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House of Representatives Democrats are decrying the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a “political” stunt.

Representative Anna Eshoo, D-C.A, said that Mayorka’s historic impeachment on Tuesday was a “political stunt” and that there was “no evidence of wrongdoing.”

“With no evidence of wrongdoing, House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today after the House rejected an identical resolution last week,” Rep. Eshoo said. “This is an abuse of the solemn power of impeachment which the Constitution reserves for extraordinary circumstances when officials have engaged in serious misconduct. Secretary Mayorkas is the first cabinet secretary impeached in nearly 150 years and the first ever impeached without evidence of impropriety.”

“Astonishingly, House Republicans took this drastic step while refusing to even consider the bipartisan border security bill proposed by Senate negotiators. It’s long past time for Republicans to abandon their harmful political stunts and instead work to advance real solutions to our nation’s challenges,” the Representative continued.

HOUSE VOTES TO IMPEACH DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS OVER BORDER CRISIS

Representative Pramila Jayapal, D-W.A, a member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, said that the “do-nothing” Republicans continue to “waste time and resources” on “baseless, partisan attacks.”

“Today, the ‘do-nothing’ Republican Party continues to waste time and resources that could be spent working for the American people on baseless, partisan attacks of Biden Administration officials as they take up this sham impeachment vote of Secretary Mayorkas for the second time in two weeks, after an embarrassing failure last week,” Rep. Jayapal said in a statement.

“There is no question that the immigration system is broken – and what the American people want and deserve is an orderly and humane system that properly processes people and modernizes an outdated immigration system that has not been updated in over 30 years to reflect for the needs of our American economy, communities, and families. The situation that we’re seeing at the southern border is a direct result of this failure to address the underlying system, compounded by the extreme policies of the Trump Administration,” she continued.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., previously called the case against Mayorkas a “sham impeachment” and a “new low for House Republicans.”

“This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans,” Schumer said. “The one and only reason for this impeachment is for Speaker Johnson to further appease Donald Trump.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the vote moved forward “without a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds.”

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

“House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border,” DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement. “While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment.

President Joe Biden blasted House Republicans immediately after the vote.

“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games,” he said.

Biden said that Republicans have pushed Mayorkas’ “baseless impeachment” and rejected bipartisan plans.

“Instead of staging political stunts like this, Republicans with genuine concerns about the border should want Congress to deliver more border resources and stronger border security. Sadly, the same Republicans pushing this baseless impeachment are rejecting bipartisan plans Secretary Mayorkas and others in my administration have worked hard on to strengthen border security at this very moment — reversing from years of their own demands to pass stronger border bills,” Biden continued. 

Biden said that Congress has to give his administration the tools to address the southern border and that the House GOP has to “decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border.”

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

“Giving up on real solutions right when they are needed most in order to play politics is not what the American people expect from their leaders. Congress needs to act to give me, Secretary Mayorkas, and my administration the tools and resources needed to address the situation at the border. The House also needs to pass the Senate’s national security supplemental right away. We will continue pursuing real solutions to the challenges Americans face, and House Republicans have to decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border,” Biden said.

The Democrat’s statement came after Mayorkas was impeached by the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon.

A Cabinet secretary has not been impeached by the U.S. Congress since 1876.

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The 214-213 vote was always expected to be tight; Mayorkas narrowly escaped impeachment last week when every single House Democrat showed up to shield him, including Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who temporarily left the hospital where he was recovering from surgery to cast his vote.

Three Republicans also voted down the effort: Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif.

Reps. Anna Eshoo, Pramila Jayapal, Sen. Schumer and the Department for Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

EAST MEADOW, N.Y – Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi has won a closely watched special election for a vacant House seat once held by former Republican Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from the chamber in December.

The Associated Press projected that Suozzi would defeat Republican county lawmaker Mazi Pilip, to win back his old job.

With the GOP hanging on to a razor-thin majority in the House, national Republicans and Democrats poured big bucks into a race in suburban New York City where immigration and border security, crime, and abortion were the top issues, and where the election was seen as a bellwether ahead of the all-but-certain November White House rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

“I did call my opponent. I congratulated him,” Pilip told supporters at an election night gathering. “We are fighters. Yes, we lost. But it doesn’t mean we’re going to end here.” 

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Suozzi, speaking a few minutes later at his victory celebration, emphasized that “despite all the attacks and despite all the lies about Tom Suozzi and the squad, about Tom Suozzi being the godfather of the migrant crisis, about sanctuary Suozzi, despite the dirty tricks, despite the vaunted Nassau County Republican machine, we won.”

The Long Island district held for a decade by Democrats was flipped by Santos in the 2022 midterms. But Santos was kicked out of Congress less than a year into his tenure, after he was exposed for lying about his background and indicted for a slew of financial crimes.

Suozzi, who represented the district for six years before running unsuccessfully for governor, repeatedly tied Pilip to Santos, as well as to former President Donald Trump.

“Who knows what she really stands for? She’s George Santos 2.0. It’s the exact same nontransparent, phony baloney, just trying to get votes instead of saying what you really think,” Suozzi charged on the eve of the election.

And Suozzi, a former mayor and county executive, argued that Pilip – who is in her second term as a county lawmaker – “is a far-right wing extremist” who is “totally in line with Mike Johnson and Donald Trump .”

NEW YORK SPECIAL ELECTION CANDIDATES CLASH OVER BORDER CRISIS, ABORTION: ‘YOU CREATED THIS ISSUE’

Pilip, an Ethiopian Jew who fled to Israel at age 12 to escape persecution and who later enlisted and served in the Israeli military before immigrating to the United States, linked Suozzi to President Biden and blamed him for the migrant crisis.

“You know, he is the one who opened the southern border. He voted with Biden 100% of the time. He supported squad members 90% of the time, he is the one who caused the migrant crisis,” Philip claimed in a Fox News interview on Sunday.

Suozzi, a centrist and moderate Democrat, kept his distance from Biden and his party when it came to immigration.

With Republicans currently holding a fragile 219-212 majority in the House going into the election, the pickup by the Democrats now puts the GOP’s grip on the chamber further in peril.

The contest may also offer clues to how top issues like immigration and abortion will impact November’s elections. 

“Tom Souzzi rolled out the red carpet for illegal immigrants,” claimed a recent TV ad from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC supporting House Republicans.

And a commercial from the House Majority PAC, the top super PAC backing House Democrats, charged that “Mazi Pilip is running on a platform to ban abortion.”

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Besides campaigning heavily on crime and immigration, Pilip – a former Democrat who argues the party “left me and many others” – also spotlighted the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel as she aims to win voters unhappy with the far-left’s criticism of the Jewish State and support for the Palestinians.

But her support of Trump – who she has acknowledged she voted for in 2020 – was potentially a concern with moderate voters who are not fans of the former president.

Meanwhile, Suozzi showcased his support for Israel and a trip he made to the country last year.

While Suozzi, a campaign veteran, welcomed his interactions with reporters, Pilip’s public appearances were carefully managed.

The district, which includes a sliver of the outer portion of the New York City borough of Queens, is anchored in neighboring Nassau County. And it’s the kind of suburban district where Democrats need to dominate in the 2024 elections as they aim to reclaim the House majority they lost in the 2022 midterms.

But while Democrats have performed well in suburban districts in recent cycles, Republicans have a history of coming out on top on New York’s Long Island. While Biden carried the current confines of the district by eight points in his 2020 presidential election victory, Santos won the 2022 election for the open House seat by the same margin.

The final public opinion polls in the special election suggested that Souzzi was clinging to a slight single-digit edge over Pilip.

Turnout was considered key in the outcome of this election. Democrats appeared to enjoy a slight edge in the nine-day early voting period, which ended on Sunday.

And a winter snowstorm walloped the District on Tuesday morning, as polls opened. 

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

 

The House has now impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Think of impeachment as an indictment. It’s up to the Senate to act as a “court” and judge whether the accused is guilty of the charges in a trial.

The impeachment of cabinet officials is rare. The House has now impeached multiple Presidents and federal judges. But only one cabinet secretary prior to Mayorkas. That was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876. 

Don’t expect anything to start until late February or early March. The House will send the articles of impeachment plus the House “managers” over to the Senate to formally begin the trial.

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“Impeachment managers” are House members who serve as prosecutors. They present the findings of the House before the Senate. Senators sit as jurors.

There is a bit of a ceremony to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate from the House and for the Senate to receive the articles. In this case, Acting Clerk of the House Kevin McCumber and House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland escort the articles of impeachment and House managers across the Capitol Rotunda to the Senate. The Senate gathers, usually with all senators sitting at their desks. Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson then receives the House entourage at the Senate door and reads the following proclamation to the Senate.

“All persons are commanded to keep silence, on pain of imprisonment, while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas.”

The articles are then presented to the Senate and the managers are introduced. That is all they usually do on the first day of a Senate trial– although FOX was told the Senate might try to squeeze everything into one day.

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Under Senate impeachment trial rule III, the body is supposed to wait until the next day to swear-in senators as jurors. But FOX is told that could happen on day one in this instance.

According to Senate rules, the trial must begin the day after the Senate receives the articles at 1 pm in the afternoon. Trials are supposed to run Monday through Saturday. We had Saturday sessions in both impeachment trials of former President Trump in 2020 and 2021.

It is unlikely that U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts presides over a possible Mayorkas trial. Senate impeachment rule IV requires the Chief Justice to preside over cases involving the President or Vice President. In this case, it’s likely that Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) presides over a Mayorkas tribunal.

Now we get to perhaps the most interesting question of all. How much of a trial is there? 

The Senate cannot immediately bypass a trial. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that Mayorkas’ trial will begin later in February. The House has named its 11 impeachment managers. Senators will be sworn in as the jury.

Senators can decide to hold a full trial, or potentially, move to dismiss or actually have straight, up or down votes on convicting or exonerating Mayorkas. The Senate could also send the articles to a committee for review.

SHOOTING BLANKS: HOW REPUBLICANS MISFIRED WHEN THEY TRIED TO IMPEACH MAYORKAS

In the 1998 impeachment trial of former President Clinton, late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) made a motion to dismiss the charges.

There will eventually be either a vote to convict/exonerate Mayorkas or dismiss the charges. Senate Republicans will watch very closely if Senate Democrats engineer any vote to short-circuit the trial. The GOP will take note of how multiple vulnerable Democrats facing competitive re-election bids in battleground districts vote.

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If they vote to end the trial or clear Mayorkas, Republicans will likely enroll that into their campaigns against those Democratic senators. Keep in mind that FOX polling data revealed that border security was the number one issue facing voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. Republicans will examine the trial-related votes of Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) – if she runs. 

But the Senate must at least entertain the articles for a day or two – and then render some sort of judgment.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – The polls have closed in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, in a closely watched special election for a vacant House seat once held by former Republican Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from the chamber in December.

With the GOP hanging on to a razor-thin majority in the House, national Republicans and Democrats have poured big bucks into a race in suburban New York City where immigration and border security, crime, and abortion are top issues, and where the election is seen as a bellwether ahead of the all-but-certain November White House rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The Long Island district held for a decade by Democrats was flipped by Santos in the 2022 midterms. But Santos was kicked out of Congress less than a year into his tenure, after he was exposed for lying about his background and indicted for a slew of financial crimes.

Former three-term Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who’s running to reclaim his old seat, has repeatedly tied Republican candidate Mazi Pilip to Santos, as well as to former President Donald Trump.

ELECTION DAY SNOWSTORM HITS AS CANDIDATES IN CRUCIAL SPECIAL HOUSE ELECTION MAKE CLOSING CASES

“Who knows what she really stands for? She’s George Santos 2.0. It’s the exact same nontransparent, phony baloney, just trying to get votes instead of saying what you really think,” Suozzi charged on the eve of the election.

And Suozzi, a former mayor and county executive, argued that Pilip – who is in her second term as a county lawmaker – “is a far-right wing extremist” who is “totally in line with Mike Johnson and Donald Trump .”

NEW YORK SPECIAL ELECTION CANDIDATES CLASH OVER BORDER CRISIS, ABORTION: ‘YOU CREATED THIS ISSUE’

Pilip, an Ethiopian Jew who fled to Israel at age 12 to escape persecution and who later enlisted and served in the Israeli military before immigrating to the United States, has linked Suozzi to President Biden and blamed him for the migrant crisis.

“You know, he is the one who opened the southern border. He voted with Biden 100% of the time. He supported squad members 90% of the time, he is the one who caused the migrant crisis,” Philip claimed in a Fox News interview on Sunday.

Suozzi, a centrist and moderate Democrat, has kept his distance from Biden and his party when it comes to immigration.

With Republicans currently holding a fragile 219-212 majority in the House – with four vacancies – a pickup by the Democrats would put the GOP’s grip on the chamber further in peril.

The contest may also offer clues to how top issues like immigration and abortion will impact November’s elections. 

“Tom Souzzi rolled out the red carpet for illegal immigrants,” claims a recent TV ad from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC supporting House Republicans.

And a commercial from the House Majority PAC, the top super PAC backing House Democrats, charges that “Mazi Pilip is running on a platform to ban abortion.”

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Besides campaigning heavily on crime and immigration, Pilip – a former Democrat who argues the party “left me and many others” – is also spotlighting the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel as she aims to win voters unhappy with the far-left’s criticism of the Jewish State and support for the Palestinians.

But her support of Trump – who she has acknowledged she voted for in 2020 – may hurt her with moderate voters who are not fans of the former president.

Suozzi – who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2022 rather than seek re-election to the House – is showcasing his support for Israel and a trip he made to the country last year.

While Suozzi, a campaign veteran, has welcomed his interactions with reporters, Pilip’s public appearances have been carefully managed.

The district, which includes a sliver of the outer portion of the New York City borough of Queens, is anchored in neighboring Nassau County. And it’s the kind of suburban district where Democrats need to dominate in the 2024 elections as they aim to reclaim the House majority they lost in the 2022 midterms.

But while Democrats have performed well in suburban districts in recent cycles, Republicans have a history of coming out on top on New York’s Long Island. While Biden carried the current confines of the district by eight points in his 2020 presidential election victory, Santos won the 2022 election for the open House seat by the same margin.

The final public opinion polls in the special election suggested that Souzzi was clinging to a slight single-digit edge over Pilip.

Turnout is considered key in the outcome of this election. Democrats appeared to enjoy a slight edge in the nine-day early voting period, which ended on Sunday.

And a winter snowstorm walloped the District on Tuesday morning, as polls opened. While the treacherous weather passed by early afternoon, it could impact Election Day voter turnout.

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

The scrutiny aimed at President Biden following the damaging report released last week by Special Counsel Robert Hur has breathed new life into the belief that Democrats will ultimately replace him as the party’s nominee ahead of the 2024 general election.

In building his argument for why no charges were recommended following an investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, Hur 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 when his older son, Beau, died, and caused heightened concern among Democrats who previously backed the president despite Republican attacks on his ability to serve.

Here are five of the top names being mentioned as a potential replacement for Biden should he decide — or is pressured — not to run for a second term:

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1. California Gov. Gavin Newsom

Newsom has perhaps been the most mentioned name as a potential presidential nominee, given his outspoken criticism of national Republican figures as well as his high-profile clash with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a debate hosted by Fox News last year.

Democrat strategists and members of the media continually mention him as a future presidential hopeful, but that future could come sooner rather than later should Biden’s plans change.

Douglas Schoen, a former adviser to President Clinton, wrote in an op-ed last summer that Newsom “wants to run for president in 2024” but was backing Biden for reelection to garner support for himself.

BIDEN’S MEMORY STRUGGLES COULD IMPERIL NATIONAL SECURITY, DEFENSE EXPERTS WARN: ‘NOT ONLY WEAK BUT CONFUSED’

“Gavin Newsom wants to run for president in 2024, that much is clear. The California governor would not be campaigning for President Joe Biden in red states with 16 months until the presidential election if he wasn’t trying to prove his own political bona fides and build a future base of national support for himself,” he wrote.

A Washington Post columnist praised Newsom last year for running a “shadow campaign” for president, calling it a “patriotic” move, although Newsom has denied any such effort. He has, however, undertaken multiple international trips and engaged with foreign leaders.

2. Vice President Harris

Harris’ presidential ambitions have been known since her first unsuccessful run for the White House in 2020, when she failed to gain support over her Democrat primary opponents, including Biden.

Despite her low approval rating and frequent gaffes as vice president, she continues to insist she’s “ready to serve” as commander in chief, if necessary.

GOP SENATOR FUMES OVER BIDEN ADMIN PROVIDING VETERAN MEDICAL RESOURCES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Media figures have also mentioned her as a potential replacement for Biden, including the hosts of ABC’s daytime talk show, “The View,” who suggested she could be a better nominee than Biden in the wake of the Hur report.

“Why not the vice president? Why wouldn’t Democrats put up the vice president?” one host said.

3. Former first lady Michelle Obama

Obama has been one of the more surprising names floated as a potential replacement for Biden, considering her lack of political experience, although the same could have been said for former President Trump during his first White House run.

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the first to float the theory that Obama would replace Biden, doubled down after the release of the Hur report. He has been joined by other media figures and former officials.

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“The main obstacle stopping the Democratic Party is they have a Kamala Harris problem, which is to say that if they do sideline Biden, the natural person normally that would be the nominee could be the vice president of that same sitting president. But that vice president is unable, I think, to effectively carry forward that job,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital.

“If race and gender are your basis for selecting someone for a job, and the identity of your party is tied to that temple of identity politics, then they will risk looking hypocritical if they sideline her after they sideline Biden. And I do think Michelle Obama offers them a convenient path out of that problem,” he added.

One media host noted over the weekend that Las Vegas odds makers give Obama a better shot at becoming president than Newsom, Harris, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

4. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

Despite declining a run for the White House this year, Whitmer appeared to leave the door open for a future presidential run after her convincing reelection win during the 2022 midterm elections, a year that was expected to be a difficult one for Democrats.

Whitmer first gained popularity during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, which later turned into a sharp divide over how she handled lockdowns in her state. Nonetheless, it put her on the charts as a national player in Democrat politics.

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In November, “Real Time” host Bill Maher took a swipe at Whitmer, accusing her of running a “shadow campaign” for president during an interview with Biden primary challenger Dean Phillips, but Maher did not say what made him believe that.

Phillips told Maher that before he decided to run for president against Biden, he unsuccessfully tried to recruit Whitmer, saying she would make an “outstanding president.”

5. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear

Beshear has been seen as a rising star within the party given his status as one of the most popular governors in the country, despite being a Democrat leading a red state. That status grew following a big reelection win last year over then-Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who was considered a rising GOP star.

Multiple former officials and people familiar with Beshear’s rise told Fox News Digital after his election victory last year that he would be someone to watch as a national political player for Democrats, and he didn’t rule out any future aspirations.

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Those sources cited Beshear’s ability to connect across party lines and bring Republicans and Democrats into his policy fold as something the nation was looking for amid a staunch political divide.

Media outlets across the country also sang Beshear’s praises after his victory, suggesting his future was bright.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

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

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid package faces an uphill slog against House Republicans, but their Democratic counterparts say it’s crucial for maintaining global democracy.

“We are at an existential moment right now for global democracy and either the United States stands up for freedom and democracy around the world or we don’t, and we recede back into the netherworld and allow autocrats, dictators, terrorists to take over the world,” Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York, told Fox News on Tuesday.

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A bipartisan group of senators passed the national security supplemental package after a lengthy overnight session that ended early Tuesday. The final vote was 70-29.

The hefty foreign aid package comes as the national debt exceeds $34.2 trillion. It includes billions for Ukraine, Israel and other foreign partners, but omits any border security provisions, something Republicans have fought for since the White House originally requested the supplemental funding package in October.

WATCH MORE FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS HERE

Republicans also helped kill an earlier version of the bill, which paired foreign aid with increased border staffing, speedier deportations when migration levels exceed 5,000 a day over a seven-day rolling average and other measures.

“Border security was part of the package that essentially was vetoed by the fourth branch of government, Donald Trump, who ordered Speaker Johnson and the MAGA elements both in the House and Senate to kill it,” Rep. Jamie Raskin told Fox News.

Had Republicans “really wanted that to be part of it and weren’t just rhetorical, they would have adopted what the Senate was doing last week,” the Maryland Democrat added.

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But Republicans like Rep. Gary Palmer from Alabama said they oppose the 5,000 a day border crossing threshold.

“What they’re trying to do is give us a border package that will allow people to continue to come into the country at a rate that, frankly, during the Obama administration, the secretary of Homeland Security said was unsustainable,” Palmer said. “Makes no sense.”

Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News there were more than 12,000 migrant encounters on a single day in December, a new record. The surge of migrants has long overwhelmed border towns and is now putting a strain on cities across the nation.

House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized the funding package as “silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.”

“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,” Johnson said in a statement late Monday. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”

Raskin suggested Democrats could use a discharge petition to bypass Johnson and bring the package to a House vote if necessary.

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Goldman said the package is meant to address three adversaries the U.S. has who are “increasingly aligning themselves” — Iran, Russia and China.

The aid package allocates $60 billion in additional funding for Ukraine, which would bring the United States’ total contribution to the country’s fight against Russian aggression to more than $170 billion since February 2022. It also includes $14 billion for Israel’s fight against Hamas, nearly $5 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific region and $9 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank.

To hear more from lawmakers, click here.

Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.

Senate Democrats are celebrating a hard-fought win on Tuesday after passing a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that President Biden had requested for months, but House GOP leaders are signaling that the victory could be short-lived.

“Right now, the Senate is the birthplace of poor policy. The lack of serious border security measures in this foreign aid package shows how disconnected this bill is from reality,” Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer, R-Ala., the No. 5 House Republican, told Fox News Digital. 

“The Senate has ignored the House of Representatives and the will of the American people this entire Congress. The American people… want the southern border secure.”

Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., meanwhile, warned that the House would not simply “rubber stamp” whatever Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., presented and said any aid package “must secure our own borders” as well.

“Americans elected our majority with a mandate to get Biden’s border crisis under control, and we will not abandon that directive to rubber stamp a foreign aid package that the Schumer Senate rammed through overnight,” Emmer told Fox News Digital.

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Twenty-two Senate Republicans joined all but three leftist lawmakers to pass the supplemental aid bill after debating it through the night. But even before it passed early on Tuesday morning, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., signaled it may not even get a vote in his chamber.

“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,” Johnson said in a Monday night statement. “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.”

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A source close to Johnson confirmed to Fox News Digital the speaker does not intend to put the package up for a vote in the House, at least “not in its current form.”

Meanwhile, the GOP senators leading opposition to the bill already began re-calibrating their focus on pressuring the House not to act even before it passed the Senate.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., spoke on X Spaces on Monday evening with X owner Elon Musk, former 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and fellow supplemental aid critic Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, where Johnson conceded the package was likely to pass.

“We can get to the House, get them to stop this,” he added.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, responded to Johnson’s statement on the bill with his own brief reaction, “This is good. We gotta hold the line.”

The Senate bill came together quickly after an earlier version, a $118 billion aid package that also included border and immigration reforms, fell apart despite months of sensitive bipartisan negotiations. 

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Republicans in the House and Senate had closed ranks and demanded the Biden administration do something about the border crisis before they could support aid to Ukraine, which has become an increasingly polarizing issue within the GOP.

But key Republican leaders lambasted the deal soon after it came out, claiming it did not go far enough to stop the flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson led House Republicans in insisting that only an executive order by President Biden could fix the crisis.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, urged Johnson to let the House vote on the Senate’s bill in his own statement Tuesday. He also accused Republicans of kowtowing to former President Donald Trump, who had publicly urged them to oppose the Senate’s bipartisan deal.

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“The House may never consider this critical bill because Speaker Johnson and other Republicans, many of whom claim to support our allies, live in fear of Donald Trump and his MAGA acolytes, a group that openly celebrates Putin and roots for Russia,” Himes said.

“Speaker Johnson, I was with you in the White House, one day after taking the gavel, when you said we would pass an aid package for our allies. If your words mean anything, let the House vote.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., vowed to use “every available legislative tool” to get the bill passed. 

“All options are on the table,” Jeffries said. “And what is clear is that there are more than 300 bipartisan votes in the House of Representatives to pass the national security bill today.”

California Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Katie Porter said age limits “for all elected officials” should be on the table at a debate Monday night.

“I do think generally that age limits are a conversation for all elected officials that we ought to be having,” Porter said at the KRON-TV debate in San Francisco. She gave that answer to a question about whether President Biden, 81, and former President Trump, 77, are “too old” to run for office.

“Californians are wondering about this. I think that’s a conversation we ought to be open to. I think we need a mix of people who’ve had years of experience and people like me, who’ve only been in Congress for five years. But I think we have to have that conversation,” Porter said.  

The advanced ages of the incumbent president and the GOP 2024 frontrunner were thrust into the spotlight last week by the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT WAS BIDEN’S IDEA TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER RELEASE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL’S REPORT

Hur concluded that criminal charges should not be filed against Biden, partly because a potential jury would find him to be “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” 

“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” the report said.

Hur’s description of Biden’s faulty memory prompted fierce pushback from the White House, which called those comments “gratuitous” and “inappropriate,” as well as from Biden himself.

“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden seethed to reporters at a late night press conference last week following a short address on the report. “I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”

NANCY PELOSI SAYS BIDEN’S AGE IS AN ‘OBJECTIVE FACT,’ ARGUES IT’S ‘ALL RELATIVE’: ‘HE’S YOUNGER THAN I AM’

But at the same press conference, Biden appeared to forget where his late son Beau got the rosary the president said he wears every day. Biden also referred to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of Egypt, as “the president of Mexico.”

Media outlets labeled the press conference a disaster for the president, who has combated questions about his age since assuming office in 2020 as the oldest man to win the White House in American history. Were he to win re-election, Biden would be about 86 years old at the completion of his second term. 

HOUSE GOP GUNNING FOR TESTIMONY FROM BIDEN SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR, SOURCES SAY

The age question is of particular significance in the California Senate election as the four candidates (three Democrats and one Republican) vie for the seat previously held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Feinstein was 90 and still in office when she died last September. The longtime senator had suffered from extensive health issues for more than a year before her death, leading many to wonder about her ability to represent California in the Senate.

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Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., to serve as interim senator until the 2024 election. Butler declined to run for election to a full term.

The other candidates to appear on stage with Porter were frontrunner Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Republican political newcomer Steve Garvey, a legendary MLB player for the Dodgers. 

More than 40 mayors and county executives from around the country are calling on the federal government to extend work authorizations for illegal migrants, saying that without the measures thousands will lose their jobs, businesses will suffer and districts will find it harder to cater to new asylum seekers.

The elected officials – which include New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson – wrote a letter on Monday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Jaddou, calling for automatic extensions for existing work permits of at least 540 days.

Historically, migrants have been granted a 180-day grace period if their Employment Authorization Document (EAD) renewal application is still pending.

In 2022, USCIS extended the 180-day grace period to 540 days due to lengthy processing delays. 

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

That extension expired on Oct. 26 and now the mayors are requesting a “permanent automatic extension of work authorization” in the form of an interim final rule that extends work permits for 540 days or longer. 

“Without this, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers will lose their work authorization, businesses will lose staff, and our cities and counties will face an increasing challenge to provide shelter to the public,” the mayors and county executives wrote. 

“If DHS does not address this impending crisis, local economies will suffer additional harm in the face of large job losses.”

DENVER MAYOR BLAMES REPUBLICANS AND TRUMP FOR $5M CUTS TO PAY FOR MIGRANT CRISIS

The signees wrote that local businesses are still struggling to address the current labor shortage and cannot handle further disruptions to their operations by losing immigrant workers. 

“We are concerned that the lengthy delays in adjudicating renewal applications for work authorization have not improved.”

They wrote that as of June 2023, there were approximately 263,000 EAD renewal applications pending. 

Given these delays, they wrote, hundreds of thousands of immigrants will likely experience a lapse in their work authorization in the coming months. 

“As a result, cities and counties are bracing for similar events to transpire, and we are already hearing from businesses who may soon be forced to lay off their workers until their renewed EADs arrive.”

The officials also wrote that if extensions are not granted it will “significantly impact our ability to receive newly arrived asylum seekers.”

“Cities and counties across the United States are quickly running out of shelter space. If hundreds of thousands of already-employed immigrants lose their jobs, they are likely to lose their homes, and this will result in cities and counties experiencing even greater difficulty providing shelter space and additional services to the public,” the letter reads.

“If DHS does not implement a permanent change to the automatic extension, any temporary extension should be for a period of no less than three years, to allow sufficient time for USCIS to work through the extensive work permit renewal backlog. We ask that you act swiftly so that the communities we represent do not experience the destabilizing effects of immigrant workers falling out of the workforce.”

The signees are part of a group called the Cities For Action (C4A), made up of nearly 180 U.S. mayors and county executives who advocate for “humane immigration policies that strengthen their cities and reflect the nation’s values of inclusion and opportunity.”

Adams, who has criticized the federal government’s response to the crisis, saying it would destroy New York City, said the migrants have a right to work in the Big Apple. At least 170,000 illegal migrants have arrived in New York since the spring of 2022.

“New York City thrives on the diverse and dedicated contributions of these community members and stripping people of their right to work is simply un-American,” Adams said in a statement accompanying the letter.  

“I’m hopeful the federal government acts swiftly to protect the stability and security of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families.”

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Meanwhile, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who last week announced cuts to public services to help fund the cost of his city’s migrant crisis, also signed the letter. About 40,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have arrived in Denver over the past year, and more than 3,500 are living in city-funded hotel rooms, according to the Colorado Sun.

“Over the past few weeks, Denver has seen record-high numbers of migrants arriving in our city, and very few have the ability to work and make a living for their families,” said Johnston. 

“This has created simultaneous humanitarian and fiscal crises for our city, forcing us to look at significant budget cuts and reduction in services. We know that the ability for migrants to work is critical to Denver’s success, and it is imperative that DHS take immediate action to prevent even more migrants from losing their work authorization.”

FIRST ON FOX: A House Democrat facing what is expected to be a tough re-election battle refused to condemn a controversial phrase defined as code for the “extermination” of Israel during a clash on social media with her Republican opponent.

Last week, Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., who has previously broken with many in her party to denounce antisemitism, got into a fierce back-and-forth with Republican House hopeful George Logan, who questioned where she stood on the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a common phrase being chanted by anti-Israel protesters amid the largely Jewish nation’s war against Hamas terrorists.

Logan first referenced the phrase by noting President Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, had declined to say whether the chant was antisemitic while speaking with reporters at a briefing earlier this month.

SWING DISTRICT DEMOCRAT WITH CLOSE TIES TO LARGEST TEACHERS UNION SILENT ON CALLS TO RESCIND BIDEN ENDORSEMENT

“Theres nothing unclear about ‘from the River to the Sea.’ This is an antisemitic chant promoting the destruction of Israel. As a member of [the House Committee on Education & the Workforce], where does [Hayes] stand?” Logan wrote on X.

“STOP George,” Hayes responded. “You have no moral high ground. You’ve been completely silent about Trump and your MAGA cronies hateful antisemitic tropes. I’m not playing this game with you – people are dying. Stop using this topic as a political game. Count me out!”

‘SQUAD’S’ JAMAAL BOWMAN HONORED RADICAL BLACK ACTIVIST, CONVICTED MURDERER ON MIDDLE SCHOOL’S ‘WALL OF HONOR’

Republican strategist Liz Kurantowicz responded to Hayes, blasting her for not answering the question and declaring that calls for the destruction of Israel were “not a game.”

“Same thing to you Liz- just stop! Trump called people vermin and is modeling dictators and you’ve been SILENT! And yes, I met with Muslim constituents & Jewish constituents who have been devastated by the events in Oct 7th. If George lived in the 5th- I’d meet with him too,” Hayes wrote back, throwing a jab at Logan by accusing him of not residing in Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District.

Hayes told Fox News Digital, “I have never used that phrase. The fact that it invokes so much pain is enough for me. My voting record denouncing antisemitism is clear. I condemn antisemitism in any form. I will not engage with Logan or any of the [Connecticut] GOP in using Israel or this crisis as a political game.”

Nathan Sales, a former counterterrorism official, told Fox News last year that when pro-Palestinian protesters chant “Palestine from the river to the sea,” they are really calling for the “extermination of the Jewish state.”

“They think that Israel shouldn’t exist at all,” Sales told “Sunday Night in America.” “This is exterminationist rhetoric and our First Amendment means that we have to tolerate this kind of speech, but the antidote for that kind of abhorrent speech is more speech. We need to expose what these Hamas sympathizers are really all about.” 

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Hayes is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, while Logan, who lost to Hayes during the 2022 midterms, is hoping for a general election rematch in November. His only opponent in the GOP primary is public sector worker Michelle Botelho. 

Election analysts largely view the race for Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District as “leans Democratic.”

Fox News’ Maria Lencki contributed to this report.

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

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is calling for New York Attorney General Letita James to be disbarred over her handling of the Trump Organization civil fraud trial, according to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

Stefanik filed an ethics complaint against James with New York state’s Committee on Professional Standards on Tuesday and accused the Democratic official of weaponizing political bias against former President Trump.

“New York Attorney General Letitia James violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by conducting a biased investigation and prosecution of President Trump and by attacking President Trump through extrajudicial statements during a trial,” Stefanik wrote.

TRUMP ATTORNEY SOUNDS ALARM ON NY AG LETITIA JAMES AMID CIVIL FRAUD CASE: ‘SHE CAMPAIGNED ON TRUMP’

“In just the first five weeks of the trial that began in October 2023 – before I stopped counting – Ms. James made over 50 highly inappropriate and prejudicial comments on social media. This complaint respectfully requests that the Attorney Grievance Committee conduct an investigation and issue an immediate interim suspension, disbar Ms. James as an attorney and counselor-at-law, or suspend Ms. James.”

She accused James of having “pursued a personal vendetta against President Trump since he first was elected” to the White House.

WATCH: TRUMP LAYS INTO ‘CORRUPT’ NEW YORK AG LETITIA JAMES FOR BEING ‘STUCK’ OFF CAMPAIGN TRAIL AT FRAUD TRIAL

James had made clear even before taking office as attorney general in 2019 that she had her sights set on Trump. During her 2018 election night party, she vowed to shine light in “every dark corner of his real estate dealings, and every dealing, demanding truthfulness at every turn.”

Last month, as part of her ongoing trial, James called for $370 million in fines against the former president and his co-defendants, as well as a total ban on his participation in New York’s real estate industry. 

TRUMP UNLOADS ON JUDGE, NY AG FOR TARGETING HIM ‘FOR POLITICAL REASONS’ DURING UNPRECEDENTED TESTIMONY

“It’s been her explicit mission since she announced her run for office to go after President Trump. Such behavior not only undermines the integrity of the legal process but also violates the Rules of Professional Conduct to which James, as a licensed attorney, is bound,” Stefanik told Fox News Digital.

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“While all Americans possess the right to express their opinions on matters of public interest, attorneys – particularly state attorneys general – are held to a higher standard due to their unique role as officers of the court. Her conduct not only constitutes a breach of her professional responsibilities but also risks irreparable harm to the public’s already eroding trust in our legal institutions.”

Stefanik, the No. 3 House Republican, is among Trump’s most vocal allies in Congress. She has also generated speculation as a potential vice presidential pick for the former president’s re-election campaign.

• 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.”