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The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Idaho may enforce its abortion ban, including in medical emergencies, as the fight over the law plays out in court.

The court said it would hear arguments in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the law in medical emergencies. The lower court ruling came following a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration.

The challenge against the Idaho law gives the high court its second major abortion dispute since it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, allowing states to make their own laws regarding abortion access. The court will also hear in the coming months a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for obtaining the abortion pill mifepristone.

In the Idaho case over hospital emergencies, the administration has argued that hospitals who receive Medicare funds are required by federal law to provide emergency care, potentially including abortion, regardless of a state law prohibiting abortion.

TEXAS EMERGENCY ROOMS NOT BOUND BY BIDEN ADMIN’S GUIDANCE ON EMERGENCY ABORTION, FEDERAL COURT RULES

The administration issued guidance about the federal law – the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act – two weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned. A month later, the administration sued Idaho.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Idaho sided with the administration. A judge in a separate case in Texas sided with the state.

President Biden released a statement Friday night objecting to the Supreme Court’s decision, saying his administration “will continue to defend a woman’s ability to access emergency care under federal law.”

Idaho’s law makes it a crime with a prison term of up to five years for anyone who performs or assists a woman in an abortion.

The administration claims that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act mandates that health care providers must perform abortions for emergency room patients when needed to treat an emergency medical condition, including severe bleeding, preeclampsia and certain pregnancy-related infections, even if a state’s abortion restrictions prohibit such a response.

“For certain medical emergencies, abortion care is the necessary stabilizing treatment,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in an administration filing at the Supreme Court.

FORMER TRUMP ADVISER KELLYANNE CONWAY LEADS CHARGE TO OVERHAUL GOP ABORTION STRATEGY, END DEMS’ 2024 ADVANTAGE

The state argued that the administration was misusing a law intended to prevent hospitals from ignoring patients and imposing “a federal abortion mandate” on states. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act “says nothing about abortion,” Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador told the court in a brief.

The federal appeals court in New Orleans came to the same conclusion as Labrador in a ruling Tuesday. A three-judge panel ruled that the administration cannot use the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to require hospitals in Texas to provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy.

The appeals court affirmed a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who wrote that adopting the administration’s view would force physicians to place the health of the pregnant person over that of the fetus or embryo even though the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act “is silent as to abortion.”

Following Winmill’s ruling, Idaho lawmakers won an order from a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the law to be fully enforced. However, a larger contingent of 9th Circuit judges threw out the panel’s ruling and set arguments for later this month.

The Supreme Court’s order on Friday moves the Idaho case away from the appeals court, and a decision is expected this summer.

Several other legal battles concerning abortion are also making their way through the courts in Idaho.

Four women and several physicians have filed a lawsuit asking an Idaho court to clarify the circumstances that qualify women to legally receive an abortion. That lawsuit was recently allowed to move forward despite attempts by the Attorney General’s office to dismiss the case.

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A federal judge in November temporarily blocked Idaho’s “abortion trafficking” law from being enforced while a legal fight challenging its constitutionality plays out. That law intended to prevent minors from receiving abortions in states where the procedure is legal if they do not have their parents’ permission.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE) will hold a vote this month to decide whether to remove former President Donald Trump from the state’s GOP primary ballot after a handful of voters filed a petition claiming he disqualified himself from holding public office.

The petition, similar to those filed in more than a dozen other states, cites the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits anyone from holding office who previously has taken an oath to defend the Constitution and then later “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the country or given “aid or comfort” to its enemies.

The 87-page document was signed by five people from across the state and claims that Trump encouraged and supported those who took part in the Capitol protests on January 6, 2021.

The SBE is now forced to decide whether Trump will remain an option for Republican voters during the March 19 primary.

TRUMP ASKS SUPREME COURT TO KEEP NAME ON COLORADO BALLOT

Matt Dietrich, a spokesperson for the Illinois SBE, told Fox News Digital that the case will be assigned to a hearing officer during a special board meeting on January 17. The hearing officer, Dietrich said, is usually an election lawyer, retired judge or a retired member of the Illinois SBE’s executive staff.

The hearing officer will be tasked with scheduling hearings on the objection with both parties and providing a recommendation to the SBE’s general counsel. Dietrich said the general counsel will then, in turn, make a recommendation on the matter to the full board, which will hear the case on January 30.

“Ultimately the eight appointed members of the Illinois State Board of Elections – four Democrats and four Republicans – sitting as the State Officers Electoral Board vote on objections,” Dietrich explained. “Five votes are required for a board order to take effect, so in the event of a 4-4 vote, no action is considered taken and the objection fails. However, both the objector and candidate have the right to seek judicial review of an unfavorable ruling, so it is possible that any objection may go before the courts.”

The primary ballots will be certified by the Illinois SBE at its next meeting on Jan. 11.

“Assuming nothing completely unexpected happens between today and then, Trump (and any other presidential candidate who has an objection filed against them) will be certified to the ballot with ‘objection pending’ next to their name,” Dietrich said.

That status, however, could change depending on the board’s Jan. 30 vote, Dietrich noted, adding that if it does, the board will issue an amended certification of the ballot.

Reacting to the attempt to bar Trump from appearing on the state’s GOP primary ballot, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy told Fox News Digital, “We believe the people, not activist courts, should choose who represents them in the White House.”

COLORADO VOTERS SEEKING TRUMP BALLOT BAN FILE RESPONSE IN EFFORT TO SPEED UP SUPREME COURT DECISION

Noting that the Illinois GOP is “strictly neutral in the Republican presidential primary,” Tracy said the “attempt to remove President Trump from the ballot without due process is an anti-democracy attempt to limit the voting rights of Illinois citizens and should be dismissed outright.”

The Illinois Democratic Party did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.

Dietrich said that objections to presidential candidates who filed for the state’s primary ballot can be filed until 5 p.m. on Jan. 12.

Several candidates had petitions filed this week to appear on the state’s Republican and Democrat presidential primary ballots, including incumbent President Biden, Trump, former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Candidates who filed first thing Thursday, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, earned a chance for the top ballot spot. Candidates who waited until 4 p.m. Friday to file earned a chance for the bottom spot.

Officials in Colorado and Maine have already banned Trump’s name from primary election ballots. Trump asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court ruling from December that stripped his name from the state’s ballot.

In a statement to Fox News, Trump’s team said that if he is prevented from being on the Colorado ballot, it would be the first time in history such a thing has happened.

“Over 74 million Americans voted for President Trump in the 2020 general election, including more than 1.3 million voters in the State of Colorado,” Trump’s team said.

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“Yet, on December 19, 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered President Trump removed from the presidential primary ballot — a ruling that, if allowed to stand, will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate.”

Following the filing of Trump’s appeal, it was revealed Friday evening that the high court would take up the case and set arguments for Feb. 8.

On Tuesday, Trump appealed the decision to remove him from Maine’s Republican primary ballot. That appeal now heads to the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

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

Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Louis Casiano, Bill Mears, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In just a week, the 2024 Iowa Caucus will commence, where the first votes for the next potential president will be cast. 

Being the first state to cast votes for presidential nominees, Iowa’s caucuses set the stage for the entire primary season. Winning or performing strongly in Iowa can generate crucial momentum for candidates, influencing voter perceptions of their viability.

More GOP lawmakers in both chambers are rallying behind former President Donald Trump. The endorsements come as there are only a few major GOP candidates left in the running — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Trump.

One hundred House Republicans, seven governors and 19 GOP senators have endorsed Trump as of Friday, including Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas; JD Vance of Ohio; Rick Scott of Florida; Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri; Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Ted Budd of North Carolina; Steve Daines of Montana; Roger Marshall of Kansas; Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma; Mike Braun of Indiana; Katie Britt of Alabama; Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee; John Hoeven of North Dakota; and more.

Additionally, the entire Minnesota GOP delegation threw in their support for Trump last week. Trump, who was the first major GOP leader to announce his candidacy for 2024, has also secured backing from every GOP member in Alabama’s congressional delegation.

Trump remains the commanding front-runner in the Iowa GOP presidential caucus, with his support at 50% or more in the latest surveys. A FOX Business poll indicated Trump at 52%, far ahead of his two closest rivals — DeSantis at 18% and Haley at 16%.

The Trump campaign’s ground operation in Iowa is leagues ahead of his 2016 effort, when he narrowly lost the caucuses that year to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. 

Meanwhile, some Senate Democrats already voiced their support for President Biden last year, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; John Hickenlooper of Colorado; and Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also endorsed Biden last April. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who is not running for re-election, is not endorsing Biden. 

Meanwhile, 72 Iowa public figures, including former political figures like David Oman, who held the position of chief of staff for former Govs. Robert Ray and Terry Branstad, have endorsed Hailey. 

Others who endorsed Haley include Christine Hensley, who held the longest tenure on the Des Moines City Council. Doug Gross, a lawyer and former chief of staff for Branstad, also endorsed her, as has Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.

Ramaswamy received the endorsement of controversial former Republican Iowa Rep. Steve King in a post on X last week. 

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Salem, New Hampshire, GOP Chairman Steve Goddu also endorsed Ramaswamy last year, along with former New Hampshire GOP Senate candidate Kevin Smith.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Americans in Silicon Valley are predicting advanced artificial intelligence could significantly influence and manipulate voters in the 2024 elections, with a potential for “disturbingly false” political advertising to push agendas. 

“I’ve seen some hilarious videos and some concerning ones where it’s getting too realistic,” Travis, of San Jose, Cailfornia, said. “It’s a little creepy.”

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As advanced artificial intelligence applications proliferate across industries, the rapidly evolving technology has raised concerns about its ability to manipulate elections, with some 2024 presidential campaigns already utilizing the tool. Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, for example, triggered an uproar on X after using artificial intelligence to recreate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential announcement with fictional guests, including billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, World Economic Forum Chair Klaus Schwab, former Vice President Dick Cheney, Adolf Hitler, the devil and the FBI.

“I think it will worsen the circumstances with fake postings,” Richard said. “I think a lot of the political advertising has the potential to become disturbingly false using AI. It’s gradually improving significantly, and I think there’s a tremendous motivation for people trying to push a particular agenda.”

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

Claire said voters could have trouble differentiating real and AI-generated content. 

“People aren’t going to be able to distinguish between AI and real reporting,” Claire told Fox News. “What’s fake and what’s real was already kind of an issue with 2020, and I think it’s going to continue to get worse in 2024 because some of it is extremely convincing.”

‘FEAR AT 10’: SENATORS’ CONCERNS SPIKE ON IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ‘TO CHANGE VOTES’ IN 2024

DeSantis’ campaign also used AI-generated audio and video to criticize Trump’s policies, including one portraying a fictional image of Trump hugging Anthony Fauci posted on social media in June. 

Another campaign ad, created by a PAC supporting DeSantis, used AI-generated audio to mimic Trump’s voice criticizing Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. The AI voice appears to have been based on comments Trump wrote on Truth Social but never said aloud.

“I think AI will be used to manipulate people into doing things that they’re not quite sure they wanted to do,” Steve said. “That’s going to be a big impact that goes under the radar. I think public opinion will be shaped in a large way.”

Ken said Americans will have to learn to distinguish between real and deceptively manipulated campaign ads when making important voting decisions. 

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“I think there’s going to be a period where we’re going to be influenced by what AI presents,” he said. “It’s going to take some time for people to kind of wise up and understand that we live in a different world.”

“You can’t really trust what you see and hear anymore,” Ken continued. “It’s going to be interesting how this shapes how this shapes us.”

Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Claudia Tenney endorsed former President Trump on Friday, telling Fox News Digital that he is “the only candidate” who can restore the United States to “prosperity and security.”

Tenney, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital on Friday that during his first term, Trump’s “visionary and bold leadership secured the border, put our economy in overdrive by lowering taxes, cutting unnecessary regulations and unleashing American energy independence.”

TRUMP WINS ENDORSEMENT FROM HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER STEVE SCALISE

“President Trump provided us with safer communities and global stability,” Tenney said.

In contrast, Tenney described President Biden’s tenure as “pathetic and feckless.”

“Illegal migrants are flooding our communities, crime is rampant and unchecked, Bidenflation is crushing families and dangerous and costly wars are breaking out across the globe,” Tenney said.

HOUSE GOP LEADERS CLOSE RANKS AROUND TRUMP AS NO. 3 REPUBLICAN REVEALS 2024 SUPPORT

“President Trump is the only candidate who can make America great again by restoring our country to the prosperity and security we enjoyed under his strong leadership,” Tenney told Fox News Digital. “I am honored to once again endorse President Trump and support his campaign for President of the United States.”

Tenney added: “We must fight every day to ensure election integrity in order to secure a resounding win for President Trump and all Republicans in 2024.”

STEFANIK ENDORSES TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024, AS SOME PUSH HIM TO DELAY ANNOUNCEMENT

Tenney joins nearly 100 House Republicans in endorsing Trump, who holds a commanding lead over the Republican primary field.

Tenney is the second member of Congress from New York to endorse Trump.

House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., was the first member of congressional GOP leadership to endorse Trump’s campaign in November.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., endorsed Trump just a day later.

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This week, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., endorsed Trump as well.

On the other side of the Capitol, Trump has the support of nearly two dozen Republican senators. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking over $370 million from former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in his highly publicized civil fraud trial.

James demanded the financial penalty as repayment for profits she argues were illicitly gained, according to a document filed to the court on Friday.

The attorney general argues, “The conclusion that defendants intended to defraud when preparing and certifying Trump’s SFCs is inescapable.”

TRUMP VISITS MANHATTAN COURT TO BLAST NYAG CASE, PRAISES APPELLATE RULING IN HIS FAVOR

Back in September, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization had committed fraud while building his real estate empire, by deceiving banks, insurers and others, by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

“The myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation,” James wrote in the Friday document.

Trump and his family have denied any wrongdoing and have claimed that the former president has repeatedly said his assets were actually undervalued.

TRUMP’S GAG ORDER CHALLENGE IN NEW YORK AG LETITIA JAMES’ CIVIL SUIT REJECTED

“He ruled against me without knowing anything about me,” Trump said on the stand. “He called me a fraud, and he didn’t know anything about me.”

Last month, the New York State Appellate Division First Department rejected Trump’s challenge to the gag orders imposed by Engoron. 

The non-jury civil trial stems from James’ lawsuit against Trump and his businesses in the state.

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Following the ruling, Engoron imposed a partial gag order to prevent all parties from engaging in any verbal attacks against court staff after Trump criticized a member of the judge’s office on social media.

Engoron added that “personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, not appropriate” and warned they would not be tolerated.

Without naming the former president, Engoron was referring to a now-deleted Trump post on his Truth Social account about Engoron’s law clerk, Allison Greenfield.

Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price and Maria Paronich contributed to this report.

It would be like playing the Super Bowl at Churchill Downs.

The Stanley Cup Finals at Fenway Park.

Running the Indianapolis 500 in the old Boston Garden.

The 2024 presidential campaign likely won’t unfold in all the old familiar places.

THE SPEAKER’S LOBBY: LEGISLATION ON COLLEGE SPORTS RELEGATED TO THE JV

The presidential proving ground for former President Trump may be in various courthouses, ranging from New York to Atlanta.

But House Republicans hope the presidential validation field for President Biden in 2024 is in the halls of Congress.

House Republicans didn’t accomplish much in 2023. But in mid-December, House GOPers finally conjured up the votes to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. That dynamic — emerging in an election year — could expose whether voters buy the GOP narrative that Mr. Biden, Hunter Biden and his family have something to hide about overseas business entanglements and financial dealings.

Or, the maneuver could reveal whether Republicans came up with blanks.

There is also the risk that voters believe the GOP is just engineering a not-so-shadow campaign to knife President Biden politically in 2024.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., began inching toward a House impeachment inquiry in late June and early July. But McCarthy never had the votes to officially launch an inquiry. And we all know what happened to McCarthy.

There were two camps of Republicans in the House when it came to impeachment. Not so much on whether the House should impeach Mr. Biden, but on how long an impeachment investigation should take.

One cohort of GOPers argued last summer they could wrap up the investigation soon and determine by fall whether they should impeach President Biden. They fretted about dragging things out into an election year. The other group didn’t set a timetable. Lawmakers appeared determined to let any inquiry run its course. 

And so, here we are in 2024 — a presidential election year. Republicans burned valuable time through 2023 fighting over who should be Speaker of the House and potential rendezvous with government shutdowns and the debt ceiling. So is there any surprise impeachment drifted into 2024?

And therein lies possible trouble.

Of course, any impeachment investigation is dangerous for a sitting president. But historically, it has been just as dangerous for the party undertaking the impeachment investigation.

Consider for a moment: what political benefit has any party ever reaped from an impeachment? Ever? And that includes the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.

What do Democrats have to show with their two impeachments of former President Trump? Few consequences. Mr. Trump roared back stronger than ever after the Capitol riot and is the presumptive Republican nominee.

CONGRESS’ FIGHT OVER IMMIGRATION REFORM COULD LAST A WHILE

What did House Republicans get from their impeachment of former President Clinton in 1998? Well, Republicans almost lost control of the House. And the Republicans of 1998 churned through two House Speakers. The Clinton impeachment signaled the end for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. Gingrich’s intended successor — former Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., never became Speaker. It was revealed the night before the House impeached former President Clinton for deeds related to his affair with Monica Lewinsky that Livingston had also had an affair. So Livingston stepped aside.

This is why impeachments are risky. They often backfire. And while there’s a lot of turmoil, they don’t shift the political landscape.

“Without evidence, you simply cannot persuade those suburban voters who will sometimes vote Republican and sometimes vote Democratic, that the Republicans are doing the right thing in the House,” said University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth. “As much as the far right conservatives in the safe seats are going to want this impeachment inquiry to move forward, the reality is that doing so may very well cost the Republicans their majority.”

We have no idea how or if House Republicans will actually impeach President Biden.

It’s about the math.

Republicans begin 2024 with a 220-213 advantage in the House. The already meager GOP majority could dwindle further. Republicans cannot lose more than three votes on any roll call and still pass something without assistance from the other side. 

Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, will resign in mid-January. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is out until February recovering from cancer treatment. That means that in late January, Republicans effectively will have 218 operational votes in a 432-member House. They can lose two votes on any given roll call. Otherwise, the Democrats will prevail.

So, it’s unclear if Republicans will ever have the votes to impeach President Biden.

That presents the worst case scenario for the GOP.

Here are three problems:

If Republicans fail to impeach President Biden, the conservative base will be apoplectic.

That’s because Republicans have talked and talked about impeachment since President Biden took office. They potentially raised the bar and failed to deliver. Their voters could turn tail on them.

Then you have this mid-December impeachment inquiry vote. The average voter doesn’t follow the grand details of “impeachment” and the difference between an inquiry and actually impeaching the president. But all House Republicans — including those from battleground districts or the 18 districts President Biden won — are on the hook. That vote alone could be enough to torpedo many of those Republicans in the general election, regardless of how they try to finesse it.

Finally, imagine Republicans not impeaching President Biden, but keeping impeachment on the table with regular hearings and days of closed-door depositions. The public wonders why Republicans are dithering. Their base is displeased that they didn’t impeach the President. Skeptics ask what Republicans are spending all of their time on.

It could be a lose-lose-lose scenario.

Never mind that Republicans run headlong into a legislative jumble later this month and February with possible government shutdowns. And utterly nothing is figured out about securing the border despite weeks of talks. That hamstrings the release of potential aid to Ukraine and Israel. Republicans linked President Biden’s international assistance package to border security. That may work politically. But now it’s looking like it’s imperiling any way to get Ukraine and Israel the money they need.

This is why Republicans are now teeing up a potential impeachment inquiry against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. And Republicans are planning to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for skipping out on a subpoena for a deposition last month.

A contempt of Congress citation cuts two ways.

Republicans will wail that Hunter Biden didn’t comply with a subpoena. But McCarthy, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Scott Perry, R-Penn., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., all defied subpoenas in 2022 from the House committee investigation the Capitol riot.

That said, it is hard for the House to enforce a subpoena against a sitting member from one of its committees.

However, watch to see if the Justice Department prosecutes Hunter Biden if the House holds him in contempt. The DoJ prosecuted former Trump aides Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for not complying with subpoenas. If the DoJ doesn’t prosecute, Republicans will argue that the Biden Justice Department is shielding the President’s son. Former President Trump will assert that he’s getting unfair treatment facing prosecution from Special Counsel Jack Smith.

So there are two venues for the 2024 campaign trail.

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Yes. States like Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and New Hampshire could determine who is president.

But the battlefield is in the halls of Congress and courtrooms across the nation.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky‘s congressional and legislative campaigns came into focus Friday as Republicans and Democrats completed candidate lineups for 2024 elections lacking a marquee race for statewide office unlike last year, when the state was in the limelight with its hotly contested gubernatorial contest.

All six Kentucky congressmen — five Republicans and one Democrat — filed for reelection. They all will be challenged, either in the spring primary or the November general election.

KENTUCKY GOVERNOR BACKS LONGER LIST OF CONDITIONS ELIGIBLE FOR TREATMENT UNDER MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW

Democrats again failed to field legislative candidates across swaths of rural Kentucky, while a number of Republican state lawmakers will encounter primary challenges. It reflects the diminished Democratic brand in much of rural Kentucky and the GOP’s continued growth, leading to competitive primaries. Republicans have amassed supermajorities in both the Kentucky House and Senate.

“Kentucky continues to trend toward the Republican Party,” GOP House Speaker David Osborne told reporters several hours before the candidate filing deadline. “Therefore more and more seats are determined in the Republican primary.”

Candidates, political strategists and reporters clustered outside the secretary of state’s office in the final hours before the deadline. Popcorn was offered as a snack. When the deadline arrived, Secretary of State Michael Adams ceremoniously closed the door to the office where candidates file their paperwork.

It lacked the drama of the deadline a year ago, when former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin teased a bid for a political comeback. Bevin arrived at the statehouse, gave a speech to a throng of media and then left without filing. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who ousted Bevin in 2019, went on to win reelection over GOP challenger Daniel Cameron in one of the most closely watched elections of 2023.

In 2024, congressional and statehouse candidates will run in districts drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature. Democrats challenged the maps for congressional and state House districts, but Kentucky’s Supreme Court upheld the boundaries in a ruling last month. The legislature convened its 60-day session this week, and crafting the next two-year state budget will be at the top of the agenda.

In the presidential contest, President Joe Biden will be on the primary ballot in Kentucky along with fellow Democrats Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson. On the GOP side, former President Donald Trump will be on the Kentucky ballot in a field that includes Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump easily carried Kentucky in the last two general elections for president.

In legislative races, Republican incumbents drawing primary challengers ranged from relative newcomers to veteran state Reps. Kimberly Poore Moser and Michael Meredith who lead House committees.

With their lineup now complete, Republicans said they enter this year’s campaigns with momentum on their side, despite losing the state’s marquee gubernatorial election last year.

“From the candidate filings, one thing is clear: there is more energy within the Republican Party than ever,” state GOP Chairman Robert Benvenuti said in a statement.

Democrats, hoping to cut into the GOP’s lopsided legislative majorities, said they targeted suburban and rural districts where Beshear ran well last year. State Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge offered a preview of his party’s agenda heading into the campaigns.

“This November, public education, healthcare access, infrastructure, the opportunity to lift everyone up and move Kentucky forward, all of that is on the line and the Kentucky Democratic Party intends to fight for it,” Elridge said in a statement.

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Seeking new terms from Kentucky’s congressional delegation will be Republican Reps. James Comer, Brett Guthrie, Thomas Massie, Hal Rogers and Andy Barr, as well as Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey.

The lead up to the filing deadline was dominated by announcements from some prominent state lawmakers that they would not seek reelection in 2024. Among the lawmakers stepping down after this year are Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, GOP state Rep. Kevin Bratcher and state Rep. Derrick Graham, the top-ranking Democrat in the House.

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge rejected a lawsuit Friday that sought to disqualify Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones from holding office because of the Republican’s participation as an elector for Donald Trump in 2020.

Butts County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ruled that the four voters who sued couldn’t use the kind of legal action they filed to attack actions Jones took in 2020 while he was a state senator.

SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE IF TRUMP BANNED FROM COLORADO BALLOT IN HISTORIC CASE

The suit echoed other efforts elsewhere to keep Trump and some of his supporters off ballots and to prosecute people who falsely claimed to be valid Trump electors in states Joe Biden won.

Richard Rose, a civil rights activist who is one of the plaintiffs, said Friday that he had expected Wilson to rule against him and that he anticipates an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Jones “violated his oath of office, because he lied and said he was a duly qualified elector from state of Georgia, which is not true,” Rose said. (Missing word “the” or CQ?)

Jones says the suit is an illegitimate effort by Democrats to unseat him.

“Democrat activists in Georgia are trying to use the legal system to overrule the will of the voters, just like liberal activists in places like Colorado and Maine are trying to do to President Trump,” Jones said in a statement. “I’m glad to see the court throw out this ridiculous political attack.”

The lawsuit came as a decision remains in limbo on whether to prosecute Jones on state charges, due to a lack of a special prosecutor willing to take the case.

The plaintiffs asked a judge in December to declare Jones ineligible to hold office in Georgia, alleging that he violated his oath of office as a state senator by signing his name as a Trump elector. Biden was certified as winning Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020’s election.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Trump’s appeal of a Colorado court ruling keeping him off the 2024 presidential ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The court will be considering for the first time the meaning and reach of a provision of the post-Civil War 14th Amendment barring some people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office.

In Georgia, challengers argued the same clause prohibits Jones from holding office and called him “an insurrectionist against the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Jones’ lawyer argued the challenge lacked evidence to prove insurrection, a position the judge agreed with.

Jones was one of 16 Republicans who gathered on Dec. 14, 2020, at Georgia’s Capitol, claiming to be legitimate electors. The meeting is critical to the prosecution of Trump and 18 others who were indicted by a Georgia grand jury in August for efforts to overturn Biden’s narrow win.

Of those in Georgia indicted in August, only three acted as Trump electors, and all were indicted for crimes beyond that.

Michigan and Nevada have also criminally charged Trump electors. In Wisconsin, 10 Republicans settled a civil lawsuit last month and admitted their actions sought to overturn Biden’s victory.

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An earlier special Georgia grand jury recommended Jones face felony charges. But Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was barred from indicting Jones. A judge ruled Willis, an elected Democrat, had a conflict of interest because she hosted a fundraiser for the Democrat who lost to Jones in 2022’s election for lieutenant governor.

The state Prosecuting Attorneys Council is supposed to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Jones’ actions were criminal, but hasn’t yet acted.

EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump said President Biden is a “true threat to democracy,” while reacting to his opponent’s campaign speech marking three years since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Biden delivered a campaign speech in Blue Bell, Pa. Friday, and spent the majority of the address attacking Trump, who holds a massive lead over the GOP presidential primary field.

BIDEN MARKS THREE YEARS SINCE JAN. 6 BLASTING TRUMP, SAYING HE IS ‘TRYING TO STEAL HISTORY’

Biden accused Trump of “trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election,” while saying that the results of the 2020 election proved that he was a “loser.” 

But in an interview with Fox News Digital after Biden’s speech, Trump fired back.

“The Democrats rigged the last election and they are trying it again,” Trump said. “But it won’t work because they have shown how bad and incompetent they are.”

“Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of the United States — he is incompetent, he is crooked, and in many respects, he is Benedict Arnold,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “He is destroying our country like no one else has done before.” 

Trump, pointing to the crisis at the Southern Border, said the United States has “an invasion of millions of people, many from prisons, mental institutions and terrorists pouring into our country.” 

“He is responsible for this,” Trump said. “We are a failing nation — a nation in decline — and it is all because he is the worst president in the history of our country.” 

TRUMP EDGES BIDEN AGAIN IN NEW 2024 POLL, BUILDS SUPPORT WITH YOUNGER VOTERS

Trump went on to tell Fox News Digital that “because of his gross incompetence, Joe Biden is a true threat to democracy.”

“This is not a time for us to have a mentally challenged president,” Trump said. 

Trump’s comments come as Biden blasted him for “the worst dereliction of duty by a president in American history” and “an attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force and violence.” 

YOUNGER VOTERS HELP BOOST TRUMP’S EDGE OVER BIDEN IN LATEST FOX SURVEY

But Trump pushed back, saying: “The only insurrection is the insurrection that is taking place at our border where he is allowing millions of people from parts unknown to invade our country at a level far worse than even a military invasion.”

Trump has never been charged with insurrection, despite Special Counsel Jack Smith bringing charges against him related to an investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol protests and the 2020 election. 

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Smith charged Trump 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.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on whether former President Trump will be on the Colorado Republican presidential primary ballot. 

The justices said they will hear the case on an expedited basis, with arguments on Feb. 8.

“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The case is set for oral argument on Thursday, February 8, 2024,” the decision said. “Petitioner’s brief on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support or in support of neither party, are to be filed on or before Thursday, January 18, 2024.”

The justices issued an administrative stay that orders the Colorado Secretary of State to put the former president’s name on the GOP primary ballot, at least until the case is decided.

TRUMP ASKS SUPREME COURT TO KEEP NAME ON COLORADO BALLOT

The highest court said that the briefs are due by Jan 31.

TRUMP FIRES BACK AT JAN. 5 CRITISM, SAYS BIDEN IS A ‘TRUE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY’

The Supreme Court said that the respondents’ briefs are to be filed on or before Jan. 31, and the reply brief is to be filed on or before 5 p.m., Feb. 5.

The Colorado Supreme Court decision was the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was used to bar a presidential contender from the ballot. 

The state’s highest court concluded that Trump “engaged in insurrection” over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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The historical hearing will consider the meaning of the 14th Amendment, which bars people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office. 

The amendment was adopted in 1868, following the Civil War.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday acknowledged that the majority of illegal immigrants encountered at the border are released into the U.S., as he also sought to highlight the number the administration has removed.

Mayorkas spoke on “Special Report” on Thursday and was asked by anchor Bret Baier about Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources who have told Fox News that they are releasing over 70% of migrants crossing every day.

“It would not surprise me at all. I know the data,” Mayorkas said. “And I will tell you that when individuals are released, they are released into immigration enforcement proceedings. They are on alternatives to detention. And we have returned or removed a record number of individuals. We are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed. “

MAYORKAS PUNTS ON IMPEACHMENT QUESTION, FAULTS CONGRESS AMID BORDER CRISIS 

Separately the secretary said that there are “well more than a million” migrants released into the U.S. annually, and argued repeatedly that it is up to Congress to provide more funding and immigration reform to fix what he has called a “broken” system. He said that the agency is limited in detention capacity by funding provided by Congress.

“When somebody enters the country, we place them in immigration enforcement proceedings pursuant to immigration law, and if their claim for relief, their claim to remain in the United States succeeds, then by law they are able to stay here,” he said.

The interview comes as Mayorkas is facing increasing pressure over the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis at the southern border. There were over 302,000 migrant encounters in December, after an FY 2023 that saw a record 2.4 million encounters overall. A recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report said that the agency had removed 142,580 illegal immigrants in FY 23, up considerably from 72,177 in FY 22 and 59,011 in FY 21, but still down from the highs of 267,258 under the Trump administration in FY 19.

The administration has continued to push for deeper legislative reform and funding, but Republicans have blamed the crisis on the Biden administration’s policies, including its rolling back of Trump-era policies, narrowed ICE enforcement and its expanded releases into the interior. Some have also called for Mayorkas’ impeachment and hearings on that will take place next week.

EX-DHS OFFICIALS BACK JOHNSON’S AGGRESSIVE BORDER STANCE IN FUNDING FIGHT, SAY GOP MUST HAVE ‘CLEAR RESOLVE’ 

DHS has said that it has seen more removals since Title 42 ended in May it has removed more than 470,000 people, which is more than in the entirety of FY 2019. It has also said it is working to expand the use of expedited removal and increase deportation flights to Venezuela.

But Fox has also reported that officials have told lawmakers that they are releasing over 5,000 illegal immigrants a day into the U.S. interior, and that doesn’t include the migrants being let in at ports of entry after having used the CBP One app.

The comments comes as negotiations are ongoing between lawmakers and the administration over a supplemental funding request by the administration — which includes $14 billion for border funding. But Republicans have said that the package must increase limits on asylum and the administration’s use of parole, which they say attracts migrants to the border. Senate Democrats have balked at those demands, but the administration has expressed optimism about the talks.

Mayorkas said the magnet was not the policies, but the broken system.

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“What is a magnet is the fact that the time in between an encounter of an individual at the border and their final ruling in their immigration case can sometimes take six or more years. That is a magnet, which is why precisely why I am working with Republicans and Democrats in the United States Senate to deliver a solution for the American people, to deliver a fix to an immigration system that everyone agrees is broken, and that is long overdue,” he said.

Fox News’ Charles Creitz and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
 

President Biden marked three years since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Friday, blasting former President Trump by saying he is “trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election.”

Biden delivered a speech in Blue Bell, Pa. Friday to mark three years of the Capitol Riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Biden spent the majority of his address attacking his predecessor and 2024 Republican opponent — who holds a massive lead over the GOP presidential primary field.

“In trying to rewrite the facts of January 6, Trump is trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election,” Biden said. “But he knew the truth because we saw it with our own eyes.”

Referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot, Biden said the “mob wasn’t a peaceful protest. It was a violent assault.”

“They were insurrectionists, not patriots,” Biden said. “I’ll say what Donald Trump won’t — political violence is never, ever acceptable to the United States… Never, never, never.”

He added: “It has no place in a democracy. None. You can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro American.”

Biden spent the majority of the speech trying to tie Trump to the Capitol riot. 

While Special Counsel Jack Smith did charge Trump out of his investigation, the former president has never been charged with insurrection. 

Biden said that “democracy is on the ballot” and “freedom is on the ballot” in 2024, while saying the opposite of democracy is “dictatorship.” 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

A Wyoming district court judge dismissed a lawsuit aiming to remove former President Donald Trump and Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis from election ballots, sparking celebration from Wyoming Republican Secretary of State Chuck Gray. 

“I am extremely pleased with Judge Westby’s decision to dismiss Mr. Newcomb’s outrageously wrong and repugnant lawsuit to remove Donald Trump and Cynthia Lummis from the ballot in Wyoming,” Gray said in a press release provided to Fox News Digital. 

“I have been working to make sure that Donald Trump will be able to be on the ballot, and I am happy our motion to dismiss this lawsuit was granted. I will continue to fight against this nationwide effort in order to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure that the people of Wyoming can choose who to elect for themselves.”

Retired lawyer Tim Newcomb filed a lawsuit in November, Newcomb v. Chuck Gray, with the Albany County District Court to remove Trump and Lummis from future ballots, arguing that they are “traitors” under a clause in the 14th Amendment in relation to January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol. 

TOP WYOMING OFFICIAL SLAMS BRAKES ON COURT LABELING TRUMP ‘INSURRECTIONIST’: ‘OUTRAGEOUS’

In a court filing late last month, Newcomb also called on Gray to resign “for his attempt at stochastic terror against Wyoming’s Judiciary, thenapologize [sic] to the Court and its staff personnel,” court filings state, according to the Cowboy State Daily. 

TRUMP ASKS SUPREME COURT TO KEEP NAME ON COLORADO BALLOT

“Mr. Newcomb’s screed reflects the ravings of a radical left-wing mad man,” Gray told the outlet last month. “Its [sic] another example of the tactics of lunatics of the radical Left with their outrageously wrong attempts at election interference.”   

Newcomb, in his court filings, also claimed that the District Court judge presiding over the case could face death threats if she were to side with him in the case. 

“In candor to the Court, death threats — if the Court agrees with the Petitioner’s Verified Complaint . . . against the Court, her Honor, litigants, witnesses, staff personnel and their families, will come,” Newcomb’s filing states, the Cowboy State Daily reported.  

Lummis also celebrated the dismissal in a comment to Fox Digital, calling the suit “frivolous.” 

“Elections in Wyoming are decided by the people of the Cowboy State, and I am glad this frivolous lawsuit to remove myself and Donald Trump from future ballots was dismissed. Efforts to remove candidates from the ballot are a direct attack on the freedom of voters to choose their elected officials and undermines the integrity of our elections,” Lummis told Fox News Digital on Friday. 

Ahead of this year’s election, other states are in the midst of legal battles over whether to remove Trump’s name from the ballot, which Gray has repeatedly fought against. In Colorado, Gray filed an amicus curiae brief, otherwise known as a “friend of the court brief,” with the Colorado Supreme Court to rectify a lower court in the state labeling Trump an “insurrectionist” in relation to the January 6 protests at the U.S. Capitol. 

CALIFORNIA SECRETARY OF STATE LEAVES TRUMP ON THE BALLOT AFTER CALLS TO REMOVE HIM

“As chief election officials of our states, [Secretaries of State] have to stand up for the electoral process in our republic, and this is pivotal to ensuring the integrity of our elections,” Gray told Fox News Digital in a phone interview last month after filing the amicus brief. 

“I ran on election integrity, and that’s why the people of Wyoming voted me into office. And I’m following through on that, and defending the truth here, and making sure that these outrageous, frivolous lawsuits that the radical left is bringing and trying to remove President Trump from the ballot, that they don’t succeed.” 

TRUMP DISQUALIFIED FROM MAINE 2024 REPUBLICAN PRIMARY BALLOT

The Colorado Supreme Court ultimately ruled to bar Trump from the ballot, with justices writing in their opinion that Trump “incited and encouraged” the use of violence to prevent the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021, following the 2020 presidential election. 

Trump on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, arguing that the “Colorado Supreme Court has no authority to deny” him a place on the state’s ballot. 

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Maine has also barred Trump from the ballot, which the former president is appealing in state court, while efforts are underway in other states such as Illinois, Oregon and Massachusetts to remove Trump’s name. 

A pair of Arkansas governors will be supporting former President Trump at two Iowa faith events with ahead of the state’s Republican presidential caucuses next week.

GOP Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former Diamond State Governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican, will be supporting Trump at the Hawkeye State faith events on January 8, Fox News Digital has learned.

Sanders told Fox News Digital she is “excited to head back to Iowa on Monday to campaign for President Trump, because we need his leadership back in the White House.”

TRUMP STARTS 2024 IN ‘STRONGEST POSSIBLE POSITION’ IN REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY RACE

“The contrast between President Biden’s disastrous policies and President Trump’s successful policies could not be more clear,” Sanders said. “President Trump made America great and will again.”

The event will be held at the Hickory Grove Community Church in Ottumwa, Iowa, starting at 11 a.m. CT. 

The second will be held at First Church of God in Des Moines, Iowa, at 5 p.m.

The events comes as Trump holds a commanding lead in the GOP presidential primary ahead of the January 15 caucus in Iowa.

Trump is heavily ahead of his competition in the polls for the GOP nominaton and is touting his position as the presidential nominating cycle kicks off.

“I am honored to tell you that we are beginning the 2024 Election Year in our strongest possible position since the moment I rode down the Golden Escalator and announced my bid to run for president as a political outsider,” Trump wrote in a New Year’s Day fundraising email to supporters, as he pointed back to the launch of his 2016 presidential campaign.

For Trump, a year makes a big difference.

The former president was the only Republican running for the White House as 2023 kicked off and was quickly joined by a chorus of GOP presidential hopefuls, including his former protégé, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis was neck and neck with Trump early on in the race as more people threw their hats into the ring, including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

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Trump enjoys a formidable double-digit lead over his rivals in the latest polls in Iowa, where the January 15 caucuses lead off the GOP nominating calendar. He holds an even larger lead in the most recent national polls.

The former president is also facing legal trouble amid his third straight White House bid, but it only seems to have had a rallying effect among many Republicans.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed reporting.

HOLLIS, N.H. – With less than three weeks to go until New Hampshire holds the first primary in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is turning up the volume on his verbal attacks on rival former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The former New Jersey governor is accusing Haley of acting “immature” in response to her viral comment that New Hampshire voters “correct” the Iowa caucus results. He argues that if former President Trump, the GOP nomination front-runner, asked Haley to be his running mate, “she would take it in five seconds.”

Haley, the former South Carolina governor who later served as United Nations ambassador in the Trump administration, has enjoyed plenty of momentum in recent months and has soared in the latest polls in New Hampshire, which suggest she has significantly closed the gap with Trump.

However, this week, two new comments by Haley were instantly used as ammunition by Christie, who is once again staking his presidential campaign on a strong finish in New Hampshire as he runs a second time for the White House. Christie stands in third place in most Granite State surveys, far behind Trump and Haley but ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

FIRST ON FOX: INFLUENTIAL CONSERVATIVE GROUP LAUNCHES MASSIVE AD BLITZ ON BEHALF OF HALEY

Campaigning in Milford, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, Haley told the large crowd that “we have an opportunity to get this right. And I know we’ll get it right, and I trust you. I trust every single one of you. You know how to do this. You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it.”

Pointing to her home state, which on Feb. 24 will hold the first southern contest in the Republican presidential primary schedule, Haley added “and then my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home.”

The comment appeared to be tailored to Granite Staters, and the crowd cheered Haley’s remarks.

WAR OF WORDS BETWEEN HALEY AND DESANTIS REACHES FEVER PITCH

On Thursday night, Christie took aim.

“You don’t have to correct anything that Iowa does or doesn’t do. That’s not New Hampshire’s responsibility. Your responsibility is to do what you think is right. You don’t have to worry about what Iowa does,” he told the crowd at a town hall in this New Hampshire town along the state’s southern border with Massachusetts.

Minutes later, he told reporters, “I think people in Iowa saw here yesterday that she’s willing to say anything to an audience to try to curry their favor.”

“She mocks Iowa voters just to try to get a laugh out of New Hampshire voters,” he argued. “I mean that’s like just immature. Grow up.”

Christie was not the only rival to blast Haley.

DeSantis, who is staking much of his campaign on a strong Iowa finish, charged Thursday in a local radio interview in the Hawkeye State that Haley was “incredibly disrespectful to Iowans to say somehow their votes need to be corrected.”

Haley, during a CNN town hall Thursday in Iowa, said her comment was intended as a joke, noting “we’ve done 150 plus town halls. You got to have some fun, too.”

FIRST ON FOX: HALEY FUNDRAISING SOARS THE PAST THREE MONTHS

In recent weeks, DeSantis and Christie have taken aim at Haley for not being vocal enough in her criticism of Trump. Both candidates have argued Haley has an ulterior motive.

“She will not answer directly, and she owes you an answer to this: Will she accept a vice presidential nomination from Donald Trump? Yes or no?” DeSantis said at a town hall in New Hampshire last month.

Additionally, Christie, on multiple occasions over the past month, has emphasized that, “Ron DeSantis and I have both ruled out accepting the vice presidency from Donald Trump. Nikki Haley has not… That’s why she’s not saying strong things against Donald Trump.” 

Haley has frequently repeated that she is not running for second place in the GOP 2024 presidential primary.

Given the opportunity in a Fox News Digital interview Tuesday ahead of a town hall in New Hampshire to categorically rule out serving as Trump’s running mate if asked, Haley reiterated she is running to win.

“I have said from the very beginning I don’t play for second. It’s offensive for anybody to think that I would do all of this to play for second. And so I have said that. I will continue to say that. If people aren’t satisfied with that, I don’t know what else to say,” Haley said.

Haley also told Fox News that Christie and DeSantis have “criticized me for everything. Let’s be clear. That’s what happens when you’re losing.”

ONLY ON FOX: HALEY PUSHES BACK BUT DOESN’T CATEGORICALLY RULE OUT BEING TRUMP’S RUNNING MATE

Pointing to the Fox News Digital interview, Christie told reporters on Thursday night “she won’t answer. She gives this bull answer ‘I never play for second.’ Like, what’s that mean? It’s simply yes or no. Would you accept vice president from Trump or wouldn’t you.”

“She won’t answer. And you know what that means in politics when you don’t answer a question. That means it’s because you know the answer and you don’t want to say it out loud,” Christie claimed. “I will tell you right now, if Donald Trump offered her vice president, she would take it in five seconds. Five seconds. And that’s why she’s not answering the question.”

Pointing to South Carolina’s Feb. 24 Republican presidential primary, Christie argued that Haley “wants the wiggle room to be able to do that later on when she doesn’t do as well as everyone thinks she’ll do here and when she loses her own home state, which she’s going to do.”

In an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader, Haley claimed that ruling out serving as running mate would make “the news for days” and stifle her momentum.

Christie, a longtime vocal GOP critic of Trump, has faced plenty of pressure in recent weeks to drop out of the race and back Haley to prevent any fracturing of the anti-Trump vote.

Referencing the crowd of close to 300 people who showed up at his town hall, Christie said “you saw all these people tonight who don’t want me out of this race. They want to vote for me. And I suspect a lot of these people here, if I dropped out, wouldn’t vote at all, because she’s unwilling to take Trump on.”

When asked by Fox News where he needs to finish in New Hampshire to continue on, Christie said “I have to come in second or like a very, very close third. I don’t think there’s any mystery to that. That’s what I have to do.”

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Trump holds an extremely formidable double-digit advantage over DeSantis and Haley in Iowa – whose Jan. 15 caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar – and enjoys an even more massive lead in national polling in the Republican race.

However, with the latest polls indicating Haley narrowing the gap in New Hampshire, where independent voters have long played an influential role in the state’s storied primary, Trump’s campaign this week launched an attack ad on Haley in the Granite State.

Neil Levesque, the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, told Fox News that “Haley has what every candidate wishes they had – which is momentum. And she’s closing the gap with Trump.”

Haley landed a big boost last month with the endorsement of popular Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who has joined Haley on the campaign trail at her town halls since backing her.

She is also supported by Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Action, the political arm of an influential and deep-pocketed conservative public advocacy group with strong grassroots outreach.

Greg Moore, a longtime New Hampshire-based conservative activist and an AFP Action senior advisor, emphasized that “one thing we know about the New Hampshire primary is that they are often decided by momentum. We’ve seen that – for example – with John McCain twice, where he was a candidate with momentum in both 2000 and 2008. That’s where you want to be. Frankly, I think I’d rather be where Nikki Haley is right now than where Donald Trump is.”

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

A political action committee (PAC) led by a former aide to democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is calling on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race.

The leftist No Excuses PAC, led by Ocasio-Cortez’s former communications director Corbin Trent, published a new landing page and digital ad on their website, calling on Biden to exit the race.

The PAC cites the president’s trailing poll numbers against former President Trump in key battleground states, with the page lauding Biden as having “accomplished more in three years than most two term presidents.”

‘SHAMEFUL’: AOC BLASTS BIDEN ADMIN FOR BLOCKING UN GAZA CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION

“But battleground state voters say they’ll vote for Trump if you’re the Democratic nominee,” the PAC writes. “It might not make sense. But it doesn’t have to.”

“The reality is that if you attempt to cling to power, your legacy will be Donald Trump’s final destruction of our democracy,” it continues. “If you step aside, however, you’ll be remembered as one of the greatest presidents in history.”

“Thank you, Joe… But now it’s time to go,” the message concludes, asking for $3 donations from webpage visitors.

Farther down on the page, the PAC — which previously pushed to end the filibuster — cited a New York Times/Siena College poll showing Biden trailing behind Trump in battleground states and said that if Biden “stepped aside this month and allowed a primary, many strong Democrats could show us what they’ve got.”

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE RESPONDS TO AOC: BIDEN HAS ‘DONE MORE THAN ANYBODY’ TO SECURE THE BORDER

“We have plenty of amazing leaders to choose from — including popular swing state governors Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, and Tony Evers; high profile national leaders like Elizabeth Warren, Gavin Newsom, Cory Booker; and Ro Khanna; and rising stars like Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona,” the page reads.

“The Biden team is clinging to the long-time Democratic Party strategy of hoping their opponent will defeat himself. That is how we lost in 2016 (and in 2004, 2000, etc,…),” it continues.

“The stakes are too high this time to close our eyes and hope for the best. All of the most dangerous characters from the chaotic Trump presidency have made elaborate plans for taking a wrecking ball to the federal government and our entire justice system if they retake the White House. Billionaire donors have bankrolled conservative and extremist think tanks to host them while they plan.”

“There’s only one way to avoid this train wreck, and that is for Biden to step aside and allow a Democratic primary to take place. It’s not too late, in fact, there is plenty of time,” it continues.

The page concludes by saying “Biden has accomplished incredible things in his presidency” and “that will be his legacy — if he steps aside.”

“Otherwise, he will go down in history as the president whose selfishness allowed Trump to complete the destruction of American democracy,” it concludes. “That’s why it’s time to say, ‘Thanks Joe, but now it’s time to go.’”

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The new website page comes as Biden works to stave off Trump in battleground states while also having the added competition in the form of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s campaign.

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s and Ocasio-Cortez’s campaigns, as well as No Excuses PAC, for comment.

FIRST ON FOX – Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the influential and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, is launching a new phase in its large ad and grassroots effort on behalf of Nikki Haley’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

The ad blitz, which was shared first with Fox News on Friday, includes mailers, digital ads and connected TV spots that will run starting this week in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The campaign will also hit Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, four of the 15 states that hold presidential nominating contests on March 5, which is known as Super Tuesday.

AFP Action, which pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to help push the Republican Party past former President Donald Trump as it endorsed Haley in late November, says it’s putting an initial $27 million behind this new wave in their ongoing campaign.

“Poll after poll shows that Trump is the weakest candidate against Joe Biden,” the narrator in the group’s ad emphasizes. 

WAR OF WORDS BETWEEN HALEY AND DESANTIS REACHES FEVER PITCH

A slew of recent polls of the 2024 presidential election indicate Haley topping President Biden by larger margins than Trump does in hypothetical general election matchups.

“Nikki Haley crushes Biden by double digits. She even beats him in the swing states that Trump lost in 2020. It’s clear. Nikki Haley would be the strongest candidate to stop Biden and help elect Republicans across the country,” the narrator adds. “She’s a proven conservative fighter. With the criminal trials for President Trump and the liberal media out to get him, our country can’t risk four more years of Biden and Harris.”

ONLY ON FOX: HALEY PUSHES BACK BUT DOESN’T CATEGORICALLY RULE OUT BEING TRUMP’S RUNNING MATE

Trump remains the commanding frontrunner for the Republican nomination as he makes his third straight White House run.

Trump’s lead expanded last spring and summer as he made history as the first former or current president in American history to be indicted for a crime. Trump’s four indictments – including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss – have only fueled his support among Republican voters.

He holds a massive lead over Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in national polling, and in the latest surveys in Iowa, whose Jan. 15 caucuses kick off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

FIRST ON FOX: HALEY FUNDRAISING SOARS THE PAST THREE MONTHS

But Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, has enjoyed plenty of momentum in recent months. She has caught up to DeSantis in national surveys and in the latest Iowa polls, and surpassed him in New Hampshire and has narrowed the gap with Trump in the Granite State, which holds its primary eight days after the caucuses.

The AFP Action endorsement instantly gave Haley, who until recent weeks had been running a lean campaign, the grassroots outreach and organizational strength that DeSantis has enjoyed, due to the major assist from the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down.

In the 2022 midterm election cycle, AFP Action knocked on roughly 5.5 million doors, made 2 million calls, and sent out nearly 70 million pieces of mail on behalf of candidates it was backing.

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The electability argument made by AFP Action in their new blitz mirrors what Haley has repeated showcased on the campaign trail and what the super PAC supporting her has spotlighted in ads. As part of her stump speech, Haley highlights how polls suggest she beats Biden more convincingly that Trump would.

“Nikki Haley is by far the strongest candidate Republicans could run against Joe Biden, and no one else is even close. Nikki Haley would boost Republicans up and down the ballot,” AFP Action director Nathan Nascimento told Fox News in a statement.

But Trump’s political orbit discounts the effort.

“Americans for Prosperity has already lit millions of dollars on fire this primary only to watch President Donald Trump’s lead grow. No amount of money can break the bond President Trump has with voters. He kept his promises,” Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the Trump-aligned super PAC Make America Great Again Inc MAGA Inc., said following AFP Action’s endorsement of Haley.

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

A billionaire associate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein funneled large donations to Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and several Democrat lawmakers, according to a Fox News Digital review of federal filings.

New York City-based hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin was the first name included in previously redacted court documents in a lawsuit against Epstein’s former lover and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska had recently ordered the documents be made public and were released on Wednesday.

Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre said Dubin was the “first” individual Maxwell had sent her to for sex after she completed her massage training, according to a 2016 deposition.

“When they say massage, that means erotic, okay? That’s their term for it,” Giuffre said. “And I’m telling you that Ghislaine told me to go to Glenn Dubin and give him a massage, which means sex.”

JEFFREY EPSTEIN LIST: COURT UNSEALS NAMES IN GHISLAINE MAXWELL LAWSUIT

“I know Glenn Dubin was first,” Giuffre added.

Dubin, the co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, is heavily involved with philanthropic endeavors and has given federal candidates hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations in recent years.

According to Federal Election Commission filings, Dubin funneled $100,000 to Ramaswamy’s American Exceptionalism PAC in 2023. He also added $6,600 in donations to his campaign last year.

Ramaswamy appears to be his only donation to a Republican candidate in some time. His money has primarily gone to Democrat committees.

Dubin drove a $50,000 donation to Hillary Clinton’s victory fund and a $33,400 contribution to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 election cycle. He also showered the Sen. Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC with $75,000 in cash in 2016 and 2018.

In addition, he’s given thousands of dollars to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s former Win the Era PAC in 2019 and to the campaigns of several Democrat lawmakers, including Reps. Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres of New York, over the past several years.

Meanwhile, Dubin’s wife and Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Eva Andersson-Dubin, was also included in the court records. Andersson-Dubin previously testified on Maxwell’s behalf.

A spokesperson for the Dubins told the New York Post on Thursday that the “Dubins strongly deny these allegations, as we first said [in Vanity Fair] in 2019, when these unsubstantiated statements first surfaced as part of this same civil court proceeding.”

Glenn Dubin did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS: SEE ALL 40 UNSEALED FILES IN GHISLAINE MAXWELL LAWSUIT

Epstein had many high-profile connections, including former U.S. presidents, foreign prime ministers, Britain’s Prince Andrew, Hollywood stars, leading academics, individuals in the modeling and fashion industries, and other public figures. Some of the names were previously known through other means despite having been withheld from the public’s eye in the lawsuit.

The names were unveiled in a series of 40 documents that have been posted to the docket without the previous redactions that hid prominent names, including former Presidents Clinton and Trump; Clinton’s estranged longtime aide Doug Band; the late former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson; and French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who, like Epstein, died while awaiting trial.

Many of the names belong to people who have not been accused of wrongdoing, including Clinton, who also declined to ask the court to have his name remain sealed. Dubin and his wife have also not been charged.

Dubin’s former private chef, Rinaldo Rizzo, was also among the names unsealed Wednesday. Previously released documents revealed that Rizzo said Epstein and Maxwell once visited Dubin’s house with a disoriented, 15-year-old Swedish girl who told him the couple asked her for sex and that her passport had been taken.

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Others cited include Tony Figueroa, Limited Brands founder and former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, and Epstein accusers such as Johanna Sjoberg and Annie Farmer.

Epstein was convicted of having sex with an underage girl and faced sex trafficking and conspiracy charges when he killed himself in 2019.

Ramaswamy’s, Goldman’s and Ritchie’s campaigns did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. The Senate Majority PAC and DNC also did not respond to an inquiry. The remaining committees have been terminated since the time of his contributions.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Republican candidates running in border states are warning congressional GOP members negotiating a funding deal not to cede ground to Democrat demands for more Ukraine support so long as the migrant crisis continues.

Fox News Digital spoke with multiple Republican candidates, as well as one Democrat, about the ongoing negotiations and whether concern for Ukraine amid its war with Russia might trump the worsening border crisis that they say is a threat to America’s national security.

“If our elected officials can’t focus solely on securing our border and stopping people from invading our country, then they should be voted out of office,” Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake told Fox. 

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“Any member of Congress who is trying to wrap Ukraine funding into securing our own border is betraying the trust of the American people. The money I would vote to approve will be used to secure our border and stop the invasion, not to process more people coming in,” she added.

Former Republican Texas Congresswoman Mayra Flores, the first Mexican-born woman elected to Congress who is now running to retake her border district seat she lost in the 2022 midterms, echoed Lake. Money should not continue to be sent to Ukraine as long as America continues to battle the crisis at the border, Flores said.

“As the wife of a border patrol agent living in the Rio Grande Valley, I can tell you unequivocally there is no more serious threat to our country’s security than the thousands of unknown, illegal immigrants coming into our country every single day,” she said.

New Mexico Senate candidate Ben Luna also took a tough approach, arguing congressional Republicans needed to step up and stop the decline he said America has been facing because of issues at the border.

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“We really need to fix America before we even try to help others. It’s almost like an injured person trying to go do surgery on somebody else. It doesn’t make any sense,” he told Fox. 

“[Republicans] need to buckle up and play hardball… We haven’t really had a lot of leadership and a lot of people know that hard times create strong men while weak men create hard times. And we’re kind of going through that right now,” he said.

Luna added that Americans were now dealing with the consequences of 70 to 100 years of bad policy decisions, and that even Democrats in his home state were waking up to the realities of politicians sending money elsewhere when it was desperately needed to help those here.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is up for re-election this year, has been one of the biggest proponents in the Senate for achieving Republicans’ objectives in handling the border crisis. He introduced the Senate version of H.R. 2, officially known as the Secure the Border Act, which has served as the baseline for the GOP’s border position in the funding negotiations.

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“I think it’s the best and most comprehensive approach to actually securing the border. And the White House’s objection comes down to the sad fact they don’t want it secure for anybody else,” he said in a recent interview.

One of Cruz’s Democrat challengers, Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, offered an alternative view on the funding fight, arguing the war in Ukraine affected everyone across the globe, and that solutions to the border crisis involved reforming gun laws to combat cartel violence.

“The war in Ukraine is about protecting democracy, and when democracy is challenged anywhere in the world, that affects us all,” he told Fox. “Real border security solutions involve stopping the gun industry from arming cartels. Only comprehensive gun safety reform is going to fix that.” 

Gutierrez said that policies like red flag laws, purchasing age limits and “assault” weapons bans would accomplish that.

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“Fixing the chaos caused by Republican extremists at the southern border must be solved, but make no mistake, it should not come at the cost of protecting democracy. It’s time to put an end to the made-for-TV stunts and finally focus on the voices of the leaders from our border communities,” he added.

Fox reached out to a number of other Democrat candidates running in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and asked what they wanted to see as part of the funding deal, but none offered any response.

Key Senate lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill early this week from the Christmas recess to try and strike a deal on a border security bill after they were unable to reach an agreement last month.

Lead Senate negotiators James Lankford, R-Okla., Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., began negotiations with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other Biden administration officials a week before the upper chamber was scheduled to go on its holiday recess.

Meanwhile, 60 House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., ended their holiday break early to visit Eagle Pass, Texas, on the southern border Wednesday. They have vowed that even if a deal is struck in the Senate, it won’t receive support from the GOP-controlled House unless it includes elements of H.R. 2.

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Republicans tied the condition of increased aid to Ukraine to the implementation of stricter border security measures prior to the recess. However, the demand for this linkage, which encompasses aid to Israel and Taiwan alongside Ukraine, arose soon after President Biden urged its passage in October. 

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

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.