Donald Trump Poll News

DEARBORN, Mich. — Former President Trump is gaining momentum among voters in the city who are dissatisfied with how the Biden administration has handled the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

“This is not something that we can look at and say, well, what’s the worst of the two or the lesser of two evils? There is no greater evil than a genocide,” Samraa Luqman, who worked as the Abandon Biden co-chair in Michigan, told Fox News Digital. “And Biden has proven that he has the capability to do the greater of the evils.”

The comments come as the Detroit suburb has become the center of a growing movement to resist the re-election of President Biden, with the city’s large Arab American and Muslim population expressing deep dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy under the president’s leadership.

That dissatisfaction caused both the “Listen to Michigan” and “Abandon Biden” movements to gain steam in Dearborn ahead of the state’s Democrat primary in February, with both campaigns encouraging voters to show a lack of support for the president at the polls.

DEARBORN ‘UNCOMMITTEDS’ PLAN TO MAKE ‘EXAMPLE’ OF BIDEN, TURN PARTY AGAINST JEWISH STATE

One way voters showed their lack of support was by marking “uncommitted” on their ballots instead of voting for Biden, with more than 100,000 such voters making the selection in the Democrat primary. But Luqman noted that another 30,000 crossed over to the Republican primary and cast a vote for “uncommitted” as well, a message that these typically dependable Democrat voters were willing to vote for the GOP to get rid of Biden.

According to Luqman, the Abandon Biden movement is focused on beating Biden in the general election by any means necessary, including voting for Trump. Despite the significant differences she has with the former president, such a vote is one Luqman herself is seriously considering.

“I ran as a Democrat for an elected position two years ago. In 2020, I voted by writing in Bernie Sanders’ name to show you how far left of the spectrum I was,” Luqman said. “And for me to sit here today and tell you I’m OK with a Trump presidency; I’m OK with even the thought of going in and voting for Trump in order to oust Biden, which really shows you the level of dismay, disgust and upset that we have towards Biden.”

Luqman is not alone in the growing movement, which also includes area activist Mike Hachem, who has been working to help a movement of Abandon Biden voters toward casting their ballot for Trump.

“Joe Biden has shot the minority vote in the back … especially Arab Americans,” Hanchem told Fox News Digital. “He promised us so many things. … He promised us peace. He promised us a stronger Middle East. He promised better diplomacy.”

Hanchem also said that many within his community share values more aligned with the Republican Party, noting that many Arab Americans are socially conservative, while a large percentage of the community are business owners.

Combined with the conflict in Gaza, Hachem said many within the community are starting to trend toward support of Trump.

DEARBORN ACTIVISTS’ PUSH TO BAIL ON BIDEN SPREADS TO OTHER KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES

Most of the pushback against Biden in Dearborn has centered around the president’s support of Israel during its offensive in Gaza, with many area voters arguing the continued siege constitutes a genocide.

The anger over the war has also led to controversial rhetoric being heard from Dearborn activists, including a rally on the last Friday of Ramadan that featured one activist leading rallygoers in chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

In the aftermath of the rally, the Biden campaign denounced the rhetoric and told Fox News Digital that it did not want the votes of those doing the chants. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign would not say whether it would welcome support from those who made the chants.

Luqman said that those making the chants did not represent that overall community in Dearborn, but she also said Biden would not be able to earn many votes from local residents even if he did welcome all support.

“He could pull a Jesus and resurrect all the lives that were lost. And then I’d consider voting for him again. But aside from that, there really isn’t much he could do otherwise,” Luqman said of Biden.

‘DEATH TO AMERICA,’ ‘DEATH TO ISRAEL’ CHANTS POUR OUT OF MUSLIM PROTESTERS IN MICHIGAN ON LAST DAY OF RAMADAN

That disdain is shared by many Dearborn-area activists and religious leaders, who say the president has permanently lost their support.

“For many people, this is already out the window,” Islamic House of Wisdom Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi told Fox News Digital of the idea that local voters could go back to supporting Biden. 

Elahi expressed some openness to supporting Trump as well, though he said he would like to see how the situation develops in Gaza between now and November before making a final decision.

Another religious leader in the Dearborn area, Islamic Center of Detroit Executive Director Sufian Nabhan, told Fox News Digital that he felt “betrayed” by Biden and could not support his re-election in November. Instead, he argued that the Democratic Party should put forward a different nominee with different policies toward support for Israel.

BIDEN CAMPAIGN: WE DON’T WANT THE VOTES OF ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ PROTESTERS IN MICHIGAN

While it is possible some in the Dearborn community would switch their support to Trump, it is unlikely such voters would be the majority, Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told Fox News Digital. As for Biden, it would be hard for the president to regain the community’s support, he added.

“I don’t see our community voting, frankly, for Biden,” Ayoub said, arguing that voters will no longer allow Democrats to run on a campaign of not being Trump.

“The threat of a second Trump term is not something that can be used on voters anymore, particularly in our community,” Ayoub said.

Ronald Stockton, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, told Fox News Digital that Biden will have difficulties earning back the votes of members of the Dearborn community, arguing that even agreement on other policy matters will not be able to overcome their dissatisfaction with the president’s handling of Gaza.

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“It’s not going to be enough,” Stockton said. “I’m not sure what Biden can do. He’s thinking, ‘I can mobilize people on the basis of every other issue.’ I don’t think that will be enough.”

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wouldn’t commit Tuesday to holding hearings on college antisemitism as tensions escalate across the country with anti-Israel demonstrations persisting at elite universities. 

“We are concerned about bigotry of all kinds, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to make sure we eliminate all forms of bigotry in America, including antisemitism,” Sanders, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), told Fox News Digital.

Asked a second time whether the committee would be willing to hold hearings on displays of campus antisemitism, such as the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University, which has led the school to make classes virtual and a rabbi recommending Jewish students return home, Sanders would not say. 

GOP LAWMAKERS DEMAND BIDEN ADMIN PROSECUTE ‘PRO-TERRORIST MOBS,’ HOLD SCHOOLS ACCOUNTABLE

The Vermont senator was urged Monday to hold hearings on the subject by his Republican counterpart on the committee. HELP ranking member Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a statement, “Chair Sanders and the Senate HELP Committee need to hold a hearing and conduct oversight of this eroding situation.

“There are no grounds for a nuanced response to the sickening calls of violence against Jewish students,” Cassidy added. 

“The antisemitic scenes unfolding at Columbia University and college campuses across the country is bigotry manifested in violence and threats of violence. This should be responded to by expelling all perpetrators. There should be zero tolerance.” 

BIDEN ADMIN NOTES ‘URGENT’ CONCERN OVER ISRAEL IN GAZA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

The demonstration at Columbia University began last week, and since its start, 23 of the top 50 universities, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, have been home to active anti-Israel protests.

In response to the demonstrations, 27 Republican senators signed a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, demanding they prosecute anyone perpetrating violence or threatening Jewish students, revoke visas of non-citizens who are “promoting terrorism” and hold school administrators accountable. 

DEMOCRATS JOIN REPUBLICANS IN CONDEMNING ANTISEMITISM AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The departments of Justice and Education declined to comment to Fox News Digital. 

Cardona addressed the various demonstrations, posting on X that “Antisemitic hate on college campuses is unacceptable.”

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“I am deeply concerned by what is happening at Columbia University. In November 2023, our Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation of Columbia involving Title VI,” he added. 

Cassidy previously asked Sanders to hold hearings on antisemitic incidents one month after the Hamas terrorist attack on civilians that sparked the war between the group and Israel. 

Sanders’ office did not respond to a request for further comment.

The Supreme Court is set to consider a second abortion case on Wednesday, this time dealing with claims by a Republican-led state that the Biden administration is attempting to wield a 40-year-old federal law as an “abortion mandate.”

On the heels of a debate over the Federal Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of an abortion pill, the high court will consider whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) preempts the state of Idaho’s newly enacted Defense of Life Act – which makes it a crime for any medical provider to perform an abortion with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.  

The Justice Department argued that the state’s law does not go far enough to allow abortions in more medical emergency circumstances.

However, proponents of the state law say that the administration’s lawsuit against Idaho is attempting to use a federal statute as an “abortion mandate” to benefit the president ahead of the 2024 elections.

WHY TRUMP IS DEFERRING TO THE STATES, AFTER WEIGHING AN ABORTION BAN AT 15 WEEKS

“Construing EMTALA as a federal abortion mandate raises grave questions under the major questions doctrine that affect both Congress and this Court,” Idaho argued in legal filings. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said, “The Supreme Court made it clear that it’s up to the states to decide what our laws should be and that it’s not for the federal government.” 

“But Joe Biden and his administration decided to come straight and sue us in federal courts.  We are excited to go before the Supreme Court to show that the state should be deciding these issues and not the federal government,” he said.

The DOJ said in its response to the high court that while Idaho’s law makes it a felony for a doctor to terminate a pregnancy unless doing so is “necessary” to prevent the patient’s “death,” that exception is “narrower” than EMTALA, which by its terms “protects patients not only from imminent death but also from emergencies that seriously threaten their health.” 

However, Idaho accused the administration of “construing the spare phrase” in the federal law “as a blank slate to be filled with the Executive Branch’s preferred abortion policy collides with multiple statutory provisions guaranteeing emergency medical care for a pregnant woman and her unborn child.” 

“It’s clear that the administration is just manipulating EMTALA and that both laws should be able to coexist,” John Bursch, senior litigator at civil rights firm Alliance Defending Freedom and co-counsel in the case, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

“If a woman’s life is in danger, Idaho’s Defense of Life Act makes it clear that the women should be treated and helped. Because in that instance, when the mom’s life is in danger, it’s not an abortion in Idaho or any of the other 49 states,” he said.

But the White House says that the 21 states enforcing abortion bans are causing “chaos and confusion.”

“These extreme state laws have caused chaos and confusion, and women are being denied the essential care they need. But these dangerous state laws do not change the responsibility that health care providers have to their patients in emergencies covered by the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act,” White House spokesperson Kelly Scully told Fox News Digital.

“The Biden-Harris Administration has long been clear that federal law requires hospitals to offer health and life-saving care to patients in an emergency. The Administration remains focused on working with doctors, hospitals, and patients to make these federal requirements clear while the Department of Justice defends that understanding in the Supreme Court. No woman should be denied the care she needs,” she said. 

The Center for Reproductive Rights also filed a lawsuit in September 2023, calling Idaho’s abortion ban “a six-week ban that has ‘vigilante’-style civil liability provisions.

The Center filed the suit on behalf of seven plaintiffs: four women who were denied medically necessary abortion care in their home state, two Idaho physicians who provide obstetrical care, and a professional membership organization consisting of Idaho physicians, medical residents and medical students.

PRO-LIFE CONSERVATIVES ARE ‘DISAPPOINTED’ IN TRUMP’S NEW ABORTION POLICY, BUT STICK BY HIM: ‘ONLY ONE OPTION’

EMTALA is a federal statute signed by then-President Reagan in 1986 after earning bipartisan congressional support, designed to prevent hospitals from turning away indigent patients who are in critical need of medical care and offer the same “stabilizing” care they would to a patient who could pay or is covered by insurance.

After the Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade and left states to decide their own abortion limitations, Bursch said the Biden administration, for the first time in the law’s history, used it to impose an “abortion mandate.”

A district court sided with DOJ and ordered a preliminary injunction of the state’s law. The Ninth Circuit affirmed that decision, which Idaho then appealed to the Supreme Court. Oral arguments are set for April 24. 

“What the Biden administration wants to do is take this law and turn it into an abortion enclave in emergency rooms,” Bursch said. “And to the point where even if a patient came in, and they said that they were in critical condition because of a mental health problem, like depression, or anxiety, that would give doctors a carte blanche ability to ignore laws like Idaho’s and take the life of the innocent child, and EMTALA doesn’t say anything like that.” 

REPUBLICANS LARGELY QUIET AS DEMOCRATS HAMMER SCOTUS ABORTION PILL CHALLENGE

Bursch added that what he believes is “so ironic” is that following the Dobbs decision, President Biden himself said that he disagreed with the decision, but that he understood that states operating through the democratic process would get to decide what abortion laws would control each state. 

“And it was only a matter of weeks later that he changed course and said, ‘oh no, the federal government is just going to impose this new requirement by reinterpreting EMTALA in a way that it’s never been interpreted in its nearly four-decade history.”

 “It is subverting states’ rights. It’s pushing abortion on states that don’t want it, and it’s all blatantly illegal,” he said.

Stephen Billy, vice president of state affairs for SBA Pro-Life America, said the administration’s novel legal challenge to a state’s abortion law looks politically motivated ahead of the November elections amid Biden’s dwindling poll numbers. 

“The Biden administration doesn’t feel like they have any other issue to run on, and it’s clear what they’re going to talk about and what they’re trying to run on. Whether abortion is going to be a campaign issue or not, the Biden administration is going to try to make it one,” he added.

IN ABORTION PILL ARGUMENTS, SUPREME COURT JUSTICES SEEM SKEPTICAL ABOUT FDA ACCOUNTABILITY EXPERTS SAY

Billy cited the Women’s Health Protection Act, which Democrats in Congress attempted to pass last year. It would have legalized virtually limitless abortion nationwide, but ultimately failed.

“Congress’s opposition to that comes from the will of the people who sent the elected representatives to D.C., and they have very little national support when you look at the polling for the extreme position of the Women’s Health Protection Act,” said Billy.

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“So Biden turned to executive action, ignoring the text of laws and just trying to use executive fiat to expand abortion on demand wherever you can, and however you can. And EMTALA is just one example of that,” he said. 

Billy added that he believes the Biden administration is using “fear and scare tactics” around the issue. 

“The entire case is basically a claim that women can’t get medical care,” he said, but noted that every “pro-life state” allows for a mother’s health exception and allows doctors to act when there’s a medical emergency. 

“They are trying to use that fear to drive a political agenda and to save their campaign because they don’t really have anything else to run on,” he said. 

The Justice Department declined to comment on pending litigation.

The Supreme Court is set to consider arguably the highest-profile cases of the term Thursday to determine whether former President Trump can claim presidential immunity against criminal charges brought by the Biden Justice Department.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought charges against Trump following his investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and Trump’s alleged plot to overturn the 2020 election result, argued in briefs submitted to the high court that “presidents are not above the law.”

Trump’s legal team conversely argued, “A denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President…[t]he threat of future prosecution and imprisonment would become a political cudgel to influence the most sensitive and controversial decisions, taking away the strength, authority, and decisiveness of the Presidency.” 

Legal experts told Fox News Digital that while all nine justices might be skeptical of Trump’s sweeping immunity claims, they are likely to give guidance on where presidential immunity from criminal prosecution ends for actions taken while in the Oval Office – which could have a profound impact in the criminal cases against the former president.

SUPREME COURT PREPARES TO DEBATE TRUMP IMMUNITY CLAIM IN ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE

Jonathan Turley, a practicing criminal defense attorney and professor at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital the case is “surrounded by rather steep constitutional cliffs.”

“This case may be rather maddening for the justices because it is surrounded by rather steep constitutional cliffs. If the court goes one way, a president has little protection in carrying out the duties of his office. If they turned the other way, he has a little accountability for the most serious criminal acts,” Turley said. 

“This is a court that tends to be incremental. They tend not to favor sweeping rulings,” he said.

The Justice Department argued in lower court that a president has virtually no immunity when he leaves office, and the lower court agreed.

Turley says the justices “could reject the lower court decision and send it back for a more nuanced approach on constitutional immunity.”

“The justices may find that presidents do require immunity, even with regard to some criminal acts,” Turley said, adding that “any remand would work significantly in the former president’s favor on a tactical level.”

Turley explained that if the case were to be remanded back down to Judge Tanya Chutkan in the D.C. District Court, that process would make a trial before the November election “even less likely.” 

“There are both constitutional and tactical aspects to the ruling, but I think these justices are likely to approach this argument with an eye toward balancing these interests, and if that’s the case, they could well come up with a different approach than the lower court or the former president,” Turley said.

LEGAL EXPERTS SAY JACK SMITH’S RUNWAY TO TRY TRUMP BEFORE 2024 ELECTION ‘JUST GOT A LOT SHORTER’

The thrust of Trump’s legal argument is that Supreme Court precedent says absolute immunity from civil liability exists for a former president for his official acts, and that the same immunity should apply to a criminal context. 

“There’s a real likelihood that the Supreme Court will give some concrete guidance on the exact amount of protection a president is entitled to,” Jim Trusty, former legal counsel for Trump and a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital.

“There are still likely to be factual issues that the lower courts will then have to decide as to where President Trump’s actions fit within this continuum of protected or unprotected conduct,” he explained.

John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations, gave a similar view.

“The chances of the Supreme Court giving the office of the president some amount of level of immunity are pretty good,” Shu told Fox News Digital.

But Shu also said “there’s also a decent chance that whatever immunity the court carves out, it may not encompass Trump’s alleged acts.”

RED STATE AGS BLAST SPECIAL COUNSEL PUSH FOR SCOTUS TO RUSH TRUMP CASE: ‘PARTISAN INTERESTS’

“They won’t be making purely legal arguments, but political power arguments as well, and they’ll have to get at least five Supreme Court justices to agree with them,” Shu said.

Trusty said the questions put to each of the parties in Thursday’s oral arguments “could be pretty transparent as to each justice’s view of immunity.”

So far, Shu observed, Trump’s attorneys have argued that the president has absolute immunity, even after he leaves office, for any and all acts.

“I don’t think the court will go that far,” Shu said.

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Similarly, Trusty said he expects the court to “give very little credit to the notion of absolutely unlimited immunity, as President Trump’s lawyers have argued.”

“But I do think there is a strong possibility that the court confirms the notion that immunity protects the president and that their ruling could set in motion the eventual dismissal of the Jan. 6, Mar-a-Lago and Georgia cases,” he said.

The Supreme Court will hear the case, Trump v. United States, on Thursday at 10 a.m.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement, “Without immunity for official acts, there can be no Presidency. No President in American history has faced prosecution for his official acts — until now.”

“Allowing political opponents to prosecute the President once he leaves office will distort the President’s most important decisions. Even during his Presidency, his enemies will blackmail and extort him with threats of lawless criminal charges and imprisonment once his term ends. The Framers of our Constitution wisely created a system that prevented this endless, destructive cycle of recrimination for 234 years,” he continued.

“The Supreme Court should uphold Presidential immunity and put an end to Jack Smith’s deranged, unconstitutional witch hunt against President Trump, once and for all,” he said.

FIRST ON FOX: A Washington, D.C., official has visited the White House twice since a spokesperson for President Biden said she wouldn’t be invited back after she praised noted antisemite Louis Farrakhan, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Cora Masters Barry, who was appointed CEO of the city’s Recreation Wish List Committee, delivered remarks in mid-2022 praising Farrakhan as a “friend” and “member of the family,” adding, “I love you more than words will ever say.” 

Shortly after her comments, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates condemned Farrakhan and said Barry would not ever be invited back to the White House.

FETTERMAN REJECTS HARRIS SUGGESTION THAT ISRAEL COULD FACE CONSEQUENCES FOR RAFAH INVASION: ‘HARD DISAGREE’

“The president has unequivocally condemned Louis Farrakhan and the hate he represents for decades and co-sponsored bipartisan legislation doing so,” Bates told Fox News Digital. “He also denounces any praise of Louis Farrakhan or his repugnant, antisemitic values, including in this case.”

However, according to a Fox News Digital review of visitor logs, Barry returned to the White House in June 2023 and again in December 2023.

The first visit, on June 13, 2023, appears to have been for a Juneteenth concert on the White House South Lawn, where Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both delivered remarks. The purpose of her second visit, on Dec. 14, 2023, remains unclear, though it appears she attended an evening reception alongside hundreds of other invitees.

The White House and Barry didn’t respond to requests for comment.

ISRAEL LAUDS CONGRESS’ BLOW TO UN AGENCY WITH ALLEGED HAMAS TIES AS INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE

Washington, D.C.Mayor Muriel Bowser appointed Barry to her current position, saying in 2021 that she was “grateful for women” like Barry. Bowser notably stood by Barry after City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson moved to block her from serving on the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Overall, Barry, who donated $500 each to Biden’s presidential campaign and the Biden Victory Fund, according to federal filings, has visited the White House at least six times since Biden took office.

Barry previously received criticism for her comments attacking white women and compared supporters of former President Trump to the Ku Klux Klan. 

Her praise for Farrakhan, who leads the Nation of Islam religious group, was uttered during a private event in October 2022 honoring her late husband, former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry. 

Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam have been heavily criticized by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which was founded to stop the defamation of Jewish people, and by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The ADL has called Farrakhan “one of the most prominent antisemites,” and SPLC has classified the Nation of Islam as a hate group.

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The White House has repeatedly reaffirmed that the president has disavowed Farrakhan, though the most recent public example appears to be a Senate floor speech Biden delivered four decades ago, in 1984.

The Nation of Islam didn’t respond to a request for comment.

David Pecker, who ran the National Enquirer empire, confirmed under oath yesterday that he had used catch-and-kill payments to help Donald Trump’s campaign – and his text messages didn’t help the former president either.

In his second day of testimony, the former Trump pal calmly described forking over cash in two such instances: one for a story that turned out to be flatly untrue, and one to buy the silence of former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, who alleges a 10-month affair that Trump denies.

Time ran out before they got to Stormy Daniels, whose account of a one-night sexual encounter with Trump – which he also denies – is at the heart of the case, at least if it can be tied to falsified business records.

Under questioning by Manhattan Assistant D.A. Josh Steinglass, Pecker said he even viewed it as his duty to the campaign to help keep damaging Trump stories out of other publications.

PROSECUTORS REVEAL ‘ANOTHER CRIME’ AT HEART OF FORMER PRESIDENT’S CHARGES

In his second day of testimony at the hush money trial, Pecker said former Trump fixer Michael Cohen invited him to the candidate’s June 2015 launch, part of an effort to show how close he was to Trump and his team. (My personal favorites: He pitched a magazine called Trump Style, and Trump would leak him the ratings for “The Apprentice,” which the Enquirer would publish.)

In August 2015, in a meeting with Trump and Cohen, Pecker says he was asked: “What can I do, and what my magazines could do, to help the campaign.”

His response: “I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump, and negative stories about his opponents.” Cohen said he could have such stories killed even if they were slated to run in another publication, Pecker testified.

The positive stories were easy: “Donald Trump: Healthiest Individual Ever Elected!”

But Cohen would call, ask for a negative story on, say, Ted Cruz, send the information, “and we’d embellish it from there.”

Which led to “Ted Cruz Sex Scandal: 5 Secret Mistresses” – total fake news. (And who can forget the bogus Enquirer story purporting to tie Cruz’s dad to the JFK assassination?)

Or there would be a request for a hit piece on Ben Carson:

“Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge in Patient’s Brain.”

TRUMP SLAMS ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ GAG ORDER AS TRIAL WRAPS FOR DAY: ‘ALL BIDEN’

One factor that could play out in Trump’s favor – or with a lone juror holdout – is that both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were negotiating to sell their stories in the final stretch of the campaign, when the candidate would be at his most vulnerable.

Pecker described paying $30,000 to a former Trump building doorman for his story about the candidate having fathered an out-of-wedlock baby. But an Enquirer found the story to be utterly untrue. Interestingly, had it been substantiated, Pecker said he would have run it – after the election.

With McDougal, who was supposedly negotiating with ABC, Pecker had Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard investigate and he found her account credible. Cohen constantly called for updates, and Trump was concerned enough to call Pecker himself. Pecker said they should buy and suppress her story.

Trump was opposed, saying when you do that, it always comes out and you look even worse.

But Pecker insisted. So the Enquirer arranged a $150,000 payment that was for McDougal to write a fitness column for another magazine in parent company America Media’s stable–and stay quiet about Trump, he testified.

Now none of this has to do with the heart of the legal case, which is about falsifying business records to hide the reimbursements to Cohen. But that is pretty boring stuff.

What prosecutors were trying to do is tell a story, with Pecker–who is testifying under a previous grant of immunity–more believable than the disbarred, later jailed Cohen, whose credibility will come under fierce attack.

LAW PROFESSOR ROASTS MANHATTAN DA’S CASE AGAINST TRUMP IN NY TIMES GUEST ESSAY

Next up, Pecker will tell the Stormy Daniels story tomorrow, with no trial proceedings today.  And, presumably, eventually get to his falling out with Trump.

Earlier, Judge Juan Marchan heard from both sides on whether Trump had violated his gag order by attacking other witnesses–namely Cohen and Stormy–and wound up excoriating the former president’s lawyer.

Prosecutors said Trump had violated the gag order 10 times, and proposed a fine of a thousand bucks per incident. So the entire argument was about $10,000 – which even in his cash-strapped state, is a rounding error for Trump.

The former president’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said there was “absolutely no willful violation of a gag order” and that his client was allowed to respond to attacks by Cohen and Daniels.

Blanche had a weak hand to play, and Merchan kept pressing him for specific comments by Cohen and Daniels.  

The judge grew exasperated, raising his voice at one point: “I keep asking you over and over to give me an answer and I’m not getting an answer.”

It was “silly,” Merchan said, to assume the gag order was somehow waived because Trump had been attacked.

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Finally, the judge scolded Blanche: “You’re losing all credibility with the court. You’ve presented nothing.”

Judge Merchan didn’t make a decision yesterday, but it’s crystal clear what he intends to do.

It’s officially game on in Pennsylvania, as Republican candidate Dave McCormick and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. were projected the winners of the two major party Senate primaries in the northeastern battleground state.

Both candidates, who were unopposed in Tuesday’s Democratic and GOP primaries, will now face off in a high-profile and expensive Senate showdown that is one of a handful across the country which will likely decide whether the GOP wins back the Senate majority.

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

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He was part of a crowded and combustible battle for the 2022 GOP nomination. He ended up losing the nomination by a razor-thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election to then-Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

This time around, McCormick faced no major opposition in the GOP primary. He was backed last year by longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell as well as the Pennsylvania GOP, and was encouraged to run by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the party’s Senate campaign arm.

TRUMP MAKES MAJOR ENDORSEMENT IN KEY SENATE RACE

McCormick endorsed Trump early last month after the former president scored major victories in the coast to coast Super Tuesday contests and Nikki Haley – Trump’s last remaining rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination – dropped out of the White House race.

Trump, the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, returned the favor earlier this month, endorsing McCormick.

Casey, the son of a popular former governor, is running for a fourth six-year term in the Senate. He served a decade as Pennsylvania’s auditor general and then treasurer before winning election to the Senate in 2006.

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The most recent public opinion polls indicate Casey holding a single-digit advantage over McCormick.

Democrats currently control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map this year, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. 

Three of those seats are in red states that Trump carried in his 2020 election defeat to President Biden — Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election. And Pennsylvania is one of five key general election battlegrounds where the Democrats are defending seats. Democrats may also have to worry about holding the open Senate seat in blue Maryland, where former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan is running.

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A member of the far-left “Squad” survived a challenge from a centrist Democrat on Tuesday despite her sharp criticism of Israel that threatened her effort to win re-election in a district with a sizable Jewish community.

Rep. Summer Lee, a first-term congresswoman, will once again be the Democrat nominee to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, after defeating local councilwoman Bhavini Patel.

Lee’s victory follows that of fellow “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in 2022, when she was nearly ousted in her own primary after making controversial remarks about police and Israel throughout her political career.

COLUMBIA ALUM OBAMA SILENT AS JEWISH FACULTY, STUDENTS FACE ANTISEMITIC HARASSMENT ON CAMPUS

The race was viewed as an early test of how progressive Democrats critical of Israel might perform with voters as the party faces a continued divide over support for one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East amid continued Gaza military operations in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

Since the attack and the war’s escalation, Lee had called for a ceasefire and opposed sending more funding to Israel.

She had come under fire in recent months from pro-Israel groups and the Jewish community for her rhetoric on the war, including an open letter signed by dozens of rabbis condemning her “divisive rhetoric” they said had been “perceived as openly antisemitic.”

DEMOCRATS HOLD MAJOR 2024 ADVANTAGE AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS FACE FURTHER CHAOS, DIVISION

While campaigning, Patel framed Lee’s anti-Israel stance as part of a left-wing politics too extreme for the people of the district, and argued it ran in contrast to President Biden’s agenda as he faces his own challenge of winning Pennsylvania against former President Donald Trump in November.

The issue of antisemitism was a particularly potent issue in the 12th district because it is home to the synagogue where a gunman killed 11 congregants in 2018, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

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Lee’s victory helped her avoid being the first House Democrat incumbent to lose a primary this year. Other “Squad” members are also expected to face tough primary challenges from centrist Democrats, including Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Fox News’ Emma Colton and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A man who became a fugitive after a federal jury convicted him of assaulting police officers during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison.

David Joseph Gietzen, 31, of Sanford, North Carolina, struck a police officer with a pole during a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

JAN. 6 WAS NOT AN INSURRECTION, SAYS TURLEY, WARNS DEMOCRATS OF ‘SLIPPERY SLOPE’ THREATENING DEMOCRACY

Gietzen told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols that he didn’t intend to hurt anybody that day. But he didn’t express any regret or remorse for his actions on Jan. 6, when he joined a mob of Donald Trump supporters in interrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

“I have to make it explicitly known that I believe I did the right thing,” he said before learning his sentence.

The judge said Gietzen made it clear during his trial testimony — and his sentencing hearing — that he clings to his baseless beliefs that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

“Mr. Gietzen essentially was unapologetic today about his conduct,” Nichols said.

Last August, a jury convicted Gietzen of eight counts, including assault and civil disorder charges. After his trial conviction, Gietzen disregarded a court order to report to prison on Oct. 20, 2023, while awaiting sentencing. He missed several hearings for his case before he was arrested at his mother’s home in North Carolina on Dec. 12, 2023.

“This pattern of flouting rules and laws and doing what he wants, regardless of the consequences, is how Gietzen operates,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Defense attorney Ira Knight said Gietzen apparently remained at his house, “just waiting to be picked up,” and wasn’t on the run from authorities or trying to hide after his conviction.

Prosecutors recommended a prison term of 10 years and one month for Gietzen, who worked as a computer programming engineer after graduating from North Carolina State University in 2017 with bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and electrical engineering.

“Clearly, Gietzen is bright and able to get something done when he puts his mind to it – be it a college degree or assaulting officers as part of in a violent mob,” prosecutors wrote.

Gietzen’s attorneys requested a four-year prison sentence.

“David’s current philosophy is that he no longer wishes to be engaged with the political process,” defense attorneys wrote. “His involvement with politics has concluded and should be an indication to the Court that he is no longer interested in being a threat to the public or political process.”

Gietzen traveled to Washington, D.C., with his brother from their home in North Carolina. He attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before marching to the Capitol.

As the mob of Trump supporters overwhelmed a police line on the Capitol’s West Plaza, Gietzen shoved a police officer, grabbed another officer’s gas mask and struck an officer with a pole.

“And all of Gietzen’s violence was based on a lack of respect for law enforcement and the democratic process — its goal was to get himself and other rioters closer to the building so they could interfere with the certification of the election,” prosecutors wrote.

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Gietzen later bragged about participating in the riot in messages to friends and relatives, saying he had “never been prouder to be an American.”

More than 1,350 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds getting terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.

Former President Trump said he plans to “fire” the “radical left” individuals that “have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics” and ensure higher education is focused on “defending the American tradition” if elected to a second term. 

The 2024 Republican presumptive presidential nominee posted an education policy video to his Truth Social Tuesday night amid violent antisemitic anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the nation. 

TRUMP SLAMS COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY FOR CLOSING CAMPUS AMID ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS: ‘MEANS THE OTHER SIDE WINS’

“For many years, tuition costs at colleges and universities have been exploding and I mean absolutely exploding,” Trump said. “While academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America’s youth, the time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left. And we will do that.” 

Trump said his “secret weapon” will be the “college accreditation system,” which he says is called “accreditation for a reason.” 

“The accreditors are supposed to ensure that schools are not ripping off students and taxpayers, but they have failed totally,” Trump said. 

Accreditation is a third-party review process to review whether education programs meet defined standards of quality. 

“When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left, accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics,” the former president continued. “We will then accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again, and once and for all.” 

Trump said the standards would include “defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs, incredibly, removing all Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money’s worth.” 

Trump also said, if elected, he would direct the Justice Department to “pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination.” 

Trump added that schools “that persist in explicit, unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowments taxed, but through budget reconciliation.” 

Trump said he would advance a measure to have universities “fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.” 

“A portion of the seized funds will then be used for restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies–policies that hurt our country so badly,” he said. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MOVES TO HYBRID LEARNING ON MAIN CAMPUS AMID ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS

“Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers, and now we are going to get this anti-American insanity out of our institutions once and for all,” he continued. “We are going to have real education in America.” 

The former president’s policy video was posted to Truth Social Tuesday afternoon, shortly before he blasted Columbia University for moving its classes virtual amid days and days of massive pro-Gaza protests on campus. 

“They’re closing Columbia now? I mean, it’s just crazy,” Trump said. “Columbia should gain a little strength, a little courage and keep their school open.” 

Trump’s comments came after students at Columbia University were instructed that classes had shifted to virtual or hybrid amid ongoing safety concerns stemming from the anti-Israel protests filling the campus. 

“It’s crazy because that means the other side wins,” Trump said Tuesday. “When you start closing down colleges and universities—that means the other side [wins.]” 

“The people running Columbia have made a grave mistake,” Trump said. 

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Columbia University’s updated guidelines, as of Tuesday morning, said all courses on the Morningside main campus have moved to hybrid learning “until the end of each school’s Spring 2024 semester.”

“Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students’ learning and all the required academic operations,” the school’s Provost Angela Olinto wrote in a statement released early Tuesday morning. “It’s vital that teaching and learning continue during this time.”

Former President Trump slammed Columbia University for closing its campus amid violent anti-Israel, pro-Gaza protests, urging the college to “gain a little strength” and “courage,” while saying the move “means the other side wins.” 

Trump took reporter questions in Trump Tower on Tuesday evening before a meeting with former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is the current vice president of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MOVES TO HYBRID LEARNING ON MAIN CAMPUS AMID ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS

The former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee was asked if he would visit with Jewish students this week amid protests, following the news that House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to visit Columbia University’s campus Wednesday. 

“Well, we have a lot of different things, but what’s going on with the colleges—and, they’re closing Columbia now? I mean, it’s just crazy,” Trump said. “Columbia should gain a little strength, a little courage and keep their school open.” 

Trump’s comments came after students at Columbia University were instructed that classes had shifted to virtual or hybrid amid ongoing safety concerns stemming from the anti-Israel protests filling the campus. 

“It’s crazy because that means the other side wins,” Trump said Tuesday. “When you start closing down colleges and universities—that means the other side [wins.]” 

The former president, pointing to Aso and Japan said “in Japan, they don’t know about that. They don’t close. They keep it open. They make it work.” 

“The people running Columbia have made a grave mistake,” Trump said. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS: 5 DRAMATIC MOMENTS FROM A WEEK OF CHAOS

Columbia University’s updated guidelines, as of Tuesday morning, said all courses on the Morningside main campus have moved to hybrid learning “until the end of each school’s Spring 2024 semester.”

“Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students’ learning and all the required academic operations,” the school’s Provost Angela Olinto wrote in a statement released early Tuesday morning. “It’s vital that teaching and learning continue during this time.”

IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS’ PROTESTS SPIRAL INTO ‘ACTUAL TERROR ORGANIZATION,’ PROFESSOR WARNS

The announcement comes amid continued antisemitic protests on the New York City campus and just a day after classes were made virtual on Monday.

The guidance, signed in tandem with Chief Operating Officer Cas Holloway, also affects faculty and staff.

The guidance comes amid days of protests at Columbia, where anti-Israel agitators initially formed an encampment — setting up tents and refusing to leave— on the campus last week. The protesters have marched in and around the campus demanding the school lose affiliations with groups that support Israel amid its war with Hamas in Gaza, which has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths.  

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT ORDERS VIRTUAL CLASSES AS ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS TAKE OVER: ‘WE NEED A RESET’

Columbia University President Dr. Nemat “Minouche” Shafik said in a statement posted in the early hours Monday morning, that she was “deeply saddened” by certain actions of the agitators and called for a “reset.”

“I am deeply saddened by what is happening on our campus,” Shafik wrote. “Our bonds as a community have been severely tested in ways that will take a great deal of time and effort to reaffirm. Students across an array of communities have conveyed fears for their safety and we have announced additional actions we are taking to address security concerns. The decibel of our disagreements has only increased in recent days. These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas.”

DEMOCRATIC REP GOTTHEIMER SAYS HE WOULD BE WORRIED TO SEND CHILDREN TO COLUMBIA AFTER VISITING PROTESTS

Shafik, on Monday, said the university needs “a reset.” 

More than 100 of the protesters were arrested last week amid the unrest.

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Antisemitic protests have broken out at colleges and universities across the nation including New York University in New York City and Yale University in New Haven, Ct. 

Fox News’ Lawrence Richard contributed to this report. 

The House GOP’s push to pass border security reform through the divided 118th Congress could end up an unrealized dream.

A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pointed out to Fox News Digital that House Republicans have passed multiple border security and immigration enforcement bills – none of which have been taken up by the Democrat-controlled Senate.

The Johnson spokesperson indicated that with Republicans and Democrats still far apart on the issue, House GOP leaders are relying on former President Trump to take back the White House next year for any meaningful border policy changes to take place.

GOP PREPS ATTACKS ON VULNERABLE DEM SENATORS OVER MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL DISMISSAL

“House Republicans have passed multiple border security bills – including our signature Secure the Border Act, Laken Riley Act, and Consequences for Social Security Fraud Act – which have been ignored by the Democrat Senate and proves their unseriousness when it comes to dealing with the border catastrophe,” Johnson’s office said. “Democrats have only proposed measures for political cover that won’t fix the problem, and Republicans are not going to let the White House accept anything less than transformative change.”

“House Republicans understand that the only way to truly solve the problem is to elect President Trump in November.”

REPUBLICANS PREDICT DEMS TO PAY ‘HEAVY PRICE’ IN ELECTION AFTER MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT BID FAILS

Fox News Digital had reached out to Johnson’s office two days after the speaker convened a rare Saturday session to pass his $95 billion foreign aid proposal. 

While the wide bipartisan margin demonstrated a victory for Johnson in his still relatively new leadership role, GOP rebels who have been increasingly critical of Johnson for crossing the aisle on key legislation were furious that he passed roughly $61 billion in Ukraine aid without trying to force through border security measures.

“The only path forward for substantive border legislation was to leverage the Biden regime’s push for more Ukraine aid,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wrote on X last week.

Johnson has also maintained for months that President Biden himself has the unilateral ability to stop the border crisis through executive action – something the White House has pushed back on, arguing a permanent fix has to come from Congress.

The statement from Johnson’s office Tuesday came after Fox News Digital asked if he had spoken with Biden recently about the possibility of executive action on the border, or whether House Republicans could be looking at using the next big legislative fight – fiscal year 2025 government funding – as an area to jam the Senate on border security.

An earlier attempt to pass foreign aid alongside a bipartisan border security deal failed when Republicans in both the Senate and House argued the border measures included would have only codified the Biden administration’s existing bad policies.

‘CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY’ OF SENATE DEMS QUASHING MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL QUESTIONED BY EXPERTS

Democrats, however, refused Republicans’ urging to take up their Secure the Border Act, calling its Trump administration-era immigration provisions a non-starter.

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Meanwhile, a House GOP aide familiar with the House Homeland Security Committee’s work said the panel was conducting multiple investigations into the Biden administration’s handling of the border, but would not discuss any pending legislation that House GOP leaders could have potentially held up as a new push for reform.

The House GOP aide said Republicans were committed “to respond[ing] to this crisis and [making] sure people know [they] take this issue very seriously.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office for comment.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article’s headline has been updated to more clearly reflect that Johnson’s office was referring to the Senate.

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? 

-Biden’s response to antisemitic protests angers social media

-Schumer to take up $95B aid package despite bipartisan opposition

-Judge hammers Trump attorneys over gag order

Another crime

New York prosecutors on Tuesday revealed the other crime they claim former President Trump was trying to conceal when he allegedly falsified his business records.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. In order for prosecutors to secure a criminal conviction, they must convince the jury that Trump allegedly committed the crime of falsifying business records in “furtherance of another crime.” 

The supposed “other crime” has been speculated about among legal scholars and pundits, but on Tuesday New York prosecutor Joshua Steinglass on Tuesday identified the legal code: Trump allegedly ran afoul of a New York law called “conspiracy to promote or prevent election.”

New York Law 17-152 states: “Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

White House

‘BOTH SIDES’ ANSWER: Biden’s response to antisemitic protests angers social media users …Read more

COMMITMENT ISSUES: Biden could be denied pivotal state by growing movement …Read more

SILENT LEADER: Education secretary silent on protections for Jewish students as Ivy League campus descends into antisemitic chaos …Read more

Capitol Hill

‘FINISH LINE’: Schumer to take up $95 billion Israel, Ukraine aid package despite bipartisan opposition …Read more

‘A LAME DUCK’: Speaker Johnson dodges ouster vote amid heated MTG rhetoric …Read more

‘HE’S TRYING VERY HARD’: Trump defends Johnson as Marjorie Taylor Greene pushes to oust speaker …Read more

POISON IVY: NY House Republicans band together to demand Columbia president step down …Read more

‘CESSPOOL OF PARTISANSHIP’: GOP lawmaker demands answers on former Biden official joining Trump’s prosecution team …Read more

BOTCHED PROBE: Bombshell House report bashes CIA handling of internal sexual assault cases …Read more

‘PRO-HAMAS RHETORIC’: Republicans demand Biden officials address Columbia University ‘pro-terrorist mobs’ …Read more

Tales from the Campaign Trail

ELECTION INTERFERENCE: Study finds Facebook has ‘interfered’ with elections in the US at least 39 times since 2008 …Read more

‘A DISGRACE’: Trump blames Biden for college anti-Israel protests …Read more

Across America

LOSING IT: Judge hammers Trump attorneys over gag order …Read more

NOT A PEEP: Columbia alum Obama silent as Jewish students face antisemitic harassment …Read more

SENATOR IN SLAMMER: Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker arrested on suspicion of burglary …Read more

PROMOTING MISERY: Climate activists have new target in mind for major summer protest …Read more

NEW DOCUMENTS: Judge unseals FBI files in Trump’s Florida case, including detailed timeline of Mar-a-Lago raid …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.

Former President Donald Trump slammed what he described as an “unconstitutional” gag order imposed on him during his trial in Manhattan, while pinning blame for the trial and ongoing anti-Israel protests unfolding on college campuses nationwide on President Biden. 

“We have a gag order, which to me is totally unconstitutional. I’m not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me. So they can talk about me,” Trump said outside the courtroom. “They can say whatever they want, they can lie, but I’m not allowed to say anything. I just have to sit back and look at why a conflicted judge has ordered me to have gag order,” he said.

“I don’t think anybody’s ever seen anything like this. I’d love to talk to you people. I’d love to say everything that’s on my mind, but I’m restricted because I have a gag order,” he continued. 

Trump was back in court on Tuesday, when presiding Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing on the prosecution’s request that Trump be held in contempt for violating a gag order. Merchan imposed the gag order on Trump before the trial began, ordering Trump to abstain from making comments — or directing others to make comments — regarding witnesses’ potential participation or the prosecution team. The gag order does allow Trump to publicly speak about District Attorney Alvin Bragg. 

LIVE UPDATES: NY VS. TRUMP TRIAL TO RESUME AS FORMER PRESIDENT FIGHTS OFF GAG ORDER ALLEGATIONS 

Prosecutors presented 10 instances of Trump allegedly violating the gag order in social media posts during the hearing. The DA’s office argues he should pay a $1,000 fine each for a handful of the instances. 

Trump’s legal team pushed back that the posts in question were examples of the 45th president responding to attacks. 

Merchan has not issued a decision yet on whether Trump is found in contempt. He did warn the Trump defense team that they were “losing all credibility” during the hearing. 

NY VS. TRUMP: FIRST WITNESS TAKES THE STAND IN MANHATTAN COURT

“I’ve asked you 8 or 9 times, ‘show me the exact post that he was responding to’ and you haven’t been able to do that once,” Merchan told Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche. 

“I have to tell you right now, you’re losing all credibility in the court,” Merchan added. 

Trump continued in his comments after court wrapped up for the day that the ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations raging on some of the nation’s most elite college campuses are “Biden’s fault,” in addition to the trial itself. 

“That’s Biden’s fault,” he said of the school protests. “And by the way, this trial is all Biden.”

“He can’t put two sentences again, but he’s out campaigning,” Trump continued of Biden. “He’s out campaigning. And I’m here in a courtroom sitting here … sitting up as straight as I can all day long. Because you know what? It’s a very unfair situation.”

NY VS. TRUMP: JUDGE WARNS TRUMP TEAM THEY’RE ‘LOSING ALL CREDIBILITY’ IN GAG ORDER HEARING

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

NY VS. TRUMP: JUDGE DELIVERS JURY INSTRUCTIONS AS OPENING STATEMENTS KICK OFF

The trial focuses on Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen paying former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump in the early 2000s. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

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Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. 

President Biden cast the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and his framing of former President Trump’s response, as the impetus for his 2020 White House run – but Biden now faces his own “Charlottesville moment.”

Biden has repeatedly and emphatically condemned the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 for spewing “antisemitic bile,” even saying the protests motivated his run for the White House last election cycle.

“In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime,” Biden said in 2019 of the riots when announcing his run for the White House against then-President Trump. 

Flash forward to 2024, antisemitism is running rampant on the campuses of some of the country’s most elite universities, including protesters on Columbia’s campus saying Jewish students were Hamas’ “next targets” amid ongoing protests. 

FETTERMAN ‘NOT WRONG’ TO COMPARE COLUMBIA PROTESTS TO CHARLOTTESVILLE, CNN HOST SAYS

“Al-Qassam you make us proud, kill another soldier now,” protesters on the Ivy League campus chanted over the weekend, referring to the military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas. 

They also chanted: “We say justice, you say how. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground” and “Hamas we love you. We support your rockets, too.”

The protests in Charlottesville in 2017, which played out across two days in August of that year, included White nationalists descending on the city who were met by hundreds of counter-protesters. The protests devolved into violence, including three deaths and dozens of injuries stemming from a car plowing through people and other attacks.  

IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS’ PROTESTS SPIRAL INTO ‘ACTUAL TERROR ORGANIZATION,’ PROFESSOR WARNS

The protests were condemned by both Republicans and Democrats as a hateful display of bigotry, including Trump at the time, who said in a statement that such protests and violence have “no place in America.” 

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Trump said in August of that year. Trump added days later in a press conference that he condemned the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence” and came under fire from Democrats for his remarks that there was “blame on both sides” and “very fine people, on both sides.”

DEARBORN ACTIVISTS’ PUSH TO BAIL ON BIDEN SPREADS TO OTHER KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES

Biden pointed to Trump’s comments as helping motivate him to run for the presidency. 

“With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it,” Biden said in 2019 when announcing his candidacy. 

Biden has repeatedly pointed to Charlottesville as a moment of shame for the nation, including on the fourth anniversary, when the White House released a statement saying the rally was a “battle for the soul of America was laid bare for all to see.” 

MICHIGAN ARABS AND MUSLIM COMMUNITY WORK TO BEAT BIDEN IN 2024 RACE: BIDEN ‘THINKS WE’RE BLUFFING’

“The forces of hate and violence were summoned from the shadows as Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists descended on a historic American city. With torches in their hands and veins bulging from their necks, they spewed the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s and with the same beatings and bigotry we saw in Jim Crow America for nearly a century,” he said. Though Biden has repeatedly cited Charlottesville, he has come under criticism, as recently as five months ago, for not visiting the city following the protests. 

“Charlottesville, Virginia,” were even the first two words Biden uttered when announcing his run for the White House. 

Biden is now facing his own “Charlottesville moment,” as protests rage on college campuses stretching from Yale to the University of California, Berkeley, as anti-Israel students set up encampments while demanding their schools completely divest from Israel.

Protests had spread across the nation in October of last year, when Hamas launched its first attacks against Israel, sparking war. They have since intensified, including this month. 

A Columbia professor told Fox Digital over the weekend that anti-Israel campus groups have morphed into becoming an “actual terror organization,” citing the protester who was seen holding a sign reading, “Al-Qasam’s (sic) next targets” that pointed toward Jewish students. A rabbi on Columbia’s campus has warned Jewish students to leave campus due to the antisemitism. 

“The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” Rabbi Elie Buechler wrote to students over the weekend. “It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”

BIDEN CRUSHED FOR EQUIVOCATING ON ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS: ‘VERY FINE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES’ MOMENT

More than 100 protesters were arrested on Columbia’s campus last week, while dozens more were arrested on Yale’s and NYU’s campus this week. 

Biden on Monday reiterated his condemnation of the violent protests, while facing criticisms online that his remarks echoed what Trump said in 2017 of the Charlottesville riots. 

“I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden told reporters Monday. 

“This sure sounds like he’s ACTUALLY saying there are very fine people on both sides,” OutKick founder Clay Travis said.

ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS COULD ‘ESCALATE,’ TURN MORE EXTREME TO GET BIDEN’S ATTENTION, REPORT WARNS 

“Joe Biden condemned what he called the ‘antisemitic bile’ of right-wing marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia, and called it a ‘defining moment’ for America. Today we’re witnessing Charlottesville happening on the campus of Columbia University but Biden is silent. This is a defining moment for this presidency. Will he keep pandering to the antisemitic left or confront it the way he did the antisemitic right?” Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen tweeted. 

American Spectator writer Nate Hochman noted, “I’m old enough to remember when ‘good people on both sides’ was evil and racist.”

WHITE HOUSE CONDEMNS ‘BLATANTLY ANTISEMITIC’ PROTESTS AS AGITATORS ENGULF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The Federalist’s editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway wrote, “President Biden says there are good people on both sides of October 7.”

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has openly supported Israel and condemned members of his own party for not doing the same, compared the protests unfolding on college campuses to Charlottesville. 

“I fully agree with the White House – these ‘protests’ are antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous. Add some tiki torches and it’s Charlottesville for these Jewish students,” Fetterman tweeted as the Columbia protests intensified over the weekend. 

Israel has become a lightning rod for the Democratic Party since October, with the party’s progressive faction, such as members of the Squad, coming under fierce condemnation from the Jewish community and conservatives for not taking harder stances against Hamas. Biden is even facing an “​​Abandon Biden” movement in battleground states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, stemming from the president’s support of Israel during its war in Gaza. The movement calls Israel’s actions “genocide.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden campaign and the White House for comment on the matter Tuesday, but did not receive a response from either.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report. 

New York prosecutors on Tuesday revealed the other crime they claim former President Trump was trying to conceal when he allegedly falsified his business records.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. In order for prosecutors to secure a criminal conviction, they must convince the jury that Trump allegedly committed the crime of falsifying business records in “furtherance of another crime.” 

TRUMP TRIAL: FORMER PRESIDENT ‘INNOCENT,’ SAYS DEFENSE AS DA ALLEGES ‘CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY’

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts. 

New York prosecutor Joshua Steinglass on Tuesday said the other crime was a violation of a New York law called “conspiracy to promote or prevent election.”

Prosecutors will try to prove that the alleged conspiracy was to conceal a conspiracy to unlawfully promote his candidacy.

“Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,” New York Law 17-152 reads. 

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, during his opening argument Monday, said the case against Trump “is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up.” 

Colangelo argued that months after Trump announced his candidacy for president in June 2015, he invited former CEO of American Media Inc. (AMI) David Pecker to Trump Tower for a meeting. His then-attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen was also at the meeting. AMI owned the National Inquirer. 

“Those three men formed a conspiracy to influence the election,” Colangelo argued.

Colangelo claimed Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to “silence” her and make sure the public did not learn of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Colangelo claimed that after the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks from his businesses but claimed that he disguised those payments as payments for legal services. 

Colangelo alleged that Pecker, Cohen and Trump “conspired to influence the 2016 presidential election,” and said Pecker would gather harmful information and prevent it from going public. Colangelo alleged he only published flattering stories about Trump and negative stories about opponents. 

Colangelo claimed that the men used a practice called “catch & kill,” saying they bought damaging information, had the seller of that information sign a non-disclosure agreement and then blocked the information from being published. 

Colangelo said the practice was used three times — once to block a story a former Trump Tower doorman was trying to sell about an alleged out-of-wedlock child. Colangelo said the payment was $30,000. The doorman’s story was eventually proven to be untrue. 

BRAGG SAYS HE WILL TRY TO ‘DISCREDIT’ TRUMP IF HE TESTIFIES IN HIS DEFENSE DURING CRIMINAL TRIAL

The next payment was to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed a romantic and sexual relationship with Trump. Colangelo alleged that Cohen asked AMI to buy the story. Colangelo said AMI paid McDougal $150,000 in exchange for “unlimited life rights” to her story. 

Colangelo also alleged there was a payment made of $130,000 to Daniels. 

Colangelo said that when it came time to pay Cohen back, Trump “didn’t negotiate the price down — he doubled it.” Colangelo alleged that his “willingness to do this shows the importance of hiding the payments” and alleged “overall election conspiracy.” 

But Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche rejected the prosecution’s argument, declaring: “President Trump is innocent.”

“None of this was a crime,” Blanche said. “People say that Trump is trying to cover up payments — think… President Trump did not pay Cohen back $130,000. He paid Cohen $420,000.” 

He added, “Would a frugal businessman repay a $130,000 debt to the tune of $420,000?” 

Blanche said that the money “was not a payback,” and said Trump, in 2017, after the election, was paying legal fees. 

He added, “I have a spoiler alert — there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy. They put something sinister on it.” 

NY VS TRUMP: THE EVIDENCE PROSECUTORS CAN PRESENT IF FORMER PRESIDENT TESTIFIES

Blanche argued that Cohen paying Daniels “was not illegal” and said that entering into a non-disclosure agreement was also not illegal, saying companies “do that all the time.” 

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“There is nothing illegal about it,” Blanche said, arguing that Daniels was attempting to try to embarrass Trump with “all sorts of allegations” that could be “damaging to him and damaging to his family.” 

“Trump fought back to protect his family, reputation, brand,” Blanche said. “And that is not a crime.” 

FIRST ON FOX: A House Republican lawmaker is demanding answers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the hiring of a former Biden administration attorney on the prosecution team of former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas sent a scathing letter to DOJ and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Tuesday, highlighting the hire of Michael Colangelo on the team attempting to charge the former president with 34 counts of falsifying his business records, including alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. 

Colangelo was previously employed as a senior official at President Joe Biden’s DOJ, but reportedly left his role in December 2022 to work as Senior Counsel at the DA’s office a few months before the indictment of Trump.

“The politicized persecution of former President Trump and the collusion between the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Manhattan District Attorney (DA) General’s Office have raised several concerns among the public,” Gooden wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, demanding documents pertaining to Colangelo’s hiring documents be released.

SUPREME COURT PREPARES TO DEBATE TRUMP IMMUNITY CLAIM IN ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE

Gooden also requested any and all communication between Bragg and Colangelo while he was still employed at DOJ “to ensure transparency and accountability are upheld in this case.”

In the letter, the congressman questioned whether Colangelo was asked to leave by the department, or if he accepted a position in a lower office voluntarily and if he remains in contact with DOJ officials.

GOV GAVIN NEWSOM WORRIES ABOUT ‘OVERINDULGENCE,’ ‘OBSESSION’ WITH TRUMP HUSH MONEY TRIAL: ‘LESS IS MORE’

Additionally, the Texas lawmaker asked if Colangelo was asked to leave, “what was he promised in return for accepting such a substantial demotion from his position at DOJ to joining a Manhattan DA prosecution team.”

“The Department of Justice under President Biden has proven to be a cesspool of partisanship, further evident by the hyper-politicized courts that have taken up President Trump’s criminal trials,” Gooden’s letter read. “DA Bragg’s decision to hire Mr. Colangelo, a former DOJ official with close ties to the White House and Attorney General Garland, is yet another example of the unconstitutional approach to President Trump’s trial.”

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Gooden asked to receive a response to his questions by May 24, 2024.

Trump is currently on trial for making alleged hush money payments while he was campaigning for president in 2016. The former president has pleaded “not guilty” to the charges, and will spend the next several weeks of his 2024 presidential campaign in the courtroom.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ and Bragg’s office.

Judge Juan Merchan told President Donald Trump’s defense team they were “losing all credibility” during a Tuesday hearing on whether the 45th president violated a gag order in the Manhattan criminal trial. 

“I have to tell you right now, you’re losing all credibility in the court,” Merchan told Trump attorney Todd Blanche on Tuesday. 

Tuesday’s court proceedings began with Merchan hearing the prosecution’s request that Trump be held in contempt for violating a gag order that bans him from speaking publicly about witnesses and family members of court officials.

Merchan imposed the gag order on Trump before the trial began, ordering him to abstain from making comments — or directing others to make comments — regarding witnesses’ potential participation or the prosecution team. The gag order does allow Trump to publicly speak about District Attorney Alvin Bragg. 

LIVE UPDATES: NY VS. TRUMP TRIAL TO RESUME AS FORMER PRESIDENT FIGHTS OFF GAG ORDER ALLEGATIONS 

The DA’s office last week argued that Trump violated the order on several occasions, including on social media, and argued he should pay a $1,000 fine each for a handful of the instances. Prosecutors alleged Tuesday that Trump violated the order a total of 10 times. 

NY VS. TRUMP: JUDGE DELIVERS JURY INSTRUCTIONS AS OPENING STATEMENTS KICK OFF

The defense team argued in the hearing that Trump was responding to attacks when he made comments allegedly violating the order. Merchan pressed Blanche to provide instances of where Trump was responding to a specific incident. 

“I’ve asked you 8 or 9 times, ‘show me the exact post that he was responding to’ and you haven’t been able to do that once,” Merchan said. 

The defense team argued that Trump did not violate the order and should not face penalties. 

Trump has repeatedly slammed the gag order as “unconstitutional” and a tool used to silence him. 

“Judge Juan Merchan, who is suffering from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (whose daughter represents Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, and other Radical Liberals, has just posted a picture of me behind bars, her obvious goal, and makes it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial) has now issued another illegal, un-American, unConstitutional ‘order,’ as he continues to try and take away my Rights,” Trump posted on Truth Social last month after he was given a gag order limiting what he could publicly say about the case. 

Following the gag order hearing, the trial will continue until 2 p.m. Tuesday. The court is expected to again hear from the prosecution’s first witness, former media publisher David Pecker. 

NY VS. TRUMP: FIRST WITNESS TAKES THE STAND IN MANHATTAN COURT

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

The trial itself focuses on Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen paying former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in the early 2000s. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels. 

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Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with an intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony. 

Ahead of entering Manhattan court on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump slammed anti-Israel protests raging on college campuses as a “disgrace” while pinning blame on President Biden. 

“What’s going on at the college level … Columbia, NYU and others is a disgrace. And it’s really on Biden,” Trump said Tuesday morning outside the courtroom.

“He’s got the wrong words. He doesn’t know who he’s backing. And it’s a mess. And if this were me, they’d be after me, they’d be after me so much, but they’re trying to get him a pass. And what’s going on is a disgrace to our country. And it’s all Biden’s fault, and everybody knows it. He’s got no message, he’s got no compassion and doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Trump continued, adding Biden is the “worst president in the history of our country.”

Antisemitism has intensified on the campuses of some of the country’s most elite universities in recent days, including protesters on Columbia’s campus saying Jewish students were Hamas’s “next targets” amid ongoing demonstrations. More than 100 students were arrested on Columbia’s campus last week, while dozens more were arrested on Yale’s and NYU’s campuses this week. Some students have also established encampments on campus demanding their schools completely divest from Israel. 

LIVE UPDATES: NY VS. TRUMP TRIAL TO RESUME AS FORMER PRESIDENT FIGHTS OFF GAG ORDER ALLEGATIONS 

A rabbi at Columbia even warned Jewish students to leave campus due to the antisemitism, while a professor at the university told Fox Digital this weekend that anti-Israel campus groups have morphed into becoming an “actual terror organization” during the recent protests. 

“Al-Qassam you make us proud, kill another soldier now,” protesters on Columbia’s campus were seen chanting over the weekend, referring to the military wing terrorist organization Hamas. 

TRUMP RAILS AGAINST MANHATTAN DA BRAGG, SAYS ‘NUMEROUS OTHER AGENCIES’ DIDN’T PUSH CASE

Biden and the White House has condemned the protests, including on Monday when he came under fire for equating the antisemitic protests with people who “don’t understand” the Palestinians. 

“I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden told reporters Monday. 

Trump continued in his comments Tuesday that Biden is “no friend of Israel” or the “Arab world.” 

“It all starts with Joe Biden. The signals he puts out are so bad. And I can tell you he’s no friend of Israel, that’s for sure. And he’s no friend of the Arab world either,” Trump said Tuesday morning outside the courtroom. 

“He wants to take like a middle ground. And oftentimes that doesn’t work, but it’s certainly not working here. But what he’s done to Israel is abandon them, and he’s trying to be as nice as he can to the other side,” Trump continued.

NY VS. TRUMP: JUDGE DELIVERS JURY INSTRUCTIONS AS OPENING STATEMENTS KICK OFF

The 45th president is in Manhattan for the second week of his trial involving 34 counts of allegedly falsifying business records in the first degree. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

The charges were brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in connection to Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen paying former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 ahead of the 2016 election to allegedly quiet her claims of an extramarital affair. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels. 

NY VS. TRUMP: FIRST WITNESS TAKES THE STAND IN MANHATTAN COURT

Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with an intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony. 

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The case kicked off in earnest on Monday, after the court spent last week selecting and seating 12 jurors and six alternates to the panel. Tuesday will include a hearing on the prosecution’s request that Trump be held in contempt for violating a gag order, which bans him from speaking publicly about witnesses and family members of court officials, as well as continued testimony for the trial’s first witness, former media publisher David Pecker.

Former President Donald Trump has come to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s defense, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., pushes for the Louisiana Republican’s ouster from the leadership position. 

“Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK?” Trump told radio host John Fredericks on Monday. “It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do. I think he’s a very good person. You know, he stood very strongly with me on NATO when I said NATO has to pay up …It’s a tough situation when you have. I think he’s a very good man. I think he’s trying very hard. And again, we’ve got to have a big election.” 

Fredericks had asked the presumptive GOP nominee, who spent earlier Monday in a Manhattan courtroom listening to his defense and prosecutors’ opening statements in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush-money criminal trial, how he squares “this divide with MAGA and Mike Johnson.” 

Trump did praise Johnson for having secured as part of the package that Ukraine would receive more than $9 billion of economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans.”

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE CALLS JOHNSON’S FOREIGN AID PACKAGE HIS ‘3RD BETRAYAL’ OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

“We’ve got to election some people in Congress, much more than we have right now,” Trump continued. “We have to elect some good senators. Get rid of some of the ones we have now, like Romney and others. And we have to have a big day, and we have to win the presidency. If we don’t win the presidency, I’m telling you I think our country could be finished… We are absolutely a country in decline.” 

Greene, a strong Trump ally, called on Johnson to resign after the House passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes about $61 billion for Ukraine, or she would move to have him ousted as Speaker. 

“Mike Johnson’s leadership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process,” she told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated.”

3RD REPUBLICAN CALLS FOR SPEAKER JOHNSON’S OUSTER OVER $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN

Though Johnson has drawn ire from some House conservatives for working across the aisle to secure deals with President Biden on federal spending, government spying and, most recently, Ukraine, the political environment has changed since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was removed from the speakership over similar frustrations last October. 

Inching closer to the November election, Republicans maintain a slimmer majority after McCarthy resigned from the House after his ouster as speaker and Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was expelled from the lower chamber of Congress. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., voiced support for Greene’s motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership last week. 

But Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., head of the House Freedom Caucus who supported McCarthy’s ouster, told The Hill he opposed booting Johnson from the top job. 

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“My judgment and estimation is that this is not the time to do that,” Good reportedly said.