NationalWatch

With ongoing speculation about whether President Biden will remain the Democratic 2024 presidential nominee after a disastrous debate performance last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is one of the names being raised as a replacement.

But the ongoing crisis at the southern border remains a top issue for voters across the country, and there are signs of the extent to which Pritzker might take a different approach to the crisis than the current administration.

Illinois has been one of the states hit by the knock-on effects of the immigration crisis, where migrants have moved through the southern border into cities like Chicago by the tens of thousands. 

HOW WOULD A PRESIDENT WHITMER HANDLE IMMIGRATION, BORDER CRISIS? 

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting at the Hilton Midtown on September 19, 2023, in New York City. (John Nacion/WireImage)

While Pritzker has been broadly supportive of most of President Biden’s efforts at the southern border, he has also been one of a number of Democrats who have been critical of the federal government’s handling of the crisis.

In October, Pritzker sent a letter to Biden stressing that he believes in the right “of every human, especially those facing persecution, to find refuge and live with dignity in this great country of ours.” However, he warned that the crisis is “overwhelming” the states and criticized the federal government.

“Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government. Most critically, the federal government’s lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois,” he said.

“There is much more that can and must be done on a federal level to address a national humanitarian crisis that is currently being shouldered by state and local governments without support,” he said.

Specifically, he requested a number of actions, such as the waiving of fees for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and “significant” increases in logistical coordination, including the federal government taking over coordination of routing buses of migrants across the country.

DO THESE POTENTIAL BIDEN REPLACEMENTS HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BEAT TRUMP?

Migrants are processed by the U.S. Border Patrol near the Jacumba Hot Springs after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on June 13, 2024, near San Diego, California.  (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

Pritzker also called for a “federal coordinator and task force” to be based at the border and solely to be dedicated to migrant resettlement. In addition, he called (as Biden’s administration has done) for more funding to states, local governments and non-governmental organizations and the expediting of work permits.

He also called on Biden to approve requests from Illinois to allow waivers for Medicaid and housing vouchers for migrants.

In January, he, along with a number of other governors, wrote to Biden calling again for more federal action while backing the administration’s supplemental funding request to Congress. It also backed claims by the administration that the immigration system is broken and in need of reform.

“Without serious reform informed by evidence-based solutions, the challenges facing states and localities will only grow,” the letter said.

Pritzker was also supportive of the Biden administration’s move last year to redesignate Venezuela for TPS, meaning that hundreds of thousands more were protected from deportation and given work permits.

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR SAYS DEMOCRATIC VOTERS ARE ‘THROWING AWAY’ THEIR VOTES BY SUPPORTING ANYONE BUT BIDEN

“Reducing wait times for employment approvals and expanding protection status for those coming from Venezuela will get people working and on a path to building a better future for themselves and their families,” he said.

Meanwhile, at home, Pritzker has kept that focus on funding by approving significant amounts of funding to help the state deal with the number of migrants it is seeing.

As he was pushing Biden for more funding last year, he also announced that the state was investing $160 million to address the crisis, including money for shelter and wraparound services.

This year, Pritzker announced another $160 million for assistance, while taking another shot at inaction from Congress.

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“With thousands of asylum seekers continuing to come to Chicago in desperate need of support and with Congress continuing to refuse to act—it is clear the state, county and city will have to do more to keep people safe,” he said.

Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.

After the Supreme Court ruled presidents enjoy broad immunity in official acts, President Biden gave a speech lambasting the high court in a manner many observers considered unprecedented.

On Monday, Biden declared “I dissent” during an evening address responding to the court’s 6-3 decision favoring Trump and pro-immunity arguments.

“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America; each of us is equal before the law,” Biden said, calling the decision a “dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law…”

In its ruling, the court narrowed Trump’s potential culpability, saying presidents have immunity from prosecution over official acts within their “sphere of constitutional authority.”

STATE DEM LEADERS RALLY BEHIND BIDEN AFTER DEBATE

An analysis of presidential responses to Supreme Court decisions revealed a handful of prior examples, while experts Fox News Digital spoke with suggested Biden’s tack, however, is indeed unprecedented.

Mark Paoletta, who worked with Justice Clarence Thomas during his 1991 confirmation, called Biden’s attacks on the Supreme Court “dangerous.”

“Obama criticized a single case in his State of Union, which is bad enough, but Biden does a nationwide primetime address to trash the court on immunity… though he did not have the courage or perhaps the mental acuity to take any questions,” Paoletta said.

He added the president’s attacks on specific justices, including Thomas — regarding undisclosed trips — are similarly unprecedented.

“The last time Biden attacked Thomas, it did not go well for him,” he said. “After Biden tried to destroy Thomas during his 1991 confirmation hearing, Thomas delivered one of the most epic takedowns in history, calling the attacks led by Biden a ‘high-tech lynching.'”

Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Heritage Foundation’s government accountability-focused Oversight Project, said President Biden’s behavior toward the court is unprecedented insofar as it is part of an overall recent ideological trend.

ECONOMY, BORDER, ABORTION DIVIDE BIDEN’S HOMETOWN AS RESIDENTS SPEAK OUT

“I see President Biden’s statements as another datapoint in a years-long crusade by the left to delegitimize the Supreme Court because they don’t like their rulings,” he said.

“[The Trump immunity decision] is a win for the office of the presidency and President Biden should be celebrating that he’s likely insulated from facing potential charges for weaponizing the Justice Department to go after his political enemies.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said last week that Biden “put a political target on the back of the Supreme Court” with his rebuke: “The greatest threat to American democracy today has just become Joe Biden.”

While appearing on Fox News Radio, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley discussed the president’s rebuttal, adding how he previously wrote that Biden is the most anti-free-speech executive since former President John Adams.

“The idea that [Biden] is really the symbol of constitutional fealty is really alarming,” Turley said.

Previously, during the State of the Union, Biden said Roe v. Wade “got it right” and derided Republicans seated before him in asking, “My God, what freedom else would you take away?”

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Clarence Thomas shakes hands with then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., right, prior to a confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate Caucus Room in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 10, 1991. (Arnie Sachs/CNP/Getty)

After the court handed down the Dobbs ruling, Biden publicly declared it part of a “deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law” and a “tragic error” by the court.

He claimed the high court, for the first time in history, had taken away a constitutional right. 

After Biden took aim at Dobbs during a NATO event overseas, critics like Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., called it “unthinkable” for a president to attack another branch of the U.S. government on the world stage.

In 2010, after the Supreme Court sided with conservative advocacy group Citizens United in a case critics said opened the floodgates of corporate political spending, then-President Obama appeared equally incensed.

“With all due deference to the separation of powers, the court last week reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said during that year’s State of the Union.

In a rare but muted instance of criticism flowing in the reverse, Justice Samuel Alito was seen mouthing “not true” while Obama uttered the sentiment.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told CNN at the time that Obama’s behavior was “a little over the top.”

In 1974, while embroiled in the Watergate scandal, President Nixon invoked the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan decision, which ruled public officials face restrictions in suing news outlets for defamation.

In his White House address, Nixon called out a “constitutional problem,” claiming some attorneys interpreted the case to be a “license to lie” about politicians or their family.

“This is wrong. It is necessary that a change be made so that a candidate who runs for public office knows that he has recourse in case of such an attack which is totally untrue and would otherwise give him a right to sue for libel,” Nixon said, warning the situation dissuaded good men from running for office.

Presidents Bush and Clinton, and outgoing Vice President Al Gore (TIM CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Outside of Biden, Obama and Nixon, presidents have largely appeared magnanimous while accepting a political defeat brought about by a Supreme Court decision.

The most iconic example is that of former President Clinton, who, while on a trip to North Aylesbury in England, appeared to graciously accept the fact his vice president, Al Gore, would not defeat then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the 2000 election.

A divided nation, replete with “hanging chads” and the so-called “Brooks Brothers Riot,” could be brought together by the deference shown by the candidates following Bush v. Gore, Clinton said.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Florida’s recount should be halted, reversing the Florida Supreme Court’s prior order.

“[T]he essential unity of our nation was reflected in the words and values of those who fought this great contest. I was proud of both [candidates],” Clinton said, pledging support during Bush’s transition.

Gallup polling from December 2000 showed Clinton ultimately gained six points in his approval rating.

The White House declined comment on the overall characterization.

Fox News’ Ryan Rugani contributed to this report.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, plans to bring up options under the 25th Amendment in terms of President Biden’s fitness during a meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday.

Roy told Fox News he believes Republicans need to have a position on where they stand regarding Biden’s competence.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment provides a series of steps for removing a president from office if he or she becomes incapacitated.

But a resolution on the 25th Amendment cannot just be presented to the House floor immediately.

CRITICS PILE ON BIDEN FOLLOWING ABC INTERVIEW, BLAST HIS REFUSAL TO COMMIT TO COGNITIVE TEST: ‘DISQUALIFYING’

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, plans discuss the 25th amendment.  (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The bill would not be “privileged” and go straight to the front of the legislative line because it deals with the executive branch and not Congress.

Impeachment, on the other hand, could be considered “privileged” because those powers are enumerated in the Constitution as being under the purview of Congress.

PRESIDENT BIDEN FACES THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL WEEKEND OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER

Democratic Party donors in Hollywood are reportedly saying that they will stop donating to the party if Biden isn’t replaced as a presidential candidate. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Any resolution on the 25th Amendment would need to go through committee first, a senior House Republican leadership source told Fox.

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Roy’s plan comes a week-and-a-half after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., spoke about the cabinet weighing in on the 25th Amendment regarding Biden.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s new liberal majority reversed a ruling that banned most ballot drop boxes, opening the door for election officials to reinstate their use in the swing state before November.  

In July 2022, the state Supreme Court, then under a conservative majority, held that absentee ballot drop boxes, which were used widely during the 2020 election, were not authorized under state statute and, therefore, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) guidance encouraging their use was unlawful. 

That case, known as Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, centered on a state statute that requires an absentee ballot be returned “to the municipal clerk” by one of two ways: by the elector mailing in the envelope or by the elector delivering the ballot in person to the municipal clerk. It upheld that state statute does not allow offsite, unattended drop boxes, and drop boxes could only be placed in local election clerks’ offices and no one other than the voter could return a ballot in person. 

In a 4-3 ruling on Friday, the state’s high court reversed course. 

ARIZONA ELECTION WORKER CHARGED IN SECURITY-RELATED THEFTS SEEN WITH DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS IN RESURFACED PHOTOS

Poll workers sort out early and absentee ballots at the Kenosha Municipal Building on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

Writing for the majority, Justice Anna Walsh Bradley, one of the court’s four liberal justices, argued that the state statute does not make a distinction between whether ballots can be delivered to inanimate objects, such as drop boxes, whose locations are determined by municipal clerks, or to the municipal clerks themselves.  

“Given this, the question then becomes whether delivery to a drop box constitutes delivery ‘to the municipal clerk’ within the meaning of Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1,” the majority wrote. “We conclude that it does. A drop box is set up, maintained, secured, and emptied by the municipal clerk. This is the case even if the drop box is in a location other than the municipal clerk’s office. As analyzed, the statute does not specify a location to which a ballot must be returned and requires only that the ballot be delivered to a location the municipal clerk, within his or her discretion, designates.” 

All three conservative justices dissented Friday, accusing the majority of politically motivated “activism.” 

“Intense partisan politics saturate our nation, exacerbated by a lack of institutional trust,” Justice Rebecca Bradley, who wrote for the minority, said. “The legitimacy of elections continues to be questioned, each side accusing the other of ‘election interference’ and ‘threatening democracy’ or even the very foundation of our constitutional republic. The majority’s decision in this case will only fuel the fires of suspicion.”    

“Whatever can be said of the majority’s decision, it ‘is not the product of neutral, principled judging,’” the dissenters said. “Although the majority attempts to package its disagreements with Teigen as legal, the truth is obvious: The majority disagrees with the decision as a matter of policy and politics, not law.”

Residents drop mail-in ballots in an official ballot box outside the Tippecanoe branch library on Oct. 20, 2020, in Milwaukee. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“The members of the majority believe using drop boxes is good policy, and one they hope will aid their preferred political party,” the minority continued. “Teigen upheld the historical meaning of Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1., which bars the use of offsite, unmanned drop boxes. The majority in this case overrules Teigen not because it is legally erroneous, but because the majority finds it politically inconvenient. The majority’s activism marks another triumph of political power over legal principle in this court.” 

ELECTION OFFICIALS IN ALL 50 STATES URGED TO SEEK INFO FROM BIDEN ADMIN TO PREVENT NONCITIZENS FROM VOTING

In April 2023, Democratic-backed candidate Janet Protaswiecz’s victory flipped the Wisconsin state Supreme Court to liberal control under a 4-3 majority. Seeing an opening, Priorities USA, a progressive voter mobilization group, asked the court in February to revisit the July 2022 decision. The justices announced in March they would review the ban on drop boxes but would not consider any other parts of the case. 

The move drew the ire of the court’s conservatives, who accused the liberals of trying to give Democrats an advantage this fall. Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers in April urged the court to again allow drop boxes. Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature also intervened in the case, arguing that the justices should leave the 2022 ruling alone.

Wisconsin again figures to be a crucial swing state after President Biden barely won it in 2020 and Donald Trump narrowly took it in 2016.

An election worker drops a completed ballot into a ballot box inside City Hall on the first day of in-person early voting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Oct. 20, 2020. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump and Republicans have alleged that drop boxes facilitated cheating. Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley weighed in on Friday’s ruling, arguing in a statement that the “new liberal majority on the Supreme Court overturned this recent precedent and opened the floodgates for drop boxes across the state just months before the presidential election.” 

“The Court did this after unnecessarily fast-tracking the case to issue this decision before the election,” Whatley said. “Make no mistake: this partisan decision handed down by a partisan Court gives Democrats a green light to dismantle election security safeguards and invite election fraud. The RNC’s unprecedented election integrity operation will continue fighting to ensure drop box safeguards are adopted and implemented.” 

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, who administers elections in Wisconsin’s most Democratic county, argued drop boxes make the election process more convenient and easier for rural and disabled voters and help reduce the number of ballots that arrive after Election Day too late to be counted.

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“Secure drop boxes provide a convenient alternative to mailing absentee ballots or returning them in person to an elections clerk,” McDonell said in a statement. “Drop boxes are a common sense tool that Dane County utilized safely and securely for many years prior to the 2022 ban.”

“Having drop boxes in place for the 2024 elections in August and November will encourage civic participation in our democracy,” he added. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Democrats met behind closed doors Sunday as pressure mounted on President Biden to drop out of the race.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., held a virtual meeting with ranking Democrats on House panels Sunday afternoon.

Fox News learned that multiple Democrats on House committees expressed concerns about the viability of Biden continuing to run for re-election against former President Trump.

Fox is told the consensus among most Democrats on the call who suggested Biden should abandon the race was that the party should focus on Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential successor.

FORMER OBAMA ADVISER LAMENTS BIDEN’S ABC INTERVIEW: ‘DENIAL. DELUSION. DEFIANCE.’

President Biden has faced increasing pressure to step aside in the 2024 race. (Getty Images)

Which Democrats called for Biden to bow out, or what their level of apprehension about the current president continuing his run for a second term remains unclear.

The meeting was proposed after Biden’s 22-minute interview with ABC News on Friday, which the Biden campaign hoped would ease fears that the president doesn’t have what it takes to continue the campaign and defeat former President Donald Trump.

Instead, the interview set off a new round of fears among Democrats who were already concerned by Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

BIDEN PANNED FOR NOT BEING CERTAIN ABOUT WHETHER HE WATCHED THE DEBATE: ‘HE DOESN’T KNOW???’

House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries called a virtual meeting with ranking Democratic House Committee members to discuss President Biden.  (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“Look, Biden looked better and certainly more coherent than he looked during the debate, but there’s nothing in this interview that is calming the nerves of jittery Democrats who fear that Joe Biden is on a trajectory to lose this race, to lose to Donald Trump,” ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl said after the interview.

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Biden, however, struck a defiant tone, saying at one point that he would not drop out unless “the Lord Almighty were to come down and say, ‘Joe, get outta the race.'”

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.

House Democrats launched a united effort to vote against a Republican-backed election bill that would require voters provide proof of citizenship to cast ballots in federal elections. 

Republicans are pushing the passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, otherwise known as the SAVE Act, which would amend the National Voter Registration Act, and require states to obtain proof of citizenship from voters for federal elections, as well as purge noncitizens from voter rolls. 

Democratic leadership is urging its House members to vote against the bill in the lead-up to the vote, saying it would place “an extreme burden [on] countless Americans” in order to vote. 

“As we’ve seen a number of times this Congress, House Republicans continue to irresponsibly call into question the credibility of our elections. Despite numerous recounts, challenges in court, and deep-dives by conservative think-tanks, there has been zero evidence of the widespread fraud that this bill purports to target. It is already illegal under current law for noncitizens to register to vote or to vote in federal elections,” the office of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., wrote in a “whip question,” Axios first reported. The whip vote rounds up this coming weeks’ votes and outlines guidance regarding how Democratic House members should vote. 

‘TRAITORS’: MUSK CALLS FOR ULTIMATE PENALTY FOR THOSE OPPOSED TO REQUIRING VOTERS TO PROVE CITIZENSHIP

Rep. Katherine Clark speaks at the Mother’s Day press conference calling for action on health care and reproductive rights on May 8, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for MomsRising)

“Democrats are urged to VOTE NO on H.R. 8281,” the whip question states. 

Republican House leadership, meanwhile, is urging the bill’s passage, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., posting on X that “the SAVE Act will safeguard our elections by ensuring only American citizens vote in federal elections.”

He detailed in the X thread that, if passed, the law would: require “state election officials to ask about citizenship before providing voter registration forms”; require “an individual to provide proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections”; allow “state officials to accept a wide variety of documents that will make it easy for CITIZENS to register to vote in federal elections”; provide “states with access to federal agency databases so they can remove noncitizens from voter rolls and confirm citizenship for individuals lacking proof of citizenship,” among other directives. 

Under the legislation, voters would be required to provide proof of citizenship via IDs and documentation such as a passport, a government-issued photo ID showing proof the individual was born in the U.S., military IDs, or a valid photo ID as well as documentation showing proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, the legislation states. 

WE NEED TO SAVE OUR ELECTIONS FROM ABUSE AND HERE’S HOW

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks at a news briefing at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee on June 26, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy introduced the legislation in May, with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introducing the Senate’s companion bill, and received widespread support from Republican lawmakers who said it would secure elections. Johnson notably unveiled the bill earlier this year alongside former President Trump in a high-profile press conference at Mar-a-Lago. 

“Secure elections are a key cornerstone for any representative government; without them, we won’t have a country. Radical progressive Democrats know this and are using open border policies while also attacking election integrity laws to fundamentally remake America. That’s why I am proud to introduce the SAVE Act with Speaker Johnson and my Republican colleagues, along with the invaluable support of citizens and organizations that recognize we must end the practice of non-citizens voting in our elections,” Roy said on May 8. 

MAJORITY OF HOUSE DEMS VOTE TO ALLOW NONCITIZEN VOTING IN DC

Rep. Chip Roy speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 29, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Johnson circulated a 22-page report late last month urging House members to pass the legislation, contending there is “irrefutable evidence that noncitizens have been illegally registering to vote and have illegally voted in U.S. elections.”

“While falsely claiming the 2016 election was ‘stolen’ due to ‘foreign election interference,’ Democrats ignore the real threat of foreign election interference posed when noncitizens are allowed to register and vote in U.S. elections,” Johnson wrote in the report. “Lax voter registration laws make it possible for noncitizens to register and vote in federal elections while campaign finance loopholes allow noncitizens to fund U.S. election activities – both of which can affect the outcome of our elections.”

HOUSE LEADERS AIM FOR VOTE ON TRUMP-BACKED ELECTIONS BILL NEXT MONTH

Johnson’s X thread championing the legislation last week received support from fellow Republicans, as well as critics of the Democratic Party. Tech billionaire Elon Musk notably sounded off that lawmakers who vote against the bill are “traitors” to the U.S. 

“Those who oppose this are traitors. All Caps: TRAITORS What is the penalty for traitors again?” Elon Musk posted in response to Johnson’s post. 

The Constitution calls on traitors guilty of treason to be sentenced to death or be imprisoned for no less than five years. They are also to be fined no less than $10,000 and be barred from ever holding office in the U.S.

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The bill comes as the immigration crisis continues mounting under the Biden administration, with at least 1.6 million migrants designated as “gotaways” alone between Fiscal Year 2021 to Fiscal Year 2023, Fox previously reported. Gotaways are individuals who evade Border Patrol agents. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX – House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is demanding that the White House physician appear before Congress to answer questions on President Biden’s “declining mental state,” while also revealing that the doctor has been involved in the Biden family’s business dealings. 

Fox News Digital obtained the letter Comer, R-Ky., sent to Dr. Kevin O’Connor on Sunday. Comer is seeking to question O’Connor, given his “connections” with the Biden family, on whether he is “in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the President’s fitness to serve.”

Comer wants to know whether O’Connor’s medical assessments of the president have been improperly influenced by his work with the Biden family with the company Americore. 

COMER DEMANDS WHITE HOUSE PROVIDE RECORDS TO PROVE $200K PAYMENT TO BIDEN FROM BROTHER WAS A LOAN

“After a concerning debate performance by President Biden against former President Donald Trump on June 27, journalists have rushed to report on what Americans have seen plainly for years: the President appears unwell,” Comer wrote. 

President Biden speaks at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Comer said that because Americans have been questioning Biden’s “ability to lead the country,” his committee has been investigating circumstances surrounding O’Connor’s February assessment of the president. 

Comer noted that O’Connor determined in February that the president “is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old-male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” 

Comer, though, pointed to reports that O’Connor did not recommend that Biden take a cognitive test. 

TOP DEMS PLANNING MEETING ABOUT BIDEN’S FUTURE DESPITE PRESIDENT’S VOWS TO CONTINUE CAMPAIGN

“The Oversight Committee is concerned your medical assessments have been influenced by your private business endeavors with the Biden family,” Comer wrote. 

Comer said the committee has obtained evidence that shows he was involved with Americore Health, LLC, along with the president’s brother, James Biden. 

President Biden speaks with White House physician Kevin O’Connor as he arrives back at the White House on Aug. 28, 2023. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Americore, a company which operates rural hospitals, has been investigated by the committee as part of its impeachment inquiry against the president – specifically related to James Biden’s work, which brought him more than $600,000. 

The committee says James Biden, while serving as a principal at Americore, received payments for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The committee found that James Biden received a $200,000 wire in 2018 from the company that he then used to write a $200,000 check to his brother, President Biden, which he labeled as a “loan repayment.” 

JAMES BIDEN GIVEN LOAN, DIDN’T PROVIDE SERVICES TO AMERICORE DESPITE PROMISES TO USE LAST NAME, TRUSTEE SAYS

James Biden, according to testimony from other Americore employees, did not provide any services to the company, but instead, promised that his “Biden” name could bring funding to the struggling hospital operator from the Middle East. 

That employee, Carol Fox, a Chapter 11 trustee for Americore, testified that the loan was provided to Biden with no documentation in return for the promise of funding from the Middle East that never came. She filed a lawsuit against James Biden, saying he made “representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.” 

But during James Biden’s interview with the committee earlier this year, he told investigators that O’Connor “provided him counsel in connection with the alleged work he was performing for Americore.” 

James Biden arrives to federal court during Hunter Biden’s trial, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

“I met with, for example – my brother wasn’t in office at the time. He was a private citizen. And I had gotten through his – as vice president, his personal physician was Colonel Kevin O’Connor,” James Biden testified. “And Kevin O’Connor – there was a very – and still there is an outcry for a solution for post-traumatic stress disorder.” 

James Biden said O’Connor “introduced me to a team” that worked with PTSD and alcoholism amid a “backlog” at the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

COMER RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT $200K ‘DIRECT PAYMENT’ FROM JAMES BIDEN TO JOE BIDEN IN 2018

Comer, in the letter, also notes that O’Connor, along with Hunter Biden, “joined a meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by Americore.” 

Hunter Biden was found guilty on all counts by a Delaware jury. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Meanwhile, the White House maintains that Biden has not been examined by a doctor since February. But during a call with Democratic governors last week, the president himself told governors “he was checked out by a doctor and that everything was fine.” 

President Biden speaks at a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

“The statements by the White House Press Secretary and President Biden appear inconsistent, and the Committee seeks to understand the extent of your role at the White House at this time,” Comer wrote. “Given your connections with the Biden family, the Committee also seeks to understand if you are in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the President’s fitness to serve.” 

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Comer requested that O’Connor make himself available for a transcribed interview with counsel for the House Oversight Committee by July 14. He is also demanding all documents and communications that O’Connor has regarding Americore and James Biden. 

The request for O’Connor’s cooperation with Congress comes amid calls for Biden to suspend his re-election campaign – even from top Democrats, former staffers and allies. 

But the White House maintains that President Biden is “absolutely not” considering dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

“I am running. I am the leader of the Democratic Party. No one is pushing me out,” Biden said last week. 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., pointed to a problem with a potential Kamala Harris-Gavin Newsom ticket on Sunday as President Biden reels from calls to drop out of the race.

Rubio, who is reportedly among the top contenders being considered as former President Trump’s vice presidential pick, was confronted during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on whether he’d move out of Florida or resign his U.S. Senate seat if he does become the running mate. 

CNN host Dana Bash pointed to how the U.S. Constitution says presidential electors cannot vote for a president and a vice president who are both from the same state. Rubio and Trump are both residents of Florida. 

“That’s presumptuous … I have no idea who he’s going to pick,” Rubio said. “But I think it’s comforting for Americans to know that when Kamala Harris becomes their nominee, she can’t pick [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom because I don’t think we can afford, as a country, to have two Californians with their crazy policies become the law of the land.”

NEWSOM STUMPS FOR BIDEN IN PENNSYLVANIA, DEFLECTS ON IF ‘OPEN CONVENTION’ WOULD TEMPT HIM: ‘LEGIT QUESTION’

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is seen in the spin room after the presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Rubio said he will be working with the Trump campaign “in some capacity” over the next three or fourth months until Election Day, and he will be working in the Senate as well.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a stop at the Van Buren County Democratic Party Fourth of July reception in South Haven, Michigan, on July 4, 2024. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

“Either way, all I care about at this point, and what I care about the most, is we can’t afford another four years like the last four, and I’m willing to help in any way I can. But as far as making an announcement, that’s up to him and their campaign, and I don’t have one for you this morning, that’s for sure,” Rubio said.

HARRIS’ RECORD AS PROSECUTOR COULD COMPLICATE EFFORT TO REPLACE BIDEN AS DEM NOMINEE

Newsom, a top Biden campaign surrogate, has been campaigning on behalf of the president in the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania in recent days.

Vice President Harris speaks during the 30th annual Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans on July 6, 2024. (Matthew Perschall/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

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Newsom has repeatedly deflected questions about whether he’d run for president if Biden bows out of the race and allows for an open convention when Democrat delegates convene in Chicago next month. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday that while President Biden had a “terrible” debate against former President Trump, he recently spoke to Biden and continues to support him in his quest for re-election.

Sanders – who at 82 is older than Biden – said people should look beyond age, despite increasing concerns from both parties over the president’s mental fitness.

“Biden is old,” Sanders told host Robert Costa of the 81-year-old president. “He’s not as articulate as he once was. I wish he could jump up the steps on Air Force One. He can’t. What we have got to focus on is policy, whose policies have and will benefit the vast majority of the people in this country.”

The senator said he believes the American people want a president with the “guts to take on corporate America.” Someone who will expand Medicare, raise and extend the life of Social Security benefits, and talk about a “permanent child tax credit to cut childhood poverty in America by 50%.” 

SECOND LOCAL RADIO HOST ADMITS TO GETTING QUESTIONS FROM BIDEN TEAM AHEAD OF INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT

The independent senator from Vermont says he supports Biden over former President Trump in the 2024 election. (Getty Images)

Sanders said 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and that 25% of “elderly people” are trying to live off $15,000 a year or less.

“The American people want an agenda for the next four years that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country,” Sanders said. “He has got to say, ‘I am prepared to take on corporate greed, massive income and wealth inequality and stand with the working class in this country.’ He does that, he’s going to win and win big.”

BIDEN TAKES BLAME FOR ‘BAD NIGHT’ IN DEBATE AGAINST TRUMP: ‘MY FAULT, NO ONE ELSE’S FAULT’

Bernie Sanders says he has spoken to President Biden in the days since his debate with President Trump. (Getty Images)

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Sanders wrapped up the interview by saying he is running for re-election as senator from Vermont. 

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., took aim at a group of intelligence officials responsible for signing a letter that sought to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story on the eve of the 2020 election.

“The 51 should all be prosecuted for knowingly pushing a false statement,” Tenney said in a post on X Sunday. “See 18 U.S.C. § 1001, it’s a felony crime to: make a ‘false statement’ to an agent of the federal government related to a federal matter.”

“The 51” in Tenney’s post refers to 51 former top intel officials who signed on to a letter claiming that the laptop at the center of a New York Post report just weeks before the 2020 election bore all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign, a document that was later used by President Biden to shrug off concerns over the device in a debate with former President Trump. It was later revealed that the laptop was real, even eventually being entered as evidence in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial.

EX-INTEL OFFICIALS DOUBLE DOWN ON SIGNING ‘PATRIOTIC’ LETTER AGAINST HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP: ‘WOEFULLY IGNORANT’

Hunter Biden, son of President Biden (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In the wake of that trial, Fox News Digital reached out to all 51 individuals who signed the October 2020 letter to ask if they regretted signing it after it was revealed to be authentic.

“No,” former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said.

“This is very old news,” Greg Treverton, a signatory who previously served as chair of the National Intelligence Council, told Fox News Digital. ‘”What we said was true, we were inferring from our experience, and it did look like a Russian operation. We didn’t, and couldn’t of course say it was a Russian operation. Enough said.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican from New York (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

BIDEN SAYS HE WON’T PARDON SON HUNTER, VOWS TO ACCEPT VERDICT IN FELONY GUN CRIME TRIAL

Meanwhile, an attorney for signatories Ronald Marks, Marc Polymeropoulos, Douglas Wise, Paul Kolbe, John Sipher, Emile Nakhleh and Gerald O’Shea provided Fox News Digital with a statement that claimed signing the letter was a “patriotic” move by his clients.

“A careful and objective reading of the document reflects that even today its content is accurate,” the attorney, Mark S. Zaid, said. “It served as nothing more than a warning letter of what we have known for decades: certain foreign governments – including Russia – continue to try and actively interfere in our domestic affairs and our guard must remain vigilant. Every patriotic American should have signed that letter.”

Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

But Tenney shared a different view, arguing that the 51 should be prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which states that anyone “within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States” who “falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact,” or “makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation,” or “makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry” could face fines or a prison sentence of up to five years.

Tenney’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

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The full list of signatories is as follows: Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper, former National Intelligence Council Chair Thomas Fingar, former National Security Agency Deputy Director Rick Legett, former CIA acting Director John McLaughlin, former CIA acting Director Michael Morell, former Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Mike Vickers, former Defense Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Doug Wise, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Nick Rasmussen, former National Counterterrorism Center acting Director Russ Travers, former National Counterterrorism Center Deputy Director Andy Liepman, former CIA chief of staff John Moseman, former CIA chief of staff Larry Pfeiffer, former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, former National Security Agency general counsel Glenn Gerstell, former CIA chief of staff Rodney Snyder, former CIA analyst and manager David Priess, former CIA Deputy Director of Analysis Pam Purcilly, former CIA senior operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos, former CIA senior intelligence officer Chris Savos, former CIA senior intelligence officer John Tullius, former CIA senior intelligence officer David A. Vanell, former CIA senior operations officer Kristin Wood, former CIA inspector general David Buckley, former CIA analyst and targeting officer Nada Bakos, former CIA senior intelligence officer Patty Brandmaier, former CIA senior intelligence officer James B. Bruce, former CIA intelligence analyst David Cariens, former CIA operational support officer Janice Cariens, former CIA senior operations officer Paul Kolbe, former CIA analyst Peter Corsell, former CIA senior intelligence officer Brett Davis, former national intelligence officer Roger Zane George, former CIA senior intelligence officer Steven L. Hall, former national intelligence officer Kent Harrington, former national security executive Don Hepburn, former dean of CIA’s Kent School of Intelligence Analysis Timothy D. Kilbourn, former CIA officer Ron Marks, former CIA technical operations officer Jonna Hiestand Mendez, former director of CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program Emile Nakhleh, former CIA senior operations officer Gerald A. O’Shea, former CIA deputy chief of staff Nick Shapiro, former CIA senior operations officer John Sipher, former National Security Council senior director for intelligence programs Stephen Slick, former CIA deputy assistant director for global issues Cynthia Strand, former CIA Deputy Executive Director Greg Tarbell, former National Intelligence Collection Board Chairman David Terry, former National Intelligence Council Chair Greg Treverton, and former CIA director of analysis Winston Wiley.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, while campaigning for President Biden in the battleground state of Pennsylvania over the weekend, was asked about his own prospects should the Democratic incumbent exit the race. 

A longtime top Biden campaign surrogate, Newsom has rallied behind the president’s re-election bid, making stops in Michigan and Pennsylvania in recent days. Yet his own name has been floated as a potential replacement for Biden should the 81-year-old president step aside and allow for an open convention, when Democratic delegates convene in Chicago next month to formally decide their nominee. 

At an event in Doylestown, Pa., on Saturday, Newsom said a second term for former President Trump would equate to “America in reverse” and touted the Biden-Harris administration’s record on the economy. 

On the heels of a disastrous debate performance for Biden, one reporter asked the California governor afterward, “If it comes to an open convention, will you run?

“No, I mean it’s not even…” Newsom began. Interjecting, the reporter pressed: “Absolutely not?”

NEWSOM DOUBLES DOWN ON SUPPORT FOR BIDEN IN MICHIGAN: ‘I BELIEVE IN HIS CHARACTER’

“That’s not even, it’s to me, it’s the hypothetical that gets in the way of progress in terms of promoting this candidacy,” Newsom said. 

“That’s a legit question, but it’s exactly where the other party wants us to be is having this internal fight,” Newsom added. “And I think it’s extraordinarily unhelpful. Said that literally the second after the debate. It was my first public comments. So I’ve been consistent in this belief, not just privately, but publicly.” 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom greets supporters during a campaign event for President Joe Biden on Saturday, July 6, 2024, in Doylestown, Pa. (Joe Lamberti for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Newsom’s swing through the battlegrounds came following a private meeting between Biden and Democratic governors hosted at the White House on Wednesday. 

Biden is facing increasing calls to step aside amid concerns his age and mental fitness jeopardize Democrats’ chances against Trump in November. 

At a campaign rally in Wisconsin – another battleground – on Friday, Biden himself addressed speculation on whether he’d drop out, telling the crowd: “I am running and going to win again.” 

HOW WOULD A PRESIDENT NEWSOM HANDLE BORDER, IMMIGRATION POLICY?

“I’m not letting one 90 minute debate wipe out three and a half years of work,” Biden added. 

President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wis., Friday, July 5, 2024.  (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Yet, after the rally and the president’s interview with ABC host George Stephanopoulos that aired Friday, Rep.  Angie Craig, D-Minn., became the fifth and latest House Democrat to call on Biden to step aside. 

In Doylestown, Fox News confronted Newsom on the number, asking: “Are you concerned that by continuing to support President Biden when other elected officials seem to be seeing something wrong with him, that you’re damaging your credibility in the long run?” 

“No. Look, there’s a handful of folks that may have different opinions,” Newsom said. “The vast majority of the caucus remains solidly behind the president – president made that point very effectively yesterday in the interview, and that his speech in Wisconsin was very, very, very good. We’re going to see him out here in Pennsylvania in the next day or so. And, and we’re just, you know, staying the course, have his back.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a forceful defense of President Biden during a stop Thursday, July 4, 2024, at the Van Buren County Democratic Party Fourth of July reception in South Haven, Mich.  (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

“And so I really believe in the president, believe in his character. I believe in his confidence, in his capacity. I wouldn’t be out here, 4th of July weekend, missing my kids and families unless I really believed it,” he added. 

Earlier at the event, Newsom told Biden supporters that the 2024 election is about daylight versus darkness, right versus wrong, chaos versus incompetence and “the fate and future of our democracy.” 

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“It’s America in reverse. They want to bring us back to a pre-1960s world,” Newsom said of Trump supporters. “And you are the front lines of that opposition. You are the folks that can make sure that does not happen. Voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, not just access to abortion, access to contraception, all of those things are on the ballot. Bucks County, and we are counting on you. America’s counting on you. The world is counting on you. I’ve counted on you. My four kids are counting on you. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for being here tomorrow. Thank you for being here on Election Day. We are going to save democracy and bring back Biden-Harris for four more years.” 

Biden is expected to deliver remarks in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is in the Trump running mate spotlight.

The Army veteran, who served in combat in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before becoming a rising star in Republican Party politics, has been viewed as a potential running mate since he endorsed the former president in early January, two weeks ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

But buzz about the senator intensified following a slew of media reports in late May that Cotton was moving up on Trump’s list for the GOP’s vice presidential nomination.

“I speak to President Trump and his senior team pretty regularly about the campaign and that we’re doing everything we can to set him up for success,” Cotton said this past week in an interview with Fox News Digital.

TRUMP GIVES A HINT ABOUT HIS RUNNING MATE

President Trump speaks while Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., listens during an introduction of the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.,  on Aug. 2, 2017. (Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But Cotton emphasized that “we haven’t talked about the vice presidential choice.”

“I suspect there’s only one person who knows who’s genuinely on his short list and who he’s going to choose and that’s President Trump, and I’m confident that with a great roster of Republicans that he’s going to make a good choice at the right time,” the senator added.

Asked if he’d say yes if Trump offered him the running mate slot, Cotton said, “I do love my job in the United States Senate. It’s a privilege and an honor to serve the people of Arkansas and the people of our nation, but of course, any patriot if asked by the President of the United States to serve in another capacity, would have to seriously entertain it.”

TRUMP ACCELERATES VETTING OF RUNNING MATES

The 47-year-old Cotton has built a reputation during his tenure in Congress as a conservative hardliner and a small-government Republican.

“He’s articulate. He’s smart. I feel like he’s right in the heart of what the party is and wants right now,” longtime Republican strategist David Koch told Fox News when asked about Cotton’s political attributes.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas speaks with an activist at a GOP fundraiser in Rye, New Hampshire, on Aug. 16, 2022. (Fox News)

Koch, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns, added that Cotton is young and that “he does the work. He’s a workhorse, not a show horse… He’s sharp and is going to be a good debater.”

Pointing to Cotton’s military service and his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Koch added, “I think his credibility on foreign policy is pretty important.”

Among the potential drawbacks — the obvious. As a white male, Cotton would bring no added diversity to the Republican national ticket. 

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Another issue — he hails from a reliably red state. But he is far from the only potential running mate contender who lives in a state where Republicans dominate the political landscape.

Cotton was interviewed by Fox News as he made a stop in New Hampshire to help campaign with former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is the frontrunner for this year’s Republican gubernatorial nomination in the race to succeed retiring Gov. Chris Sununu.

Sen. Tom Cotton R-Ark., joins former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in New Hampshire, on the campaign trail in Londonderry, New Hampshire, on July 2. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Cotton is no stranger to New Hampshire, the state that for a century has held the first primary in the race for the White House.

The senator made two stops in the Granite State in 2020 on behalf of then-President Trump’s re-election campaign. And he was a frequent visitor in 2021 and 2022 to campaign on behalf of Republicans running in the midterm elections and to test the waters on a possible 2024 White House bid. 

But days before the 2022 midterms, Cotton announced he wouldn’t run for the White House in 2024.

And in his first interview after announcing his decision, the senator emphasized why he didn’t run.

“Family was really the only consideration,” Cotton said at the time.

The senator and his wife, Anna, are the parents of two young boys.

“My boys are ages 7 and 5. They’re old enough to know that dad’s gone and be sad about it, but not old enough to understand the purpose and why it all matters and why the sacrifice is worth it,” Cotton said at the time. “I am pretty sure Republican voters can find another nominee, but I know that my sons can’t find another dad for the next two years.”

The senator added that “over the next two years, my 7-year-old will learn to hit the fastball and my 5-year-old will learn to read, and I want to be there to teach them both.”

But Cotton didn’t rule out a White House bid in the future.

Fast-forward nearly two years, and Cotton reiterated that he “closed the chapter on national race at the time but my wife and I didn’t necessarily close the book” on a presidential campaign in 2028 or beyond. 

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

With President Biden’s decidedly lacking debate performance and subsequent polling downturn, what was an already difficult fight to preserve a Democratic majority in the Senate could be reliant on a resurgence of voters willing to select candidates of different parties for various positions. 

Democrats face a particularly difficult Senate election map, with multiple incumbents in swing states seeking another term. They also only have a remarkably slim 51-49 majority over their Republican counterparts, who enjoy a much more favorable map this cycle.

UNDERDOG DEM USING DAVE CHAPPELLE SHOW TO GAIN EDGE IN PIVOTAL SWING STATE

Senate Democrats up for re-election may be hopeful that split-ticket voting increases in frequency as President Biden’s poll numbers fall. (Getty images)

“If a candidate feels like the presidential candidate is going to lose his or her state, naturally they have to figure out ways to create distance between themselves and the presidential candidate,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

TAMMY BALDWIN WILL STICK TO STATE TOUR INSTEAD OF JOINING BIDEN DURING WISCONSIN VISIT

From left: Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.; former President Trump; and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. (Getty Images)

According to data compiled by the center, split-ticket voting across the presidency and the Senate was most popular in the 1970s and 1980s and more often benefited Democrats, who have been able to frequently score Senate seats in states where Republican presidents won. But the practice has been declining in recent decades. 

Per Kondik, this downward trend could make things harder for vulnerable Democrats in the current environment. 

PRESSURE MOUNTS ON BATTLEGROUND STATE DEMS AFTER BIDEN DEBATE DISASTER

From left: Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont.; Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa. (Getty Images )

The campaigns of Senate Democrats in tough races will likely look different from those of the president or of a Democrat in a safer seat, according to one expert. “As long as Senate Democrats continue to run ahead of Biden in their states, the candidates are likely to stop short of completely linking themselves to Biden to avoid being pulled down,” said Madison Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin.

GOP SENATE CANDIDATE TIES OPPONENT TO BIDEN DEBATE: BOB CASEY KNEW

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., speaks during the Inaugural Independence Dinner in Philadelphia on Nov. 1, 2019. (Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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“But the calculus is probably different in swing states such as Pennsylvania than in red states such as Montana,” he explained. “As a political misfit in his state, Jon Tester has always needed to portray an identity that is somewhat independent of the national Democratic Party, so 2024 will be no different. In contrast, Bob Casey’s fate depends more on Biden having a good showing in Pennsylvania, so he will probably remain an enthusiastic supporter.”

Republican strategist Doug Heye noted, “No elected Democrat — safe seat or in-play — wants to be first to state the obvious about President Biden’s state of health,” referencing the relative silence of at-risk Democrats amid Biden’s poor debate performance against former President Trump last month.

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

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, said Saturday that President Biden could make a decision within days on whether he stays in the presidential election race to seek a second term.

This comes after Green participated in a recent meeting with Biden and nearly two dozen fellow Democrat governors amid concerns about the president’s re-election campaign, following the president’s shaky debate performance last month against former President Donald Trump.

“I think the president stays in this race unless he feels that it is not winnable, or he feels that he has to hear other voices in his inner circle that he shouldn’t run,” Green, whose family has known the president for years, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “If the president felt that he wasn’t up to it and truly not up to it, he would step down.”

“We’ll probably know in the next couple of days how the president feels about all this,” he added.

TOP DEMS PLANNING MEETING ABOUT BIDEN’S FUTURE DESPITE PRESIDENT’S VOWS TO CONTINUE CAMPAIGN

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden walk with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, second from left, and his wife Jaime Green as they pass the massive Banyan tree while visiting areas devastated by the Maui wildfires, Aug. 21, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP)

Green said he believes Biden should be allowed to pick who should replace him on the ticket if he were to exit the race and that the president would likely designate Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.

“I think it’s very clear that the Democratic Party would be ecstatic overall to have the president designate his vice president if it came to that,” Green said.

Harris “is a powerful person, she is also a thought-leading woman, she’s an African American who was [California’s] attorney general,” Green said. “There are no credentials that are better than what the current vice president has.”

Biden, 81, has repeatedly insisted over the past week and a half that he will remain in the race, including in an interview with ABC News that aired Friday night.

But concerns about the president’s mental acuity have been raised, including by members of his party, since his debate performance. Some Democrats have called on Biden to leave the presidential race, while others in the party, particularly governors, have said they continue to support his re-election.

Green said his prediction for the president to make a decision within a few days takes into account expected pressure that could be placed on the president when congressional lawmakers return to Capitol Hill this week.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is working to gather support from Democrat senators, aiming for a meeting on Monday, to discuss pressuring Biden to drop out of the presidential race. Additionally, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is leading a virtual meeting with top Democrats on Sunday, with leaders expected to discuss the path forward for Biden’s campaign.

President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I really, honestly think that he has to make the decision,” Green said. “And it should not come from another governor. It should not come from anyone but the closest, closest advisers to him and his own heart.”

Green also highlighted that Trump, who is 78-years-old and the biggest threat to Biden’s re-election, is only three years younger than Biden and that both will experience cognitive lapses going forward.

But, Green argued, temperament is more important than age in the presidential race.

“For God’s sake, these two guys have to hold the nuclear codes. I don’t want someone who tweets in the middle of the night and rages at other countries,” Green said, referring to Trump. “That is not good. That’s not the problem we have with President Biden.”

Green, who was a physician before moving to the governor’s mansion, said everyone has elderly parents or grandparents who experience pauses in their ability to express themselves clearly or other mental lapses, but that they are not pushed aside since they still possess great experience and wisdom and have a role in the family.

“That’s why I’m standing by the president until he tells me otherwise,” Green said.

Green also offered some insight into the meeting with Biden and other Democrat governors. Green said he asked Biden about his health, to which the president responded by saying everything was fine except for his brain.

FORMER OBAMA ADVISER LAMENTS BIDEN’S ABC INTERVIEW: ‘DENIAL, DELUSION, DEFIANCE.’

Governor of Hawaii Josh Green speaks during a press conference about the destruction of historic Lahaina and the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Wailuku, Hawaii on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

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The comment from Biden, which was previously made public, was made in jest, according to Green, who said that context was lost when leaked by other people.

“It was absolutely a joke, and in order to make a self-deprecating joke, you have to have intact cognitive function, period,” Green said.

Green also pushed back on claims that advisers set up the meeting to have governors supportive of Biden speak first to quell any critics. The Hawaii governor said the reality was that the meeting featured a very candid, unscripted conversation with governors of differing perspectives.

“That call had just like you’d expect in a coffee shop, a few people mouthed off, a few people, you know, probably excessively praised the president, but almost everybody was just trying to see, ‘Are we OK?’” Green said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden claimed Thursday he’s been  “in and out of battles” while addressing an audience of military service members and their families at Thursday’s White House Fourth of July Barbecue. 

“And by the way, I’ve been all over the world with you. I’ve been in and out of battles,” the president, who never served in the military, though as Commander-in-Chief, met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine in February 2023 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in October 2023.

It’s not the first time Biden has come under fire for remarks to military service members. In 2019, Biden came under fire for conflating and misrepresenting war stories after the Washington Post exposed a “moving but false war story” told on the campaign trail. Biden, then the former vice president and candidate for president, later defended what he said, saying the “central point” was accurate. 

Veterans 4 America First Institute, a non-profit veterans’ group, responded to Biden’s Fourth of July claims in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Peter O’Rourke is a former Acting Secretary for Veterans Affairs under President Trump and a veteran of both the Air Force and Navy. Darin Selnick, Former Veteran Affairs Advisor for the White House Domestic Policy Council, is also a former Air Force veteran. They both currently serve veterans in their roles with Veterans 4 America First.

GOLD STAR FAMILY SPEAKS OUT AFTER BIDEN FALSELY CLAIMS NO TROOPS HAVE DIED ON HIS WATCH: ‘SHAME ON YOU’

President Biden made a gaffe at the White House Fourth of July barbecue Thursday, claiming to have been ‘in and out of battles’ to military service members and their families. (Getty Images)

“It’s always bad form when a politician tries to make it about themselves and somehow equate their service with the service of those men and women who serve,” Selnick said. “So the only one who has been in battle are the men and women who served, not President Joe Biden.”

DEM GOVERNOR AND TOP BIDEN SURROGATE URGES PRESIDENT TO ‘CAREFULLY EVALUATE’ HIS PATH FORWARD

“The men and women who serve have been all over the world in battle. So just keep it to that. Don’t try to equate what you’re doing with that, cozy up and and and that sort of thing. Just speak about the servicemen and women, think about the country; don’t make it about you. That’s the sad part, because every time Joe Biden speaks he always somehow tries to make it about him,” Selnick added.

“…every time Joe Biden speaks he always somehow tries to make it about him.” 

— Darin Selnick

Former Acting Secretary of the VA Peter O’Rourke also critiqued the president’s claim.

“I think the disappointment Darin and I both share is the continued disrespect, whether it’s examples of veterans that have been harmed in ways that don’t make a lot of sense, or just not really providing the efforts that we’d love to see our presidents give when it comes to articulating their concerns or their feelings toward veterans,” he said. 

US President Joe Biden speaks during a 4th of July event on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. The President is hosting the Independence Day event for members of the military and their families.  (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

O’Rourke continued, saying, “we saw this example, trying to find every opportunity to politicize, trying to sneak in a jab at his political opponent on a day where really, we should just be celebrating our independence. He was there to recognize and honor both veterans and active duty members.”

Veterans 4 America First Institute supports former President Trump for his military policy in November’s presidential election. Selnick told Fox News Digital, “we’re in a very crucial time both for the military and for the veterans who have left the military. We need a commander in chief that’s going to move things forward and do what’s right, for the veterans, and for the American people.”

US President Joe Biden, center, speaks during a barbecue with active-duty military service members and their families on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, July 4, 2024. Biden’s reelection campaign limped into the US Independence Day holiday, exhausted by a week of the incumbent clawing to maintain his hold on his party’s nomination. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Selnick added, “and that’s why we need Donald J. Trump back as commander-in-chief, because under him, we had a thriving military.”

Veterans 4 America First Institute’s mission as listed on their website is “To preserve and expand our nation’s commitment to our Veterans, military, and their families through public education and advocacy.”

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The White House has not responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Top Democratic congressional leaders are planning to hold a meeting to discuss President Biden’s fledgling re-election campaign, even as Biden himself has struck a defiant tone amid calls to drop out of the race.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is leading a virtual meeting with top Democrats on Sunday, with leaders expected to discuss the path forward for Biden’s campaign, according to an NBC News report that has been confirmed by Fox News.

The meeting will feature Jeffries and top committee Democrats, a person familiar with the arrangement told Fox News, but will not be a meeting of the full Democratic caucus. 

CRITICS PILE ON BIDEN FOLLOWING ABC INTERVIEW, BLAST HIS REFUSAL TO COMMIT TO COGNITIVE TEST: ‘DISQUALIFYING’

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, left, and President Biden, right. (Getty Images)

The meeting comes after Biden’s 22-minute interview with ABC News on Friday, which the Biden campaign hoped would ease fears that the president doesn’t have what it takes to continue the campaign and defeat former President Donald Trump in December. Instead, the interview set off a new round of fears among Democrats who were already concerned by Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week.

“Look, Biden looked better and certainly more coherent than he looked during the debate, but there’s nothing in this interview that is calming the nerves of jittery Democrats who fear that Joe Biden is on a trajectory to lose this race, to lose to Donald Trump,” ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl said after the interview.

Biden, however, struck a defiant tone, saying at one point that he would not drop out unless “the Lord Almighty were to come down and say, ‘Joe, get outta the race.'”

But Democrats, many of whom have expressed fears a lackluster performance by Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket and cost the party Congressional seats, are seemingly not persuaded.

President Biden raised eyebrows when he expressed uncertainty about whether he had watched his debate performance in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.  (Screenshot/ABC)

PRESIDENT BIDEN FACES THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL WEEKEND OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER

The meeting of House committee leaders, which is slated for 2 p.m. Sunday, is not part of any regularly scheduled meeting for top Democrats, NBC reported. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is organizing a meeting among Democratic senators next week to discuss Biden’s electability and the potential fallout for down-ballot races.

While some Democrats have kept concerns about the president’s electability private, a growing number have publicly called on Biden to step aside.

Meanwhile, Biden defenders such as Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., have urged others not to panic. Fetterman told NBC News that he “can’t think of a single situation where panicking or freaking out has made a situation better.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. (Photographer: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“He’s the one person who has beaten Trump before,” Fetterman said of Biden.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

The federal judge presiding over former President Trump’s Florida case has paused several court deadlines to consider presidential immunity. 

Trump’s legal team presented a motion Friday seeking “a partial stay of further proceedings” in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith “until President Trump’s motions based on Presidential immunity and the Appointments and Appropriations Clauses are resolved.”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Saturday agreed to hear arguments, allowing two weeks for both camps to prepare briefs regarding the relevance of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.

TRUMP ASKS FLORIDA COURT TO PAUSE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE AFTER SUPREME COURT IMMUNITY DECISION

Former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks at a campaign rally at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Trump faces charges from Smith’s investigation into his possession of classified materials. 

He pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE: SUPREME COURT RULES EX-PRESIDENTS HAVE SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTION FROM PROSECUTION

Trump was also charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment from the investigation, an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts.

The Alto Lee Adams, Sr. United States Courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., where U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is presiding over the case of former President Trump.  (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court ruled Monday in the Trump v. United States case that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office but not for unofficial acts.

In a 6-3 decision, the court sent the matter back to a lower court when the justices did not apply the ruling to whether former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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Walt Nauta, left, an aide to former President Trump, walks with his lawyer, Stanley Woodward, right, as they leave the Alto Lee Adams, Sr. United States Courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla.  (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. 

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

President Biden’s White House staff is the largest since former President Richard Nixon’s and has seen a turnover rate of 77% since he took office in 2021.

The White House boasts 565 staffers at a price tag of nearly $61 million, a slight increase from the record-setting 560 staffers Biden had his first year in office, according to a report from Open the Books.

Biden is the first president to boast over 500 staffers since Nixon, the report noted, a staff that was so big that Time magazine declared in 1971 that it was growing with “startling rapidity.”

BIDEN REPEATEDLY DODGES QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER HE’D TAKE NEUROLOGICAL TEST: ‘NO ONE SAID I HAD TO’

President Joe Biden. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

First Lady Jill Biden’s staff has ballooned to 24 in 2024, matching the often-criticized count of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s staff in 2009 and more than doubling the number on hand for former First Lady Melania Trump, which maxed out at 11.

The first lady’s staff, which includes advisers in foreign policy, education and healthcare, comes in at a price tag of $2.5 million, the report notes.

The staff employed by President Biden far outstrips the number on hand at the same time in the presidencies of his immediate predecessors, with former President Donald Trump employing a staff of 413 in Fiscal Year 2020, and former President Barack Obama boasting a staff of 468 in Fiscal Year 2012.

Former President Donald Trump. (.Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

BIDEN TAKES BLAME FOR ‘BAD NIGHT’ IN DEBATE AGAINST TRUMP: ‘MY FAULT, NO ONE ELSE’S FAULT’

Meanwhile, the president’s current payroll of $60.8 million also outstrips the highs seen under both Trump and Obama, with Obama’s highest payroll coming in at an inflation-adjusted $58.3 million, and Trump’s at an inflation-adjusted $52.2 million.

Biden’s highest paid staffer is Michelle Barrans, an associate counsel who is “on detail” from the Securities and Exchange Commission and receives a salary of $251,258. The second-highest-paid is Farah Ahmad, a special advisor for economic development, who pulls in $191,900.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images.)

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But Biden has also seen overwhelming turnover since he took office in 2021, with 435 of the initial 560 employees having left from when the numbers were first reported. 

Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, a White House spokesperson acknowledged a nine percent increase in staff from last year, noting that the increase was “primarily driven by building out teams with a certain policy focus, such as the Office of Pandemic Preparedness & Response Policy and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention.”

“Over the last year, the White House also filled vacancies across various departments — and these vacancies were not reflected in the July 1, 2023, report,” the spokesperson added.

A top neurologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center met with President Biden’s physician at the White House earlier this year, White House records show.

Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s disease expert, met with Dr. Kevin O’Connor and two others at the White House residence clinic on Jan. 17, records first reported by the New York Post show. 

The report comes as the 81-year-old president faces increased scrutiny over his age and mental acuity in the wake of a halting and stumbling debate performance on June 27 in Atlanta, Georgia.

BIDEN REPEATEDLY DODGES QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER HE’D TAKE NEUROLOGICAL TEST: ‘NO ONE SAID I HAD TO’

President Joe Biden speaks in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, D.C. Records show that Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s disease expert, met with White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor at the residence clinic in January.  (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Dr. John E. Atwood, a cardiologist at Walter Reed, also attended the 5 p.m. meeting, according to White House visitor logs. 

The fourth person in attendance has not been identified. 

The meeting happened on the same day Biden was at the White House and hosted House and Senate leaders to discuss Ukraine funding, the president’s schedule shows. 

BIDEN TAKES BLAME FOR ‘BAD NIGHT’ IN DEBATE AGAINST TRUMP: ‘MY FAULT, NO ONE ELSE’S FAULT’

Biden speaks with White House Physician Kevin O’Connor as he arrives back at the White House in Washington, D.C. O’Connor has repeatedly affirmed that Biden is of sound mind and good bodily health in the run-up to the November election. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

O’Connor said Biden was “fit to serve” as president after performing a physical examination in February. 

“President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,” the physician said at the time. 

Biden’s physical included a neurological exam which specifically ruled out Parkinson’s disease, O’Connor said. 

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Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, with “VOTE” printed on her dress, gesture to supporters at a post-debate campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters following the debate that Biden has not had any recent medical exams. 

After Biden alluded to speaking with his physician following the debate, the press secretary clarified that it was just a “verbal check-in” about a recent, minor illness.

“He did have a short verbal check-in in the recent days about his cold, it wasn’t a medical exam or a physical,” Jean-Pierre said.

Democratic Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, a top surrogate for President Biden as he seeks a second term in the White House, is urging the president to “carefully evaluate” his path forward in the wake of his disastrous debate performance last week.

Healey, in a statement Friday, didn’t call on the president to end his re-election bid, as other Democrats have done. But her statement was far from a forceful defense of the embattled Democratic Party standard-bearer.

“President Biden saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years. I am deeply grateful for his leadership. And I know he agrees this is the most important election of our lifetimes,” Healey wrote.

PRESIDENT BIDEN FACES THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL WEEKEND OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER

Gov. Maura Healey, D-Mass., publicly urged President Biden to consider dropping out of the presidential race, suggesting the president listen to the American people and considering if he is the best person to beat former President Donald Trump. (Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

And the governor of the reliably blue New England state said that “the best way forward right now is a decision for the President to make. Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump.”

“Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump,” the governor emphasized.

BIDEN RAMPS UP SPENDING IN BID TO STEADY HIS FALTERING CAMPAIGN

Healey traveled to the nation’s capital on Wednesday to attend a White House meeting with the president. She was one of roughly two-dozen Democratic governors who huddled with the president. 

Sources with knowledge of the meeting say Biden faced questions about his health, stamina, and political viability going forward.

Wes Moore, governor of Maryland, from left, Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, and Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, speak to members of the media outside the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.  (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Speaking with reporters following the meeting, Democratic Governors Association chair and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Maryland Gov Wes Moore boosted Biden with supportive comments.

But Moore also noted that “we always believe that when you when you love someone, you tell them the truth. And I think we came in, and we were honest about the feedback that we were getting. We were honest about the concerns that we are hearing from people.”

WHAT BIDEN SAID ABOUT HIS DEBATE PERFORMANCE 

Healey did not speak to reporters at the White House after the meeting and Friday’s statement is her first since the gathering with Biden.

As first reported by the New York Times, Healey told her fellow governors and the president’s top staff that his political position is “irretrievable” following his dismal debate performance.

President Joe Biden (R) and Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Biden’s halting delivery and stumbling answers during the debate with Trump sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and some party donors for Biden to step aside as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer.

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This week, three House Democrats publicly called on Biden to step aside from his re-election bid, while more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress and governors publicly raised serious concerns about whether Biden could continue as the party’s standard-bearer.

As he frantically fights to salvage his campaign following last week’s debate, the next couple of days may determine if Biden can survive or fall victim to a rising tide of calls from within his own party to end his re-election bid.

The 81-year-old Biden, the oldest president in the nation’s history, will need to show Americans that he still has the stamina and acuity to handle the toughest and most demanding job in the world — and prove to Democrats that he has the energy and fortitude to defeat Trump.

At a rally on Friday afternoon in battleground Wisconsin, Biden reiterated that he’s staying in the race.

“You probably heard that I had a little debate last week. Can’t say it is my best performance, but ever since then, there’s been a lot of speculation. What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? What’s he going to do? Well, here’s my answer. I am running and gonna win again,” Biden told cheering supporters in Madison, Wisconsin’s capital city.

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