NationalWatch

President Biden’s campaign board members former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democrat North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper called former President Trump’s call to replace Obamacare an “assault.”

Pelosi and Cooper, respectively the chair and a member of the Biden campaign’s National Advisory Board, spoke to the press on a Tuesday conference call regarding Trump’s pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if elected president in 2024.

Pelosi began by calling the former president’s comment a “dire threat to the health and well-being of America’s families.”

TRUMP BLASTS AMERICAN LEADERS AS NO US CITIZENS ARE AMONG HAMAS HOSTAGES RECENTLY RELEASED

“This weekend, the former president reminded us that he is hellbent on destroying the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, he’s making an assault on the financial and health security of America’s families,” Pelsoi said.

Pelosi repeated claims that Trump’s calls to repeal Obamacare — officially known as the ACA — were an “assault” and that the leading 2024 GOP contender is “coming for your health care”

“When he says he’s going after our health care, believe him,” the Democrat said, suggesting that under President Biden’s leadership, “healthcare is more affordable and accessible than ever before.”

In a continued pointed conversation around the former president, Cooper added that “Donald Trump is great at reading the room full of conspiracy theorists, but clueless in reading the room of everyday Americans who need health insurance.”

The Democrats made more claims on behalf of Biden’s re-election efforts, suggesting that if elected, Trump would “hurt millions of Americans” and we need to “preserve our democracy.”

“Donald Trump is clearly speaking in autocratic tones, and he has a lot of followers who prefer an autocracy over a democracy as long as their guy’s in power,” Cooper continued.

Over the weekend on TruthSocial, Trump said he was heavily looking at “alternatives” to Obamacare — the white whale from his first administration.

“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” Trump wrote.

IF MANCHIN RUNS FOR PRESIDENT, WILL HE BE A SPOILER AND THROW THE ELECTION TO TRUMP?

“We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it,” he continued, referencing the late Senator John McCain, R-Ari., who blocked Trump’s repeal efforts in 2017. “It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”

Trump’s post comes as he aims to take back the White House from Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

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The former president is the front-runner in the GOP field that has been whittling its numbers down after several debates.

Still, for Trump to get his rematch with Biden, he will have to go through several high-profile Republicans, including his former protégé Governor Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and his former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed reporting.

Jewish groups are suing the University of California Regents, President Michael Drake and other school officials for what they assert is the “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism” on UC Berkeley’s campus.

In a 36-page complaint filed Tuesday, the Brandeis Center and the Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education (JAFE) allege “inaction” by UC Berkeley and Berkeley Law has allowed antisemitism to grow on campus. The groups say since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, antisemitism on campus “has erupted in on-campus displays of hatred, harassment, and physical violence against Jews.” 

The groups argue courts must now intervene to protect the civil rights of Jewish students and faculty and end “anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.” 

University of California officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

UC BERKELEY TAKES FIRE AFTER EXTRA CREDIT OFFERED IN CLASS FOR ATTENDING PRO-PALESTINIAN STUDENT ‘WALKOUT’

The lawsuit points to several examples of Jewish students being harassed by pro-Palestinian protesters at UC Berkeley. During one rally, a Jewish undergrad draped in an Israeli flag was allegedly assaulted by two protesters “who struck him in the head with a metal water bottle,” the Brandeis Center said in a news release. 

The group also cited examples of pro-Palestinian rallies that honored Hamas terrorists who brutally massacred more than 1,200 Israelis Oct. 7 as “martyrs” and featured chants such as “intifada” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which are seen as calls for the elimination of Israel. 

READ THE COMPLAINT BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

But the focus of the complaint is a 2022 pledge by 23 student organizations to boycott pro-Israel speakers because of their “support of Zionism” and “the apartheid state of Israel.” The Brandeis Center argues the ban violates federal law and university policies by denying Jewish law students networking opportunities afforded to other groups and discriminates against them in other ways.

“The antisemitism Berkeley’s Jewish students find themselves embroiled in today did not start on Oct. 7,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, former U.S. assistant secretary of education for the Bush and Trump administrations. He’s the founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and a graduate of UC Berkeley’s law school. 

“It is a direct result of Berkeley’s leadership repeatedly turning a blind eye to unfettered Jew hatred.” 

US DEPT OF EDUCATION OPENS INVESTIGATION OF HARVARD OVER ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS

“The school is quick to address other types of hatred, but why not antisemitism?” he continued. “Berkeley, once a beacon of free speech, civil rights and equal treatment of persons regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender and sexual preference, is heading down a very different and dangerous path from the one I proudly attended as a Jewish law student.”

The Jewish groups are asking a court to require the University of California sytem to enforce its policies and prohibit discrimination against Jewish students, faculty and invited speakers. They reject arguments voiced by university leaders that punishing anti-Israel speech and actions would be “viewpoint discrimination,” arguing that “Zionist” speakers are being excluded “because of who they are,” not what they say. 

“Making Jews renounce that core component of their identity to participate in a student organization is no different than asking members of the LGBTQ community to remain ‘in the closet’ as the cost of membership — a cost that is not imposed on other students who are free to participate fully in those organizations without disavowing or hiding their identities,” said Rachel Lerman, vice chair and general counsel at the Brandeis Center and also a graduate of UC Berkeley Law School.

The lawsuit comes during a wave of antisemitism on college campuses following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. High-profile incidents of discrimination against Jews and violent speech by pro-Palestinian activists have led the Biden administration to investigate alleged civil rights violations at the nation’s top schools. 

NY OFFICIAL DEMANDS RESIGNATION OF COLLEGE PRESIDENT WHO CLAIMED ‘COMPLEX HISTORY’ AFTER HAMAS TERROR ATTACK

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is opening an investigation into Harvard University, for example, to probe whether Harvard “failed to respond to alleged harassment of students based on their national origin (shared Jewish ancestry and/or Israeli) in a manner consistent with the requirements of Title VI,” according to a letter from the OCR Boston Office dated Tuesday. 

The investigation came in response to a complaint about a first-year Israeli student at Harvard Business School who was reportedly shoved and accosted by pro-Palestinian protesters during a “die in” demonstration in October at the Massachusetts campus to protest Israel’s retaliatory strikes against the Gaza Strip.

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The investigation was revealed the same day it was announced college presidents from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania will testify on Capitol Hill about rampant antisemitism on their campuses that followed Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks.

The Department of Education reached a settlement with the University of Vermont in April over a complaint brought by the Brandeis Center that the school failed to respond adequately to antisemitic harassment of Jewish students. The department is investigating four other Brandeis Center complaints at SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California (USC), Brooklyn College and the University of Illinois, the group said. 

The complaint was filed in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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

Former President Carter, 99, is to honor his late wife Rosalynn Carter during a memorial service in Atlanta on Tuesday attended by all living U.S. first ladies and multiple presidents. 

Tuesday’s tribute at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University is expected to begin at 1 p.m. 

It falls on the second of a three-day schedule of public events celebrating the former first lady and global humanitarian who died Nov. 19 at home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 96. Tributes began Monday in the Carters’ native Sumter County and continued in Atlanta as she lay in repose at The Jimmy Carter Presidential Center.

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, longtime friends of the Carters, lead the list of dignitaries joining the widowed former president in Atlanta. Former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with former first ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, will pay their respects, as will Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and his wife Marty Kemp. Former Presidents Trump, Obama and Bush were invited but will not attend, according to The Associated Press. 

County music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, family friends of the Carters, will perform at the invitation-only tribute service, according to The Carter Center.  

TRIBUTES TO FORMER FIRST LADY ROSALYNN CARTER POUR IN ON NEWS OF HER DEATH

Former President Carter’s participation in the events had been a day-by-day issue; he is 10 months into home hospice care. 

The Carter Center confirmed his plans to attend the Tuesday service. It will be his first public appearance since September, when he and Rosalynn Carter rode together in the Plains Peanut Festival parade, visible only through open windows in a Secret Service vehicle. Carter, who was with his wife during her final hours, did not appear publicly during any part of a public motorcade and wreath-laying ceremony Monday at Rosalynn Carter’s alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus.

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” Carter said in a statement after his wife’s passing. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

JIMMY CARTER AND WIFE ARE IN ‘FINAL CHAPTER’ OF LIVES, GRANDSON SAYS

The Carters married in 1946; their 77-plus years together makes them the longest-married presidential couple in U.S. history.

“My grandmother, in addition to being a partner to my grandfather, was a force on her own,” Jason Carter, who will be among the speakers Tuesday, told the AP. 

Rosalynn Carter has been praised for a half-century of advocacy for better mental health care in America and reducing the stigma attached to mental illness. She brought attention to the tens of millions of people who work as unpaid caregivers in U.S. households, and she gained new acclaim for how integral she was to her husband’s political rise and in his terms as Georgia’s governor and the 39th president.

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Jason Carter, himself a former state senator and one-time Democratic nominee for governor, called her “the best politician in the family,” a distinction former President Carter never disputed.

“My wife is much more political,” the former president told the AP in 2021.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy clapped back at Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a longtime vocal critic of former President Trump, after he said he would rather support “a number of Democrats” over Trump and Ramaswamy in the 2024 election.

“Turns out he’s opposed to America-First itself, not just one man. Newsflash, Mitt: I didn’t vote for you either, and I still call on your niece Ronna to resign,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital in a statement Monday. Ronna McDaniel is chair of the Republican National Committee.

Ramaswamy’s response comes after Romney said to CBS’ Norah O’Donnell that he’d “be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans” except Ramaswamy, and that a “number of the Democrats” would be an upgrade from Trump. 

“Maybe not Vivek, but the others that are running would be acceptable to me, and I’d be happy to vote for them,” Romney stated. 

FOX NEWS POLL: SUPPORT FOR TRUMP HITS 62% IN GOP PRIMARY

“I’d be happy to vote for a number of the Democrats, too. I mean, it would be an upgrade, in my opinion, from Donald Trump – and perhaps also from Joe Biden,” he continued. 

Romney’s comments, which aired on CBS last month, went widely unnoticed until this week.

In an emailed statement Tuesday to Fox News Digital, a Trump spokesperson said, “Voters aren’t going to take advice from a loser and quitter like Mittens.”

Romney, a former presidential candidate, will not be running for re-election in 2024 and announced in September his retirement from the Senate.

“I have spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another. At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-eighties. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in,” Romney said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital in September.

“We face critical challenges – mounting national debt, climate change, and the ambitious authoritarians of Russia and China. Neither President Biden nor former President Trump are leading their party to confront them,” Romney said.

Trump called Romney’s retirement “fantastic news” for America, Utah and the Republican Party on TruthSocial shortly after his announcement, NBC News reported at the time. Romney was one of the Republicans who voted to impeach the former president twice. 

BLACK VOTERS SAY THEY’RE TURNING AWAY FROM ‘WEAK’ BIDEN IN 2024: ‘HE DIDN’T CHANGE ANYTHING’

Romney’s term ends in January 2025.

He was first elected to the Senate from Utah in 2018, winning the GOP primary in a landslide.

But his willingness to reach across the aisle and criticize other national Republicans has caused friction with the Utah GOP. Last month, more than 60 GOP Utah state lawmakers endorsed Utah state House Speaker Brad Wilson to mount a primary challenge against Romney. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Romney’s office and the RNC for comment.

UTAH REPUBLICAN SEEKING TO REPLACE ROMNEY ACCUSED OF FALSIFYING ENDORSEMENTS, STRONG-ARMING GOP FOR SUPPORT

Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the influential and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, is endorsing Nikki Haley for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

The group, which has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to help push the Republican Party past former President Trump, made its announcement Tuesday morning in a memo.

AFP Action said that “it is proud to be throwing the full weight and scope of its grassroots operation behind Nikki Haley to help her become the next President of the United States. That effort will begin with a multimillion dollar ad campaign launching this week in all early and several Super Tuesday states calling on Americans to unite behind Haley’s positive vision to turn the page on today’s broken politics and move our country forward.”

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: TRUMP HOLDS COMMANDING LEAD WITH 50 DAYS TO GO UNTIL IOWA CAUCUSES 

Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, launched her 2024 GOP presidential campaign in February. She’s enjoyed momentum in the polls in recent months, thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates. 

GAME ON IN IOWA AS DESANTIS AND HALEY BATTLE FOR SECOND PLACE BEHIND TRUMP

Haley has leapfrogged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire — which holds the first primary and votes second in the Republican nominating schedule — and in her home state, which holds the first southern contest. And she’s pulled even with DeSantis in some of the latest polls in Iowa, whose caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar on Jan. 15.

But Haley and DeSantis remain far behind Trump, who continues to hold a commanding lead over the rest of the field as the former president makes his third straight White House run.

The AFP Action endorsement should help Haley, whose campaign lacks the grassroots outreach and organizational strength that DeSantis enjoys, due to the major assist from the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down.

The endorsement by AFP Action will likely support Haley with the group’s powerful direct-mail and field operations, as well as a major ad blitz in the early voting states. In the 2022 midterm election cycle, the group knocked on roughly 5.5 million doors, made 2 million calls, and sent out nearly 70 million pieces of mail on behalf of candidates it was backing.

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AFP Action senior adviser Emily Seidel, who called her group “a true grassroots organization,” highlighted that “when we announced our decision to engage in our first ever Republican presidential primary, we made it clear that we’d be looking for a candidate who can turn the page on our political dysfunction — and win. It’s clear that candidate is Nikki Haley.”

Seidel pledged that “we will be doing everything we can to help make her the next President of the United States.” 

Haley, reacting to the endorsement, said the group’s “members know that there is too much at stake in this election to sit on the sidelines. This is a choice between freedom and socialism, individual liberty and big government, fiscal responsibility and spiraling debt. We have a country to save, and I’m grateful to have AFP Action by our side.”

The DeSantis campaign, reacting to the news, argued that the AFP Action endorsement of Haley will only bolster Trump as he aims to win the GOP presidential nomination.

“Congratulations to Donald Trump on securing the Koch endorsement. Like clockwork, the pro-open borders, pro-jail break bill establishment is lining up behind a moderate who has no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president. Every dollar spent on Nikki Haley’s candidacy should be reported as an in-kind to the Trump campaign. No one has a stronger record of beating the establishment than Ron DeSantis, and this time will be no different,” DeSantis campaign communications director Andrew Romeo said in a statement.

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

FIRST ON FOX: Conservative Sen. Mike Lee is taking sides in Ohio’s competitive GOP Senate primary in a race that could determine if Republicans win back the chamber’s majority.

Lee is backing Bernie Moreno, a successful Cleveland-based businessman and luxury auto dealership giant, in an endorsement shared first with Fox News on Tuesday.

The three-term GOP senator from Utah becomes the third Republican in the chamber to support Moreno, along with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and first-term Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

“Bernie Moreno is a successful businessman, a political outsider, and a strong constitutional conservative. I am proud to join my colleague J.D. Vance in endorsing Bernie for the US Senate because we both know that we desperately need to elect more principled conservatives who have the courage to stand up to the establishment in both political parties. I’m confident that Bernie will do exactly that,” Lee said in a statement.

THESE FIVE SENATE SEATS HELD BY DEMOCRATS MOST LIKELY TO FLIP IN 2024

Moreno is one of the three major Republicans vying for their party’s 2024 nomination in the race to challenge longtime Democrat Sen. Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown in a one-time general election battleground state that’s turned red in recent cycles.

The other two candidates are state Sen. Matt Dolan, a former top county prosecutor and Ohio assistant attorney general whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. Dolan and Moreno are each making their second straight bid for the Senate.

LEADERS IN EAST PALESTINE, OHIO, WEIGH IN ON GOP SENATE PRIMARY

Moreno, an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. legally from Colombia with his family as a boy, has made border security a top issue during both of his Senate campaigns.

Earlier this month, Moreno launched a $2 million statewide broadcast TV ad blitz in Ohio, with the commercials spotlighting his vow to secure America’s southern border with Mexico as well as his support for former President Donald Trump and his America First credentials.

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His team says Moreno has outraised Dolan and LaRose combined in the race for campaign cash.

Brown, who is the only Democrat to win statewide in Ohio over the past decade, will be heavily targeted by Republicans in a state that was once a premiere battleground before shifting red.

Democrats currently control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a very favorable Senate map in 2024, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states that Trump carried in 2020: Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for reelection.

Five others seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by Biden in 2020: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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

Amid a spate of polls suggesting President Biden trails former President Donald Trump in a likely 2024 election rematch, the Biden campaign and Democratic allies point back nearly a dozen years.

That’s when former President Barack Obama – with Biden as his running mate – won re-election to a second term in the White House in 2012 despite polls a year earlier predicting a ballot box defeat for the incumbent.

“Predictions more than a year out tend to look a little different a year later,” Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said earlier this month.

“Don’t take our word for it: Gallup predicted an eight point loss for President Obama only for him to win handedly a year later,” Munoz added. 

HEAD HERE TO CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2024 POLLING

And Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriquez wrote in a recent fundraising email that “the year is 2011. It’s one-year out from Election Day, and the New York Times has just put out polling showing President Obama trailing significantly in battleground states.”

But a trip down memory lane reminds us that while Obama was saddled in late 2011 with unfavorable polling a year before his re-election, his standing was not as troublesome as the deficits Biden currently faces.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: TRUMP REMAINS COMMANDING FRONT RUNNER 50 DAYS BEFORE START OF GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING CALENDAR

Obama mostly maintained a slight polling advantage over eventual 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. A Fox News poll from early December 2011 indicated the incumbent with a 44%-42% edge over Romney, after trailing the then-former Massachusetts governor by two points in a November survey.

And Obama topped another top contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination – former House Speaker Newt Gingrich – by five and six points in the November and December 2011 Fox News polls.

Fast-forward a dozen years and Biden trails Trump – the commanding front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination as he makes his third straight White House bid – by four points.

The same Fox News national poll, conducted Nov. 10-13, suggests the president down by five points to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and trailing by 12 points to former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, in hypothetical 2024 general election showdowns.

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The president’s approval rating is also deeper underwater than Obama’s was a dozen years ago.

Biden’s approval rating, which has been in negative territory for over two years, stood at 40%-59% in the latest Fox News poll.

Obama stood at 42%-48% in the Fox News November 2011 poll, and at 44%-51% in the survey a month later.

The new Fox News poll, and surveys from other organizations, also point to high disapproval ratings for Biden among key groups that traditionally support Democrats.

Veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse noted that polls “aren’t necessarily predictive a year out.”

“But that doesn’t mean you ignore these polls and they [Biden’s campaign] do so at their own risk,” he emphasized.

Newhouse, the lead pollster on Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, argued that “Joe Biden is not the campaigner and communicator that Barack Obama was. The Obama folks had the full resources of a strong candidate at their disposal and I don’t think the Biden campaign does.”

Obama’s polling woes in 2011 came the year after Democrats were trounced in the 2010 midterm elections. 

The Biden campaign notes that twelve years later, the current Democratic president and his party are coming off  ballot box successes in the 2022 midterms, as well as this month’s off-year elections.

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

A Monday decision from the U.S. Supreme Court compels Arizona’s top Republican leaders to sit for depositions in an ongoing federal lawsuit concerning state voting rights. 

In their brief order, the justices refused to block the testimony from Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma and Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen – both Republicans – where they must explain, under oath, why they supported state laws requiring proof of citizenship to vote. 

Civil rights groups have argued that those laws, passed last year, are racially discriminatory. The Biden administration has also filed a separate lawsuit.

Toma and Petersen, meanwhile, have defended the laws from legal challenges after the state’s governor and attorney general refused to do so. 

A federal district court judge ordered Toma and Petersen to sit for depositions explaining their reasons for defending the law. 

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: TRUMP HOLDS COMMANDING LEAD OVER DESANTIS, HALEY, WITH 50 DAYS UNTIL IOWA CAUCUSES

The court’s decision on Monday effectively rejects claims from Toma and Petersen that a deposition would violate legislative privilege – meaning that lawmakers are shielded from criminal and civil liability. The GOP lawmakers had filed an emergency request with the court. 

A federal judge tossed out the state laws in September on the grounds that federal laws control proof-of-citizenship mandates. 

The case has not gone into effect or to trial, but it could potentially have significant ramifications in a swing state going into the 2024 presidential election. 

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The lawsuits included a coalition of civil, political, and voting groups including Mi Familia Vota, Living United for Change in Arizona, the national and state Democratic Party, and three other individuals. 

Fox News’ Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report. 

Former first lady Melania Trump is expected to join her contemporaries and other leaders at a memorial tribute service for the former first lady Rosalynn Carter. 

Trump will be joined by other living former first ladies – including Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush – the Carter Center said Monday in a news release announcing the guest list for the Tuesday service at Emory University in Atlanta.

JIMMY CARTER HAD ONE OF THE ‘GREATEST SECOND ACTS’ IN AMERICAN HISTORY, CONSERVATIVE HISTORIAN SAYS

In addition to the former first ladies, President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are all slated to attend the invitation-only service.

Former President Donald Trump was not among the guests listed to attend the event. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump campaign. 

Carter passed away in Georgia last week at age 96 after being admitted to a hospice. Her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, will also attend her tribute service. 

The couple were married for 77 years.  

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The tribute service will also feature the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which will play some of Rosalynn Carter’s “most beloved tunes,” the Carter Center said. 

Maryland State Police will continue enforcing the state’s handgun law for now, despite a federal appeals court ruling that the licensing requirement is unconstitutional.

“At this time, the HQL law remains in effect and there are no immediate changes in the process to purchase a firearm in Maryland,” the department wrote in an agency-wide advisory after last week’s ruling.

GUNS AND AMMO: ONE OF AMERICA’S FASTEST GROWING HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS HAS ‘NO BENCHWARMERS’

Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License (HQL) requires applicants to submit fingerprints for a background check, take a four-hour firearm safety course with a live fire component, and wait up to 30 days for approval before purchasing a handgun, which then requires another application and seven-day waiting period.

Last Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the law is overly “burdensome” and cannot stand under the 2022 landmark Supreme Court decision that a firearm regulation is unconstitutional unless the government can prove it is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition.

WHY GUN OWNERSHIP IS SPIKING AMONG THIS DEMOGRAPHIC

“The challenged law restricts the ability of law-abiding adult citizens to possess handguns, and the state has not presented a historical analogue that justifies its restriction; indeed, it has seemingly admitted that it couldn’t find one,” Judge Julius Richardson, a Trump appointee, wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

But the Maryland State Police’s licensing division said it will continue enforcing the law until the federal court issues a mandate.

JUDGE BLOCKS AMERICA’S ‘MOST EXTREME’ GUN CONTROL LAW, BUT BLUE STATE PLANS TO APPEAL

Maryland officials have 14 days to file for a rehearing before the full appeals court. If the state does not file within that window, the court will issue a mandate seven days later, which means the final court ruling would be Dec. 11, Fox45 News reported.

Officials have not yet confirmed whether they plan to file for a rehearing or, alternatively, seek a review before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement that he would “continue to fight for this law” and that his administration was evaluating its options.

Similarly, a spokesperson for Attorney General Anthony Brown told Fox45 News that they were “weighing options for next steps.”

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The NRA previously described Maryland’s HQL as a “draconian process” and praised the Fourth Circuit ruling as a “significant victory, for the Second Amendment and Americans who value constitutional freedoms.”

“Striking down Maryland’s oppressive Handgun Qualification License requirement affirms that the burdensome process infringes on the rights of the law-abiding,” the NRA’s lobbying arm executive director Randy Kozuch told Fox News Digital. 

Fox News Digital’s Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

Former President Jimmy Carter will attend the Tuesday memorial service for former first lady Rosalyn Carter, his wife of 77 years.

The Carter Center, an Atlanta-based non-profit founded by the former president, told Fox News Digital that Carter will attend the National Tribute Service at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University. 

Rosalynn Carter died in Plains, Georgia last week at age 96 after she was admitted to a hospice. 

ROSALYNN CARTER CELEBRATES 96TH BIRTHDAY WITH HUSBAND JIMMY CARTER, PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM AND BUTTERFLIES

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” former President Jimmy Carter said at the time. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.” 

She is survived by her husband, her four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Among the guests expected to attend the tribute service are President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Melania Trump. 

Former President Donald Trump was not on the list of guests for the invitation-only service. 

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The Carter Center on Monday released additional details about the tribute event, announcing that members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra would play some of Carter’s “most beloved tunes,” along with performances by “family friends Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a terse response when questioned Monday over President Biden’s “sagging” poll numbers and whether the administration had considered any staffing shakeups or strategy changes to combat them.

“No,” Jean-Pierre simply said, appearing to gaze sternly at the reporter asking the question.

Her answer comes as Biden continues to face the daunting task of winning back enough support from Americans ahead of the 2024 presidential election as a number of polls show Biden trailing each of the top Republican candidates vying for the GOP presidential nomination.

BIDEN CHALLENGER GOES ALL IN ON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, WON’T RUN FOR RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS

A national poll released earlier this month by Marquette Law School showed Biden trailing former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in hypothetical matchups.

Trump, who is the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination, held a 52% to 48% lead over Biden. Haley topped Biden 55% to 45% while DeSantis

The reporter went on to reference what appeared to be the call White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients held with cabinet officials over the summer, asking them to decide whether to stick around for the remainder of Biden’s term or leave early.

BIDEN UNSURE WHEN AMERICAN HOSTAGES WILL BE FREED BY HAMAS: ‘WE DON’T KNOW’

“Should we be anticipating any departures of either cabinet officials or other senior officials,” the reporter asked.

“Look, I can’t speak to people’s personal decisions. We don’t have anything to announce at this time,” Jean-Pierre responded. 

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“We’re going to continue to do the work that the president set out to do. We just talked about supply chains, we just talked about the economy, we’ve been talking about the president’s leadership globally, especially in the Middle East. That’s what we’re here to do and focus on. That’s what I’m here to do and focus on. I just can’t speak to people’s decisions,” she added.

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

Former federal prosecutor Katayoun “Kat” Copeland will run for attorney general of Pennsylvania in 2024, she said this week.

Copeland, a Republican, recently left her job in the U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia ahead of announcing her candidacy for attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement official.

The office has an annual budget of about $140 million and plays a prominent role in arresting drug traffickers, fighting gun trafficking, defending state laws in court and protecting consumers from predatory practices.

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It played a key role in defending Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the battleground state, fighting repeated attempts to overturn it in state and federal courts by Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican allies.

Copeland, 56, also was a prosecutor for Delaware County in suburban Philadelphia and served for two years as the court-appointed district attorney there. She ran for a full four-year term in 2019 but lost to Democrat Jack Stollsteimer.

Between her work for the district attorney’s office and the U.S. attorney’s office, Copeland has spent three decades as a prosecutor. In the U.S. attorney’s office, she rose to become chief of the criminal division and serve in the national security and cybercrimes unit.

Copeland has competition for the Republican nomination. York County’s district attorney, Dave Sunday, has announced his candidacy and is endorsed by the Republican Attorneys General Association. Craig Williams, a state House member from Delaware County, also has said he plans to run.

Four Democrats have also announced their candidacies: state Rep. Jared Solomon of Philadelphia, former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, former federal prosecutor Joe Kahn and Keir Bradford-Grey, the former head of Philadelphia’s and Montgomery County’s public defense lawyers.

Candidates must file paperwork by Feb. 13 to appear on the April 23 primary ballot.

Current Attorney General Michelle Henry, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Josh Shapiro’s term as when he became governor, has said she does not plan to run for a full term.

As he aims for an upset victory in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is days away from reaching his goal of stopping in all 99 counties in the Hawkeye State.

The DeSantis campaign says the governor will make his final stop this upcoming Saturday in Jasper County. 

DeSantis is hoping to follow in the footsteps of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (2008), former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (2012) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (2016), who stopped in all 99 counties en route to Iowa caucus victories.

“We’re going to win here. We have what it takes,” DeSantis pledged in a recent Fox News Digital interview in Des Moines, Iowa.

However, DeSantis is currently battling former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for second place in the latest GOP presidential nomination polls in Iowa, far behind former President Trump. The former president remains the commanding Republican front-runner in Iowa, the other early voting states, and in national surveys, as he makes his third straight bid for the White House.

“There are ONLY 50 DAYS LEFT until the very first vote is cast in the 2024 election,” Trump wrote in a fundraising email to supporters this past weekend. “If we completely DOMINATE the Iowa Caucus, then we can emerge as the Presumptive Nominee for President on January 15, 2024.”

Trump has made history as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments – including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss – have only fueled his support among Republican voters.

The former president returns to Iowa this weekend, and his campaign is ramping up their ad buys in the final weeks ahead of the caucuses.

GAME ON IN IOWA AS DESANTIS AND HALEY BATTLE FOR SECOND PLACE BEHIND TRUMP

While Trump has held nearly 20 events in Iowa this year, the Florida governor has made roughly 130 stops, with many of those hosted by the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down. Additionally, the super PAC has spent millions to put together a formidable ground game in Iowa.

DeSantis also grabbed the high-profile endorsement earlier this month of Gov. Kim Reynolds, who remains very popular with Iowa Republicans. Last week, he won the backing of Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of The Family Leader, an influential social conservative organization in a state where evangelical voters play an outsized role in Republican politics.

WILL ENDORSEMENT FROM INFLUENTIAL EVANGELICAL LEADER BOOST DESANTIS IN IOWA?

“To have so many members of the Iowa legislature, to have the governor, and then to have Bob and his network. That’s going to be a pretty powerful machine,” DeSantis told reporters last week. “I think that these first two states are going to totally upend the conventional wisdom.”

However, what once appeared to be a two-candidate fight for the GOP nomination is now a three-way battle.

Haley, who has enjoyed momentum in the polls in recent months, thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates, has leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire – which holds the first primary and votes second in the Republican nominating schedule – and her home state – which holds the first southern contest.

DESANTIS, HALEY, RAMASWAMY, GET PERSONAL AS THEY SIT SIDE-BY-SIDE

Now, she aims to make a fight of it in Iowa, where she is pulling even with DeSantis in some of the latest polls.

“The momentum is real. The excitement is there. We’re going to keep working hard to win every Iowan’s vote. We’re not going to give up on Iowa,” Haley touted in a Fox News Digital interview ahead of a recent town hall in Newton, Iowa.

Haley returned to Iowa on her most recent swing, showcasing over 70 new Hawkeye State endorsements. She is set to launch a $10 million ad blitz in Iowa and New Hampshire on Dec. 1.

While it appears to be a three-person race in Iowa, there are other candidates campaigning in the state, who are all registered in the single digits.

Multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and first time candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is basing his campaign in Iowa for the final stretch, as he barnstorms across the state. 

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North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who failed to make the stage at the third GOP presidential primary debate, is also spending plenty of time in Iowa.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is running for the White House a second time, is avoiding Iowa as he once again concentrates much of his firepower in New Hampshire.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who registering at less than 1% in the polls, also remains in the race.

As the first contest on the GOP presidential nominating calendar, Iowa always plays a crucial role in winnowing the field.

“I think Iowa’s going to be more determinative than ever as to who’s going to have momentum going into New Hampshire and South Carolina,” longtime Republican strategist David Kochel predicted.

Kochel, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns in Iowa, emphasized that “Trump already has a ticket. There’s maybe two more and maybe one more” coming out of Iowa.”

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

Jack Stollsteimer, the top prosecutor in heavily populated Delaware County, will run for Pennsylvania attorney general in 2024, he announced Monday, seeking an office that played a critical role in court defending Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential battleground.

Stollsteimer joins a Democratic primary field that is already four-deep in which he will be the only elected prosecutor. However, his competition for the Democratic nomination features veterans of the campaign trail and the courtroom.

In his campaign for attorney general, Stollsteimer will lean heavily on his experience as the twice-elected district attorney of Delaware County, Pennsylvania’s fifth-most populous county sitting between Philadelphia and Delaware.

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“I am uniquely qualified because I do that work every single day in the fifth-largest county in Pennsylvania,” Stollsteimer said in an interview.

Stollsteimer, 60, has been a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, a top official in the state Treasury Department, the state-appointed safety advocate in Philadelphia’s schools and, before college, a senior aide to state House Democrats. A Philadelphia native, Stollsteimer earned his law degree at Temple University.

The attorney general’s office, the state’s top law enforcement office, has a budget of about $140 million annually and plays a prominent role in arresting drug traffickers, fighting gun trafficking, defending state laws in court and protecting consumers from predatory practices.

The office also defended the integrity of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election against repeated attempts to overturn it in state and federal courts by Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican allies.

Perhaps Stollsteimer’s most-touted achievement is fighting gun violence in the impoverished city of Chester, using a partnership based on a model used successfully elsewhere to connect offenders or known criminals with job training, school or community-building programs.

His office says gun homicides are down by 68% since 2020 and there have been 65% fewer shootings.

As Philadelphia’s state-appointed safe schools advocate, Stollsteimer clashed with district officials and the state Department of Education over what he described as an unwillingness to report violent incidents.

“Things have gotten worse, not better,” he told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2011. “You can’t address the problem until you’re honest about it, and the district is not honest about it.”

Stollsteimer mounted a brief campaign for attorney general in 2015 but dropped out before the primary.

In 2019, he won his race for district attorney, becoming the first Democrat to hold the office in Delaware County, once a Republican bastion that Democrats now control. Stollsteimer won reelection earlier this month by 22 percentage points, drawing support from unions for building trades and police.

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Stollsteimer had a busy four years in office. In perhaps the highest-profile case, his office prosecuted three police officers for responding to a shooting outside a high school football game by opening fire at a car, killing an 8-year-old girl, Fanta Bility, and wounding two others.

Stollsteimer is now the fifth Democrat to announce his candidacy, after state Rep. Jared Solomon of Philadelphia, former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, former federal prosecutor Joe Kahn and Keir Bradford-Grey, the former head of Philadelphia’s and Montgomery County’s public defense lawyers.

On the Republican side, York County District Attorney Dave Sunday and former federal prosecutor Katayoun Copeland have announced their candidacies.

Candidates must file paperwork by Feb. 13 to appear on the April 23 primary ballot.

Attorney General Michelle Henry does not plan to run to keep the office.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently earned two key Iowa endorsements as he continues to push campaign resources into the state, a move that political experts tell Fox News Digital is an “all in” strategy as he looks to upset former President Trump in an uphill battle that could make or break his presidential ambitions next year.

Shortly after receiving the endorsement of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, DeSantis was endorsed by influential Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats who said “there’s definitely a shot that the former president can be beat here” despite Trump leading DeSantis by at least 30 points, according to the Real Clear Politics average, with just over six weeks until the Iowa caucus. 

“Americans like winners and want to be part of winning,” David Avella, chairman of GOPAC and a veteran Republican strategist, told Fox News Digital. “History tells us that the nominee will be the individual who wins at least two of the first three contests. While history also tells us that an Iowa victory is not essential, it is clear that Team DeSantis is seeking a victory to counter the inevitability of former President Trump being nominated again. It may prove effective, yet it has to work given the resources and attention Team DeSantis has put into Iowa.”

DeSantis and his primary Super PAC, Never Back Down, have poured a vast majority of their resources into Iowa in a strategy that GOP strategist Alex Conant, founding partner at Firehouse Strategies, told Fox News Digital is a strategy born out of “necessity” and that recognizes the “political reality that if Trump wins Iowa” it is “hard to see how he is stopped anywhere.”

HALEY, DESANTIS OR TRUMP? WHO WILL TOP-DOLLAR DONORS BACKING TIM SCOTT SUPPORT NEXT IN 2024 GOP RACE

“This is the equivalent of a Hail Mary,” Conant said. “It could work like when John McCain went all in in New Hampshire in 2008, and he shocked the political world by emerging as the nominee. Barack Obama did the same thing in 2008 in Iowa when he was going up against Hillary Clinton when he went Iowa or bust, and he won Iowa and went on to win the nomination. There is plenty of precedent for a candidate going all in on one state.”

Despite the historical precedent of late Iowa surges and candidates using Iowa as a springboard to the nomination, Conant said 2024 is not a “normal primary” with Trump in position as a “de facto incumbent” where he says the other candidates have so far failed to effectively explain why he should be unseated.

“The good news for Ron DeSantis is he is the front-runner in Iowa if former President Trump was not competing to win Iowa,” Avella told Fox News Digital. “The bad news for Ron DeSantis is former President Trump is organizing to win Iowa. For DeSantis to win, he needs to get [there to] caucus those voters who are still keeping their options open and those voters who are only considering candidates other than Donald Trump. It is going to take him convincing voters with a clear, concise message that his ideas are the best solutions.”

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In terms of the messaging needed for a late surge, Conant told Fox News Digital that the DeSantis campaign has been “too much about Florida.”

“The truth of the matter is people in Iowa don’t care about your record in other states. They want to know what you’re going to do for them as president,” said Conant, who served as communications director for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign that came close to winning Iowa after a late surge in 2016.

“Republican voters are clear that the cost of everyday living and failure with border security are their top concerns,” Avella said. “Ron DeSantis has to convince voters with a clear, concise message that his ideas are the best solutions.”

Ashley Hayek, executive director of America First Works, told Fox News Digital that DeSantis’s strategy in the next few weeks is “irrelevant” with the outcome “already decided” thanks to Trump’s “significant influence” in the Republican Party.

“Voters are nostalgic for the economic successes under Trump, often referred to as ‘Trumpanomics,’” Hayek said. “It’s akin to a company rehiring a former CEO who previously steered them through prosperous times; the familiarity and proven track record are irresistible. The Republican nominee is essentially pre-decided with Trump’s rehire on the horizon by early 2024.”

DESANTIS SAYS TRUMP IS ‘HIGH RISK,’ ‘LOW REWARD’ GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE

Several prominent DeSantis donors told Fox News Digital this month that they were encouraged by how he was campaigning in Iowa and expressed the belief that Iowa voters are just now starting to pay close attention to the January caucus. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, DeSantis Communications Director Andrew Romeo said the Florida governor is the only candidate who can beat Trump regardless of where the primary is.

“Ron DeSantis is the only candidate with the organization, resources, and message necessary to beat Trump in multiple early states – including the first and most important state on the calendar,” Romeo said. “That’s why Team Trump continues to attack him every day.” 

The super PAC backing Trump’s campaign revived attack ads against DeSantis last month, spending millions going after DeSantis in the past few weeks, which Romeo referred to on social media as a public admission that DeSantis is “climbing in Iowa.”

DeSantis surrogates have made the case that polling is different from turnout and that responding to a poll is different from actually showing up on a cold winter night in Iowa to caucus for a candidate.

“It will take a turnout operation unlike any in electoral history to get voters to show up on a cold night to vote for a candidate who is down 15 points,” Avella said.

If DeSantis is to make a late surge, Conant said a “strong third” or “distant second” “isn’t going to cut it against Trump,” especially with DeSantis polling as low as fifth in New Hampshire and South Carolina being strong states for Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

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Avella concurred and said Trump has “such a commanding lead that even a second-place finish may not be enough to alter the current likely outcome.”

“The real question is how much is a second-, maybe third-place finish in Iowa worth?” Hayek said. “Despite rounds of layoffs that were part of a widely publicized ‘reset,’ DeSantis has burned through more primary cash than he raised over the last three months. The DeSantis campaign’s spending strategy shows they see the writing on the wall: there is not enough gas in the tank for New Hampshire or South Carolina, and at this rate, there is not going to be enough for Iowa either.”

They’re two relatively young and very high-profile governors of large states who have a knack for grabbing national attention and firing up the bases of their respective political parties.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who have been trading fire for nearly two years, will tangle once again this week — but this time their slugfest will be in person.

DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and Newsom — who Republican critics charge is running a shadow campaign for the White House even though he repeatedly stomps on such speculation as “ridiculous” — will face off Thursday in a debate moderated by Fox News’ prime-time opinion host Sean Hannity.

The showdown, titled “DeSantis vs. Newsom: The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate,” will take in Alpharetta, Georgia — a one-time red state that’s become a top general election battleground between the two major political parties.

DESANTIS SAYS HIS WAR OF WORDS WITH NEWSOM ‘IS ALL BUSINESS’

“He caters to a very far left slice of the electorate. I think that will be on display when we have the debate,” DeSantis said as he spoke with Fox News Digital earlier this week during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

Newsom, in an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” earlier this autumn, pointed towards DeSantis and emphasized that “I don’t like people who demonize other people or go after vulnerable communities. I also don’t like liars.”

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

Both governors have outsized national profiles, run the nation’s first and third most populous states, and overwhelmingly won gubernatorial re-elections last year, when their rivalry really heated up.

In 2022, Newsom went up with an ad on Florida airwaves that targeted DeSantis’ culture war approach to politics and policies. “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.

DeSantis, who became a hero to conservatives nationwide for his pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions, earlier this year 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 — 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.

Last week, a Newsom-aligned political group started running an ad on Fox News’ ‘Hannity” that slammed DeSantis over the six-week abortion ban in Florida that he signed into law earlier this year.

“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.

WILL THIS MAJOR ENDORSEMENT IN IOWA BOOST DESANTIS?

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.”

DeSantis, once the clear alternative to former President Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP nomination race, has seen his standing erode over the summer and autumn. He’s currently battling with former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for second place in the polls, far behind Trump, who remains the commanding Republican front-runner as he makes his third straight White House run.

Newsom is one of the most high-profile surrogates for Biden, who’s running for a second term as president. But the 81-year-old president, saddled for over two-years with underwater approval ratings, has increasingly in recent months faced questions regarding his physical and cognitive ability to serve another four years in the White House. And Biden narrowly trails Trump in many of the most recent polls looking ahead to a likely 2024 general election matchup.

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While Newsom has repeatedly shot down speculation he would run for the White House next year should something happen to Biden, a well-publicized trip by the California governor to Israel and China last month sparked further buzz about his possible 2024 ambitions.

DeSantis, speaking with Fox News Digital, argued that “I’ve been warning Republican voters… it may not be Biden in 2024.”

“This guy is running a shadow campaign. He denies it, but even people in his own party are saying it,” DeSantis said of Newsom. “You have [Vice President Kamala] Harris, you have a lot of these other people who could end up running in 2024 if Biden’s not able to do it. I think there’s a lot of people in the Democratic Party who do not want Biden to run. Ultimately, it’s going to be his decision, but I think there’s a lot of pressure there for him to take a step back.”

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report

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

Florida governor Ron DeSantis is upping his game on the campaign trail in Iowa, away from his home state in Florida. Voters in the two states say they support him — but for contrasting reasons.

Iowa residents who support DeSantis told Fox News they admired his willingness to be tough on the U.S. border and say his immigration policies have a national appeal.

“I like the fact that he’s supporting the border. You can’t just let people run through,” said Pam from Sigourney, Iowa.

Steve in Davenport, Iowa, agreed, adding the border is his top concern and that DeSantis caught his eye with his stance on containing the migrant flow.

DESANTIS ARGUES THAT GAVIN NEWSOM ‘CATERS TO A VERY FAR LEFT SLICE OF THE ELECTORATE’

“We can’t keep having this invasion of people. We don’t know who is coming in here. Everybody forgets 9/11 and it can happen again. It only took 19 people to do it. And we just let 8 million people come in here. So, it’s time to stand up and get this thing shut down,” he said.

The border is among top concerns for voters nationwide too. A NBC News National poll shows 74% of registered voters support more funding for security along the U.S.-Mexico border. Voters overwhelmingly support funding the border instead of foreign aid packages.

David Kochel, a longtime Iowa-based GOP strategist says if candidates want to do well in Iowa, they need to be able to showcase their stance on securing the border.

DESANTIS LANDS ENDORSEMENT FROM INFLUENTIAL IOWA EVANGELICAL LEADER IN RACE FOR GOP NOMINATION

“To the extent that these candidates can get some traction on that issue and talk about it and show that they have a plan and that they care about how voters feel on this, I think they’re going to do well,” Kochel said. “And it certainly is a thing that Governor DeSantis talks about. It’s a high-profile issue for most voters and especially in Iowa.”

But in Florida, residents told Fox News they support DeSantis for his local accomplishments. None of the voters Fox News interviewed mentioned supporting DeSantis for his border or immigration policies.

Theresa from Madeira beach said she backs DeSantis for his unwavering conservative policies in the state.

“I just like that he tries to keep everything intact with how all of the state wants to continue as Republicans and go forward with all of the issues that we’re confronted with daily on,” she said. 

Harley from Treasure Island gave a specific example, saying he appreciates DeSantis taking a stand in his feud with Disney.

“I love what he did over at Disney. I’m with him on everything and there’s so many crazy things that are going on right now,” he said.

Kochel said Florida residents have seen his policies play out in front of them and DeSantis is able to tout his local successes to Floridians on the trail.

“They saw how he handled COVID. They see how he handles tax policy, education policy and everything else,” said Kochel. “In Iowa what he emphasizes, on the campaign, might be a little different, although he has talked quite a bit about his Florida record.”

As the first state to vote in the presidential nominating cycle, Iowa is key for GOP candidates ahead of the mid-January caucus. This week, DeSantis secured the latest endorsement out of the Hawkeye state from influential evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats. Evangelicals make up nearly two-thirds of Republicans voters in Iowa.

Kochel said Vander Plaat’s endorsement is the last major endorsement out of Iowa.

“He [Vander Plaats] certainly has his finger on the pulse of where Iowa activists are,” said Kochel. “He’s had a pretty good track record of picking winners in the Iowa caucuses. You know, he’s been with the last three caucus winners.” 

But Kochel says candidates still have plenty of time to make their pitch to Iowa voters.

“Iowa voters like to wait until the last minute and make up their minds,” he said. “A lot of people will wait and make up their minds in the last 10 or 12 days. So, what we see right now may not be the way this race closes out in in a few weeks.”

CHRISTIE TURNS UP THE HEAT ON HALEY AND DESANTIS AS HE TRIES TO BE THE TRUMP ALTERNATIVE IN GOP 2024 RACE

An NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll last month shows Trump’s strong lead at 43% and Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley tied for second at 16%.

“I think President Trump has made it into the finals already because of his national support,” said Kochel. “He’s almost running as an incumbent. But I think the real fight is for Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis to see who can emerge after the first 2 or 3 states as the primary challenger to Trump, because the only way to beat President Trump is to get him one on one.”

DeSantis has visited 98 out of 99 Iowa counties, one county away from completing the “Full Grassley”, a statewide tour named after longtime Iowa senator Chuck Grassley. Nicole Schlinger, an Iowa-based GOP strategist says DeSantis is in full Iowa mode.

“They’ve had the biggest ground game in Iowa for some time right now. And they’re you know, they’re running a very traditional grassroots caucus campaign,” said Schlinger.

With less than two months until the first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican caucuses, DeSantis has the endorsement from Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. Reynolds is arguably the most prominent player in Iowa Republican politics and very popular among Republicans in the Hawkeye state. 

While endorsing DeSantis she said, “I just felt like I couldn’t sit on the sidelines any longer. We have too much at stake.”

Schlinger said Iowa voters value the endorsement because he was able to turn Florida red.

“I think in terms of why he has a strong showing, a person who has been a conservative, successful governor in a large state and has helped to turn a somewhat purple state very red, is going to be appealing to Iowa caucus goers,” Schlinger said.

One Iowa voter says Reynolds’ endorsement holds weight and will boost DeSantis in the caucus. 

“She is loved here and the work the work that she’s done, she is respected, and her endorsement is definitely going to swing things in his favor, I think. Definitely,” said Jake.

Schlinger says the Iowa caucus will set the stage for all primaries to follow.

“It’s long been said that there’s three tickets that get punched out of Iowa,” she said. “And so our job isn’t necessarily to pick the nominee. It’s to winnow the field. And if there are three tickets punched out of Iowa going into New Hampshire, that makes New Hampshire a much different race.”

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Kochel says the winner in Iowa will remain up in the air and no candidate has the nomination secured yet.

“I think there’s probably a surprise in store. Iowa usually has one, and we’ll see who that benefits in 2024 on January 15th. So I think we’ve got to stay tuned and see what happens,” he said.

Former President Trump blasted American leaders as there were no U.S. citizens released in the past few days by Hamas.

Hamas terrorists released 17 hostages late Saturday, and 24 on Friday, but none of them were any of the 10 American citizens being held, including 4-year-old Avigail Idan. The release of hostages comes as Israel and Hamas have agreed to a four-day cease-fire.

Fifty hostages held by Hamas are expected to be released within the four-day window, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. In exchange, 150 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel will be released.

“Has anybody noticed that Hamas has returned people from other Countries but, so far, has not returned one American Hostage? There is only one reason for that, NO RESPECT FOR OUR COUNTRY OR OUR LEADERSHIP. This is a very sad and dark period of America!” Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social.

17 ADDITIONAL HAMAS HOSTAGES RELEASED AFTER HOURS-LONG DELAY

Two American nationals held hostage by Hamas were released Oct. 20, but no U.S. citizen has been released since then.

While on vacation in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Friday, President Biden said he still expects American hostages to be released.

BIDEN UNSURE WHEN AMERICAN HOSTAGES WILL BE FREED BY HAMAS: ‘WE DON’T KNOW’

“We don’t know when that will occur, but we’re going to expect it to occur,” Biden said. “We don’t know what the list of all the hostages are and when they will be released, but we know the numbers that are going to be released, So, it’s my hope and expectation it will be soon.”

Biden added that he didn’t know the conditions of Americans being held hostage by Hamas. While walking on the island Saturday, he told reporters, “I‘m hopeful you’ll see something soon,” when asked about American hostages.

According to U.S. intelligence, approximately 10 Americans are among those being held hostage by Hamas.

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Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., wrote on X that Biden should be doing more in order for the American hostages to be released.

Fox News’ Greg Norman, Lucas Tomlinson, Trey Yingst, Andrea Vacchiano and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.