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Chicago voters can cast ballots in 12 different languages this election, an expansion that Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan warns is making an already complicated election system harder to independently monitor.

Grogan told Fox News Digital the proliferation of versions in languages such as Tagalog, Gujarati and Urdu creates additional challenges for election judges and party observers tasked with ensuring voters receive accurate ballots. He also questioned how many voters need some of the translations, arguing that many immigrants who speak those languages also speak English.

“It’s a solution in search of a problem,” Grogan told Fox News Digital. “It’s big city virtue signaling.”

TRUMP ADMIN SUED OVER ALLEGED ILLEGAL COLLECTION OF SENSITIVE VOTER DATA FROM 47 STATES

Chicago voters can cast ballots in 12 different languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog, Polish, Gujarati, Urdu, Ukrainian, Arabic and Russian.

Section 203 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act requires the Chicago Board of Elections to make materials and ballots available in certain precincts for Spanish, Chinese and Hindi speakers, a spokesperson for the elections agency told Fox News Digital. The Board includes the other non-English languages to “maintain uniformity with the languages used by the Cook County Clerk’s office under a county ordinance, so that all voters throughout Cook County are afforded equal voting opportunities,” the spokesperson added.

But Grogan, a former DuPage County auditor for 12 years, said he has “a fair number of Gujarati friends … and everyone in their family speaks English.”

“Gujarati — it’s from India, and English is an official language in India,” Grogan added.

TRUMP ADMIN’S PROPOSED ‘ENGLISH-ONLY’ HEAD START RULE DRAWS FIRE FROM LOS ANGELES MAYORAL CANDIDATE

Data provided to Fox News Digital by the Chicago Board of Elections shows that some of the less commonly used language options accounted for only a handful of ballots cast during the March primary. Just nine ballots were cast using the English-Gujarati option, while 15 used English-Urdu, 10 used English-Arabic and 25 each used English-Russian and English-Ukrainian, according to the Board’s figures.

Other translations were used more frequently, including 4,474 English-Polish ballots, 2,183 English-Chinese ballots, 664 English-Hindi ballots, 352 English-Korean ballots and 100 English-Tagalog ballots.

Grogan also questioned why language requirements can change substantially across county lines, noting that Chicago offers touchscreen ballots in 12 languages while nearby DuPage County offers fewer language options.

“You can have a Gujarati population in Peoria,” Grogan said. “You would think that there would be some more uniformity to all of that as well.”

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Beyond questioning the need for some of the translations, Grogan raised a broader concern about oversight, arguing that election judges and party observers cannot independently scrutinize ballots written in languages they do not understand.

However, the Chicago Board of Elections pushed back, telling Fox News Digital that it has in-house staff who help translate ballots and signs and assist multilingual media ahead of elections. It also said voters are allowed to bring “interpreter[s] to assist them in understanding and casting their ballot” under certain conditions.

When asked about multilingual judges, the Board noted that of the 7,218 election judges assigned for November’s general election as of Thursday, 810 are multilingual candidates. Those multilingual judges include speakers of Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Polish, Korean and Tagalog, according to the Board.

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Pressed on whether he believes the additional languages create an election security vulnerability, Grogan said the risk depends in part on how widely the translated ballots are used.

Overall, the Board’s figures show 7,857 multilingual ballots were cast during the March primary, representing about 1.85% of the 424,564 ballots cast citywide.

“I think it certainly makes it harder to monitor,” Grogan said. “If there is one ballot cast in that language, that’s a very small vulnerability you have. If all of a sudden we have 10,000 in some very small, poorly understood language, then that increases the risk.”

Fox News Digital asked the Chicago Board of Elections how many languages are available for mail-in ballots but did not receive a response in time for publication.

The Department of Justice charged two former FBI officials with lying to Congress about their involvement in FBI investigations into Hunter Biden, including matters involving his laptop.

Former FBI officials Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides, according to the DOJ, falsely denied involvement in the investigations into former President Joe Biden’s son when speaking to Congress. Both surrendered Friday on arrest warrants, according to the DOJ.

“Lying to Congress by anyone strikes at the heart of our democratic system, but when senior FBI agents lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it’s time to bring the hammer of justice down on them,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said of the charges. 

“When senior officials entrusted with safeguarding our nation’s security choose deception over duty, they undermine the very institutions they swore to uphold. Today’s action makes clear that no one is above the law, and we will hold accountable all who obstruct the truth.”

FBI CO-DEPUTY DIRECTOR ANDREW BAILEY RESIGNS AFTER YEAR IN ROLE

The Justice Department claims to possess evidence that shows Benavides discussed the laptop story with others in the FBI, contradicting his testimony that he learned about the story from Wikipedia. Similarly, the department says that it has evidence Floris discussed Hunter Biden with members of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, despite testifying to the contrary.

“Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts. It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election,” her attorneys said in a statement.

RUSSIAN SPIES ORCHESTRATED $40K MURDER PLOT IN NATION’S CAPITAL, US ALLEGES

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“This morning the FBI arrested two former FBI members of the now dissolved Foreign Influence Task Force, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, both of whom allegedly lied to Congress in 2023 on matters regarding investigations related to the 2020 election,” FBI Director Kash Patel said of the arrests. “One of these individuals is on record privately claiming to be ‘running a shadow government’ during the 2020 election. As we’ve said repeatedly: weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. 

FIRST ON FOX: A federal timeline provided by officials overseeing unaccompanied migrant children challenges reports that a 1-year-old boy was left to navigate immigration court without counsel, showing that legal service providers intervened to secure representation following an initial hearing.

Addressing media reports highlighting toddlers appearing before immigration judges, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Acting Director Angie Salazar and Senior Advisor John Fabbricatore pushed back on headlines alleging systemic gaps in child legal representation, arguing that contractor failures and lack of invoice oversight created the initial court lapses.

“We don’t have this big movement where we have a bunch of 1-year-olds who are going to court,” Fabbricatore told Fox News Digital.

SEX CRIMINALS, GANG MEMBERS ABUSED CHILD IMMIGRATION PROGRAM TO ENTER US, DHS REVEALS

According to ORR timeline records obtained by Fox News Digital, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers first encountered the 1-year-old boy and his 17-year-old mother near Naco, Arizona, on June 25. The child was accompanied by his mother at all court proceedings.

The critical gap occurred in July under the agency’s former contractor, the Acacia Center for Justice, records show.

On July 1, Acacia completed legal orientation and consultation for the mother and child, but failed to file an E28 notice of appearance before the immigration court.

Consequently, during the child’s first scheduled court hearing on July 8, no attorney was present — not even as a friend of the court — despite Acacia holding an active federal legal services contract at the time. The federal legal services contract with Acacia officially ended July 31.

FORMER USCIS OFFICIAL, ACCOMPLICE CHARGED IN ALLEGED $960K CITIZENSHIP BRIBERY SCHEME

Following the end of the Acacia contract, the agency transitioned legal service oversight to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), which officially initiated legal services Aug. 5. During an Aug. 7 appearance, the mother and child were granted additional time to obtain counsel, while USCRI representatives attended subsequent hearings on Aug. 17 and Aug. 28 as a friend of the court.

On Aug. 31, a motion was filed by the friend of the court and mother requesting court-appointed counsel at government expense, which was later denied by the immigration judge.

Progress continued into September as child advocates were officially appointed on Sept. 23, and USCRI filed a formal E28 notice of appearance on Sept. 25 to become the attorney of record. On Sept. 29, USCRI officially represented both mother and child in immigration court. The judge subsequently granted a continuance on Oct. 2, leading into a follow-up hearing scheduled for Friday.

Officials explained that the July breakdowns highlighted the core reason the administration terminated Acacia’s multimillion-dollar contract, which was awarded under the Biden administration in November 2023. According to federal contract records on USAspending.gov, the Department of Health and Human Services had awarded the Acacia Center for Justice a $356.3 million bridge contract for legal services for unaccompanied children. Of that total award, more than $236.9 million had been outlaid prior to the contract’s dissolution.

The network previously provided counsel to roughly 20,000 migrant children across the U.S., according to its website.

“I knew we were signing off on every invoice that we were receiving for legal services to the tune of $20-plus million sometimes each month,” she told Fox News Digital. “So it made no sense to me that legal service providers were saying kids were unrepresented for a lack of funding.”

“I tried to understand who was represented before,” she added. “I tried to understand what we were paying for under this direct representation, but the invoices we received were completely redacted. There is no way I could ever know exactly what service was provided during the month.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Acacia Center for Justice for comment. The contract funded a slew of services, including legal screenings, representations and presentations on the rights of migrant children in detention.

Following the dissolution of the Acacia contract, the ORR entered into a $20 million contract with USCRI, which expires Dec. 31.

“So USCRI was showing up in court as a friend of the court to ensure that there was at least somebody present in case Acacia did not show up,” Fabbricatore said. “Now, as those cases are being looked at, USCRI is able to go in and actually meet with these children and then represent them in a follow-up hearing. So there may be some hearings where a child shows up, and initially they don’t have representation, but USCRI will be there, identify that child, and then be able to move forward in the future as a representative for that child.”

WOMAN EXPOSED RUNNING VISA FRAUD SCHEME SPANNING YEARS, POSING AS IMMIGRATION OFFICER

Salazar emphasized that ORR officials track which children are represented by which lawyers on specific dates, noting that the agency respects attorney-client privilege.

“The former provider refused to give us those measurables,” Fabbricatore said. “They refused to give us the alien registration number so we could determine what cases they were actually representing. They didn’t want to give that. They refused to give that, and that was a holdup for us because we needed to know who was actually being represented so we can ensure that every kid at least had their legal orientation and had a legal representative that was talking to them.”

HUNDREDS OF JAILED ILLEGAL ALIENS RELEASED BACK ONTO BLUE-STATE STREETS DESPITE ICE DETAINERS, RECORDS SHOW

Salazar noted that about 2% of migrant children in ORR custody are under the age of 5. Another 85% are ages 13 to 17, with 62% falling into the 16-to-17 bracket.

“What we said to our new grantee (USCRI): ‘We want you in 100% of the hearings where kids in our care are showing up to their immigration hearings,’” she said. “That is happening. I think we’re at like 98%.”

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Fabbricatore added there are currently 1,690 migrant children in ORR custody.

“Under Biden, they had 22,000 in care a day. So it’s a very vast difference,” he said. “We’ve been able to lower that census, get kids through the court process quicker, and get them back with their parents if possible.”

EXCLUSIVE – The White House is highlighting the brutal hammer killing of a Florida mother as President Donald Trump prepares to headline a midterm rally in Fort Myers on Friday, with a spokesperson telling Fox News Digital that the case demonstrates the consequences of former President Joe Biden’s border policies.

Trump is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Alico Arena ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The White House is pointing to the killing in the same city as it prepares to put a spotlight on the president’s immigration enforcement record.

“A few short months ago, an illegal alien barbarically killed a woman outside of a gas station in Fort Myers by hitting her on the head with a hammer multiple times,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital exclusively.

DEM-LED PUSH TO EXTEND PROTECTIONS FOR HAITIANS FACES OUTRAGE AFTER BRUTAL HAMMER KILLING

“This heinous murderer was RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration. Not only did the Biden administration release him into the country, but they then gave him Temporary Protected Status. This is the result of Democrats open-border policies. If you import the third world, you become the third world.”

Trump previously condemned the killing in an April Truth Social post, calling the surveillance video “one of the most vicious things you will ever see” and blaming the Biden administration for allowing the suspect into the country.

“This one killing should be enough for these Radical Judges to STOP impeding my Administration’s Immigration Policies,” Trump wrote at the time.

The remarks refer to the brazen killing of a Florida mother in April. Haitian national Rolbert Joachim is accused of repeatedly striking the woman in the head with a hammer outside a Fort Myers gas station.

ICE-LED FLORIDA OPERATION NETS 500 — INCLUDING ILLEGAL ALIENS ACCUSED OF MURDER, CHILD ABUSE, CARTEL TIES

According to the Department of Homeland Security, surveillance video showed the suspect smashing the woman’s windshield before approaching her and repeatedly striking her in the head with a hammer in broad daylight. The victim, a gas station clerk and mother of two teenage daughters, died in the attack.

Fort Myers police enlisted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help locate Joachim, who was subsequently arrested on Mango Street, DHS said.

The department said Joachim entered the United States in August 2022 and was released into the country under the Biden administration. A federal judge issued a final removal order against him that year, but he later received Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which expired in 2024.

The designation allows eligible foreign nationals from certain countries to remain and work temporarily in the United States because of conditions in their home countries. It does not provide permanent residency.

TRUMP ADMIN MARKS 15 STRAIGHT MONTHS WITH ZERO BORDER RELEASES AS APPREHENSIONS PLUNGE 94%

The White House is putting a spotlight on the case as Trump prepares to address supporters in southwest Florida, a region that has delivered strong election results for the president.

Trump carried Florida in all three of his presidential campaigns, expanding his statewide winning margin from roughly one percentage point in 2016 to more than 13 points in 2024.

In Lee County, home to Fort Myers, Trump won 63.6% of the vote in 2024, compared with 35.3% for former Vice President Kamala Harris, according to official county election results.

The White House says Trump’s immigration crackdown has led to 17 straight months without releases at the border and the deportation of more than 3 million people who were in the United States illegally.

DHS said in April that ICE had lodged an immigration detainer against Joachim following his arrest and that he would face deportation regardless of the outcome of his criminal case.

Prosecutors later announced they would seek the death penalty against Joachim, according to local reporting.

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Friday’s rally comes as Trump continues to hit the campaign trail supporting Republican candidates across the country ahead of the midterm elections.

President Donald Trump is holding back on sweeping new economic penalties Congress handed him to squeeze Russia.

He is betting that keeping those sanctions in reserve will help bring Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, a strategy drawing criticism from Republican allies amid questions about whether Moscow believes he will ever use them.

Over roughly a week, the administration waived most of the new Russia sanctions and tariffs enacted last month while separately easing restrictions on Russian diesel exports, moves one foreign policy expert described as Trump’s most significant effort yet to unwind economic pressure on Moscow.

“It’s probably the biggest effort that the Trump administration has made to start unwinding the U.S. sanctions architecture that’s been in place against Russia since 2022 or even earlier in some cases,” Hal Brands, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

TRUMP TRIES DIFFERENT APPROACH WITH RUSSIA TO BRING AMERICANS RELIEF AMID ONGOING WAR WITH UKRAINE

Trump argues that imposing the new penalties could drive Russia away from peace negotiations. But Brands said repeatedly holding back economic punishment risks convincing Putin that Washington is unwilling to follow through on its threats.

“The threat of imposition may lose some credibility if over a period of time you’ve demonstrated that you would prefer not to impose those penalties in the first place,” Brands said.

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS BREAK WITH TRUMP ON DIESEL DEAL WITH RUSSIA

The decision has drawn criticism from Republicans who helped advance the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, including Trump allies who worked with his White House to pass it.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who played a leading role in passing the legislation and joined Trump in the Oval Office when he signed it last month, said Tuesday the administration should be turning up economic pressure on Moscow.

“It is my belief that we need to use economic firepower to help drive Putin to the table,” Britt told Semafor. “I believe that Russia is at the darkest point that they’ve been at in this entire war, and now is the time for us to turn up the pressure.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Congress had coordinated the legislation’s timing with the White House, making Trump’s decision to waive most of its new penalties particularly surprising.

“This was an act of Congress that we had worked with the White House on,” Capito said. “We had timed this to when the president and the White House felt it was a good time to move forward with this, where it could be effective.”

Other Republicans were more blunt in their criticism.

“Beyond irresponsible,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., wrote on X. “What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand?”

“It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day,” he added.

Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., the lead sponsor of the legislation named for her late brother and a Trump-endorsed candidate, said she would “choose to keep the pressure on Russia” because “I don’t trust Putin and I don’t trust Russia.”

The Graham Act, signed into law in September, provided for steep tariffs targeting Russia and major purchasers of Russian energy, along with sanctions on Russian financial institutions and foreign entities doing significant business with them.

Congress also included presidential waiver authority, which Trump invoked to put most of the law’s new Russia penalties on hold.

Brands said including a waiver was not necessarily a mistake, even if it ultimately allowed Trump to avoid imposing the penalties lawmakers had sought.

“It’s really tough to craft a sanctions or tariffs bill that forces the president to do something, and typically you don’t want to do that because there are always circumstances one can imagine in which you might want to be able to waive sanctions,” he said.

Trump has defended his decision as necessary to keep Putin at the negotiating table.

“My decision on Russia is a very simple one. I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” Trump wrote Sunday.

In his formal certification to Congress, Trump said imposing the Graham Act penalties now “would impede ongoing U.S. efforts to negotiate a durable and comprehensive peace.” He left open the possibility of imposing them later to “incentivize resolution” of the war.

Brands acknowledged that holding sanctions in reserve can give a president bargaining power, but questioned whether Putin believes Trump is prepared to follow through.

“The challenge is that it’s been clear for about 18 months now, since Lindsey Graham started pushing this bill in the first place in the early parts of 2025, that the president simply doesn’t have much appetite for squeezing the Russian energy export system to the degree that people like the late Senator Graham envisioned and desired,” Brands said.

The administration has separately eased existing restrictions to allow more Russian diesel onto the market, a move intended to relieve pressure on global fuel prices.

Trump has criticized Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, arguing they are straining diesel markets. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has described sanctions relief as a “carrot” that could encourage Russia to de-escalate.

Brands said the immediate financial benefit to Moscow from diesel relief is probably “fairly marginal.” The more consequential decision, he argued, was Trump’s refusal to activate the broader sanctions and tariffs Congress authorized.

“There’s a potential for pretty serious pressure to be exerted if he had used both the sanctions authorities and essentially the secondary tariff authorities to go after purchasers of Russian energy products overseas,” Brands said.

Such measures could “put a fairly significant squeeze on the Russian war economy” while discouraging other countries from doing business with Moscow, he added.

Brands acknowledged that squeezing Russian energy exports could further strain global energy markets when Trump is focused on lowering fuel prices at home.

But he argued that the larger risk lies in what Putin concludes about Washington’s willingness to sustain economic pressure.

“Putin’s theory of victory in Ukraine for a long time has been that at some point the West, particularly the United States, will get tired of the costs of confrontation with Russia and support for Ukraine,” Brands said.

The concern, he explained, is less about the immediate revenue Moscow gains from additional diesel exports than the possibility that easing restrictions reinforces Putin’s belief that Washington is growing tired of confronting Russia.

“The risk you run here has less to do with the precise dollar or ruble amount that Russia will gain by being allowed to export some additional diesel than with the strategic signal you’re sending that, in fact, the U.S. is getting tired of applying economic pressure against Russia and that the U.S.-Ukraine relationship is entering another period of conflict and divergence,” Brands said.

Brands sees little prospect for a negotiated settlement in the immediate future and argued that changing Putin’s calculation would require convincing him that the costs of continuing the war outweigh the potential gains.

“I think the only way you get there is by continuing to support Ukraine so it can take an increasing toll on Russia on the battlefield and by finding ways of ramping up rather than ramping down the economic pressure on Russia,” Brands said.

Trump’s waiver does not eliminate sanctions against Russia that predated the Graham Act, and the administration can revisit the new penalties.

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The dispute now centers on whether keeping those penalties in reserve strengthens Trump’s hand with Putin — or diminishes their value if Moscow doubts he is willing to use them.

A New York man was arrested after he was allegedly captured on video stealing campaign signs belonging to Republican congressional candidate Anthony Constantino while driving his employer’s vehicle.

Josef Marris was charged with two counts of criminal possession of stolen property, according to the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He was also fired from East Branch Organics, according to Constantino’s campaign.

Constantino, who is running in New York’s 21st Congressional District, said the alleged thefts were intended to intimidate his supporters.

TRUMP ENDORSES STICKER MULE CEO WHO BATTLED OFFICIALS OVER 100-FOOT PRO-TRUMP SIGN FOR STEFANIK’S HOUSE SEAT

“My campaign has lost more than $100,000 to sign theft and vandalism,” Constantino told Fox News Digital. “There are now multiple attempts to intimidate my supporters by people who are clearly pro-crime and pro-violence. The media needs to stop pretending this is a both-sides problem.”

Constantino’s campaign alleged that Marris carried out the thefts on behalf of Democratic candidate Blake Gendebien. Gendebien’s campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

TOP ELECTION SCHEMES ROILING KEY MIDTERM RACES AS BOTH PARTIES ACCUSE RIVALS OF TRICKERY

Constantino also criticized Gendebien in a post on X, writing that the Democrat “is surrounded by FAR LEFT EXTREMISTS.”

WE NEED TO TALK TO COMMUNISTS BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH THEY NEED TO LEARN

Marris has described himself as a communist and an Antifa supporter, according to social media posts reviewed by Fox News Digital. In April 2023, he posted an image of the three-arrow symbol, which has historically been associated with several socialist and anti-fascist movements.

The symbol alone does not establish that Marris is a member of Antifa or that Gendebien’s campaign had any connection to the alleged thefts.

THE BLUE WAVE LOOKS REAL UNTIL YOU LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER

The incident comes as Gendebien leads Constantino in a closely watched race to succeed retiring Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., in the 21st Congressional District.

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One of the district’s media stations, North Country Public Radio, has flipped the congressional district from “solid” Republican to “likely” Republican.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — President Donald Trump’s loyal base of supporters still have his and Republicans’ back in Iowa, but some are growing concerned over lingering issues, like the economy and gridlock in Congress, as Election Day nears.

Trump and Republicans ran on a platform of lowering inflation, halting “forever wars” and repairing an economy that they say was wrecked by former President Joe Biden and his administration. But prices are still high, and the war in Iran is still ongoing, causing a spike in fuel prices that have stuck around heading into Nov. 3.

Outside of Trump’s rally in Sioux City, Iowa, where the president was set to rile up support for Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, in a tightening Senate race against Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek, his supporters who spoke with Fox News Digital still backed Republicans but expressed hope that change would soon come.

VOTERS PREPARE TO WEIGH-IN ON TRUMP’S ECONOMY AS COSTS CONTINUE TO SURGE

Beth Fitzl, an Iowa voter, said of Trump that she didn’t “agree with everything he does, but in the end, he’s here for us.”

“This is the way I see it,” Fitzl told Fox News Digital. “He’s like the Packers, OK? They may be getting in deep, but they always pull it off in the end, and I truly think he’s going to do something to turn it around. I really think he’s going to pull something to turn it around.”

Chuck Jones, a veteran and Purple Heart recipient who made the trek from Minnesota for the Iowa rally, was frustrated about the divisive, tribal nature of politics.

He told Fox News Digital that “these politicians, they’re fighting for one thing on one side, and other people are fighting for something on the other side, but there’s nobody sitting at the table in the middle.”

TRUMP VOTERS REVEAL THEIR BIGGEST FEAR HEADING INTO MIDTERMS — AND IT’S NOT RISING PRICES

When asked if Republicans and Trump needed to do something different should they hold onto control of Washington, D.C., after the election, Jones said, “Well, I think it’s time that we’re going to have to show some difference, because people aren’t happy with the way things have been in the last few years.”

“And we’re going to have to do something about it and decisively show the American public that you can get it done and get it done correctly,” he said. “They’re going to have to work together instead of fighting each other.”

Hinson’s race is one of six toss-ups that Republicans in the Senate are trying to hold onto. She and Turek are vying for Sen. Joni Ernst’s, R-Iowa, seat after she opted to retire from the upper chamber last year.

Their race, like others during this cycle, has become surprisingly close, given that Trump won the state in 2024 by roughly 13 points and has won it each time he’s been on the ballot.

THUNE MAKES BOLD PREDICTION ABOUT REPUBLICANS’ SENATE CHANCES AS GOP PULLS MILLIONS FROM KEY RACES

Dawn Stanley, an Iowa voter who has voted for Trump in each of the last three elections, still planned to support him and Hinson. She told Fox News Digital that Turek hadn’t “showed up” for Iowa and noted that he’d been absent from the state legislature “42% of the time” — Turek missed 261 votes between January and May of this year while on the campaign trail.

Still, her biggest frustration with Republicans was their inability to pass the SAVE America Act, voter ID and election security legislation that has been consistently blocked by Senate Democrats.

“I really do think it comes down to the SAVE Act,” Stanley said. “I really do, because we can’t have all these Democrats in there and bringing over all these illegals who are going to vote for those people and have chaos. That’s what it is.”

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“The United States is in chaos and I really believe it’s because of the illegals and the Islamic terrorists that are coming over,” she continued. “And just look at what’s going on in France. I mean, it’s terrible. And I don’t want that for our country, and that’s what Trump can stop. And that’s why we need to bring in all the conservatives that we can.”

Others were concerned about Democrats regaining power and feared that Republicans may not show up on Nov. 3 to support GOP candidates.

“We need to get the people out to vote,” Kurt, who traveled from South Dakota for the rally, told Fox News Digital. “Republican people need to get out the vote. They stay home too much. This is a war to be won with the Left, as far as I’m concerned.”

Virginia state Senator Lillie Louise Lucas was indicted Thursday on five charges that include drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud and firearms charges after being accused of running a marijuana distribution enterprise, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Lucas is among seven indicted in the sprawling racketeering scheme, a group that includes her two daughters, Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb, and her grandson Ryan Eichelberger, Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Thursday press conference.

“Louise Lucas has served in a position of public trust in the Commonwealth of Virginia for over three decades,” Blanche said in a DOJ statement. 

“The charges alleged in this indictment reveal the behavior of a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve. Our federal prosecutors will continue to be guided by the facts and evidence that led a grand jury to indict Ms. Lucas and her alleged co-conspirators.”

DEMS BLAST TRUMP OVER VIRGINIA FBI RAID BUT PROBE STARTED UNDER HIS PREDECESSOR

The 82-year-old Lucas has served as a Virginia state senator since 1991, and as the president pro tempore of the state’s Senate since 2020. As president pro tempore, she is the presiding member of the state senate in the absence of the state’s lieutenant governor. 

She has also served as chair of the state’s Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee since 2024.

“During that time, as alleged in the indictment, her and her six co-conspirators, instead of serving the public as was her job, manufactured and created a criminal enterprise to illicitly enrich themselves by procuring sales and stores and divisions through the marijuana and CBD enterprise,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday.

“Through her elected office, Senator Lucas has been a public servant of the people of Virginia. Her first duty should have been looking out for her constituents before herself, but the charges listed in the indictment reflect the alleged behavior of a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve,” Blanche also said Thursday. 

The DOJ said Lucas led the Lucas Enterprise with a close-knit group of friends and family that included her two daughters and a grandson. 

“[They] orchestrated a multi-year scheme to enrich their own criminal marijuana enterprise, ‘the Lucas Enterprise,’ using Lucas’ position as Chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to insulate the enterprise from criminal scrutiny and influencing legislation to financially benefit themselves,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in the statement. 

Lucas was directly involved in a wide range of activities within the enterprise, including the acquisition and distribution of 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and for the laundering of the drug sales proceeds, the DOJ said.

The state senator opened The CBD Shoppe and The Cannabis Outlet in 2019, according to the indictment. The pot shops’ openings came nearly two years before Virginia officially legalized marijuana for recreational use on July 1, 2021.

In 2021, Lucas and her daughter Lisa Lucas-Burke, who is currently running for mayor in Portsmouth, Virginia, also opened The Cannabis Outlet in Portsmouth. 

SPANBERGER REFUSES TO HONOR ICE DETAINER IN MURDER CASE, ESCALATING SHOWDOWN WITH TRUMP DHS

During a conversation with an unindicted co-conspirator, Lucas pushed for favorable language in a Virginia state bill on marijuana reform, telling the co-conspirator, “This is our last chance at generational wealth…I’ve got too old to not be greedy,” the indictment stated. 

The FBI raided Lucas’ office and businesses in May.

Lucas responded to the indictment Thursday morning with a post on X.

“Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the full weight of the federal government have been wielded against an 82-year-old great-grandmother,” she wrote.

“I grew up under Jim Crow. I’ve seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting back, and I’m not stopping now,” she continued.

“I’m not new to this. I’m true to this. I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” she concluded. 

Lucas made her initial appearance in Federal court in Norfolk on Thursday afternoon. The government declined to request detention and she was released on her own recognizance. She was wearing street clothes but appeared to be shackled, according to Fox News’ Jake Gibson. 

She will be arraigned in federal court in Newport News, Virginia on Nov. 16.  

Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a staunch ally to Lucas, questioned the timing of her indictment in a Thursday statement. 

“I have read the charging document alleging a series of criminal acts by a member of the Virginia Senate. In our American system of justice, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that is true for Senator L. Louise Lucas. She and her family deserve the opportunity to present their defense and speak to the allegations presented,” Spangenberg wrote in the statement.

“The timing of this indictment undermines the U.S. Department of Justice’s previously longstanding policy of not taking legal actions — to include indictments or significant investigative steps — close to an election and sadly, this timing further erodes the trust the American people deserve to have in the Department of Justice,” the statement concluded.

Blanche addressed the timing and the DOJ’s policy of not indicting politicians within 60 days of an election, which he said was an unofficial rule and not part of the department’s manual.

“The Justice Manual speaks very clearly about what the Department of Justice can and can’t do. And we cannot bring a charge of our purposes improper. And there’s nothing improper about this purpose,” he said Thursday.

“The senator is not up for reelection,” Blanche continued. “This is a long-running case, as alleged in the indictment. It’s a RICO conspiracy case. It’s a narcotics case. and so while the timing of an indictment is something that we have always thought about at the Department of Justice, the expected complaints about the timing of this indictment are with past practices. And so I can’t, you know, people can criticize all they want. But it was time to bring the charges. The grand jury returned an indictment. And we made the arrests,” he said.

Lucas has a history of emphatically antagonizing President Donald Trump, his administration and Virginia Republicans broadly. 

In March 2023, following a New York grand jury’s indictment of Trump, Lucas wrote in a post on X “Donald Trump just learned no one is above the law!”

She has also been a central figure in her state’s failed redistricting effort, taking to social media to brag about the redrawn legislative map Virginia Democrats tried to push through. In an April post on X she wrote “Ten f—– one,” in reference to the proposed partisan breakdown which would have given the Democrats 10 of the state’s 11 legislative districts. 

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Four other co-conspirators were charged in the indictment: Prince Albert William Hudson III, Theresa Lucas-Lamb, Carlton Upton Jr. and Tameka Johnson.

Lillie Louise Lucas and Lisa Lucas-Burke’s mayoral campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz and Robert Schmad contributed to this report.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed New Hampshire officials to reject student IDs as a valid form of identification when voters cast their ballots in next month’s midterm elections.

A lower court judge previously found that state officials had improperly gone further than a new law restricting the use of student IDs to obtain a ballot, ruling that officials still had to consider student IDs alongside other evidence when voters lacked other means of verifying their identity.

But the Supreme Court took issue with the judge intervening this close to the elections.

ARIZONA VOTER LAW FIGHT REACHES SCOTUS AS ELECTION GROUPS WARN ‘ABSURD’ CONSEQUENCE COULD ENSUE

The high court has said orders handed down too close to an election can cause voter confusion, an idea known as the Purcell principle. The court cited the recent legal back-and-forth over Missouri’s redistricting maps.

“Here, the District Court did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle,” the majority wrote in its opinion.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying the rule did not apply since the lower court judge was helping ensure the public received accurate information.

JACKSON RIPS INTO SUPREME COURT COLLEAGUES’ ‘SERIOUS LEGAL ERROR’ ON TRUMP MAIL-IN VOTING ORDER

“When a federal court determines that material misrepresentations are being made about a State’s election rules, an injunction to prohibit that conduct does not contribute to public confusion, it prevents that very problem,” Jackson wrote. “I would not disturb a clearly justifiable federal-court order issued to ensure that the public receives accurate information about a State’s electoral processes,” she wrote.

This comes after Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 323 into law in April, removing student IDs from the list of identification expressly considered valid for obtaining a ballot. The law took effect June 2. After the law went into effect, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan issued guidance to election officials about the change, and multiple trainings were held.

“New Hampshire has a responsibility to protect the integrity of its elections and ensure that election laws are applied as written,” New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, a Republican, said in a statement.

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“The Supreme Court’s decision is an important victory for our efforts to defend those laws and prevent last-minute court orders from creating uncertainty for voters and election officials. We will continue to defend New Hampshire’s election laws and the safeguards they provide,” he continued.

The Supreme Court’s decision was not a final ruling on the merits of the case, and the underlying litigation over the law remains ongoing.

Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to rule out whether the Department of Justice could seek to intervene in states’ midterm election certification processes, saying there are extreme scenarios that could prompt federal action.

Speaking to reporters in Virginia on Thursday, Blanche said it was not his intention to “improperly interfere with elections,” but declined to rule out federal involvement if a “doomsday scenario” were to happen.

“Of course there’s scenarios that we can all come up with hypothetically, you know, some doomsday scenario, for example, right?” he said. “So, I don’t think it’s proper to make any kind of conclusory statements about what’s going to happen in the future, because I have no idea what’s happening in the future.”

Blanche said he could not say there were no circumstances under which the DOJ would get involved.

NEWSOM SPARS WITH TRUMP-APPOINTED PROSECUTOR OVER 20,000 SUSPECTED NONCITIZENS ON VOTER ROLLS

“Of course, I’m not going to say that,” he said. “But am I planning my days around the election to be somewhere to not certify? Of course not, no, not at all.”

The DOJ’s role in elections is limited under the Constitution and federal law, allowing it primarily to safeguard civil rights and prosecute people who violate election law. Federal law does not specifically authorize the department to challenge ballots or delay a state’s certification of election results.

Under the Constitution and federal law, U.S. elections are run by state and local officials rather than the federal government.

During a news conference in Norfolk, Blanche was questioned about the DOJ’s litigation against states, seeking to force officials to turn over unredacted voter data and halt the counting of ballots cast by thousands of voters the federal government argues are likely noncitizens.

TRUMP ADMIN SUED OVER ALLEGED ILLEGAL COLLECTION OF SENSITIVE VOTER DATA FROM 47 STATES

Blanche said the DOJ was “not trying to create chaos” but wanted to alert officials to potential problems.

“I’m not trying to not have an election certified. Of course not,” Blanche said. “What we’re trying to do is guarantee to the American people that the only people that are voting are people that are eligible to vote.”

In response to Blanche’s comments, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats “have been preparing for this for months and will be ready” for whatever administration officials try.

“As Trump and his cronies attempt to steal this election, we are fighting them at every turn,” Schumer posted on X. “Our elections must always belong to the voters — not Donald Trump.”

The administration sued California election officials last week, arguing they failed to act quickly enough to review names the federal government identified as likely noncitizens. The DOJ asked a judge to block the state from counting mail-in ballots from those individuals unless their eligibility could be confirmed.

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The California secretary of state’s office said it was given only 48 hours to review roughly 20,000 names.

The DOJ was also weighing additional election-related litigation against states, but a federal judge this week temporarily restricted certain election-related field operations and interviews in nine states through Election Day. The judge stayed the order until Friday evening to give the administration an opportunity to appeal.

Earlier this week, Democratic leaders and election groups filed a lawsuit against the administration, accusing it of “threats and intimidation” ahead of Election Day.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said noncitizen voting poses a serious threat to election integrity, although documented instances of noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections have historically been rare.

A Turning Point USA faith leader is calling on President Donald Trump to intervene after Australian lawmakers grilled a Christian church leader about his religious beliefs, including whether he influences members’ marriages, hairstyles and even pet ownership.

Lucas Miles, vice president of faith at Turning Point USA, told Fox News Digital he contacted the White House Faith Office and several administration officials over what he described as a politically motivated investigation into the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

“We’ve reached out to the faith office, we’ve reached out to several members of the administration to make sure that they’re aware of this,” Miles said. “We’re hoping to see some response and action soon.”

UK LAWMAKER WARNS IT’S ‘OPEN SEASON’ ON CHRISTIANS AS HE SOUNDS ALARM OVER ‘TWO-TIER JUSTICE’

The controversy intensified during an Oct. 16 parliamentary hearing examining allegations of coordinated political activity by church members during Australia’s 2025 federal election.

Independent MP Monique Ryan questioned the church’s global leader, Bruce Hales, about whether members considered him an “elect vessel” or a direct messenger from God. She also asked whether members sought his guidance on marriage, housing, pets, clothing and facial hair.

Liberal MP Ben Small objected to the questioning, calling it “patently ridiculous” and “so far off the terms of reference for this inquiry.”

Another lawmaker interjected that hairstyles had no bearing on electoral matters, while the committee chair allowed the questioning to continue.

“When an Australian parliamentary committee tasked with investigating election matters begins interrogating a Christian leader about his theological convictions, serious questions must be asked about the purpose of the inquiry,” Miles said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

“Bruce Hales was summoned to answer questions about electoral conduct, not to defend the doctrines of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church before the government,” he added.

BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: THE WAR ON CHRISTIANS IS REAL AND THE WORLD CAN NO LONGER STAY SILENT

Miles argued that the line of questioning may illustrate a broader threat to religious freedom.

“The troubling shift from election oversight to religious scrutiny gives every appearance of a politically motivated witch hunt,” he said.

Hales denied directing, funding or coordinating political campaigning during the 2025 election, maintaining that church members acted independently.

“I had no involvement whatsoever in relation to any members who volunteered or took part in any aspect of the 2025 federal election,” Hales told the committee.

Lawmakers questioned whether a sermon in which Hales said Australia needed to be “happy again, smiling again” influenced members’ political activities, citing subsequent campaign messaging that echoed his words.

His son, Gareth, acknowledged encouraging people already involved in campaigning but denied directing an organized church campaign.

CHRISTIAN WOMAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO NEW ‘ORWELLIAN’ CHARGES FOR STANDING AND SILENT PRAYER

The committee is also examining allegations of intimidation and coordinated campaigning during the election. Church leaders have denied organizing or condoning improper conduct.

Hales said he did not support harassment or intimidation and maintained that individual members should be accountable for their own actions.

“In a free society, government has every right to investigate violations of election law, but it has no business putting Christian doctrine on trial,” Miles said.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, which traces its roots back roughly 200 years, says its roughly 55,000 members worldwide follow a “Doctrine of Separation,” distancing themselves from certain secular activities and practices they believe conflict with biblical teachings.

The church rejects descriptions of the denomination as a cult, maintaining that its members freely practice their faith and contribute to their communities through businesses and charitable initiatives.

The hearing also turned to the United States when Sen. Steph Hodgins-May questioned Hales about Turning Point USA’s support for the church and whether church leaders had met with the Trump administration.

Hales said he had never met Trump but understood that some church members in New York had briefly met the president.

Miles, who is not a member of the denomination, said he wants Trump to apply diplomatic pressure on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and urge an end to the inquiry.

“What I would like to see, first of all, is some pressure applied, whether that be through diplomatic channels or through the president himself,” Miles told Fox News Digital.

Miles said he remains hopeful the administration will take action and warned that the controversy could establish a troubling precedent for American churches, pointing to past disputes involving religious organizations and government restrictions in the United States.

“They’re making this about trying to really smear the church because of specific doctrines that they might hold to, and I think this is a canary in the coal mine for religious liberty across the globe that when we see a Western nation like Australia,” Miles said. “The government [is] against the church and against the Christian church in particular, I think this is reason for the rest of the world to wake up.”

“If this can happen in Australia, if it can happen places like England and Canada, it certainly can happen America if we don’t stay alert,” he said.

Miles emphasized that Christians should be free to participate in politics without their churches automatically being held responsible for their individual choices.

“Just because individual private citizens who happen to go to a church have a similar opinion about politics, that does not constitute a grand conspiracy,” he said.

He urged Trump to pursue what he called “faith-based diplomacy” to defend religious liberty abroad.

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“Religious liberty means nothing if it only protects those whose beliefs the government approves of,” Miles said.

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

Ilhan Omar is not the “real name” of the Minnesota congresswoman, Fox News Digital has learned.

Her real name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, according to two people familiar with the ongoing investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman, including a law enforcement source.

And if proven in court that Omar has lived her “entire life under an alias,” a former Minnesota federal immigration judge tells Fox News Digital that every single form she ever filled out could be “called into question.”

On Wednesday, U.S. District Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro filed a motion seeking to prevent the federal search warrant for the congresswoman’s home from being unsealed, which was requested by several media outlets. The motion says the federal government is not yet finished executing the search warrant, and that it shouldn’t be unsealed yet.

“Before the Court are three Applications to unseal ex parte materials and proceedings related to a federal search warrant for the personal residence in the District of Columbia of Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar…” the motion begins.

“That’s not her real name,” one source said when asked why the motion used the “a/k/a Ilhan Adbullahi Omar” language.

After publication, a spokesperson from Omar’s office provided a statement to Fox News Digital disputing the report. 

“This is completely false. Ilhan Omar is her real name,” the spokesperson said, followed by an attack on Fox News. 

In a second statement, Omar’s spokesperson referenced Wednesday night’s interview on MS NOW, where Omar answered questions about whether she ever married her brother. 

“Rep. Omar has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory. She denied it again on MS NOW—and when pressed yet again, responded sarcastically.” the spokesperson said. She called those questions a “desperate smear to distract from designed to distract from Trump’s failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress.”

The spokesperson said it’s “disgraceful that the media continues to give this lie oxygen.”

Fox News Digital first reported in the midst of the search of the lawmaker’s Washington, D.C. residence that federal investigators are probing whether she or her father committed fraud when filling out her immigration paperwork.

Investigators obtained the elected official’s DNA and seized her personal phone and passport during the Oct. 12 pre-dawn raid.

FEDERAL AGENTS SEIZE PHONE OF REP ILHAN OMAR IN RAID TIED TO IMMIGRATION FRAUD PROBE

Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, was questioned by federal investigators last week in relation to the probe, Fox News Digital exclusively reported.

Conservative personality Will Chamberlain first posted the motion on X speculating that the “DOJ believes [Omar] is present in the United States under a false identity.”

Fox News Digital has now learned from multiple sources familiar with the investigation that Omar is not the congresswoman’s birth name.

REP ILHAN OMAR’S IMMIGRATION HISTORY FACES NEW SCRUTINY AS FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS SUBPOENA RELATIVES

Omar has publicly confirmed that she does not have a birth certificate.

In an official U.S. House biography, her birthday is listed as Oct. 14, 1982, and states that she was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. She says she came to the U.S. with her family as refugees fleeing war-torn Somalia in 1995, when she was a minor.

Omar has not been charged with a crime, and materials presented by prosecutors are only allegations.

Attorneys for the embattled congresswoman did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Nathan Hansen, a former federal immigration judge from Minnesota, listed the extent to which the supposed name change could impact the case against the congresswoman.

“You think of all the types of documents somebody like her might have filled out,” he said. “There’d be federal student loan and student aid applications, maybe federal housing related applications, maybe public assistance applications, passport applications, passport information and driver’s license information, Real I.D. information [and] voting information.”

ILHAN OMAR’S TURBULENT WEEK EXPLAINED: THE DUELING PROBES THAT THREW THE SOMALI-BORN PROGRESSIVE INTO CHAOS

He said if someone has lived their entire lives under an alias, there are many criminal charges that could be levied.

“Sometimes they might say that that would be a wire fraud charge, they always add that one,” said Hansen. “And that’s pretty broad. But, you know, a lot of these documents are sworn under penalty of perjury.”

“If this is not, like, a real legal name, it’s got some legal backing to it that every type of government form she’s filled out in her entire existence might be called into question,” Hansen said.

ILHAN OMAR SHOULD BE JAILED, DEPORTED IF CITIZENSHIP FRAUD PROVEN, TOP HOUSE REPUBLICAN SAYS

The representative for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House, has long faced allegations that she married her brother for immigration purposes.

In 2009, she legally married a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. The pair split in 2017. The following year, she was elected to Congress. In 2020, she married her third husband, political consultant Tim Mynett.

In Omar’s first public interview since the raid on her home, she sat down with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes. During that interview, she once again denied those allegations, calling them “insane.”

ILHAN OMAR BELIEVES TRUMP RAID ON HOME WAS MEANT TO ‘INTIMIDATE AND SCARE PEOPLE’ FROM VOTING

“You’re not related to him at all?” Hayes asked. “There’s not some weird kernel of truth…?”

“Not to my knowledge,” she replied.

In the wake of the raid, Omar has accused President Donald Trump and his administration of targeting her politically.

“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,” she said in a statement on X.

HOMAN SAYS ILHAN OMAR COULD BE STRIPPED OF NATURALIZATION, DEPORTED IF IMMIGRATION FRAUD IS PROVEN

“For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back,” the post continued. “Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Omar, but did not hear back at time of publication.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., described herself as a member of the “working class” who lives “paycheck to paycheck” during an interview with MS NOW host Chris Hayes on Wednesday night.

“I mean, it’s, you know, working — working class, I guess, like paycheck to paycheck still,” Omar said. “We’ve got four kids, and we live, I think, like a basic life. I have a Toyota Camry that’s from 2016.”

Omar’s characterization of her finances comes despite her $174,000 annual congressional salary and scrutiny over financial disclosures that once listed assets tied to her husband as being worth as much as $30 million.

The comments came during Omar’s first public appearance since Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents searched her Washington, D.C., residence on Oct. 12 as part of an investigation into possible immigration-related offenses.

ILHAN OMAR BELIEVES TRUMP RAID ON HOME WAS MEANT TO ‘INTIMIDATE AND SCARE PEOPLE’ FROM VOTING

Since the raid, the representative has used the investigation twice as a reason to publicly fundraise.

“That goes a long way as we fight Trump and his administration for trying to intimidate me and so many people right before the midterm elections,” Omar said in a video she uploaded to social media on Wednesday. “We know that they’re running scared. We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to be silenced.”

The Democratic National Committee has also sent out its own fundraising email based on Omar’s campaign request for money.

“It’s Ilhan Omar — Trump’s DHS agents just carried out a raid and search of my home,” the email says. “This is a drastic escalation of the ludicrous, partisan investigation that they launched into my immigration status.”

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

Omar also acknowledged during the MS NOW interview that the federal agents who searched her home were “polite” and left the property in good condition, even folding some of her clothes.

“When they left, what did you do?” Hayes asked Omar.

“I just went back around the house just trying to make sure everything was put back,” Omar replied. “And they did a really good job in putting everything back in its place. They actually even folded some of my clothing that [was] not folded. So it was … a very bizarre [situation].”

The Minnesota Democrat added that she thought the HSI agents who raided her home were “intrusive, but polite.”

“And yeah, they, they left the house, I think, you know, in good shape,” she told MS NOW.

Omar claimed during the interview that the federal agents were searching her house for four to five hours. She added that they left the raid with more than a dozen items, including notebooks and a children’s Somali-language phrasebook.

“[That] was why I was surprised when they handed me the receipt for the items that they take in, to do that long of a search and to walk away with 17 items, of like 10 that were just notebooks and, like, old phones. Was such a bizarre, bizarre thing,” Omar said.

A separate Justice Department investigation is examining Omar’s financial disclosures, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said during an appearance on Fox News’ “America Reports.”

The disclosures previously showed that the reported value of two businesses tied to Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, rose from as much as $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.

Omar later amended the filing, saying the original figures were the result of an accounting error. The amended disclosure listed the couple’s assets at between $18,004 and $95,000. Omar has denied wrongdoing, and no criminal charges have been filed against her in connection with the disclosures.

Mynett’s businesses include eStCru, a winery, and Rose Lake Capital, an investment firm. The winery has reportedly shut down.

ILHAN OMAR RAID SPARKS OMINOUS PREDICTION FROM WATCHDOG: ‘THEY PROBABLY GOT THE GOODS’

On Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America,” Comer told host Trey Gowdy that his committee’s initial review of Omar’s disclosures identified multiple issues that could justify further investigative steps.

“First of all, not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure form, there was the winery that was the big base of her $25 million listing on her financial disclosure form,” Comer said. “That winery has, according to the press, been shut down because of fraud.”

In a February letter to Mynett, Comer noted that Omar’s 2023 disclosure listed her stake in eStCru as being worth between $15,001 and $50,000.

“The following year, her financial disclosure form listed a stake in eStCru ‘worth between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000,’” Comer wrote. “There are serious public concerns about how your businesses increased so dramatically in value only a year after reporting very limited assets.”

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A rank-and-file House member’s annual salary is $174,000. Members may also participate in the federal Thrift Savings Plan and qualify for a pension under the Federal Employees Retirement System, though eligibility and benefit amounts depend on factors including age, years of service and salary history.

The financial investigation remains ongoing.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth put weapons manufacturers on notice Thursday as the Trump administration pushes to cut Pentagon red tape, expand competition and accelerate American weapons production as part of its “Arsenal of Freedom” initiative.

In a video shared on X, Hegseth highlighted Washington’s drive to overhaul defense procurement, expand private-sector competition and speed up production of advanced weapons systems.

“The Arsenal of Freedom has been UNLEASHED,” Hegseth posted.

AMERICA FACES A CRISIS IN OUR MILITARY ARSENAL THAT TRUMP IS RACING TO FIX

The video features missile launches, naval weapons systems firing, ammunition production lines and workers signing munitions for U.S. forces.

Hegseth also stressed that performance, not a contractor’s name, should determine which companies supply America’s military.

“I don’t care what company is on the side of the rocket. Don’t care. The only thing we ask ourselves is, is it the best?” Hegseth said in the video.

“The technology that you build for our missiles, interceptors and hypersonic weapons is what allows the War Department to achieve peace through strength,” Hegseth continued. “And that mission comes with a non-negotiable mandate straight from the Resolute Desk and President Trump: build more and build faster.”

MORE THAN HALF OF SOME US WEAPONS STOCKPILES USED IN IRAN WAR, RAISING CONCERNS ABOUT CHINA THREAT

Hegseth framed the manufacturing push as central to strengthening American military readiness and deterring foreign adversaries.

“When we unleash industry—when we at long last unleash the raw, competitive, and patriotic spirit—the United States of America always wins,” he said.

“When we compete, we win. When we innovate, we win. When we go fast, we win. We’re equipping our warriors for the future right here and right now, made in the United States of America, and we’re doing it at light speed.”

The “Arsenal of Freedom” campaign echoes America’s World War II-era “Arsenal of Democracy,” when U.S. factories dramatically expanded weapons production to supply American and Allied forces.

TRUMP TURNS TO EMERGING TECH GIANT IN MULTI-BILLION BID TO RAMP UP US SUBMARINE PRODUCTION

The administration’s defense industrial strategy is to streamline Pentagon procurement, reduce bureaucratic barriers and bring more private companies and technology startups into the military supply chain.

The effort emphasizes commercial technology, faster production and greater competition among defense contractors and manufacturers.

Hegseth launched the nationwide tour earlier this year with a stop at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, and has since visited defense manufacturing facilities across the country.

On Oct. 20, Hegseth toured Riverside Machine and Engineering in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, alongside Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler and local lawmakers.

KEY AMERICAN INDUSTRY SEEING BLUE-COLLAR JOBS BOOM AS TRUMP’S RE-SHORING POLICIES PAY OFF

There, he touted what he called a “golden age of American manufacturing,” highlighting domestic supply chains and defense industry jobs.

The manufacturing push comes as the Pentagon seeks to strengthen U.S. weapons stockpiles and sustain military readiness amid threats from adversaries, including the almost eight-month war with Iran.

Following visits to U.S. Central Command operations in the Middle East, Hegseth emphasized the importance of expanding production of precision missiles, air defense interceptors and other critical weapons systems.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Pentagon for further comment.

The Justice Department (DOJ) has launched an investigation into longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News.

The probe stems from a criminal referral sent to the Justice Department by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, marking a legal escalation for the high-profile political figure.

TRUMP’S NEW PRESS SECRETARY OUT OF A JOB JUST DAYS AFTER ROCKY DEBUT

Asked about the inquiry by reporters outside the White House, President Donald Trump said he wants his staff held accountable and that he had “heard something about it.”

“All I know is I want my people to be honest,” Trump said.

“If they’re not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted,” Trump warned, adding that dishonesty amounts to “stealing from me as president.”

“They are stealing from me. So I want my people to be honest. And if they’re not honest, I’ll have my DOJ go and do whatever they have to do,” he added.

Lewandowski is a longtime political ally of Trump who previously served as an adviser to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

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A representative for Lewandowski told The Wall Street Journal that he has not been contacted by the Justice Department and denied any wrongdoing.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The New York City Council voted Thursday to ban horse-drawn carriages by June 2028, moving to end a nearly 170-year tradition after the death of a teenager in Central Park and prompting threats of legal action from carriage drivers.

The council voted 40-7, with two abstentions, to approve Romanch’s Law, named after 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, who died in June after being thrown from a runaway carriage in Central Park.

The legislation would phase out the industry by June 1, 2028, while requiring Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to develop a transition program for more than 150 active carriage drivers and other workers. 

The plan would include job training, career counseling and employment referrals, although financial compensation is not guaranteed.

MAMDANI PRAISED OVER MOVE TO DISMANTLE CONTROVERSIAL NYC INDUSTRY — BUT INSIDERS SAY THERE’S MORE TO THE STORY

President Donald Trump weighed in on the decision Thursday, criticizing the move to eliminate one of New York City’s longtime tourist attractions.

“The Horse-drawn Carriage in New York City is a quintessential New York experience. So sad that, for political reasons, we will see it go!” he wrote on Truth Social.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents carriage industry workers, threatened to challenge the ban in federal court and seek a temporary restraining order. Union representatives accused City Council Speaker Julie Menin of failing to adequately consult drivers whose livelihoods are at stake.

MAN KILLED AFTER HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE BOLTS AND FLIPS NEAR POPULAR NEW YORK CITY TOURIST DESTINATION

Opponents argued the city had failed to establish a concrete financial plan for drivers and carriage owners. An effort to delay the phaseout until January 2030 failed before the final vote.

Menin defended the legislation Thursday, saying the council had strengthened worker protections and was prepared for a legal fight.

“We’re very confident in the legislation. That’s why we took the time to work over the summer on the legislation,” she said at a news conference.

“We made changes to legislation to beef up worker protection. We are very confident in defending this law and will vigorously defend it. I’ve already talked to Steve Banks about it and our team, and we will vigorously defend this law.”

Animal rights group PETA also celebrated the vote, pledging $50,000 to help carriage horses retire as the industry winds down.

The Central Park Conservancy celebrated the decision, arguing that horse-drawn carriages pose growing safety risks in a park that welcomes roughly 40 million visits annually.

MAMDANI, CITY COUNCIL MOVE TO END ICONIC NYC HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE INDUSTRY AS WORKERS FACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE

“In the modern era, carriages pose a serious — and even fatal — safety risk to park visitors, carriage drivers and the horses themselves. Our hearts break for the family of Romanch Mahajan, who stepped into a carriage earlier this summer and never thought he might lose his life,” the organization wrote in a press release.

The Conservancy said Mahajan’s death was the ninth carriage-related incident in just over a year.

The legislation also includes protections intended to prevent retired carriage horses from being sold for slaughter, while allowing owners to keep their animals.

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The bill now heads to Mamdani, who has expressed support for ending the industry. If signed, it would bring an end to a decades-long political battle over one of New York City’s most recognizable tourist attractions.

Maine voters are in a negative mood this election season. Only 12% say their family is better off financially compared to two years ago, and more than 6 in 10 disapprove of President Donald Trump’s job performance, including 2 in 10 Republicans.

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A Fox News survey of Maine likely voters finds that mood weighs on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, as 53% are concerned she votes with Trump too much. By contrast, 46% are concerned Democratic challenger Troy Jackson is too liberal.

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Despite those views, the horse race shows the candidates tied, with Jackson and Collins at 49% apiece. All survey interviews were completed after the candidates’ Oct. 15 debate.

Collins, who first won her seat about three decades ago, is seeking a sixth term. She’s the only GOP senator running for re-election this year from a state Trump lost in 2024 (by 7 points). In 2020, Collins won by nearly 9 points.

Democrats view Maine as a must-win seat in their effort to take control of the Senate. When voters are asked about control of the U.S. Senate, 53% prefer a Democratic-led Senate vs. 45% who want the Republicans to remain in charge. While almost all Jackson supporters want Democratic control (96%), Collins supporters are more divided: 89% want a GOP-led chamber, but 9% prefer Democratic leadership.

Collins will need to overcome the energy on the left, as far more Democrats (79%) than Republicans (61%) say they are extremely interested in the election, which explains why Jackson is ahead by 16 points among that group. He’s up by 4 points among those who say they are “certain” to vote, and also carries the one in five Mainers who have already cast a ballot by a decisive 40 points. On the other hand, a slim majority plans to vote on Election Day, and they favor Collins by 12 points.

“Collins is no stranger to outrunning her party, but Democrats hold an 18-point enthusiasm advantage,” says Mikaela Linder of Beacon Research, a Democratic polling firm that conducts the Fox News Poll with Republican Daron Shaw. “Trump’s job rating is 25 points underwater, and a majority strongly disapproves of him. Jackson has an opening if he can carry that momentum beyond his base and across the finish line.”

Views of the president’s performance are a problem for GOP candidates in Maine. Currently, 37% of voters approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 62% disapprove, including 54% who strongly disapprove.

The candidates’ personal favorability ratings are both underwater. Views of Jackson are negative by 2 points (47% favorable, 49% unfavorable), and by 4 points for Collins (47%-51%).

Partisan vote choice varies distinctly across key groups. Voters under 45 favor Collins by 6 points, while those ages 45 and older prefer Jackson by 3. Women support Jackson by 5 points, while men back Collins by 4.

The sharpest divide is education: Mainers with a college degree pick Jackson by 23 points, while Collins leads among those without a degree by 16.

Collins is ahead among those living in rural areas by 7 points, while Jackson is the pick of the smaller number of suburban voters by 18 points.

For comparison, in 2020, Collins won both the voters living in rural areas and those without a college degree by 18 points each.

“Republicans appear to be struggling with White rural voters this cycle, and Maine is no exception,” Shaw said. “GOP candidates desperately need these voters to show up, and need something like a 65-35 vote to overcome Democratic strength in urban areas.”

Party loyalty is roughly even as 9 in 10 of each candidate’s party faithful back them, and the small subgroup of independents favors Collins by 13 points. Both Jackson (92%) and Collins (90%) supporters have a high degree of vote certainty. 

In Maine’s gubernatorial race, Democrat Hannah Pingree leads Republican Bobby Charles by 10 points, 49% to 39%, while independent candidate Rick Bennett takes 9%.

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Unlike Jackson, whose coalition backs Pingree almost unanimously (only 8% defect), nearly one in five Collins supporters (19%) peel off to either Bennett (11%) or Pingree (8%).

Conducted October 16-20, 2026, under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with a sample of 1,689 Maine registered voters randomly selected from a statewide voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (226) and cellphones (1,035) or completed the survey online after receiving a text message (428). Results based on the registered voter sample have a margin of sampling error of ±2 percentage points and for the subsample of 1,514 likely voters it is ±2.5 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Likely voters are based on a probabilistic statistical model that relies on past vote history, interest in the current election, intention to vote, age, education, race, ethnicity, and marital status. Results among subgroups are only shown when the sample size is at least N=100. 

Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump’s rally in South Carolina Wednesday revealed mixed feelings among his supporters as frustrations over the economy, immigration and the war with Iran collide with the stakes of November’s midterm elections.

While some rallygoers urged fellow Republicans to look past their frustrations and turn out in November, one Clemson University student who once proudly wore a Trump hat said he was considering voting Democratic.

“I was a big Trump supporter,” Grant Frady explained. “But, recently, I didn’t support him for the 2024 election. I feel like there’s too many special interests involved. I feel like what he said to the public was that he was anti-war. He was wanting to boost the economy. He said that he was just going to put America first, and I just feel like we haven’t.”

Trump traveled to South Carolina to rally support for Republican Sen. Darline Graham, who faces an unexpectedly competitive challenge from Democrat Annie Andrews in a state that has long favored Republicans.

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“And he also, he said he was going to deport all the illegal immigrants. We haven’t seen enough to really say that. I feel like he’s just overstating. I feel he’s causing too many problems for what he’s really benefiting. We haven’t gotten that many illegal immigrants out, and look how much problems we have with ICE.”

The economic concerns come as Americans continue to grapple with the cost of living, while the conflict with Iran has added pressure to energy markets and heightened uncertainty about the economy. 

A recent Fox News survey found that six in 10 voters say the cost of living is their top economic concern, followed by government spending (15%), jobs and income inequality (7% each), tariffs (6%) and taxes (5%).

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Frady wasn’t the only Clemson student who arrived at the rally with mixed feelings about the president’s record.

James, another Clemson student, said he had supported Trump in the past but was frustrated with aspects of the administration’s foreign and immigration policies.

“I’ve supported him [Trump] in the past, but some things have went off the edge,” James stated. “I definitely think foreign policy should be enforced a little better than we’ve just been letting it go. And, also, I feel like he hasn’t been doing enough for illegal immigrants getting in this country. So, that’s also a standpoint I like.

“I think you should be more aggressive than not joining in with these [foreign] countries,” he continued. “‘Cause I don’t think that’s America first, and it’s causing us to have a lot of debt.”

Frady said doubts about Graham’s conservative credentials have prompted him to consider voting for Andrews, a Democratic pediatrician, while other rallygoers argued that frustrations with Trump’s record were not enough to justify sitting out November’s election.

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“You may not be thrilled with Trump, but you’ll get the alternative,” Mike Korb of Greenville told Fox News Digital, warning that Democrats would also reverse the administration’s immigration-enforcement policies if they regained power.

Korb argued that Trump’s rally could help energize Republican voters, though he expressed doubts about the GOP’s prospects of retaining the House.

Summer Frost of Aiken argued that Americans should be willing to endure higher energy prices tied to the conflict with Iran, describing the economic burden as “short-term pain for long term gain.”

She wasn’t alone in viewing Iran as a long-term threat to America that had to finally be dealt with.

Scott Hines, a military veteran from Greenwood, recalled serving during the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, an attack that shaped his views on confronting Iran.

“I was in the military when they bombed the Marine barracks. And we should have already hit Iran,” Hines told Fox News Digital.

Hines and wife Margaret live not far from the Georgia line, where student Laken Riley was murdered by an illegal immigrant while jogging in February 2024.

“Nobody wanted a young girl … who couldn’t jog on her own college campus to end up like that. I mean, that’s for any college campus, just not for someplace close to home,” Margaret said about the tragedy, which occurred in nearby Athens, Georgia.

The president’s rally also faced repeated disruptions from protesters, several of whom were escorted from the venue.

During one disturbance, an attendee reportedly punched a protester, drawing praise from Trump, who compared the person who threw the blow to former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield.

The local sheriff’s office said Thursday that an assault report had been filed after the altercation. A deputy observed minor bruising on the person who reported being assaulted, according to the report. The case remained under investigation, with no suspect publicly identified.

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The disruptions underscored the tensions surrounding Trump’s visit just 13 days before the midterm elections, when Republicans will be looking to mobilize voters in a state where a Senate seat once considered safely Republican has become more competitive.

For Republican voters interviewed at the rally, the question was whether frustrations over Trump’s record would ultimately change their votes or whether the prospect of Democratic victories would be enough to keep them behind the GOP.

Two Minnesota federal judges who took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown to the New York Times are now fighting the administration’s efforts to disqualify them from cases involving immigration enforcement.

One of those judges, Patrick Schiltz, is overseeing the Justice Department’s effort to strip U. S. citizenship from Salah Osman Ahmed, a Somali-born man who pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support to terrorists after joining al- Shabaab. The other, John Tunheim, is presiding over the prosecution of a South African national accused of falsely claiming U. S. citizenship and illegally voting in the 2024 election. The Justice Department filed separate motions asking Schiltz and Tunheim to recuse themselves, arguing that their participation in the New York Times report criticizing President Donald Trump’s Operation Metro Surge has raised questions about whether they can fairly preside over the cases.

“Impartiality is imperative to ensuring public trust in our Nation’s judiciary,” the Justice Department said in a statement posted to X this week. “Judge Schiltz’s and Judge Tunheim’s on-the-record participation in a recent highly partisan New York Times Article, along with Judge Schiltz’s subsequent public comments, unquestionably calls into doubt whether they can be impartial in these cases.”

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The Justice Department’s formal recusal demand follows reporting by Fox News Digital last month detailing unusual behind-the-scenes coordination among Minnesota’s federal bench as judges confronted a massive influx of immigration cases stemming from the administration’s enforcement operation. The report came after Schiltz and Tunheim were among seven Minnesota federal judges who spoke with the Times in September about Operation Metro Surge. Schiltz sat for a roughly 90- minute interview during which he described the administration’s handling of the operation as having created a “grave threat to the rule of law,” while Tunheim suggested to the Times that agents carrying out the administration’s immigration crackdown were not primarily apprehending dangerous criminals.

DOJ had already raised the prospect that judges who publicly discussed the administration’s immigration cases might need to step aside when the Times report was released in September. Last month, DOJ filed a judicial misconduct complaint against Schiltz, Tunheim and other Minnesota judges who participated in the Times report, accusing them of violating judicial ethics rules and asking the Eighth Circuit to investigate. Attorney General Todd Blanche said their conduct had “undermined public confidence in an impartial judiciary in Minnesota.”

“It is remarkable that sitting federal judges are giving on-the-record interviews attacking this Administration’s policies rather than ruling from the bench,” a Justice Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in September. “Judges who have made public comments on pending or related matters should consider whether recusal is warranted going forward.”

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The Times report in question revealed that Schiltz, Tunheim and the other Minnesota judges handling the flood of Operation Metro Surge cases regularly met, communicated through running email threads and used an informal spreadsheet created by court clerks to identify judges to consult about recurring legal questions. Chief Judge Eric Tostrud previously told Fox News Digital that the judges nevertheless independently decided every case assigned to them.

“The bottom line is that each of us made an independent decision with respect to the merits of each and every petition we were assigned,” Tostrud said at the time.

The Justice Department, however, has accused Schiltz and the other judges of “publicly” taking sides in the ongoing battle over Trump’s deportation agenda.

“A judge who has publicly taken sides on the political issue of immigration enforcement cannot then preside over a case concerning one of the Justice Department’s key immigration initiatives: pursuing the largest denaturalization effort in Department history to restore trust and integrity in U.S. citizenship,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote.

Schiltz declined to comment on the Justice Department’s new effort to disqualify him when reached by Fox News Digital this week. But when Fox News Digital asked him about the possibility of recusal in September, Schiltz argued there was no basis for him to step aside — and pointed to the fact that DOJ had not asked him to do so.

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“I have seen suggestions from the Administration that I might have to recuse in immigration cases, but no one has yet identified any basis for my recusal, which is presumably why the Justice Department has not asked me to recuse,” Schiltz said at the time.

“Neither in the New York Times article nor anywhere else have I commented on the merits of a particular case,” he continued. “Instead, I have spoken in defense of the rule of law, a component of which is compliance with court orders. That is not a cause for recusal.”

Tunheim did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Charles “Cully” Stimson, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation who previously served as a federal prosecutor and military judge, told Fox News Digital that judges ordinarily avoid publicly commenting on matters that could intersect with cases before them.

“These judges did something extraordinarily imprudent, and that is to talk to any newspaper, much less the New York Times,” Stimson said. “That was a big no-no.”

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Asked what he would do if the New York Times interviews were the only facts at issue, Stimson said he would step aside.

“If we were to just go off of the New York Times interview … I would recuse myself,” Stimson said, noting the recusal would only be from the particular case at issue as opposed to all future cases adjudicating the same principles.

Stimson cautioned, however, that recusal motions put judges in the unusual position of effectively judging their own impartiality and said it would be inappropriate to predict how either motion should ultimately be resolved without the complete record.

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If either judge denies DOJ’s request, Stimson said the government could seek review from the Eighth Circuit, where a three-judge panel would determine whether the government has met the legal standard for recusal.

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DOJ declined to comment further Thursday beyond its public statement. A DOJ spokesperson also did not answer Fox News Digital’s question about whether the department would appeal if Schiltz or Tunheim denies the recusal motions.

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan made the case that recent rulings from the conservative-majority high court are destabilizing democracy, suggesting that it isn’t working “as well as it should.”

The remarks from the liberal justice came during a closed discussion before faculty and students at Catholic University’s law school in Washington, D.C.

The discussion between Kagan and law professor Joel Alicea Alicia, who previously clerked for Justice Samuel Alito, comes just weeks after the Supreme Court began its new term, during which it’s expected to rule in major cases that will determine the scope of gun rights and state election integrity laws, among other issues.

The conversation also comes less than two weeks before the midterm elections as President Donald Trump and Republican state lawmakers have pushed for new congressional maps drawn to favor Republicans and bolster their chances of maintaining control of the House. Democratic-led states have responded by redrawing their own maps, fueling ongoing lawsuits and court battles.

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Kagan pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling in Rucho v. Common Cause, in which she dissented, as the beginning of a “race to the bottom.” She argued that the decision, which barred federal courts from invalidating maps solely because they unfairly favor one political party, deprived “masses of citizens” of their “rights to voting equality.”

Kagan suggested that the influx of gerrymandered maps is “driving people away from the center toward the wings, toward the extremes.

“Making what I think is, unfortunately, a too polarized country even more so,” Kagan said.

Kagan also criticized rulings from the previous term, including the court’s decision limiting campaign finance restrictions and its ruling that made it more difficult to draw majority-minority congressional districts under the Voting Rights Act.

“Part of the reason why the court got it wrong was a kind of lack of the appropriate concern or understanding of the consequences of their decisions,” Kagan said.

“I do think in all these areas the court has blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works and has created a democracy that doesn’t work as well as it should.”

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Last term, the Supreme Court struck down federal limits on how much state and national political parties could spend in coordination with their candidates.

Meanwhile, Kagan argued in dissent that the limits were necessary to prevent wealthy donors from working around direct contribution caps and that striking them down effectively allowed a political party to become an “alternative checking account” for a candidate.

“The people of America look around this political system and think that all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare,” Kagan said. “And they’re right.”

Kagan, who was appointed to the court by President Barack Obama in 2010, argued that it was in a much better position when there was greater ideological balance.

“There was a period of time where the court was in a better place, and the country was in a better place because the court was more balanced, and it was unclear whether the court could push through anybody’s program.”

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“Nobody in America thought that the court was in the pocket of any one group or any one party,” she said. “And the court had a kind of legitimacy. When the court has a legitimacy of that kind, it helps to create a stable country.”

However, Kagan pushed back against the characterization that the conservative-leaning court simply rubber-stamped Trump’s entire agenda. She pointed to previous rulings by the high court rejecting birthright citizenship restrictions, tariffs and Trump’s restrictions on mail-in voting.

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“It’s why the president sometimes really has not very nice things to say about the court’s decisions and some of my colleagues,” Kagan said.