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Legendary political strategist James Carville argued Saturday that the White House has little confidence in President Biden after he turned down a Super Bowl Sunday interview.

Biden recently declined to take part in the Super Bowl Sunday interview for the second year in a row. The interview is a tradition that began in 2009 with President Obama.

The interview is generally seen as a way for the president to connect with a massive audience that doesn’t usually tune into political conferences. Last year, the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles saw 115 million viewers.

‘BIDENOMICS’ FALLS FLAT WITH VOTERS AS TRUMP TAKES HUGE LEAD IN NEW POLL

Carville, a long-time Democrat, gave his take on the situation while being interviewed on CNN on Saturday.

“It’s the biggest television audience, not even close, and you get a chance to do a 20-, 25-minute interview on that day,” Carville began.

“And you don’t do it? That’s a kind of sign that the staff or yourself doesn’t have much confidence in you,” Carville continued. “There’s no other way to read this.”

Biden is not the first president to turn down the chance to speak to Super Bowl audiences. In 2018, President Trump declined to sit down with NBC for a Super Bowl interview.

The consultant also opined about Biden’s advanced age, days after the president held a press conference about his mental competence. 

JAMES CARVILLE ADVISES DEMOCRATS NOT TO ‘TELL PEOPLE HOW GREAT THIS ECONOMY IS’

“And he’s not going to do debates,” Carville said. “He is old, I know what it is because I’m almost as old as he is, and it’s never going to get better.”

On Thursday, Biden lashed out at reporters in a press conference after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report doubting the president’s mental acuity.

“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden said to a question asked by Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy. “I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”

“How bad is your memory? And can you continue as president?” Doocy asked. 

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“My memory is so bad [that] I let you speak,” Biden fired back. 

Fox News Digital’s David Rutz and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump mocked fellow Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley during a speech Saturday by asking why her husband hasn’t been on the campaign trail — even though he is deployed.

Michael Haley, who serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard, began his year-long deployment to Africa in June. He serves as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.

Trump was seemingly unaware of his deployment when he started questioning his whereabouts during a campaign stop in Conway, South Carolina, on Saturday.

HALEY CHARGES NEVADA GOP CAUCUS ‘RIGGED’ FOR TRUMP

The former president began his rant by calling Haley a “birdbrain.”

“Birdbrain loves mass asylum,” Trump said, prompting laughter from the audience. “There’s nothing nice about her.”

“‘I will never run against President Trump. He’s a great president, the greatest president in my lifetime,'” Trump quoted Haley as saying. “She said, ‘I will never run against him.’”

“Then she comes over to see me at Mar-a-Lago…’Sir, I will never run against you.’ She brought her husband.”

FIRST ON FOX: HALEY’S LEFT COAST FUNDRAISING HAUL

The Trump Organization founder then turned his attention to Haley’s spouse.

“Where’s her husband?” Trump questioned. “Where is he? He’s gone. He knew, he knew.”

Haley did not mince words when she shot back at Trump two hours later in a social media post.

“Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about,” the former South Carolina governor wrote on X. 

“Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump and Haley campaigns for comment, but has not heard back.

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

Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, said special counsel Robert Hur’s report “validates” what he and many have known for years: President Biden has “serious issues.”

Hur, who had been tasked with investigating Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, described the president in a report this week as appearing like a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“It validates what most of us have known,” Jackson told Fox News Digital. “I’ve been saying since he was candidate Joe Biden that this man is not cognitively fit to be our president, our commander in chief and our head of state. I’ve been saying that over and over. 

“I watched the man every day, you know, in and around the West Wing for eight years when he was vice president. There’s a drastic, drastic difference between then and now.”

SPECIAL COUNSEL CALLS BIDEN ‘SYMPATHETIC, WELL-MEANING, ELDERLY MAN WITH A POOR MEMORY,’ BRINGS NO CHARGES

“Go back and look at the videos from whenever he was first vice president and compare them to now. It’s not even the same person,” Jackson added. “He’s got some serious issues. I’ve been saying that for a long time. Now that the report says that — the special counsel report came out and said exactly that. That was a special counsel appointed by the Biden DOJ, and they’re saying the same thing that I and many Americans have been saying for a long time now.”

Despite the rampant concern over his mental acuity, Biden told Americans from the White House Thursday evening his memory is “fine” and defended his re-election campaign, saying he is the “most qualified person in this country to be president.”

Biden’s address to the nation came just hours after Hur released his report, which did not recommend criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy that Hur said included “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”

Addressing Biden’s follow-up speech to the report, Jackson said the president made “all kinds of gaffes and proved in real time to the entire world that the report is accurate, that everything we’ve been thinking for the last three years is accurate.

“He’s cognitively unfit to be our commander in chief, and it’s going to be a problem for us,” Jackson said.

“It’s a real national security issue. I mean, it’s always been a national security issue, but it’s a national security issue that just gets worse by the day.

“We have lots of stuff going on overseas. Our adversaries absolutely, positively have no respect for us. They have no fear of us and our allies. I mean, they don’t trust us, and they don’t really know if we’re going to be there if something bad happens.”

Aside from Biden’s memory and mental acuity, Jackson said he believes the report “validates that the government has been weaponized for political purposes.”

“The Democrats have weaponized the government against Donald Trump. Anybody just has to beat Donald Trump for political purposes — the FBI, the DOJ,” he said.

Jackson, who previously served as the White House physician to former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, faced criticism from Obama for his critique of Biden’s cognitive health on the 2020 campaign trail.

BIDEN ‘DID NOT REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS VICE PRESIDENT,’ WHEN HIS SON BEAU DIED, DURING SPECIAL COUNSEL INTERVIEWS

In his 2022 memoir, Jackson detailed a “scathing” email he received from Obama about comments he had made on Twitter about Biden’s mental state when Biden was a presidential candidate.

“I have made a point of not commenting on your service in my successor’s administration and have always spoken highly of you both in public and in private. You always served me and my family well, and I have considered you not only a fine doctor and service member but also a friend,” Obama wrote in the email to Jackson.

“That’s why I have to express my disappointment at the cheap shot you took at Joe Biden via Twitter. It was unprofessional and beneath the office that you once held. It was also disrespectful to me and the many friends you had in our administration. You were the personal physician to the President of the United States as well as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. I expect better, and I hope upon reflection that you will expect more of yourself in the future.”

Last February, after Biden had his annual physical, Jackson told Fox News, “The majority of Americans can see that Biden’s mental health is in total decline. Yet there is no transparency from the White House on what’s going on, if anything, to address this issue and his inability to do his job.”

He also took issue at the time with there being no mention of the president undergoing a cognitive test amid his “deteriorating mental health.”

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“Nowhere in the report was there mention of Biden’s deteriorating mental health,” the GOP lawmaker said. “This is alarming, considering I have already sent three letters to the White House demanding that Biden receive a cognitive test and that the results be made public, all of which have been ignored. Everyone can see something is wrong — the cover-up needs to end.”

A Monmouth University poll released in October found that 76% of voters viewed Biden, who was 80 at the time, as “too old” to serve another term, compared to just 48% who said the same about Trump, 77.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Georgia lawmakers on Friday officially kicked off their investigation into allegations of misconduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.

Republican state Sen. Bill Cowsert opened a meeting of the state Senate Special Committee on investigations with a bombshell revelation that multiple whistleblowers from the Fulton County DA’s office have come forward to testify against their boss. He said they allege Willis misused state and federal funds — allegations that come after the embattled DA admitted to having a relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade that critics have called “improper.” 

“This is not a political witch hunt; this is a quest for the truth,” Cowsert said at Friday’s meeting, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

GOP REP SENDS MESSAGE TO TRUMP PROSECUTOR FANI WILLIS WITH CHEEKILY NAMED NEW BILL

Trump and attorneys for several of his co-defendants have said Willis should be disqualified over the allegations and all charges against them dismissed. 

In January, Trump co-defendant Michael Roman filed court documents alleging that Willis had been having an “improper” affair with Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute the 2024 GOP front-runner. Roman and his lawyers argue the relationship created a conflict of interest and that she benefited financially from it in the form of lavish vacations the two took using funds his law firm received for working the case.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE HITS TRUMP DA FANI WILLIS WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT

Willis has called the allegations “salacious” and said they have no “merit,” though she admitted in a court filing that she and Wade have been “professional associates and friends since 2019.” 

House Republicans have since subpoenaed Willis to testify on separate allegations that she misused federal funds and fired a whistleblower in her office. Responding, her office said, “These false allegations are included in baseless litigation filed by a holdover employee from the previous administration who was terminated for cause. The courts that have ruled found no merit in these claims. We expect the same result in any pending litigation.”

EMBATTLED DA FANI WILLIS FACES 4TH ACCUSATION TO DISQUALIFY HER FROM THE TRUMP CASE

Georgia Republicans are leading their own investigation over the objections of Democrats who say Willis’ critics are politically motivated. 

“I think a political witch hunt or show trial would damage Georgians’ faith in both our political and legal system,” Democratic state Sen. Gloria Butler said, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

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But Republicans have plowed ahead. “You lose the confidence of the public and the fairness of the criminal justice system if they think prosecutors are engaged in prosecution so their lovers can get rich,” Cowsert said. 

He indicated that Willis may be called to testify to the committee. “It’s not a given. I will certainly give her the opportunity, and if I were her, I would want to be heard,” he said. 

Fox News Digital’s Lawrence Richard and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy doubled down on his theory that Democrats will swap out President Biden with Michelle Obama on their party’s ticket following the release of the special counsel’s report. 

The bombshell findings from Special Counsel Robert Hur put a spotlight on Biden’s cognitive abilities, saying he would not bring charges against him in part because a jury would find him to be a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,” despite the acknowledgment that the classified documents were “willfully” obtained by Biden both as vice president and as a senator. 

Ramaswamy, who was outspoken on the campaign trail about the belief that the 81-year-old president will ultimately not be the Democratic nominee, told Fox News Digital the special counsel’s report marks the “convenient path” for Democrats to nominate the popular former first lady. 

FLASHBACK: DEMS RAN DEFENSE ON BIDEN’S AGE BEFORE SPECIAL COUNSEL PUT DAMNING SPOTLIGHT ON HIS ‘POOR MEMORY’

“The main obstacle stopping the Democratic Party is they have a Kamala Harris problem, which is to say that if they do sideline Biden, the natural person normally that would be the nominee, could be the vice president of that same sitting president. But that vice president is unable, I think, to effectively carry forward that job,” Ramaswamy said. “She didn’t make it to the Iowa caucus in the year that she ran, right, even and within her own party, let alone an issue with broader popularity in the country.”

“If race and gender are your basis for selecting someone for a job, and the identity of your party is tied to that temple of identity politics, then they will risk looking hypocritical if they sideline her after they sideline Biden. And I do think Michelle Obama offers them a convenient path out of that problem, somebody who checks the boxes that they need to have checked per their own ideology, while also selecting an alternative to Biden that they may view as more palatable in a general election . . . it’s looking increasingly like it’s not going to be Biden as the nominee. And I think that it should not be shocking to see someone like Michelle Obama take the role of the nomination,” Ramaswamy said.

BIDEN LASHES OUT AT REPORTERS ASKING ABOUT AGE CONCERNS AFTER SPECIAL COUNSEL REPORT: ‘THAT’S YOUR JUDGMENT!’ 

When asked about Hur’s decision not to bring charges against Biden, Ramaswamy said it signaled Biden’s “willingness” to eventually step aside. 

“I think that coincides within recent months [of] him saying things like, you know, other Democratic nominees could also be successful in the general,” Ramaswamy said. “So I think that we’re seeing a general trend towards what I predicted . . . which is that they would move Biden out of the way. And I think this is one more step in that direction.”

MICHELLE OBAMA COULD ‘SNEAK HER WAY’ INTO THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, NY POST COLUMNIST WARNS

Hur, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents, revealed that Biden had a “hazy” memory about when he was previously in office and when his son Beau died, which happened in 2015.

“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” the report states. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”

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“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,” the report continued. “And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”

These revelations, in addition to his recent slew of gaffes, continue to fuel concerns among some voters about the advanced age of Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history. His likely 2024 opponent, former President Trump, will turn 78 in June.

Nikki Haley on Saturday launches a two-week bus tour in South Carolina, leading up to her home state’s Feb. 24 Republican presidential primary, the next contest on the GOP nominating calendar.

“I’m so excited for the Beast of the Southeast Bus Tour,” the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in former President Donald Trump’s administration said on social media Friday.

Haley faces an uphill climb for the GOP nomination against her former boss, who is the commanding frontrunner as he bids a third straight time for the White House.

Trump will also be in the Palmetto state this weekend, returning to campaign in South Carolina for the first time in two months.

TRUMP HITS THE JACKPOT IN LAS VEGAS

After sweeping Nevada’s GOP presidential caucus Thursday, Trump had his eyes on South Carolina.

“Is there any way we can call the election,” a buoyant Trump asked supporters at a victory celebration in Las Vegas, pointing to his double-digit lead in the latest polls in the upcoming primary.

The Nevada caucus victory by the former president was never in doubt. Trump was the only major candidate in a contest run by a friendly state party in which only registered Republicans could vote.

Trump’s convincing win in Nevada, where 26 delegates were at stake, came hours after he won a landslide victory in a presidential caucus run by the U.S. Virgin Islands GOP.

And Thursday’s caucus in Nevada also came two days after he was a winner in Nevada’s state-run Republican presidential primary, even though he wasn’t on the ballot. 

Trump’s absence from the primary ballot wasn’t enough to provide a path to victory for Haley, who lost to a “none of these candidates” option by a more than two-to-one margin in a primary where no GOP convention delegates were at stake.

HALEY CHARGES NEVADA GOP CAUCUS ‘RIGGED’ FOR TRUMP

Voters casting ballots in the primary couldn’t write in Trump’s name, but they could vote for “none of these candidates.” And Trump supporters Fox News interviewed outside of polling stations said that is how they voted.

“So I’d like to congratulate none of the above,” Trump said on Thursday night as he mocked Haley. “I was one of them.”

Haley, who hadn’t campaigned in Nevada since October, downplayed this week’s primary and caucus in the Silver State, saying in a Fox News Digital interview in Los Angeles Wednesday that they weren’t “anything we were looking at” and charging that the caucus was “rigged” for Trump.

Trump won a majority of the vote in the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, and he topped Haley by 11 points a week later in the New Hampshire primary, when the nomination battle turned into a two-candidate race.

Haley, facing calls from some Republicans to end her White House bid, told supporters in California this week, “I’m in this for the long haul.”

FIRST ON FOX: HALEY’S LEFT COAST FUNDRAISING HAUL

While South Carolina is home for Haley, the former president enjoys the backing of the state’s governor, nearly the entire congressional delegation and scores of state lawmakers and local officials.

Veteran South Carolina-based Republican consultant Dave Wilson pointed to Trump’s “groundswell” in the state and highlighted the former president’s “ground forces.”

Wilson also noted that “Nikki Haley is reintroducing herself to South Carolina” because “almost a million people have moved into the statae since she was governor.”

But pointing to her undefeated electoral record, Wilson said, “Never underestimate Nikki Haley. Never count Nikki Haley out.”

Haley, looking ahead, reiterated that “our focus is on South Carolina, Michigan, Super Tuesday.”

WHAT NIKKI HALEY TOLD FOX DIGITAL ABOUT WHAT SHE NEEDS TO DO TO KEEP RUNNING

Michigan holds its primary Tuesday, Feb. 27, three days after the South Carolina Republican primary. Fifteen states, including the behemoths of California and Texas, hold contests a week later on Super Tuesday.

Haley’s two campaign stops on Wednesday in California were her first to date in any of the Super Tuesday states.

The trip also included a series of fundraisers. And as Fox News Digital first reported on Wednesday, Haley hauled in $1.7 million in fundraising during her two days in California.

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Haley told Fox News Digital that, when it comes to campaign finances, “we have been smart.”

And she touted that you don’t end up being “the last one standing against Donald Trump if you don’t manage your money well. So, yes, we are focused on making sure we have the resources.”

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

President Biden faced a grueling week with a damaging special counsel report questioning his mental sharpness as he simultaneously made several blunders that added to the problem. 

Biden has faced questions from critics over his cognitive abilities for some time, but recent days have amplified those concerns perhaps more than any other week in his presidency.

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, released Thursday, recommended no criminal charges against the president. The investigation, however, uncovered “evidence that Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”

The report also caused Biden and the White House headaches by raising concerns over his memory. It laid out how the president struggled to remember key details of his life during interviews with investigators, including when he served as vice president and when his son Beau passed away.

BIDEN’S FRENCH PRESIDENT GAFFE JUST THE LATEST INSTANCE OF HIS CONFUSION ABOUT LONG-DEAD PEOPLE

“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” the report stated. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”

“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,” it continued. “And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”

The investigators, who regarded Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” ultimately feared his lawyers would use his “limitations” in his defense if it went to trial. 

“In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall,” the report said.

BIDEN ‘DID NOT REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS VICE PRESIDENT,’ WHEN HIS SON BEAU DIED, DURING SPECIAL COUNSEL INTERVIEWS

In addition to the report laying out concerns about his “hazy” memory, Biden’s week was filled with gaffes that exacerbated the problem. One occurred as he defended his memory following the report when he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.”

Earlier that day, Biden spoke at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference and mixed up “red state and blue state” with “red state and green state” while giving his remarks.

“When I said — when I pushed these programs — I said I’m going to be the president of everybody we live in a red state or green state,” Biden said.

Before that, on Wednesday, Biden spoke at a New York fundraising event and claimed he talked to late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 2021 while recalling past conversations.

Biden said that Kohl asked him what he would say if he learned 1,000 people stormed the British Parliament in an attempt to prevent the next prime minister from assuming office.

Kohl, however, did not attend the annual meeting, as he had been dead for four years when it took place. Instead, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was at the gathering.

SPECIAL COUNSEL CALLS BIDEN ‘SYMPATHETIC, WELL-MEANING, ELDERLY MAN WITH A POOR MEMORY,’ BRINGS NO CHARGES

And on Sunday, Biden told a Las Vegas crowd he met with François Mitterrand, a French president who has been dead for 28 years. He made the mistake while retelling the story of a gathering with French President Emmanuel Macron at a G7 meeting shortly before he entered the White House.

“I sat down, and I said, ‘America’s back,'” Biden told the attendees. “And Mitterrand from Germany — I mean from France — looked at me and said …”

Biden then gathered his thoughts to complete the sentence: “Well, how long are you back for?”

Mitterrand, meanwhile, was France’s president from 1981 to 1995. He passed away in 1996.

Biden’s gaffes from this week accumulated faster than usual. However, he has a history of them involving deceased individuals, from referencing conversations with people who died before he was born to asking where they were during events.

In the fall of 2022, Biden told a group of supporters he spoke to the man who “invented” insulin. Insulin was co-discovered by Frederick Banting and John Macleod. Banting died in 1941, while Macleod passed away in 1935. Biden was born in 1942.

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In September 2022, Biden looked for the late Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski in a crowd while speaking at an event. She died in a car crash the month before.

And on the campaign trail in 2019, he told a group of donors that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died six years earlier, was worried about the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s leadership.

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

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.

A United Nations expert on torture is calling on the U.K. government to halt the possible extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the U.S., citing concerns that he would be at risk of treatment amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said in a press release that Assange “suffers from a long-standing and recurrent depressive disorder” and that he “is assessed as being at risk of committing suicide.”

The hearing for Assange’s possible final legal appeal challenging his extradition to the U.S. to face charges for publishing classified U.S. military documents will be held at the High Court in London on Feb. 20 and 21. If he is extradited to the U.S. after exhausting all his legal appeals, Assange would face trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and could be sentenced to up to 175 years in an American maximum-security prison.

“If extradited, he could be detained in prolonged isolation while awaiting trial, or as an inmate. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison,” Edwards said.

UK HIGH COURT SETS DATE FOR JULIAN ASSANGE’S FINAL APPEAL CHALLENGING US EXTRADITION

Assange, 52, is facing 17 charges for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the Espionage Act, and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

The charges were brought by the Trump administration’s Justice Department over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of cables leaked by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning detailing war crimes committed by the U.S. government in the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, Iraq and Afghanistan. The materials also exposed instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition.

WikiLeaks’ “Collateral Murder” video showing the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists, was also published 14 years ago.

“The risk of being placed in prolonged solitary confinement, despite his precarious mental health status, and to receive a potentially disproportionate sentence raises questions as to whether Mr. Assange’s extradition to the United States would be compatible with the United Kingdom’s international human rights obligations, particularly under article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as respective articles 3 of the U.N. Convention against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights,” Edwards said.

“Diplomatic assurances of humane treatment provided by the Government of the United States are not a sufficient guarantee to protect Mr. Assange against such risk,” Edwards said. “They are not legally binding, are limited in their scope, and the person the assurances aim to protect may have no recourse if they are violated.”

Assange, an Australian journalist and publisher, has been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden over allegations he raped two women because Sweden would not provide assurances it would protect him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped.

Last month, a group of Australian lawmakers wrote a letter to U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly demanding Assange’s U.S. extradition be halted over concerns about his safety and well-being. The letter asked the U.K. government to make an independent assessment of Assange’s risk of persecution.

AUSTRALIAN MPS PEN LETTER URGING UK GOVERNMENT TO STOP JULIAN ASSANGE’S US EXTRADITION, CITING HEALTH CONCERNS

A cross-party delegation of Australian lawmakers also visited Washington, D.C., last year and met with U.S. officials, members of Congress and civil rights groups to demand the charges against Assange be dropped. Multiple bipartisan efforts were also made last year by U.S. lawmakers who demanded Assange’s release.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also repeatedly called on the U.S. in the last year to end the prosecution of Assange.

No publisher had been charged under the Espionage Act until Assange, and many press freedom groups have said his prosecution sets a dangerous precedent intended to criminalize journalism. U.S. prosecutors and critics of Assange have argued WikiLeaks’ publication of classified material put the lives of U.S. allies at risk, but there is no evidence that anyone was put in danger as a result of the documents being published.

The editors and publishers of the U.S. and European outlets that worked with Assange on the publication of excerpts from more than 250,000 documents he obtained in the Cablegate leak — The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País  — wrote an open letter in 2022 calling for the U.S. to drop the charges against Assange.

The Obama administration elected not to indict Assange in 2013 over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of the classified cables because it would have had to also indict journalists from major news outlets who published the same materials. Former President Obama also commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was released later that year.

But the Justice Department under former President Trump later moved to indict Assange under the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.

“I call on the Government of the United Kingdom to carefully review Mr. Assange’s extradition order with a view to ensuring full compliance with the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of refoulement to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to take all the necessary measures to safeguard Mr. Assange’s physical and mental health,” Edwards said.

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Assange’s lawyer in the U.K., Jennifer Robinson, has previously said she fears he “would not survive if extradited to the U.S.”

Under the Trump administration, the CIA allegedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of sensitive agency hacking tools known as “Vault 7,” which were leaked to Wikileaks, Yahoo reported in 2021. The agency said the leak represented “the largest data loss in CIA history.”

The CIA was accused of having discussions “at the highest levels” of the administration about plans to assassinate Assange in London and allegedly followed orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo to draw up kill “sketches” and “options.” The agency also had advanced plans to kidnap and rendition Assange and had made a political decision to charge him, according to the Yahoo report.

WikiLeaks also published internal communications in 2016 between the Democratic National Committee and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign that revealed the DNC’s attempts to boost Clinton in that year’s Democratic primary.

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday announced he is launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate.

“I am running for the United States Senate — not to serve one party — but to stand up to both parties, fight for Maryland, and fix our nation’s broken politics,” the Republican said in a post on X. “It’s what I did as Maryland’s governor, and it’s exactly how I’ll serve Maryland in the Senate. Let’s get back to work.”

Hogan, a vocal GOP critic of former President Donald Trump who won election and re-election as governor in heavily blue Maryland, will be running for the seat opened up by the retiring three-term Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat, who before his election to the Senate in 2006 was a longtime congressman and state lawmaker. The state hasn’t elected a Republican senator in decades and more than a dozen Democrats – including Rep. David Trone and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks -are running to succeed Cardin.

“Fifty years ago, my father, Maryland Congressman Larry Hogan Sr. made a very tough decision. He became the first Republican to come out for the impeachment of President Nixon. He put aside party politics and his own personal considerations and he stepped up to do the right thing for Maryland and the nation,” Hogan said in a video released Friday. “Today, Washington is completely broken because that kind of leadership, that kind of willingness to put country over party has become far too rare.” 

HALEY ENDORSED BY EX-MARYLAND GOV. LARRY HOGAN, WHO WON’T RUN ON THIRD-PARTY TICKET

“My fellow Marylanders, you know me. For eight years, we proved that the toxic politics that divide our nation need not divide our state,” Hogan continued. “We overcame unprecedented challenges, cut taxes eight years in a row, balanced the budget and created a record surplus. And we did it all by finding common ground for the common good.” 

“The politicians in Washington seem to be more interested in arguing than actually getting anything done for the people they represent. Enough is enough,” Hogan added. “We can do so much better, but not if we keep electing the same kind of typical partisan politicians.” 

Hogan said he would “work with anyone who wants to do the people’s business” and that “we desperately need leaders willing to stand up to both parties.”

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The campaign announcement comes after Hogan recently endorsed Nikki Haley for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and stepped down from the leadership of the third party movement No Labels.

Hogan, a successful business leader before entering politics, seriously mulled a run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and made numerous trips in 2022 to New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary in the GOP nominating calendar.

But in March of last year, Hogan announced he wouldn’t seek his party’s nomination. At the time didn’t rule out a potential third-party run with No Labels.

During his last year as governor, Republican leaders in the nation’s capital and in Maryland heavily courted Hogan to run for the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.

But Hogan declined, saying in a news conference in February of that year that “as I have repeatedly said, I don’t aspire to be a United States senator.”

Fast-forward two years and Hogan is now running for the Senate.

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement that “Governor Hogan is a great leader for Maryland, and that’s why he remains overwhelmingly popular in the state. We look forward to welcoming him to the United States Senate.” 

The top super PAC supporting Senate Democrats quickly took aim at Hogan.

“It’s pretty simple – Larry Hogan’s Senate bid is nothing but a vanity project and a desperate attempt to cling to political relevancy,” Senate Majority PAC president JB Poersch argued in a statement.

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA – Former President Donald Trump railed against the “two-tiered system of justice” during his address at the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Pennsylvania, citing Special Counsel Richard Hur deciding against criminally charging President Biden. 

“We have a sick and corrupt, two-tiered system of justice in our country,” Trump said from a packed arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Friday evening. “Do I know better than anybody.”

“As an example, it was just announced that Joe Biden’s department of injustice will bring zero charges against crooked Joe, despite the fact that he willfully retained, willfully retained and disclosed drawers of ultra classified national security documents.”

FOREIGN OUTLETS PULL NO PUNCHES OVER BIDEN ‘CONFUSION’ AND ‘RAGE’ AFTER SURPRISE PRESS CONFERENCE

Hur had carried out a months-long investigation into Biden’s possession of classified documents, ultimately deciding against criminally charging the president. 

“We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” the report, released Thursday, states. “We would reach the same conclusion even if the Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.”

CONSERVATIVES RIP BIDEN AFTER CLASSIFIED DOCS PROBE DOESN’T CHARGE HIM, CITING ‘POOR MEMORY’: ’25TH AMENDMENT’

The special counsel also described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” with the president later that day holding a press conference to address concerns surrounding his mental clarity. 

Trump said that Biden is not protected by the Presidential Records Act as he was not president at the time of the documents, and argued the Democratic Party is trying to “spin the Biden document disaster into, an ‘Oh, but wasn’t Trump worse?”

‘BIDEN SEEMS LIKE THE DANGER,’ SAYS LIBERAL PROTESTER OUTSIDE PRESIDENT’S ELITE NYC FUNDRAISER 

“No, no no, Trump was peanuts in comparison. It was 50 years and he did a lot of it when he was a very young age. He was mentally a little bit better than he’s right now,” Trump said. 

BIDEN LASHES OUT AT REPORTERS ASKING ABOUT AGE CONCERNS AFTER SPECIAL COUNSEL REPORT: ‘THAT IS YOUR JUDGMENT!’

In Florida, Trump was charged with allegedly mishandling classified documents following his presidency, and he is scheduled to face trial on May 20. Trump said during the NRA event that he is covered “by the very important Presidential Records Act and, therefore, I did absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing.”

Trump, the 2024 Republican frontrunner, was in Harrisburg to double down on his support of the Second Amendment, warning that if Biden wins re-election, “your gun rights will be gone.”

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“They’ll be totally gone. And the sad part of that is, the bad guys aren’t giving up their guns. The bad guys aren’t. But the good people aren’t giving up their guns either, because there’s never going to be anybody that’s going to be asking. And when I’m re-elected, every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office. Perhaps by the first day.” 

Hillary Clinton was interrupted Friday by pro-Palestinian protesters decrying policies she supported when she was Secretary of State in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013. 

“Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, you are a war criminal!” a man shouted as the former secretary of state walked onto a lecture hall stage at Columbia University in New York City. 

“The people of Libya, the people of Iraq, the people of Syria, the people of Yemen, the people of Palestine as well as the people of America will never forgive you,” he continued as Keren Yarhi-Milo, dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, took the microphone, asking to have him removed while Clinton waited with a bemused look. 

BIDEN INTERRUPTED BY PROTESTERS FOR SECOND TIME IN TWO DAYS AS HE RECEIVES UAW ENDORSEMENT

As he was taken out of the room, he repeatedly shouted “Free, free Palestine!” and “You will burn!” 

The former first lady then tried to begin her speech about conflict-related sexual violence, noting, “Yelling doesn’t solve the problem,” when she was interrupted by a second protester. 

HILLARY CLINTON CALLS TRUMP’S EFFORT TO KILL BORDER BILL A ‘REAL DANGER’: ‘THAT’S WHAT AUTHORITARIANS DO’

She tried to talk over the protester but then gave up as more appeared to join in, saying, “OK, we’re going to stop a minute. You know what, why don’t all of you just interrupt me so that you won’t be interrupting our panelists so that we don’t have this kind of disruption when we have people who are real experts in this area.”

She added, “People are free to protest, but they are not free to disrupt events or classes and that is going to be the standards that we follow here and going forward.”

The former Democratic presidential nominee was giving a speech to the Columbia Center for Global Policy, which she chairs. 

In November, Clinton was also confronted by pro-Palestinian protesters outside the class she teaches at the university.  

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Video shared on X showed Clinton walking past a common area of Columbia University’s International Affairs Building as demonstrators chant, “Hillary, Hillary you can’t hide, you are supporting genocide!” 

The protest, staged outside the lecture, was said to have disrupted a class taught by the former first lady and Secretary of State called “Inside the Situation Room.”

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration has confirmed that terms like “MAGA,” “Trump” and “Kamala” were included in the push by federal investigators for banks to surveil private financial transactions following the Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the U.S. Capitol, a letter obtained by Fox News Digital reveals.

The letter, sent Friday from the Treasury Department to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, notes that “Exchange events” convened by its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, “began shortly after January 6 under the prior Administration,” and “included terms such as ‘antifa,’ ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump,’ ‘Biden,’ ‘Kamala,’ ‘Schumer,’ and ‘Pelosi.’”

This marks the first time the Biden administration has gone on the record to confirm some of the keywords included in the Jan. 6-related push by investigators.

GUN RIGHTS GROUP URGES SENATORS TO PREWSS YELLEN OVER TREAUSRY TARGETING GUN TRANSACTIONS

The letter, signed by Acting Assistant Secretary Corey Tellez, comes in response to a letter sent by Scott to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding answers from the Department and FinCEN after revelations of the surveillance using “politically charged search terms” to flag customer profiles to federal law enforcement surfaced.

In his letter, Scott wrote that the surveillance “represents a flagrant violation of Americans’ privacy and the improper targeting of U.S. citizens for exercising their constitutional rights without due process.”

Scott previously voted for the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, which codified the FinCEN Exchange program to facilitate the sharing of data between law enforcement and financial institutions in an effort to combat crimes like money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

GOP CAMPAIGN ARM LAUNCHES MEDIA BLITZ AGAINST DEMS WHO OPPOSED VIOLENT CRIME BILL AS CRISIS IN DC SPIRALS

Fox News Digital’s exclusive report on the surveillance revealed that FinCEN provided materials to financial institutions suggesting they search and filter Americans’ financial data using keywords and search terms, as well as merchant category codes to aid law enforcement in identifying persons of interest ahead of the Jan. 20, 2021 inauguration — weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protests.

The terms and codes were discovered as part of a House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government investigation. The committees obtained documents indicating that MCC codes were used to query transactions like: “3484: Small Arms,” “5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies” and the keywords “Cabela’s,” “Dick’s Sporting Goods” and “Bass Pro Shops,” among others.

The House Judiciary Committee also obtained documents revealing that FinCEN warned financial institutions that an “extremism indicator” could be “the purchase of books (including religious texts),” like the Bible, and subscriptions to certain media “containing extremist views.”

‘SQUAD’S’ JAMAAL BOWMAN HONORED RADICAL BLACK ACTIVIST, CONVICTED MURDERER ON MIDDLE SCHOOL’S ‘WALL OF HONOR’

Sources familiar told Fox News Digital last month that the search terms, like “MAGA” and “Trump,” were generated by a bank and used to help them identify suspicious transactions when reviewing customer transactional information. It is unclear which bank generated the search terms. 

The sources said FinCEN then shared those terms with other banks to help those financial institutions to comply with their own suspicious activity reports. However, beyond the terms identified by the House Judiciary Committee, the unnamed bank generated other terms, which FinCEN shared with other banks, the sources told Fox News Digital. 

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The source said the additional search terms included: “White Power,” “Camp Auschwitz,” “Antifa,” “Proud B,” “Storm, the,” “Capitol,” “Groyper Army,” “Threepers,” “boogaloo,” “civil war,” “last sons,” “kill,” “shoot,” “gun,” “death,” “murder,” “Biden,” “Kamala,” “Pelosi,” “Schumer” and “Pence.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Scott for comment.

The resignation of a Republican lawmaker in the previously deadlocked Pennsylvania House of Representatives has put the balance of power back to Democrats, ahead of a special election next week for another vacant position.

Rep. Joe Adams, R-Pike, resigned on Friday, saying previously that medical news had changed his focus.

“It has been an honor to serve you, the citizens of Pike and Wayne counties, in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,” he said in a prepared statement. “Taking care of my family, understandably, must now be my priority. I will continue to work locally to help our community, its organizations, businesses and people.”

PA GOV. SHAPIRO TO PRESENT BUDGET PROPOSAL FOCUSING ON EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

The freshman lawmaker’s resignation leaves the state House at a 101-100 Democratic majority. A Democrat’s resignation last year had the House deadlocked at 101-101, and a special election next week will fill that vacancy. Republicans control the state Senate, while Gov. Josh Shapiro is a Democrat.

Adams’ seat represents Pike and Wayne counties, in the northeastern part of the state. He won election in 2022 with about 63% of the vote over his Democratic challenger. Republicans have edged out their Democratic opponents in recent elections, with former President Donald Trump winning the area in 2020.

The resignation queues up another special election for the chamber, which will be scheduled as early as two months from now. Three special elections in the past year have determined party control of the chamber.

Next week’s special election in Bucks County, for a seat that has historically favored Democrats, will now either strengthen Democrats’ hold, or return the chamber to a deadlock until the election for Adams’ seat.

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In a statement, a spokesperson for the Speaker of the House said information about the election would be forthcoming.

Some Senate Republicans are pushing to get stricter border security measures added to the foreign aid bill after tanking the bipartisan immigration deal.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Thursday filed an amendment to add hardline border security measures to the foreign aid standalone national security supplemental package that would send billions to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

“It is important that Russia lose and [Vladimir] Putin lose, but it is even more urgent that we defend our nation first. I will fund military aid to Ukraine, but only after we enact meaningful measures to secure America’s own border,” Cruz told Fox News Digital. 

Cruz’s amendment is identical to H.R. 2, known as the “Secure the Border Act,” the border security bill that the House passed last year to restore most Trump-era policies and reform asylum.

It’s considered a “nonstarter” by Democrats in the upper chamber, making the likelihood of passage very low. It’s unclear whether the amendment will even get a vote.

SENATE REPUBLICANS PREPARE FOR LONG HAUL IN FIGHT OVER UKRAINE, ISRAEL AID

“H.R. 2 is the only serious border legislation that has been considered this Congress, and it contains real solutions for the border crisis like building the wall, tightening asylum standards, reinstating the remain in Mexico policy, increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, and more,” Cruz said. 

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would permit Republicans to offer amendments, though the schedule is still up in the air.

“I hope our Republican colleagues can work with us to reach an agreement on amendments so we can move this process along,” Schumer said on the floor Friday. “Democrats are willing to consider reasonable and fair amendments here on the floor as we’ve shown on many occasions in the past three years. Nevertheless, the Senate will keep working on this bill until the job is done.” 

Behind the scenes, though, several aides told Fox News Digital on Friday that they had “no idea” what’s going on, as the “schedule is still very much in flux.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also expressed support for adding H.R. 2 to the package in a post on X. 

Cornyn voted against the inclusion of the long-awaited bipartisan border bill in the foreign aid package on Wednesday, but indicated he could support the Ukraine aid without any border security measures.

“This bill is far from perfect,” Cornyn wrote. “I am disappointed the Senate’s border proposal fell woefully short of actually securing our border, & I am pushing to add HR2 to this legislation. But we can’t let President Biden’s abysmal border policy prevent us from supporting our troops & allies.”

Senators sunk the passage of the revised national security supplemental package this week in a 49-50 vote, which included a bipartisan border bill that Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz.; and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., negotiated in collaboration with Biden officials. 

SENATE TANKS IMMIGRATION, FOREIGN AID SPENDING PACKAGE AFTER GOP BACKLASH AGAINST BORDER PROVISIONS

After the national security supplemental with border provisions failed, Schumer brought the $95 billion foreign aid bill to the floor as plan B, which advanced in a 67-32 cloture vote Wednesday. 

The package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and nearly $5 billion for the Indo-Pacific.

Numerous Republicans previously said they would not approve additional funding for Ukraine unless the overwhelmed southern border was secured first.

The Senate will hold more procedural votes Friday and over the weekend. Votes are also expected on Super Bowl Sunday, and aides told Fox News Digital the vote for final passage is possible on Tuesday.

ISRAEL, UKRAINE FOREIGN AID BILL CLEARS FIRST HURDLE IN SENATE WITHOUT BORDER AND IMMIGRATION PROVISIONS

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Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a strong proponent of supporting Ukraine, advocated funding for Ukraine and voted to advance the bill, but drew criticism from party members who urged lawmakers not to pass foreign aid without securing the border first. 

After senators voted to shoot down the border bill, McConnell said he “followed the instructions” of the GOP conference “who were insisting that we tackle this in October.” 

“I mean, it’s actually our side that wanted to tackle the border issue,” McConnell said this week.

Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said that Attorney General Merrick Garland is at a crossroads after Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Hur declined to charge President Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents because of his mental state. 

Hur’s report, which was made public on Thursday, found that after a months-long investigation, Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,” but he concluded that no criminal charges were warranted, because based on “direct interactions with and observations of” the president, Hur and his team said “[i]t would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

Hawley, who also served as attorney general of Missouri from 2017 to 2019, said Friday that Garland “can’t have it both ways” by not charging the president and also declining to recommend invoking Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which authorizes the vice president and a majority of the president’s cabinet or Congress to decide whether the president is unable to perform their duties. 

“I’m calling on [Garland] publicly now to do what I think is required under the law in the Constitution . . . either charge the president, or he will go to the cabinet and tell them, ‘I believe we have to invoke the 25th Amendment.’ He’s got to do one or the other,” Hawley told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

BIDEN SAYS HIS MEMORY IS ‘FINE,’ HE IS ‘MOST QUALIFIED PERSON IN THIS COUNTRY’ TO BE PRESIDENT

“If he doesn’t, it will just confirm what everybody thinks, which is that there are two tiers of justice and that Garland himself is completely complicit in the corruption of this administration,” Hawley said. 

Hawley noted that every prosecutor has to weigh whether they can get a conviction, which ultimately informs the charging decision. 

But in Hawley’s view, what is “unique” in Hur’s case is that he concluded that the elements of a crime were present, but chose not to charge based on the president’s mental state.

“He concluded that the elements of a crime were present, namely that the president had willfully retained and disclosed classified information, so he knew it. I mean, the report makes it very clear he knew that it was classified information, this was done over years and decades — not just a couple of months — and he willfully did it,” says Hawley. 

“But he ultimately recommends against prosecution, not because he didn’t do it, but because, basically, Biden is mentally unfit to be prosecuted. Because he doesn’t think that he can get a jury to ultimately convict, because the president is so mentally unstable,” Hawley added. 

BIDEN ‘DID NOT REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS VICE PRESIDENT,’ WHEN HIS SON BEAU DIED, DURING SPECIAL COUNSEL INTERVIEWS

Garland has ultimate authority over whether to agree with Hur’s recommendations or to pursue charges against the president. 

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Hawley says that Garland’s “only recourse,” should he decide not to press charges — noting that DOJ brought charges against former president Donald Trump on “precisely the same grounds — is to go to the rest of Biden’s cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment. 

“It can’t be that . . . ‘He’s totally fit to continue in office, but we’re not going to prosecute him.’ I mean, that’s just — that would be the most brazen miscarriage of justice and degradation of the rule of law,” Hawley charged. 

TRUMP DEMANDS DOJ ‘IMMEDIATELY’ DROP CHARGES AGAINST HIM IN CLASSIFIED DOCS CASE AFTER BIDEN DECISION

President Biden in a press conference late Thursday night addressed the report, saying his memory is “fine,” and defended his re-election campaign, adding that he is “the most qualified person in this country to be president.”

Hur described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” 

Biden said Thursday night that he agreed. 

“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden said. “I’ve been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”

Biden added: “My memory is fine.”

Meanwhile, Hur said in the report that Biden, during his interview with the special counsel’s team, could not remember key details, such as when he was vice president. 

“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” the report states. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”

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“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,” the report continued. “And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”

“In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall,” the report said.

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

Hawley’s comments come after Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., sent a letter to Garland Thursday night, sharing her “grave concerns” following Hur’s report.

“After concluding that President Biden knowingly and willfully removed, mishandled, and disclosed classified documents repeatedly over a period of decades, Mr. Hur nevertheless recommended that charges not be brought against him,” Tenney wrote. “Special Counsel’s reasoning was alarming.”

Fox News Digtial’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump made a crucial endorsement in the Montana Senate race for “American Hero” and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy.

The 2024 GOP Senate primary in Montana has attracted a lot of attention, as Republicans seek to nominate the best GOP candidate to oust Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., in a race that could determine the chamber majority. For Trump, that candidate is Sheehy.

“I LOVE MONTANA!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. “Tim Sheehy is an American Hero and highly successful Businessman from the Great State of Montana. He is strongly supported by our incredible Chairman of the NRSC, Steve Daines, and many other patriotic Senators and Republicans who have endorsed our Campaign to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump’s highly coveted endorsement comes the same day Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., who voted to overturn the 2020 election for the former president, announced he was running for the Montana Senate seat.

POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES ENDORSEMENT IN KEY BATTLEGROUND SENATE RACE: ‘ACCOMPLISHES MISSIONS’

The former president said that while he respects Rosendale, “Tim is the candidate who is currently best-positioned to DEFEAT Lazy Jon Tester.”

CONSERVATIVE FIREBRAND ANNOUNCES RUN FOR KEY BATTLEGROUND SENATE RACE BEING TARGETED BY DEMS

“I also respect Matt Rosendale, and was very happy to Endorse him in the past – and will Endorse him again in the future should he decide to change course and run for his Congressional Seat. But in this instance, Tim is the candidate who is currently best-positioned to DEFEAT Lazy Jon Tester, and Regain the Republican Majority in the United States Senate,” Trump said. 

“Tim is a Political Outsider, Strong on the Border, the Military/Vets, and our constantly under siege Second Amendment. He will stand tall in the fight against the Radical Left Democrats, who are Destroying our Country. Also, he is far more likely to Defeat Lazy Jon. America First Patriot Tim Sheehy has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

Sheehy said he is “proud and honored” to have the endorsement of the former president.

“I’m incredibly proud and honored to have the support of President Donald J. Trump as we fight to take back the Senate and defeat Jon Tester,” Sheehy said in a statement. “As conservative political outsiders and successful businessmen, we will never surrender to the radical Left who is destroying our country, and we will always fight for Montanans and put America First!

“Under President Trump’s leadership, our economy was booming, our border was secure, and America was respected on the world stage. Together, we will take on and defeat the Washington establishment and career politicians selling out our country, rebuild our economy, secure the border, retire Jon Tester and Joe Biden, and Make America Great Again!”

Rosendale also responded to Trump’s endorsement of his primary rival, writing that he is confident about winning the Republican primary.

“I love President Trump. But he needs actual fighters in the U.S. Senate to enact his Agenda 47 – and that’s me and not Mitch McConnell’s hand pick, Tim Sheehy,” Rosendale posted on X. “I’m going to win this primary, defeat Jon Tester in November, and together we will Make America Great Again!”

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Gov. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., also handed out an endorsement to Sheehy on Friday, joining Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Ted Budd, R-N.C., Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo., in backing the former Navy SEAL.

The Montana Senate primary will take place on June 4, 2024.

• Alex Zdan, a former News 12 New Jersey reporter known for his aggressive presentation and clashes with local politicians, has announced his intent to run as a Republican for embattled U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s seat.
• Zdan joins a comparatively crowded Republican field that includes Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner and businessman Curtis Bashaw.
• High-profile Democrats, most notably South Jersey-area Rep. Andy Kim and New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy, have also launched primary challenges against an embattled Menendez.

A former TV news reporter known for his aggressive on-camera demeanor is getting into New Jersey’s U.S. Senate race as a Republican candidate for the seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who’s facing federal corruption charges.

Alex Zdan, 38, a former news reporter for News 12 New Jersey, announced his candidacy Friday in an online video showing him at the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona, where he called for an end to illegal border crossings in what has emerged as a major campaign theme for Republican candidates nationwide. The video depicts gaps in the border fence.

MENENDEZ ATTORNEYS ALLEGE FBI ‘ILLEGALLY’ SEARCHED, ‘RANSACKED’ HOME, SEIZING GOLD BARS AND $500,000 CASH

Zdan joins a GOP field that is quickly filling with candidates, including Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner and southern New Jersey businessman Curtis Bashaw on the GOP side. New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1972, but Republicans are hoping the turmoil surrounding Menendez gives them a pickup opportunity in the narrowly divided chamber.

The Democratic primary remains unsettled, with Menendez not yet saying if he’ll seek reelection even as he has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he took bribes in exchange for helping foreign countries. He’s vowed to fight the charges, though many of his fellow Democrats have abandoned him and some have said he should resign.

A contest between New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy and Rep. Andy Kim is taking center stage, though other Democrats, including civil rights activists Lawrence Hamm and labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina, have also stepped into the ring.

Zdan left TV journalism after being laid off during cutbacks at News 12 late last year. He frequently clashed with Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy during the governor’s COVID-19 news conferences, asking aggressive questions, and got attention in 2020 when he told a Trump supporter who interrupted a news report to “buzz off.”

In a phone interview, Zdan said it’s time for a new generation of conservative leaders focused on winning working class and multicultural voters and that he decided to move from journalism to politics because he views reporting as a public service.

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“If you know me and you know my energy and my abilities and my desire to serve and make people’s lives better, it kind of makes sense to go from the anchor desk to the floor of Congress,” he said.

A campaign call in support of President Biden did not go as planned after reporters asked a series of questions regarding recent reports of the president’s failing memory.

In what was supposed to be a conference call about former President Trump and his upcoming speech to the National Rifle Association, press officials asked reporters to stay on topic after questions veered to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s recent report.

“Sen. Fetterman, I was hoping to ask you a question given some of the recent news,” the first reporter said to Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. “You faced questions about your health during the campaign. I’m wondering what you think the Biden campaign needs to do today to respond to what special counsel Hur said in his report and the new concerns surrounding his fitness for office.”

NO CHARGES FOR BIDEN AFTER SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE INTO IMPROPER HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

“Of course, the president was very clear that he is absolutely in full control. And you really have to remember this, too. You have a Trump appointee now that’s 350 pages to just say that Joe Biden isn’t going to be indicted here too,” the Democratic senator responded. “It was just a smear and cheap shots and just taking things out of context or even just inventing any of them. You don’t need 350 pages to say that we’re not going to have these kinds of changes. So clearly, there is an agenda there.”

That question was followed by another on the same topic. “How can the current discussion around Biden’s age impact your Democratic colleagues running in Congress who are also elderly?” the next reporter asked.

“Yes. Okay. We know President Biden is old, okay?,” responded Democratic Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost.

BIDEN ‘DID NOT REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS VICE PRESIDENT,’ WHEN HIS SON BEAU DIED, DURING SPECIAL COUNSEL INTERVIEWS

He continued, “But it doesn’t sound like breaking news to me. But what sounds like news to me is, number one, 15 million jobs being created, wages being up, inflation coming down. That sounds like news.”

Hur has been investigating Biden’s improper retention of classified records since last year. The papers included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other national security and foreign policy records, which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”

The report contained an eye-opening portion on how Biden struggled to remember when he served as vice president in the Obama administration while being interviewed for the investigation. Additionally, Hur’s office believed Biden’s lawyers would use those “limitations” in his recall if it went to trial.

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“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” the report states. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”

“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,” the report continued. “And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”

Hur announced he would not seek criminal charges against Biden.

Fox News Digital’s Joe Schoffstall, Brooke Singman, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.