Donald Trump Poll News

Donald Trump is aiming for a repeat performance.

Two years ago, the former president backed JD Vance in Ohio’s crowded and combative Republican Senate nomination race, boosting Vance to victory in the GOP primary a couple weeks later. 

Fast-forward to the present and Trump is returning to Ohio this weekend to once again support the Republican Senate candidate he endorsed in the state’s increasingly contentious GOP primary.

Trump, who earlier this week clinched the Republican presidential nomination and is now his party’s presumptive 2024 nominee, will headline a rally in Dayton, Ohio, Saturday or businessman Bernie Moreno. 

SIX KEY SENATE SEATS REPUBLICANS AIM TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER 

Trump’s trip will come three days before the state’s March 19 primary. The rally was announced Monday night by Buckeye Values PAC, a pro-Moreno group.

The move came hours after state Sen. Matt Dolan, one of the two other major GOP Senate primary contenders, along with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, was endorsed by two-term Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a former longtime U.S. senator and state attorney general.

WHY THE BIDEN-TRUMP 2024 REMATCH IS HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Late last week, Dolan. a former top county prosecutor and Ohio assistant attorney general whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, also landed the backing of former Sen. Rob Portman. DeWine and Portman are considered top members of Ohio’s Republican old guard or establishment.

“Matt Dolan has a vision for the future. He listens. He fights. And he knows how to get results for Ohio,” DeWine said in endorsing Dolan.

And DeWine has said Dolan’s the strongest Republican candidate to defeat longtime Democrat Sherrod Brown in November.

Dolan, who along with Moreno is making his second straight bid for the Senate in Ohio, has highlighted that he’s a supporter of Trump’s policies but not the former president’s personality. Dolan is the only one of the three major candidates not to seek Trump’s support.

Moreno, an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. legally from Colombia and later became a successful Cleveland-based businessman and luxury auto dealership giant, was endorsed by Trump in December.

Vance, who will campaign with Moreno across Ohio on Monday, last year backed him, which was seen as a prelude to the eventual Trump endorsement. Moreno also enjoys the support of two other Trump allies — Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a Buckeye State native.

After DeWine endorsed Dolan, Moreno framed the race as a battle between “the America-First Republican Party” and the “RINO establishment.”

And Andy Surabian, a senior Moreno campaign adviser who’s close to Trump’s political orbit, emphasized in a social media post that “the Ohio Senate race is officially Team America First vs Team RINO.”

RINO is a term used to insult some in the GOP as “Republicans in name only.”

There’s been a dearth of public polling in the Republican Senate primary, and the three major campaigns are treating the race as a dead heat ahead of next week’s primary. Millions have been spent by the campaigns and aligned super PACs to flood the airwaves with negative attack ads.

And now Democrats are meddling in the primary. 

Duty and Country PAC, which is funded by Senate Majority PAC, the top super PAC supporting Senate Democrats, is dishing out nearly $3 million in the final days ahead of the primary to run ads boosting Moreno.

The winner of the GOP primary will face off in November against Brown, who is the only Democrat to win statewide in Ohio over the past decade. Brown is being heavily targeted by Republicans in a state that was once a premiere battleground before shifting red.

Democrats control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a 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 re-election.

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

As Trump locks up the GOP presidential nomination, he’s once again exerting increasing control over the Republican Party. 

A week ago, a top Trump ally and the former president’s daughter-in-law were installed as chair and co-chair of the Republican National Committee. On Monday, the new regime at the RNC pushed roughly 60 current staffers out the door.

But Trump’s clout with congressional Republicans suffered a setback this week, as the GOP-controlled House went against Trump’s wishes. A few weeks after downing a bipartisan border deal in Congress, partially due to the former president’s wishes, most House Republicans supported the passage — over Trump’s objections — of a bill that could eventually ban TikTok in the U.S.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The showdown in Ohio is one of the few major down-ballot GOP primaries where the Trump-backed candidate is at risk of losing.

“Trump’s got a lot invested in Bernie Moreno,” veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman said.

Longtime Ohio-based GOP consultant Mike Hartley, who remains neutral in this year’s primary, told Fox News “it’s important to Trump, evidenced by the fact that he’s coming into the state, just like he did for JD Vance.“

“President Trump wants to have allies in Congress to help him get his agenda passed. I think it’s as simple as that,” Hartley added.

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

The lead attorney representing former President Donald Trump in his Georgia election interference case says the decision from a judge that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must either step aside or fire special prosecutor Nathan Wade does not lend “appropriate significance” to their “prosecutorial misconduct.” 

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued the ruling Friday after hearing evidence presented by lawyers for co-defendants in the case who had accused Willis of having an “improper” affair with Nathan Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute the matter.  

“While respecting the Court’s decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade, including the financial benefits, testifying untruthfully about when their personal relationship began, as well as Willis’ extrajudicial MLK [day] ‘church speech,’ where she played the race card and falsely accused the defendants and their counsel of racism,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement obtained by Fox News. 

“We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place,” he added. 

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE 

McAfee said the defendants “failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor.” 

“However, the established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team — an appearance that must be removed through the State’s selection of one of two options,” he wrote. 

FULTON COUNTY ETHICS BOARD WON’T HEAR COMPLAINTS AGAINST FANI WILLIS 

He went on to say that his finding is “by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing.” 

The co-defendants had alleged that Willis benefited financially by hiring Wade because they were in a pre-existing relationship when he was hired in 2021 and would vacation together.  

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP 

Both Wade and Willis denied they were in a romantic relationship prior to his hiring and that the couple would split the costs of their shared travels; Willis said she reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips in cash. 

Fox News’ Kathleen Reuschle contributed to this report.

Congressional Republicans criticized the latest ruling from Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, in which he refused to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis, calling it “lawfare,” a term used to describe a governing party’s wielding the law as a strategic weapon — and alleging “election interference” against former President Trump. 

“The Atlanta prosecution — like the others — is a political hatchet job aimed at salvaging Joe Biden’s campaign. This lawfare against President Trump is more appropriate in a banana republic than America,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

GEORGIA’S JUDGE MCAFEE SAYS HE WILL SOON RULE WHETHER DA FANI WILLIS IS DISQUALIFIED IN TRUMP CASE

McAfee ruled on Friday that Willis must step back from the election interference case, or she would be required to fire special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The judge made clear that the defendants seeking to disqualify Willis “failed to meet their burden of proving that the district attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor.”

The judge said the record from the evidentiary hearing “highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team.” This, said McAfee, has to be removed through one of those two options. 

BIDEN-TRUMP SEQUEL UNDERWAY IN HISTORY-MAKING FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REMATCH SINCE 1956

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., took to X to respond, writing, “Judge McAfee once worked for Fani Willis and donated to her campaign,” he noted. “I am not shocked that he didn’t disqualify her, but as an American, I am disappointed.”

“Fani Willis is as crooked as they come! It is impossible for @realDonaldTrump to get a fair trial! Election interference!” he continued. 

Last month, McAfee held a two-day evidentiary hearing for the co-defendants to make their case for Willis’ disqualification, stemming from her relationship with Wade and its alleged connection to his role in the case. During the hearing, both Wade and Willis were questioned over money spent during their relationship and the timeline. 

LAWMAKERS BLAST BIDEN GAZA PORT PLAN AS POLITICAL MOVE TO WIN BACK PROGRESSIVES

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., blasted the judge’s choice as “nonsensical” in a statement: “The charges brought by Fulton County DA Willis and the bizarre decision by the judge not to remove her for an obvious appearance of impropriety reinforces the narrative that there is a two-tiered system of justice for President Trump and those around him.”

Graham added, “I am hopeful either the Georgia State Senate or the state’s Attorney General will look into this matter,” calling it “a sad day for Georgia.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said, “The American people are clear-eyed about what President Trump’s political opponents are attempting to do. They are using the justice system — timed to the election — for political purposes. Our nation deserves better.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, wrote on X, slamming McAfee as “another politically motivated judge.”

CENTRIST GROUP NO LABELS SETS UP PANEL TO SELECT THIRD-PARTY PRESIDENTIAL TICKET

“The corruption in Fulton County, Georgia is some of the worst in the nation,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. “It makes most of us in Georgia sick.”

Fellow Georgia GOP Rep. Mike Collins also sounded off on the decision, writing, “Breaking: Fulton County Judge says Fani gets to stay on the case… As long as she fires her boyfriend who has already billed taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“It’s totally fine. Nothing to see here,” he added. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Democratic lawmakers were largely silent on the court’s decision. 

However, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., spokesperson Sarah Feldman said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “Senator Tester believes everyone should be treated fairly and without bias in a court of law and expects the treatment of former President Trump to be no different. Our criminal justice system must be without political influence, where no one is above the law, and all Americans are presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

Georgia attorney Ashleigh Merchant claimed vindication after a Fulton County judge issued a ruling in the disqualification proceedings against District Attorney Fani Willis.  

In an order Friday, Judge Scott McAfee said that Willis must either withdraw herself and her team from the 2020 election interference case or remove Wade as special prosecutor. The decision came after Merchant, on behalf of her client Michael Roman, first alleged that Willis had had an “improper” affair with Wade before hiring him to prosecute former President Trump and his 18 co-defendants in 2021. 

“While we believe the court should have disqualified Willis’ office entirely, this opinion is a vindication that everything put forth by the defense was true, accurate and relevant to the issues surrounding our client’s right to a fair trial. The judge clearly agreed with the defense that the actions of Willis are a result of her poor judgment and that there is a risk to the future of this case if she doesn’t quickly work to cure her conflict,” Merchant said in a statement.

“While we do not agree that the courts suggested cure is adequate in response to the egregious conduct by the district attorney, we look forward to the district attorney’s response to the demands by the court. We will continue to fight for our client,” she added.

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE

Merchant was the first to allege in court filings that Willis had a conflict of interest in hiring Wade, her then-boyfriend, to prosecute the election interference case. She claimed that Willis had financially benefited from the relationship in the form of vacations she took with Wade, whose firm was compensated by taxpayers for working the Trump case.

Documents submitted to the court by Merchant revealed that Willis and Wade had taken several trips together and that Wade’s law firm had billed taxpayers $650,000 at a rate of $250 an hour since his hiring. 

Both Wade and Willis had denied that they were in a romantic relationship prior to his hiring. During a two-day evidentiary hearing in February, they each testified that they had split the cost of their shared trips. Willis told the court she reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips in cash.

During a two-day evidentiary hearing in February, Merchant called witnesses who testified that the couple had begun their affair in 2019 after meeting at a conference. 

TRUMP ATTORNEY REACTS TO FULTON COUNTY JUDGE’S FANI WILLIS DECISION: ‘PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT’

Robin Yeartie, a former “good friend” of Willis and past employee at the DA’s office, testified to observing Willis and Wade “hugging” and “kissing” and showing “affection” prior to November 2021 and said she had no doubt that the two had been in a “romantic” relationship starting in 2019 and lasting until she and Willis last spoke in 2022.

Willis dismissed Yeartie’s testimony and said she no longer considers Yeartie a friend.

The star witness for the defense was Terrence Bradley, a former law partner and divorce attorney for Wade. Merchant grilled Bradley on the witness stand last month about what he knew and when he knew about their romance.

Bradley, when pressed under oath, said he could not recall several details and timelines about conversations he had with former client Wade about Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis.

GEORGIA JUDGE TOSSES KEY WITNESS’ TESTIMONY AGAINST FANI WILLIS, CITING ‘INCONSISTENCIES’: COURT ORDER

Merchant at one point referenced text messages between her and Bradley in which she had asked Bradley if he thought the relationship started before Willis hired Wade in 2021. Bradley responded “absolutely” in the text exchange.

However, McAfee said Friday that he was “unable to place any stock” in Bradley’s testimony.

In his order, McAfee said that Bradley’s “inconsistencies, demeanor, and generally non-responsive answers left far too brittle a foundation upon which to build any conclusions.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“While prior inconsistent statements can be considered as substantive evidence under Georgia law, Bradley’s impeachment by text message did not establish the basis for which he claimed such sweeping knowledge of Wade’s personal affairs,” McAfee said.

The judge ruled that while neither side had conclusively proved when the relationship began, there was “an appearance of impropriety” that requires either Willis or Wade to be removed from the Trump case. 

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

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have reached out to ex-President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen about appearing at next week’s impeachment inquiry hearing, a source familiar with the discussions told Fox News Digital.

Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is leading an impeachment inquiry into President Biden over accusations he used his position as vice president to enrich himself and his family, which both he and the White House have denied.

The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. 

COMER INVITES HUNTER BIDEN, BUSINESS ASSOCIATES TO TESTIFY PUBLICLY MARCH 20 AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Democrats on the panel hope that a potential Cohen appearance could turn the spotlight at the highly-publicized event onto Trump, according to the source. 

They “believe Cohen could help focus the hearing on Donald Trump by delivering first-hand testimony on Trump’s foreign business deals while he was president,” the source said.

The source said Democrats think Cohen’s appearance and testimony could also force Republicans to respond in real time, and on camera, to criticism that they ignored allegations that Trump profited from countries like China while in office.

Fox News Digital reached out to House Oversight Committee Democrats about Cohen.

HUNTER BIDEN ADMITS HE PUT HIS FATHER ON SPEAKERPHONE, INVITED HIM TO MEETINGS, BUT DENIES ‘INVOLVEMENT’

Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, was once one of his fiercest defenders, even serving part of a three-year prison sentence over charges linked to his defense of the ex-president. Cohen has become a vocal critic of Trump’s since his November 2021 release and admitted to investigators in 2018 that he arranged hush money payments to two women on Trump’s behalf. Trump has publicly denied wrongdoing.

House Republicans are investigating whether Biden was part of an influence-peddling scheme with relatives including his son, Hunter Biden, specifically scrutinizing the younger Biden’s business dealings with China and Ukraine. 

Hunter Biden recently turned down House Republicans’ invitation to appear at the same hearing that Democrats are in communication with Cohen about.

JOE BIDEN ‘ENABLED’ FAMILY TO SELL ACCESS TO ‘DANGEROUS ADVERSARIES,’ TONY BOBULINSKI TESTIFIES

In a letter sent to Oversight committee investigators earlier this week, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said that a scheduling conflict prevented their appearance, while also criticizing the hearing itself.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended,” Lowell wrote.

Reactions from Georgia lawmakers poured in on Friday after a judge ruled that embattled Fulton County DA Fani Willis could remain on the case investigating alleged election interference by former President Donald Trump.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a ruling Friday that Willis, who was accused of an improper romantic relationship that she attempted to cover up with special counsel Nathan Wade, could remain on the case if she fired Wade which prompted pushback from Georgia Republicans.

“The ruling by Judge McAfee seems to clearly identify impropriety between the DA and Mr. Wade,” Georgia Republican State Rep. Josh Bonner told Fox News Digital.  “Unfortunately, it does not address the purely partisan nature of the case brought by a rogue District Attorney more interested in scoring political points than prosecuting criminals in Fulton County.”

“Judge McAfee clearly found significant impropriety between Fani Willis and Nathan Wade,” Georgia Republican Lt. Gov Burt Jones told Fox News Digital. “If Fani Willis acted in the best interest of her constituents, she would resign immediately, but we know her inflated sense of self won’t allow that to happen. Regardless, the Georgia Senate investigatory committee will continue its work on behalf of the Georgia taxpayer to hold her accountable.” 

JUDGE IN GEORGIA SLAMS FANI WILLIS’ ‘IMPROPER’ CHURCH SPEECH, ‘PLAYING THE RACE CARD’

Georgia Republican State Senator Jason Anavitarte told Fox News Digital it is “indisputable” that Willis “willfully concealed” her relationship with Wade.

“Rather than owning up to the relationship, admitting poor judgement and removing SADA Wade from this case as soon as it was revealed, DA Willis doubled down and spent the better part of 3 months continuing to obfuscate if not downright lie to the court,” Anavitarte said.

“Judge McAfee openly acknowledged that there is an ‘odor of mendacity’ and “reasonable questions about whether the DA and…SADA testified untruthfully.’ Despite all this, Judge McAfee chose to offer DA Willis an escape hatch that should have been voluntarily activated as soon as the relationship was uncovered, firing Nathan Wade,” he continued. “To me, that is wholly insufficient. Prosecutors should be held to the highest ethical standard. Clearly Judge McAfee failed in this account. Now it is incumbent on the nearly created Prosecuting Attorney Qualification Commission to determine whether DA Willis committed perjury. I suspect complaints to that end are forthcoming.”

REPUBLICANS HAMMER JUDGE MCAFEE’S RULING IN FANI WILLIS CASE, CALLING IT ‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’

Georgia Republican State Sen. Bill Cowsert, who is leading a special Georgia Senate committee probe on Willis, told Fox News Anchor Martha MacCallum on Friday afternoon that he is “not surprised” by the judge’s move but agreed that Willis would be best served to recuse herself from the case.

“I feel confident that’s what she’ll do,” Cowsert said. “There’s just no way a jury will give any credibility to her further involvement, it will undermine her own mission of prosecuting these individuals if she stays personally involved. It’s just been a series of really poor choices.”

Some Democrats have backed Judge McAfee’s decision including Georgia State Sen. Derek Mallow who told Fox News Digital that the judge “clearly exercised jurisprudence” by reviewing the case and finding the “best process to move forward” to “remove any presence of impropriety in this case.”

“I think that is a good direction to head into, as this case does have merits and it needs to go before a jury,” Mallow explained.  “And I think that the judge has done his due diligence in his ruling. That’s why you have judges, to make those type of rulings. I still fundamentally believe my role and opinion in all of this is that there’s a separation between the judicial and the legislative branches.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Of course, I support the judge’s ruling for the case to move forward. I hope that the district attorney will make the needed separation there so that the case can move forward, and that the evidence and facts will come out, and a jury, the peers of all those involved, will make a determination and find guilt or innocence.”

McAfee said in his ruling that the defendants “failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor.”

“However, the established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team – an appearance that must be removed through the State’s selection of one of two options,” he wrote, adding that Willis and her whole office can choose to step aside, or Wade can withdraw from the case.

On Friday afternoon, Wade announced that he is stepping down from the case in the interest of “democracy.” 

EXCLUSIVE: WEST VIRGINIA — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is aiming to stay at the helm of the House GOP next year, he told Fox News Digital.

In an interview at the House Republicans’ annual member retreat this year at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson suggested he’d want to stay in the conference’s top spot regardless of whether they keep the House majority.

“I have not given a lot of thought about the next Congress, because I’m so busy with my responsibility right now. My intention is to stay as speaker, stay in leadership, because we’re laying a lot of important groundwork right now for the big work that we’ll be doing,” Johnson said.

“But each day has enough concern of its own right now. And I’ve got – we’ve got a very full, very busy agenda right now. And that’s where my focus is.”

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHNSON SAYS WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T ‘CALL THE SHOTS’ ON WHEN IMPEACHMENT IS OVER

He also gave Fox News Digital a preview of what he wants Congress to focus on in 2025, expressing confidence that the GOP would go into the new year having kept the House majority and won the Senate and White House.

“We would absolutely turn our attention to securing the border and ending the catastrophe that the Biden administration has created. Obviously, we would continue to address the China threat and increase our stature on the world stage. That’s what the White House would be focused on, and we would give assistance in the House in every way possible,” he said.

Johnson also listed bolstering U.S. defense capabilities, tax reform, and exploring weaponization of the federal government as other priorities, as well as legislative advances on artificial intelligence.

“We’d have a very aggressive first 100 days of the Congress agenda, and we’re kind of excited about that prospect,” Johnson said.

SPEAKER JOHNSON FLOATS STAND-ALONE ISRAEL AID PLAN AFTER SCHUMER’S COMMENTS MADE SITUATION ‘EVEN MORE URGENT’

Johnson won the speakership in late October via a unanimous House GOP vote, three weeks after his predecessor, ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted by a group of eight Republicans and all House Democrats.

Johnson’s comments to Fox News Digital come a day after he was asked at a press conference about whether he’d have the House GOP Conference change its rules on how difficult it is to kick out a speaker.

Johnson, who was optimistic that the GOP could retain and expand its razor-thin House majority in November, suggested the next Congress would also likely see a change to its motion to vacate rules – the guidelines by which a speaker is ousted from power.

JOHNSON SAYS HOUSE WILL ‘APPLY EVERY AMOUNT OF PRESSURE’ TO SENATE TO PASS TIKTOK BILL

McCarthy agreed to lower the threshold from a House majority to just one person being able to trigger a vote to recall the House leader as part of a deal with critics to win the gavel in January 2023.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Johnson said he never advocated for a rule change but expected that a majority of his lawmakers would want to move forward. Dozens of House Republicans criticized the eight that voted to oust McCarthy, arguing that it projected historic levels of instability under their leadership.

“The motion to vacate is something that comes up a lot amongst members in discussion, and I expect there will probably be a change to that as well. But just so you know, I’ve never advocated for that. I’m not one who’s making it an issue, because I don’t think it is one for now,” he said Wednesday.

Senators on both sides of the aisle have signaled their support for taking action to force the divestment of social media app TikTok from Chinese-based ByteDance, under the threat of a U.S. ban.

The move comes following a vote on Wednesday that sailed through the House with a 352-65 bipartisan split, with one member abstaining. It would force Chinese divestment from TikTok or see the app banned. Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concerns over ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok, stressing the national security threat is serious. 

HOUSE GOP LEADERS TARGET BIDEN ENERGY POLICIES IN LEGISLATION BLITZ NEXT WEEK

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he was pleased to see the House pass the bill, adding that he looks forward to seeing the Senate proceed with it. “I have been explicit and unequivocal about my concerns about TikTok, both that it is used by the Chinese Communist Party to engage in espionage and surveillance and that it is used to push incredibly harmful propaganda, particularly on our young people,” he told Fox News Digital.  

HOUSE PASSES BILL THAT COULD SEE TIKTOK BANNED IN US

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she wants to see the app forced to divest: “I do want to see us divest — force them to divest. We shouldn’t have those ties with Communist China,” she said. 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., echoed that sentiment, saying, “It has to be addressed.”

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who serve as chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, applauded the House’s passage of the TikTok bill in a joint statement on Wednesday, saying, “We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok.” They added that they hope to see the measure passed in the Senate and signed by President Biden.  

The top senators on the intelligence committee have been sounding the alarm on the social media app for years. Warner, a Democrat, claimed in 2022 that “President Trump was right” when he sought to ban TikTok with an executive order in 2020 that was ultimately blocked by the courts. 

JOHNSON SAYS HOUSE WILL ‘APPLY EVERY AMOUNT OF PRESSURE’ TO SENATE TO PASS TIKTOK BILL

During the annual Senate Intel worldwide threats hearing with various national security officials earlier this week, FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed to Rubio that ByteDance, “the parent company is, for all intents and purposes, beholden to the CCP.”

“I think what we’re hearing is genuine risk,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. The senator noted he is hopeful for the Senate to take action, particularly because of the large bipartisan support evidenced by the House’s vote. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., added he also wants to see TikTok required to be divested from China so that “national security and information [and] data on ordinary Americans can be protected.”

TIKTOK CEO TELLS USERS ‘PROTECT YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS’ AGAINST TIKTOK BAN IN VIDEO

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said that he sees TikTok as “a national security threat,” adding that he wants “to make sure that we can sever that relationship” with China. 

Despite the high level of concern over TikTok among members of both parties, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was vague about the bill’s fate in the upper chamber on Wednesday, and did not offer any clues on whether it would be fast-tracked in the body. 

“The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House,” he said in a statement following the measure’s passage. 

REPUBLICANS UNVEIL EFFORT TO REVERSE BIDEN CLIMATE RULES TARGETING MANUFACTURING

In 2020, Schumer notably wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “A US company should buy TikTok so everyone can keep using it and your data is safe.”

“With TikTok in China, it’s subject to Chinese Communist Party laws that may require handing over data to their government,” he wrote at the time. 

SCHUMER SPEECH ON ISRAEL SLAMMED BY REPUBLICANS, EXPERTS AS ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ AND ‘RIDICULOUS’

The House’s bill was read twice on Thursday and then referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, meaning it isn’t being fast-tracked for swift passage. 

Cruz said there should be “a full and open amendment process” — a criticism of the Senate’s recent proclivity for skipping procedure. 

However, there are concerns over the extra time afforded to TikTok and tech lobbyists as consideration of the measure is dragged out. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., criticized the flow of money from TikTok and other tech lobbyists in Congress while talking to Fox News Digital, claiming that “there ought to be a sign right there that says ‘property of Big Tech’” as he gestured toward the Senate chamber. 

DEMOCRATS PANICKED ABOUT THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATES SWINGING ELECTION FOR TRUMP: ‘SINGLE BIGGEST THREAT’

Hawley said he hoped to see debate and a vote on the bill sometime soon. 

On Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Chew told Fox News correspondent Aishah Hasnie that his team had reviewed the House bill and called it “not feasible.”

“This bill, in all the details you can read, go through the details, this would lead to banning of the app in the country,” he claimed. 

Hawley posted on X, writing, “The answer is, the CCP won’t allow a sale. Which tells you how valuable TikTok is to them.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

While there appeared to be broad support for the House bill addressing TikTok, a smaller but somewhat bipartisan group of lawmakers came out against it. That group included Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Rand Paul, R-Ky.; and Mike Lee, R-Utah, who warned that it could violate various constitutional amendments and increase the size and scope of the federal government. 

Former President Trump’s White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court for his immediate release from federal prison.

According to the filing, Navarro and his legal team argued that he should be released pending his appeals.

“Dr. Navarro is indisputably neither a flight risk nor a danger to public safety should he be release [sic] pending appeal,” the filing to the Supreme Court said.

There is not a timetable on when the justices will rule on the time-sensitive request.

TRUMP WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL PETER NAVARRO SENTENCED TO 4 MONTHS FOR DEFYING JAN 6 SUBPOENA

A federal appeals court yesterday denied Navarro’s efforts to remain out of prison while he continues to challenge his conviction and sentence.

FORMER TRUMP ADVISER NAVARRO CONVICTED OF CONTEMPT AFTER DEFYING JAN. 6 SUBPOENA

He was ordered to report to a federal prison in Miami, Florida by Tuesday.

Last year, Navarro was found guilty by a jury last year for defying a subpoena for documents and testimony from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

After refusing to comply with the congressional request, the House of Representatives held him in contempt and referred the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., for prosecution. 

Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno and his legal team are pushing back against a report, ahead of the state’s GOP primary, that tried to link him to previously holding an account on an adult hookup website.

The Associated Press published a report Thursday claiming that an Adult Friend Finder (AFF) account was created in 2008 using an email linked to Trump-backed candidate Moreno, who is running in a heated primary contest for a critical Senate seat in Ohio.

The AP could not confirm that the account was created by Moreno himself, but only that his email address was used to make the account. Former intern Dan Ricci then came forward saying he was the one who created the account as part of a “prank,” which he said in a letter that he is “thoroughly embarrassed” by.

“It’s a sick, last-minute attack by desperate people. This is what they do. Look at what they did to Judge (Brett) Kavanaugh, look at what they did to President Trump,” Moreno told Politico in a statement blasting the report.

TRUMP HEADING TO OHIO WITH HIS GOP CLOUT ON THE LINE IN CONTENTIOUS REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY

Charles Harder, legal counsel for Bernie Moreno, also shot down the claims and detailed the prank that he says Moreno “had nothing to do with.”

“16 years ago an intern at Moreno Auto created an account at AFF as a prank, which he quickly abandoned that same day. We have provided AP a copy of a signed letter from that intern, admitting to this, as well as another signed letter from a former VP of Mr. Moreno’s company, confirming this intern’s employment at the time the account in question was created,” Harder said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “The email address in question was not Bernie’s personal email address, but rather an email address that appeared on company websites and literature and was managed by staff. Multiple people had access to it, including this intern. Bernie Moreno had nothing to do with the AFF account.”

SCHUMER-AFFILIATED PAC JUMPS INTO CRUCIAL GOP SENATE PRIMARY TO BOOST TRUMP’S ENDORSED CANDIDATE

“According to metadata, the AFF account was never even used — there were no communications or contacts sent to or from any other AFF accounts, and no photos or content were uploaded to it,” Harder added. “The AFF account existed for less than a half-day, 16 years ago.”

A senior Republican strategist, who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation, said the “story seems to be shifting.”

“Bernie’s story seems to be shifting. For weeks, his campaign told everyone that the metadata of the website would prove his innocence, but then the AP blew up that claim,” they told Fox. “Now, Bernie is saying an intern went to where Bernie’s parents lived in Florida and created a gay dating profile for him as a prank. It just doesn’t pass the smell test.” 

Moreno’s Republican primary opponents did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Ohio Senate race is one of the GOP’s best pickup opportunities in 2024 and is labeled a “toss up,” according to Cook Political Report.

Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

What’s happening? 

– Fulton County Fani Willis’ former lover and Nathan Wade pulls out of Trump case

– Haitian migrant arrested on serious charges

– Pro-Palestinian groups rebuff White House’s attempts to chat

No Wade

The judge in the Georgia election interference case has allowed District Attorney Fani Willis to continue leading the prosecution against former President Trump, but strongly admonished her behavior. 

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee slammed Willis’ speech to a church about the matter because it used racially charged rhetoric, was “playing the race card” and overall seemed “legally improper.” 

Though McAffee declined to disqualify Willis from the case due to her affair with special counsel Nathan Wade and other improprieties, he ruled that Wade would have to be removed from the case — or Willis would need to step back herself. 

Later Friday afternoon, Willis withdrew himself. In his resignation letter, he said he would step down “in the interest of democracy,” and so that the case could move forward “as quickly as possible.”

Willis praised Wade in a written reply, and said she “will always remember” his courage, patriotism and “dedication to justice.” 

Willis staying on the case wasn’t the ruling Trump wanted. But Trump said on social media that Wade’s resignation was “BIG STUFF.”

‘PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT’: Trump attorney reacts to Fulton County judge’s Fani Willis decision …Read more

‘DISQUALIFIED’: Lawyer who exposed Willis-Wade relationship reacts to court ruling …Read more

TESTIMONY TOSSED: Georgia judge tosses key witness’ testimony against Fani Willis, citing ‘inconsistencies’: court order …Read more

White House

‘NO POINT’: Chicago Pro-Palestinian groups reject White House requests to meet before primary in strongly-worded letter …Read more

SINKING SLOWLY: Harris approval rating worse than Biden, Trump …Read more

STRONG WORDS: House Speaker Johnson says White House doesn’t ‘call the shots’ on when impeachment is over …Read more

Capitol Hill

HIGH ENERGY: House GOP leaders target Biden energy policies in legislation blitz next week …Read more

‘CONTROL OUR LIVES’: Republicans unveil effort to reverse Biden climate rules targeting manufacturing …Read more

JOB-KILLER: Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy slams Bernie Sanders’ 32-hour workweek proposal as job-killer …Read more

Tales from the Campaign Trail

ROUGH SEAS AHEAD: Cori Bush is shaping up to be the most vulnerable ‘Squad’ member this election cycle …Read more

‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’: Republicans hammer Judge McAfee’s ruling in Fani Willis case, calling it ‘election interference’ …Read more

CRASHING THE PARTY: Centrist group No Labels sets up panel to select third-party presidential ticket …Read more

Across America

BEHIND BARS: Columbian drug lord arrested in Texas …Read more

BREAKING NEWS: Haitian migrant charged with rape of 15-year-old girl entered via controversial parole program: sources …Read more

THROUGH THE ROOF: Little-known international NGO finalizing building code forcing US homes to be green …Read more

ALARMING FINDS: DeSantis details alarming find aboard Haitian migrant boat seized off Florida coast …Read more

Subscribe now to get Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade has withdrawn from the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants. 

Wade is out following an order by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee that said either he must go or District Attorney Fani Willis be disqualified from prosecuting Trump. Four co-defendants had accused Willis of having an “improper” affair with Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute the case. 

Wade offered his resignation in a letter to Willis, saying he was doing so “in the interest of democracy.”

“I am offering my resignation in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public, and to move this case forward as quickly as possible,” Wade wrote in his resignation letter to Willis. 

He added that he was proud of the work prosecutors had done in relation to the case. 

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE

In her letter to Wade in which she accepted his resignation, Willis complimented him on his “professionalism and dignity” as he had “endured threats against you and your family, as well as unjustified attacks in the media and in court on your reputation as a lawyer.”

“I will always remember – and will remind everyone – that you were brave enough to step forward and take on the investigation and prosecution of the allegations that the defendants in this case engaged in a conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election,” Willis wrote. “You were the one who had the courage to accept the role, even though you did not seek it.”

“You are an outstanding advocate,” she added. 

The defendants alleged that Willis benefited financially by hiring Wade in 2021 because they were in a pre-existing romantic relationship and went on several trips together. Michael Roman, a Republican operative who worked on Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, claimed Wade’s law firm billed taxpayers $650,000 at a rate of $250 an hour since his hiring — and that he used that income to pay for vacations with Willis.

Both Wade and Willis had denied they were in a romantic relationship prior to his hiring. During a two-day evidentiary hearing in February, they each testified that they split the cost of their shared trips. Willis told the court she reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips in cash.

Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, sought to unearth a money trail that would prove Willis had a conflict of interest in hiring Wade and should be disqualified. She called witnesses who testified that the couple were romantically entangled at the time Wade was hired.

Robin Yeartie, a former “good friend” of Willis and past employee at the DA’s office, said she had “no doubt” that Wade and Willis started a relationship in 2019, after the two met at a conference.

KEY WITNESS IN FANI WILLIS CASE TESTIFIES HE MAY HAVE LIED IN TEXTS ABOUT FRIENDS’ AFFAIR

Yeartie testified to observing Willis and Wade “hugging” and “kissing” and showing “affection” prior to November 2021, and that she had no doubt that the two were in a “romantic” relationship starting in 2019, to when she and Willis last spoke in 2022. 

In a surprise move, Willis took the stand in her own defense and contradicted Yeartie’s testimony. At least one expert described Willis’ testimony as “belligerent.” 

She verbally sparred with lawyers for hours, at one point, prompting the judge to threaten to strike her testimony. She also raised eyebrows for appearing to be wearing her dress backwards.

The star witness for the defense, Terrence Bradley, was a former law firm partner and divorce attorney for Wade. Bradley was called to the stand after McAfee determined he could not claim attorney-client privilege to avoid testifying. 

Bradley, when pressed under oath, said he couldn’t recall several details and timelines about conversations he had with former client Wade about Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis.

SPECIAL ATTORNEY HIRED BY FANI WILLIS TO HELP PROSECUTE TRUMP DONATED BIG BUCKS TO HER CAMPAIGN

Merchant at one point referenced text messages between her and Bradley in which she had asked Bradley if he thought the relationship started before Willis hired Wade in 2021. Bradley responded “absolutely” in the text exchange.

But after the hearing concluded, McAfee said the defendants “failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor.”

“However, the established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team — an appearance that must be removed through the State’s selection of one of two options,” he wrote in an order released on March 15.

McAfee is presiding over the prosecution of Trump and more than a dozen other defendants charged in an alleged illegal attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. 

Willis’ sprawling indictment charges Trump and more than a dozen other defendants with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. The case uses a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power after he narrowly lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024, has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

On March 13, McAfee issued a ruling that quashed six counts in the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his 18 co-defendants. McAfee said that the state failed to allege sufficient detail for “solicitation of violation of oath by public officer.” 

In his letter, Wade said he was sure the case against Trump “will be in good hands moving forward and justice will be served.”

Fox News Digital’s Brianna Herilhy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A Georgia judge on Friday ruled that embattled District Attorney Fani Willis needs to remove her ex-lover and special prosecutor from the case, or step aside herself, scolding her for “making poor choices” and having “tremendous lapse in judgment.”

In the 23-page order, Judge Scott McAfee said that lawyers for former President Trump and several co-defendants charged in the sweeping 2020 election interference case “failed to meet their burden of proving” an “actual conflict of interest in this case.” 

But McAfee said that the established record of evidence “highlights the appearance of impropriety” that infects the prosecution team unless Wade is removed, or Willis herself steps aside. 

Here are five key takeaways from the court order: 

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE

1. Judge McAfee calls Willis’ behavior in court testimony ‘unprofessional’

McAfee denied the co-defendants’ motion to have Willis disqualified from the case, saying they lacked sufficient evidence that Willis “acquired a personal stake in the prosecution, or that her financial arrangements had any impact on the case.”

However, he added that his finding “is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing.”

“Rather, it is the undersigned’s opinion that Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly – and it is the trial court’s duty to confine itself to the relevant issues and applicable law properly brought before it,” he said. 

Last month, Willis made a surprise court appearance during the two-day evidentiary hearing and, while on the witness stand, verbally sparred with lawyers for hours — at one point, prompting the judge to threaten to strike her testimony. She also raised eyebrows for appearing to be wearing her dress backwards.

2. Judge points to Georgia legislature, state bar and ethics board for ‘unanswered questions’ about Willis’ affair

The judge wrote in his order, “Other forums or sources of authority such as the General Assembly, the Georgia State Ethics Commission, the State Bar of Georgia, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, or the voters of Fulton County may offer feedback on any unanswered questions that linger.”

“But those are not the issues determinative to the Defendants’ motions alleging an actual conflict,” he said.

A Georgia state senate special committee formed in January to investigate Willis has already held one hearing, in which attorney Ashleigh Merchant – who led the allegations in court against Willis – testified that Wade’s cellphone data indicated that he had made midnight trips to Willis’ condo before he was hired. 

The Georgia House of Representatives also passed a bill earlier this year that would revive the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Qualifications Commission, which could be used as a way to oust Willis. 

A Fulton County ethics board that was scheduled to hear complaints filed against Willis earlier this month backtracked after finding that it lacked jurisdiction. But complaints against both Willis and Wade are still pending before the Georgia state bar. 

3. McAfee scolds Fani Willis’ public statements, including ‘improper’ church speech and ‘playing the race card’

Defendants had argued that Willis’ several public statements on the case were prejudicial. McAfee said that some of those comments, including Willis’ “unorthodox decision to make on-the-record comments, and authorize members of her staff to do likewise, to authors intent on publishing a book about the special grand jury’s investigation during the pendency of this case,” didn’t warrant her disqualification. 

But McAfee said that Willis’ racially charged rhetoric about “playing the race card” during a speech at a church service was “legally improper.”

“Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into. The time may well have arrived for an order preventing the State from mentioning the case in any public forum to prevent prejudicial pretrial publicity,” he said. 

4. Nathan Wade’s ‘willingness’ to ‘conceal’ his relationship with Willis

Judge McAfee said that Wade’s “patently unpersuasive explanation” about inaccurate statements he submitted to the court about his divorce “indicates a willingness on his part to wrongly conceal his relationship with the District Attorney.”

JUDGE DISMISSES SOME COUNTS AGAINST TRUMP IN FANI WILLIS ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE

5. Key witness testimony that Willis and Wade’s affair began prior to his hiring is tossed

McAfee said he was “unable to place any stock” in the testimony of Terrance Bradley, the former law partner and Wade’s divorce attorney who was considered a key witness of the defense team trying to prove Wade had been romantically involved with Willis prior to his hiring. 

Bradley, when pressed under oath, said he could not recall several details and timelines about conversations he had with former client Wade about Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis.

At one point, he was questioned about a text message exchange in which he said Willis’ relationship with Wade had “absolutely” started before he was hired in the DA’s office in 2021. But later in court he claimed he was “speculating” in those comments.

In his order on Friday, McAfee said Bradley’s “inconsistencies, demeanor, and generally non-responsive answers left far too brittle a foundation upon which to build any conclusions.”

FANI WILLIS WHO ‘RELISHED IN’ DONALD TRUMP PROSECUTION SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM CASE FOR ILLICIT AFFAIR: EXPERTS

“While prior inconsistent statements can be considered as substantive evidence under Georgia law, Bradley’s impeachment by text message did not establish the basis for which he claimed such sweeping knowledge of Wade’s personal affairs,” McAfee said.

Robin Yeartie, a former “good friend” of Willis and past employee at the DA’s office, testified in court that she had “no doubt” Willis and Wade’s relationship started in 2019, after the two met at a conference. 

She testified to observing Willis and Wade “hugging” and “kissing” and showing “affection” prior to November 2021 and that she had no doubt that the two were in a “romantic” relationship starting in 2019 and lasting until she and Willis last spoke in 2022.

Judge McAfee in his order Friday said that “while the testimony of Robin Yearti raised doubts about the State’s assertions, it ultimately lacked context and detail.” 

“[N]either side was able to conclusively establish by a preponderance of the evidence when the relationship evolved into a romantic one,” he added. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Still, the judge said that “an odor of mendacity remains,” and added that “reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA [special assistant district attorney] testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it.”

It has not been announced whether Willis will choose to remove Wade from the case or step aside. 

Federal courts moved Tuesday to make it harder to file lawsuits in front of judges seen as friendly to a point of view, a practice known as judge shopping that gained national attention in a major abortion medication case.

The new policy covers civil suits that would affect an entire state or the whole country. It would require a judge to be randomly assigned, even in areas where locally filed cases have gone before a single judge.

Cases are already assigned at random under plans in most of the country’s 94 federal district courts, but some plans assign cases to judges in the smaller division where the case is filed. In divisions with only one judge, often in rural areas, that means private or state attorneys can essentially pick which judge will hear it.

SENATE DEMS, REPUBLICANS CLASH OVER FEDERAL IVF PROTECTIONS: ‘THEY’RE COVERING THEIR A—S’

The practice has raised concerns from senators and the Biden administration, and its use in patent cases was highlighted by Chief Justice John Roberts in his 2021 report on the federal judiciary.

Interest groups of all kinds have long attempted to file lawsuits before judges they see as friendly to their causes. But the practice got more attention after an unprecedented ruling halting approval of abortion medication. That case was filed in Amarillo, Texas, where it was all but certain to go before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who is a former attorney for a religious liberty legal group with a long history pushing conservative causes.

The Supreme Court put the abortion medication ruling on hold, and is hearing arguments on it later this month.

SOTU GUEST CONCEIVED IN RAPE CHALLENGES BIDEN ON ABORTION: ‘I AM THAT ONE PERCENT’

The new policy announced by the U.S. Judicial Conference after its biennial meeting would not apply to cases seeking only local action. It was adopted not in response to any one case but rather a “plethora of national and statewide injunctions,” said Judge Jeff Sutton, chief judge of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and chair of the Judicial Conference’s executive committee.

“We get the idea of having local cases resolved locally, but when a case is a declaratory judgment action or national injunction, obviously the stakes of the case go beyond that small town,” he said.

In a presidential race boasting two historically unpopular candidates, President Biden’s running mate is somehow doing worse than both of them.

Vice President Kamala Harris has not been able to win the approval of voters as the general election season ramps up, according to a new poll from USA TODAY and Suffolk University.

The data from the national survey shows that approximately 52% of registered voters disapprove of her performance as vice president. 

NEW POLL REVEALS AMERICANS TRUST DONALD TRUMP OVER BIDEN TO LEAD THE US AS PRESIDENT

This compares to only 36% of respondents that believe she is handling the office well. Significantly, 10% of respondents remain undecided about their feelings toward her performance.

Her failure to build a strong base of voter approval mirrors her running mate — Biden, in the same poll, boasted a similarly disappointing 41% approval rating.

Approximately 55% of respondents told USA TODAY/Suffolk pollsters that they disapprove of the president’s job performance. Just under 3% remained undecided.

FOX NEWS POLL: PENNSYLVANIA LOOKS HEADED FOR ANOTHER TIGHT RACE IN 2024

“Usually, it’s a secondary and muted discussion about vice presidents. This time, it’s going to be almost a parallel and loud discussion in comparison,” Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos said in USA TODAY’s report.

Trump received a 49% approval rating and a 47% disapproval rating — the only one of the three individuals to squeak by with a net approval.

Similar to Biden, only 3% of individuals polled remain undecided on their evaluation of Trump as president.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The USA TODAY/Suffolk poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters from Mar. 8 to Mar. 11. It has a +/-3.1% margin of error.

Both Biden and Trump have secured enough delegates in their respective party primaries to become assumed nominees.

Trump is expected to be officially nominated by the Republican Party in July, and Biden is similarly expected to become the Democratic nominee in August.

A Georgia judge on Friday said that District Attorney Fani Willis can continue prosecuting the case against former President Trump if she removes her ex-lover from her legal team, after deciding he could put no “stock” in a key witness’ testimony.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued an order Friday that Willis must either withdraw herself and her team from the sweeping 2020 election interference case against former President Trump or remove special prosecutor Nathan Wade – with whom she was accused of having an “improper” affair. 

McAfee said that he was “unable to place any stock” in the testimony of Terrance Bradley, the former law partner and divorce attorney for Wade and considered a key witness of the defense team trying to prove Wade was romantically involved with Willis prior to his hiring. 

Attorney Ashleigh Merchant, lawyer for co-defendant Michael Roman, who first submitted the allegations against Willis and Wade, had grilled Bradley on the witness stand last month about what he knew and when he knew about their romance.

KEY WITNESS IN FANI WILLIS CASE TESTIFIES HE MAY HAVE LIED IN TEXTS ABOUT FRIENDS’ AFFAIR

Both Willis and Wade insisted that their relationship started in 2022, after Wade was hired. However, that claim conflicted with some witness testimony during the two-day evidentiary hearing last month. 

Bradley, when pressed under oath, said he could not recall several details and timelines about conversations he had with former client Wade about Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis.

Merchant at one point referenced text messages between her and Bradley in which she had asked Bradley if he thought the relationship started before Willis hired Wade in 2021. Bradley responded “absolutely” in the text exchange.

NATHAN WADE’S PHONE DATA SHOWS HE MADE MIDNIGHT TRIPS TO FANI WILLIS’ CONDO BEFORE HE WAS HIRED: ATTORNEY

In his order on Friday, McAfee said Bradley’s “inconsistencies, demeanor, and generally non-responsive answers left far too brittle a foundation upon which to build any conclusions.”

“While prior inconsistent statements can be considered as substantive evidence under Georgia law, Bradley’s impeachment by text message did not establish the basis for which he claimed such sweeping knowledge of Wade’s personal affairs,” McAfee said.

Robin Yeartie, a former “good friend” of Willis and past employee at the DA’s office, testified in court that she had “no doubt” Willis and Wade’s relationship started in 2019, after the two met at a conference. 

FANI WILLIS WHO ‘RELISHED IN’ DONALD TRUMP PROSECUTION SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM CASE FOR ILLICIT AFFAIR: EXPERTS

She testified to observing Willis and Wade “hugging” and “kissing” and showing “affection” prior to November 2021 and that she had no doubt that the two were in a “romantic” relationship starting in 2019 and lasting until she and Willis last spoke in 2022.

Willis dismissed Yeartie’s testimony and said she no longer considers Yeartie a friend.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Judge McAfee in his order Friday said that “while the testimony of Robin Yearti raised doubts about the State’s assertions, it ultimately lacked context and detail.” 

“[N]either side was able to conclusively establish by a preponderance of the evidence when the relationship evolved into a romantic one,” he added. 

Still, the judge said that “an odor of mendacity remains,” and added that “reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA [special assistant district attorney] testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it.”

The judge in former President Trump’s Georgia election interference case has allowed District Attorney Fani Willis to continue leading the prosecution, but he said her racially charged rhetoric about “playing the race card” was “legally improper.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a ruling that quashed a motion from one of the case’s 19 defendants seeking to remove Wilis from the case due to her alleged improper affair with special counsel Nathan Wade.

McAfee ruled that an insufficient amount of evidence was provided to justify the removal of Willis outright, but he ordered Wade must be fired for the district attorney to continue without the “appearance of impropriety” — otherwise Willis must step down.

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE

In his order, McAfee separately took issue with a speech made by Willis at an Atlanta church in January of this year, when she claimed she and Wade were being scrutinized because of their race. 

While Willis later claimed not to be referring to the defendants in her accusations of racism, McAfee warned that such a distinction was not clear.

“In these public and televised comments, the District Attorney complained that a Fulton County Commissioner ‘and so many others’ questioned her decision to hire SADA Wade. When referring to her detractors throughout the speech, she frequently utilized the plural ‘they.’ The State argues the speech was not aimed at any of the Defendants in this case. Maybe so. But maybe not. Therein lies the danger of public comment by a prosecuting attorney,” McAfee wrote.

KEY WITNESS IN FANI WILLIS CASE TESTIFIES HE MAY HAVE LIED IN TEXTS ABOUT FRIENDS’ AFFAIR

The judge found that Willis’s reference to “so many others” in her speech at the church left ambiguous who she was accusing of racial motivations — coming dangerously close to compromising the case.

He went on to complain about the district attorney’s own continued references to the race of individuals involved in the case.

“More at issue, instead of attributing the criticism to a criminal accused’s general aversion to being convicted and facing a prison sentence, the District Attorney ascribed the effort as motivated by ‘playing the race card,'” McAfee wrote. “She went on to frequently refer to SADA Wade as the ‘black man’ while her other unchallenged SADAs were labeled ‘one white woman’ and ‘one white man.’ The effect of this speech was to cast racial aspersions at an indicted Defendant’s decision to file this pretrial motion.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Despite finding Willis’s speech “legally improper,” McAfee ruled that the questionable statements regarding race did not deny the defendants “opportunity for a fundamentally fair trial.”

“The Court cannot find that this speech crossed the line to the point where the Defendants have been denied the opportunity for a fundamentally fair trial, or that it requires the District Attorney’s disqualification,” McAfee wrote. “But it was still legally improper. Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into.”

It has not yet been announced whether Willis will fire Wade or step down from the trial.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will back his fellow Republicans’ presidential ticket in November. That does not mean he will cheerlead for former President Donald Trump or even endorse him by name.

“I’m going to support the nominee,” Kemp told reporters this week after Trump won his state’s primary on his way to clinching the GOP nomination.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, once a favorite potential presidential candidate for anti-Trump Republicans, officially endorsed the former president last week. But he did so only after Trump won the Virginia primary on Super Tuesday. And Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, one of the nation’s highest-ranking Black Republicans, still won’t endorse him.

MORNING GLORY: TRUMP’S BIG CHANCE TO PUT THIS ELECTION AWAY NOW

“Everybody has to make their own decision,” she told reporters after Trump’s victory. She then cited an Old Testament verse, Hosea 8:4, that reads in part, “They have set up kings, but not by me.”

While Trump coasted to his third consecutive Republican nomination, his domination of the party isn’t seamless. Some high-profile members of his party, particularly in swing states full of voters skeptical of Trump, are trying to keep their distance while preserving their own futures.

For figures like Kemp and Youngkin who could make their own presidential bids in four years, that means careful positioning intended to satisfy enough Trump backers without alienating voters repelled by the former president. For Trump, it means a rockier road to winning coalitions in battleground states he lost to Biden in 2020 and Kemp and Youngkin won since, proceeding to enact policies popular with the right.

“He’s the King Kong of Republican politics,” Whit Ayres, who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign in 2016, said in an interview leading up to Trump officially securing the nomination. But, Ayres said, that’s not the same thing as unifying the party and expanding the coalition in a general election.

A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to an Associated Press inquiry about how the former president plans to build party unity or seek more endorsements ahead of November.

Trump heads into a rematch with President Joe Biden facing a contingent of Republican dissenters, many of whom backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley before she dropped out after Super Tuesday. Haley ran above her statewide margins throughout the primary in areas with lots of suburban voters and college graduates, highlighting Trump’s enduring weaknesses with those groups.

Haley won 35% of Virginia’s primary vote. And nearly 78,000 people in Georgia — about 13% of the total vote — chose her in Tuesday’s primary, though early voting was open before she dropped out.

Haley declined to endorse Trump as she suspended her campaign and instead urged him to try “bringing people into your cause, not turning them away.”

Trump “has to earn the votes of people who have moved away from the party,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a national GOP fundraiser who backed Haley over Trump.

Tanenblatt said he sees “no evidence” so far that Trump or his team are reaching out aggressively to court skeptical Republicans, and he argued that successful Republican elected officials are well-positioned to let 2024 play out on their own terms.

In 2021, a year after Biden won Virginia by double digits, Youngkin maintained Trump’s advantage across rural areas and small towns but flipped enough Biden voters in more urban and suburban areas. In Georgia, Trump underperformed in the Atlanta suburbs, helping Biden win statewide by less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. Two years later, Kemp romped to a 7.5-point reelection victory, outperforming Trump’s marks across the state.

Kemp, for his part, seems to have settled on how to navigate his party’s divided politics: hammer Biden, focus on Georgia and talk about the future.

“It doesn’t really matter who our nominee is or would have been — my goal is to make sure we’re keeping our legislative majorities,” Kemp said this week, making clear that his top electoral priority is his own state.

Like Trump, Kemp has been especially animated about immigration, especially since Laken Riley, a nursing student, was killed in Athens, Georgia, prompting authorities to charge a man they say came into the U.S. illegally from Venezuela.

“The president had control of the House and the Senate from 2020 to 2022 and did nothing about the border, and we were complaining just as much then as we are now,” Kemp said this week, chiding Biden for using his State of the Union to remind voters that Senate Republicans stymied a border security deal.

But Kemp remains dismissive of Trump’s continued lies that his loss was somehow rigged, saying often that Republicans “don’t need to be looking in the rearview mirror” or “complaining about the 2020 election.” He typically skips naming Trump when offering that advice, too.

The governor and the former president have had an uneasy relationship since Kemp rejected Trump’s pressure to help overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia — a campaign for which the former president now faces a racketeering indictment in Fulton County.

“We got to give people a reason to vote for us, not just be against the other candidate,” Kemp said. Of course, when asked explicitly why he would support Trump after how aggressively the former president skewered him after 2020, Kemp pivoted to the opposition. “Well, I think he’d be better than Joe Biden,” Kemp said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Youngkin was a bit more complimentary. In his endorsement, Youngkin praised Trump’s record on taxes, immigration and the economy and said “it’s time to unite around strong leadership and policies that grow our great nation, not four more years of President Biden.”

Still, that argument came in a written statement issued by Youngkin’s political action committee and circulated on social media, not in a live event with voters or where the governor could take questions.

Whether or not Trump wins in November, Republicans who distance themselves from him now may have to placate Trump’s most ardent fans in a future presidential primary.

Rose McDonald, an 87-year-old who voted Tuesday for Trump in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, insisted “there were things that happened that we know weren’t right with all those mail votes.” Federal and state investigations have found no evidence of tampering with mail-in ballots that could have swung the election.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“I’m mostly satisfied with Kemp,” she said. “Mostly – I still think he was a chicken in 2020 for not letting Trump challenge the election.”

Kemp believes his political organization, even if it stays focused exclusively on legislative races, will prove his value and loyalty to the party.

“My belief is if we do that well as Republicans and tell people what we’re for and stay focused on the future, we’ll have a great night,” Kemp said, “and that’ll be all the way up and down the ticket.”

A decision on the future of former President Trump’s Georgia election interference case is imminent.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is tasked with deciding whether to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case against Trump and 18 other defendants charged with attempting to interfere in the 2020 election.

McAfee told local reporters on Thursday that his decision is forthcoming.

AS RULING ON DA FANI WILLIS LOOMS IN GA TRUMP CASE, DEFENSE SOURCES SAY ‘THE COURT IS BEING PLAYED’

“I made a promise to everybody. These kind of orders take time to write. I need to say exactly what I want to, and I plan to stick to the timeline I gave everyone,” McAfee told reporter Mark Winne with local outlet WSB-TV 2 Atlanta.

“So this week?” the reporter asked McAfee.

“Should be out tomorrow,” McAfee replied, according to WSB-TV 2 Atlanta.

McAfee is presiding over allegations brought by a handful of co-defendants that Willis hired special counsel Nathan Wade when they were secretly romantic lovers and financially benefited from his hiring.

FULTON COUNTY ETHICS BOARD WON’T HEAR COMPLAINTS AGAINST FANI WILLIS

The bombshell allegations led to a blockbuster evidentiary hearing last month, when Willis and Wade denied the allegations they were in a relationship when he was hired and that Willis never benefited from Wade’s position because she would reimburse him with cash for all the vacations they took together.

“The message I want to convey is no ruling of mine is ever going to be based on politics. I’m going to be following the law the best I understand it,” McAfee told the outlet about his forthcoming decision.

Following the Willis decision, McAfee will return his focus to the Georgia election interference accusations against the former president.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

McAfee already stated in an order Wednesday that the state failed to allege sufficient detail for six counts of “solicitation of violation of oath by public officer.” 

“The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned opinion, fatal,” McAfee wrote. 

“As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” the judge continued. 

Fox News Digital’s Claudia Kelly-Bazan contributed to this report.

No Labels is taking another step toward forming a bipartisan presidential ticket in November’s general election.

The centrist group announced the formation of a committee to vet candidates for the potential bipartisan ticket.

“Today, No Labels is taking the next step toward providing it by announcing our process to choose the candidates for a unity ticket,” former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a No Labels founding co-chair, said in a statement Thursday.

Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee who ran for the party’s 2004 presidential nomination before becoming an independent a couple of years later, will be part of a panel called the Country Over Party Committee, which will vet potential contenders.

HOW NO LABELS IS MOVING TOWARDS LAUNCHING A THIRD-PARTY PRESIDENTIAL TICKET

No Labels national co-chair Ben Chavis, a civil rights activist and former NAACP executive director and CEO, will also serve on the 12-member panel.

“The committee will consider input from the No Labels community and serve as representatives in meeting with potential candidates,” former Dallas Mayor and No Labels national convention chair Mike Rawlings said in a video released by the group.

NO LABELS CHARGES OPPONENTS ARE TRYING TO KEEP IT OFF THE BALLOT

Rawlings said that to be considered for the national ticket, candidates must adhere to the group’s six core beliefs, including “that we care about this country more than demands of any political party.”

And Rawlings added that contenders must also endorse “the No Labels commonsense policy booklet, which includes 30 ideas to address our nation’s most important challenges, ranging from immigration and border security to the budget, inflation, and growing threats from abroad.”

Lieberman explained that “If we find two candidates that meet our high threshold, we will recommend that ticket to No Labels’ delegates for a nomination vote at a national nominating convention that will be held later this spring.”

While the group didn’t set any timetable, Lieberman said Thursday in a CNN interview that a candidate could be announced as early as next Thursday.

The announcement comes nearly a week after roughly 800 No Labels delegates who took part in a virtual meeting voted to give a thumbs up to fielding a presidential ticket.

For over a year, No Labels has mulled a third-party ticket, as it pointed to poll after poll suggesting that many Americans were anything but enthused about a 2024 election rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

And No Labels had long said that it would decide whether to launch a presidential ticket following Super Tuesday, when 16 states from coast to coast held nominating primaries and caucuses.

The latest move by No Labels comes two days after Biden and Trump clinched the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, becoming the two major parties’ 2024 presumptive nominees.

The moves by No Labels also come after former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a former leader of the group who was considered a potential contender for the “unity” ticket, recently took his name out of contention as he announced a run this year for an open Senate seat in his home state.

REMATCH: TRUMP, BIDEN, CLINCH GOP AND DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS

And moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, another former No Labels leader who is not seeking re-election this year and who flirted with a White House run, has also said he won’t launch a presidential bid.

There was also plenty of speculation that former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was the final 2024 GOP presidential nomination rival to Trump before she ended her White House run last week, would consider running on a No Labels ticket. No Labels had expressed interest in her earlier this year.

But Haley repeatedly nixed joining a No Labels ticket, most recently last week in an interview on “FOX and Friends.”

The No Labels spotlight now appears to be shining on former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan of Georgia, a former health care executive and minor league baseball player who served three terms in the Georgia House of Representatives before winning election as lieutenant governor in 2018.

People familiar with the discussions confirmed to Fox News that No Labels “is talking to him,” adding that conversations are “moving fast” and “nothing’s set.”

A source in Duncan’s political orbit said he hasn’t ruled anything out when it comes to a potential third-party presidential run this year. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Duncan grabbed national attention in the weeks after the 2020 election for speaking out against then-President Trump’s unfounded claims of “massive voter fraud” in Georgia, which was one of a half-dozen states where Biden narrowly edged Trump to win the White House.

Duncan, along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, resisted Trump’s requests to overturn the election results in the Peach State.

Duncan decided months later against seeking re-election in 2022 and instead launched “GOP 2.0,” an effort to try and move the Republican Party past Trump.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

No Labels said last week that it is already on the ballot in 16 states and currently working in 17 other states to obtain access. 

There’s been a chorus of calls from Democrats warning that a No Labels ticket would pave a path to victory for Trump in November, but the group dismisses that criticism.

“That’s not our goal here,” Lieberman told Fox News Digital late last year. “We’re not about electing either President Trump or President Biden.”

Thursday’s announcement came a day after the resignation of No Labels co-chair Pat McCrory, a Republican and former North Carolina governor.

McCrory, who hasn’t detailed his departure from the group, said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal that “I wish them [No Labels] the best.”

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