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A former adviser for the now-defunct presidential campaign of Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is reportedly running a new effort in support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Iowa. 

Politico first reported that Blake Harris, who served most recently as senior political adviser to Scott, is expected to run the super PAC Fight Right. 

Scott dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest on Nov. 12. Last week, Fight Right kicked off a $980,000 television ad buy, concentrating on airing ads in Iowa targeting former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley who is polling narrowly behind DeSantis’s No. 2 position in the first caucus state. Former President Trump is still polling first – ahead of DeSantis by a double-digit margin. 

One ad compares Haley to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON WHETHER DESANTIS’ IOWA STRATEGY WILL BE ENOUGH TO TOPPLE TRUMP: ‘HAIL MARY’

Politico also reported about alleged infighting at the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down regarding how to best prevent Haley from gaining ground before the Jan. 15 caucuses after the Florida governor already spent most of the summer focusing campaign efforts on Iowa. 

Never Back Down transferred $1 million to Fight Right before its first ad buy, a source told the outlet, and DeSantis met personally in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday with potential donors for Fight Right. With primary voting set to begin in less than two months, the two political action committees are slated to work alongside each other and share the “same objective,” the source said.

In a Monday memo first reported by ABC News, DeSantis campaign manager James Uthmeier told potential donors that he “welcomes the independent efforts” of Fight Right, which was formed this month, and which he said will focus on providing “welcome air support” for the governor. Never Back Down, which Uthmeier deemed “the largest Iowa turnout machine in history,” will focus on groundwork for DeSantis. 

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

Meanwhile, Haley’s presidential campaign on Tuesday received a key endorsement from Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the powerful Koch network, which has been building a network of paid conservative activists and volunteers in key states for several years, according to the Associated Press. 

Back in the spring, the Koch network began running ads across Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — the first three states on the GOP’s presidential primary calendar — focusing on questions about Trump’s electability in next fall’s general election against President Biden. Still, Trump remains the overwhelming front-runner in the race.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung dismissed Americans for Prosperity as “the political arm of the China-first, America-last movement.”

In a statement, DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo likened the Koch endorsement to a contribution to the Trump campaign.

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“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,” Romeo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “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.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration quietly granted a request from an energy firm developing an offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts to waive development fees designed to safeguard taxpayers, according to internal documents reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) informed Vineyard Wind that it had waived a financial assurance for decommissioning costs fee in a June 15, 2021, letter obtained by watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT). Federal statute mandates that developers pay that fee prior to construction on their lease, a potentially hefty fee designed to guarantee federal property is returned to its original state after a lessee departs its lease.

“At the same time the Department of the Interior was looking at forcing greater and more expensive bonding requirements on holders of long-standing oil and gas leases, they were relaxing these requirements on the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind energy producer, one that just coincidentally happened to be a client of their incoming #2,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told Fox News Digital.

“If you want to talk about bad optics, I don’t see how they could be any worse than right here,” he said. “For an administration touting itself as the most ethical in history, this represents yet another incident in which Secretary Haaland’s Interior appears to have a tough time living up to that standard.”

BIDEN’S WAR ON OIL DRILLING THREATENS TO KILL HIS OWN GREEN ENERGY GOALS: ‘A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY’

Chamberlain noted that former Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beadreau, the second-highest ranked official at the Department of the Interior (DOI) which houses BOEM, had, according to his 2021 financial disclosure form, previously represented Vineyard Wind on legal matters while serving as a partner at the firm Latham & Watkins. 

Just one week after BOEM approved Vineyard Wind’s request to waive the development fee, Beaudreau departed Latham & Watkins and was sworn in at DOI. In an email to Fox News Digital, Beadreau, who left DOI in late October for another firm, said he wasn’t involved in the request to waive the fee and that a question about his past role posing a conflict of interest was therefore not applicable.

BIDEN ADMIN IS RUSHING TO INDUSTRIALIZE US OCEANS TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘ENVIRONMENTAL WRECKING BALL’

According to the documents obtained by PPT, BOEM said Vineyard Wind wouldn’t be required to pay the development fee until 15 years after the project enters operations under its 20-year power purchase agreements. The documents indicate that Vineyard Wind first submitted the request in December 2017, but that the Trump administration rejected it, forcing the developer to resubmit it in March 2021.

In its June 2021 letter to Vineyard Wind, BOEM explained it would waive the fee because the project included risk reduction factors including insurance policies to cover any catastrophic event that damages operations, use of proven wind turbine technology, and the use of power purchase agreements “with guaranteed electricity sales prices that, coupled with the consistent supply of wind energy, ensure a predictable income over the life of the project.”

The letter also stated that the “regulatory departure”  would reduce Vineyard Wind’s financial assurance burden, enabling the developer to invest freed-up capital in construction and enabling the project to enter operations sooner. In addition, it explained the fee was waived also because it “promotes the production and transmission of energy from a source other than oil and gas.”

And Meredith Lilley, an energy program specialist at BOEM, acknowledged in an internal email at the time, also obtained by PPT, that waiving the fee by August 2021 was vital to ensure Vineyard Wind could “secure financing and achieve financial close.”

The 800-megawatt Massachusetts project — a joint venture between Danish energy developer Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and New England utility services company Avangrid — was first proposed years ago, but was fast-tracked once President Biden entered office. In May 2021, the DOI formally approved the project, marking the first utility-scale offshore wind farm to receive federal approval.

Then, in July 2021, BOEM approved Vineyard Wind’s construction and operations plan and, four months later, DOI Secretary Deb Haaland joined then-Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and other officials for the commemorative groundbreaking of the project in Barnstable, Massachusetts. 

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“Vineyard Wind 1 represents a historic milestone for advancing our nation’s clean energy production. This project and others across the country will create robust and sustainable economies that lift up communities and support good-paying jobs, while also ensuring future generations have a livable planet,” Haaland said during the ceremony on Nov. 18, 2021.

“The Interior Department is committed to responsibly accelerating our nation’s transition to a clean energy future, and doing so in coordination with our partners, stakeholders, Tribes and ocean users to avoid and reduce potential impacts as much as we can,” she continued.

Since BOEM’s approval of Vineyard Wind, it has green-lit five other utility-scale offshore wind farms as part of Biden’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. However, one of those projects, the offshore New Jersey project Ocean Wind 1, was axed by its developer in October due to various economic factors.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has taken aim at the oil and gas industry. Despite waiving development fees associated with green energy production, the DOI unveiled a plan in July to revise bonding requirements, royalty rates and minimum bids for onshore fossil fuel leasing, an action that will raise costs for developers.

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“Amidst a global energy crisis, this action from the Department of the Interior is yet another attempt to add even more barriers to future energy production, increases uncertainty for producers and may further discourage oil and natural gas investment,” Holly Hopkins, the vice president of upstream policy at the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement at the time.

“This is a concerning approach from an administration that has repeatedly acted to restrict essential energy development.”

BOEM and Vineyard Wind didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., likely doesn’t have the votes to pass President Biden’s $106 billion national security supplemental package as is, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday evening. 

Senate Republicans have been rallying behind adding stricter border security provisions in the package, such as more border patrol agents and tougher asylum processing standards. But Democrats have signaled they’re not interested in changing border policies.  

“There’s going to have to be significant border security,” Scott, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said. “The border is a clear and present danger to the security of every American, and I think every Republican and hopefully some Democrats understand that.” 

The question, Scott said, revolves around whether Republicans will opt for straightforward modifications, expecting Biden to adhere to the law, or whether Ukraine aid could be contingent upon a decrease in border crossings.

SCHUMER TO SEND BIDEN’S $106 BILLION SUPPLEMENTAL PACKAGE REQUEST TO SENATE FLOOR AS EARLY AS NEXT WEEK

“We will have to have something that is really tied to really reducing the number of people crossing the border, and this can’t be a small reduction. We need to reduce it the way Trump was able to reduce it,” Scott said. “The only way we’re going to get a result is if we will not give Ukraine money unless it’s completely tied on a month-to-month basis to a reduction in number of people crossing the border. That’s the only way it’s going to work, and I believe that’s where everybody’s going to be.”

BIDEN ADMIN URGES MAJOR FUNDING INCREASES FOR AID TO UKRAINE, ISRAEL AND GAZA CIVILIANS 

Schumer would need nine Republicans to vote alongside Democrats for the package to make it out of the Senate. Scott said no one is objecting to stronger border measures among the GOP. The package could get a vote as early as next week. 

Democrats in the upper chamber have a 51-49 majority, and any legislation will need at least 60 votes to advance. Any agreement will need to pass the GOP-controlled House before it makes it to Biden’s desk.

Schumer will bring the Biden administration’s $106 billion national security funding request to the floor for a vote as early as next week, Schumer said in a Dear Colleague letter Sunday night. 

The White House’s supplemental request, which was sent to Congress in October, includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel (with $10.6 billion allocated for military aid), $13.6 billion for some border security provisions and significant investments in Indo-Pacific security assistance totaling around $7.4 billion. Additionally, there’s $9 billion earmarked for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

The supplemental request only proposes more money to speed up processing of migrants but no policy reforms. 

In a press conference Tuesday, Schumer deflected blame and said “a handful of Republicans have dangerously tried to link Ukraine aid” to border security.

Negotiations between Democratic and Republican senators continued over the Thanksgiving recess, and Schumer told reporters, “Republicans are making it difficult” for a bipartisan aid bill. 

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have both signaled the GOP will pass more Ukraine funding if a deal is struck for tighter immigration laws.  

Fox News Digital has reached out to Schumer’s office and the White House for comment.

DERRY, N.H. – In front of a standing room only crowd on a chilly late autumn evening in the state that holds the first primary in the Republican presidential nominating calendar, Nikki Haley was making her case.

The former South Carolina governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations in former President Donald Trump’s administration was arguing that she’s more electable than her former boss in a 2024 general election matchup against President Biden.

“If you look at the national polls and you look at electability, you see that Trump is pretty much even with Biden. On a good day, he might be two points up. In every poll, we beat Biden by 10 to 13 points,” Haley claimed at her Tuesday evening town hall at the historic opera house in Derry, New Hampshire.

Electability was a factor in the decision by Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the influential and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, to endorse Haley. 

BIG BOOST: HALEY LANDS THE BACKING OF A CONSERVATIVE GRASSROOTS ARMY

The announcement Tuesday morning by the AFP Action, which has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars and mobilize its formidable grassroots operation to help push the Republican Party past Trump, was a setback to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Haley’s enjoyed momentum in the polls in recent months, thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates. 

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

She has leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire 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 lean campaign lacks the grassroots outreach and organizational strength that DeSantis can count on courtesy of the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down.

The endorsement by AFP Action Haley comes with the group’s powerful direct-mail and field operations, as well as a major ad blitz in the early voting states.

“Organizationally speaking – it’s significant. This is muscle. This is political dollars and door knocking. It will help,” Republican consultant Matthew Bartlett, who splits his time between New Hampshire and the nation’s capital, told Fox News.

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

Haley, addressing the crowd, asked “how many of you are here to hear me for the first time?” 

A lot of folks in the audience raised their hands.

“There’s a lot of new people coming out and seeing Nikki,” longtime GOP strategist Rick Wiley, who’s steering Haley’s operation in New Hampshire, told Fox News. Wiley said it was a sign that Haley’s message is resonating.

“You can see the volunteers grabbing their information,” Wiley said as he pointed to the crowd of first-time attendees. “We have RSVP’s and we’re going to put them to work.”

Haley arrived in New Hampshire after drawing roughly 2,500 people to a campaign event Monday evening in her home state. 

While the audience of some 325 on Tuesday evening didn’t compare to the South Carolina gathering, it was one of her largest crowds to date in the Granite State.

Among those attending was Republican state Sen. William Gannon, who endorsed Haley earlier this autumn.

Referencing the crowd, Gannon emphasized “they like Nikki. She’s warm. She’s personable. We have candidates who could possibly win a primary. These people know that she can win next November.” 

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Also in the audience were two former U.S. senators.

“She’s been a chief executive. She knows what kind of legislation is necessary to get an economy going. She’s a fiscal conservative,” former Sen. John E. Sununu told Fox News. “I think if she can convey those concepts of letting people make decisions for themselves, getting the country moving forward and not looking back, then I think she’s going to do well in New Hampshire.”

Sununu, the son of former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu and the older brother to current Gov. Chris Sununu, said he remains neutral in the GOP presidential nomination race, but is considering endorsing and helping support a candidate.

“Like every other voter in New Hampshire, I’m excited about the primary,” he said.

Former Sen. Gordon Humphrey told Fox News that he’s “leaning towards Nikki Haley. I think she’s far and away the best of all the candidates.”

Humphrey, a vocal anti-Trump Republican turned independent, pointed to what he described as Haley’s “heavyweight experience” as a governor and in foreign policy and national security through her tenure as ambassador to the United Nations.

“She’s well-spoken. She has personality and charisma, sparkle, energy, dynamism,” he touted.

While she’s riding a political wave, Haley remains far behind Trump.

But Bartlett emphasized “what is important – on a cold night like this, opening up the doors. Doing an old-fashioned town hall. Taking questions. Introducing yourself to voters. She is doing everything right…She’s got some granite heels, and we’re going to see how far they can climb the mountain here.”

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

FIRST ON FOX – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is taking the “GOP establishment” in Iowa to task, specifically calling out Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds over support of the CO2 pipeline he argues negatively impacts farmers in the Hawkeye State. 

In an announcement obtained by Fox News Digital, Ramaswamy teased a policy speech he’s set to give Friday in Des Moines regarding CO2 pipelines being implemented he says as part of the “climate change agenda,” knocking Republicans who are onboard with it.  

“The GOP establishment does NOT approve of this message & it’s pathetic I’m the only candidate with the stones to say it,” Ramaswamy’s statement began. “The climate change agenda is a hoax & it’s hurting farmers in Iowa. Here’s how: the U.S. government enacted crony subsidies to reward those who build CO2 pipelines across the Midwest to bury CO2 in the ground in North Dakota (which is senseless for many reasons, including the fact that crops require CO2).”

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“Here’s the bigger problem: most farmers don’t want the CO2 pipeline on their land. There are real hazards & many farmers don’t want to sell their land either. But the GOP Establishment in Iowa has enacted eminent domain to *seize* these farmers’ land which is a gross violation of their property rights,” Ramaswamy wrote.

He continued, “Every political consultant tells you to stay away from the CO2 pipeline issue, because it makes the likes of @GovKimReynolds look horrible for supporting it. Well, I refuse to be controlled. We’ll go deep on this on Friday at 12pm in Des Moines, with the Free Soil Coalition.”

RAMASWAMY CLASHES WITH CNN ANCHOR PRESSING HIM ON TRUMP’S ‘VERMIN’ COMMENTS: ‘GIVE ME A BREAK!’

The biotech entrepreneur went on to predict that “soon you will see the other presidential candidates who have tiptoed around this issue reluctantly adopt my stance including even the one whom @GovKimReynolds endorsed.”

“You can bookmark that prediction & take it to the bank,” Ramaswamy added. 

The candidate Reynolds endorsed is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Gov. Reynolds’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

RAMASWAMY UNVEILS ‘NO TO NEOCONS’ PLEDGE HIS APPOINTEES WILL HAVE TO SIGN IF ELECTED

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Ramaswamy is hoping to defy expectations in the first primary contest in the nation. According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls in Iowa, Ramaswamy is trailing at 5% behind former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 14.3%, DeSantis at 17.3% and former President Trump, who maintains a commanding lead at 47% among Iowan primary voters. 

In the most recent Fox News national poll earlier this month, Ramaswamy received 7%, Haley got 11%, DeSantis got 14% while Trump held a whopping 62% support among Republicans. 

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

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.

ATTORNEY GENERAL MERRICK GARLAND TESTIFIES AT HOUSE JUDICIARY AMID PROBE DOJ’S ALLEGED POLITICIZATION

TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL OPENS INVESTIGATION INTO MEDIA MATTERS FOR ‘POTENTIAL FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY’

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.