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• South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has filled two legislative seats, one of which had been vacant for months.
• Last fall, Noem requested the state Supreme Court’s opinion on conflicts of interest related to state contracts after a state senator resigned and agreed to pay back $500,000 in federal coronavirus aid.
• The court issued its opinion, backed 4-1 by the justices, stating that the constitutional provision does not bar all contracts funded by the state.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has filled two legislative seats, one of them empty for months as she sought and awaited a state Supreme Court opinion on legislator conflicts of interest.

Last fall, Noem had asked the high court to weigh in on legislator conflicts of interests related to state contracts after a state senator resigned her seat and agreed to a settlement to pay back about $500,000 of federal coronavirus aid she received for her preschool business.

The court heard oral arguments last month in a rare meeting of the three branches of state government, and issued its its opinion on Friday, backed 4-1 by the justices.

KRISTI NOEM SHARES VISION FOR AMERICA IN NEW BOOK AMID SPECULATION ABOUT RUNNING AS TRUMP’S VP

Justice Mark Salter wrote: “The contract restriction stated in (the South Dakota Constitution) is not a categorical bar on all contracts funded by the State. Instead, it prohibits a legislator, or former legislator within one year following the expiration of the legislator’s term, from being interested, directly or indirectly, in contracts that are authorized by laws passed during the legislator’s term.”

Top Republicans in South Dakota’s GOP-led Legislature welcomed the opinion for providing clarification. They don’t expect upheaval for the Legislature.

“It looks to me like a sound decision rooted in the plain meaning of (the constitutional provision),” said Republican House Majority Leader Will Mortenson, an attorney. “It means that legislators can still have driver’s licenses, they can still get park passes, and that it’s still illegal for the Legislature to pass a law and then turn around and get a contract based on it.”

SOUTH DAKOTA GOV. NOEM SEEKS TO BOLSTER TEXAS SECURITY EFFORTS AT US-MEXICO BORDER

Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck, also an attorney, said he isn’t aware of a lawmaker who has a conflict under the court’s opinion.

In a statement Friday, Noem said: “The court acted swiftly to provide clarity for both the executive and legislative branches, and we are grateful for their work.”

On Saturday, Noem named former state representative Kristin Conzet, a business owner in Rapid City, to a vacant House seat. On Monday, the governor appointed Mike Walsh, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and retired law enforcement officer in Box Elder who runs a polygraph examinations and background investigations business, to the Senate seat.

South Dakota’s ongoing legislative session began last month.

•  A federal judge on Monday further delayed the wire fraud and money laundering trial of William “Sam” McCann.
• McCann, a former candidate for Illinois governor, said he was “medically and psychologically” unable to proceed and dropped his plan to represent himself.
• U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Lawless questioned the validity of McCann’s self-diagnosis.

A federal judge on Monday further delayed the wire fraud and money laundering trial of William “Sam” McCann, a former candidate for Illinois governor, after McCann declared he was “medically and psychologically” unable to proceed and dropped his plan to represent himself.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Lawless didn’t buy the self-diagnosis of the ex-lawmaker, who was hospitalized last week with chest pains and fainting spells but discharged on Wednesday. But after a second conference with his so-called standby attorney, Jason Vincent, McCann indicated he wanted Vincent to take over and the judge granted a one-day extension to allow Vincent to confirm a defense strategy with his client.

McCann, a former Republican state senator from Plainview who waged a 2018 third-party conservative campaign for governor, was indicted in February 2021 by former U.S. Attorney John Milhiser, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump. McCann faces seven counts of wire fraud and single counts of money laundering and tax evasion for allegedly converting hundreds of thousands of dollars of political campaign contributions to personal use.

FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO ILLINOIS HOUSE SPEAKER RECEIVES PRISON TIME FOR LYING UNDER OATH

In response to questioning by Lawless, McCann, who has been held in a nearby county jail since his personal recognizance bond was revoked last Friday, said he had fallen overnight and was found by jailers early this morning.

“You ask me if I feel ready, no. I’m standing here in prison clothes, I fell and hit my head in the front and the back, I have severe angina, but I’ll adhere to whatever you say,” McCann said. “I don’t feel medically or psychologically able to proceed.”

The 54-year-old McCann, who entered the courtroom in a wheel chair, was hospitalized last week after passing out and complaining of chest pains, delaying the scheduled Feb. 5 start to his trial. This was after Lawless granted him a 60-day extension last November when he dismissed his lawyers and announced he wanted to represent himself.

He was discharged last Wednesday after doctors found no problems with his heart. He told Lawless Monday he was uncertain of what medications he had been prescribed and had very little memory of events that occurred after his discharge, including driving himself to Springfield on Friday when his parole was revoked.

“From the beginning, I have tried to give you an opportunity to represent yourself, to comply with court orders, to be forthcoming with information and to be honest with the court,” Lawless said. “Now you’re telling me you drove here Friday and don’t remember it and don’t know why you don’t remember it?”

McCann blamed the loss of memory on not having access in the jail to several medications, including duloxetine, an antidepressant for which medical literature recommends dosages be stepped down rather than stopped cold. But the government pointed out that U.S. Marshals Service officers obtaining McCann’s medications for his jail stay learned McCann had not taken duloxetine for two months.

PROSECUTION RESTS CASE IN CORRUPTION TRIAL FOR EX-ILLINOIS HOUSE SPEAKER’S ASSOCIATES

McCann declined comment as he was wheeled from the courtroom.

“All of his actions indicate he is coherent and fully mentally capable of going about whatever business he has except when he’s before your honor,” assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass told Lawless. “You have bent over backward to ensure he has a fair trial, but respectfully, at some point you have to say, ‘Enough is enough.’”

Bass did not object to a day’s delay to assist Vincent’s preparation to take over McCann’s defense. Vincent said he was familiar with evidence in the case but needed time to discuss trial technicalities, potential witnesses and how to cross-examine them and other ways McCann can assist him.

The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is throwing its support behind Kari Lake in battleground Arizona’s crucial race, a contest that could determine if the GOP wins back control of the chamber in November.

Tuesday’s announcement by National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Sen. Steve Daines is the latest sign that Lake is moving past her outsider and fiery election-denial-centered 2022 campaign for Arizona governor and is capable of working with the GOP establishment.

“Kari Lake is one of the most talented candidates in the country. Kari is building out an effective campaign operation that has what it takes to flip Arizona’s Senate seat in November. I’m proud to endorse Kari Lake for United States Senate,” Daines, the Republican senator from Montana who is chairing the NRSC this cycle, said in a statement.

THE TOP FIVE SENATE SEATS LIKELY TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER

Lake is a former longtime local TV news anchor in Arizona who’s a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump and his unproven claims his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to massive voter fraud. She sparked plenty of controversy in her narrow 2022 gubernatorial election loss. Lake never conceded her more than 17,000-vote defeat and repeatedly and unsuccessfully challenged the results in court.

But since announcing her Senate bid last October, Lake has consistently courted the NRSC and establishment Republicans, most recently last weekend at the campaign committee’s winter meeting in Palm Beach, Florida.

“I am honored to have the endorsement of Chairman Daines and the NRSC,” Lake said in a statement, which was first reported by Politico. “We are uniting Republicans in Arizona and have a clear path to victory. The Senate Majority runs through Arizona.”

FIRST ON FOX: TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN TO BOOST LAKE WITH KEY ENDORSEMENT

Daines and the NRSC have been much more hands on in GOP Senate primaries – in candidate recruitment and efforts to dissuade others from running – in comparison to the committee during the 2022 cycle under then-chairman Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.

The NRSC backed candidates Tim Sheehy in Montana and Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania as they launched their campaigns. But while Daines has complimented Lake in recent months, he has waited until now for an official endorsement.

In Arizona, Lake faces a nominal rival in Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, and she’s considered the overwhelming favorite to win the nomination.

Fox News has confirmed that the NRSC will host a fundraiser for Lake on March 6, which will be attended by Daines as well as Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the Senate GOP Conference chair.

Barrasso, the number three Republican in Senate GOP leadership, had previously endorsed Lake and plans to campaign with her in Arizona on Feb. 29.

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Democrats 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 2020 – West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.

Five other blue-held seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020 – Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Once reliably red, Arizona has become a key southwestern general election battleground state.

The state narrowly voted in 2018 for then-Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in a crucial Senate race, and for President Biden and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in 2020.

Lake was narrowly defeated for governor in 2022, while Kelly won election to a full six-year term in the Senate by five points.

This year’s Senate election in Arizona remains complicated as Sinema, who is now an independent, has not yet decided whether she will run for re-election.

Rep. Ruben Gallego is the frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination, and the possibility of a three-way contest with Sinema, Gallego and Lake has some Republicans salivating.

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

House Republicans are expected to hold a second vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, after an initial effort seeking to do so failed last week. He is the first Cabinet secretary to face charges in nearly 150 years.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has signaled he intends to bring the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas before the House floor as early as Tuesday evening. These articles were initially filed by the House Homeland Security Committee.

Their passage is far from certain, however, as the GOP holds only a narrow majority in the chamber. While Majority Leader Steve Scalise has returned to the chamber after being away from Washington for cancer care, even one other missing or weather-delayed lawmaker could prevent Republicans from impeaching Mayorkas for a second time.

The chamber’s Democratic members staunchly oppose the impeachment effort.

HOUSE FAILS TO IMPEACH DHS SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS IN MAJOR BLOW TO GOP

Republicans are seeking to impeach Mayorkas over failing to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and for repeatedly telling Congress that the Biden administration maintained operational control despite historic levels of migrant encounters and crossings.

The specific article charges Mayorkas with having “refused to comply with Federal immigration laws” and the other of having violated “public trust.”

HERE ARE THE 3 HOUSE REPUBLICANS WHO TORPEDOED MAYORKAS’ IMPEACHMENT VOTE

Last week, three Republicans opposed the impeachment vote in the final tally. Democrats remained united, and the vote failed 216-214.

One Democrat, Rep. Al Green of Texas, who had been hospitalized for emergency abdominal surgery, made a surprise arrival and wheeled into the chamber in scrubs and socks to vote against it.

Johnson could push the vote later into the week, should he wish to wait for the outcome of Tuesday’s special election in New York to replace ousted Rep. George Santos from New York’s 3rd Congressional District — which could send another Republican to Washington.

GOP LAWMAKER ON KEY IMMIGRATION SUBCOMMITTEE SLAMS MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT

Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian-Israeli immigrant and a former Israel Defense Forces soldier, is seeking to keep the seat red as she fends off a challenge from her Democratic opponent, former Rep. Tom Suozzi, who served in Congress from 2017 to 2023.

The effort comes as border security remains one of the most important issues for voters around the country.

Republicans, including presidential front-runner former President Trump, have made the issue a focus of their re-election campaigns in November, when the GOP is looking to keep its majority in the House of Representatives, as well as win back the White House and the U.S. Senate.

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Trump has vowed to launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” on day one if he retakes the White House.

“We have no choice,” Trump said at a rally in South Carolina.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden’s new campaign account garnered more than 67,000 TikTok followers in the first day since joining the Chinese-owned app he banned over national security concerns. 

The @bidenhq account’s following had jumped even higher to nearly 82,000 followers as of Tuesday morning, with more than 681,300 likes. 

That’s still a far cry from Biden’s 37.8 million followers on his campaign account on X, formerly Twitter. 

“Lol hey guys,” the first TikTok video on the account, published during the Super Bowl game Sunday, read in the caption. Biden, in khaki slacks and a navy sweater, stood with his hands in his pockets as he was asked a series of questions. Asked “Chiefs or Niners?,” Biden responded, “Two great quarterbacks, hard to decide, but if I didn’t say I was for the Eagles, then I’d be sleeping alone. My wife’s a Philly girl.” When challenged on if he preferred the game or commercials or the game or the halftime show, Biden responded game twice. 

TIKTOK CEO GRILLED ON CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY INFLUENCE, SEARCHES OF TAYLOR SWIFT VS. TIANANMEN SQUARE

“Jason Kelce or Travis Kelce?” someone questioned from behind the camera. “Mama Kelce. I understand she makes great chocolate chip cookies,” Biden said. 

“Deviously plotting to rig the season so the Chiefs would make the Super Bowl? Or are the Chiefs just being a good football team?” the voice asked again. 

“I’d get in trouble if I told you,” Biden responded, as the video cuts briefly to the Dark Brandon meme.

“Trump or Biden?” he’s asked, as the screen shows a side by side of Trump, a bit sunburned, in a Make America Great Again hat and polo, next to Biden seen smiling and wearing a suit in his official headshot. “Are you kidding?” the president chuckles, concluding the video. “Biden.”

Biden’s reelection campaign on Monday defended its new TikTok account as a vital way to boost its appeal with young voters, even as his administration continued to raise security concerns about whether the popular social media app might be sharing user data with China’s communist government.

Biden in 2022 signed legislation banning the use of TikTok by the federal government’s nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies, with limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security research purposes.

With 150 million U.S. users, TikTok is best known for quick snippets of viral dance routines. But Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., posted on X that Biden’s campaign is “bragging about using a Chinese spy app even though Biden signed a law banning it on all federal devices.”

“The President’s TikTok debut last night — with more than 5 million views and counting — is proof positive of both our commitment and success in finding new, innovative ways to reach voters in an evolving, fragmented, and increasingly personalized media environment,” Biden reelection deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in a statement Monday. 

The Biden campaign said it had been mulling establishing a TikTok account for months and had ultimately done so at the urging of youth activists and organizations, who argued that the app was key to reaching young voters. The campaign said it is using a separate cellphone to engage on TikTok in order to isolate using the app from other workstreams and communications, including emails. The campaign said it was taking additional steps but declined to name them, citing security concerns.

BIG TECH FACES BRUTAL QUESTIONING ON CAPITOL HILL OVER CONTENT HARMING KIDS

At the White House, though, national security spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that “there are still national security concerns about the use of TikTok on government devices and there’s been no change to our policy not to allow that.” Kirby referred most questions about TikTok to the Biden campaign and ducked a more general query about whether it was wise to use the app at all. He said the potential security issues “have to do with concerns about the preservation of data and potential misuse of that data and privacy information by foreign actors.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she is not in contact with the campaign and had no advance warning that its TikTok account was going live.

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with that country’s authoritarian government. Separately, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has been reviewing the app for years while trying unsuccessfully to force TikTok ownership to divest from its parent company. The White House said Monday the review is ongoing.

Another three videos had been added to Biden’s TikTok by Tuesday morning. “Weird brag,” one was captioned, including clips of former President Trump championing the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Another video captioned “lol” showed Biden making a joke about his memory at a D.C. conference Monday, taking a jab at Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report.

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The latest video on the account was captioned, “He really said that…,” and showed Trump at a recent South Carolina rally stating he’d encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” if U.S. allies did not pay their fair share into NATO. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is planning a tour of Western European countries to push for aid against Russia as support for further aid package wanes in the U.S.

Zelenskyy’s trip coincides with the Munich Security Conference in Germany, but the leader will also visit Paris and Berlin, Bloomberg News reported. The details of Zelenskyy’s trip have yet to be fully finalized.

His attention toward Western Europe comes as former President Trump has thrown his weight against sending further military aid to Ukraine. Trump called on Republicans to block a $95 billion package that would provide aid to Ukraine and Israel, with Kyiv getting the lion’s share.

Trump’s move goes back to his longstanding distaste for NATO and his belief that many of the group’s members are not paying their fair share for security. This weekend, he suggested that he would allow Russia to invade countries that weren’t paying their full security dues.

MODERATE DEMS SILENT AS BIDEN SKIRTS SENATE CONFIRMATION FOR JOHN KERRY’S REPLACEMENT

“NATO was busted until I came along,” Trump said Saturday. “I said, ‘Everybody’s gonna pay.’ They said, ‘Well, if we don’t pay, are you still going to protect us?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ They couldn’t believe the answer.”

TRUMP TAKES FAMILIAR DIG AT JUSTICE SYSTEM AFTER BIDEN DOCUMENTS REPORT: ‘SICK’

The former U.S. president said “one of the presidents of a big country” once asked him whether the U.S. would still defend their country if they were invaded by Russia, even if they did not pay.

“No, I would not protect you,” Trump recalled telling that country’s leader. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”

Despite Trump’s opposition, the aid package made it out of the Senate with a vote of 70 to 29.

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The bill faces more problems in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, however, where Trump holds more sway with lawmakers.

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report

President Biden is facing increased scrutiny over his administration providing health care administrative services to illegal migrants amid a worsening border crisis, potentially exacerbating long wait times for American veterans utilizing Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) facilities.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., touted his recently introduced No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act, which he introduced alongside Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., that would ban such action, one of the many problems he says are facing the country as a result of the border “disaster” taking place under Biden’s watch.

“[Biden’s] decided, OK, we’ve got to feed all these 10 million people we’ve let come across the border, we’ve got to house them, and we’ve got to give them health care,” Tuberville said. “They’ve opened up care from the doctors in these [VA] community care systems. The lines now in the VA’s are getting longer. Our funds that are supposed to go to the veterans are going to these illegal immigrants that are coming across.”

KAMALA HARRIS ‘READY TO SERVE’ AS DEMOCRATS SOUND ALARM ABOUT BIDEN’S AGE: REPORT

Tuberville lamented that the VA was already not able to provide care for all 19 million veterans living across the country and that the community systems he mentioned had helped reduce wait times until the border crisis began to get worse.

The arrangement between the VA’s Financial Service Center (VA-FSC) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to process claims for migrant medical care is a longstanding one that actually predates the Biden administration and was outlined in a 2020 memo during former President Trump’s administration.

When an illegal migrant under ICE detention requires health care, they are typically treated onsite by medical professionals. However, if specialist or emergency care is required, they may be taken to an independent private provider.

TREASURY CONFIRMS TERMS LIKE ‘MAGA,’ TRUMP,’ KAMALA,’ ‘BIDEN’ USED IN PRIVATE BANK TRANSACTION SEARCHES

In such cases, ICE contracts with the VA’s Financial Service Center (VA-FSC) to process reimbursements to those providers. According to a report from July, ICE has hundreds of letters of understanding in which ICE’s Health Service Corps (IHSC) will reimburse providers at Medicare rates. That uses the VA-FSC’s Healthcare Claims Processing System, which a portal that allows providers to submit and view claims and access other resources.

The VA told Fox News Digital in December that it has had an interagency agreement with the IHSC since 2002 to provide processing, but it also noted that the department neither provides health care nor pays for it. Under the agreement with IHSC, ICE pays fees for the claims processing services rendered and covers disbursements made to pay for claims.

However, the crisis at the border, with record numbers of migrants crossing into the U.S. and needing medical care, has likely worsened what one former veterans’ affairs adviser told Fox News Digital in December was a “history of a backlog of medical claims which has resulted in veterans getting bills they shouldn’t be getting, and … having dissatisfied community care providers who are not getting paid in a timely manner.”

BIDEN CONSIDERED RESIGNING VICE PRESIDENCY ‘IN PROTEST’ OVER OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN POLICY: HUR REPORT

Tuberville expressed hope that the bill could get some bipartisan support, considering the election year and that a number of Democrats up for reelection are running close races.

“I think we’ve got a great opportunity to get this, maybe not to a vote, but at least where we discuss it on the floor, where the American people start to understand it,” he said. “An election year is a great year to try to get some kind of bipartisan help on any type of bill, especially when it comes to the veterans. That means so much to us here in our country.”

Tuberville went on to blast the Biden administration’s selling of border wall materials purchased under the previous administration rather than using them as a barrier to deter border crossings, and he blasted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who narrowly survived an impeachment vote last week, as a “globalist” who has no interest in walls or borders.

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“If we don’t get a guy like President Trump in office, heaven help us. I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he added.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

The Senate is on track to pass the $95 billion national security supplemental package to assist Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific after the upper chamber passed several major procedural votes on Monday night. 

The supplemental package does not include any border provisions and several Republicans spent days — since Saturday — collectively filibustering the package on the Senate floor, which continued into Tuesday morning. The bill passed its final hurdle Monday night and the final vote could come anytime Tuesday, but no later than Wednesday, depending on how long Republicans can delay the vote.

The bill still has no time agreement, meaning a formal agreement between Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., regarding the time allocated for debating the legislation or its amendments. Both leaders have been urging their party members to pass the package. 

REPUBLICANS ATTEMPT TO GET HARDLINE BORDER SECURITY BILL INTO FOREIGN AID PACKAGE

Sen. Mike Lee, who spent four hours lambasting the bill on the floor on Saturday and continued his speeches overnight Monday, urged senators to reconsider voting for its passage. 

“We cannot send billions of dollars to Ukraine while America’s own borders are bleeding,” Lee said on Saturday. “This betrayal is all the more loathsome as it occurs at a time when the eyes of a nation are turned to sport, family and fun.”

By Monday, GOP senators were hoping for a breakthrough to get their amendments heard. Several amendments filed included hardline border security-related provisions. 

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Me., vice chair of the appropriations committee, said on Monday morning that “leadership on both sides of the aisle as well as the bill managers on both sides of the aisle have been working diligently night and day to try to get agreement to take consider debate and have votes on a series of amendments offered by senators on both sides of the aisle.” 

“Obviously, in order for that to occur, we would need the cooperation of all members and we would need to have time agreements because the number of amendments is considerable,” she said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a hawkish figure against continued aid to Ukraine, also spent significant time on the floor Monday prior to the vote. 

SENATE REPUBLICANS PREPARE FOR LONG HAUL IN FIGHT OVER UKRAINE, ISRAEL AID

“Senate Republican leadership, including the senators who voted to get on this bill, assured us it would be an open amendment process,” Paul told Fox News Digital on Monday. “Mike Lee spent four hours trying to bring down amendments and the Democrats allowed zero of them. So yeah, I do believe that the Democrats have not been honest or forthright about allowing amendments.”

On Sunday, Schumer said on the floor that there would be a “fair and reasonable amendment votes” on the floor “if there’s any possibility of speeding this process up.” 

However, Republicans who are against passing the aid bill don’t want the process to be sped up and argue they should be allowed to offer amendments even if they don’t support the overall bill. 

“And members on their side have actually said since we’re not for the overall bill, we shouldn’t even have the right to have amendments,” Paul said Monday night. “So no, it’s a terrible process and we’re going to continue to fight them on this and talking filibusters are ongoing as we speak, and the talking filibuster will be going on as long as we have speakers into the night.”

SENATE TANKS IMMIGRATION, FOREIGN AID SPENDING PACKAGE AFTER GOP BACKLASH AGAINST BORDER PROVISIONS

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., another dissenting vote for the foreign aid-only package, also told Fox News Digital on Monday night that “they don’t want amendments because they’d be bad votes for some of the senators and the Democratic side of their elections coming up.” He explained the party is split on the issue of more aid to Ukraine. 

The former football coach also offered an amendment to the package he said, which would “pretty much close the border down” and “doing the things at the border that we already have laws for.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also introduced an amendment identical to the House’s immigration bill, H.R.2, which would restore most Trump-era restrictions, hire additional border patrol officers and tighten asylum screenings.

Republican Sens. Roger Marshall, JD Vance, and Josh Hawley were just a few other senators who spoke in opposition to the bill on Monday, continuing the filibuster. Meanwhile, GOP Sens. Mitt Romney and Thom Tillis were just a few who urged their colleagues to “delay” no further and pass the package. 

The package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and nearly $5 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan. Democrats brought the package up for a vote after Republicans had blocked the $118 billion package that also included numerous border and immigration provisions last Wednesday. 

Republicans had previously said they would not approve funding for Ukraine unless the overwhelmed southern border was secured first. The GOP-led House said in a statement Monday they would not pass the Senate’s foreign aid bill without border security provisions, and instead, would work on their own bill. 

“House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border,” Johnson said in a statement Monday evening, in part. “The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world. It is what the American people demand and deserve. Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”

Donald Trump has made some news that is reverberating around the world.

It wasn’t him saying – after that incredible Super Bowl comeback by Kansas City – that he signed a law boosting earnings for musicians so Taylor Swift shouldn’t endorse Joe Biden (also “I like her boyfriend, Travis”).

It wasn’t “we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country, we will rout the Fake News Media, we will Drain the Swamp.”

It’s not that he told a South Carolina rally that “Biden’s thugs are still trying to put me in jail on fake charges for crimes that they openly admit that Crooked Joe did. He actually did these crimes” – while adding “I’m not looking for anything to happen to this guy.”

WHY BIDEN’S ANGER AND DEFENSIVENESS INFLAMED ANXIETY ABOUT HIS MEMORY ISSUES

No, it’s about NATO.

Trump recalled a conversation with the president “of a big country,” who he says asked him if they didn’t increase their defense contribution to the North Atlantic alliance “and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?”

Sharing his response at the rally, Trump claims he said: “You didn’t pay. You’re delinquent… No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”

The idea that Vladimir Putin could do “whatever the hell they want” set off alarm bells, not only among foreign policy officials in Europe but in much of the mainstream media here at home. One potential impact would be on Ukraine, with Trump having declined to endorse more military aid to that weakened country, which would allow Russia’s unprovoked invasion to succeed in either keeping its territorial gains along the eastern border or capturing the entire sovereign nation.

And yet there is further evidence, as if any were needed, that the GOP is now Trump’s party. Some of the biggest Republican hawks, who staunchly supported NATO in the past, say they have no problem with the former president’s remarks.

As the Washington Post points out, Lindsey Graham said when he ran for president in 2016 that Trump’s comments had made Putin a “very happy man.”

On Sunday, the senator said he was “not worried” about Trump’s latest remarks “at all.”

Tom Cotton, another leading hawk, said in 2016 that America must “make sure that we stand by NATO and we stand for countries like Ukraine and Georgia” who face “Russian aggression, and recognize Vladimir Putin as the adversary he is.”

On Sunday, the senator said NATO countries not paying their full share are “already encouraging Russian aggression, and President Trump is simply ringing the warning bell.”

UKRAINE AID PACKAGE WOULD BE USED TO IMPEACH TRUMP, SEN VANCE WARNS

Marco Rubio said in 2018 that Trump went too far by “questioning the value of the alliance,” tweeting: “The end of #NATO would be a dream come true for #Putin.”

On Sunday, the senator said he had “zero” concerns about Trump’s latest comments and suggested he didn’t mean them: “We’ve already been through this. “You would think people would’ve figured it out by now.”

And here’s the kicker: Rubio and Graham pushed through a bill barring any president from withdrawing from NATO. I wonder who they might have had in mind?

Look, I get it. This is how Trump negotiates. During his first term he regularly questioned the value of the NATO alliance as a way of getting some country to keep their commitment to spend 2% of their GDP on defense, with some success. It’s an approach he honed as a businessman when he would threaten to walk away from a deal unless certain conditions were met.

But when Trump took office with little experience in foreign policy, he was talked out of any withdrawal by such retired generals as Jim Mattis and John Kelly.

The New York Times reports this anecdote:

“Soon after former President Donald J. Trump took office, his staff explained how NATO’s mutual defense obligations worked.

“‘You mean, if Russia attacked Lithuania, we would go to war with Russia?’ he responded. ‘That’s crazy.’ Mr. Trump has never believed in the fundamental one-for-all-and-all-for-one concept of the Atlantic alliance.”

But Trump has made clear that in a second term he would surround himself with loyalists who would not attempt to stop such decisions.

Senior adviser Jason Miller says Biden has reversed Trump’s approach to NATO: 

“Democrat and media pearl-clutchers seem to have forgotten that we had four years of peace and prosperity under President Trump, but Europe saw death and destruction under Obama-Biden and now more death and destruction under Biden.”

FINLAND CENTER-RIGHT CANDIDATE ALEXANDER STUBB DECLARES PRESIDENTIAL VICTORY WITH NEARLY 52% OF VOTE

Much of the media are leading the charge on NATO. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour called Trump’s latest comments “insane.”

It’s also true that top European officials are being quoted on the record as criticizing Trump’s language. They would be irresponsible if they didn’t start plotting a Plan B.

The crux of the argument is that the alliance created in the wake of World War II has worked well in deterring war and doesn’t need to be fixed. I happen to be in that camp – and the only time the mutual defense pact has been invoked was when our allies aided us after the Sept. 11 attacks. 

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Yet it’s also true that Trump is well practiced in making seemingly over-the-top pronouncements that give him more leverage.

Footnote: Trump now says on Truth Social that “NO MONEY IN THE FORM OF FOREIGN AID SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ANY COUNTRY UNLESS IT IS DONE AS A LOAN, NOT JUST A GIVEAWAY.”

• U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher has announced his unexpected retirement from representing Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District, a solidly Republican area.
• Just hours after Gallagher announced his retirement, former state Sen. Roger Roth, of Appleton, announced his candidacy.
• Other potential candidates, including Republican consultant Alex Bruesewitz and State Sen. Andre Jacque, are considering joining the race.

The surprise retirement of a GOP congressman in a solidly Republican Wisconsin congressional district has potential candidates weighing a run, even as a former state lawmaker quickly jumped into the race.

U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher announced Saturday that he won’t run for a fifth term representing the 8th Congressional District in northeast Wisconsin. The abrupt move came just days after he angered his fellow Republicans by refusing to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Just hours after Gallagher announced his retirement, former state Sen. Roger Roth, of Appleton, announced his candidacy Saturday and endorsed Trump at the same time, something he did not do in his 2022 run for lieutenant governor.

GOP REP. MIKE GALLAGHER ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM HOUSE: ‘CONGRESS IS NO PLACE TO GROW OLD’

The district Gallagher represents is firmly Republican. Seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, the 39-year-old Gallagher sometimes found himself at odds both with former President Donald Trump and his supporters, most recently over the Mayorkas vote.

Trump won the district by 16 points in 2020, even though he lost the state by less than a point to President Joe Biden. Gallagher won reelection three times by no fewer than 25 points. The district includes the cities of Appleton and Green Bay, Door County and covers mostly rural areas north through Marinette.

Roth served in the Legislature from 2007 to 2023 and was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in 2022. He ran for Congress in 2010 but lost in the primary to eventual winner Reid Ribble.

Roth, in a statement Saturday, pitched himself a “proven conservative fighter” while calling for strengthening the border, national security, the economy and “our traditional values.”

While Roth was the first candidate to get in, he almost certainly won’t be the last.

Trump ally and Republican consultant Alex Bruesewitz, who had said Gallagher “betrayed the Republican Party and the American people with his vote to side with Mayorkas,” is considering a run. He posted on X, formerly Twitter, a letter of support from the chair of the Oconto County Republican Party and said that he looked forward to “spreading the MAGA message to the patriots in the Oconto GOP.”

Bruesewitz immediately won the support of former Trump campaign consultant Roger Stone, who posted on social media that Bruesewitz “would have the full support of the MAGA movement.”

Bruesewitz, 26, was born in Wisconsin but currently lives in Florida. He would have to move back to Wisconsin to run for the seat.

State Sen. Andre Jacque, of De Pere, also said he was considering running. Other current and former Republican members of the Legislature are expected to consider running.

Democrat Kristin Lyerly, a De Pere doctor, previously said she was considering a run against Gallagher. Democrats fielded no candidate in the 2022 election.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party said in a statement Saturday that it looked forward “to competing in the 8th and bringing some stability and competence back to the House.”

CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR SLAMS TIKTOK’S ROLE IN AIDING CHINESE MIGRANT SURGE AT SOUTHERN BORDER

Candidates have until June 1 to submit nomination papers for the Aug. 13 primary.

The open seat will certainly fuel a competitive Republican primary, but the presidential race and not one for the congressional seat will drive turnout in November, said longtime conservative strategist Mark Graul who lives in the district. He didn’t expect the race to greatly impact the presidential race.

The race could be shaken up dramatically if the Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to hear a redistricting lawsuit challenging congressional boundary lines. said Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political science professor. The court has not said whether it will hear the challenge.

The state elections commission said in a legislative redistricting case that any new lines must be set by March 15 in order for deadlines to be met for candidates running this November.

Dozens of former Trump and Bush administration officials – who served in the White House, Department of Energy and State Department – are calling on Congress to reverse President Biden’s pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects.

In a letter Monday morning to the chairs and ranking members of top House and Senate committees, 35 ex-officials expressed “profound concern” about Biden’s LNG export moratorium, outlining how it works against U.S. national security, energy and economic interests. They argued that reversing the policy is “imperative” and urged the congressional leaders to take immediate action on the issue.

“This decision, we believe, stands in stark contrast to the clear interests of our nation’s economic prosperity, energy security, and the strategic advantage American LNG provides us and our allies across the world who benefit from supply,” the former U.S. officials wrote. “American energy has become a stabilizing force in global markets, reinforcing our alliances and promoting global stability. The moratorium on LNG export permits threatens to undo these gains.”

“The United States has provided benefits to a significant part of the world’s population – a role we have been proud to advance as representatives of our Nation,” they continued. “We remain committed to the role of the United States as a stabilizing force in global energy markets.”

STATE AGS WARN BIDEN’S NATURAL GAS MORATORIUM VIOLATES FEDERAL LAW, DEMAND REVERSAL

The signatories on the letter include former Energy Secretaries Spencer Abraham, Rick Perry and Dan Brouillette, former National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner Bernard McNamee, former White House deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates, and more than two dozen former State Department ambassadors.

In their letter, they stressed that LNG exports ensure energy supplies for allies and strengthen the U.S. economy in the form of creating thousands of high-paying jobs, stimulating local economies and generating “significant tax revenue.” If proposed LNG export projects on pause as a result of Biden’s actions don’t proceed, such economic benefits would move to foreign nations.

TIKTOK ACTIVIST SAYS HE ADVISED WHITE HOUSE ON BIDEN’S NEW NATURAL GAS MORATORIUM

“The cessation of exports risks derailing this progress, impacting workers and communities across the country that have come to rely on the energy sector,” they wrote.

Fossil fuel industry groups have recently cited research indicating that LNG exports could add as much as $73 billion to the U.S. economy by 2040, create 453,000 American jobs and increase U.S. purchasing power by $30 billion.

Additionally, the ex-officials argued that the ability for greater LNG exports allows energy companies to invest in more domestic infrastructure that would, in turn, support U.S. energy supplies. 

And they further stated that limiting LNG exports “sends the wrong message to our allies, partners and the energy markets.” In the aftermath of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, energy experts argued LNG exports would be critical for helping American allies to wean off Russian gas and, in December, more than 87% of U.S. LNG exports went to Europe, U.K. or Asian markets.

REPUBLICANS PROBE CCP-TIED NONPROFIT FUNNELING MONEY TO US ECO GROUPS

“In the aftermath of Russia’s war in Ukraine, alternative supplies are more important than ever to fill the void of Russian natural gas,” the former officials wrote. “Security of energy supply, specifically natural gas, is critical to counter the threat of widespread deindustrialization as Europe not only faces war on its continent but also a desire to implement a clean energy transition.”

“Germany’s own steps to rapidly deploy LNG import infrastructure demonstrate this crisis most exceptionally,” their letter continued. “They have signed binding contracts for long-term US LNG supply that are now being put into question by our government.”

Late last month, Biden ordered the DOE to pause pending permits for LNG export facilities while federal officials conduct a rigorous environmental review assessing the projects’ carbon emissions, which could take more than a year to complete. The action represents a major victory for activists who have loudly called for such a move, even threatening to hold large protests over the issue.

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The president said the pause on LNG permitting was a part of his sweeping climate agenda, adding the action “sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.” He also took aim at “MAGA Republicans” for willfully denying the “urgency of the climate crisis.”

Former President Donald Trump, on Monday, announced his recommendations for changes within the Republican National Committee, proposing leadership positions for North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley, daughter-in-law Lara Trump and campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita.

Last week, Trump recommended Whatley replace longtime RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel after this month’s South Carolina Republican presidential primary.

A source familiar with the change told Fox News Digital at the time that Trump was pushing for Whatley to replace McDaniel because he was “so powerful on election fraud” in 2020.

On Monday, Trump officially announced that he believes Whatley should be the RNC’s next leader.

“Michael has been with me from the beginning, has done a great job in his home state of North Carolina, and is committed to election integrity, which we must have to keep fraud out of our election, so it can’t be stolen,” Trump said.

TRUMP RECOMMENDS NORTH CAROLINA GOP CHAIR WHATLEY TO REPLACE MCDANIEL AT RNC: SOURCE

Whatley has served as the North Carolina GOP chair since 2019. Whatley also serves as the general counsel for the Republican National Committee. 

Prior to his work with the Republican Party, Whatley served as a federal law clerk, a senior official in the President George W. Bush administration and as the chief of staff for former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. Whatley also served as a senior adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign, Florida Recount and Transition Teams, as well as the Trump-Pence campaign and transition teams. 

Along with looking to get Whatley into the top leadership position in the committee, Trump announced plans for his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to run as co-chair of the RNC.

RNC CHAIR RONNA MCDANIEL TO STEP DOWN AFTER SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARIES: REPORT

“Lara is an extremely talented communicator and is dedicated to all that MAGA stands for,” the former president said. “She has told me she wants to accept this challenge and would be GREAT!”

The third position Trump hopes to have influence on within the committee is chief operating officer. He’d like to see veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita, who’s a top adviser in Trump’s 2024 campaign, in that role.

“Chris will manage the RNC’s day-to-day operations, so it will become a fighting machine for 2024 and use all the tools available to win for the American people,” Trump said.

TRUMP MEETS WITH RONNA MCDANIEL – THEN CALLS FOR CHANGES AT REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE

The former president also said the three individuals are “highly talented, battle-tested, and smart,” adding they have his “complete and total endorsement” to lead the RNC.

As Trump seeks to win back his old job in the White House, he stated on Monday how crucial it was for the RNC to be a good partner during the election.

“That means helping to ensure fair and transparent elections across the country, getting out the vote everywhere – even in parts of the country where it won’t be easy – and working with my campaign, as the Republican presumptive nominee for President, to win this election and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” he exclaimed.

FIRST ON FOX: RNC REBOUNDS WITH STRONG FUNDRAISING MONTH

Last week, Trump met with McDaniel at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and after the meeting, he posted on his Truth Social platform that McDaniel was a “friend” but that he would be urging changes at the RNC after the South Carolina presidential primary.

The former president pointed to McDaniel’s previous tenure as chair of the Michigan GOP.

“I think she did OK, initially, in the RNC. I would say right now, there’ll probably be some changes made,” he added.

McDaniel was nominated by Trump soon after his presidential election victory in 2016, and she won re-election in 2019, 2021, and January of last year. 

While she ended up easily winning her last re-election, she faced a vocal faction of far-right detractors who viewed her as too close to the party’s establishment wing.

She’s also come under plenty of criticism in recent months over the RNC’s finances.

Alarms are ringing over the party’s fundraising heading into the general election. The RNC ended 2023 with just $8 million in cash on hand, less than half as much as the Democratic National Committee. 

But as Fox News Digital was first to report, the RNC did haul in $12 million in January, its best monthly fundraising haul in the 2024 election cycle.

And Trump, who is the commanding front-runner for the Republican nomination as he bids for the White House a third straight time, was angry at McDaniel and the RNC in recent months for holding GOP presidential primary debates, which he skipped.

When she won re-election last year, McDaniel said in an interview with Fox News that it would be her last two-year term steering the national party committee.

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If McDaniel does resign, her replacement would need approval from the 168 RNC committee members.

McDaniel addressed the speculation last week in a letter to RNC members, reassuring them that she was still hard at work as RNC chairwoman, “building a machine that will elect Republicans up and down the ballot in November.” 

But an RNC committee member who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital. “If Trump continues to win primaries, most of the 168 will follow his lead whether he picks Whatley or someone else.  Maybe he’ll face heavy opposition from outside the committee, but not from within it.”

South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary is the next major contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar, and polls suggest that Trump holds a large double-digit lead in the primary over his last remaining major rival – former South Carolina governor and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.

“Trump just announced he is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Under Donald Trump and current RNC leadership, Republicans lost elections in 2018, 2020, and 2022, and now the RNC is effectively bankrupt,” Haley presidential campaign manager Betsy Ankney said in a statement. “Nikki Haley’s plan for the RNC? Blow it all up.”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman  contributed to this report.

A Georgia state judge on Monday confirmed that he will hold an evidentiary hearing on Thursday over allegations that embattled District Attorney Fani Willis engaged in an “improper” affair. 

Willis was accused of having an “improper” affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute former President Donald Trump in a sweeping racketeering case related to the 2020 election. Those allegations were first made by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, who is arguing that Willis’ alleged conduct should disqualify her and her team from the case. 

Willis, who admitted to a personal relationship with Wade but denied any conflict of interest, asked the court to cancel the evidentiary hearing slated for later this week. 

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said in a hearing Monday considering those motions, “in studying the law that’s been filed up to this point, I think it’s clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one. And the filing submitted on this issue so far have presented a conflict in the evidence that can’t be resolved as a matter of law.”

FULTON COUNTY DA FANI WILLIS ADMITS PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH PROSECUTOR BUT DENIES CONFLICT OF INTEREST

“Specifically looking at defendant Roman’s motion, it alleges a personal relationship that resulted in a financial benefit to the district attorney. And that is no longer a matter of complete speculation. The state has admitted a relationship existed. And so, what remains to be proven is the existence and extent of any financial benefit,” the judge said. 

“So, because I think it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification, I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to establish the record on those core allegations,” he said. 

In legal filings last month, Roman alleged that Wade billed Fulton County for 24 hours of work on a single day in November 2021, shortly after being appointed as a special prosecutor, and that Willis financially benefited from her alleged lover’s padded taxpayer-funded salary by taking lavish vacations together on his dime. 

According to the court documents, Wade, who has no RICO and felony prosecution experience, billed taxpayers $654,000 since January 2022.  

Judge McAfee said Monday that “the particulars” of Wade’s experience will not be relevant in the evidentiary hearing, which will take place on Thursday, Feb. 15, adding, “in my mind as long as a lawyer has a heartbeat and a bar card that lawyer’s appointment standing alone is a matter within the District Attorney’s discretion.”

GEORGIA WHISTLEBLOWERS LINING UP TO TESTIFY AGAINST FULTON COUNTY DA FANI WILLIS, STATE LAWMAKER SAYS

McAfee said the issues “at point” here are “whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or non-romantic in nature, when it formed and whether it continues. And that’s only relevant because it’s in combination with the question of the existence and extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of their relationship.” 

Willis responded to the allegations in a court filing and admitted to having a “personal” relationship with Wade but denied any conflict of interest. She also argued that, according to Georgia law, in order for a district attorney to be forcibly removed from a case, the conflict of interest has to be harmful to a defendant’s case. 

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

Willis told the Superior Court that while the allegations against her are “salacious,” they have no “merit.”

Willis claims that while she and Wade “have been professional associates and friends since 2019,” there was “no personal relationship” between her and Wade in November 2021 at the time of Wade’s appointment, and that Roman and his lawyers “offer no support for their insistence that the exercise of any prosecutorial discretion (i.e., any charging decision or plea recommendation) in this case was impacted by any personal relationship.”

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Willis’ filing said Roman’s motions “attempt to cobble together entirely unremarkable circumstances of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment with completely irrelevant allegations about his personal family life into a manufactured conflict of interest on the part of the District Attorney.”

Judge McAfee determined that Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner, will testify first on Thursday and that his testimony will determine whether others will be required to testify. 

The state has also revealed that DA Willis’ father will be testifying on Thursday, remotely from California.

The court has set aside all day Thursday and Friday for this hearing, and potentially more time if needed.  

Several conservatives agree with Sen. JD Vance’s memo circulated early Monday that there’s a “hidden” clause in the national security supplemental bill that he believes could be grounds to impeach former President Donald Trump from office if elected to office later this year. 

Vance sent a memo to GOP lawmakers highlighting that the bill, which would send billions of federal dollars to Ukraine, assures the delivery of funding through September 2025. Trump, however, has vowed to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of gaining office, which would also end funding.

Vance’s memo claimed that the supplemental bill “represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration,” and he urged Republicans to block its passage. 

SEN. VANCE MEMO WARNS GOP COLLEAGUES OF ‘SYSTEMIC FAILURES’ IN US AID TO UKRAINE

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, said he supported Vance’s memo on Monday, arguing that Democrats are “setting up” for a possible Trump presidential win.

“They’re locking in foreign aid that will even tie the hands of the next president,” Paul told Fox News Digital in an interview. “So, I think it’s a terrible idea. But also, if the next President were to try to have a different policy, you can see the Democrats again starting an impeachment.”

“I think they’re going to try to impeach him before he gains office now, and that’s exactly what this is,” he said.

Mark Paoletta, former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) General Counsel during the Trump Administration, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the clause in the bill text is an “effort to inappropriately tie President Trump’s hands in his next term by locking in Ukraine funding for multiple years.” 

“In a presidential election year, Congress should not be making long-term funding commitments, particularly in foreign policy, that will attempt to tie the hands of the next commander in chief,” Paoletta said. “President Trump had every right to pause the Ukraine funding for about 60 days, given his concerns about corruption in Ukraine and how best to spend those funds.”

He added, “As OMB General Counsel, I issued the legal justification to pause the funding, and would do it again today.”

Russ Vought, a former Trump cabinet member, also agreed with Vance’s memo and said in a post on X that Vance is “absolutely right to interpret these Ukraine provisions” in this manner. 

PENTAGON FINALLY RUNS OUT OF MONEY FOR UKRAINE, URGES 50 ALLIES TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING KYIV

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said the provision in the bill “is gonna force him to send money and spend money for Ukraine.”

“This is in the bill,” Tuberville told Fox News Digital. “So, it’s just another situation where the Democrats are doing something and working towards making sure that money’s spent in a certain area where American taxpayers and this country don’t have.”

The Trump administration, through the OMB, withheld a total of about $400 million of security assistance from Ukraine in 2019. This came just before Trump asked Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy to investigate the family of his 2020 rival, Joe Biden, and while the White House allegedly was withholding an Oval Office visit from Zelenskyy in exchange for that investigation.

These actions are what fueled the impeachment effort against Trump, in which he was ultimately acquitted. 

Trump has indicated that if he is elected president this year, he would resolve the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours.” 

RUSSIAN LAWMAKERS WEIGH BILL TO SEIZE PROPERTY FROM THOSE WHO CRITICIZE PUTIN’S INVASION OF UKRAINE

The supplemental package, on track for final passage this week in the upper chamber, would send billions of federal dollars to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific. The bill text includes $1.6 billion to finance Ukraine’s military as well as just under $14 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, set to expire on Sept. 30, 2025. 

“These are the exact same accounts President Trump was impeached for pausing in December 2019,” Vance wrote in a memo distributed to GOP offices early Monday. “Every single House Republican voted against this impeachment solution.”

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The Senate is gearing up for the last round of procedural votes Monday night to push the supplemental package forward for a final vote this week, despite several Republicans in opposition who are avoiding a time agreement to continue filibustering. It’s unclear if the bill would pass in the GOP-led House. 

A former version of this bill that included border-related provisions failed to pass in the Senate last week. 

The offices of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on Vance’s memo.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

Former President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to extend the delay in the trial stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference case, arguing that he has presidential immunity to protect him from prosecution.

Trump attorneys on Monday afternoon filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court just days after a D.C. appeals court ruled the former president and 2024 GOP front-runner is not immune from prosecution in Smith’s case.

TRUMP NOT IMMUNE FROM PROSECUTION IN 2020 ELECTION CASE, FEDERAL APPEALS COURT RULES

The request is for temporary relief, to stay or block the appeals court mandate from taking effect, which would give the Trump legal team more time to file an appeal to the Supreme Court on the merits of whether a former president deserves immunity from criminal prosecution for actions while in office.

The trial stemming from Smith’s case against Trump is on hold pending resolution of the immunity question.

The Justice Department may ask for expedited consideration of this initial emergency appeal.

“If the prosecution of a President is upheld, such prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination,” the request states. “Criminal prosecution, with its greater stigma and more severe penalties, imposes a far greater ‘personal vulnerability’ on the President than any civil penalty.”

The request adds, “The threat of future criminal prosecution by a politically opposed Administration will overshadow every future President’s official acts — especially the most politically controversial decisions.”

The request states that the president’s “political opponents will seek to influence and control his or her decisions via effective extortion or blackmail with the threat, explicit or implicit, of indictment by a future, hostile Administration, for acts that do not warrant any such prosecution.”

“This threat will hang like a millstone around every future President’s neck, distorting Presidential decision-making, undermining the President’s independence, and clouding the President’s ability ‘to deal fearlessly and impartially with’ the duties of his office.'” 

Trump’s lawyers added, “Without immunity from criminal prosecution, the Presidency as we know it will cease to exist.” 

TRUMP TRIAL DELAYED IN CASE STEMMING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH’S JAN. 6 INVESTIGATION

A Trump spokesperson described the filing as a “powerhouse filing.”

“As President Trump’s powerhouse Supreme Court filing explains, if immunity is not granted to a President, every future President who leaves office will face the prospect of being wrongfully indicted by the opposing party,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Without complete immunity, the President of the United States will not be able to function properly. Even while the President is still in office, his political opponents will use the threat of future prosecution as a weapon, effectively blackmailing and extorting him to influence his most sensitive and important decisions.”

The spokesperson added, “The Supreme Court should grant the requested stay and put an end to Deranged Jack Smith’s repeated attempts to corruptly short-circuit the ordinary and correct functioning of our justice system.”

The filing comes after Washington, D.C., federal Judge Tanya Chutkan earlier this month officially delayed the trial, which was set to begin on March 4– a day before the critical Super Tuesday primary contests, when Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont vote to select a GOP nominee.

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Chutkan said in December that she does not have jurisdiction over the matter while it is pending before the Supreme Court, and she put a pause on the case against the Republican 2024 front-runner until the high court determines its involvement.

Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Those charges stemmed from Smith’s investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in August 2023.

The nation’s largest fossil fuel industry association filed a legal challenge against the Biden administration over its offshore oil and gas leasing program, which includes the fewest number of lease sales in U.S. history.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) filed the legal petition Monday, arguing that the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) plan restricting future offshore fossil fuel lease sales puts American consumers at risk and threatens U.S. energy security. The DOI finalized the five-year plan in December, scheduling just three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029, marking the fewest number of sales ever included in such a plan.

“Demand for affordable, reliable energy is only growing, yet this administration has used every tool at its disposal to restrict access to vast energy resources in federal waters,” said API Senior Vice President and General Counsel Ryan Meyers.

“In issuing a five-year program with the fewest lease sales in history, the administration is limiting access in a region responsible for generating among the lowest carbon-intensive barrels in the world, putting American consumers at greater risk of relying on foreign sources for our future energy needs,” Meyers continued.

DOZENS OF FORMER TOP FEDERAL OFFICIALS CALL ON CONGRESS TO STRIKE DOWN BIDEN’S NATURAL GAS CRACKDOWN

Under the administration’s plan, the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold the three sales of parcels in the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, 2027 and 2029. It also rules out any leasing off the Alaskan coast and in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in another departure from previous plans.

The DOI, meanwhile, signaled that it could have pursued an even more restrictive five-year program if not for the Inflation Reduction Act. That legislation — Democrats’ $739 billion climate and tax package signed by President Biden in 2022 — ties new offshore wind energy leases to new oil and gas leases, meaning the former could be threatened without consistent fossil fuel leasing.

REPUBLICANS PROBE CCP-TIED NONPROFIT FUNNELING MONEY TO US ECO GROUPS

Issuing a program with less than three sales, a possibility the DOI floated last year to the dismay of energy industry groups, may have jeopardized Biden’s plan to ensure the U.S. develops 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The nation currently has just two tiny pilot projects, one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other off Virginia’s coast, but the DOI has permitted several large-scale facilities since 2021 that are slated to come online in coming years.

Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal government is required to issue plans every five years laying out prospective offshore oil and gas lease sales. The most recent plan, which was implemented in 2017, expired in June 2022. 

The persistent delay in issuing a replacement plan, though, represented a departure from precedent set by both Republican and Democratic administrations, which have historically finalized replacements immediately after previous plans expired.

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The most recent two plans, both formulated under the Obama administration, included more than 10 offshore oil and gas lease sales each. And the Trump administration sought to hold a total of 47 lease sales across the Atlantic region, the Pacific region and the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coasts between 2022 and 2027, but that proposal was axed after Biden took office in 2021.

“Today, we are taking action to challenge this shortsighted program so that future generations of Americans will continue to benefit from our energy advantage for decades to come,” Meyers, from API, said on Monday.

The DOI declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry against President Biden are demanding the Justice Department turn over the transcript and any recordings of Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur in his investigation into his mishandling of classified documents.

Hur, who released his report to the public last week after months of investigating, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he wouldn’t bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

BIDEN RETAINED RECORDS RELATED TO UKRAINE, CHINA; COMER DEMANDS ‘UNFETTERED ACCESS’ AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” 

Hur did not recommend any charges against the president, but did describe him as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” — a description that has raised significant concerns for his 2024 re-election campaign.

On Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting he turn over the transcript and any recordings of Biden’s October 2023 interview with Hur and the special counsel team. The three chairmen are leading the impeachment inquiry against President Biden.  

Comer had asked Hur if any of the classified records Biden held were related to the countries that his family conducted business with. 

Comer, last week, told Fox News Digital he wants “unfettered access to these documents to determine if President Biden’s retention of sensitive materials were used to help the Bidens’ influence peddling.”

The letter sent to Garland and obtained by Fox News Digital on Monday detailed the concerns that “Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings.” 

“Further, we seek to understand whether the White House or President Biden’s personal attorneys placed any limitations or scoping restrictions during the interview that would have precluded a line of inquiry regarding evidence (emails, text messages, or witness statements) directly linking the President to troublesome foreign payments,” they wrote. 

“Additionally, the Committee on the Judiciary requires these documents for its ongoing oversight of the Department’s commitment to impartial justice and its handling of the investigation and prosecution of President Biden’s presumptive opponent, Donald J. Trump, in the November 2024 presidential election,” they continued. 

“Despite clear evidence the President willfully retained and transmitted classified materials willfully, Mr. Hur recommended ‘that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,'” they wrote. “Although Mr. Hur reasoned that President Biden’s presentation ‘as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ who ‘did not remember when he was vice president’ or ‘when his son Beau died’ posed challenges to proving the President’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the report concluded that the Department’s principles of prosecution weighed against prosecution because the Department has not prosecuted ‘a former president or vice president for mishandling classified documents from his own administration.’”

They added: “The one ‘exception’ to the Department’s principles of prosecution, as Mr. Hur noted, ‘is former President Trump.’ This speaks volumes about the Department’s commitment to evenhanded justice.” 

Comer, Jordan and Smith demanded the materials by Feb. 19. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

A fifth-generation Arizona rancher accused lawmakers of refusing to secure the border for political purposes as the ongoing migrant crisis worsens, potentially giving terrorists the opportunity to sneak into the U.S. through his land. 

“It’s people talking about the issues, arguing about the issues. Border security has always been a political football,” Jim Chilton, owner of the Chilton Ranch, told Fox News. “That’s the nature of our system.” 

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A long-awaited bipartisan border security deal aimed at gaining control of an overwhelmed asylum system at the southern border collapsed just days after it was revealed with all but four Republicans voting against the legislation advancing in the Senate. From the outset, GOP leaders in both chambers criticized the bill, with House Speaker Mike Johnson repeatedly calling it “dead on arrival.” Democrats accused conservatives of killing it for political purposes.

“Secure the international boundary and develop a program to bring people into this country legally,” Chilton told Fox News as a plea to Congress. “We’re a nation of the rule of law. We need to stop people just having the idea that they can walk into the United States.” 

HOUSE MEMBER SAYS ‘EULOGY HAS ALREADY BEEN READ’ ON BORDER BILL AS BIDEN BLAMES TRUMP FOR STALEMATE

The bill would have given President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security authority to close the border if migrant encounters reached a certain threshold and allocated $20 billion for immigration enforcement. It also included $650 million for border wall construction and reinforcement.

But Republican critics, including House GOP leaders, said the legislation wasn’t aggressive enough to curb illegal immigration with migrant crossings skyrocketing under the Biden administration. In December, migrant encounters reached an all-time high of 302,000, according to Customs and Border Protection data. 

And while lawmakers fumble solutions, the southern border crisis worsens, Chilton said. 

‘HE’S DELUSIONAL’: BIDEN’S BORDER COMMENTS SPARK STIFF REBUKE ON CAPITOL HILL FROM SOME LAWMAKERS

“The problem in our area in the last three years has intensified immensely,” Chilton told Fox News. He said hidden cameras on his property have caught thousands of people illegally entering the country.

Some dress in all camouflage, Chilton said, and others use “carpet shoes” — footwear with carpet attached to the soles to hide footprints.

“They’re entering our country unseen, and they could be terrorists,” he said. 

Officials encountered 169 people on the FBI terror watchlist illegally crossing the southern border in fiscal 2023, according to CBP data. That’s more than the previous year’s record-setting 98 encounters, as well as the last six years combined. 

“I’m really concerned,” Chilton said. “If our adversaries around the world want to bring terrorists into our country, this is a route.”

ARIZONA BORDER COUNTY OFFICIAL’S BLUNT MESSAGE TO CONGRESS TO REJECT IMMIGRATION BILL: ‘SHUT DOWN THE BORDER’

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied blame for mass crossings at the southern border, he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” Mayorkas, who’s expected to soon face a second impeachment attempt for failing to curb the migrant crisis, instead blamed Republicans for sinking the bipartisan bill and said Congress should be held accountable for America’s broken immigration system.

The failed border security deal also included a $95 billion foreign aid supplemental package. A standalone bill, which would include $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Taiwan, passed a 67-27 test vote Sunday.

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But Chilton told Fox News keeping Americans safe should be lawmakers’ top priority. 

“It would be outrageous not to secure our border first,” Chilton said. “Take care of America first. Seal the border.”

Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.

President Biden will not take a cognitive test as part of his upcoming physical exam, the White House confirmed Monday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, does not believe a cognitive test is necessary. She said O’Connor believes Biden proves his cognitive ability “every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks.”

Reporters pressed Jean-Pierre on the issue due to last week’s report from Special Counsel Robert Hur that found Biden has significant memory issues.

“Does the White House think that the idea of the president taking a cognitive test as a part of this physical is a legitimate idea?” a reporter asked.

BIDEN LEAD OVER TRUMP SHRINKS WITH THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES ADDED

“I’m just gonna say what Dr. O’Connor said to me about a year ago when [Biden’s physical] was released,” Jean-Pierre responded. “The president proves every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks, by dealing with world leaders, by making difficult decisions on behalf of the American people – whether it’s domestic or it’s national security.”

HALEY ARGUES TRUMP AND BIDEN ARE ‘GRUMPY OLD MEN’

“That is how Dr. O’Connor sees it, and that is how I’m going to leave it,” she added.

Jean-Pierre gave a more full-throated defense of Biden when reporters continued to press her on the topic. She said she has known Biden for more than a decade and continues to find him to be “sharp” and “on top of things.”

“When we have meetings with him and his staff he is constantly pushing us, trying to get more information, and so that has been my experience with this president,” she said.

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Recent polling has found that Biden’s age is a major issue for a majority of not only Americans in general, but also Democrats. A Sunday poll from ABC/Ipsos found that 86% of Americans believe Biden is too old to serve another term, including 73% of Democrats.

President Biden attempted a joke about his memory during a speech in Washington, D.C., Monday, seemingly taking a jab at Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report. 

Delivering remarks at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference, Biden spoke about his bipartisan infrastructure law, which he credits for allowing his administration to continue “making the biggest investment in climate change ever anywhere in the entire world.” 

“After devastating floods, tornadoes, wildfires and hurricane, we’re going to keep working together to respond, to rebuild and boost resilience to extreme weather. My administration is also helping install rooftop solar to build a national network of electric vehicle charging stations for revitalizing fenceline communities smothered by the legacy of pollution like where I lived in Claymont,” Biden said, referring to where his family moved in Delaware during the early 1950s. 

“We’re promoting clean energy in industries of the future made here in America. Made in America,” he said while transitioning. 

BIDEN ALLIES GO ON DEFENSE BLITZ FOLLOWING HUR REPORT: ‘BUCKET OF BS’

“What I didn’t realize, and I’ve been around, I know it don’t look like it, but I’ve been around a while. I do remember that,” Biden said, garnering laughter and applause. 

The joke was somewhat undercut by Biden concluding the speech – and then adding an interjection at the end, admitting, “I forgot something,” before making a final comment.

In building his argument for why no charges were recommended following an investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, Hur, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, detailed in part that Biden’s defense of any potential charges could possibly be that, “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

The report cited examples when investigators said the president’s memory lapsed, including over when his older son Beau had died. 

Biden’s age and mental fitness have already been a concern for voters. 

MAYORKAS DUCKS RESPONSIBILITY ON BORDER CRISIS, MIGRANT FIGURES: ‘CONGRESS IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN FIX THIS’

During his speech, Biden also criticized his 2024 rival, former President Trump, and Republicans for opposing a $118 billion supplemental spending agreement that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as an ambitious border security and immigration package. The border package drew widespread opposition from conservative Republicans in both chambers since its release just days earlier. The Senate voted against the supplemental 50-49 Wednesday. It needed 60 votes to pass. 

The vote went mostly along party lines, except for five Democrats voting no and four Republicans voting yes. 

“Some of my extreme Republican friends – and by the way, this is not your father’s Republican Party … I’m not taking on all Republicans. I really mean it. The MAGA Republicans, a minority, but a powerful minority. They went out and they killed the deal. My predecessor said he didn’t like it. It was a loss for him. We have to end the political games, folks,” Biden said Monday.  

The president also claimed a victory for the economy.

“It’s clear we have the strongest economy in the world. Nearly 15 million new jobs since I came to office,” Biden said. “The longest stretch of under 4% in 50 years. Growth is strong. Rising wages are rising, inflation is down. In fact, the costs have fallen from everything from a gallon of gas to a gallon of milk. We know prices are still too high because of what I call greed-inflation and shrinkflation,” he said, referring to companies charging the same amount for a product while reducing quantity. “I’m calling on corporations to pass their savings on to consumers, for God’s sake. We’re making real progress.”

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“The recent Washington Post headline summed it up,” Biden added, quoting the newspaper’s story titled, “Falling Inflation and Rising Growth Give the U.S. the World’s Best Recovery.”

“The world’s best recovery!” Biden said. “It’s because you implemented what we did. You made it work.”