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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted former President Trump will win the 2024 Republican presidential primary race on Sunday, bashing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as “not at the same level.”

McCarthy made the comments during an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo. McCarthy has previously remained neutral in the GOP primary, declining to endorse Trump in July. 

“I think he will be the nominee,” McCarthy said about Trump after Bartiromo asked if he thought the former president would be the party’s choice for 2024. “The thing is, President Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016 or 2020, and there’s a reason why. They saw the policies of what he was able to do with America – putting America first, making our economy stronger.”

HOUSE SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY ANNOUNCES FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY AGAINST PRESIDENT BIDEN

“We didn’t have inflation. We didn’t have these battles around the world. We didn’t look weak around the world,” he added.

“Well it looks like Ron DeSantis is now trying to work with your colleagues who are pushing for a shutdown,” Bartiromo said.

BIDEN BREAKS SILENCE ON POSSIBLE IMPEACHMENT, BLAMES GOP DESIRE TO ‘SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT’

“I don’t think that would work anywhere. A shutdown would only give strength to the Democrats,” McCarthy said. “It would give the power to Biden. It wouldn’t pay our troops. It wouldn’t pay our border agents.”

“I actually want to achieve something, and this is where President Trump is so smart, that he was successful in this.” McCarthy continued. “President Trump is beating Biden right now in the polls. He is stronger than he has ever been in this process, and, look, I served with Ron DeSantis – he’s not at the same level as President Trump by any shape or form. He would not have gotten elected without President Trump’s endorsement.”

While McCarthy’s comments do not amount to an official endorsement of Trump, they are a clear message of friendship to the former president. McCarthy had previously offended the Trump campaign with another television appearance in June.

THE SPEAKER’S LOBBY: ELECTION STRATEGY IF 2024 IS A TRUMP VS. BIDEN REMATCH

In that instance, he told CNBC that he was not sure whether Trump was the best candidate to defeat Biden. He soon apologized to Trump and recanted, sending out an email fundraiser declaring Trump to be “the STRONGEST opponent to Biden.”

McCarthy’s compliment to Trump comes as he faces down ardent Trump allies in the House Freedom Caucus over the ongoing budget deal.

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It is unclear whether the HFC will budge, however, as several members held up McCarthy’s own speakership despite Trump’s endorsement.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy responded to polling that shows his unfavorability rising, with one commentator saying Americans find him “annoying” on Sunday.

Ramaswamy responded to the polls during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream. Bream cited a Fox News Poll showing that unfavorable views of Ramaswamy have risen 12% since August.

“‘Of all the descriptors attached to Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old political tyro enjoying a bizarre surge in the Republican primary race for second place, the most common one seems to be ‘annoying,’” Bream quoted from an opinion article.

“Why do you think, as more people have gotten to know you, that your unfavorables are up too?” she asked.

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“We have been taking intense criticism, Shannon, over the last several weeks since I performed well on that second debate, and this is part of the process,” Ramaswamy said.  “So I invite the open debate.”

RAMASWAMY SAYS TRUMP WAS ‘DUPED BY THE ADVISER CLASS’ AHEAD OF POLICY SPEECH ON GUTTING FBI, OTHER AGENCIES

“The reality is many people are annoyed by my rise and believe that a 38-year-old is too young to be U.S. president,” he added. “The fact of the matter is that Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote the U.S. Declaration of Independence. He also invented the swivel chair while he was at it, by the way.”

Ramaswamy remains in third place behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump. Trump maintains a commanding lead over the rest of the GOP field, however.

DESANTIS SUGGESTS HE IS OPEN TO LAUNCH MISSILES INTO MEXICO TO KILL DRUG CARTELS: ‘DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED’

Ramaswamy insists his campaign is on a path to success, however, pointing to his surge in support over the past several weeks.

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“We came from 0.0% to where we are now,” he told Bream. “I think we’re on track to win this election.”

Former President Donald Trump has lashed out against President Biden’s repeated false claims over the past few weeks, including the Democrat’s latest gaffe about 9/11. 

“Look at all the lies he’d told,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker in his first network news interview since leaving office aired Sunday. 

“Look at all the lies he’s told over the past couple of weeks. He said he was at the World Trade Center, and he wasn’t,” Trump said. “He said he flew airplanes. He didn’t. He said he drove trucks, and he didn’t. Everything he says is like a lie. It’s terrible.” 

 Trump added that Biden claimed to have a golf handicap of six, which means he shoots six over par on average – an impressive score for a non-professional. 

“He’s not a six,” Trump added over Welker’s interjection. 

Welker, who newly took over the program from former host Chuck Todd, said she wanted to focus on Trump, not Biden, during the interview because “it’s important that we hear from you.” 

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“Well, I’d like you to, but you keep interrupting me,” Trump said. 

At a 9/11 remembrance event at a military base in Alaska last week, Biden falsely claimed that he visited Ground Zero the day after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City. By contrast, Trump did visit Ground Zero days after the 2001 attacks, as evidenced in archived photos taken in Manhattan. 

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby avoided a question about 80-year-old Biden’s 9/11 gaffe last week. 

“In the past couple of weeks, the president has lied about being at Ground Zero the day after the Sept. 11 attacks, falsely claimed he saw the Pittsburgh bridge collapse, claimed his grandfather died in the hospital days before his birth,” The Washington Times reporter Jeff Mordock posed during a White House press briefing. “What is going on with the president? Is he just believing things that didn’t happen, did happen? Or is he just randomly making stuff up?”

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“The president was deeply touched and honored to be able to spend 9/11 with military members there in Alaska and some families,” Kirby said in response. “And he spoke about a visit to Ground Zero, which he did participate in about a week or so after the event. And what that looked and what that smelled and what that felt like. And it has visceral impact on him as it did so many other Americans on that terrible day. And he’s focused on making sure that an attack like that never happens again.”  

Last week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden’s conduct. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was seen walking off during her daily briefing when a member of the press pool asked her to respond to a recent poll suggesting 61% of Americans believe Biden lied about his alleged involvement in the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. 

In the interview Sunday, Welker also asked Trump, “Mr. President, tell me what you see when you look at your mugshot.“

“I see somebody that loves this country in me. That loves this country,” Trump began. “I see tremendous unfairness. I think very few people would have been able to handle what I handled.”

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In the case related to Mar-a-Lago, Welker asked Trump about a new charge alleging the former president asked a staffer to delete security camera footage so it wouldn’t get into the hands of investigators. Trump’s response criticized the Justice Department’s Special Counsel Jack Smith. 

“False,” Trump said, agreeing he would testify to that under oath. “It’s a fake charge by this deranged lunatic prosecutor who lost in the Supreme Court 9 to nothing, and he tried to destroy lots of lives. He’s a lunatic, so it’s a fake charge, but, more importantly, the tapes weren’t deleted. In other words, there was nothing done to them. And, they were my tapes.” 

Former Vice President Mike Pence reacted to a pair of gaffes from former President Donald Trump on Sunday, as conversation around the age of the Republican and Democratic frontrunners ramps up.

Pence appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper on Sunday. Tapper pressed Pence to respond to two instances of Trump appearing confused during public events, asking whether the GOP frontrunner should be facing the same scrutiny as Biden.

Tapper played a clip of a speech in which Trump appeared to confuse former President Barack Obama and President Biden before launching into his question.

“In addition to seeming to have confused Obama and Biden, the president, the former president, also went on to say that re-electing Joe Biden would lead to World War II, which, of course, is a war that already happened,” Tapper said.

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“If Joe Biden had made comments like that, Republicans would be all over it, talking about his age, his mental fitness, his sharpness, his acuity. The DeSantis camp has already tweeted that clip out. You have said that, in your view, Biden has lost a step. Do you think that 77-year-old Donald Trump has lost a step as well?” he asked.

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“Well, I didn’t hear the speech, so I’d leave it to judgments of others,” Pence began. “But, look, I have said very clearly we don’t need a president who’s too old and we don’t need a president who’s too young. I’m in this race because I believe that I will bring the experience, the energy, and the commitment to a consistent conservative agenda that’s going to be necessary to turn around the failed policies of the Biden administration that have weakened us at home and abroad.”

“When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. For four years, we did govern as conservatives, but, today, Donald Trump makes no such promise,” he added.

Biden, 80, is the oldest person ever to run for U.S. president, followed closely by Trump, 77. Trump himself came out against strict age limits in the U.S. on Sunday, but he did speak in favor of mental competency tests.

“You know, I took a test two years ago, three years ago. And as the doctors said – and it was in front of doctors and a whole big deal at Walter Reed, which is an incredible place. And I aced it. I get everything right. I’m all for testing. I frankly think testing would be a good thing,” Trump told NBC News on Sunday.

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“[You] know, some of the greatest world leaders have been in their 80s. I’m not anywhere very near 80, by the way,” Trump claimed. “I don’t think Biden’s too old, but I think he’s incompetent, and that’s a bigger problem.”

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Trump would turn 80 years old within 18 months of gaining office if he wins re-election. Meanwhile, Biden would be 82 at the start of his second term.

Former President Donald Trump argued in his first network interview since leaving office that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “is responsible for Jan. 6.” 

“Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had Jan. 6,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker during a recent sit-down interview at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. 

Trump declined to answer if he called military or law enforcement that day, saying, “I behaved so well, I did such a good job, Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 soldiers… if she didn’t do that…” Welker challenged Trump that Pelosi did not have the authority he had as commander in chief.

“I understand that the police testified against her, the chief very strongly against her, the Capitol police, great people,” Trump said in the interview aired Sunday. “They testified against her, and they burned all the evidence. OK? They burned all the evidence. They destroyed all the evidence about Nancy Pelosi.” 

PELOSI CREDITS JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE FOR ‘HISTORIC MOMENT’ OF TRUMP’S ARRAIGNMENT

“She has authority over the Capitol,” Trump added. “National Guard not coming? I asked her [for them] to be there three days in advance, and she turned it down.” 

“She says that that request was never officially made,” Welker, who newly took over the NBC program from former host Chuck Todd, interjected. 

“The mayor of D.C. gave us a letter saying that she turns it down. OK, we have it. Nancy Pelosi also was asked, and she turned it down. The police commissioner of Capitol police…” Trump continues, as Welker interrupts him. “Wait, a minute,” he pressed on, “Capitol police said that he wanted it, and Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t accept it. She’s responsible for Jan. 6.” 

“Nancy Pelosi’s responsible, and the Jan. 6 committee refused to interview her,” he said. 

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“As our office has said before, the former president’s allegations are completely made up,” a representative for Pelosi told Fox News Digital, reacting to the interview. 

“As numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed, Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination,” the spokesperson added. 

The decision on whether to call National Guard troops to the Capitol is made by what is known as the Capitol Police Board, which is made up of the House sergeant at arms, the Senate sergeant at arms and the architect of the Capitol. The board decided not to call the guard ahead of Jan. 6 but did eventually request assistance after the rioting had already begun, and the troops arrived several hours later, according to The Associated Press. 

The House sergeant at arms reported to Pelosi and the Senate sergeant at arms reported to Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican who was then Senate majority leader. 

The officials on the board, along with the former Capitol Police Chief, Steven Sund, have disputed each others’ accounts of who requested the guard when. Both sergeants at arms and the police chief resigned immediately after the attack. The Democrat-led Jan. 6 House committee never subpoenaed Pelosi. 

Sund claimed to The Washington Post in an interview that he requested assistance six times ahead of and during the attack on the Capitol, but each of those requests was denied or delayed. He claimed House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving was concerned with the “optics” of declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstrations and rejected a National Guard presence.

“Mr. President, you have authority as commander in chief that no one else has. Do you think you showed leadership on that day?” Welker asked Sunday. Trump said, “Yes, absolutely, I did.” 

Trump insisted he could have pardoned himself before leaving office to avoid “fake charges” and “Biden indictments” he’s facing now, but “that’s the last thing I would have done.” 

“They want to arrest their political opponents. Only Third World countries do that, banana republics,” Trump said. “I was given the option; I could have done a pardon of myself. You know what I said? ‘I have no interest.’”

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Trump also disputed the “ridiculous” claim made by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson before the Jan. 6 committee that he allegedly grabbed a Secret Service agent by the neck and demanded to head to the Capitol. He refused to tell Welker how he watched the Jan. 6 riot unfold, vowing to tell people at a later time. Outside the Oval Office on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told people to go home and praised police, the former president himself recalled in the NBC interview, but Welker noted that came hours after the riot began.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., defended the impeachment inquiry into President Biden during an interview Sunday, arguing that the “facts are everywhere.” 

During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” host Jonathan Karl asked Mace if she believed it was premature for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to launch an impeachment inquiry without a vote. Karl cited an op-ed published in the Washington Post by Mace’s Republican colleague, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo, who wrote, “Trump’s impeachment in 2019 was a disgrace to the Constitution and is a disservice to Americans. The GOP’s reprise in 2023 is no better.”

“I don’t believe so,” said Mace, a member of the House Oversight Committee. “The facts are everywhere. There are text messages, there are emails, there are witnesses, there are whistleblowers, there are meetings, there are phone calls, there are dinners. And you can’t say, ‘Hey, there’s a little bit of smoke, we’re not going to follow the fire.’ And the inquiry, my understanding is, as you said earlier, gives us expanded subpoena powers. I want the bank records of Joe Biden. All of that should be on the table to prove out the allegations in the SARS reports. We’re talking about a significant sum of money. We are talking about bribery. And in the Constitution, Article 2, Section 4, that is the basis for impeachment.”

Karl interjected, saying there is no evidence connected to Biden, but Mace rejected the notion. 

HOUSE SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY ANNOUNCES FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY AGAINST PRESIDENT BIDEN

“There is evidence. You can’t say that there’s no evidence there when there is evidence,” Mace said.

“It was the fourth estate. It was the media and journalists when Nixon was going down that helped do that investigation, helped bring down the president when they – when he broke the law,” she said. “And, you know, you guys want to deny that there’s evidence. It’s everywhere.”

In announcing the impeachment inquiry, McCarthy listed allegations of “abuse of power, obstruction and corruption,” which have made against Biden by several Republican-led committees that have been investigating the president, and said the investigations found that Biden “did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings.”

“Eyewitnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions, dinners resulted in cars and millions of dollars into his [son] and his son’s business partners,” McCarthy told reporters.

BIDEN BREAKS SILENCE ON POSSIBLE IMPEACHMENT, BLAMES GOP DESIRE TO ‘SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT’

Earlier in the interview, Mace also refused to say whether or not she’d support a motion to remove McCarthy as speaker.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., threatened to bring a motion to oust McCarthy if he does not follow through on a series of demands from the House Freedom Caucus on spending and legislation. McCarthy told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” that a motion to vacate his speakership would only give Biden what he wants and shut down the House, and effectively, the impeachment inquiry into the president.

“It hasn’t happened yet, and I’m not going to … comment on conjecture here. Either he’s going to file it or he’s not. If he’s going to do it, put his money where his mouth is. I do hear that some votes might be up for grabs because people were made promises that have not been kept,” Mace said Sunday of the possible motion.

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“Quite frankly, a lot of promises were made. It’s not just to the Freedom Caucus but to other members of the House. And those promises ought to be fulfilled,” she said. “Everything’s on the table at this point for me because I want to do the right thing for the American people, I want to do the right thing for women. I’m trying to show: Here’s a path forward for women post-Roe for birth control, for women who are rape survivors, etc. My district is no stranger to gun violence, to mass shootings.”

“We ought to be able to work hard for the American people and show them that. And here we are facing a government shutdown and … really, what have we accomplished this year?”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., praised automobile workers who are striking against their corporate employers on Sunday, saying the workers are suffering from “corporate greed.”

Sanders made the statement during a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper. The United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against the “Big 3” automakers – Ford, GM and Stellantis – reached its third day on Sunday.

“Sen. Sanders, Vice President Pence was on the show earlier. He said, when I asked him about the fact that the CEOs make multiples more than their average workers, 362 times more in the case of Ford – I said, do you think that’s fair? He said CEO pay is up to free enterprise. It’s up to shareholders, not the government,” Tapper said. “What’s your response?”

“I strongly disagree,” Sanders began. “The American people are sick and tired, in my view, Jake – and I have been all over this country – they are sick and tired of corporate greed, in which the very richest people are becoming richer. The head of General Motors now makes $29 million a year, and yet, if you go – if you’re a new worker in the Big Three, you make less than $17 an hour.”

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“So what you’re seeing in the automobile industry, in my view, is what we’re seeing all over this economy, greed on the top, suffering on the part of the working class. And people are tired of it,” he continued.

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Sanders went on to support UAW’s push for a four-day workweek, arguing that the introduction of artificial intelligence will soon boost the productivity of individual workers.

“I happen to believe that, as a nation, we should begin a serious discussion – and the UAW is doing that – about substantially lowering the workweek. People in America are stressed out for a dozen different reasons,” Sanders said. “And that’s one of the reasons why life expectancy in our country is actually in decline. People are overwhelmed. They got to take care of their kids. They got to worry about health care. They got to worry about housing. They’re worried.”

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“It seems to me that, if new technology is going to make us a more productive society, the benefits should go to the workers,” he said.

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Sanders joined UAW members on the picket line in Detroit on Friday. In addition to shorter workweeks, the union is demanding higher wages and better retirement benefits.

Brian Schwalb, the Democratic attorney general in Washington, D.C., recently launched an investigation into conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s network, an effort Leo’s attorney says is a “politically driven” attempt at silencing the Republican activist and his associates.

Politico reported in August that Schwalb had opened a probe into Leo and his associated organizations. The investigation appears to have originated from a complaint from the left-wing Campaign for Accountability, which alleged Leo has enriched himself with consulting fees through his network. 

Campaign for Accountability started as a project at the largest liberal dark money network in America managed by the D.C.-based for-profit Arabella Advisors consulting firm, which overlooks a behemoth web of groups and has a similar consulting fee arrangement to that of the targeted Leo for-profits and nonprofits.

Campaign for Accountability has also secured millions of dollars in funding from groups in the Arabella-managed network since it broke away and became a standalone entity. 

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Additionally, Schwalb’s deputy, Seth Rosenthal, has previous links to a left-wing judicial group that led attacks against two conservative Supreme Court justices. Leo, co-chairman of the Federalist Society, has consistently been in the crosshairs of Democrats over his role as former President Donald Trump’s judicial adviser.

“D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has launched a politically driven fishing expedition in an effort to silence Leonard Leo and his associates,” Leo’s attorney, David Rivkin, told Fox News Digital.

“The D.C. Attorney General has no legal or factual grounds to launch this investigation, and the complaint itself is riddled with irony when you consider the source is the Arabella Advisors Network,” Rivkin said. “Any effort to weaponize our legal system for political purposes only serves to undercut real justice, something D.C. is sorely in need of given the rampant crime.”

Months before Schwalb’s investigation into Leo became public, The Guardian reported on a Campaign for Accountability complaint alleging Leo “misused” his network’s nonprofit cash by diverting $73 million to his for-profit companies, BH Group and CRC Advisors, for consulting services between 2016 and 2021. 

The complaint appears to be the foundation of Schwalb’s probe, even though the Leo-linked groups are outside his jurisdiction, which The Guardian and Politico noted. Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith also told The Guardian her group sent the complaint to the IRS and Schwalb’s office, asking them to examine materials and revoke the tax-exempt status of the seven nonprofits linked to Leo. 

“We’re hopeful that the IRS and/or the D.C. AG will take up this complaint and use the evidence that we’re presenting, which is very carefully thought out and laid out in legal language with all of the relevant statutes that we believe are being violated, along with a lot of the background to provide the evidence as to why,” Kuppersmith said at the time. 

Kuppersmith’s group began as a network with a similar arrangement to Leo’s. Campaign for Accountability started as a project at the Arabella Advisors-managed Hopewell Fund before breaking away into a standalone nonprofit in 2017. 

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The Arabella-managed groups also include the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund and Windward Fund. The funds, which combine to raise more than a billion dollars from anonymous donors annually, act as fiscal sponsors to dozens of liberal nonprofits by providing their tax and legal status to the nonprofits housed beneath them. 

“Campaign for Accountability has no relationship with Arabella Advisors. The fact that we were briefly fiscally sponsored by Hopewell Fund nearly seven years ago is completely irrelevant to any of our work,” Kuppersmith told Fox News Digital. “Our mission is to call out wrongdoing wherever we see it, and we hope the IRS and the D.C. attorney general thoroughly investigate our complaint against Leonard Leo.”

Tax documents show another Arabella-managed nonprofit, the New Venture Fund, sent at least $2.2 million to Campaign for Accountability after it had broken away from the network. Between 2017 and 2020, the New Venture Fund cash passed to Campaign for Accountability accounted for between 15% and 89% of its total reported revenue each year.

Several individuals on Campaign for Accountability’s leadership team, including Kuppersmith, previously worked for Accountable.US, which the New Venture Fund had previously fiscally sponsored. 

The group did not address questions about its millions in grants from the Arabella-managed funds after it broke away from the network.

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Campaign for Accountability’s complaint revolves around Leo’s alleged enrichment of himself with fees through his network, which is almost identical to that of Arabella Advisors and the funds it manages. 

During the period that Campaign for Accountability said Leo benefited from the $73 million in consulting payments, Arabella Advisors raked in $190 million in fees from its four linked funds by providing administrative, operational and management services, according to a review of tax forms for each of the nonprofits between 2016 and 2021. The amount Arabella pulled in for its consulting services during that time is nearly $120 million more than was passed from the Leo-linked nonprofits to his for-profits.

Eric Kessler, a former Bill Clinton White House appointee who later served at the Clinton Global Initiative, founded Arabella Advisors and has been closely entangled with the four nonprofits funneling consulting cash to the for-profit for its services. Schwalb, who worked in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, is now probing Leo’s groups but does not appear concerned with the Kessler-linked network.

“Arabella Advisors is home to hundreds of employees who are experts in the services we provide to our nonprofit clients, including HR, compliance, accounting and grants management,” Arabella spokesman Steve Sampson told Fox News Digital. 

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“We regularly benchmark our fee structure to ensure that our clients are getting the best value, and our nonprofit clients continue to work with us because of the best-in-class services we provide,” Sampson added. “Arabella Advisors is not a funder, and we do not control how our clients spend their resources. Comparisons between our company and the services we provide and Leonard Leo, who prides himself on directing billions of dollars to partisan organizations he controls, are categorically false.”

Meanwhile, Campaign for Accountability’s complaint against the Leo-linked groups did not “provide any direct evidence of its accusations,” Politico wrote. Still, Schwalb’s office is now seeking documents from many of the organizations, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.  

Schwalb and his deputy Rosenthal also previously worked at the Venable law firm, which has represented groups in the Arabella-managed network on matters including the New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund. 

Rosenthal also served as legal director of the Alliance for Justice, a left-wing dark money judicial group dedicated to “transforming courts,” from 2005 to 2006. 

During Rosenthal’s time with the group, it attempted to derail Chief Justice Roberts’ confirmation over his ties to the Federalist Society, which Leo co-chairs. When Rosenthal was also with the Alliance for Justice, he opposed Justice Samuel Alito’s confirmation on political grounds, saying he was a “movement conservative” who would march “to the conservative drumbeat on about every single issue” in a 2005 Democracy Now! interview.

In recent years, the Alliance for Justice has undertaken initiatives to influence President Biden on judicial nominations, including with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

A spokesperson for the D.C. attorney general’s office said the office can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation as a matter of policy. The spokesperson did not address questions regarding the Campaign for Accountability’s complaint or Rosenthal’s previous work with the Alliance for Justice.

The D.C. attorney general’s office is not the only official in recent months that has set its sights on Leo. 

Democratic senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Dick Durbin of Illinois sent a letter to Leo and billionaires Paul Singer and Robin Arkley II in July demanding more information regarding a ProPublica report that Justice Alito “accepted and failed to disclose a luxury Alaskan fishing vacation” in 2008 with the two billionaires. Leo had allegedly organized the trip.

The senators asked for an itemized list of gifts and payments from Leo or groups he is associated with dating back decades and related to any Supreme Court justice he has associated with.

“To date, Chief Justice Roberts has barely acknowledged, much less investigated or sought to fix, the ethics crises swirling around our highest court. So, if the court won’t investigate or act, Congress must,” Whitehouse and Durbin said in a press release. “Answers to these questions will help the committee’s work to create reliable ethics guardrails at the court under Congress’s clearly established oversight and legislative authority.”

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Leo’s lawyers responded by saying the Democrats’ request doesn’t comport with the First Amendment and other parts of the Constitution.

“For similar reasons, your inquiry cannot be reconciled with the Equal Protection component of the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment,” his lawyers said. “And regardless of its other constitutional infirmities, it appears that your investigation lacks a valid legislative purpose because the legislation the committee is considering would be unconstitutional if enacted.”

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina – the only major Republican presidential candidate who’s never been married – spotlighted this weekend that he’s “dating a lovely Christian girl,” as he addressed a large group of influential voters of faith in the state that leads off the GOP nominating calendar.

Scott’s comments came as he and most of his rivals for the Republican nomination sat down for question and answer sessions Saturday at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual fall banquet, in front of a crowd of social conservative leaders, activists, and evangelical voters, who play an outsized role in Hawkeye State Republican politics.

“So other than your mama, is there any special lady in your life?” GOP Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird asked, in her first question to Scott.

The senator answered “yes,” before quipping “if you haven’t read about her yet, I’m sure why not. It’s been one of the more asked questions lately.”

WITH FOUR MONTHS UNTIL THE FIRST VOTES, THE 2024 GOP BATTLE HEATS UP IN THE FIRST CAUCUS STATE

The 57-year-old Scott then shared that “I’m dating a lovely Christian girl. One of the things that I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it points us always in the right direction. Proverbs 18:22 says ‘he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the lord.’”

“So can we just pray together for me,” he emphasized, which elicited laughter from the audience.

Scott added that I’m very excited. Very excited.”

TIM SCOTT SUGGESTS RIVALS PLANTING STORIES ABOUT HIS UNMARRIED STATUS

 “As a guy who was raised in a single-parent household mired in poverty, I understand that devastation when a family breaks up. I live with the consequences of a father who was not there. I made a commitment to make sure that never happened in my life,” Scott highlighted. “I’m so thankful to know a risen savior that has helped guide my way, and I’m so thankful that he’s allowed my life to intersect at the right time with the right person. And I just say, praise the living God.”

Scott has been reluctant to share much about his private life. In a handful of interviews earlier this year, he did reveal that he is dating a woman, but he kept her identity private.

But his unmarried status has made headlines in recent weeks, in the wake of an article by Axios, which suggested some Republican donors are concerned about him being unmarried.

Although the number of adults who remain single later in life has edged up in recent years, many socially conservative Republicans firmly hold to traditional values regarding marriage and families.

NIKKI HALEY SEEKS COMMON GROUND ON COMBUSTIBLE ISSUE OF ABORTION 

The Faith and Freedom gathering was held with four months to go until the Iowa caucuses. Among the top topics asked of the presidential candidates at the event was the combustible issue of abortion. 

The blockbuster move last year by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the landmark nearly half-century-old Roe v. Wade ruling, which had allowed for legalized abortions nationwide, moved the divisive issue back to the states.

And it’s forced Republicans to play plenty of defense in elections across the country, as a party that’s nearly entirely “pro-life” has had to deal with an electorate where a majority of Americans support at least some form of abortion access.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted that “I’m pro-life. I’ve been pro-life governor. I’ll be pro-life president.” 

And he pledged that if elected to the White House, “I’m going to welcome pro-life policies across the board.” 

But DeSantis, who signed a six-week abortion ban into law in Florida, would not share specifics on what he would do as president in terms of supporting a federal abortion ban.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who supports a 15-week abortion ban, shared that “it’s a matter of conviction. I believe that God has blessed the womb. That there’s life in the womb and its deserving of protection. That’s fundamental.”

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And Hutchinson, a vocal GOP critic of Donald Trump, criticized the former president for saying in a recent interview that he would “make both sides happy” when it comes to abortion. 

Trump, who has not committed to supporting a federal ban, did not attend the Iowa gathering.

Former Vice President Mike Pence reiterated his support for a 15-week ban, saying that it’s an “idea whose time has come” and that “we owe it to the American people to elect a president who will fight for a minimum standard.”

Former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley touted her “pro-life” credentials but repeated that without enough support in the Senate, passing such a ban is “not realistic.”

Hours earlier, in a Fox News Digital interview, Haley highlighted that “our goal is to save as many babies as we can. Support as many moms as we can. That’s the goal. So in order to do that, we have to have 60 Senate votes. Let’s see where that is but we only have 45 pro-life senators.”

“So let’s focus on what we do agree on,” she said. “Let’s ban late-term abortions. Let’s encourage adoptions. Let’s make sure contraceptives accessible. Let’s make sure that nurses and doctors who don’t believe abortion don’t have to perform them. And let’s make sure no state law requires a women to go to jail or get the death penalty for abortion. We’re talking about hard truths and women around the country agree with me.”

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

A World War II veteran praised Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at a recent town hall in Hollis, New Hampshire, telling him his words are what his generation “grew up in.”

In an exchange posted on social media Friday from the event on Sunday, the veteran identified as Bob took a moment to express gratitude towards the GOP outsider, who has made restoring national identity a hallmark of his campaign. 

“I’d like to say that I’m a veteran of World War II,” Bob began, sparking huge applause from the crowd and prompting Ramaswamy to shake his hand. 

“What you’re saying, the words you’re saying, are exactly what my generation grew up in,” Bob said. “Children, adults stood at attention and crossed their hearts when the flag passed by in a parade. School started with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. That’s no longer going on.”

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“There was a loyalty and pride in America. Children were leaving school 12, 13 years old and joined the service to protect our country. It was one country. America. And I like your policies. I love to hear it, because it’s what I remember. Thank you very much,” he continued before earning another round of applause and a standing ovation. 

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Ramaswamy walked over again and gave him a hug, telling the veteran, “Thank you for your service to this country. It means a lot.”

“You’re my hero,” the veteran told the candidate.

“You’re my hero,” Ramaswamy exclaimed. 

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Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur with virtual no national name ID before entering the 2024 race, has risen in the polls and made a big splash at the first Republican primary debate last month.

A new national poll released by Fox News on Thursday showed Ramaswamy placing third with 11% support among primary voters behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 13% and former President Donald Trump, who is maintaining a commanding lead with a whopping 60% support. They are the only three candidates polling in double digits.

When polled voters were asked who would be their second choice if Trump were not in the race, it’s a dead heat between DeSantis and Ramaswamy, earning 33% and 31%, respectively. Former Vice President Mike Pence trailed with 11%, while the rest of the field earned single-digit support. 

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

Special counsel Jack Smith have requested a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to impose a “narrowly tailored” order restricting former President Donald Trump from making public statements that could “present a serious and substantial danger of material prejudicing this case.”

In a filing, Smith’s office accused Trump of engaging in a sweeping campaign of disinformation and harassment intended to intimidate prosecutors and undermine public confidence in the judicial system during his prosecution. 

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“In service of his criminal conspiracies, through false public statements, the defendant sought to erode public faith in the administration of the election and intimidate individuals who refuted his lies,” the filing said.

“The defendant is now attempting to do the same thing in this criminal case — to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prejudice the jury pool through disparaging and inflammatory attacks on the citizens of this District, the Court, prosecutors, and prospective witnesses,” the filing said.

If approved by Judge Tanya Chutkan, the “well-defined restriction” would prohibit Trump from making statements regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses.

Trump has pleaded “not guilty” in federal courts to all four federal charges stemming from Smith’s investigation into 2020 election interference and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. 

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The 2024 GOP front-runner is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

The former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent who inspired the hit film “Sound of Freedom” said Friday he is “very seriously considering” a run for the U.S. Senate in his home state of Utah to replace retiring Sen. Mitt Romney.

Tim Ballard made the announcement during an appearance on the digital show of former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer, where he said he had been approached by numerous “influential people” for weeks about a potential run before Romney announced Wednesday he would not be running for re-election.

“Since Sound of Freedom took out any opportunity for me to ever be an operator again — those days are done … They know my face. But starting several weeks ago, I’ve been asked by a lot of very influential people, names you would even know, asking me to throw in,” Ballard said.

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Spicer noted Ballard lived in Utah, which the former admitted was the very seat he was asked to look at running for.

“I was very seriously considering it then. And now, I’ll be honest, even mores very, very seriously considering,” Ballard said.

When asked what would get him into the race, Ballard said his “wife and prayer.”

ROMNEY USES BIDEN’S OWN WORDS AGAINST HIM, CALLS FOR PRESIDENT TO JOIN HIM IN RETIREMENT: ‘TIME TO TRANSITION’

“So she says yes when you go home, you’re in?” Spicer asked.

“That’s how it’s always worked in the past. So even before Senator Romney announced his retirement, a lot of things were building up to this consideration. I was with the president of Honduras last week, and the president of Guatemala last week, and I was just listening to them in their plight, in their tears, over the plight of their people because of our border policies,” Ballard said. 

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“We’re talking about millions of people being affected by forms of slavery because of the wind that our policies put into the sails of child traffickers. And I thought, there has to be something done — more done — at the federal level. So it just kept building and building and building. At the same time that’s happening I’m getting phone calls from people,” he said. 

He added that confirmation Romney would not be running again took his consideration to the next level.

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The Biden administration has unveiled new regulations expanding the authority of states and tribes to deny certification for various infrastructure activities including fossil fuel pipelines that may impact water sources.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the final rule in a move applauded by a wide range of Democratic governors who said it would strengthen their ability to protect the environment and weigh in on key federal permits. According to the EPA, the rule realigns the scope of a provision in the Clean Water Act of 1972, Section 401, which prohibits projects that result in any discharge into waters from being approved.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting economically secure, healthy, and sustainable communities,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Thursday in a statement.

“To achieve this goal, we must protect our water resources while also making investments that move our nation forward,” he continued. “With EPA’s final Clean Water Act Section 401 rule, we are affirming the authority of states, territories, and Tribes to protect precious water resources while advancing federally permitted projects in a transparent, timely, and predictable way.”

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States for years had previously used authority under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act to reject fossil fuel projects in their jurisdiction. For example, New York rejected permits for a natural gas pipeline in 2018 and, one year later, Oregon rejected certification for a natural gas export facility. 

However, former President Donald Trump issued an energy security and infrastructure executive order in 2019 that ordered the EPA to restrict states’ authority under the Clean Water Act.

HOUSE DEMS CROSS PARTY LINES, DEMAND BIDEN ADMIN EXPAND OIL DRILLING

The EPA then finalized regulations in 2020 rolling back how much states could intervene in federal permitting for activities potentially impacting water sources, a move that was ultimately challenged by Democratic-led states in federal court. The EPA’s regulations this week reverse the Trump administration’s actions.

“EPA’s action will better protect New Mexico’s water quality at a time when federal and state protections are needed most,” Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said after the Biden administration announcement. “New Mexico must do all it can to protect our most precious resource — our water.”

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“As Attorney General, I stood up to efforts to undermine this and now, as Governor, I’m grateful to see it restored,” Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey added. “Massachusetts thanks the U.S. EPA for strengthening the partnership envisioned by the Clean Water Act with today’s rule, helping us fulfill our commitment to protecting waterways across Massachusetts.”

The Environmental Council of States, a nonprofit that works with state environmental agencies to push green policies, also endorsed the EPA’s action.

CONCORD, N.H. – Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire is pledging that his state “will not back down” to the Democratic National Committee.

The popular Republican governor taking to social media after the DNC once again kicked the can down the road in its fight with the crucial early voting state of New Hampshire over an effort to dramatically refigure the party’s 2024 presidential nominating calendar.

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee on Thursday voted to grant New Hampshire — which for a century has held the first primary in the race for the White House — a third extension to give the state more time to come into compliance with the national party committee’s new schedule, which moves South Carolina to the top of the nominating order.

The move by the panel came one day after New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlan announced that his state’s presidential primary filing period would start on Oct. 11, leading to a contest that will likely be held in late January — ahead of South Carolina — and putting the Granite State on a collision course with the DNC.

The extension unanimously granted by the DNC panel on Thursday would last until Oct. 14.

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“We committed at the outset of this process to allow for every opportunity for states to honor the opportunity of hosting their nominating contests within the early window. We want to recommit to that principle and continue to work with the New Hampshire Democratic Party towards that goal,” Rules and Bylaws Committee co-chair James Roosevelt said.

However, New Hampshire is extremely likely to eventually be found in non-compliance and penalized, with the state all but certain to hold an unsanctioned primary that would probably keep President Biden from putting his name on the ballot.

Sununu, responding to the news in a social media post, reiterated that “New Hampshire will not comply with the arbitrary demands and deadlines coming from @JoeBiden and the @DNC. We will not back down. New Hampshire will be going first whether Joe Biden likes it or not.”

The governor, who seriously mulled a 2024 GOP White House run before ultimately deciding against it in June, has been vocal defender of his state’s cherished presidential primary position, and has long railed against efforts by national Democrats to knock New Hampshire from the top of the order.

“It’s an outrageous request to think that the Democrat National Committee is going to dictate our laws and our process, which has been tried and true,” Sununu told Fox News Digital last December.

The DNC overwhelmingly voted in early February to dramatically alter the top of its presidential nominating calendar for the 2024 election cycle, bumping Iowa and New Hampshire from their longtime leadoff positions.

NEW HAMPSHIRE DEMOCRATS DEFY DNC IN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY BATTLE

However, seven months later, there is no resolution with New Hampshire or Iowa, and the national Democratic Party is still working to implement its revamped primary schedule.

The push by the DNC to upend its primary calendar — in order to better reflect Black and Hispanic voters in the early primary contests — has been vigorously opposed in New Hampshire.

“Granite Staters appreciate and respect the responsibility of the over 100-year tradition of the First in the Nation New Hampshire primary. They understand New Hampshire has a special place in the history of American politics and their place in it. We look forward to continuing that tradition here next year, and in the years to come,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said earlier this summer.

Democrats for years have knocked both Iowa and New Hampshire as unrepresentative of the party as a whole, for being largely White with few major urban areas. Nevada and South Carolina, which in recent cycles have voted third and fourth on the calendar, are much more diverse than either Iowa or New Hampshire. Nevada and South Carolina were added to the Democratic calendar nearly two decades ago to increase the diversity of the early states electorate.

The DNC overwhelmingly approved a calendar proposed by President Biden to move South Carolina to the lead position, with a Feb. 3, 2024, primary. New Hampshire and Nevada are scheduled to hold primaries three days later, followed by Georgia and Michigan. The president and supporters of the plan have argued that it would empower minority voters, whom Democrats have long relied on but have at times taken for granted.

“This committee put together a calendar proposal that reflects our values and will strengthen our party. This calendar does what is long overdue. It expands the number of voices in the early window. And it elevates diverse communities that are at core of the Democratic Party,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said earlier this year.

However, implementing the calendar has been anything but easy.

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South Carolina Democrats are on board, but Palmetto State Republicans will hold their primary later in February. Nevada Democrats are game, but the Silver State’s GOP — after an unsuccessful legal push to opt out of a Feb. 6 primary — is aiming to hold a Republican presidential caucus two days later. Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State this spring set the state’s primary date for May 12 of next year, rebuffing the DNC.

Iowa, which was left out of the DNC’s early voting states calendar, is still looking for ways to remain the leadoff contest without violating party rules. 

New Hampshire has a nearly half-century-old law that mandates that it hold the first presidential primary, a week ahead of any similar contest.

The DNC earlier this year extended an earlier deadline until Sept. 1 for New Hampshire to come into compliance or face getting booted from the early state window for the 2024 cycle.

To comply, New Hampshire needs to scrap its state law protecting its first-in-the-nation primary status and must expand access to early voting. However, with Republicans in control of New Hampshire’s governor’s office and both houses of the state legislature, state Democrats have repeatedly argued that is a non-starter.

“The DNC’s waiver requirement is unrealistic and unattainable, as the New Hampshire Democratic Party cannot dictate to the Republican governor and state legislative leaders what to do, and because it does not have the power to change the primary date unilaterally,” Buckley has repeatedly emphasized.

And on Thursday he added that “we have done everything in our power to comply with the DNC’s requests with regard to our primary calendar and have every intention of complying with New Hampshire state law from which the primary date is set. We look forward to putting this unnecessary distraction behind us and focusing on electing Granite State Democrats.”

If New Hampshire is eventually ruled non-compliant, the state could lose half of its delegates to next summer’s Democratic presidential nominating convention, under DNC penalties passed last year.

That appears to be the route ahead.

Scanlan announced at a news conference Wednesday that the filing period for presidential candidates to sign up to put their name on the New Hampshire ballot will extend from Oct. 11 to Oct. 27. That is about three weeks earlier than four years ago during the 2020 cycle, when the New Hampshire primary was held on Feb. 11. Scanlan said such a filing period would likely lead to a January primary.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that we’ll be going ahead of South Carolina, which puts us into January,” Scanlan emphasized.

“I’m just assuming we’re going to be in noncompliance with the Democratic National Committee,” Scanlan told Fox News. 

Pointing to a DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting, Scanlan emphasized that “we’ll see what comes out of that. But that’s not going to affect what we do in New Hampshire at all.” 

There are plenty of Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire who see the upending of their leadoff positions as sour grapes from Biden, who finished a disappointing fourth in the 2020 Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary, before a second-place finish in Nevada and a landslide victory in South Carolina propelled him toward the nomination and eventually the White House.

With New Hampshire nearly certain to move up the date of its contest, President Biden will likely stay off the ballot in the Granite State to avoid an unsanctioned primary. With Biden’s two primary challengers — environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and best-selling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson — taking aim at the president and the DNC as they repeatedly campaign in New Hampshire, trouble could be brewing for the president in the Granite State’s primary.

However, Buckley says there is a near consensus among New Hampshire Democrats in writing in Biden’s name on the primary ballot.

“Whether or not Joe Biden puts his name on the ballot, he will win the New Hampshire Primary,” Buckley told Fox News recently. 

Longtime New Hampshire based Democratic strategist Jim Demers, a top Biden supporter, said there’s “a lot of interest out there in doing something.”

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“I think he has done a good job as president and is worthy of being re-elected. That is my primary reasoning for writing Joe Biden’s name in come January if I have to,” Demers told Fox News.

Pointing to Kennedy, who charges he is not getting a fair shake from the DNC as he challenges the president for the Democratic nomination, Demers said, “I also think that the views and positions that Robert Kennedy has taken are so out of touch with the average Democrat that it is concerning to see him on a ballot here, even if the election is non-binding.”

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

Score one for former President Donald Trump over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as the two combatants for 2024 Republican presidential nomination mixed it up in a test of their home turf strength and clout among supporters in the state they both call home.

The Republican Party of Florida’s executive board, under pressure from Trump supporters, voted on Friday evening to nix a provision in its bylaws that required any candidate seeking to be on the March 19 presidential primary ballot to sign a pledge of loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.

The meeting, held at an Orlando, Florida hotel, was described by sources with knowledge of the gathering as contentious. 

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The pledge was adopted with little fanfare back in May, and DeSantis supporters, including state House Speaker Paul Renner, urged the board members to keep the pledge. 

State Sen. Joe Gruters, a former Florida GOP chairman and a top Trump supporter in the Sunshine State, made the motion to drop the pledge, arguing that rules should not have changed in the first place less than a year before the primary.

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According to reports, Polk County GOP member Ed Shoemaker warned during the meeting that “people will be pissed if we keep Trump off the ballot.”

The vote was not only a show of force for Trump in his adopted home state but is also a sign that DeSantis’ once iron grip over the Florida state party may be slipping.

Neither Trump nor DeSantis attended the meeting, as they were both giving speeches in Washington D.C. at the Family Research Council’s annual Pray, Vote, Stand conference around the same time the vote was taking place.

DeSantis campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin said in a statement that “anyone who wants to run for president as a Republican should be willing to pledge their support for our eventual nominee.”

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Trump’s campaign did not immediately release a comment regarding the vote.

The pldege in Florida that was nixed is similar to the one the Republican National Committee is mandating GOP presidential candidates sign in order to make the presidential nomination debate state. Trump refused to sign the RNC’s pledge, skipped the first debate, and is likely to not attend the second one as well.

Trump, who’s making his third straight White House run, remains the commanding front-runner over DeSantis and the rest of the large field of contenders seeking to be the party’s 2024 standard-bearer.

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

The Texas Senate has acquitted state Attorney General Ken Paxton of all impeachment articles filed against him for corruption and unfitness for office. 

Though there is bipartisan support for impeachment, votes to convict on each charge did not clear the 21-vote threshold. Republican Sens. Robert Nichols and Kelly Hancock joined all 12 Democrats to vote in favor of conviction on several charges. 

The Texas Senate convened at 10:30 a.m. central time Saturday to vote and finished just before 1 p.m. 

“Today, the truth prevailed. The truth could not be buried by mudslinging politicians or their powerful benefactors,” Paxton said in a statement thanking his supporters after the verdict was delivered. 

TRUMP WEIGHS IN ON TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON IMPEACHMENT TRIAL, ARGUES ‘ESTABLISHMENT RINOS’ WANT TO ‘UNDO’ ELECTION

“The sham impeachment coordinated by the Biden Administration with liberal House Speaker Dade Phelan and his kangaroo court has cost taxpayers millions of dollars, disrupted the work of the Office of Attorney General and left a dark and permanent stain on the Texas House,” Paxton said, calling the “weaponization” of impeachment “immoral and corrupt.” 

“Now that this shameful process is over, my work to defend our constitutional rights will resume. Thank you to everyone who has stood with us during this time,” he added. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott congratulated Paxton after the trial concluded. 

“The jury has spoken. Attorney General Ken Paxton received a fair trial as required by the Texas Constitution. I look forward to continuing to work with the Attorney General to secure the border and protect Texas from federal overreach,” Abbott said. 

EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR DETAILS SURFACE IN HISTORIC IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON

The jury of 30 senators, most of whom are Republicans, spent about eight hours deliberating behind closed doors since the Senate ended deliberations. A two-thirds majority was required to convict Paxton on any of 16 articles of impeachment that accuse Paxton of bribery, corruption and unfitness for office.

The vote was a slow, public process. Each article of impeachment received a separate vote. Republicans hold a 19-12 majority in the Senate, meaning that if all Democrats voted to convict Paxton, they needed nine Republicans to join them. At most, they got two. 

Paxton faced accusations that he misused his political power to help the real estate developer Nate Paul. Paxton’s opponents have argued that the attorney general accepted a bribe by hiring Paul.

“If we don’t keep public officials from abusing the powers of their office, then frankly no one can,” Republican state Rep. Andrew Murr, one of the impeachment managers in the Texas House, said during closing arguments. 

ALLEGED MISTRESS OF TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON DEEMED ‘UNAVAILABLE’ TO TAKE STAND AT HIS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

Attorneys for the bipartisan group of lawmakers prosecuting Paxton’s impeachment rested their case Wednesday after a woman who was expected to testify about an extramarital affair with Paxton made a sudden appearance at the trial, but she never took the stand.

The affair was central to the proceedings and accusations of Paul, who was under FBI investigation and employed the woman, Laura Olson. One of the articles of impeachment against Paxton alleged that Paul’s hiring of Olson amounted to a bribe.

Paxton’s lawyers have cast the impeachment effort as a ploy by establishment Republicans to remove a proven conservative from office, pointing to Paxton’s long record of challenging Democratic presidential administrations in high profile court cases that have won him acclaim from former President Donald Trump and conservative hardliners. 

“I would suggest to you this is a political witch hunt,” Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee said. “I would suggest to you that this trial has displayed, for the country to see, a partisan fight within the Republican Party.”

Paxton was also previously indicted in June for allegedly making false statements to banks. 

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Paxton, who was suspended from office pending the trial’s outcome, was not required to attend the proceedings and appeared only once in the Senate, durinc closing arguments, since testimony began last week. His wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, sat across the room from him. She was required to be present for the whole trial but was prohibited from participating in debate or voting on the outcome of her husband’s trial. 

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

DES MOINES, Iowa – With just four months to go until the Iowa caucuses, nearly the entire field of Republican White House contenders is back this weekend in the state that leads off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

The presidential candidates are speaking Saturday evening at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual fall banquet, as they each make their case to a large and influential crowd of social conservative leaders, activists, and Evangelical voters, who play an outsized role in Hawkeye State Republican politics.

“Labor Day is over. Kids are back in school and people are starting to really tune in,” longtime Iowa based Republican strategist and communicator Jimmy Centers said.

Pointing to last month’s Iowa State Fair, where all but one contender in the large field of Republican presidential candidates courted voters, Centers noted that “the state fair was when people started to wake up and realized that the caucus was coming. 

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Veteran Iowa Republican operative and consultant Nicole Schlinger highlighted that “once Labor Day has passed, school has started and the weather starts to turn, that’s when peoples’ minds start turning to elections and people get more serious about vetting the candidates in terms of making a decision.” 

With the clock quickly ticking towards the start of the 2024 Republican primary and caucus calendar, former President Donald Trump remains the commanding front-runner for his party’s nomination, as he makes his third straight White House run. 

TRUMP – DESANTIS SHOWDOWN AT THE IOWA STATE FAIR 

And his historic four criminal indictments — including two for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden — appear to have only strengthened his support among likely Republican primary voters.

The latest Fox News national survey in the GOP nomination race, conducted Sept. 9-12 and released on Thursday, pointed to Trump expanding his already enormous lead over the rest of the field.

But while still towering over his rivals, Trump’s lead in the latest surveys in Iowa, as well as New Hampshire and South Carolina, two other crucial early voting states in the Republican nominating calendar, is not as overwhelming.

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“It’s closer in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina that it is nationally, but it’s not close,” said David Kochel, a longtime Republican consultant and veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns in Iowa and nationally.

“These things do break late. There’s a lot of stuff we haven’t seen or heard yet. Whether it’s Trump’s trials, which I don’t think are going to move any numbers against him. Whether it’s future debates. Whether it’s something we can’t foresee now,” Kochel noted. “The door’s still open but it’s not as wide open as it was.”

Centers, a presidential campaign veteran in Iowa who also served as communications director to then-Gov. Terry Brandstad and current Gov. Kim Reynolds, noted that “Trump’s numbers aren’t budging.”

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“At some point the rest of the field has to make a stronger and more compelling argument as they why them. Why are we changing horses from the former president. He’s been indicted four times, but he’s only getting stronger,” Centers stressed. “They have to speak more directly to that point and start doing it soon.”

Pointing to evangelical voters in Iowa, Kochel noted that they tend “to move as a group… and they move late.”

Trump is one of the handful of GOP presidential candidates who won’t be attending Saturday’s Faith and Freedom Coalition cattle call, although the former president returns to Iowa next week.

Schlinger, who’s well-connected to the social conservative community, said that Trump’s “track record on issues concerning life is extremely good,” and that “it’s not surprising that there hasn’t been much change” when it comes to his large double-digit lead in the Iowa polls.

But she added “I think there’s a path open for another candidate or two to perform well and exceed expectations in Iowa… The door’s open but someone needs to walk through it and that hasn’t happened yet.”

But the strategists all stressed that now’s the time for Trump’s rivals to make a move.

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“This is where the rubber meets the road. We’re past Labor Day. We’re into debate season,” Kochel highlighted. “If you’re not firing on all cylinders now, and you don’t have the money to see your way through New Hampshire, it’s best to step aside and get out of this thing, so we can really determine who might be able to take Trump on one-on-one.”

And Centers noted that “this is not a primary. It takes organization. Campaigns need to be holding events, using those events to build an organization, and then follow up with those folks that they’ve recruited, either through door knocking, through phone banking, to build out a robust organization.”

“It doesn’t build itself. If you’re not starting it now, it’s too late,” he stressed.

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

A member of the House Appropriations Committee says that the chamber’s Department of Homeland Security appropriation bill is centering around border security — particularly restarting border wall construction — to combat the ongoing crisis at the southern border, as well as cutting spending and getting rid of “woke” funding sources.

“We said we’d do two things: We’d curb the spending, and we would remove the woke,” Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital in an interview this week.

The appropriations bill for DHS includes a slew of Republican priorities when it comes to the border, including increasing funding for wall construction along the southern border by over $2 billion, and would force the agency to allocate the funding to build it within 120 days. It is expected to move forward next week.

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The Trump-era wall project was scrapped by the Biden administration, although some construction is still ongoing due to language in appropriations bills approved during the Trump administration. Zinke made clear that it remains a top priority for Republicans in this legislation.

“People ask me, ‘What does a bill look like?’ I say, ‘Well, primarily it looks about 32 feet tall and about 600 miles long. That’s what it looks like.'”

It would also provide funding for 22,000 Border Patrol agents and fund border security technology with $228 million.

“You have more money directed to the men who man the wall. That’s our Border Patrol professionals, because, you know, they’re having a hard time recruiting and those type of things, so it puts more money on actually the people that man the wall and then increases the technology around the wall,” he said.

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That would include Autonomous Surveillance Towers and Tactical Aerostats — the administration grounded those aerostats last year. Separately, it would fund ICE to the tune of nearly $10 billion.

He also pointed to language that would prevent funding for “gender-affirming care” for illegal immigrants in detention and for diversity, equality and inclusion programs and add restrictions on programs that include critical race theory.

The bill will be open to amendments, of which a number of Republicans have proposed a number of hard-hitting amendments — including reducing Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ salary and defunding “sanctuary” cities. Zinke said he expects the bill to remain roughly the same after the amendment process.

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“There might be a few additions, subtractions back and forth, but I think the core and the thrust of the bill will remain the same,” he said. “I think it’s a good bill. And if you’re a conservative, you know, I think you want to curb the spending and remove the woke. And all these appropriation bills do just that.”

Zinke does not expect the Democratic-controlled Senate to think much of the bill that would eventually emerge from the lower chamber. He was blunt in his assessment of the upper chamber. 

“Looking at what the Senate passed, I don’t think the Senate is going to like our bill at all . . . the Senate in many ways, I think, is too old and too fat on pork to change.“

The bill comes amid a looming shutdown threat if the government is not funded past September 30. Lawmakers have until then to fund the government or pass a short-term stopgap continuing resolution. Zinke says it is up to the House to do its job in passing its appropriations bills, and then it’s in the hands of the Senate.

“We need to get two or three or four appropriations done, and that’s enough just to begin the reconciliation process to get the bills in shape where they become law. But if the Senate doesn’t take them up, the shutdown is going to be squarely on their lap, because we’ll do our job.”

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He also emphasized the importance of the appropriations process over tools like continuing resolutions.

“These firewalls we’ve built over time, continuing resolutions and mandatory and discretionary, all these clever terms, I think have drawn us away from our primary duty of appropriations, and they are conveniences that allowed Congress to punt all these years,” he said. 

“And now we’re going down to the one-inch line. I don’t think we can punt anymore. We’ve got to take the hard call.”