he served as a Delaware Senator. The bill was passed by Congress, signed into law by former President Clinton and enacted a 10-year ban on the manufacture, transfer or possession of “semiautomatic assault weapons” and “large capacity ammunition feeding devices.”

BIDEN TAKING HEAT AFTER CALLING FOR ‘ASSAULT WEAPONS’ BAN: ‘IT’S TIME FOR YOUR NAP’

The law expired in 2004, when George W. Bush was president and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress. 

A Department of Justice study, published in 1999 that examined the short-term effects of the ban, found it “failed to reduce the average number of victims per gun murder incident or multiple gunshot wound victims.” Another DOJ study published in 2004 determined the ban’s “effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.”

Democrats, however, have continued championing the bill as one that curbed mass shootings. 

BIDEN ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE ORDER TO EXPAND GUN BACKGROUND CHECKS, CALLS ON LAWMAKERS TO GO FARTHER 

A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital in response to the NRA’s comment on the office and Feldman’s posts that the president “believes American kids shouldn’t have to learn to duck and cover before they learn to read and write.”

“President Biden believes we can’t have law enforcement officers being confronted with weapons of war on our streets. President Biden believes you can’t be tough on crime and soft on guns. And President Biden will continue to be unequivocal and relentless in working to make our communities safer and urging Congress to act on commonsense gun safety legislation that will save lives,” the spokesperson continued. 

McLaughlin argued in his comment to Fox News Digital this month that the Biden White House is “using gun control to divert attention from the Biden Crime Wave.”

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“This administration is using gun control to divert attention from the Biden Crime Wave and their soft-on-criminal policies, destroying communities across America. Rather than spending his time on vacation and cozying up to the deep pockets of the gun control lobby, perhaps it’s time for Joe Biden to tackle the real issues and focus on the rising crime rates,” he said.

Former President Trump said he would use “federal law enforcement assets” to prevent shoplifting and theft during a California GOP speech on Friday.

Trump addressed the California GOP during a Friday luncheon where he discussed ideas to restore law and order in Golden State cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Trump said that if elected, he would do everything in his power — “including sending as many federal assets as required to restore safety and peace” — for cities that have seen what he called a breakdown of law and order.

“We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft,” Trump said. “Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store. Shot!”

TRUMP WEIGHS IN ON TAYLOR SWIFT RELATIONSHIP WITH NFL STAR TRAVIS KELCE, PREDICTS IF RELATIONSHIP WILL LAST

The former president also said “we have the greatest law enforcement in the world” and that they “know what to do, but they aren’t allowed to do anything because of incompetent politicians.”

“The word that ‘they shoot you’ will get out within minutes, and our nation within one day will be an entirely different place,” Trump said.

“There must be retribution for theft, and destruction, and the ruination of our country,” he added.

Trump’s comments come as the former president runs to take the Republican presidential nomination in a robust field of candidates. Trump holds a commanding lead in early GOP primary polls.

The former president’s speech in California came after the second GOP presidential primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. 

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Trump did not participate in Wednesday’s second debate while seven of his challengers took the stage looking to close the gap on the former president.

Trump remains the frontrunner in the GOP primary, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley trailing in most early GOP primary polls.

Fox News Digital’s Thomas Phippen contributed reporting.

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is teasing a “major announcement,” fueling speculation that he will be running as an independent. 

“I’m going to be in Philadelphia on October 9 to make a major announcement at the very birthplace of our nation,” Kennedy said in a video announcement released Friday. 

“I’m not going to tell you right now exactly what that announcement will be. I can say, though, that if you’ve been waiting to come to one of my public events, this will be the one to come to,” he teased.

While the video stopped short of saying he would no longer be running as a Democrat, Kennedy did call out the “corruption” that has overtaken “the leadership of both political parties” in addition to the executive branch and Congress. 

ROBERT F KENNEDY JR ATTACKS BIDEN’S ‘DISASTER’ BORDER POLICY, CALLS IT UNSUSTAINABLE

“So how are we gonna win against the established Washington interests? It’s not through playing the game by the corrupt rules that the corrupt powers, the vested interests have rigged to keep us all in their thrall. Instead, we’re gonna have to rewrite the assumptions and change the habits of American politics” Kennedy said. 

“We’re gonna tap into a mighty surge of people power and reclaim an honest, peaceful, just and prosperous America. So I am inviting you to join me in Philadelphia on October 9. There I’ll share with you our path to the White House and how we can all participate in healing our nation.”

When asked for comment, Kennedy’s campaign sent the campaign video to Fox News Digital and added “Save the Date, Save the Country.”

JOE ROGAN SAYS HE’D VOTE FOR RFK JR. BUT DEMS WILL HAVE ‘RASCALLY TRICKS UP THEIR SLEEVES’ TO PREVENT IT

The campaign teaser comes as some media reports suggest Kennedy will use the Oct. 9 event to announce the launch of an independent bid. 

According to the report, his campaign will release “attack ads” against the Democratic National Committee that will “pave the way” towards his relaunched candidacy. 

“Bobby feels that the DNC is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy so an independent run is the only way to go,” a campaign insider told Mediaite.

RFK JR URGES BIDEN TO DEBATE, PROVE TO VOTERS THAT ‘UNELECTED PEOPLE’ AREN’T RUNNING THE WHITE HOUSE

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Kennedy has been vocal with his criticism towards the DNC, especially over its refusal to host primary debates as he and spiritual guru and former 2020 candidate Marianne Williamson have formally challenged President Biden.

The RealClearPolitics average of polls show Kennedy at roughly 15% against Biden’s 65%, though polls continue showing that many Democratic voters would prefer see someone other than the 80-year-old incumbent at the top of the ticket. 

However, Kennedy’s potential entry as an independent candidate will fuel questions whether his presence in the 2024 race will hurt President Biden more or former President Trump. Recent polls indicate that Kennedy has a much higher favorable rating among GOP voters than Democrats due to various positions that oppose the Democrat establishment. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

President Biden on Friday warned the House of Representatives that it would be committing an “absolute dereliction of duty” to American troops if they cannot figure out a way to avoid a government shutdown. 

Biden made the blistering remark during a farewell tribute to outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, whose role today has now been taken over by Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. Congress has until 12:01 a.m. Sunday to pass a short-term funding bill. 

“If the House fails to fulfill its most basic function, if it fails to fund government by tomorrow, we will have failed all our troops,” Biden said. “Our service members will keep upholding their oath. Showing up for work. Standing sentinel around the world. Keeping our country secure. But they won’t get paid. It’s a disgrace.  

“Thousands of Defense Department civilian and civilian servants will be sent home. And the longer the shutdown lasts, the harder it will become military families to pay their bills,” Biden continued. “We can’t be playing politics while our troops stand in the breach. It’s an absolute dereliction of duty. As leaders, we must never lose sight of the direct impacts of the decisions we make and the impact they have on the lives and families around the world.” 

TRUMP COMMENT ABOUT PUNISHING GEN. MILLEY WITH ‘DEATH’ CAUSES MAJOR OUTCRY FROM GOP RIVALS 

Biden, during a speech paying tribute to Milley at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Arlington, Virginia, described him as a “patriot, uncompromising in his duty, unflinching in the face of danger and unwavering in his service to the country.” 

“During his tenure as chairman, Mark has been a steady hand guiding our military as we navigate what I would argue is one of the most complex security environments our world has faced in a long time. He’s been critical to strengthen America’s existing alliances from NATO to the Indo-Pacific, to building, to new strategic partnerships like AUKUS keeping our force at a cutting edge in the fields of cyber and space,” Biden said. “Ending America’s longest war and continuing to take terrorists off the battlefield. Standing with the brave people of Ukraine, making sure they have the equipment, the support they need when they need it, to defend their freedom.” 

Biden also said he has been “damn proud” to serve with Milley. 

Milley, prior to being the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, served as the 39th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. 

US SOLDIER TRAVIS KING BACK ON AMERICAN SOIL AFTER BEING FREED BY NORTH KOREA 

The Massachusetts native graduated from Princeton University in 1980, receiving his commission from Army ROTC, before going on to hold “multiple command and staff positions in six divisions and a Special Forces Group throughout the last 44 years,” a biography by the Department of Defense says. 

“General Milley’s operational deployments include the Multi-National Force and Observers Task Force, Sinai, Egypt; Operation JUST CAUSE, Panama; Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, Haiti; Operation JOINT FORGE, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Iraq; and three tours during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, Afghanistan. GEN Milley also deployed to Colombia, Somalia and served two years on the DMZ in the Republic of Korea,” it adds. 

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Milley and his wife Hollyanne have two children and have been married for more than 38 years. 

FIRST ON FOX — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is doubling down on his forceful policies regarding the southern border after the Mexican president urged American voters not to support him in the 2024 election. 

Ramaswamy has been vocal about wanting to send the military to the border in order to crack down on the surge of migrants coming into the U.S. and go after the drug cartels.  

During a press conference earlier this week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador lashed out at the 38-year-old political outsider after he was asked by a reporter about the candidate’s so-called “threat” to the country.

“That candidate from the Republican Party who says he is going to invade Mexico, no American of Mexican origin should vote for him,” Obrador said, “because he who does not love his homeland does not love his mother.”

RAMASWAMY UNVEILS PLAN TO ‘DECLARE ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE FROM CHINA’ IN UPCOMING POLICY SPEECH

In a statement first made to Fox News Digital, Ramaswamy knocked Obrador — suggesting the drug cartels are his “sugar daddy” and insisting that things will change if the GOP hopeful makes it to the White House.

“It’s not just illegal migrants, human trafficking, and fentanyl pouring through our Swiss cheese, open border anymore,” Ramaswamy said. “Now, we have armed cartel gunmen directly invading our homeland.”

“The U.S. military has one job: to protect American citizens on our own soil. The cartels may be AMLO’s sugar daddy now, but soon there will be a new daddy in town. As President, I will call Mexico’s president in January 2025 to deliver a clear message that we will support you in decimating the cartels. Military force is both legally and morally justified. Time to end the crisis,” he added. 

WWII GOES VIRAL AT RAMASWAMY NH TOWN HALL: WHAT YOU’RE SAYING IS ‘EXACTLY WHAT MY GENERATION GREW UP IN’

At Wednesday’s second GOP debate, Ramaswamy reiterated his tough border stance, suggesting the drug cartels are guilty of “bioterrorism” for the fentanyl deaths that occur in the U.S. 

“We have to seal that southern border. Building the wall is not enough. They’re building cartel-financed tunnels,” Ramaswamy said. “We have to use our own military to seal the Swiss cheese of a southern border.”

RAMASWAMY CALLS HUNTER BIDEN GUN CHARGES A ‘SMOKESCREEN’: THE ‘REAL PROBLEM’ IS BIDEN FAMILY’S FINANCES

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According to the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, Ramaswamy is placing fourth in the GOP field with 5.3%, narrowly behind former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley with 5.8%. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was center stage at Wednesday’s debate, averaging 14% in national polls while former President Trump continues to maintain a commanding lead over his Republican challengers, averaging a whopping 57%. However, Trump’s averages in early primary contests like in Iowa and New Hampshire are currently below 50%, giving a potential roadmap for his rivals to overtake him as the campaign unfolds. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

The Biden administration proposed its highly-anticipated offshore oil and gas leasing program for the next five years on Friday morning, laying out just three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) published the plan in a federal filing early Friday, laying out plans to lease oil and gas drilling rights across the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, 2027 and 2029. The plan, which is slated to be finalized by the end of the year, represents the lowest number of offshore lease sales ever proposed by the federal government and blocks leasing off the Alaskan coast, and in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

“The release of the U.S. offshore leasing program, mandated by law and long overdue, is an utter failure for the country,” Erik Milito, the president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents both traditional and renewable offshore energy producers, said in a statement Friday. 

“President Biden’s approach significantly curtails access to a critical national asset at a time when energy inflation is rampant, the likelihood of a national recession looms, and global efforts are intensifying to curb greenhouse gas emissions,” Milito said. “The White House simply ignores our energy realities in once again limiting U.S. energy production opportunities.”

MANCHIN, OTHERS TORCH BIDEN FOR BANNING OIL DRILLING ACROSS MILLIONS OF ACRES: ‘ASSAULT ON OUR ECONOMY’

Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal government is required to issue plans every five years laying out prospective offshore oil and gas lease sales. The most recent plan, which was implemented in 2017, expired in June 2022.

On July 1, 2022, the DOI published the draft proposal for its replacement five-year plan, which laid out multiple options for leasing between 2024 and 2029. The plan included an option with no lease sales during the time span and a maximum option of 11 lease sales. Friday’s proposal represents a middle ground option that will likely receive pushback from both environmentalists and fossil fuel proponents.

The 2022 draft proposal also ruled out any lease sales in the Atlantic or Pacific, solely opening up the possibility of future Gulf of Mexico sales and one potential offshore Alaska sale, though that sale was ultimately axed from the proposal Friday.

BIDEN ADMIN UNVEILS SWEEPING NEW ACTIONS INCREASING COSTS FOR OIL, GAS LEASING

“With global demand at record levels and continuing to rise, regressive policies like this serve to harm Americans of all walks of life,” Milito continued. “The dramatically low number of lease sales puts upward pressure on prices at the pump, destroys good-paying jobs that form the fabric of Gulf Coast communities, and relinquishes geopolitical advantages of energy production to countries like Russia, Iran, and China.”

The persistent  delay in issuing a proposed plan represents a departure from precedent set by both Republican and Democratic administrations, which have historically finalized replacements immediately after previous plans expired. The option to hold no lease sales over the course of five years also represented an unprecedented departure. 

The most recent two plans, both formulated under the Obama administration, included more than 10 offshore oil and gas lease sales each. The Trump administration sought to hold a total of 47 lease sales across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coasts between 2022 and 2027.

“At a time when inflation runs rampant across the country, the Biden administration is choosing failed energy policies that are adding to the pain Americans are feeling at the pump,” American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement.

“This restrictive offshore leasing program is the latest tactic in a coordinated strategy to reduce energy production, ultimately weakening America’s energy dominance, limiting consumers access to affordable reliable energy and compromising our ability to lead on the global stage. For decades, we’ve strived for energy security and this administration keeps trying to give it away.”

WHITE HOUSE REFUSES TO REVEAL HOW COSTLY POTENTIAL BILLION-DOLLAR CLIMATE PROGRAM COULD BE FOR TAXPAYERS

While the proposed number of lease sales is far lower than the possible 11 sales, it is still more than climate activist organizations had called for. Groups led Center for Biological Diversity had argued the administration was legally able to move ahead with zero lease sales in the five-year plan.

“President Biden campaigned on climate leadership, but he seems poised to let us down at the worst possible moment,” Brady Bradshaw, the senior oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, said after the DOI issued its July 2022 draft proposal. The reckless approval of yet more offshore drilling would mean more oil spills, more dead wildlife and more polluted communities. We need a five-year plan with no new leases.”

In May 2022, the DOI canceled the three remaining lease sales scheduled under the current plan, one of which spanned more than a million acres in the Cook Inlet off the coast of Alaska. However, the Inflation Reduction Act passed months later mandated that the administration reverse that decision and hold the sales.

The Inflation Reduction Act further tethers new offshore wind energy leases to new oil and gas leases, meaning the former could be threatened without consistent fossil fuel leasing. That provision likely forced the Biden administration to ultimately move forward with some lease sales in the proposal Friday.

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The only remaining sale, Lease Sale 261, was set for this week, but was delayed due to ongoing litigation which was initiated after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management attempted to issue restrictions on leases purchased and reduce the amount of acreage available for lease. The sale is expected to span millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico.

In addition, the Biden administration issued a proposal earlier this month blocking off 2.8 million of acres in the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska, from oil and gas leasing.

“With climate change warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, we must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said on Sept. 6. “President Biden is delivering on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history.”

Conservative pundits reacted to Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate by calling for the field to narrow while also concluding, along with a poll following the debate, that Gov. Ron DeSantis is the candidate in the best position to go up against former President Trump.

“Honestly, nothing personal, but I felt Nikki Haley won the obnoxious title in this debate,” conservative commentator Mark Levin posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.  “Lots of personal attacks. Her record as governor is also quite weak. Scott began to address it. Pence, Burgham, Christie need to go. DeSantis was very solid. Actually got a bit more time. But time to thin the herd.”

“The DeSantis strategy is do well in Iowa, the bottom three or four candidates should drop out at this point, they have no hope,” Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz said on FOX Business.

“It’s a two-man race at this point,” political commentator Rob Smith posted on X. “I believe DeSantis will surprise in Iowa and New Hampshire, and it will completely reset the conversation. I am not paid to promote anyone, I call it as I see it.”

DESANTIS SUGGESTS ONE-ON-ONE DEBATE WITH TRUMP: ‘YOU OWE IT TO THE VOTERS’

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts posted on X that the debate between Trump and DeSantis is “the debate Americans want regardless of who their preferred candidate is.”

“Tonight’s debate, which was a sideshow, emphasized the need for this idea. America deserves it.”

DESANTIS FIRES BACK AT ‘OUT OF TOUCH’ HOSTS OF ‘THE VIEW’: ‘WON’T BE PAYING FOR THEIR 9TH BOOSTER’

A 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll after the debate found that a plurality of voters, 33%, felt DeSantis performed the best, and 54% ranked his performance as excellent or good, the highest of any candidate.

“DeSantis is the only candidate whose favorability rating competes with Donald Trump’s, though more primary voters are considering voting for Trump over DeSantis,” the poll stated. 

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“Even as Trump and DeSantis command the GOP primary field among self-identified Republicans, likely Republican primary voters who identify as independents are split between Trump, DeSantis, and Haley.”