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After special counsel Robert Hur’s 2023 investigation and the subsequent report into former President Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents, Democrats rushed to defend the 46th president from his characterization that Biden was an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

The left-wing’s narrative surrounding Biden’s mental cognition — especially as he was running for re-election against President Donald Trump — is now crumbling after audio tapes from the investigation were revealed Monday night.

Prominent Democrats lined up to defend Biden when the initial report was released in 2024, many using the same line that Hur’s report was “gratuitous.” Then-Vice President Kamala Harris was chief among the chorus of defenders, saying that the report was “inaccurate and inappropriate.”

“The way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts,” she told reporters at an event in Washington at the time. She also said the report was “clearly politically motivated, gratuitous.” Months later, Biden dropped out of the presidential race and was replaced on the ticket by his No. 2 without a primary election to decide his replacement.

BIDEN’S HUR INTERVIEW TAPES COULD NOW GO PUBLIC AFTER HIS ATTORNEYS WAVE WHITE FLAG

“What everyone will soon realize is that this is a Republican special counsel who completely went out of his way to editorialize, to include material in his report that is unnecessary and irrelevant to what he was tasked with doing,” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., piled on in comments to ABC at the time.

Hur’s appointment was nonpartisan.

In 2023, Hur was investigating Biden for retaining classified information. At the center of the investigation were audio tapes of Biden from interviews with his “Promise Me, Dad” memoir ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, from 2016 and 2017.

Hur’s report concluded that Biden did, in fact, retain classified documents, but that prosecuting him might not lead to a conviction, because he could be viewed “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017 and in his interview with our office in 2023,” the report said.

BIDEN’S FIGHT TO KEEP HUR INTERVIEW TAPES UNDER WRAPS SUFFERS FRESH COURT BLOW

After a prolonged legal battle during which Biden sought to keep the audio tapes private, a nonprofit called the Oversight Project obtained them via public records requests. The damning tapes reveal Biden’s inability to remember basic names and dates.

In one instance, on April 24, 2017, Biden struggled to recall the names of two economic advisers.

“I’ll think of his name,” said Biden, who at the time was a private citizen and former vice president. “I should write the names down because I keep forgetting them.”

There was then a long pause before Zwonitzer prompted Biden by saying Alan Krueger’s name.

BIDEN SCORES TEMPORARY COURT VICTORY AS TRUMP-APPOINTED JUDGE DELAYS RELEASE OF HUR INVESTIGATION MATERIALS

In another instance, when trying to recall a memorial he attended for a fallen service member, Biden forgot the date of the service and name of the deceased.

“I think I went to that memorial service in Wilmington. It says [REDACTED] December the 4th, but I don’t — I know what this means. Memorial service — [REDACTED] gets names really f—ed up,” said Biden.

“So it says memorial service for [REDACTED]. I don’t think her name was [REDACTED]. Or I forget [REDACTED].”

The interviews were marked by consistent lapses in memory.

But in 2024, that didn’t stop Democrats from accusing Hur of being a partisan activist who intentionally tried to tarnish Biden and his chances in a rematch against Trump.

Andrew Weissman, a former general counsel to the FBI, cried foul on MSNBC.

“That is not the role of the Department of Justice … to talk about your memory today — irrelevant, it is gratuitous,” he reportedly said. “And it is also exactly what you’re not supposed to do, which is putting your thumb on the scale that could have political repercussions.”

Ian Sams, a spokesperson for Biden’s general counsel, said at the time that the report was “gratuitous.”

“When you are the first special counsel in history not to indict anybody, there is pressure to criticize and to make, you know, statements that maybe in otherwise you wouldn’t make,” Sams reportedly said.

“I think this issue of age is already out there, and when November comes, it’s going to be a choice between two people,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., told POLITICO. “I was with a congressional leadership about two weeks ago, and no one walked out of that meeting, saying, ‘Oh, my God, it was like he wasn’t in charge.’”

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., who at the time had just spent a day traveling with Biden, insisted that he was, “at the very top of his game, all the way through it, both in private and in person.”

Later in 2024, Biden was yanked from the top of the presidential ticket after an embarrassing debate performance against then-candidate Donald Trump, which showcased his apparent mental decline.

Harris, serving as vice president at the time, was then coronated as the party’s presidential nominee despite never winning a primary. When she ran in 2020, Harris never made it to the primaries, dropping out on December 3, 2019, months before the first elections took place.

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A Biden spokesperson ducked the former president’s memory in a statement to CBS.

“President Biden’s conversations for a book a decade ago that discussed his late son are private, and were provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way,” TJ Ducklo told the outlet. “Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.”

“It’s wrong, and while President Biden disagrees with today’s decision, he also respects the courts and the vital role an independent judiciary plays in a healthy democracy.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., expressed strong support for the filibuster in a Monday opinion piece, acknowledging that he has reversed his position on the issue since his 2022 campaign.

President Donald Trump on Monday was pressuring Senate Republicans to nix the filibuster.

“When Democrats had the presidency and a majority in both chambers, they were frustrated with the 60-vote threshold needed to advance legislation. Senate Democrats attempted to end the filibuster to push through President Joe Biden’s agenda — an effort I fully supported during my 2022 campaign,” Fetterman wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece.

“Halfway through my first term, I now recognize how important the filibuster is and the state our country would be in without it,” he noted.

FETTERMAN TROLLS THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA AS ISRAEL KILLS HAMAS TERRORISTS: ‘CRY HARDER’

“The rule is a critical line of defense that prevents President Donald Trump from having a fill-in-the-blank government with new laws, deregulation or procedures of its choosing,” he wrote.

The president issued Truth Social posts on Monday advocating for Republicans to scrap the filibuster.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929! The Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!” Trump wrote.

DEMS CLASH OVER AIPAC MONEY, ‘OGRE’ ATTACK AND ELECTABILITY DURING CRUCIAL SENATE DEBATE

In another post, he declared, “Whichever Party Terminates the Filibuster FIRST will be the Party that survives and thrives. If the Dumocrats win this race, however, America will rapidly become nothing more than a Third World Nation!”

The three-fifths threshold required for cloture to end a filibuster means that Senate Republicans, even with their 53-seat majority, cannot get to 60 votes without Democrats — the procedural hurdle prevents advancing most legislation with a simple majority.

REPUBLICANS SAY THEY’D WELCOME FETTERMAN AS GOP EYES BIGGER SENATE MAJORITY

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“The one thing that has stopped many unpopular policies since the beginning of 2025 isn’t the Democrats — it is the filibuster,” Fetterman wrote in his opinion piece.

Days after NATO allies committed tens of billions of dollars to new air and missile defenses, the alliance’s top transformation commander warned that the West must fundamentally redesign its weapons and industrial base to withstand attacks at the scale now being demonstrated in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“Today, the math is not in favor of the West,” Adm. Pierre Vandier, NATO’s supreme allied commander for transformation, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview following the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey, in early July.

The summit produced commitments to acquire 900 Patriot missiles and invest more than $40 billion in counter-drone capabilities throughout five years. 

But Vandier argued that simply buying more of the West’s existing weapons will not solve the underlying problem.

TRUMP ENTERS FINAL NATO SUMMIT DAY AS UKRAINE, DEFENSE SPENDING TAKE CENTER STAGE

Russia’s nightly barrages against Ukraine have exposed an air-defense model designed for smaller numbers of incoming threats. The U.S.-Iran conflict has simultaneously intensified demand for the high-end interceptors needed to defeat ballistic missiles, including Patriots and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) that cannot quickly be replaced.

“There is no way to produce 50,000 Patriots a year,” Vandier said. “We don’t have the supply chain, and it’s not worth doing that given the cost of the weapon.”

Instead, Vandier said NATO needs a layered mix of defenses: cheaper weapons that can be mass-produced to counter waves of drones, while preserving advanced interceptors for ballistic missiles and other sophisticated threats.

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT AMERICAN WEAPONS SYSTEMS NATO IS EAGER TO HAVE

“You need to have attritable, low-cost, mass-produced weapons to just kill the low-cost weapons that are coming by big waves,” Vandier said. “And then you need still the exquisite, complex weapons to kill the most complex weapons, as ballistic missiles.”

Trump announced at the summit that the United States would grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot interceptors, potentially allowing Kyiv to build more of the weapons it urgently needs to defend against Russian ballistic missiles.

But asked whether the announcement changed his assessment that Patriots alone could not protect Europe throughout the next five years, Vandier pointed to a deeper obstacle: Western weapons were designed around an industrial base that no longer exists.

UKRAINE’S BATTLEFIELD IS TRANSFORMING THE FUTURE OF NATO

“The design needs to change,” Vandier said. “We are at a moment where some stuff will be redesigned under pressure to be mass-produced.”

NATO also is attempting to transform against a threat that is changing in real time. Asked about a recent Russian live-fire exercise on Lake Peipus, between Estonia and Russia, which Estonia’s defense minister assessed was likely practice against Ukrainian-style naval drones, Vandier said Russia has demonstrated an ability to absorb battlefield lessons and adjust “on a weekly basis.”

“War — if you do not adapt, you die,” Vandier said. “All your brain is about how you outmatch, outpace, outrun the enemy. And so Russia is not that bad at that.”

“For NATO now, it’s a question of speed of adaptation,” Vandier said. “It’s a mind game.”

Ukraine’s defense industry, meanwhile, is increasingly setting the pace for the larger Western manufacturers that once supplied most of its weapons, Vandier said. Ukrainian companies have been able to develop, field and modify systems quickly in response to changes on the battlefield.

“The very agile and fast-evolving industrial base in Ukraine is now giving the pace to the European and Western industry,” Vandier said.

But the technological competition is not confined to drones and air defenses. Vandier warned that the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty has reopened a broader race over long-range missiles in Europe, as Russia and NATO allies seek weapons capable of holding targets farther behind enemy lines at risk.

The 1987 treaty prohibited the United States and Russia from possessing ground-launched missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. The first Trump administration withdrew from the agreement in 2019 after accusing Moscow of violating it, an allegation Russia denied.

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Vandier said the disappearance of those limits has produced a period of “complete strategic instability,” with both sides under pressure to develop new capabilities to preserve deterrence.

“The Pandora’s box is open again,” Vandier said, “and we’ll try to close it down one day.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is yet to publicly respond to an invitation from a prominent Holocaust museum to visit in order to “truly understand” what “genocide looks like” as he faces criticism from the Jewish community for repeatedly using that label to describe the situation in Gaza.

“You keep using the word ‘genocide’ when talking about Israel,” Jeff Miller, chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, posted on X on Friday, inviting Mamdani to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

“If you truly want to understand what genocide looks like, as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, I would be happy to personally arrange a tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for you.”

Miller was responding to a post from the UJA-Federation of New York expressing grief over a pair of recent stabbings in New York City carried out by an attacker who allegedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” during the attacks. Authorities say one of the victims is Jewish, and the attack is being investigated as a hate crime. 

JEWISH LEADERS FAULT MAMDANI RHETORIC AS UPPER WEST SIDE STABBING, HATE CRIME PROBE CONTINUES

Miller’s post went on to say that “words matter especially from elected leaders” and that “rhetoric that demonizes Israel and the Jewish state has consequences.”

“I hope you are simply ignoring the impact of your words and not purposely trying to normalize antisemitism,” Miller wrote. “My invitation is sincere. Come to the Museum. Learn what genocide actually means.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office multiple times inquiring whether the mayor intends to take Miller up on his offer but did not receive a response.

SUSPECT ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY YELLING ‘ALLAHU AKBAR,’ STABBING 2 MEN IN NYC ATTACK

Miller told Fox News Digital that he felt an “obligation” to speak up and that he would be “happy” to personally walk Mamdani through the museum.

“If the mayor wants to repeatedly invoke that word, I invite him to come with me to the Holocaust Museum and confront what genocide actually looked like: the systematic attempt to annihilate an entire people,” Miller said. “If he does not want to come to our museum, he should visit Rwanda or another place whose people have endured genocide and listen to survivors.”

Miller added that Mamdani is free to “criticize the Israeli government” and disagree with policies, “but there is a profound difference between legitimate criticism of a government and rhetoric that demonizes the world’s only Jewish state and helps normalize hostility toward Jews.”

Miller’s invitation was celebrated by many on social media, including Republican Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who posted on X that he hopes Mamdani takes the offer.

MAMDANI’S LATEST NETANYAHU REMARKS DEEPEN CONCERNS AMONG JEWISH LEADERS

“The US Holocaust Memorial Museum — where I proudly serve on the Council — is an important institution that shows the truth about what happened,” Scott wrote. “I urge anyone visiting Washington, DC to stop by. “

“The @NYCMayor Mamdani should take up the Chairman’s offer for a tour of the Holocaust Museum so he understands what is genocide,” billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman posted on X.

Mamdani has faced intense criticism for his position on Israel since jumping into the mayoral race last year and since taking office, he has often angered the Jewish community with comments calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and repeatedly accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

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“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” Mamdani said last week in a video announcement that he did not have the authority to arrest Netanyahu in accordance with an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, a warrant the United States does not recognize.

“He is responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people, for the maiming of tens of thousands of children as those who survive undergo amputation without anesthesia. For the targeting of neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers, denying newborns even the chance to live. For the countless people he starved as he blocked food and humanitarian aid from reaching them. For the gunning down of hundreds of aid workers and journalists.”

Despite denying on multiple occasions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic that he personally recommended lockdowns, excerpts revealed from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s private diary prove a clear contradiction.

In a March 15, 2020, entry in the diary, which begins with “BIG DAY!” written in red letters, Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) recalled a striking conversation he had with then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“I spoke with Bill de Blasio (Mayor – NYC) and convinced him based on what I was saying publicly and my conversation tonight to close the NYC schools (he had already decided based on what I was saying on TV),” Fauci revealed in his private notes.

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“I had a similar call with Ann O’Leary, the [Chief of Staff] of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California,” this particular entry went on. “Ann said that based on my TV appearances today and yesterday, the Governor has decided to close the schools in California as well as the bars and restaurants.”

But seven months later, on an Oct. 16, 2022 interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Fauci denied any involvement in inspiring lockdowns. 

“Let’s go back and look at the transcript. We said we should try as best as we possibly can to keep the children in school,” Fauci said. “Nobody plays that clip.”

“They always come back and say, ‘Fauci was responsible for shutting schools down.’ I had nothing to do [with it]!” he insisted at the time. 

EXPOSED FAUCI DIARY SHOWS HE ESTIMATED COVID-19 DEATH RATE TO BE MUCH LOWER THAN WHAT HE TOLD CONGRESS

In 2022 he told The Hill that he “didn’t recommend locking anything down,” clearly going against his own privately recorded entries. 

In January 9, 2024, years after the end of lockdowns ended, Fauci testified the same thing before the House Oversight Committee. 

“I did not close the schools,” he said, according to the hearing transcript. And it became the widespread situation where I became a political target.”

Fauci recommended to government leaders lockdown measures besides just closing schools, which he would also later deny.

INSIDE FAUCI’S PRIVATE DIARY: WHAT HE WROTE ABOUT TRUMP, TV PERSONALITIES AND CELEBRITIES

In the March 15, 2020, diary entry, Fauci, once the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said he directed de Blasio to close the city’s bars.

“I went on to tell him he should close the bars and restaurants in NYC. He said that he would base this on my recommendation,” Fauci wrote.

Five days later, he said he told the mayor to close all of New York City. 

“Also, had phone call with Major de Blasio who wants to go to ‘shelter in place for the entire city.[‘] He is asking my advice since Gov. Cuomo is pushing back. I advised DeBlasio [sic] to go ahead and do it. I will try to speak with Cuomo,” the entry said.

On March 29, 2020, Fauci recounted a tense meeting with President Donald Trump, who he described as “incorrigible.” 

The goal of the meeting was to get the president to extend lockdowns after the initial “15 days to stop the spread” period, which began on March 16 of 2020 — about a month after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in the U.S.

“At the end of the day it was a good outcome since we convinced him to go with 30 day (sic) instead of ending the mitigation prematurely, which I feel would be a disaster,” Fauci said.

In a November 28, 2020, diary entry, he recalled lending support to a Los Angeles County health official who wanted to lock the county down.

“Got call last night from Mark Ghaly (Deputy Director for Community Health for the LA County Dept of Health Services). He has called me several times for advice,” the diary says. “Frantic call saying that they are surging in LA County and very soon hospital beds will be overrun. He wants to do a 3 weeks shutdown of the city to ‘stop the surge’ and wants my support since there is a large pushback to locking down. I agreed to support him.”

But again in 2022, when he joined The Hill’s “Rising” podcast, Fauci denied responsibility for lockdowns.

“Well, you know, again, first of all, I didn’t recommend locking anything down,” he claimed. “You’re asking me questions. You’re talking about the CDC is the public health agency that uses their epidemiologists and their science-based approach to make recommendations…”

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Despite his own denials, Fauci himself told CBS news in the midst of the 2020 chaos that he was behind the lockdowns.

“When it became clear that we had community spread in the country, with a few cases of community spread — this was way before there was a major explosion like we saw in the northeastern corridor driven by New York City metropolitan area — I recommended to the president that we shut the country down,” he said on Oct. 7, 2020.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, declined to apologize Monday night for his “ogre on a pike” metaphor after critics from both parties condemned the leaked remark as violent and, in some cases, sexist.

Pressed during the final primary debate before next week’s election, over whether he regretted the rhetoric, El-Sayed defended the substance of his comments before revealing whom he had been referring to — and it was not primary opponent Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.

“I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman,” El-Sayed said, accusing the Pennsylvania Democratic senator of getting elected on one set of values before “completely throwing those values in the mud.”

GRETCHEN WHITMER ENDORSES MODERATE HALEY STEVENS IN TIGHT UPCOMING SENATE PRIMARY

The controversy stemmed from comments El-Sayed made during a recent Zoom meeting with donors, Politico reported, adding that El-Sayed was discussing how to use his victory in Michigan’s upcoming Aug. 4 primary and the November election to build a national platform to move the Democratic Party further left and support future primary challenges, such as against Fetterman.

“Ideally, you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message,” El-Sayed said, according to audio obtained by Politico. While El-Sayed did not name Stevens in the recording, some Democrats interpreted the remark as referring to her. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., who has endorsed Stevens, called the remark a “violent, vulgar” threat and said candidates should be working to lower the political temperature.

Neera Tanden, a former Biden administration official who returned to leading the left-wing think tank the Center for American Progress, connected the remark to broader accusations of sexism that have roiled the primary. “Calling your female opponent an ogre you want to put on a pike is not beating the rap that this race has some serious sexism,” Tanden wrote on X.

SWING-STATE POLL SPELLS TROUBLE FOR FAR LEFT AS SCHUMER-BACKED CANDIDATE DOMINATES WITH CRITICAL VOTING BLOCS

El-Sayed did not apologize for or retract the metaphor. He instead argued that senators should be willing to challenge colleagues who fail to act according to the values on which they campaigned. The progressive candidate then pivoted to accuse the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, of running repeated attacks against his character on Stevens’ behalf. He invoked his wife, mother and two daughters while rejecting accusations that his rhetoric toward women had been disrespectful.

“I was raised by strong women,” El-Sayed said, arguing that claims he was sexist because he had criticized former first lady Michelle Obama in a years-old opinion piece and challenged Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the 2018 gubernatorial primary were “inconsistent with the truth.”

Stevens responded by highlighting other comments attributed to El-Sayed during the leaked donor call, including attacks involving Whitmer, former Sen. Debbie Stabenow and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who was in the race with El-Sayed and Stevens before dropping out earlier this month.

“Only he can account for saying that Whitmer is bought and paid for, or that no one cares about Debbie Stabenow, or that Mallory McMorrow isn’t smart enough,” Stevens said.

She later delivered a pointed response to El-Sayed’s clarification.

“Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre,” Stevens said.

MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT MALLORY MCMORROW DROPS OUT OF SENATE RACE WEEKS BEFORE PRIMARY

Meanwhile, Stevens campaign spokesperson, Arik Wolk, accused El-Sayed of resorting to personal insults and focusing on his national political ambitions rather than Michigan.

“Abdul continues with personal insults and making this race about his personal political ambitions and the other 49 states,” Wolk said. “Haley is focused on getting things done for Michigan, and only Michigan.”

Republicans also took advantage of the remarks. RNC Research characterized El-Sayed’s debate response as a “double down” on calling Fetterman an “ogre,” while Michigan Republican strategist Dennis Lennox argued that El-Sayed’s candidacy was “about propelling the hard Left’s ascent nationally.”

The “pike” imagery has triggered political controversy before. In 2020, former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon said he would place the heads of Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray “on pikes” outside the White House as a warning to federal officials.

X, then-Twitter, suspended Bannon’s podcast account following backlash over the remarks, while Facebook and YouTube removed the video they were included in, citing policies addressing violent or incendiary content. Bannon later maintained that he had been speaking metaphorically — similar to El-Sayed.

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Earlier that year, a separate “head on a pike” controversy erupted during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial after CBS News reported that an unnamed Trump confidant said Republican senators had been warned, “Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.”

Then-House impeachment manager, now Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., repeated the report on the Senate floor while stressing, “I don’t know if that is true” and “I hope it is not true.” Republican senators immediately disputed the account, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, saying she knew of no senator who had been threatened by the administration and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said of Schiff’s remark about the alleged comments: “That’s when he lost me.”

“Not only have I never heard the ‘head on the pike’ line but also I know of no Republican senator who has been threatened in any way by anyone in the administration,” Collins told reporters at the time.

Two races in politically disparate parts of the country set the stage for one of the most unusual split-screen election days of the year on Tuesday.

Rep. David Scott’s death in April at age 80 created a vacancy in a heavily blue district encompassing the southern and eastern Atlanta suburbs of Stockbridge, Conyers and Snellville.

With the general election ballot already decided, Tuesday’s contest will determine who will finish out Scott’s term. Scott was notably related by marriage to Braves slugger Hank Aaron.

Across the country in South Dakota, Republicans vying for the Mount Rushmore State’s safely red governor’s seat have created the state’s first gubernatorial runoff between incumbent Gov. Larry Rhoden and self-made millionaire bitcoin investor Toby Doeden.

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Rhoden originally took the reins in Pierre after President Donald Trump chose former Gov. Kristi Noem to be Homeland Security secretary in his second term. He was unable to garner enough support in the June primary to secure the nomination outright in his first statewide election as governor.

South Dakota’s runoff is expected to be a classic establishment-versus-outsider race, with Rhoden heavily favored in the polls but Doeden hoping for a Sioux Falls-fueled upset.

Minnehaha County, home to Sioux Falls, is a key county to watch Tuesday after helping propel Doeden to a first-place finish in the June primary.

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Pennington County, on the state’s western side, will also be closely watched after contributing to Doeden’s top finish in June.

In contrast to what is expected in Scott’s district in November, Republicans are heavily favored because South Dakota has not elected a Democratic governor since the 1970s.

Then-Gov. Richard Kneip served nearly two terms before President Jimmy Carter nominated him as ambassador to Singapore. Gov. Harvey Wollman completed the final six months of Kneip’s term, and is the state’s last Democrat to hold the office.

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Shifting back to the Deep South, Georgia Democrats are expected to hold Scott’s seat in the fall by a wide margin.

Efforts to replace Scott grew in recent months, particularly among the party’s progressive wing, as the 12-term, often-combative lawmaker drew increasing frustration from Democrats.

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Last year, Scott made waves in Washington media when he shouted expletives at a Politico photographer as he was wheeled through the Capitol by staff.

“Who gave you the right to take my picture, a—hole,” Scott shouted at photographer Francis Chung in late 2025.

That demeanor was similar to what led Everton Blair to launch his primary bid against Scott, in what his campaign page calls a “voice for a new generation.”

Blair previously told Fox News Digital it was a run-in with Scott at a Gwinnett County town hall, where the lawmaker gave insufficient answers to questions and then reportedly became confrontational, that led him to explore a bid.

Blair had said he would “love to just hear a little bit more of the congressional and legislative strategy, congressman, that you have for this administration, particularly as it pertains to safeguarding federal funds,” according to Semafor, when Scott replied “hold on,” before becoming agitated:

“I don’t know who sent y’all, but we got these folks here who are providing answers. And I’m doing this. That’s what I’m doing,” Scott said, according to the outlet.

Blair responded by launching a primary bid, while remarking to Fox News Digital at the time that two other elderly Democratic members had recently died in office “at a time when every vote counts.”

The wave of millennial candidates seeking to replace aging Democrats was at the time dubbed the “Biden effect” — Democratic lawmakers retiring or facing potential primary challenges following the octogenarian Delawarean’s disastrous debate performance, which led to his decision to step aside for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

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“Change can’t wait, and Democrats need a new bench of leaders who are committed to solving real problems for working people,” Blair said in a previous press release.

Meanwhile, Scott’s daughter is hoping to replace her late father in Congress, remarking that she wants to continue his legacy.

“That is my thing, is to finish out his year strongly, make sure that this money gets down to the district, and just make sure the 13th district is taken care of, constituency-wise, and making sure the projects go into finalization,” she told the Georgia Recorder, while adding she would retain her father’s staff locally and at the Capitol for added stability.

“[W]hen he first got into politics, I wasn’t even born, so I ran for some type of office or campaign every two years of my life, so this is just my norm, I’m just picking up where we left off with him,” she told the outlet.

A third candidate, former Mississippi judge Carlos Moore, also criticized Rep. Scott’s tenure, telling the Mississippi Free Press he wants to be a “leader who actually shows up.”

Moore had been suspended from the bench for one year in 2024 after a bar tribunal found he mishandled a wrongful death settlement, according to the outlet.

When asked by the press about the infraction, he pointed to Trump’s 34-count indictment in New York. He also pledged, if elected, to be a leader who understands “how to defend our democracy and Constitution” from the president.

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The winner of Tuesday’s special elections will serve only until January.

Georgia state Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Tucker, won the Democratic nomination for the full term earlier this year and is heavily favored against Republican Air Force veteran Jonathan Chavez in November. Trump lost the district by about 43 points in 2024.

The battle between the Democratic Party’s far-left flank and establishment wing spilled onto the stage Monday night during battleground Michigan’s fiery Senate debate.

The debate took place one week ahead of the pair’s Aug. 4 primary battle, with both candidates using the final face-off to sharpen their competing arguments over who could best represent Michigan — and defeat Republican candidate, former Rep. Mike Rogers, in the November 3 general election.

During Monday night’s clash of the Democratic Party’s competing wings, El-Sayed doubled down on his “ogre on a pike” remark and declined to apologize, but clarified it was not specifically directed at Stevens but rather a different moderate Democrat in Congress. Meanwhile, El-Sayed also repeated his attacks on pro-Israel and corporate spending supporting Stevens, while he also rejected the “socialist” label some have given him, describing himself as a “just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works.”

Stevens, on the other hand, questioned what El-Sayed was “hiding” by not releasing his full tax returns, an attack she carried over from the pair’s first one-on-one debate earlier this month, and portrayed his rhetoric, outside income and national political ambitions as potential general-election liabilities when it came to taking on Rogers and trying to win the U.S. Senate seat they are vying for.

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El-Sayed confirms Fetterman was the ‘ogre,’ declines to apologize

El-Sayed stood by the substance of his controversial “ogre on a pike” remark when pressed by the moderator about whether he regretted the rhetoric, which earned him backlash from his own party, but clarified it was about Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., not Stevens as some had speculated.

“I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman,” El-Sayed said, accusing the Pennsylvania Democrat of getting elected on one set of values before “completely throwing those values in the mud.”

El-Sayed did not apologize for or retract the metaphor. Instead, he argued that he had previously pushed back against unkind treatment of Stevens, including after she was booed at a Michigan Democratic Party convention.

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Stevens later offered a pointed response: “Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre.”

The controversy stemmed from comments El-Sayed made during a recent Zoom meeting with donors, Politico reported, adding that El-Sayed was discussing how to use his victory in Michigan’s upcoming Aug. 4 primary and the November election to build a national platform to move the Democratic Party further left and support future primary challenges, such as against Fetterman.

“Ideally, you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message,” El-Sayed said, according to audio obtained by Politico. El-Sayed did not name Stevens in the recording; however, some Democrats interpreted the remark as referring to her. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., who has endorsed Stevens, called the remark a “violent, vulgar” threat and said candidates should be working to lower the political temperature.

Neera Tanden, a former Biden administration official who leads the left-wing think tank the Center for American Progress, connected the remark to broader accusations of sexism that have roiled the primary.

“Calling your female opponent an ogre you want to put on a pike is not beating the rap that this race has some serious sexism,” Tanden wrote on X.

AIPAC money and Israel fuel fierce confrontations

Tens of millions of dollars in outside spending supporting Stevens became a central flashpoint, with the moderator repeatedly pressing the congresswoman on whether pro-Israel groups would influence her conduct in office.

Asked whether the more than $46 million in AIPAC-related spending cited by the moderator should concern voters that she would do the group’s “bidding,” Stevens responded, “Absolutely not,” and defended her support for a two-state solution.

“I have been very clear, consistent and transparent,” Stevens said. “I want to see long-term peace.”

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El-Sayed argued that the spending exposed a fundamental difference between the candidates, claiming AIPAC-backed groups supported Stevens because “they know that she’ll be a reliable vote.”

“The difference between us is $46 million of AIPAC spending,” El-Sayed said. “They’ve set a record in this race to help elect my opponent.”

He then tied that spending directly to Stevens’ recent vote supporting additional aid to Israel, accusing the Israeli government of working to “foreclose on the possibility of Palestinian self-determination.”

“I want your tax dollars spent in Michigan to provide schools in Michigan, to build health care in Michigan, to build roads in Michigan,” El-Sayed said. “And I think that money sent over there to kill kids and women is the worst use of our tax dollars. And yet that’s exactly what $46 million in spending will buy you.”

El-Sayed later added that the United States should not be “fighting stupid wars that AIPAC wants us to fight in the first place.”

Stevens countered that outside groups were supporting both campaigns and accused El-Sayed of benefiting from a super PAC funded in part by his father-in-law.

Stevens presses El-Sayed over unreleased tax returns and outside income

Stevens continued to question El-Sayed’s financial transparency, as she did in their debate earlier this month, accusing him of refusing to release his full tax returns while earning approximately $300,000 in outside income.

“You have not released your full tax returns — $300,000 in other income while you sat in the podcast chair and you hawked junk health care cures that RFK Jr. would thumbs up,” Stevens charged.

“You talk about getting money out of politics and putting money in people’s pockets, but still, no one knows who’s putting the money in your pocket,” she added, continuing a debate-long effort to portray El-Sayed as more interested in podcasts, high-profile political allies and building his national celebrity than doing the unglamorous work of representing Michigan.

El-Sayed responded that he had released his required financial disclosures, drawing a distinction between those filings and the full tax returns Stevens had demanded.

“We released all of our financial disclosures,” El-Sayed said, calling the issue “a distraction” before turning the transparency argument back on Stevens and questioning the donors behind outside organizations supporting her campaign.

Stevens described herself as “the only non-millionaire in this race” and argued that El-Sayed’s finances could give Republicans additional material to use against him in November.

“What are the Republicans going to uncover in the general election that they will use against him?” she asked.

El-Sayed brands the Senate filibuster ‘anti-democratic’

Asked to identify the most important thing Senate Democrats were failing to do, El-Sayed immediately targeted the legislative filibuster and the 60-vote threshold it often imposes.

“I oppose the filibuster,” El-Sayed said. “I think the filibuster has been anti-democratic for a lot of reasons.”

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El-Sayed argued that eliminating the filibuster would help Democrats pass the PRO Act, which would expand union-organizing and collective-bargaining protections, impose tougher penalties for labor-law violations and override state right-to-work restrictions on mandatory union fees. He said it could also clear a path for stronger antitrust enforcement, which El-Sayed said needs to be more aggressive, as well as a wealth tax on billionaires and Medicare for All.

“Right now, the biggest risks to our democracy are the filibuster — it’s anti-democratic in the Senate — and money in politics,” he said.

ICE clash exposes sharp divide between the Democratic rivals

The candidates also battled over the future of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with Stevens calling ICE a “rogue agency” while El-Sayed labeled it “tyrannical” and called for abolishing it altogether.

Stevens said she was leading an effort in Congress to redirect $70 billion allocated to ICE toward health care, food assistance and local communities. “Not a penny more for this rogue agency that is wreaking havoc,” Stevens said, accusing ICE of abusing its power and frightening immigrant families.

Meanwhile, El-Sayed accused Stevens of hypocrisy, alleging that she had previously voted four times to increase ICE funding and had praised its personnel.

“I’ve said that we need to abolish ICE,” El-Sayed said. “ICE is about normalizing paramilitary force on our streets.”

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Pressed on whether the phrase “abolish ICE” carried the same political baggage as “defund the police,” El-Sayed argued that the government could still enforce immigration laws and secure the southern border through a replacement agency.

He escalated the criticism moments later, calling ICE “a tyrannical agency.”

“I think there is no way to get past that except to undo the agency and then build from scratch,” El-Sayed said.

Stevens rejected his approach as focused more on rhetoric than governing.

“Complaints and slogans aren’t solutions,” she said, pointing to her visit to an ICE detention facility and her efforts to change the agency through Congress.

Acting Director of National Intelligence William Pulte announced Sunday that his office has completed a fourth batch of layoffs.

“Since becoming Acting Director of National Intelligence, our team has been smartly, and carefully, reducing the size of [the Office of the Director of National Intelligence], re-focusing ODNI on national security, the law, and the statute,” he wrote in a post on X.

“As of this evening, we just finished a 4th round of thoughtful, measured layoffs. Thank you!” he noted.

TRUMP GREEN LIGHTS NEW DNI PULTE TO ‘START THE PROCESS’ ON MASS INTELLIGENCE FIRINGS

Pulte had previously noted in a July 10 post, “U.S. National Intelligence is operating more efficiently and effectively than ever before, and today, we started a third round of reducing redundant, or non-critical, personnel. DNI’s future is exceptionally bright, and will be focused on following the law and the statute.”

President Donald Trump chose Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting DNI as well.

Tulsi Gabbard, who had been serving as DNI, departed the role last month. She had previously announced in May that she planned to exit the role due to her husband’s bone cancer diagnosis.

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Prior to when Pulte took the reins at ODNI last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that during an interview, Trump said he had informed Pulte that he thought ODNI was “unnecessary and/or too big.”

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” the president said, pointing to Obama and Biden administration carryovers, according to the Journal. Asked if he was calling for Pulte to engage in firings, the president indicated he wanted Pulte to “start the process,” noting that the eventual DNI nominee should carry on with the effort, the outlet reported.

Trump later announced U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton as his nominee for the DNI role.

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“So deeply grateful to POTUS for letting me be acting Director of National Intelligence. He is, truly, the best, and it is a blessing to work for him. While it’s been only a few weeks, so much has already been accomplished —Operationally, AND, Transparency. Thank you, POTUS,” Pulte wrote in a Sunday post on his personal X account.

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Education is taking enforcement actions on National Parents’ Day against two school districts accused of hiding students’ gender transitions from parents — a move that could now could cost them federal funding.

The action reinforces President Donald Trump’s campaign against radical left-wing gender ideology and the push for more parental rights in the classroom.

“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents. This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law,” Secretary of Education (ED) Linda McMahon exclusively told Fox News Digital.

VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT SUED OVER ALLEGED POLICY OF KEEPING STUDENTS’ GENDER TRANSITIONS HIDDEN FROM PARENTS

“Today, ED and DOJ are putting districts on notice that we will use every tool available to hold them to account for this egregious behavior,” McMahon added. “Under the Trump Administration, ED and DOJ are working together to vigorously uphold parents’ federal protections, and we will work to ensure that no parent is ever kept in the dark about important matters relating to their children.”

The Education Department is working with the Department of Justice to investigate Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) violations against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland and Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan. The investigations concern allegations that the districts hid information from parents about their own children’s health and wellbeing, and could result in federal funding being withheld from the schools, Fox News Digital has learned.

FERPA is a federal law that gives parents the right to see their child’s school records, ask for mistakes to be corrected and generally control who can access that information about their child.

The Trump administration is looking into whether the schools violated FERPA.

LOUDOUN COUNTY PARENTS NOT ‘SATISFIED’ AFTER SCHOOL OFFICIALS TESTIFY ON TRANSGENDER POLICIES

One case the administration is investigating involves a Maryland family who says they were blindsided after discovering school staff presented their daughter as male during the school day without their knowledge or consent. The parents only learned what was happening after receiving an email that referred to their daughter using male pronouns.

According to the Education Department, school administrators refused to provide the parents with additional information, with the assistant principal declining to turn over records related to their child’s gender transition.

The department is also looking into a policy at Ann Arbor Public Schools that allows teachers to help students hide their “transgender status” from parents.

The school district has a policy that directs school officials to maintain records related to a “gender identity” in a separate filing system.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OPENS FOUR TITLE IX INVESTIGATIONS INTO MICHIGAN AND NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Ann Arbor Public Schools must justify their policy to the Education Department by Aug. 11, 2026 or else risk losing its federal funding.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the school districts in Maryland and Michigan for comment but did not hear back at time of publication.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is out of the hospital and on the mend after suffering a fall last month, but he still isn’t “medically cleared” to return to the Senate.

His office on Monday released the latest update on the longtime Senate Republican, who has been absent from the upper chamber and the public eye for over a month. The Office of the Attending Physician said in a statement that McConnell “continues his recovery from a fall at home in June.”

“OAP physicians visit with the senator every day, discussing all aspects of his rehabilitation care,” the Office of the Attending Physician said. “Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls.”

TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT STALLS AS MCCONNELL’S ABSENCE COMPLICATES SENATE PATH

“His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility,” they continued. “He is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office.”

The latest update from McConnell-world comes after weeks of speculation and allegations that the longest-serving Republican leader in Senate history was dead or in a vegetative state. 

McConnell’s extended absence from the Senate and murky timeline for his return come as Republicans are sprinting to clear the decks of several legislative priorities where his vote could be needed, including advancing a Russia sanctions package and confirming blockbuster nominees. 

MITCH MCCONNELL BREAKS SILENCE ON MYSTERY HOSPITALIZATION AFTER GRAHAM’S DEATH

The newest release included a photo of McConnell and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, taken on Sunday, along with a statement from the lawmaker where he lamented that, because of his recovery, he would not be able to attend the annual barbecue at Fancy Farm, Kentucky, which has become a staple for him and politicians to speak in the Blue Grass State.  

“I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders. Unfortunately, that means I won’t be able to make it to Fancy Farm, Kentucky this Saturday,” McConnell said. 

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“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton,” he continued. “When I first attended forty-two years ago, Fancy Farm was a pretty lonely place to be a Republican. But, my, how times have changed. Today, western Kentucky is a conservative Republican sea of red. So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic.”

“As always, I appreciate all of your continued well wishes, and I’m looking forward to getting back to the Senate and to Kentucky soon.”

His prolonged absence has prompted lawmakers in both chambers to call for more clarity and transparency about his condition and has led some to question the protocol for lawmakers going missing for months at a time. 

Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., just came back to the House after dealing with depression for months but kept the reasons tight-lipped until his return late last month. 

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It also comes two weeks after the most recent official update from his office, which came the same day that the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death was announced. It similarly included a photo of McConnell and Chao. 

His doctors noted in that update that McConnell had suffered a fall at home last month, but had not suffered fractures, broken bones, cardiac abnormalities, or a “stroke, tumor, or hemorrhage.” However, early into his hospitalization he “developed pneumonia, which responded rapidly to antibiotic treatment.”

As the Democratic National Committee (DNC) shouldered significant debt and fell behind its GOP equivalent, Democratic leadership decided to use its headquarters as collateral for a $15 million loan, according to public records.

The loan, first reported by NOTUS news outlet, was taken out in 2025 as the DNC struggled to keep pace with the Republican National Committee’s fundraising efforts ahead of the midterm elections.

While taking out loans ahead of high-stakes races is common, and using property as collateral to do so is not unheard of, the line of credit secured by the DNC was the largest ever taken out by the committee for an off-year election, according to NOTUS. The terms of the loan allow the DNC to withdraw an additional $5 million beyond the $15 million it already has taken, public records show.

“This is not new,” a DNC official told Fox News Digital Monday of the loan. “The loan documents were publicly released in November, and the DNC’s building was also used as collateral in our prior lines of credit in 2019, 2018, 2014 and many other years.”

CASH-STRAPPED DNC SHELLED OUT MORE THAN $800K TO NON-VOTING TERRITORIES LIKE VIRGIN ISLANDS WHILE IN DEBT

What is new, however, is the DNC’s considerable debt.

The financial gap between Democrats and Republicans, as well as the former’s higher-than-usual debt load, could leave the DNC with less flexibility to support candidates in the midterm elections. The national party’s debt and smaller cash reserves could limit its ability to respond quickly, invest broadly and compete with the GOP’s far larger war chest, a boon to conservatives who are currently struggling in the polls.

As of June 30, the DNC has $18.5 million in debt against just $16.3 million in cash on hand, according to campaign finance records. For comparison, the DNC ended 2022, the previous midterm cycle, with $30.5 million in cash against roughly $420,000 in debt.

The Republican National Committee, by comparison, had $128.5 million in cash with no debt as of June 30, per Federal Election Commission records.

That the DNC is using its headquarters as collateral for a loan isn’t necessarily a sign that the organization is in its death throes. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, another major organization run by the party, used all of its assets as collateral for a $20 million line of credit in 2024, per a federal filing.

“Ken gaslighting us about the DNC’s finances and not being transparent about the financial situation makes us doubt if he can oversee the DNC during the most important primary of our lifetime,” an anonymous DNC member told NOTUS.

The DNC’s heavy debt load has been accompanied by some cuts to spending.

For one, the DNC will not be making its traditional transfers to House and Senate campaign committees.

DNC CHAIR KEN MARTIN THREW PHONE AT AIDE’S DESK, FACED HR COMPLAINT IN SIGN OF ‘FRAYING NERVES’: REPORT

Over 2025 and into 2026, the RNC has consistently outraised the DNC and has maintained a much larger war chest. Other national Republican committees, such as the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have also raised more than their Democratic counterparts.

The financial outlook for Democrats isn’t all bleak. Individual Democratic candidates running in key elections, such as the Senate races in Georgia and Ohio, have raised significantly more money than Republican counterparts.

Amid its financial troubles, the DNC has made moves to tighten the lips of its leadership. Axios, citing two sources familiar, recently reported that the organization asked its leadership team to sign nondisclosure agreements ahead of a meeting about the party’s finances.

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Decisions like that, however, have not stopped the leaks from coming out of the DNC.

One source told NOTUS that Democratic Party chair Ken Martin has had trouble convincing donors to make maximum donations, hamstringing efforts to raise large amounts of money. Other sources recently told The New York Times that Martin had a fit of rage in which he threw his phone at an aide’s desk.

“It pisses me off when I see leaks out of this building,” Martin reportedly told staffers in May, according to the Times. “No more of that s–t. No more.”

Despite the criticism, Martin remains publicly optimistic about the DNC’s finances.

“The current DNC has raised the most money of any DNC without the White House in the 198-year history of the Democratic Party,” he wrote in a July 20 Substack article. “Through June 2026, this DNC reported total receipts of more than $207 million. During the comparable 18-month period of the last Trump-era cycle, when Democrats were also out of the White House and rebuilding toward a midterm election, the DNC reported $109 million.”

Internally, however, some staff do no share Martin’s assessment.

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“They just have no money, and no clear path to either pay off their debt incurred by Ken,” one source familiar with DNC fundraising told the Washington Post in April.

The New York Times recently reported that the DNC asked vendors it worked with no to send it bills until after Election Day, which the committee defended as standard practice. DNC leadership has also faced scrutiny for spending nearly $1 million in party work in U.S. territories, constituencies that will ultimately have no bearing on the outcome of the midterm elections, despite being strapped for cash.

The Justice Department‘s top Civil Rights official accused New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill of criticizing President Donald Trump’s election integrity claims even though she already knew her administration was about to disclose a major voter registration problem.

In his July 16 address, Trump accused China of acquiring sensitive voter data and said U.S. intelligence agencies hid that revelation from the public while also alleging several Democrat-run states, including New Jersey, have large numbers of noncitizens registered to vote.

Department of Homeland Security data released in concert with the speech found more than 35,000 potential noncitizens are on the Garden State’s rolls.

“When the president came out with his Primetime speech last Thursday, I believe in the sequencing of events that has been laid out, she already knew that this revelation was forthcoming,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said.

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“She knew it, and she still went online and called the president a liar and said he was exaggerating – Shame on you, governor.”

Dhillon said governors willing to cooperate with the DOJ would receive assistance but warned states refusing to do so could face lawsuits.

“It’s a bipartisan problem, actually. And I’m really looking forward to helping everyone who will work with us fix this problem. And if they won’t work with, we’ll sue them and we’ll still fix the problem.”

Following Trump’s address, Sherrill signed on to a statement with 23 other Democratic governors attempting to throw cold water on the president’s wide-ranging claims, calling him a liar, as Dhillon said.

“It’s deeply alarming that President Trump continues to try to undermine free and fair elections. No amount of lies and conspiracy theories can change the fact that our country’s elections have repeatedly been proven to be safe and secure,” read the rebuke, formally led by Kentucky Gov. Andrew Beshear.

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Sherrill’s co-signed statement went on to accuse Trump of trying to “intimidate and silence voters” while claiming Democrats are the ones “actually making life better for American families by lowering costs, creating jobs and protecting our freedoms.”

“Ours is a winning message, which is why he is trying to undermine democracy.”

Dhillon said Sherrill and all other governors should join with DOJ to investigate every substantive claim of election integrity violations, warning it is their own citizens who stand to be hurt.

“Every single person who voted illegally canceled out the vote of a New Jersey voter; that is shameful,” she said.

“And instead of pointing fingers at the president, which is what Governor Sherrill did… she should be raising her hand to work with the federal government to clean this up ASAP because that’s the vow she took when she ran for office and she got sworn in as the governor of her state is to protect her citizens, and her citizens have a right to vote.”

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Dhillon’s letter gave Sherrill five business days, expiring Tuesday, to turn over voter data in the case. Meanwhile, Sherrill indicated to WCBS that she wouldn’t be complying.

“It is not a surprise… the Trump administration wants to immediately weaponize this against people as opposed to focusing on making sure we’re running free and fair elections,” the Democrat said.

Asked about the accusation Sherrill knew about her own state’s motor-voter scandal when she accused Trump of being a liar, Sherrill spokesman Sean Higgins pointed Fox News Digital to comments she made after touring a grocery store in Essex County to sign unrelated legislation.

NEW JERSEY REMOVES 6,600 PEOPLE FROM VOTER ROLLS WHO WERE ELIGIBLE TO CAST A BALLOT FOR 2024 ELECTION

In response to a reporter’s question on the scandal, Sherrill said her administration is moving quickly because Jerseyans deserve transparency.

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“We’re running an independent investigation right now to get to the bottom of exactly how this happened and what’s going on, but it is not a surprise to me that the federal government that the Trump administration wants to immediately weaponize this against people as opposed to focusing on making sure that we’re running free and fair elections,” Sherrill said.

Pennsylvania, New York and several other states have also resisted DOJ requests for voter registration data, arguing federal law and state privacy protections limit what information can be shared.

The DOJ has also sued officials in some of the states over the election integrity crisis, including New Jersey Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell.

President Donald Trump is threatening to strike Iran’s deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility — a site the United States previously left untouched while bombing the country’s other major nuclear sites, raising new questions about what may have changed.

Estimated to lie beneath at least 100 meters of rock near Iran’s damaged Natanz nuclear enrichment complex, Pickaxe was designed to replace an above-ground plant capable of assembling roughly 6,000 advanced centrifuges each year before it was destroyed in 2020.

Iran said the replacement would be larger, more modern and built “in the heart of the mountain.” Analysts believe the tunnels could eventually hold a centrifuge assembly line, an enrichment plant or equipment used in certain nuclear weaponization activities.

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Yet the administration has not said whether it has confirmed that centrifuges were moved inside — or why a site left untouched during earlier attacks now warrants a strike. Military experts also disagree over whether airstrikes could destroy Pickaxe’s interior or merely seal its entrances temporarily.

The same depth that could protect Iran’s nuclear infrastructure may place Pickaxe’s main chambers beyond the reliable destructive reach of America’s most powerful conventional bunker-busting weapon. Bombing its exposed entrances could deny Iran access without destroying the facility or anything stored inside.

Trump said Tuesday that the United States would probably strike the area “pretty soon” and “very heavily.”

TRUMP THREATENS ‘MAJOR MILITARY PUNISHMENT’ FOR IRAN OVER FUTURE HOUTHI ATTACKS

His warning came after The Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved thousands of centrifuges into Pickaxe last fall. Trump said the transfer “may have” occurred but added that the United States did not have it “on record.”

“Maybe this one they have right,” Trump said. “But it’s okay. It doesn’t mean anything unless they have the material.”

“We follow the material,” he added.

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By “the material,” Trump was referring to Iran’s enriched uranium, including uranium gas that centrifuges can further enrich to weapons-grade levels.

Before the June 2025 attacks, the International Atomic Energy Agency had verified that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, enough, if further enriched, for approximately 10 nuclear weapons under the agency’s standard measurement.

Most of the stockpile was believed to have been held at Isfahan, with additional material at Natanz and Fordow. Inspectors have since been unable to verify its amount, condition or present location.

The Institute for Science and International Security assesses that the material remains trapped at those three sites and does not believe enriched uranium has entered Pickaxe.

The administration has not said whether the United States independently corroborated the reported Israeli assessment, whether centrifuges are being stored or installed inside Pickaxe or whether nuclear material has entered the facility.

Storing centrifuges would not make Pickaxe an operational enrichment plant. The machines would have to be installed in connected cascades, linked to electrical, ventilation and piping systems and fed uranium gas.

Satellite imagery shows continued construction but no indication that Pickaxe is operational, according to the Washington-based institute. Images from February showed Iran adding concrete, rock and reinforced structures over tunnel portals in an apparent effort to harden them against airstrikes.

Analysts also observed smaller closed-roof vehicles near the entrances that could indicate Iran was outfitting the interior. The imagery could not establish what the vehicles carried.

Spencer Faragasso, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Science and International Security, said earlier U.S. and Israeli attacks prioritized Iran’s operating enrichment program. Based on what was understood about Pickaxe at the time, he said, there was “nothing of priority” inside that warranted expending valuable deep-penetrating weapons.

“The facility is still under construction, and it’s unlikely that a centrifuge plant is operating inside there,” Faragasso told Fox News Digital.

But Faragasso said centrifuges could have entered aboard covered trucks without being detected in commercial imagery, making the reported Israeli intelligence plausible but impossible for outside analysts to confirm.

The reported transfer could help explain Trump’s recent focus on Pickaxe, he said. The facility is also one of the last nuclear-related sites of its size that has not been struck.

Trump did not publicly name Pickaxe during the opening months of Operation Epic Fury. It entered his public rhetoric July 13, when conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt raised the facility during an interview.

Trump said American surveillance had detected no activity there but called Pickaxe a possible target for a “nice big fat shot right into the front door.”

At the end of the interview, Hewitt urged Trump to “go get Pickaxe Mountain.”

“We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain,” Trump replied. “Tell the Iranians to be ready.”

The White House could not be reached for comment for this story.

The administration has not explained whether the recent threats reflect new intelligence, an effort to deter Iran from activating the facility or a shift from destroying existing enrichment capacity to preventing Iran from rebuilding.

Whether the United States could destroy Pickaxe from the air remains disputed.

Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at Sciences Po and nonresident scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Nuclear Policy Program, said it would be “very close to impossible” to destroy the facility through an air campaign like the one the United States carried out against Fordow.

Pickaxe is deeper and more heavily fortified, she said, and does not have a publicly confirmed structural weakness comparable to those exploited there.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding, a former B-2 operations commander, said planners would first determine whether the mission required destroying Pickaxe’s interior or merely preventing Iran from using it.

“You assess what the goals are, and then you assess the costs associated with making something not fit for use — or destruction,” Spalding said.

If destroying the facility proved infeasible, he said, the U.S. could instead deny access and prevent Iran from bringing in the personnel and equipment needed to operate it.

The institute has identified two possible ventilation-shaft locations through satellite imagery, including one it considers probable. Without internal schematics, however, analysts cannot confirm their purpose or connection to the main chambers.

Faragasso said the shafts could provide weak points for deep-penetrating weapons, although the results of an attack might remain unclear.

“The facility is not invulnerable,” he said. “There are options.”

“At the minimum, the tunnel entrances can be collapsed,” Faragasso added, saying a strike could also send damaging shock waves into the facility.

Grajewski said collapsing the portals would prevent Iran from moving personnel or equipment in or out without first undertaking an excavation visible to American and Israeli surveillance. Any effort to reopen Pickaxe could trigger another strike.

But Iran has previously excavated entrances to missile tunnels after they were attacked, meaning keeping Pickaxe closed could require continued surveillance and repeated military action.

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Grajewski said a strike could provide the U.S. with a “symbolic win” against one of Iran’s most prominent remaining nuclear-related facilities but would not eliminate the broader program.

“It is a very high-value facility,” she said. “But it’s not the entirety of the Iranian nuclear program.”

The House is gone. But the campaign is on.

“We’re going to have a lot to talk about during this break,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. “The contrast on the ballot this November between communism and freedom.”

School is out for the summer in the House until August 31. But Republicans envision a version of summer school for the voters. They intend to educate people about Democratic candidates who are veering to the left.

“The reality is that the communist caucus, the commie caucus is coming to Congress,” claimed Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: HOUSE’S FINAL SPRINT PUTS SAVE AMERICA ACT AND IRAN FUNDING IN PLAY

Republicans hope to cling to their narrow House majority by distinguishing themselves from Democrats – and noting how Democrats tapped far-left candidates in New York City and even Colorado. These “Democratic Socialists of America” candidates will undoubtedly prevail in their districts. But Republicans believe that left-wing Democrats freak out independents and mainstream Democrats. The GOP is banking on that as an insurance policy to maintain control of the House.

House Republicans also enjoyed some relative success last week for the first time in months. The GOP advanced a host of bills important to them. And, simultaneously got Democrats on the record about bills which Republicans think they can boomerang against their adversaries this fall.

“They have to answer for why they voted against funding our troops, against funding the government, against common sense policies like voter ID and proof of citizenship,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

The House approved a plan barring stock trades by Members, 232-198. Only 13 Democrats voted yes compared to all Republicans. But the GOP tacked on a voter ID mandate. Democrats argue that provision transformed a once bipartisan issue into a GOP political wedge.

“I proudly voted no because we are not going to sabotage mail-in voting in this country. And we’re not going to fall for that kind of bait-and-switch tactic here,” fumed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Democrats have long campaigned on affordability.

“Today, prices are up over 25 cents a gallon above $4 a gallon in my region,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa.

SUCCESSION: WHY CONGRESS HAS NO CLEAR PLAN WHEN LAWMAKERS CAN’T SERVE

President Donald Trump has now paused the air campaign against Iran after two weeks of consecutive bombing. But the war in Iran presents Democrats with a political opening.

“Will Democrats recalibrate their message on Iran? Will we see ads on Iran going into the midterms?” yours truly asked House Minority Leader Jeffries, D-N.Y.

“We don’t have to recalibrate our message. We’ve been opposed to Donald Trump’s reckless and costly war of choice in the Middle East from the very beginning,” replied Jeffries.

There was a split decision on Capitol Hill last week. The House voted to shackle the president on Iran war powers. Four Republicans defected and sided with Democrats.

“He ran on no new wars,” said Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. “He’s making the case for us. He hit voters over and over and over with this promise. And then he did the exact opposite.”

Still, the president’s allies claimed that the vote undercuts American forces in harm’s way.

“To belittle this mission is to belittle and demean the very service these members who gave their lives,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla.

A couple of hours later, the Senate rejected the House’s rebuke of the President.

“I think Democrats have taken that tack from the start,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., of the Democrats hoping to cut off the Iran operation.

“It wouldn’t have passed if it wasn’t for Republicans in the House,” yours truly pointed out.

“A few Republicans,” conceded Hoeven. “But I think there’s strong support in our party (for the President).”

That’s ultimately why the Senate defeated its Iran measure. Some GOPers argued that the U.S. has Iran on the ropes.

“Last time I checked, we’ve wiped these b——s out. An occasional missile strike and boats in the Strait (of Hormuz). That’s not military strength. Those are the flailings of a failing empire,” declared Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont.

HOUSE GOP VOTES TO PUNT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BATTLE TO AFTER NOVEMBER MIDTERMS

But Senate Democrats chided Republicans for not intervening in the conflict.

“Every time Republicans oppose our war powers resolution and vote against ending this war, they lose the faith of the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Senate Republicans need to wake up. Not next week. Not next month. Now.”

Top Congressional GOP leaders say it’s not necessary for Congress to flex its war powers muscles.

“I don’t think an AUMF (authorization for use of military force) is in order right now. I think we need to bring this to a resolution,” said Johnson.

However, some Republicans demand answers about the endgame.

“I think we need greater clarity there. I think Congress needs to exercise more of its powers here,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

Democrats may believe they have an advantage on Iran. But like Roy, they demand a plan.

“This whiplash policy in Iran is not good,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee. “You can’t run a war at 2:00 in the morning on Twitter.”

JOHNSON HAS THREE-WORD ANSWER ON WHETHER HOUSE WILL LEAVE EARLY

Despite their criticism, Democrats are vague about how they’d go about ending the war.

“We’ve got to figure that out. But Donald Trump got us into this mess,” said Jeffries.

“But won’t voters demand you guys to have a plan if you’re going to win the majority, Mr. Leader?” I asked as Jeffries walked away.

I posed a similar question to Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., one of the most thoughtful Democrats on foreign policy and national security issues.

“We didn’t start it,” replied Coons.

“But don’t you have to have a plan if you’re going to criticize the president on this?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t have gotten into this war,” said Coons.

The Pentagon is now running short on cash since the defense policy bill is stalled. That’s to say nothing of the budget resolution which could provide $95 billion to the Pentagon. Congressional approval to pay for the war could take months. Perhaps until December. That’s after the election. Democrats may want to see how they fare in the midterms before coughing up money for the military.

Midterm elections are often a referendum on the president.

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In 2006, Democrats flipped the House and Senate by campaigning on ending the unpopular war in Iraq. They had a plan to wind down the conflict. Eighteen years later, Democrats want to run on Iran in this fall’s midterms. But unlike 2006, they don’t seem to have a clear plan on how to end the conflict.

But they know who to blame: President Trump.

President Donald Trump’s pick to run the nation’s intelligence agencies is one step closer to clinching the job, and puts the Senate ever-closer to jump-starting a key counter-terrorism tool in the process.

The Senate advanced Jay Clayton through a key hurdle Monday night to be the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI). It comes after former DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s sudden exit from the position to care for her cancer-stricken husband.

The largely partisan 51-43 vote to move Clayton, who formerly chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term, comes after he narrowly squeaked out the Senate Intelligence Committee on a 9 to 8 vote.

TRUMP’S DNI PICK CLEARS KEY HURDLE, REVIVING PATH FOR NATION’S TOP ANTI-TERROR SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., challenged Democrats to support Clayton during the broader, final vote, but expected them to resist as they have with several other Trump nominees through his second term.

“One might think that we’d be seeing some bipartisanship from Democrats on this nominee,” Thune said. “But Democrats are playing the same partisan games with this qualified nominee as they have for so many of President Trump’s picks.”

“It’s a funny thing because Democrats have made no secret of their disdain for the current acting Director of … National intelligence,” he continued. “In fact, Democrats were so worked up over the president’s temporary choice for this position, they allowed our nation’s most important counterterrorism tool to go dark for the first time ever.”

TRUMP CONCESSION BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO STALLED FISA SPY POWERS DEAL

The Senate will now vote on confirmation Tuesday, putting an end cap on an arduous process to replace Gabbard. When she announced her exit from the position, Trump hastily installed Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte to lead the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies in the interim.

That came as the Senate was nearing a vote on a bipartisan deal to keep the nation’s top counter-terrorism tool, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), running ahead of its expiration.

But Democrats, who railed against Pulte and accused him of being an unqualified loyalist who would weaponize the intelligence community against the president’s enemies and try to dismantle it, walked away from the deal after Trump torpedoed Clayton’s previously scheduled confirmation hearing.

SPY LAW USED TO STOP TAYLOR SWIFT ATTACK TO LAPSE AS CONGRESS SKIPS TOWN, WORLD CUP NEARS

Less than 24 hours before Clayton’s penultimate test, Pulte announced on X that he had completed his fourth round of layoffs as DNI.

“Since becoming Acting Director of National Intelligence, our team has been smartly, and carefully, reducing the size of ODNI, re-focusing ODNI on national security, the law, and the statute,” Pulte said. “As of this evening, we just finished a 4th round of thoughtful, measured layoffs. Thank you!”

The Section 702 program has since been steadily going dark, with new authorizations caught in a legal void until lawmakers reauthorize the program that has been used to thwart deadly terror attacks, including halting a mass-casualty terror plot at a Taylor Swift show in Vienna, Austria.

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Last week, only Republicans on the panel voted Clayton out of committee after he failed to satisfy Senate Democrats’ questioning on who won the 2020 election, his knowledge of Gabbard’s raid on the Fulton County, Georgia election offices, and subpoenas against New York Times reporters that his were submitted by him in his role as the top prosecutor in New York’s Southern District.

Those subpoenas were voluntarily withdrawn by the Department of Justice last week, two days after Clayton was confirmed by the panel.

While U.S. tech companies race for AI dominance, the latest Fox News nationwide survey finds voters hitting the brakes on data centers, as more prefer taking time to address local concerns than rushing expansion to maintain a competitive global edge.

By a 40-point margin, voters oppose building data centers in their area to support artificial intelligence (30% favor, 70% oppose).

MAGA supporters (46% favor) and Republican men (45%) are the groups most likely to favor data centers, while White women with a college degree (84% oppose) and liberal voters (80%) are the most opposed.

FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS WANT MAJOR CHANGE AMID ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DISCONTENT

Among those favoring data centers, 60% cite economic benefits, including jobs, economic growth, community investment, and tax revenue as the reason for their support. Another 21% point to technological benefits, saying the centers are useful, necessary, or important for future progress. Just 2% say staying ahead of competitors is the primary reason for their support.

Those opposing data centers emphasize a different set of considerations. Half (50%) say environmental issues are their main concern, including energy and water use, pollution, noise, and overall environmental impact, while far fewer mention quality-of-life concerns (14%), economic effects (11%), or simply having a negative view of AI (11%).

FOX NEWS POLL: SIGNIFICANT SUPPORT FOR BOTH VOTER ID LAWS AND MAIL-IN BALLOTS

While data centers are broadly unpopular, views of artificial intelligence technology itself are somewhat less negative. Overall, 45% view AI favorably versus 54% unfavorably, underwater by 9 points. In April, it was -11 points.

Positive views of AI are higher among MAGA Republicans (55% favorable), voters with graduate degrees (52%), conservatives (50%), and men (49%) than among Democrats (41%), those without a college degree (43%), liberals (37%), and women (40%).

Nearly 8 in 10 voters prefer slower data center construction to address environmental and community concerns, while 2 in 10 favor building them as quickly as possible to maintain a competitive advantage over China and other countries.

While majorities across the board prefer the slow adoption of the centers, MAGA Republicans (36%) and very conservatives (35%) are the most likely to prioritize rapid expansion to maintain international competitiveness.

AI won’t find an ally in the under 30 crowd

Although younger voters are often viewed as more tech-savvy, that does not translate into warm views of artificial intelligence.

Voters under age 30 are the least likely to view AI favorably, at 38%, compared with 48% of those ages 30-44 and 44% of those 45 and over.

Regardless of differences in views of AI, attitudes toward data centers are pretty consistent across generations. Roughly 7 in 10 in every age group oppose building data centers, and about 8 in 10 prefer slowing construction to address environmental and local concerns.

Conducted July 17–20, 2026, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,003 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (70) and cellphones (681) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (252). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. The survey includes an oversample of 200 voters aged 18–29, bringing the sample size for that subgroup to 350 (±5). Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling errors, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data.

Families of 9/11 victims are urging organizers to bar New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani from attending this year’s 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony in Lower Manhattan.

Several families of 9/11 victims published a petition urging the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which organizes the annual remembrance, to reconsider inviting Mayor Zohran Mamdani, citing a laundry list of criticisms of the Uganda-born socialist Democrat.

“Concerns have been raised about Mr. Mamdani’s public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric that many perceive as hostile to these shared values,” a Change.org petition organized by several victims’ families states.

“Given these concerns, we respectfully ask that the organizers carefully consider whether Mr. Mamdani’s participation would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy.”

FIREFIGHTER BROTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM INCENSED BY ‘RADICAL’ MUSLIMS WINNING KEY DEM PRIMARIES

Concerns listed include a “perceived reluctance” by Mamdani to unequivocally condemn phrases like “globalize the intifada” — a slogan associated with calls for the eradication of Jews.

They also expressed concern over Mamdani’s alleged support for or association with individuals either dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies.

A 2025 release by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, outlined one such association with a radical Bed-Stuy imam who hosted the Blind Sheikh, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and has made controversial statements about jihad.

MAMDANI’S POLITICS LINKED TO MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IDEOLOGY AS NEW YORK VIOLENCE ESCALATES: REPORT

Siraj Wahhaj, born Jeffrey Kearse, hosted Mamdani at his At-Taqwa mosque during the campaign and received criticism at the time from former FBI agents for failing to condemn the cleric.

The victims’ families also called out Mamdani’s father, Columbia government professor Mahmood Mamdani, whom they cite as authoring a book shortly after the attacks in which he argued suicide bombers should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.”

They wrote that Professor Mamdani’s book – “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror” – also included a passage arguing a moral equivalency between the United States and Al Qaeda.

FAR-LEFT SURGE: MAMDANI-BACKED CANDIDATES OUST DEM ESTABLISHMENT INCUMBENTS

When the passage was resurfaced in 2025, prominent New York billionaire Bill Ackman quipped on X that the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Fox News Digital reached out to both Mamdanis for comment.

While the mayor did not immediately return a request for comment, he told a reporter at an unrelated press conference Monday that he still plans to attend.

“I will proudly honor families the survivors the first resp forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year’s 9/11 commemoration — reaffirming that we will never forget the solemn day…,” he said.

Victims’ families also excoriated the mayor for supporting and standing with socialist candidates they said hold radically anti-American views, including the DSA-endorsed woman who defeated left-wing Rep. Adriano Espaillat in Washington Heights.

The petition noted Darializa Chevalier once tweeted that she nonchalantly wiped soiled hands on an American flag after running out of napkins.

“For 9/11 families, this is not simply a public ceremony—it is a deeply personal day of mourning. The presence of individuals whose words or associations are perceived as conflicting with the solemn purpose of the event risks detracting from that focus and causing additional pain,” the consortium wrote.

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One organizer told the New York Post that mourning dignitaries from both parties will be welcomed, but emphasized they have all been involved in the healing process for years, citing former mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, former Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and City Council Speaker Julie Menin, D-Upper East Side.

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The memorial museum said it has “intentionally worked to keep the commemoration free of politics because remembering those we lost on 9/11 should never be a partisan issue,” according to a statement to the Post from staffer Julie Wood.

The petition comes amid elevated rhetoric directed at Mamdani as he prepares to take office before his first September 11 commemoration as mayor, as Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., and radio host Sidney Rosenberg both recently declared the mayor a “terrorist.”

A transgender influencer fired back at President Donald Trump after his joke comparing the biological male to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during Friday night’s White House Correspondent’s Association (WHCA) Dinner went viral.

“Maybe being publicly mocked and criticized by this administration is actually like the greatest compliment of all,” said Dylan Mulvaney in a TikTok post on Sunday. “Because it puts me in the company of some of the most brilliant, empathetic people in our world today.”

Mulvaney, once a social media star and one of the most recognizable transgender people in the United States, has maintained a low profile over the past few years since an advertising debacle featuring the influencer tanked the stock of a major beer company.

TRUMP SPARES NO ONE AT WHCA DINNER, TAKING AIM AT DEMS, PRESS AND HIS OWN CABINET

But Mulvaney was thrust back into the spotlight after Trump’s WHCA Dinner joke comparing the transgender influencer to Collins, a longtime media foe of the 45th and 47th president.

“I thought Kaitlan Collins had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney,” he said, referencing the beer brand’s failed marketing campaign.

In 2023, Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney for a March Madness promotion. On Instagram, Mulvaney posted a video featuring a Bud Light can with their face on it, sparking intense backlash, a prolonged boycott and a more than $27 billion loss in market cap for Anheuser-Busch.

“To the president, thank you for reminding me that I am more powerful than I even knew,” Mulvaney said in the Sunday video. “And to quote my favorite recording artist, Shea Diamond, ‘I am America.’”

JOURNALISTS DEMAND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION ‘SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER’ IN NEW DINNER WITH TRUMP

Trump took his time roasting Collins in his hour-and-four-minute remarks at the WHCA Dinner on Friday.

Besides comparing her to a biological male who transitioned to female in a TikTok series where they would chronicle every day of ‘becoming a girl,’ Trump also took a swipe at her apparently steely demeanor.

“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It’s a fake. She shouldn’t get the award. It was a fake, but I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake. There’s no question about it,” Trump said.

Collins received the WHCA Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure for broadcast due to her reporting on the contentious Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump in February 2025.

“But she’s a young, attractive woman,” Trump went on, adding, “She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you ever smile? Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN — fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan. Just smile.'”

Collins appeared to respond to Trump’s jokes at her expense in an Instagram post over the weekend featuring a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent,” the quote said.

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CNN’s public relations team also posted a statement on X after Trump’s speech backing one of their biggest stars.

“We stand by our journalists and the integrity and fair mindedness with which the CNN team reports the news,” the statement, attributed to Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson, said.

“Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians, but our right to report and present that reporting to the public without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Constitution. CNN will continue to exercise this right.”

Republican and Democratic senators are rejecting President Donald Trump’s call for Canada to pay damages to the U.S. over smoke from ongoing wildfires that he said have “poisoned” the air in many American cities.

“I think the president’s being ridiculous,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told Fox News Digital.

“Nobody can control the direction of the wind,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said. “Even President Trump can’t do that.”

TRUMP BLAMES CANADA FOR WILDFIRE SMOKE, SAYS POLLUTION COSTS SHOULD BE ADDED TO TARIFFS

Trump floated the idea after complaining that smoke from nearly 900 Canadian wildfires has degraded air quality across large swaths of the U.S. He told reporters at Joint Base Andrews last week that he spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the FIFA World Cup final about the issue.

“I told them, I mean, ‘You got to stop these fires from coming in and, you know, poisoning our air,'” Trump told reporters about his exchange with Canadian officials.

He continued, “If we can help them, we’ll help them. But maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs.”

Trump also took to Truth Social in recent weeks claiming he threatened to increase tariffs in a phone call with Carney, as a response to the wildfires creating hazardous air quality in the U.S. — particularly in major cities like Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and New York City.

CANADIAN WILDFIRE SMOKE IGNITES CROSS-BORDER FEUD OVER OTTAWA’S ‘WILLFUL NEGLIGENCE’

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., called for better management of both Canadian and American forests, arguing America is also “guilty” of improperly handling forests to reduce the likelihood of wildfires spreading.

“I’m mostly just interested in active management of the forest, and America is just as guilty,” Marshall said.

“We have not actively managed our forests, and that’s why in Canada and America both have led to these large fires,” he continued. “We haven’t properly managed them.”

POOR AIR QUALITY DUE TO WILDFIRES FORCES LOGISITCAL CHANGES AT SEVERAL MLB GAMES, INCLUDING POSTPONEMENT

While the senators Fox News Digital interviewed largely rejected Trump’s proposal, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, is introducing legislation to hold Canada accountable for the impact its wildfires have had on U.S. air quality.

” I don’t think the Canadians want those fires any more than we do,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich said about the call to charge Canada.

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“Those are natural-caused fires, you know, we’re getting wildfires all over the world,” Welch said. “Beyond anyone’s control – it’s the weather.”

The raging wildfires are believed to have emerged from thousands of lightning strikes across North America in early July.