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For 14 years, Ryan Elijah reported on Central Florida’s biggest stories from the television newsroom. Now, he is on a mission to represent the same community in Congress. 

Elijah stepped into a contentious GOP primary in which he warned that incumbent Cory Mills was at risk of losing the Republican-leaning district to the Democrats, following a series of personal and professional scandals.

Elijah won a convincing victory in the August 18 Republican primary, receiving 47% of the vote to Mills’ 34%.

Trump, who had originally endorsed Millls, later claimed that he had privately encouraged the embattled congressman to withdraw from the race.

REP CORY MILLS DRAWS FIRST REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER AS SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS, EXPULSION THREAT MOUNT

Recently, the veteran television journalist sat down with Fox News Digital to discuss his views on Iran, affordability, and immigration, while pledging to remain an independent voice in Congress, and a strong advocate for Volusia and Seminole counties.

Elijah did not take the decision to leave working in media lightly, but felt a call to leadership: 

“I love my job. It’s something I could have retired from TV and been perfectly happy. But I think we all look for the time you’re asked to step up and lead. And for me, that was this time. When we saw how the primary was playing out, it just became clear that we were going to lose this election in November. 

“And I decided that we had the connections in this community to throw our hat in the ring. We had the trust from the community and the primary played out a lot like we thought it would, where people wanted a choice. I think that’s what primaries are all about in Seminole County and Volusia County spoke really loud. In that primary, and now I think they put us in a great spot to hold this seat in November.”

Elijah pledges to put transparency and accountability front and center for the constituents of the seventh district:

“Well, I think transparency and accountability are huge issues. I think when I talk to people, they don’t feel like they’re heard very much in Washington. And I think that you have to be transparent about whatever you can. And first of all, if you have nothing to hide, that’s the best way to be transparent because you can exactly show your business dealings and how your life dealings are. 

“And that’s something we’ve talked about a lot…and then in terms of accountability, no one is above the law. And that’s a message that Americans want to hear, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, there are laws for a reason, and we have to make sure those laws are upheld.”

As the military engagement with Iran is rattling global energy markets and pinching American’s pocketbooks, Elijah concedes the need to thwart a nuclear Iran, but also is wary of another forever war:

GOP RISING STAR HELPED TOPPLE TRUMP-BACKED INCUMBENT. NOW HE’S CAUGHT LEADERSHIP’S EYE

“This is a decade-long issue and a conflict between Iran and its proxies, where they have targeted and they have killed Americans. So the U.S. military right now is trying to end that conflict. But as representatives, we have to listen to the American people. We have to listen to central Floridians. 

“And they have been very clear on this. They’re concerned about it. They are concerned this is going to be a never-ending war. They don’t want that. I don’t want that either. I share that belief, which is why I think we need to draw this conflict down. And we need to make sure that Iran is not a nuclear threat.”

On the immigration issue, Elijah cites improvement under GOP leadership on the issue, but argues that enforcement focus should remain on criminals:

“This is another issue where I think you have to look at where we’ve come from. When you let tens of millions of illegal people into this country, you’re going to have issues that take a long time to fix. And I think if you look at the way there has to be a federal, a local, and a state cooperation with immigration, that’s what it takes to work. Which is why when I talk to all the sheriffs in our district that are endorsing us, they’re handling immigration much better than other parts around the country because they have that cooperation. 

“We need to start with the criminals. We have got many criminals still here illegally in the United States. That’s what they focused on in central Florida. That’s what ICE needs to focus on, removing the criminals. And there’s a compassionate way to handle this as we’ve got an issue that is not going to be fixed in just six or 12 months.”

Elijah consistently emphasizes that he will be an independent voice for the district, not a partisan rubber stamp:

“Well, I’ve said a lot. Look, I ran in this primary without the president’s endorsement. I’ve been an independent voice in this and I’ve told a lot of people that ask me that question. 

“As you can imagine, I go to a lot of doors. That’s a question: ‘Will you support the president? Will you not support the president?’ And what I tell them is, if it’s a policy that supports our country and supports our district, I’m going to support that policy. 

“More often than not, I will because I’m a Republican. I like a lot of those policies. If there’s a policy I disagree with, we won’t. So in that situation, that’s where things are at.”

Finally, Elijah acknowledges that affordability, while lacking a quick and easy fix, is the defining 2026 issue for much of the electorate:

“I think the number one thing that we hear from people, and that’s affordability, and that’s not an easy fix, but I think what they want out of government is accountability. We talked about that before, that government is going to be accountable on its spending, on its policies, and getting inflation down, which is going to lower interest rates. It’s going to lower the cost of living. 

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“People in Central Florida, people around the country, they want to be heard. And what they’re saying in a very clear tone right now is make sure that you control government spending and protect the future of our children. That’s probably the biggest thing I want them to notice.”

Elijah will be facing Navy veteran and former NASA employee Bale Dalton in the November 3 general election.

President Donald Trump and his election security efforts were a central target in Virginia Democratic Attorney General Jay Jones’ rollout of a ” Voter Protection” unit, but Republican critics say the announcement overlooked voting- rights controversies unfolding in his own backyard.

Jones formed the Voter Protection Section on Tuesday to enforce state voting-rights laws as Virginia faces scrutiny over restoration letters sent to deceased felons amid Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s restoration of voting rights to more than 66,000 Virginians.

Jones “launched this section to address the continued erosion of the federal Voting Rights Act, Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on our democracy, and his administration’s efforts to impede access to the ballot,” his office said in a statement.

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Jones’ announcement did not identify specific Trump administration actions, but the president signed a March 2025 order seeking stricter proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration and changes to mail-ballot rules and backed the SAVE Act to mandate voter ID.

“At a time when the Trump administration has sought to push the federal government further into the administration of state elections, we will work closely with the Department of Elections and the Federal Accountability Unit to protect Virginia’s authority, the integrity of our elections, and every eligible voter’s right to be heard,” said Ajay Saini, the OAG official Jones named to lead the division.

However, critics quickly faulted the unit for overlooking controversies within Virginia’s own government after the felon rights-restoration scandal broke earlier this month.

“‘Two Bullets’ Jay Jones is now worried about ‘misinformation’ after just this year telling Virginians that Democrats’ illegal gerrymandering power grab was about ‘fairness’,” the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) said in a statement, referencing Jones’ previous reported text messages envisioning shooting a prior GOP House speaker twice instead of former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler or Cambodian dictator Pol Pot.

TRUMP ELECTION INTEGRITY PUSH EXPOSES MASSIVE AMOUNT OF DEAD PEOPLE ON NORTH CAROLINA VOTER ROLLS

“The top priority for this new divisions should be finding out how many dead felons have had their rights restored, and how that happened in the first place,” current Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, told Fox News Digital.

Several Virginians reported receiving restoration notices addressed to deceased relatives. Fredericksburg resident Howard Lambert confirmed to Fox News Digital a letter addressed to his late daughter indicated officials had reviewed her case before restoring her rights.

34,000 DEAD PEOPLE FOUND ON VOTER ROLLS PROMPTS EXPERT TO SLAM DEMS FOR RESISTING ‘COMMONSENSE’ CLEANUP

Kim Taylor, a former Republican delegate from the Petersburg area, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that Jones’ pledge to protect Virginians’ votes ignores his silence on both the “dead felons” scandal and a Democrat-supported November ballot measure that would take restoration rights away from the governor and automatically empower formerly incarcerated felons to vote.

“Jay Jones can create all the fancy new ‘voter protection’ units he wants to make himself feel better, but it’s nothing more than an empty political gesture when Richmond is mailing voting rights restoration letters to dead felons,” Taylor said.

VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT TOSSES DEM-BACKED REDISTRICTING MAP, UPENDING EXPECTED 10–1 EDGE

“With three critical constitutional amendments on the ballot, including one fundamentally changing felon voting rights, Virginians need real election integrity instead of another taxpayer-funded political stunt.”

When pressed on those issues and on Republicans’ claims that the SAVE Act provides protections itself, a spokesperson for Jones declined to elaborate beyond an initial statement:

“I was raised by people who understood that the right to vote was never simply given. Generations of Americans had to sacrifice, organize, and show extraordinary courage to claim that right,” Jones said. “That history is personal to me, and it reminds us that the work of civil rights and voting rights is never finished.”

“That is why we created a dedicated Voter Protection Section within the Office of the Attorney General. This work now has a permanent home, and a team focused every day on defending voting rights and enforcing Virginia law,” he added, calling protection of voting rights a “year-round” responsibility.

Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson, who has focused on Richmond’s legal maneuvers regarding both immigration enforcement and voting rights, said Tuesday that Jones’ plan raises a separate question about enforcement against noncitizens who vote illegally amid Virginia’s restricted cooperation with DHS.

Anderson previously discussed the dead-felons case with Fox News Digital and noted Tuesday that Gov. Abigail Spanberger previously restricted ICE’s use of public property, including through guidance involving encounters at polls.

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“Now Attorney General Jay Jones says his office will enforce Virginia’s election laws. Then answer this, Attorney General: Does that include prosecuting noncitizens who knowingly vote illegally—with the same enthusiasm you bring to protecting access to the polls? We know this is a big fat ‘No’. Enforce the whole law,” he said.

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The Democratic Party of Virginia, however, backed Jones’ new unit, arguing that Trump is “attacking voting rights [and] Virginia is not backing down,” as election security remains a prominent issue heading into the midterms.

Ukraine is urgently pressing Elon Musk’s SpaceX to reverse new restrictions on its Starshield satellite service that Kyiv warns could hamper its ability to intercept Russian attack drones and conduct other military operations, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital.

The restrictions were imposed without advance warning despite Ukraine relying on the service under arrangements contracted through the U.S. government meant to last until May 15, 2027, according to the source.

Ukrainian forces discovered the change overnight after experiencing connectivity problems and contacting SpaceX customer support.

They were told Starshield service would be restricted on platforms traveling at speeds of 100 miles per hour or higher, the source said.

RUSSIA MAY BE USING HIDDEN ‘LUNCHBOX-SIZE’ DRONE DEVICES TO COUNTER UKRAINE DEFENSES: EXPERT

Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on defense technology, warned that the change could particularly hamper Ukraine’s efforts to intercept Russia’s newer, jet-powered Shahed attack drones, saying it threatened “one of our few chances to defend the country” against them.

Ukrainian forces have also begun documenting effects on the battlefield. Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps said one unmanned systems unit on the Huliaipole front had already been forced to cancel missions because of connectivity problems. The unit reported interruptions even while drones were traveling below the stated 100 mph threshold.

Starshield is SpaceX’s national security satellite service, based on technology developed for the company’s better-known Starlink network.

The change could affect Ukrainian drones, aircraft and helicopters that rely on Starshield connectivity while moving at high speeds, including drones used to intercept Russian Shahed attacks. Ukrainian units are already reporting performance problems at speeds below the stated threshold, according to the source.

UKRAINE SEEKS MORE US PATRIOT INTERCEPTORS AS BOMB SHELTER PROBE DEEPENS

Ukraine has contacted SpaceX seeking an explanation for the restrictions and asking the company to restore its previous service capabilities, the source familiar with the move told Fox News Digital.

They said Ukraine communicated to Musk’s company that the restriction had not previously applied to its terminals and was creating significant operational problems for Ukrainian forces in its continued war with aggressor Russia.

Kyiv also noted that its current service arrangements, contracted through the U.S. government until May 15, 2027, cover land-based mobile and fixed uses, including mobile platforms, according to the source.

SpaceX had not responded to Ukraine’s request as of Wednesday morning, the source said.

PENTAGON CONSOLIDATES DRONE OVERSIGHT AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PUSHES RAPID UNMANNED WARFARE EXPANSION

Polish Foreign Minister Radislaw Sikorski tore into Musk over the restrictions.

“Hey @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again? As your European customers, wea are watching you,” he wrote on X.

Poland pays for more than 2,900 Starlink terminals operating in Ukraine.

Sikorski and Musk clashed last year over Ukraine’s dependence on Starlink, with Musk telling Sikorski, “Be quiet, small man.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Pentagon, White House and SpaceX for details. There’s been no public confirmation that Musk personally ordered the restrictions.

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The Pentagon, through Space Force, contracts with SpaceX for Starshield services, giving the department a direct role in administering the government’s agreements with the company. But the existence of a Pentagon contract does not establish whether the military or SpaceX has authority over specific operational restrictions, including the new speed limit.

Texas Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate James Talarico appears to be further moderating his previous left-wing stances as he slammed former President Joe Biden for ‘failing us’ on border security in a new campaign advertisement released Monday.

Despite spewing a seemingly hawkish and downright right-leaning border stance in the recent ad, Talarico previously called to slash Texas’ entire border-security budget in an unearthed interview.

“I called out Joe Biden for failing us on the border,” Talarico says in the opening of the ad released this week.

But Talarico’s campaign couldn’t give Fox News Digital an example of him ever publicly criticizing Biden during his presidency. And the Texas Democrat explicitly made a call to put Texas’ entire $800 million two-year border security budget toward public education in a 2019 interview with The Austin Chronicle.

JAMES TALARICO ADMITS DEMOCRATS TOOK ‘BORDER FOR GRANTED’ UNDER BIDEN

“We’re also sending about $800 million per biennium to the border with Mexico for ‘increased border security,’” Talarico said in the more than seven-year-old interview.

The two-year deal allocating $400 million per year toward border security in the state of Texas was the state’s entire budget toward warding off illegal immigration at the time Talarico made the call to replace that funding.

“I’d rather take that money and put it back into public education and help increase the basic allotment, for instance,” he said in the interview.

Talarico has ramped up his efforts to come off more moderate amid claims that he is too progressive to win a Senate seat in notoriously red Texas. His move to a more moderate stance on immigration only started during his Senate bid in the state with the highest rates of illegal immigration.

“Putting a bunch of boats, planes and border patrol agents on the physical border is expensive and also does not solve the problem,” he said in the interview.

His 2019 criticism of border enforcement comes to the surface as border crossings under the Trump administration fell to a new record low level in 55 years in 2025, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The decline in illegal immigration followed a series of immigration enforcement measures implemented by the administration.

“Everyone will admit it’s just political grandstanding,” Talarico said in the interview. “Certain lawmakers want to appease extreme parts of their base. And they do it by pumping money we don’t have down to the border.”

EXCLUSIVE: TALARICO CAUGHT ON TAPE GIGGLING ABOUT HIS CHURCH HOUSING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SET FOR DEPORTATION

In his run for Senate, Talarico has now labeled himself a “border security” Democrat, despite an extensive history of pushing back on border security reform and authorities.

A former member of the Texas legislature and a former school teacher, Talarico has been in the spotlight repeatedly for many of his far-left controversies, particularly comments regarding immigration enforcement. He has called to dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), claiming it was “time to tear down this secret police force.”

Talarico also referred to illegal aliens as his “constituents.”

He labeled Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security policies as “atrocities” and accused him of “hunting” illegal immigrants. The Senate candidate also said he “taught a lot of undocumented students,” and that those illegal aliens were more patriotic than Americans.

“James is proud to be the only candidate in this race who has unveiled a border security agenda endorsed by Republican and Democratic border county sheriffs,” Talarico’s campaign spokesperson JT Ennis told Fox News Digital when asked about the flip-flop.

TALARICO DISAPPEARANCE HAS DEM VOLUNTEERS WORRYING AND TRUMP ASKING, ‘WHAT IS GOING ON?’

He continued, “James supports stronger border security and immigration enforcement — it’s why he’s called for more border patrol agents and has said we should be arresting and deporting violent criminals and human traffickers — not moms and babies.”

The Texas Senate hopeful went briefly missing from the campaign trail this month, prompting viral rumors online to swirl that he was at a behavioral health center. Talarico debunked these claims after clearing the air on his whereabouts when he reappeared Friday, reassuring voters that he was recovering from the flu.

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Talarico is running against GOP rival Ken Paxton for the Senate seat in Texas. The race has remained close as November’s midterms approach.

FIRST ON FOX: A new memo obtained by Fox News Digital alleges that former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department collected information on hundreds of thousands of Republican voters and donors.

The memo is part of an update from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and his investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith and his Arctic Frost probe, which was launched by Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2022 to investigate efforts to overturn results of the 2020 election.

Grassley has been diving into Arctic Frost since last year, releasing a drip feed of whistleblower reports on the investigation that led to Smith testifying before the Judiciary Committee last month.

EXPLOSIVE NEW REPORT PUTS JACK SMITH BACK IN HOT SEAT AS JIM JORDAN ALLEGES HE TRIED TO ‘SWAY’ 2024 ELECTION

The latest update found that Smith’s special counsel’s office and the DOJ “obtained spreadsheets containing Republican campaign donors, supporters, and detailed personal voter information in various formats, totaling over 639,000 individuals, at minimum,” Grassley said in the memo.

“Out of those, over 148,000 rows are identified in the spreadsheets as donors,” he continued. “The donors generally contributed small-dollar amounts.”

The data gathered on the voters and donors included names, dates of birth, physical addresses, emails, whether the person was a registered Republican, their occupation and place of employment — samples on the list included retirees, pool technicians, drivers, loggers, etc. — credit card information, donor analysis data, and donation amount, among other details.

JACK SMITH’S TRUMP PROBE SWEPT UP FOX NEWS, OTHER MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AS INVESTIGATION WENT BEYOND LAWMAKERS

Fox News Digital reached out to Smith’s newly launched law firm for comment.

The memo follows a previous release from Grassley that showed Smith’s team collected checks from nearly 5,000 Americans across the country who donated to Trump and Trump-aligned Republican entities.

“This update shows that Jack Smith and the Biden Justice Department collected incredibly invasive donor data — and voter data — beyond what could conceivably be necessary for him or his team to fulfill the [special counsel office’s] mandate,” Grassley said.

HOUSE VOTES TO REPEAL CONTROVERSIAL ARCTIC FROST PROVISION FROM GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BILL

“This update further corroborates that Smith and his partisan team aimed to map out the entire Republican Party apparatus,” he continued. “I again call on my Democratic colleagues to join my oversight work instead of trying to defend Smith and sweep his abuse of authority under the rug.”

Grassley noted that during Smith’s hearing last month, he pressed the former special counsel for a “yes or no” answer on whether his investigation gathered data on donors.

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“Yes,” Smith said. “We acquired financial information. As I sit here right now, I cannot recite to you every subpoena we issued. I can tell you why we issued subpoenas. And it was to conduct a criminal investigation of one of the most serious crimes that’s ever happened in our nation’s history. I had a duty to collect facts.”

Incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who has repeatedly shot down the prospect of mounting a 2028 presidential bid, reiterated his position during a Tuesday night Georgia U.S. Senate debate.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution chief political reporter Greg Bluestein pressed Ossoff about the issue during the Atlanta Press Club U.S. Senate debate at the Georgia Public Broadcasting studios.

“Senator Ossoff, you’ve repeatedly said you won’t run for president in 2028, but your name continues to surface as a potential contender,” Bluestein said, adding, “So will you pledge right now tonight to serve your full six-year term if you win?”

“Yes, I will,” Ossoff replied. “I have zero interest in running for president. I’m not running for president. I’m running for re-election to the Senate.”

GOP GOVERNOR CANDIDATE SKIPS DEBATE AGAINST FORMER BIDEN ADVISOR, REPLACED BY EMPTY PODIUM

The Democrat faces Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., in the Peach State contest, a Republican congressman who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since early 2023.

Collins pushed back during the debate, saying Ossoff “is running for president” and will “be your DSA candidate,” apparently referring to the Democratic Socialists of America.

EXCLUSIVE: OSSOFF CHALLENGED TO RETURN EPSTEIN-LINKED DONATION OR RETRACT ‘EPSTEIN CLASS’ ATTACK

Ossoff has served in the U.S. Senate since early 2021.

While President Donald Trump has endorsed Collins, former President Barack Obama is backing Ossoff.

REPUBLICAN SOUNDS ALARM ON RISING DEM STAR: ‘THIS GUY’S GOING TO BE A PROBLEM’

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The state — which currently has a Republican governor and two Democratic senators — went to Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections and to Joe Biden in 2020.

Battleground Republicans are breaking from President Donald Trump with increasing frequency as Election Day draws closer and the party fights to protect its congressional majorities.

With just three weeks until voters head to the polls to decide who controls Congress for the latter half of Trump’s term, some Republicans are putting distance between themselves and Trump as the party faces significant political headwinds.

Veteran GOP strategist Doug Heye told Fox News Digital that such a strategy at this juncture was “not a surprise.”

“It happens in midterms when presidents aren’t popular,” Heye said. “Add to that the more outlandish things he’s done — often on things that have nothing to do with lowering costs, ending the war with Iran, etc. — this was bound to happen.”

TRUMP VANISHES FROM GOP SENATOR’S CAMPAIGN WEBSITE AS POLL NUMBERS PLUNGE WEEKS BEFORE ELECTION

It’s a similar situation to what’s played out with past presidents during a midterm election year, most recently with former President Joe Biden in 2022.

And the Republican National Committee (RNC) is arguing that the party is united behind Trump, while conceding that GOP candidates have individual stakes.

“Unlike the Democrats who are in a full-blown civil war with extremists, Republicans remain united behind the president’s agenda of cutting taxes, lowering drug costs and securing our communities. We are laser-focused on winning, and our candidates will run the races necessary to best represent their districts and prevent Democrats from taking control,” RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldessarre said.

And running their own races is what several are notably doing, balancing individuality with their support for Trump and the GOP base.

At least two House Republicans, Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., have touted conflict with Trump in advertisements.

TRUMP-LINKED SUPER PAC PULLS FUNDING FROM 2 HOUSE REPUBLICANS AS GOP FIGHTS TO KEEP MAJORITY

Kiggans is out with a new ad touting herself as “one of the most bipartisan members of Congress,” who has taken on her “own party to protect jobs, and working with Democrats to save healthcare.” One visual referenced a news article that said, “Kiggans bucks Trump on offshore wind.”

Meanwhile, Lawler recently released an advertisement in which he highlighted taking on “the left and the right,” followed by a clip of Trump calling him a “pain in the a–” on state and local tax deduction issues.

But for many, like Lawler, it’s a balancing act of trying to keep Trump and the GOP base happy, while courting independent voters.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said, “No one can dispute the fact that President Trump has created one of the most robust coalitions in political history with the MAGA movement, and the president understands how to communicate with them.”

“President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and he is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress,” Ingle told Fox News Digital.

“The president signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, sealed the border, drove violent crime to the lowest level in nearly a century, unleashed an energy revolution, added more than a million private-sector jobs and sent Americans’ 401(k)s climbing to record highs,” Ingle continued. “The choice has never been more clear: doubling down on President Trump’s winning, commonsense agenda or the Democrats’ extreme liberal policies and obstruction.”

Still, the political tightrope was on full display when Lawler appeared on stage at Trump’s midterm convention in September, when he noted he and the president didn’t “always agree.”

He told Fox News Digital at the convention, “I fundamentally believe if you want to get things done, you have to be able to work with whoever the president is. And it’s why I’ve consistently been rated among the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress.”

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Sen. John Husted, R-Ohio, also notably appeared at Trump’s convention in Dallas.

They have, however, split from Trump on some key issues in an effort to show daylight between themselves and the president.

CAN THE ‘BEST SHOWMAN IN POLITICS’ DELIVER AGAIN? GOP BETS ON TRUMP AT HISTORIC MIDTERM CONVENTION

They have called for an end to the Iran war and have diverged from Trump on data centers — the president declared on Truth Social shortly after the midterm convention that “the only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”

But it’s a key sticking point for several Republicans on the trail who recognize the bad optics the hulking, windowless behemoths have with voters. Many, including Husted and Rogers, don’t believe it’s an issue that the federal government should have total dominion over.

“What we’ve said is there should be a moratorium until we get all of the voters’ decisions and questions answered,” Rogers told Fox News Digital during the convention. “These are big decisions. I don’t think there should be a federal ban, because if the federal government can ban it, it can also tell you have to have one.”

Another vulnerable GOP lawmaker who broke from Trump on the issue of data centers is Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., who has maintained that it should be a decision for local governments whether to allow such facilities in their backyards.

“When you have people colluding with these corporations to come in and build a data center, before people in the community even know about it, because of these non-disclosure agreements, I think that violates the trust that people have or don’t have with their local officials right now,” Barrett said on Fox News’ “The Big Weekend Show.”

Barrett is also one of a small handful of House Republicans who has consistently voted against the U.S. operation in Iran without congressional approval. The Middle East conflict has gained a steady stream of GOP opposition the longer it’s gone on, as evidenced by the growing number of Republicans voting for Democrats’ war powers resolutions in the House.

Among them is Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, who previously voted with the GOP on similar measures until the most recent such vote in mid-September.

And Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, who voted against reining in Trump on Iran, noted on the Woo & WayCo podcast last week, “We need to get out of this war quickly.”

“What [Trump] did to stop a nuclear danger is a beautiful thing, but right now, you know, I don’t think anyone can cut a deal with Iranians, because you can’t trust them,” Miller said.

The Ohio Republican’s re-election chances are up in the air amid a slew of domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife and former father-in-law.

He did notably appear at Trump’s rally in Youngstown, Ohio.

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Trump’s plan to import foreign beef has also gotten some pushback from vulnerable House Republicans like Miller-Meeks and Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa.

Nunn, another battleground Iowan, introduced a bipartisan bill last month that would suspend Trump’s plan while directing the federal government to find a strategy to grow domestic cattle numbers.

And some candidates, like Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., do not mention the president on their websites at all. References to Republicans on Kean’s site are few and far between, but it touts him as an “independent leader standing up for what is right for New Jersey.”

A separate White House official argued that Republicans distancing themselves from Trump “could not be further from the truth — President Trump is still the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party.”

President Donald Trump says federal authorities are “looking into” Dan Sullivan, an independent challenger who goes by the same name as the Republican incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, in the Alaska Senate race.

Trump made the statement in an interview with Fox News after a campaign rally in Alaska on Tuesday night. He suggested the second Sullivan’s presence in the race was a “hoax” by Democrats to siphon voters away from the Republican candidate.

“We are looking, I can’t say federal, but we are looking into it. It’s a disgrace. We have, I call him the real Dan Sullivan, a great senator from Alaska. And in the race, they put somebody named Dan Sullivan who knows nothing about politics. His name happens to be Dan Sullivan. They even wanted to change his middle initial, which was different. They wanted to make it an S so that it could be exactly correct. I think it’s just terrible that they did it,” Trump said.

SEEING DOUBLE: SECOND DAN SULLIVAN ADVANCES, SETTING UP BIZARRE ALASKA SENATE BALLOT

“And actually, he got two points or something in the primary. The real Dan Sullivan won it, but … It’s a terrible thing. It’s another hoax by the Democrats,” he added.

Trump also weighed in on the gubernatorial race in Alaska, where he has endorsed GOP candidate Bernadette Wilson. Other GOP candidates have been hangers-on in the race, despite Wilson winning the primary.

Trump called on her Republican competitor, Dave Bronson, to drop out of the race.

“He doesn’t have to, but he should, because, frankly, he lost in the primary by substantial numbers to Bernadette. And I’m not involved that much in, you know, Alaska politics, other than I want to see Dan and Nick get in. But she won in the primaries, and the others should have dropped out. So now you have three Republicans running against one Democrat. And I don’t like that. I don’t like those odds very much. But there, she’s great, and maybe she’ll get in, but I thought I had an obligation to endorse her,” Trump said.

Trump went on to criticize the Democrat in the race, Mary Peltola, following her criticism that Sullivan had voted in favor of the war in Iran.

GOP SENATOR, EX-HOUSE DEM EMERGE FROM ALASKA’S ‘JUNGLE PRIMARY’ DESPITE FAR-LEFT MEDDLING

The president argued Americans understand that increased prices at the pump are a “small price to pay” to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“Can you imagine if they attacked our cities, and they attacked places where we are, including right here in Alaska? You would see turmoil far greater. We have a lot of oil flowing right now in the almost strait, we control it. The war is going to be over very, very soon. We’re going to have a big victory very shortly. Very, very shortly, and oil is going to come way, way down. Gasoline is going to come down to where it was before,” Trump said.

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“I had it down to $1.85 a gallon in some places like Iowa and a lot of places, actually. And I think we’re going to maybe even top those numbers. So you’re going to see it. But most importantly, Iran, the number-one state sponsor of terror, will never have a nuclear weapon. If they had one, you might not be standing here right now,” he added.

The New York gubernatorial race heated up Tuesday as Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman clashed on the debate stage, with the pair trading jabs over President Donald Trump, a recent ICE-involved shooting and inflation.

The debate opened with the candidates being asked about the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which last week drew outrage in New York City following the shooting of a 28-year-old Dominican national whom the Department of Homeland Security said refused to comply with lawful orders during a targeted operation in the Bronx. A 5-year-old boy inside Oscar Bergal’s vehicle was unharmed.

“Kathy Hochul appealed to ICE to let this criminal out. The question that New Yorkers have to ask is what was this guy doing in New York in the first place? It’s because Kathy Hochul has made us a sanctuary state,” said Blakeman, a Republican.

“Think about it. This guy came into the country illegally. He’s been convicted of a crime. He’s got pending charges for dealing drugs, poison to our children. And he’s a gangbanger. This is who Kathy Hochul is defending?” Blakeman continued. “I have a cooperative agreement with ICE until Kathy Hochul said we could no longer cooperate with ICE. We got over 2,000 illegal migrants out of my county with criminal records ranging from rape, attempted murder, robbery, burglary, drug dealing, carjacking, gang activity. And that’s because we cooperated with ICE, and we didn’t raid one school, one hospital, one daycare center or one church. If you cooperate with federal law enforcement, it makes for a safer community. That’s what I did. Kathy Hochul is taking that ability away from us. That’s why things like this happen.”

Hochul called Blakeman’s response a “non-answer,” because “he refused to condemn what ICE did.”

“So he basically says in the state of New York, he’d be fine if ICE agents shoot into cars, shoot guns into vehicles, not knowing who’s inside and could have killed a 5-year-old child. If that doesn’t shock the conscience of everybody — and it should shock his conscience as well — that he says, that’s OK, that’s how ICE is supposed to do it,” Hochul added. “I’ll tell you what. I oversee over 500 policing agencies in the state of New York, over half a million arrests every year. That’s not how you conduct yourself. ICE is out of control. It’s out of control in Nassau County.”

Blakeman pushed back, saying, “it never would have happened” but for Hochul’s “sanctuary policy.”

“You have invited criminals to come into our state and prey on our communities. And now you won’t let local law enforcement cooperate with ICE in an orderly way, like we did in my county,” Blakeman added. “We didn’t have any incidents in my county because we were allowed to cooperate with local law enforcement. But you took that tool away. The reason why that happened is because of you, Kathy Hochul, and your immigration policies, where you actually invite people into our state, give them free everything, and you don’t care whether they’re criminals or not. That’s a bad policy.”

As part of her rebuttal, Hochul said, “I have a right to answer this one because this is so absurd. I have said, from the president on down, I said, New York is not a sanctuary for criminals, not a sanctuary for criminals. Full stop.”

The two candidates also clashed over Trump and the state of the U.S. economy.

“He promised to cut energy costs. He promised to cut down grocery costs. And you know what? Everything has happened under your friend, Donald Trump, who you are the president of the fan club for Donald Trump. It’s absurd how adoring you are of him. My gosh,” Hochul told Blakeman. “Well, what he has done is raise gasoline prices and energy prices and the cost of tariffs have driven up everything in the state. If you bought groceries lately, my God, the people are suffering. And that didn’t have to be the case. Why are we at war with the rest of the world?”

“You like to talk about Donald Trump all the time, because you don’t want to talk about your record,” Blakeman responded.

“I’m talking about my record right now,” Hochul said.

“Because it’s a record of misery and failure,” Blakeman continued. “The highest taxes, utility rates that are 70% higher than the national average. But let me say something about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is my friend. He’s endorsed me. But so is Bonnie Lautenberg, a liberal Democrat whose husband, Frank, served in the United States Senate and was a pillar of the Democratic Party. Actor Debra Messing, who is a liberal Democrat who supports me because she trusts me to make safer communities, improve the quality of life here in New York.”

“Alright, you got two votes,” Hochul said. “Good for you.”

A bipartisan group of senators is urging Donald Trump to scrap his recently announced diesel deal with Russia, warning it could help President Vladimir Putin finance his war against Ukraine and calling the agreement “a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies.”

“The Treasury Department’s General License No. 135, which lifts sanctions on Russia’s diesel exports, only provides Putin with more fuel to finance his war machine and enables Russia to continue its brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war. This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded,” the senators asserted in the missive.

The letter, which also includes a note of cc to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is signed by GOP Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Alan Stuart Armstrong of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Cornyn of Texas, as well as Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware.

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS BREAK WITH TRUMP ON DIESEL DEAL WITH RUSSIA

“We also recognize the urgent need to lower energy costs for American families and address the disruptions caused by the war with Iran. However, allowing Russian-origin diesel into global markets will offer limited to no relief to Americans. It will have a negligible impact on fuel prices, but the revenues the Kremlin will receive from this agreement will undoubtedly finance its desired war of attrition and advance its security cooperation with China, Iran, and North Korea. It will also endanger servicemembers operating overseas in support of Operation Epic Fury,” the senators declared in their message.

“Putin is a tyrant. Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world,” they urged.

TRUMP RUSSIA DEAL COULD FUEL PUTIN’S WAR, EX-NATO COMMANDER WARNS AS ZELENSKYY SAYS ‘NYET’

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s comment request on Wednesday.

The senators’ message to the president comes after Trump, in a Truth Social post on Friday, announced, “I have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace, another 500,000 Tons during the month of November, and 1,000,000 Tons immediately thereafter. Additionally, based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries, Russia will then deliver, within a short period of time, 3,000,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel.

TRUMP SAYS RUSSIA HAS AGREED TO DELIVER MILLIONS IN DIESEL FUEL AFTER ‘HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL DISCUSSION’

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“Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority. This is a very big and important announcement. Additionally, it must be understood, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon!” the president declared in the post.

Amid growing concerns that the Iran war is drawing away critical U.S. defenses from China’s doorstep, the Army’s top commander in the Pacific says the forces are using this unexpected opportunity to modernize.

Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, provided his assessment that diverting Patriot missile defenses to the Iran war has not increased risk to forces in the Indo-Pacific despite concerns about deployments impacting America’s readiness for potential conflict with China.

“Actually, it’s given us an opportunity to modernize our systems here,” Clark told Fox News Digital during a small-group interview at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

Patriot systems have been redeployed from the Indo-Pacific to support operations in the Middle East, while U.S. forces in South Korea have also sent Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors to the region.

An October Congressional Research Service report cited estimates that U.S. forces had expended roughly 1,700 Patriot and 200 THAAD interceptors during the conflict, while the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the military had used between half and two-thirds of certain interceptor inventories. The Pentagon’s inspector general has cited strategic inventory shortfalls and manufacturing bottlenecks stemming from the conflict, raising questions about how quickly the U.S. could replenish its defenses in the event of another major confrontation.

Clark said the deployments are giving Patriot crews firsthand experience defending against enemy attacks, while equipment upgrades are expanding what individual batteries can accomplish.

He said an upgraded Patriot battery can now provide coverage that previously required an entire battalion, though he did not specify whether he was referring to geographic coverage or the number of threats the system can engage.

Asked whether recent diplomatic progress between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had changed his assessment of the threat from China, Clark said he believes the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is continuing its build-up.

“Well, I believe they’re continuing to prepare,” Clark said.

XI PREPARES CHINA ‘FOR BATTLE’ AS EXPERT WARNS OF GRAVE DANGER FACING US AHEAD OF DC SUMMIT

The assessment comes weeks after Trump welcomed Xi to Washington for a high-profile state visit that produced new trade agreements and commitments to improve military communications. But the diplomatic progress has not resolved tensions over Taiwan and China’s growing military reach across the Indo-Pacific, where American commanders continue preparing for a potential conflict.

Clark did not say whether China’s military preparations had accelerated or whether diplomatic outreach had changed Beijing’s intentions. He emphasized that the U.S. military’s responsibility is to remain ready for a potential conflict while working to prevent one.

TAIWAN ANALYSTS SAY TRUMP-XI SUMMIT PRODUCED NO POLICY SHIFT BUT REAL TEST LIES AHEAD

“Hopefully my legacy in this job is that when we walk away from command of USARPAC, that the deterrent posture of our command is such that we have not just prevented war, but we’re preventing war in the future,” Clark said.

Clark said Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, recently discussed reviving disaster-management exchanges between the U.S. Army and China’s PLA during talks with his Chinese counterpart.

The exchanges would provide an opportunity for American and Chinese military personnel to work together on disaster response, restoring a channel of direct engagement that Clark said he hoped to see revived.

“If you’re able to have a conversation with your adversaries, you’re able to share information with them in a way that makes them not want to fight,” Clark said.

He said U.S. Army Pacific would be responsible for coordinating the exchanges with its Chinese counterparts if the effort moves forward. He did not announce a date or say that Beijing had formally agreed to resume the program.

The U.S. and Chinese militaries have periodically conducted disaster-management exchanges in the past, including an event hosted by the Army at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state in 2017.

“The cost of going to war is just so high that it’s our duty to, one, be absolutely prepared for that eventuality, but two, to prevent that from happening,” Clark said.

The diplomatic outreach comes amid continued confrontations between Chinese and Philippine forces in the South China Sea. As Fox News Digital previously reported, the Philippines tracked 101 Chinese navy and coast guard vessels around disputed waters in September, nearly double the number recorded in August. More recently, Philippine authorities accused Chinese forces of obstructing maritime operations and carrying out dangerous maneuvers near Philippine aircraft.

CHINESE MILITARY ACTIVITY NEARLY DOUBLES AROUND KEY US ALLY IN DISPUTED WATERS

Meanwhile, the Army has been expanding its capabilities across theIndo-Pacific, positioning additional forces and equipment closer to potential flashpoints as part of its effort to deter Chinese aggression.

Clark said the Army now has more resources committed to the region than at any previous point in his career, including additional divisions, a corps headquarters and specialized formations designed to conduct long-range strikes and operations across multiple domains.

“The Army is now better resourced in the Pacific than I’ve ever seen it,” he said.

He pointed to the Army’s growing ability to support naval and air operations, including land-based weapons capable of striking targets at sea.

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Clark said recent military war games have demonstrated the importance of those capabilities, including one maritime scenario in which the addition of Army forces changed an unfavorable outcome.

“It’s really tied to existing capabilities we have,” Clark said, citing the Army’s ability to detect targets, conduct strikes, protect military assets and sustain operations from land.

Former federal prosecutors are pushing back on Democrats’ accusations that the Trump administration violated Justice Department policy by searching the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., just weeks before an election.

“It’s difficult to not point out the dirty hands of the people that might complain about election interference,” Jim Trusty, a former federal prosecutor, said, pointing to former special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election.

“Democrats definitely can’t contend that it’s a politicized investigation after everything that happened in the Trump era,” Abhishek Kambil, a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a lengthy statement alleging that the Justice Department violated protocol by conducting “overt actions in politically-sensitive matters in the 60 days before an election.”

HOMAN CONFIRMS ‘CRIMINAL’ INVESTIGATION INVOLVING ILHAN OMAR, SAYS HE KNOWS ‘THINGS ARE GOING ON’

“Just 22 days before the elections, this is blatant political intimidation and an attempt to interfere with the Congresswoman’s reelection,” Raskin wrote in his press release.

But Kambil pointed out that the U.S. Department of Justice Manual, which outlines procedures for federal criminal investigations, does not explicitly impose a 60-day period before elections in which investigative actions can’t be conducted.

“The 60-day requirement is not something that’s in the justice manual,” Kambil told Fox News Digital. “That’s basically an unwritten practice of what DOJ typically does, and the justice manual itself does not have the time frame on that.”

Kambil said that any actions which could be perceived as influencing an election will require prior approval from either the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General.

The Justice Department has long followed an unwritten practice known as the “60-day rule,” which discourages politically sensitive investigative actions close to an election. The practice came under scrutiny in a 2018 DOJ inspector general report examining former FBI Director James Comey’s decision to notify Congress of new developments in the Hillary Clinton email investigation just 11 days before the 2016 presidential election. The watchdog concluded that Comey had disregarded longstanding department policy and practice, calling his decision a “serious error of judgment.”

“It doesn’t create a ban; it just creates effectively a consultation requirement to higher level leadership before it can happen, but there is no statute or anything else preventing this,” Kambil told Fox News Digital.

The Justice Department also was accused by President Donald Trump of ignoring its “60-day rule” when special counsel Jack Smith filed a revised indictment against Trump just 70 days before the 2024 presidential election. Weeks later, Smith submitted a 165-page brief outlining evidence against Trump in the federal election interference case, which was made public just 34 days before the election. Trump and Republican lawmakers accused Smith of attempting to influence the election, but Smith maintained that his office followed DOJ policy and complied with a court-ordered filing schedule.

“For 60 days prior to an election, the Department of Injustice is supposed to do absolutely nothing that would taint or interfere with a case,” Trump posted in all capital letters to his Truth Social. “They disobeyed their own rule in favor of complete and total election interference.”

BIDEN-ERA FBI’S ‘NIXONIAN’ TRUMP FAMILY SURVEILLANCE DRAWS SCRUTINY FROM UNLIKELY CORNER

“Going back to Jack Smith, obviously trying to get a case tried — the January 6th case before the election — to affect the electorate,” Trusty said.

Trusty pointed out that the Justice Department needed approval from a magistrate judge in Washington, D.C., before executing its search warrant.

“There’s at least probable cause,” Trusty said. “It’s a long way off from proving a case at trial.”

“But keep in mind, in D.C. President Trump and his administration don’t always have friendly treatment from the judges there,” Trusty continued. “So this was a magistrate judge who looked at the sworn statement, said there’s enough to justify a raid, and now we’ve had a raid.”

A judge can reject a search warrant application if investigators fail to establish probable cause. But approving a warrant does not necessarily resolve questions about whether the search complied with the Justice Department’s election-year policies.

TRUMP DOJ UNLEASHES LARGEST DENATURALIZATION EFFORT IN DEPARTMENT HISTORY — AND SAYS IT’S ‘ONLY THE BEGINNING’

“When you see Democrats challenging the warrant or what happened, they’re not really going after the merits,” Kambil said. “They’re challenging the timing.”

The Homeland Security Investigations raid stems from an investigation into immigration paperwork Omar’s father completed when she was a child. Omar, who fled Somalia’s civil war, immigrated to the United States with her family in 1995 at age 12 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000.

In response to the raid on her home, Omar accused Trump of engaging in “political intimidation” against her.

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“This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies,” Omar posted on X. “For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

As former Vice President Kamala Harris weighs another White House run in 2028, a longtime advisor is firing back at Democratic strategists and donors who argue she has squandered an opportunity to politically reinvent herself following her 2024 election defeat.

Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, an outside advisor to Harris, pushed back against the criticism highlighted in a new Politico report, defending Harris’ policy proposals and campaign activity as Democrats debate whether the former vice president deserves another shot at the White House. Cardona argued the story was “infuriating in its silliness.”

The report, based on interviews with nearly 20 California-based Democratic donors and strategists, highlighted growing skepticism among some party insiders about Harris’ political future and whether she has done enough to distinguish herself from her unsuccessful 2024 campaign.

Longtime Democratic strategist Doug Herman, a veteran of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, told Politico that Harris “totally blew it… She hasn’t gotten into the mix.”

AOC GIVES MAJOR HINT ABOUT 2028

Former Gov. Jim Hodges of South Carolina, the lead off state in the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nominating calendar, told Politico, “I don’t see anything different myself. It seems like more of the same to me.”

But Cardona, a veteran of the Bill Clinton administration, the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama presidential campaigns who currently serves as a member of the Democratic National Committee, disagreed that Harris had failed to spell out what she would offer Democrats anxious for change.

“How can you state that she hasn’t done anything new or groundbreaking or talked about new initiatives or policies and then layout exactly those policies – like proposing an expanded Supreme Court, lowering the voting age to 16, making DC and Puerto Rico states. Those are pretty groundbreaking policies!” Cardona told Fox News Digital, as she pointed to some of Harris’ moves since the end of former President Joe Biden‘s administration.

Harris, the nation’s first Black vice president, has also said that Black people should be “transactional voters,” instead of automatically supporting Democratic candidates.

“She’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t,” Cardona argued, adding that Harris “is still the most qualified person to be president of the United States that is mentioned as a possible candidate for 2028.”

Harris has been crisscrossing the country this year, first on a book tour for her best-selling campaign memoir “107 Days” and currently to support fellow Democrats running in the midterm elections.

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While Harris has teamed up with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and congressional nominees in her home state, some Democratic nominees running in red states made headlines in recent weeks by asking the former vice president not to campaign with them.

But Cardona said, “Harris has been out there nonstop talking to young voters, women voters, black voters, Latino voters, and she has been asked by many candidates to come and campaign with them. She has focused her energies on winning the midterm elections. Can you imagine the backlash if she was out there focusing on herself and how she can remake the Democratic Party?”

Harris replaced Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee after he ended his re-election bid following a disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump. Her truncated three-month presidential campaign ended in defeat, with Trump narrowly sweeping all the key battleground states as he won back the White House.

If she runs a third time for president, Harris will enjoy instant name ID and plenty of goodwill from within her party. But she would also face a Democratic base trying to move past the 2024 election setbacks, and she would likely be part of a very crowded and competitive 2028 primary field.

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A Democratic consultant, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital that “voters feel like they haven’t heard much from Harris, which means bad memories from her 2024 election loss remain fresh in their minds.”

But longtime Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso said that consultants “are not voters.”

“I just don’t trust that the consulting class really has a finger on the electorate,” he told Fox News Digital. “To listen to consultants saying Harris has blown it – presidential politics hasn’t really even started yet.. These consultants are just getting soundbites.”

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Ceraso noted that it took Biden three runs to win the White House.

“The third time was the charm and everybody said to Biden when he ran the third time, ‘why are you running.’ Well guess what, he ended up becoming the nominee and the president,” he said. “Why can’t Harris look at that template and say ‘that can apply to me too.’”

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration was expected to begin in Greenland.

“Massive Oil, Gas, and Mineral Exploration is getting ready to begin in our new and beautiful Greenland!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“There are Experts that are saying that the amount of easily available Oil is far greater than that of almost any land, anywhere in the World and, even more importantly, from a Security Purpose in the Defense and Offense of both the United States of America, and Europe, is second to none,” he continued.

“Any future attack on the United States will have to come across Greenland, where our Defense will routinely knock down drones, missiles, or any other form of weapon not yet even conceived,” Trump added.

TRUMP’S GREENLAND FIXATION REVEALED AS WARS EXPOSE WHY THE ARCTIC ISLAND MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER

Trump said Greenland “gives us time, location, and sightline, like nowhere else in the World!”

Trump did not immediately provide additional details about when or how the exploration would begin.

Greenland’s government stopped issuing new oil and gas exploration licenses in 2021, citing environmental and climate concerns. Some previously issued licenses remain valid, although drilling requires additional government approvals. Greenland is believed to hold significant untapped oil and gas resources, but commercially recoverable reserves have not been established.

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

Trump’s comments come after the U.S., Denmark and Greenland signed a new security agreement last month expanding U.S. military access to the strategically important Arctic island.

While the U.S. already had extensive military rights in Greenland under a 1951 defense agreement, the new arrangement expands Washington’s ability to establish additional military facilities, subject to consultation and procedures outlined in the agreement.

SECURITY EXPERT HAILS TRUMP’S GREENLAND PACT AS A ‘BIG DEAL’ ON PAR WITH ALASKA PURCHASE

The agreement also restricts military installations by non-NATO countries and establishes safeguards against potentially threatening foreign investments in sensitive sectors, including natural resources and critical infrastructure.

Although Trump had sought to acquire Greenland, repeatedly arguing that U.S. ownership was necessary for national security, the new agreement did not grant U.S. sovereignty over the island.

Greenland is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, with Copenhagen retaining authority over foreign, defense and security policy while Greenland controls many of its domestic affairs, including mineral resources.

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Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.

The Trump administration is adopting a new rule that would shorten the time refugees have to challenge the termination of their legal status, marking another restriction on legal immigration pathways as the White House continues its immigration enforcement crackdown.

The new policy, which takes effect Wednesday without undergoing the usual advance public notice-and-comment process, reduces the time refugees have to respond to a notice of intent to terminate their status from 30 days to 10.

According to the new rule, the administration is aiming to “mitigate potential risks” linked to people who were admitted as refugees but were not eligible for refugee status.

The documents pointed to refugees admitted during the Biden administration, claiming there was an “alarming erosion of the integrity” of the refugee program during those years, although refugee advocates dispute that allegation.

TRUMP ADMIN PAUSES VISA APPOINTMENTS WORLDWIDE AMID HEIGHTENED SCREENING FOR APPLICANTS

“A review of refugee processing policies and procedures implemented under the Biden administration indicates an alarming erosion of integrity leading to aliens being admitted to the United States as refugees when their identities, eligibility for refugee classification, and admissibility were determined based on incomplete records,” DHS’ document reads.

“The priority of expediency over quality encouraged a lack of robust interviews,” it added. “Certain questions to ensure that aliens were eligible for refugee status prior to admission to the United States were omitted and this increased the risk of ineligible aliens being approved for refugee classification and subsequently admitted to the United States.”

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, Zach Kahler, similarly said the agency has found “an alarming erosion of screening and vetting measures” during the Biden administration to “rush processing and maximize the number of refugees admitted.”

The Trump administration is “ensuring that refugee status is reserved only for those who were eligible under the law,” he said in a statement to The Associated Press.

This comes after the Trump administration ordered the review of at least 185,000 refugees admitted during the Biden administration who still have pending green card applications.

The U.S. refugee admissions program has historically enjoyed bipartisan support since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980. Refugees undergo extensive security screenings and background checks before being approved for resettlement. Many spend years waiting in refugee camps before they can be admitted after undergoing multiple rounds of interviews and screenings.

With the Trump administration’s new rule, critics argue tens of thousands of people who fled persecution and wars in their home countries could be forced into deportation.

“These families did everything asked of them,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, said in a statement. “They submitted to interviews, background checks and years of waiting abroad, only setting foot on U.S. soil once government officials approved their applications.”

She said the Department of Homeland Security now wants to “revisit those decisions on a 10-day clock, a notice period wholly insufficient to find a lawyer, translate documents or get records out of a country they were forced to flee due to conflict or persecution.”

“In some cases, refugees may not even receive the notice before their ten days are up, effectively eliminating their only chance to respond,” she added. “If the government’s case for termination is truly strong, it can afford to give people a meaningful chance to challenge it.”

HIAS, a major refugee aid group, also warned that refugees who have fled violence, persecution and displacement will be at risk of being deported to countries where they could be subject to persecution and torture.

“They are trying to upend the core principle that refugee resettlement represents permanent protection,” HIAS Vice President Naomi Steinberg said in a statement.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FINES OF UP TO $1.8M FOR MIGRANTS

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The Trump administration has significantly overhauled the U.S. refugee admissions program, sharply restricting overall admissions while prioritizing the resettlement of white South Africans.

Last month, the Trump administration established a ceiling of 17,500 refugee admissions for fiscal year 2027, with most slots allocated to Afrikaners, a predominantly white ethnic group in South Africa.

During his first term, President Donald Trump reduced the number of refugees approved every year. The Biden administration reversed that trend, setting a refugee admissions ceiling of 125,000 for fiscal year 2025.

When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he immediately suspended the refugee program, stranding people around the world who had been set to come to the U.S. The administration later reopened the program but limited it mostly to white South Africans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was captured on camera by Fox News Digital entering their shared Washington, D.C., residence the day after it was raided by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents.

Tim Mynett, a political consultant, was walking with a yellow Labrador dog on a leash Tuesday afternoon before entering the home that was searched early Monday morning amid a federal investigation into Omar’s immigration status. 

His outing came the same day U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced her office is investigating Omar’s financial disclosures about reporting of the couple’s shared worth.

Two sources close to HSI’s investigation say the raid was part of a criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her late father when she was a child.

ILHAN OMAR’S WEALTH SCANDAL TAKES A TURN JUST ONE DAY AFTER RAID OF HER DC HOME

Omar’s husband is at the center of one of the congresswoman’s most prominent controversies after her financial disclosure filings decreased significantly in reported worth within the span of one filing period.

Pirro revealed her office is now investigating Omar’s financial disclosures after the Office of Congressional Conduct in September dropped its misconduct investigation into the congresswoman. Tuesday’s announcement opens a new chapter of investigations into the Minnesota Democrat.

The controversy surrounding Omar’s finances began when a 2024 financial report estimated that Omar and Mynett possessed between $6 million and $30 million in assets, all while the Minnesota fraud scandal within the Somali community was beginning to come to fruition.

The largest change in the documents was from Mynett’s assets. His reported ownership interests in both his winery and venture capital advisory firm, which were previously valued in the millions of dollars, are listed with no value now.

In Omar’s 2024 financial disclosure records, Mynett’s share in his winery was valued between $1 million and $5 million, and his share at the venture capital advisory firm was valued between $5 million and $25 million. Now, his equity interests are both listed at $0.

OMAR DUCKS QUESTIONS AS SCRUTINY GROWS OVER FILINGS THAT SLASHED HER REPORTED WEALTH BY MILLIONS

Omar’s office previously told Fox News Digital that Mynett has partners in both businesses and said the earlier disclosure mistakenly reflected the businesses’ total equity rather than his ownership interest. The office also said the original filing listed assets without accounting for liabilities.

Mynett was a partner of a firm that worked on Omar’s 2020 re-election campaign. The two announced their marriage in March 2020.

This is Omar’s third marriage, but not her most controversial. The “Squad” Democrat has also come under fire for her first marriage to a man many alleged to be her brother. Critics and skeptics claim the two married as part of an immigration scheme.

WATCH: ILHAN OMAR DENIES FEDS HAVE CONTACTED HER AFTER BORDER CZAR HOMAN CONFIRMS ‘CRIMINAL’ INVESTIGATION

When White House border czar Tom Homan first announced a criminal investigation into Omar, many speculated it would be related to the allegations that she married her brother to evade United States immigration laws. But a former federal prosecutor recently confirmed to Fox News Digital that the statute of limitations would make opening an investigation into the matter difficult.

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A Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the judicially authorized search warrant for the raid of Omar’s house Monday was obtained by the DOJ as part of an ongoing federal investigation.

Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump announced pardons for two Alaska diesel mechanics during a midterm rally Tuesday night in Wasilla, bringing the men onstage to sign clemency documents as he highlighted major energy investments and infrastructure projects in the Last Frontier.

Trump identified Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming, two co-owners of an Anchorage diesel repair shop who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act in 2022.

“I’m giving each one of the three an unconditional pardon,” Trump told supporters, also referring to an earlier pardon for Mackenzie “Mac” Spurlock, a Wasilla diesel shop owner.

TRUMP GRANTS PARDONS TO ‘PERSECUTED’ MECHANICS IN RIGHT-TO-REPAIR CRACKDOWN: ‘I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE’

The president defended the men, saying their work helped keep trucks operating in Alaska’s extreme cold and arguing that their Biden-era prosecutions were unfair.

According to the Biden Justice Department, Czubak and Fleming were among three co-owners of “Arm Rippin Toys” who admitted removing federally required emissions-control equipment and tampering with monitoring devices on at least 37 diesel vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020.

BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK

The shop collected approximately $100,000 for the modifications, federal prosecutors said at the time.

As he signed the clemency documents, Trump took a jab at former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen.

“So I’m going to sign this now, something that Joe Biden would be unable to do because he was unable to sign his signature,” Trump said.

TRUMP COMMUTES SENTENCE FOR FORMER PHILADELPHIA UNION OFFICIAL, ATTORNEY SAYS

He also shared candidly the privilege of the presidential pardon power with the crowd.

“What an honor. I love doing this stuff,” Trump said.

One of the men thanked the president from the stage, describing the personal impact of the prosecution.

“It really did destroy us. It destroyed friendships. It destroyed families,” he said.

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The pardons came during a rally in which Trump made a series of major announcements about Alaska’s energy future, including declaring that a long-awaited 800-mile natural gas pipeline had secured every necessary federal permit.

“Every single permit that you need, you can start tonight,” Trump told the crowd. “Every single permit that you need has been granted.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional details on the project’s federal permitting status.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday he has “no plans” to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, pushing back against calls from his democratic socialist allies to remove the city’s top cop following protests over an ICE-involved shooting in the Bronx.

Ahead of a ceremony Tuesday honoring fallen NYPD officers, Mamdani was asked about Tisch’s future as head of the department.

“Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner. I have no plans to change that,” Mamdani told reporters.

“The reason that I made the decision to have Jessica Tisch as the police commissioner was because of her record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city,” he continued. “And over the last 10 months that we’ve worked together, we have delivered the lowest recorded number of murders in our city’s history, the lowest recorded number of shootings as well as shooting victims.”

SOCIALIST SURGE: MAMDANI FLEXES GROWING POLITICAL MUSCLE AS HE TAKES ON DEM ESTABLISHMENT

The mayor’s comments came after the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) called for Tisch’s removal following last week’s ICE shooting and demanded that Mamdani use his authority to drive ICE out of New York City.

The demand followed last week’s shooting of Oscar Belgal during a federal immigration operation in the Bronx.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican national, was shot after allegedly refusing to comply with officers’ orders during a targeted ICE operation to arrest him.

NYC SOCIALIST CANDIDATE SAYS CRIMINAL RECORD OF MAN SHOT BY ICE ‘DOESN’T EVEN MATTER’

Following the incident, a City Hall spokesperson said Mamdani was reviewing the circumstances surrounding the shooting but had no plans to remove Tisch.

Scott Munro, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association — the union representing active and retired NYPD detectives — was also asked by reporters Tuesday about the DSA urging Mamdani to fire Tisch.

Munro said he believes Mamdani supports the police commissioner, noting that crime was down and Tisch was “doing her job.”

Mamdani and Tisch appeared together Tuesday at the New York City Police Memorial, where they honored 42 fallen NYPD members, including 41 who died from illnesses related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath. The ceremony also honored Detective First Grade Didarul Islam, who was killed in a Midtown Manhattan mass shooting in 2025.

9/11 DEATH TOLL KEEPS GROWING DECADES LATER AS TOXIC EXPOSURE HAUNTS SURVIVORS

The mayor paid tribute to the fallen officers and their families during the ceremony, which Tisch also attended.

“While we cannot feel the silence they left behind, we will refuse to let their memory fade,” Mamdani said.

Earlier this week, Mamdani directed the NYPD to conduct a comprehensive review of its use-of-force policies and practices.

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He also announced reforms aimed at strengthening accountability when police officers are accused of serious misconduct.

A firefight involving U.S. Coast Guard personnel along the Mexican border has sparked a dispute between Washington and Mexico City over where the gunfire originated, even as the two countries continue coordinating border security operations.

The Coast Guard told Fox News Digital that personnel conducting joint interdiction operations near Garceno, Texas, came under fire from the Mexican side of the border Sept. 26 and returned fire. No injuries or damage to Coast Guard vessels or equipment were reported, and the incident remains under investigation.

After U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson publicly announced that Coast Guard personnel had come under fire, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum demanded evidence that the shots originated from her country’s territory.

“We asked for all the evidence ​ because we have no evidence,” Sheinbaum told reporters in Mexico City, saying Mexican security forces had not detected shots originating from their territory.

MEXICO VOWS US WILL PAY AFTER ICE FATALLY SHOOTS ILLEGAL MIGRANT WHO ALLEGEDLY ATTEMPTED TO RAM AGENT WITH CAR

The State Department, however, told Fox News Digital that information about the shooting had been shared with Mexican authorities.

“U.S. Coast Guard personnel were fired upon from Mexican territory on September 26, and we have shared the available information with the Government of Mexico through official channels,” a State Department spokesman said.

The department did not specify what was shared or when, and U.S. officials have not publicly identified the shooters or detailed how they determined the gunfire’s origin.

TRUMP DHS HITS 16 STRAIGHT MONTHS WITH 0 RELEASES AT THE BORDER

The incident occurred amid Operation River Wall, a Coast Guard initiative launched in October 2025 to deter illegal migration, drug smuggling and other threats along approximately 300 miles of the Rio Grande.

“Over the past year, the Coast Guard has expanded operations in the region, deploying more than 1,000 personnel and more than 30 assets,” a Coast Guard spokesperson told Fox News Digital, referring to “Operation Sable”.

Separately, Mexico’s Navy Ministry, led by Secretary Raymundo Morales-Angeles, said 159 “Naval elements”, 11 vehicles and two drones were deployed to the Tamaulipas sector.

U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) separately told Fox News Digital that American troops are being repositioned to the Rio Grande Valley in anticipation of a seasonal increase in attempted illegal border crossings.

Asked whether Mexico had received evidence from U.S. authorities or launched its own investigation, a representative for Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Roberto Lazzeri Montaño referred Fox News Digital on Monday to Sheinbaum’s more recent remarks addressing the incident.

Sheinbaum said Mexico’s military ministry “maintains” communication with NORTHCOM and the Coast Guard and that a “mirror operation” coordinated with the U.S. remains active.

“We want to have a good relationship with the United States within the framework of our sovereignty, our territorial integrity, mutual trust, and coordination without subordination,” she said.

Her response did not explicitly confirm whether Mexico had received the information Washington says it shared.

Fox News Digital also contacted Sheinbaum’s office for comment.

LATIN AMERICA’S CONSERVATIVE SHIFT FACES ITS BIGGEST TEST YET IN BRAZIL ELECTION

Santiago Vidal Calvo, a Venezuelan-born immigration analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital that Sheinbaum’s approach to border security is shaped by pressure from Washington and a broader Latin American shift toward right-wing governments.

“She has that regional pressure [and] she has the international pressure from the United States” to cooperate on security matters, Calvo said.

He suggested Sheinbaum’s demand for evidence of the Coast Guard shooting could reflect pressure within her own political coalition to justify working with the Trump administration.

“She has a high bar to meet if she wants to ally with the Trump administration internally within her own party and her own government,” Calvo said.

“We’ve got to understand this through the lens of what is going on in Latin America. I do think that Sheinbaum’s position is substantially different today than it was when Trump got elected,” Calvo said.

His assessment reflects Sheinbaum’s ties to the left-wing Morena Party and the political legacy of her predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly known as AMLO.

Calvo characterized Sheinbaum as the “last bastion of Latin American socialism,” arguing that she could face additional regional pressure if Flávio Bolsonaro defeats President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil’s upcoming presidential runoff.

Calvo suggested that the rightward shift among South American governments could increase pressure on Sheinbaum to cooperate with Washington on security matters.

He said she may face questions about whether “you’re the only president of Latin America who’s not cooperating with the United States in terms of security?”

“Both of those things do lead to a more serious border campaign for both countries,” Calvo said.

“I have no doubt that the change in South America from left-leaning governments to right-leaning governments has to do with the Trump administration’s policy in Latin America,” he added.

US CHARGES MEXICAN GOVERNOR, TOP OFFICIALS IN CARTEL CONSPIRACY AS MEXICO FIRES BACK OVER PROOF

Border security policy analyst Simon Hankinson told Fox News Digital that gunfire near the Rio Grande is not unprecedented, citing accounts he heard during previous visits to the border.

Hankinson said cartel involvement was possible but expressed doubt that Mexican military personnel would deliberately fire across the border unless they were acting against orders.

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“I think these two politicians can cooperate, they can agree on some things, even if they don’t agree on socialism versus capitalism and some other ideological issues,” he added.

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The Coast Guard said the circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s, D-Minn., immigration history is facing fresh scrutiny after federal agents searched her Washington, D.C., home, with new reports detailing subpoenas to relatives and a request from her congressional staff to change the birth year listed in public biographies.

Federal investigators have subpoenaed Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, and at least one other person in her family circle as they examine possible fraud and false statements in immigration paperwork, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the investigation.

Fox News has also learned that subpoenas have been sent to multiple family members of Omar. 

Separately, the New York Post reported that Omar’s staff asked the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library in May 2019 to change her listed birth year from 1981 to 1982, a discrepancy a former political opponent has questioned while challenging the Minnesota Democrat’s account of how she became a U.S. citizen.

HOMAN CONFIRMS ‘CRIMINAL’ INVESTIGATION INVOLVING ILHAN OMAR, SAYS HE KNOWS ‘THINGS ARE GOING ON’

The reports come one day after Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home. 

Two sources familiar with the probe told Fox News Digital the search was part of an ongoing criminal investigation involving her immigration paperwork.

The Justice Department confirmed that agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.

Omar has repeatedly denied immigration wrongdoing and accused the Trump administration of using federal law enforcement against her.

“I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar, a member of DC’s progressive “The Squad,” wrote Monday on X.

“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she continued. “I will not be silenced.”

According to emails reviewed by the Post, Omar’s congressional staff contacted the Minnesota library months after she entered Congress to request the birth-year correction.

“On May 17, 2019, Library staff were informed by Rep. Omar’s congressional staff that her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982,” the library’s director wrote in a May 24, 2019, email, according to the outlet.

DEMOCRATS’ FURY OVER ILHAN OMAR RAID DRAWS STINGING GOP REMINDER ABOUT RAID FROM THE PAST: ‘SET THE PRECEDENT’

The director also said Omar’s staff were working with Wikipedia, the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and other sources to correct the year.

But the library’s original entry was not based on a birth certificate or other supporting documentation. In another email cited by the Post, the director said the 1981 date had been drawn from other reference sources and added “without documentation.”

The discrepancy does not establish that Omar falsified immigration records, and neither report established that the biography change prompted Monday’s search.

Omar has said she became a citizen through her father’s naturalization in 2000, before she turned 18.

“I became a citizen actually before I turned 18,” she told The Intercept in a September 2018 interview, according to the Post. “My father became a citizen and so I got my citizenship through that process.”

COULD TRUMP REVOKE ILHAN OMAR’S CITIZENSHIP FOR ALLEGED BROTHER MARRIAGE? EX FEDERAL PROSECUTOR BREAKS IT DOWN

AJ Kern, who unsuccessfully challenged Omar in the 2022 Democratic primary, has questioned whether Omar was still a minor when her father became a citizen, the Post reported.

Kern told the outlet that she filed a Federal Election Commission complaint and sued to demand proof of Omar’s citizenship. A state judge dismissed the lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction, according to the Post.

The Times reported that investigators have been examining the immigration history of Omar’s family, including whether her late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, lied or omitted information on immigration forms before becoming a citizen.

The precise scope of the investigation remains unclear. Grand jury subpoenas seek evidence and do not, by themselves, mean the recipients are suspected of wrongdoing. 

The Times reported that previous federal inquiries into Omar’s immigration history have not resulted in charges.

ILHAN OMAR’S EMBATTLED HUSBAND APPEARS AT SCENE OF HSI RAID IN MIDST OF CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATION

The immigration developments also come as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro disclosed a separate examination of Omar’s financial disclosures.

Speaking Tuesday on Fox News’ “America Reports,” Pirro said her office was investigating the filings, which previously showed that the combined reported value of two businesses tied to Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, climbed from approximately $15,000 to $51,000 in 2023 to between $6 million and $30 million in 2024.

Fox News Digital previously examined the disclosures involving eStCru LLC, a California winery, and Rose Lake Capital LLC, a Washington-based venture capital firm.

‘SQUAD’ DEM DISMISSES FRAUD PROBE SPECULATION AFTER $29M NET-WORTH DROP

Omar amended the filings in April, reducing the couple’s combined reported assets to between $18,004 and $95,000. Her office said the original disclosures failed to properly account for business liabilities. Financial disclosures list assets in broad ranges and do not establish an exact net worth.

In September, the Office of Congressional Conduct voted 5-1 to recommend that the House Ethics Committee dismiss misconduct allegations related to the disclosures, finding no substantial reason to believe Omar reported false or incomplete information in violation of federal law or House rules.

That review is separate from the federal investigation Pirro described. It remains unclear whether the financial inquiry is connected to Monday’s search.

President Donald Trump renewed his criticism Tuesday in a statement shared by the White House on X, questioning the change in Omar’s financial filings.

“America wants answers, and we want them, NOW!” Trump said.

Vice President JD Vance, who previously accused Omar of immigration fraud, said Tuesday that he had no advance knowledge of the search, according to the Times.

“If there’s a real case there, we’re going to follow the facts,” Vance said. “If there’s not a real case there, then we won’t.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department, Omar’s office and the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.