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President-elect Trump says he should be the one to make the decision on whether TikTok can continue operating in the United States due to the unique national security and First Amendment issues raised by this case, he said in an amicus brief Friday.

Trump’s argument comes in an amicus brief “supporting neither party,” filed Friday, weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments on Jan. 10, 2025 on the law that requires a divestment of TikTok from foreign adversary control.

TIKTOK DIVESTMENT COULD BE ‘DEAL OF THE CENTURY’ FOR TRUMP, HOUSE CHINA COMMITTEE CHAIR SAYS

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company based in Beijing and connected to the Chinese Communist Party. 

“Today, President Donald J. Trump has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to extend the deadline that would cause TikTok’s imminent shutdown, and allow President Trump the opportunity to resolve the issue in a way that saves TikTok and preserves American national security once he resumes office as President of the United States on January 20, 2025,” Trump spokesman and incoming White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital.

“President Donald J. Trump (“President Trump”) is the 45th and soon to be the 47th President of the United States of America,” the brief states. “On January 20, 2025, President Trump will assume responsibility for the United States’ national security, foreign policy, and other vital executive functions.”

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Trump argues that “this case presents an unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national-security concerns on the other.” “As the incoming Chief Executive, President Trump has a particularly powerful interest in and responsibility for those national-security and foreign-policy questions, and he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means.

President Trump also has a unique interest in the First Amendment issues raised in this case,” the brief states. “Through his historic victory on November 5, 2024, President Trump received a powerful electoral mandate from American voters to protect the free-speech rights of all Americans—including the 170 million Americans who use TikTok.”

“President Trump is uniquely situated to vindicate these interests, because ‘the President and the Vice President of the United States are the only elected officials who represent all the voters in the Nation,’” the brief continues.

WILL TRUMP WHITE HOUSE RESCUE TIKTOK FROM LOOMING BAN? PRESIDENT-ELECT HAS DONE A 180 ON THE APP

Trump argues that due to his “overarching responsibility for the United States’ national security and foreign policy— President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”

“On September 4, 2024, President Trump posted on Truth Social, ‘FOR ALL THOSE THAT WANT TO SAVE TIK TOK IN AMERICA, VOTE TRUMP!’” the brief states.

Trump argues that he “alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government—concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged.”

“Indeed, President Trump’s first Term was highlighted by a series of policy triumphs achieved through historic deals, and he has a great prospect of success in this latest national security and foreign policy endeavor,” the brief states.

Trump notes that the 270-day deadline imposed by the new TikTok law “expires on January 19, 2025—one day before President Trump will assume office as the 47th President of the United States.”

The TikTok Inc. building is seen in Culver City, Calif., on March 17, 2023.  (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

That legislation, which was signed into law in the spring, requires a sale of TikTok from ByteDance by Jan. 19. If ByteDance does not divest by the deadline, Google and Apple are no longer able to feature TikTok in their app stores in the U.S.

“This unfortunate timing interferes with President Trump’s ability to manage the United States’ foreign policy and to pursue a resolution to both protect national security and save a social-media platform that provides a popular vehicle for 170 million Americans to exercise their core First Amendment rights,” the brief states. “The Act imposes the timing constraint, moreover, without specifying any compelling government interest in that particular deadline.”

Trump points to the law, which “contemplates a 90-day extension to the deadline under certain specified circumstances.”

JOURNALISTS, COMMENTATORS RESPOND AS TRUMP JOINS TIKTOK, RAPIDLY GAINS 10X MORE FOLLOWERS THAN BIDEN

Supreme Court Justices said they will hold a special session on Jan. 10 to hear oral arguments in the case — an expedited timeline that will allow them to consider the case just nine days before the Jan. 19 ban is slated to take effect. The law allows the president to extend the deadline by up to 90 days if ByteDance is in the process of divesting.

“President Trump, therefore, has a compelling interest as the incoming embodiment of the Executive Branch in seeing the statutory deadline stayed to allow his incoming Administration the opportunity to seek a negotiated resolution of these questions,” the brief states. “If successful, such a resolution would obviate the need for this Court to decide the historically challenging First Amendment question presented here on the current, highly expedited basis.”

TikTok and ByteDance filed an emergency application to the high court earlier this month asking justices to temporarily block the law from being enforced while it appealed a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

A view of the U.S. Supreme Court Building.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Lawyers for TikTok have argued that the law passed earlier this year is a First Amendment violation, noting in their Supreme Court request that “Congress’s unprecedented attempt to single out applicants and bar them from operating one of the most significant speech platforms in this nation” and “presents grave constitutional problems that this court likely will not allow to stand.”

TikTok, last year, created its “Project Texas” initiative, which is dedicated to addressing concerns about U.S. national security.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says “Project Texas” creates a stand-alone version of the TikTok platform for the U.S. isolated on servers in Oracle’s U.S. cloud environment. It was developed by CFIUS and cost the company approximately $1.5 billion to implement.

Chew has argued that TikTok is not beholden to any one country, though executives in the past have admitted that Chinese officials had access to Americans’ data even when U.S.-based TikTok officials did not. TikTok claims that the new initiative keeps U.S. user data safe, and told Fox News Digital that data is managed “by Americans, in America.”

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Trump has signaled support for TikTok. Earlier this month, he met with Chew at Mar-a-Lago, telling reporters during a press conference ahead of the meeting that his incoming administration will “take a look at TikTok” and the looming U.S. ban.

“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump told reporters.

Arizona’s top law enforcement officer said in a recent interview she is unafraid to stand up to President-elect Trump on immigration enforcement.

Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes told the U.K.’s Guardian any plans to construct deportation centers, which she previously called “concentration camps,” in the Grand Canyon State would be a nonstarter.

Mayes defended Dreamers, beneficiaries of the Obama-era DACA program, saying any federal attempts to send them to their home countries would be “a bright red line for me.”

“I will not stand for an attempt to deport them or undermine them,” Mayes said. “I will do everything I can legally to fight [family separation or construction of deportation camps].

MD MAYOR PUSHING IMMIGRANT LEGAL ADVOCACY FUND TO REBUFF TRUMP AGENDA

President Trump and Thomas Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, talk during a law enforcement roundtable on sanctuary cities in the Roosevelt Room at the White House March 20, 2018, in Washington, D.C.  (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“Not on our soil.”

The Dreamer moniker originates from the DREAM Act — Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. It was first proposed by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 2001 and has been reintroduced in several succeeding sessions of Congress by Durbin but has never become law.

Most recently, it was proposed in 2023 by Durbin and his Republican counterpart in Senate Judiciary Committee leadership, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Former President Obama borrowed pieces of the legislation when he instituted DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Trump previously tried to get rid of DACA but was stopped by the Supreme Court in DHS v. University of California.

MARYLAND GOVERNOR DEFENDS $190K TRUMP-CENTRIC CONSULTANT CONTRACT AS PRESIDENT-ELECT MOVES IN NEXT DOOR

“I think the Supreme Court will ultimately see the merits of protecting them,” Mayes said of Dreamers. 

“We want to give the courts the opportunity to make the right decision here, and we’ll be making very strong arguments on that proposition.”

In previous comments reported by the Arizona Mirror, Mayes said the issue with mass deportation proposals from people like Trump and “border czar”-designate Tom Homan is that they can lead to abuses of the system.

Mayes has said she wants to see violent criminal offenders and drug cartel members removed from the U.S.

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Kris Mayes (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

In the Guardian interview, Mayes credited near-complete border-state cooperation on the matter of immigration.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Mayes are “united,” she said, adding Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is the one border state lawman who is not.

“[W]e are going to fight for due process and for individual rights,” she said of herself, Torrez and Bonta.

Mayes also acknowledged the fentanyl crisis and a porous border, saying Arizonans rightly want it rectified.

She reportedly said more federal resources should be spent on additional Border Patrol and prosecutions of cartel-connected people, as opposed to Trump’s idea of using the National Guard to help deport illegal immigrants.

“[W]hen Arizonans voted for Donald Trump, they did not vote to shred the Arizona and U.S. Constitution [and] I strongly believe that,” she told the Guardian.

Fox News Digital reached out to Team Trump and some members of Arizona’s Republican congressional delegation for comment on Mayes’ Guardian interview but did not receive a response by press time. 

Following President Biden’s move to commute the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., called the clemency granted to two of the individuals “horribly misguided and insulting.”

In the 37 cases, Biden commuted the sentences to life sentences without the potential for parole.

Manchin — a Democrat-turned-independent senator who will soon leave office — said he felt a responsibility to speak out on behalf of the parents of Samantha Burns, who was slain in 2002 at the age of 19, according to reports. 

TRUMP PLEDGES TO BRING BACK FEDERAL EXECUTIONS AFTER BIDEN COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCES FOR 37 INMATES

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Special Diabetes Program on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2023. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for JDRF)

“After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting,” the lawmaker declared in a statement posted on X.

“Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden & the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this, but their concerns were unheard. I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season,” Manchin continued. “As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers.”

Brandon Basham is pictured after escaping from the Hopkins County Jail in Madisonville, Kentucky, on Nov. 4, 2002. He went on an interstate crime spree with fellow escapee Chadrick Fulks that included the murders of two women. (Ashland Police Department/Getty Images)

The two men connected with the young woman’s death escaped lockup and went on a crime spree in 2002, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

“On November 4, 2002, cellmates Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham escaped from a county detention facility in Kentucky” and “unleashed a criminal rampage that lasted seventeen days and zigzagged across several states,” according to the court, which noted that the men “admitted to killing Burns and pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in death in the Southern District of West Virginia.”

TRUMP HAS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO ‘RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS,’ TELLS INMATES BIDEN GRANTED CLEMENCY TO ‘GO TO HELL!’

Chadrick Fulks is escorted by U.S. Marshals out of the federal courthouse in Huntington, West Virginia, on April 12, 2005, following an arraignment on charges of carjacking resulting in the death of Marshall University student Samantha Burns, use of a firearm to commit a crime and interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle. (AP Photo/The Herald-Dispatch, Randy Snyder)

In a fiery Christmas Day post on Truth Social, President-elect Trump told the 37 individuals who escaped capital punishment to “GO TO HELL!” 

In a statement about the commutations, President Biden said, “I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.” 

OUTGOING SEN. JOE MANCHIN PUSHES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR SUPREME COURT TERM LIMITS

President Biden speaks at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 16. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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But he also said that he was “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said.

A Georgia judge has ruled that state lawmakers can subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of an inquiry into whether she engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.

In his Dec. 23 order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram gave Willis until Jan. 13 to file a list of claimed privileges and objections to anything that has been subpoenaed.

Willis plans to appeal the decision. 

“We believe the ruling is wrong and will appeal,” former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who is representing Willis in the case, wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

GEORGIA APPEALS COURT DISQUALIFIES DA FANI WILLIS AND HER TEAM FROM TRUMP ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen in Atlanta.  (Alyssa Pointer, Getty Images)

Earlier this month, an appeals court removed Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Trump and others, citing an “appearance of impropriety.” The panel also cited the romantic relationship between Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

“This is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the court said. 

At the time, Trump called the case a “disgrace to justice.”

“It was started by the Biden DOJ as an attack on his political opponent, Donald Trump,” he said, “They used anyone and anybody, and she has been disqualified, and her boyfriend has been disqualified, and they stole funds and went on trips.” 

President-elect Donald Trump points at AmericaFest, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix. On Monday, Trump pledged to have the Justice Department pursue the death penalty following President Biden’s move to commute death sentences for 37 inmates.  (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

In August, the Republican-led Senate committee sent subpoenas to Willis seeking to compel her to testify in September. She skipped a hearing that month when lawmakers hoped to question her. 

The committee was formed to examine misconduct allegations against Willis during her prosecution of Trump over efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.

FANI WILLIS WAS ‘TERRIFIED’ BECAUSE HER CASE AGAINST TRUMP WAS ‘WEAK,’ ATTORNEY SAYS

Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.  (Getty Images)

Barnes, Willis’ attorney, argued the subpoenas were overly broad and not related to a legitimate legislative need and that the Senate committee didn’t have the power to subpoena her in the first place. 

One issue raised is that the Georgia legislative term will end when lawmakers are sworn in for their new term on Jan. 13. Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal said last week that he plans to file legislation to re-establish the committee at the beginning of the 2025 legislative session.

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“The law is clear, and the ruling confirms what we knew all along,” Dolezal wrote in a text Friday. “Judge Ingram rejected every argument made by Willis in her attempt to dodge providing testimony to the committee under oath. I look forward to D.A. Willis honoring the subpoena and providing documents and testimony to our committee.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Guatemala may accept more foreign nationals deported from the United States by the incoming Trump administration in an effort to strengthen ties to the U.S., according to a report.

Officials who spoke to Reuters said Guatemala is willing to receive deported citizens of other Central American countries – such as Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti – which have strained relationships with the U.S. and have not accepted deportees in the past. 

“There has to be a regional response,” one Guatemalan official told Reuters. “And we want to be part of the solution.”

The expectation is that Trump will keep his campaign promise to begin the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants in American history, and Guatemala wants to be in the president’s favor throughout that process. The officials are bracing for deportations to increase in the fall, reasoning that it will take time for the Trump administration ramp up its operations, according to Reuters. 

BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYS CHILDREN OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS COULD BE PUT IN HALFWAY HOMES

Guatemalan migrants pictured after arriving at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S., in Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 8, 2024. (Reuters/Josue Decavele/File Photo)

“We aren’t ready for it, but we know it’s coming,” a second Guatemalan government official told the outlet.

Guatemala currently receives 14 deportation flights per week under President Biden’s administration. 

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Trump’s team has reportedly reached out to other Central and South American countries to gauge their appetite for accepting deportations from the U.S. Several governments, including Mexico and the Bahamas, have said they do not want to take in foreign nationals from third countries.

ILLEGAL MIGRANT INDICTED ON MURDER CHARGES AFTER WOMAN IS BURNED TO DEATH ON SUBWAY

A migrant woman speaks with family members as she is processed by staff of the Guatemalan Immigration Institute after arriving on deportation flights from the United States and Mexico, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on January 23, 2024. (Reuters/Cristina Chiquin/File Photo)

In 2022, more than 40% of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. came from Mexico, amounting to 4.8 million of 11 million overall, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report. That was followed by Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which together accounted for over one-fifth of the total.

Guatemala has reportedly been proactive in courting the incoming Trump administration, relative to neighbors El Salvador and Honduras, according to Reuters. Trump transition team members have met with Guatemalan officials, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., before he was nominated to serve as secretary of state, along with several employees from the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank who specialize in immigration, border security, drug trafficking and policy towards China.

Guatemala would prioritize Guatemalans for re-integration, the second official said, adding that every country should take responsibility for its citizens, but also highlighting a regional pact among Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador that allows free movement.

The hope is that deportees from the U.S. would put skills learned in the states to work in Guatemala’s private sector.

MUSK AND RAMASWAMY IGNITE MAGA WAR OVER SKILLED IMMIGRATION AND AMERICAN ‘MEDIOCRITY’

A police officer stands guard as Guatemalan migrants walk after arriving at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S., in Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 8, 2024. (Reuters/Josue Decavele/File Photo)

“These are people who have worked in construction, in the service industry, in various sectors, and many speak English. We want to harness that,” the official said.

Officials who spoke to Reuters also noted that more deportations could put pressure on Guatemala’s economy.

Remittances, or money sent home by Guatemalan workers in the U.S., account for about 20% of the country’s GDP. 

In 2023, remittances made up 24% of El Salvador’s gross domestic product and nearly 30% of Honduras’ GDP.

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Officials told Reuters they were not immediately worried about the economic impact of a decline in remittances, but shared concerns over Trump’s proposed tariff hikes or increased taxes on remittances.

“We don’t have a financial plan yet, there are just too many unknowns,” said the second official.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Russia is willing to work with President-elect Donald Trump to help improve relations with Ukraine so long as the U.S. makes the first move, Kremlin officials said this week, adding fresh momentum for the possibility of peace talks as its war in Ukraine threatens to stretch into a third year. 

Speaking to reporters Thursday in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia could be ready to come to the negotiating table regarding its “special military operation” in Ukraine— echoing the phrasing used by the Kremlin to describe its war in Ukraine — so long as the U.S. acted first. 

“If the signals that are coming from the new team in Washington to restore the dialogue that Washington interrupted after the start of a special military operation [the war in Ukraine] are serious, of course, we will respond to them,” Lavrov said in Moscow.

But he stressed that the U.S. should move first, telling reporters that “the Americans broke the dialogue, so they should make the first move.”

US SLAPS SANCTIONS ON COMPANIES TIED TO NORD STREAM 2 IN BID TO SQUEEZE RUSSIA

 Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers an annual address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, at Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor in February. (Photo by Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

His remarks come after Trump’s pick for Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, told Fox News in an interview this month that both Russia and Ukraine appear to be willing to negotiate an end to the war — citing heavy casualties, damage to critical infrastructure, and a general sense of exhaustion that has permeated both countries as the war drags well past the thousand-day mark.

“I think both sides are ready,” Kellogg said in the interview. “After a thousand days of war, with 350,000, 400,000 Russian [soldiers] down, and 150,000 Ukrainian dead, or numbers like that — both sides are saying, ‘okay, maybe this is the time, and we need to step back.’”

To date, Russia has lost tens of thousands of soldiers in the war. As of this fall, an average of 1,200 soldiers were killed or injured per day, according to U.S. estimates. 

In Ukraine, the country’s energy infrastructure has seen extreme damage as the result of a protracted Russian bombing campaign, designed to collapse portions of the power grid, plunge the country into darkness, and ultimately, wear down the resolve of the Ukrainian people.

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA READY TO COMPROMISE WITH TRUMP ON UKRAINE WAR

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg speaks during a press briefing at the White House in 2020.  ((Drew Angerer/Getty Images))

Most recently, Russia launched a Christmas Day bombardment against Ukraine’s power grid, directing some 70 cruise and ballistic missiles and 100 strike drones to hit critical energy infrastructure in the country. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Christmas Day timing was a “deliberate” choice by Putin. “What could be more inhuman?” he said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has lost around 40% of the land it seized in Russia’s Kursk region — a loss that could further erode morale. 

UKRAINE TO SEEK NATO INVITATION IN BRUSSELS NEXT WEEK

The ruins of the city of Toretsk are in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on December 19, 2024.  (Photo by Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Lavrov’s remarks also come as Kellogg prepares to travel to Ukraine in January for what he described to Fox News as an information-gathering trip. 

He declined to elaborate further on what he will aim to accomplish during the visit, saying only that he believes both countries are ready to end the protracted war — and that incoming President Trump could serve as the “referee.”

“Think of a cage fight. You’ve got two fighters, and both want to tap out. You need a referee to kind of separate them.”

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he is open to having the peace talks in the third country of Slovakia, citing an offer made by the country’s prime minister during a visit to the Kremlin earlier this week. 

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It is unclear whether Ukraine would be willing to have the talks held in Slovakia, a country whose leaders have been vehemently opposed to sending more EU military aid to Ukraine. 

Ukraine did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment on the peace talks, or whether it would be open to Slovakia’s offer to host. 

The Reagan-era director of the FBI, and later the CIA, is urging the Senate to reject two of President-elect Donald Trump’s selections for top law enforcement and intelligence posts.

In a letter to senators on Thursday reported by Politico, former FBI and CIA director William Webster wrote that Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard are unqualified to be FBI director and director of national intelligence, respectively.

Webster, who is 100 years old, is the only person to have led both the FBI and CIA. He warned senators that Patel’s personal loyalty to Trump could conflict with the FBI’s duty to uphold the rule of law.

“His record of executing the president’s directives suggest [sic] a loyalty to individuals rather than the rule of law — a dangerous precedent for an agency tasked with impartial enforcement of justice,” he wrote, according to Politico.

TRUMP FBI DIRECTOR PICK KASH PATEL ‘INSTRUMENTAL IN UNRAVELING’ RUSSIA COLLUSION HOAX, FORMER CHAIR SAYS

Portrait of William H. Webster from the 1980s. William Hedgcock Webster (1924-) is a former director of the FBI and CIA, the only man to have ever held both positions.    (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

As for Gabbard, Webster criticized her “profound lack” of intelligence experience and said a seasoned leader is needed for the DNI post. 

“Effective management of our intelligence community requires unparalleled expertise to navigate the complexities of global threats and to maintain the trust of allied nations,” he wrote. “Without that trust, our ability to safeguard sensitive secrets and collaborate internationally is severely diminished.”

‘WARRIOR WHOSE VOTE CANNOT BE BOUGHT’: HUNDREDS OF VETS POUR OUT IN SUPPORT OF TULSI GABBARD FOR DNI

Judge William Webster, former FBI and CIA director, looks on before a game between the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on August 7, 2018, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

The Trump transition team defended the president-elect’s selection of Patel to lead the FBI. 

“Kash Patel is loyal to the Constitution. He’s worked under Presidents Obama and Trump in key national security roles,” said Alex Pfeiffer, a Trump transition team spokesman. 

Another transition official, Alexa Henning, observed that Webster had supported President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump. 

“Lt. Col. Gabbard is an active member of the Army and has served in the military for over two decades and in Congress. As someone who has consumed intelligence at the highest levels, including during wartime, she recognizes the importance of partnerships with allies to ensure close coordination to keep the American people safe,” said Henning. 

Patel and Gabbard have proven to be two of Trump’s more controversial nominees for key positions in his next administration. 

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ SPARKS BACKLASH FOR CLAIMING TULSI GABBARD IS A RUSSIAN ASSET

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kash Patel as FBI director.  (Getty Images)

Patel was the chief investigator in the congressional probe into alleged Trump-Russia collusion, uncovering government surveillance abuse that led to the appointment of two special counsels who determined that there was never any collusion and the premise of the FBI’s original investigation was bogus. He has raised concern among top law enforcement professionals for his outspoken criticism of the FBI and Justice Department, accusing them of partisanship. 

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and military officer from Hawaii, is likewise under scrutiny after she met with since-toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017, who was accused of using chemical weapons on his own citizens during the country’s civil war. Gabbard refused to call him a war criminal during her 2020 presidential campaign and said she was skeptical that his government had perpetrated a chemical weapons attack earlier that year that had killed dozens of Syrians. However, she later called Assad a brutal dictator. 

Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, arrives to meet with several Republican Senators on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jack Gruber/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

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Webster was appointed to direct the FBI by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, and he remained atop the bureau under President Ronald Reagan’s two terms in office. In 1988, Webster became director of the CIA under President George H.W. Bush and served through 1991.

“I urge you to weigh the critical importance of nonpartisan leadership and experience,” Webster wrote. “The safety of the American people — and your own families — depends on it.”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

Congressional Democrats’ use of X, formerly Twitter, has significantly dropped off in the years since Elon Musk took over the social media platform, a new report suggests.

Significantly more Republican lawmakers used X in 2024 than their Democratic colleagues, public affairs firm Quorum calculated. Of the top 20 most active accounts for members of Congress, just one – Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla. – hails from the left, at No. 15.

It’s a stark change even from Quorum’s 2023 report, which came out just over a year after Musk bought the site – at the time. The top 10 most active congressional accounts were nearly split evenly with six Republicans and four Democrats on the list. Now, they are all Republicans.

JOHNSON BLASTS DEM ACCUSATIONS HE VOWED TO END OBAMACARE AS ‘DISHONEST’

Many Democratic lawmakers have slowed their X usage since Elon Musk bought the site. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Many on the left have decried Musk’s ownership of X, accusing him of using it to bolster President-elect Donald Trump and right-wing causes. But Musk and his allies have insisted that he is creating a more user-controlled experience that promotes free speech.

The report pointed to a 2023 survey that showed a stark decrease in Americans who identify as Democrats using the app.

“The use of X is on the decline among the general public after Elon Musk’s takeover — with Democrats driving the exodus, according to one survey conducted early last year,” the report said.

“After looking at the data, it’s clear that the decline in usage isn’t just coming from the general public. Public officials, particularly those on the left, are also changing their social media habits.”

REPUBLICANS GIVE DETAILS FROM CLOSED-DOOR MEETINGS WITH DOGE’S MUSK, RAMASWAMY

Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., is the only Democrat on the list of the top 20 most active congressional X accounts.

Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Pa., for example, was the most active Democratic lawmaker on X in 2023 before his post frequency fell sharply by 66% this year, the report said.

Activity on X accounts for California Reps. Robert Garcia and Ted Lieu, both Democrats, fell by 35% and 26%, respectively.

In 2024, the most frequently active X accounts were those for Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Republican lawmakers, as a whole, made up 54.4% of X posts by members of Congress in 2024, compared to 45.1% for Democrats.

In 2023, congressional Democrats made up 50.8% of lawmakers’ activity on X, compared to 48.8% being by Republicans, Quorum’s previous report said.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is the most frequent congressional X user, the report shows. ((Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images))

It’s worth noting that it’s standard practice for congressional lawmakers to hand control of either their professional or personal X accounts – frequently both – to their staff. 

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But some lawmakers like Cruz and Roy, as well as the third-ranked most active X poster, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., are known for frequently engaging with other X users directly.

Frost, the lonely Democrat in the top 20 most frequent congressional X users of 2024, warned fellow liberals not to cede the popular app to Republicans, in an interview with Politico last month.

“If we leave X, it will help Elon with his goal of making the platform void of any progressive ideology or the way we think about the world,” he said.

President Biden is seen in newly uncovered photos meeting with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates in China while he served as vice president, bringing further scrutiny to his claim he “never” discussed business with his son.

The photos, obtained by conservative-leaning America First Legal through litigation against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), appear to show then-Vice President Biden introducing his son to Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-Vice President Li Yuanchao. Other photos show Joe Biden posing with Hunter’s business associates from BHR Partners, including Jonathan Li and Ming Xue.

“These images shed light on the connections between then-Vice President Biden, Hunter and his Chinese business associates, and Chinese government officials including President Xi Jinping,” America First Legal said in a press release this week. “Lawyers and representatives for President Biden and President Obama delayed NARA’s release of these photographs, as they did with other records, until after Election Day.”

“These photos corroborate the House Oversight Committee’s investigative findings that Hunter Biden arranged for his father to meet with Jonathan Li and other BHR executives during the 2013 China trip, where ‘Mr. Li sought— and received — access to Vice President Biden’s political power, including, for example, preferential access to then-U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus … a condition of Hunter Biden and his associates participating in the BHR deal,’” America First Legal wrote.

HUNTER BIDEN: A LOOK AT HOW THE SAGA SPANNING OVER SIX YEARS UNFOLDED

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden with Ming Xue, Jonathan Li and Rock Shi (America First Legal)

America First Legal also wrote that, according to the committee’s investigation, “the Biden Family benefited from their business dealings with BHR.”

Hunter Biden was asked earlier this year by the House Oversight Committee about his meetings while traveling to Asia with his father.

“When we returned from an event to the hotel, there was a rope line, and Jonathan Li was in the lobby of the hotel where I was going to meet him for coffee,” Hunter Biden said at the time. “In that line, I introduced my dad to Jonathan Li and a friend of his, and they shook hands and I believe probably took a photograph. And then my father went up to his room, and I went to have coffee with Jonathan Li.”

Hunter Biden added that he didn’t tell his father “anything” about who Li was.

Joe Biden has repeatedly denied any role in his son’s businesses. 

HUNTER BIDEN WAS PAID $100K THROUGH JOINT VENTURE WITH CHINESE ENERGY FIRM, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIED

Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, China President Xi and former U.S. China Ambassador Max Baucus (America First Legal)

“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Joe Biden said on the presidential campaign trail in 2019.

But emails sent to and from Hunter Biden have cast doubt on that, including a 2017 email obtained by Fox News that shows Hunter requesting keys for Joe and Jill Biden, along with his uncle, Jim Biden, for space he planned to share with an “emissary” to the chairman of a now-bankrupt Chinese energy company.

In another 2017 email also obtained by Fox News, Biden wrote to the same Chinese energy company’s chairman extending “best wishes from the entire Biden family,” and urging the chairman to “quickly” send a $10 million wire to “properly fund and operate” the Biden joint venture with the company. 

JOE BIDEN SAYS HUNTER HAS DONE ‘NOTHING WRONG.’ REALLY? LET’S COUNT THE WAYS

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden photo from America First Legal (America First Legal)

Devon Archer, a former business partner and longtime friend of Hunter Biden, sat for hours before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door hearing last year and contradicted the president’s claim, saying Hunter put his father on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. 

Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand.”

The photos drew strong criticism on social media in light of President Biden’s frequent claims he never discussed business with his son.

“Astonishing,” Red State writer Bonchie posted on X.

“These photos are incredibly damning and speak volumes,” author and journalist Peter Schweizer posted on X.

“It is such a disgrace that only through litigation, and only at the conclusion of the Biden administration is its corruption by ties to the Chinese Communist Party fully coming into focus,” Real Clear Politics editor Benjamin Weingarten posted on X.

“The Biden Crime Family Christmas card just dropped,” GOP Rep. Eric Burlison posted on X.

“China has the Bidens in its back pocket,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton posted on X.

Hunter Biden, left, son of President Biden, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell at the O’Neill House Office Building for a closed-door deposition in a Republican-led investigation into the Biden family on Capitol Hill in Washington Feb. 28, 2024.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The newly unearthed photos of the Bidens meeting with Hunter’s Chinese business associates renews scrutiny of an email exchange previously reported by Fox News Digital. The 2014 email exchange reveals Hunter Biden once said he would be “happy” to introduce his business associates to a top Chinese Communist Party official to discuss potential investments after that official allegedly sat at Hunter’s table during a 2013 dinner in Beijing to welcome his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Hunter’s 2014 email exchange with James Bulger referred to the same China trip referenced in the America First Legal press release.

Bulger, who goes by “Jimmy,” served as the chairman of Boston-based Thornton Group LLC, a firm that joined forces with Hunter’s now-defunct Rosemont Seneca to launch its joint venture with Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital to create BHR Partners shortly after the Bidens traveled to China. BHR Partners is controlled by Bank of China Limited.

President Biden and Hunter Biden arrive in Syracuse, N.Y. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

In the 2014 email, Bulger asked Hunter to introduce BHR CEO Jonathan Li and Andy Lu, who was a BHR committee member, to “Mr. Tung,” which refers to C.H. Tung, a former governor of Hong Kong and billionaire who served as vice chairman of the CCP-linked Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, to discuss “BHR investment targets” and “fundraising.” 

The email alleged Hunter sat next to Tung at the December 2013 dinner welcoming Vice President Joe Biden to Beijing. Fox News Digital previously reached out to the White House multiple times requesting the seating chart for the Beijing dinner, specifically Hunter’s table, but it did not respond.

“It is my understanding that during the trip to Beijing that you made with your father, President Xi hosted a welcome dinner,” Bulger wrote. “[A]t that dinner, you were seated right next to Mr Tung, therefore J and Andy believe it would be very helpful if you could please send a brief email to Mr Tung laying out that you are a partner and Board Member of BHR and that You would be grateful to Mr Tung if he could meet your local partners to discuss the Fund.

“Please let me know if you can introduce these two to Mr Tung by email it is very important to our BHR intiative [sic] at this moment.”

Hunter responded that he was “happy” to fulfill the request but said he couldn’t recall the names of the gentlemen who sat next to him at the dinner.

It appears that the Beijing “welcome dinner” hosted by President Xi that Bulger was referencing in his initial email occurred during the evening of Dec. 4, 2013, after then-Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao met with Joe Biden earlier in the day to discuss strengthening U.S.-China relations. 

President Biden pardoned his son earlier this month for any crimes potentially committed dating back to 2014. 

Hunter Biden flashes a big smile as he leaves an Arby’s in Santa Barbara Dec. 4, 2024. This was the first time the son of President Biden had been photographed since being pardoned by his father. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

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“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden wrote in a statement at the time. “From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.

“There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,” the 82-year-old father wrote. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Fox News Digital has previously reached out to the White House about why the pardon was so broad but did not receive a response.

“Even while President Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter, for anything and everything ‘he has committed or may have committed or taken part in’ going all the way back to the year 2014, more evidence comes out each day showing how his family leveraged Joe Biden’s even longer career in public office for private gain,” America First Legal Counsel Michael Ding said in a statement. 

“America First Legal will not stop fighting to uncover the full story of the Biden Family’s corruption.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House, Hunter Biden’s legal team and the Chinese businessmen in the photos but did not receive a comment.

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar Brooke Singman, and Tyler Olson contributed to this report

Former President Barack Obama’s years of dominating Democratic Party politics may be drawing to a close, as he and party leaders will likely face a “greater reckoning” after Democrats’ losses in the 2024 election, experts predict. 

The whirlwind presidential election saw the Democratic Party rally around both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee at separate times – all with Obama’s seal of approval. The political landscape shifted with a single tweet from Biden on a Sunday July afternoon, with Obama and his allies deeply entwined with efforts to navigate the party to what they hoped would be an electoral victory come Nov. 5, a look back at the cycle shows. 

President-elect Trump notched a decisive win last month, racking up 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226 and taking a victory lap for what the media has described as an “historic political comeback” that has shaken the Democratic establishment as they pivot to combating Trump 2.0 and his policies. 

“I think there are going to be big demands for a greater reckoning. The Democratic politburo – Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries and others – all participated in the obvious lie that Biden was capable of a second term, in the anti-Democratic move to install a wholly untested Vice President Harris,” Democratic strategist Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital when asked about Obama’s legacy following the election. “And in lacking the courage for the past four years to stand up a progressive left whose policies are far out of touch with most voters.” 

“They all failed the test of leadership in this respect.” 

OBAMA ALLIES, ADVISERS HELPED LEAD THE CHARGE AMONG DEMS LOOKING TO SINK BIDEN AHEAD OF OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Former President Barack Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 20, 2024. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Obama and his orbit criticized for not understanding why Democrats lost the election 

This month, Obama delivered a speech at the 2024 Obama Democracy Forum, which earned him a headline on MSNBC, reading, “Obama still doesn’t get why Trump won. That’s the problem.“

“​​Obama’s characteristic rhetorical virtues were on full display. He was a constitutional law professor before he was a politician, and he still sounds like one. At the same time, he was a once-in-a-generation talent as a political communicator. He knows how to convey a complex set of ideas in a digestible and appealing way,” the op-ed read. 

“But there was a massive gaping hole at the center of his speech. He still doesn’t understand why his eight years in power culminated in the rise of Trump,” the op-ed continued, arguing that the “first step” to better respond to Americans’ demand for change from the status quo “​​is to stop listening to Barack Obama.”

BLUE STATE DEMOCRATS ISSUE SCATHING REFLECTION ON ELECTION LOSS: ‘WE’RE OUT OF TOUCH’

Former President Barack Obama delivered a speech recently that earned him a headline on MSNBC, reading, “Obama still doesn’t get why Trump won. That’s the problem.” (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Democratic Party and Harris campaign have been dragged by some allies, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for moving away from working-class voters while Trump rallied their support. Harris came under fire, for example, for featuring Hollywood celebrities and musicians during her campaign rallies, which were viewed as tone-deaf as Americans struggled with inflation, and their anxiety mounted over ongoing wars in Israel and Ukraine.

Now, the Democratic Party is in the midst of a reckoning over the failed election efforts, which saw the White House and Senate flip red and the House remain in the GOP’s control.

“Harris’ advisers blame everything but themselves for their loss,” an op-ed published in the Washington Post this month reads. The piece took issue with how a handful of Harris campaign staffers joined the left-wing “Pod Save America” podcast, which is hosted by former Obama aides, and defended their work on the campaign. 

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech on Nov. 6, on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

David Plouffe, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Stephanie Cutter and ​​Quentin Fulks joined the show – all of whom, except Fulks, previously worked for Obama’s presidential campaigns or administration. 

“What the four never did is directly admit any major mistakes they made. ‘We should have really pushed Harris to distance herself from President Biden’; ‘Maybe we spent too much time in Arizona’ (Harris lost there by 6 percentage points); ‘We should have had a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic National Convention.’ There were no blunt statements like that,” the op-ed read. 

NANCY PELOSI FIRES BACK AT BERNIE SANDERS FOR COMMENTS ON DEMS’ SWEEPING ELECTION LOSS: NO ‘RESPECT’

While the New York Post editorial board declared in a headline following the election: “Trump and America bury the Obama doctrine.”

Former President Barack Obama speaks at a Democracy Forum event held by the Obama Foundation at the Javits Center on Nov. 17, 2022, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

When “​​Obama installed Kamala Harris as the latest face of his revolution, the American public of all colors, ages and genders finally called time,” the Post editorial board argued. “Voters at last saw through the industrialized demonization of Trump and woke up to the truth that his policies are far closer to the American ideal and what they consider normal.”

“Let’s all pray that our self-proclaimed betters in their Martha’s Vineyard mansions will finally realize that this was the death of ‘Obamaism’ once this latest thumping fully sinks in,” they concluded. 

Amid the unprecedented election cycle for Democrats, Obama and his longtime allies have been entwined with Biden’s exit and Harris’ rise and fall as the nominee.  

President Biden participates in the first debate against former President Trump at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Pushed Out 

Concerns over President Biden’s mental fitness had circulated for years, heightening last winter when Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating the president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents when he was vice president, characterized Biden in his report as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” 

5 MISTAKES THAT DOOMED KAMALA HARRIS’ CAMPAIGN AGAINST TRUMP

Biden’s actions on the national and international stage soon came under further scrutiny, showcasing a handful of gaffes and miscues, including Obama taking Biden’s wrist to seemingly lead him offstage at a fundraiser in LA in June, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni directing Biden back to a gaggle of world leaders in Italy that same month, and data showing Biden frequently delivered remarks to supporters at campaign rallies for a shorter amount of time than a sitcom. 

President Obama takes President Biden by the wrist at fundraising event. (Christopher Gardner via Storyful)

Amid the controversy, however, Obama was seemingly acting as Biden’s political closer to help lock up votes and donations, joining the 46th president at swank fundraisers in California and New York City, and at a moderated conversation with late night host Stephen Colbert between Obama, Biden and former President Bill Clinton. 

OBAMA AGAIN STEPPING INTO ROLE AS JOE’S CLOSER AHEAD OF TRUMP V BIDEN REMATCH

Biden and Trump’s only debate of the election cycle opened the floodgates to both Democrats and Republicans questioning and sounding off with concern over Biden’s mental acuity. Biden was seen tripping over his words during the debate, losing his train of thought at times, responding with a raspy voice, and was overall slammed for having a slow and weak demeanor while squaring off against Trump.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and President Biden (Getty Images)

Just days after the disastrous debate, Obama defended Biden’s performance by arguing the election pitted a political crusader supporting “ordinary folks” against Trump, whom he described as a man “who only cares about himself.” 

“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight – and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November,” he posted to X, accompanied by a link to Biden’s campaign website. 

OBAMA SILENT OVER REPORTS HE’S WORKING ‘BEHIND THE SCENES’ TO FORCE BIDEN OUT OF THE 2024 RACE

Obama remained vocally coy on Biden in the subsequent days, as the White House was grilled about the president’s mental acuity, and soon traditional Democratic allies of the president began calling on Biden to pass the torch to a younger generation. 

Notably, a list of Obama allies and former advisers led the charge in calling for Biden’s exit from the race, including former adviser David Axelrod, former director of speech writing Jon Favreau, former advisers Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor, and Hollywood actor and longtime Obama friend George Clooney. 

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed after joining Biden and Obama for the fundraiser in L.A. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

‘OBAMA BROS’ GANG UP ON BIDEN AS LONGSTANDING RUMORS OF TENSION LINGER: ‘HARD TO WATCH’

As media reports circulated that Obama was working “behind the scenes” to oust Biden from the race, the 44th president remained mum, not denying the reports. Politico reported that Clooney even gave Obama a “heads-up” that his op-ed calling on Biden to bow out of the race was set to publish, with Obama reportedly not objecting to the opinion piece.

Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 in a message posted to X that Sunday afternoon. Obama commended Biden’s decades in politics in response, but did not tip his hand on who he would endorse to take his place. 

​​”There is no singular reason why we lost, but a big reason is because the Obama advisers publicly encouraged Democratic infighting to push Joe Biden out, didn’t even want Kamala Harris as the nominee, and then signed up as the saviors of the campaign, only to run outdated Obama-era playbooks for a candidate that wasn’t Obama,” one former Biden staffer told Politico.

‘OBAMA BRO’ CONFIRMS CLAIMS IN CLOONEY’S DAMAGING OP-ED ON BIDEN’S MENTAL FITNESS

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks onstage during the first day of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Harris Takes the Mantle 

Biden endorsed Harris the same afternoon he dropped out of the race, teeing her up for a likely nomination with just 100 days and change to rally support from voters. 

Obama has had a long relationship with Harris, as she was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator. 

Harris was in attendance when Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, after first meeting him in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate, the Washington Examiner previously reported. 

“Barack Obama will be a president who finally ends the era of fear that has been used to divide and demoralize our country,” Harris said during California’s Democratic convention in 2008. 

OBAMA’S INNER CIRCLE SIGNALS 44TH PRESIDENT FIRMLY BEHIND HARRIS DESPITE NOT SAYING SO PUBLICLY

As Harris built her political career from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then senator, Harris was even dubbed “the female Obama” by some political analysts. 

In her second presidential campaign, Harris on-boarded or retained a bevy of Obama orbit allies and former staffers, including: former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe; former deputy campaign manager for Obama’s 2012 election Stephanie Cutter; former Obama campaign grassroots strategist Mitch Stewart; and former Obama White House director of communications Jennifer Palmieri.

Harris also tapped Obama’s former attorney general, Eric Holder, to lead the vetting process of her potential running mates, while Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who worked as Obama’s 2012 deputy campaign manager and Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign chair, was announced as Harris’ campaign manager. 

Obama has historically held his presidential endorsements close to his vest, offering his support to Harris the Friday after Biden dropped out as speculation mounted surrounding the coveted Obama endorsement. 

Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks ahead of the arrival of Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign rally on Oct. 26, 2024, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

CRITICISMS MOUNT THAT BIDEN IS A ‘SHADOW’ OF HIMSELF AFTER DISASTROUS DEBATE: ‘NOT THE SAME MAN’ FROM VP ERA

Obama, who was joined by former first lady Michelle Obama in the endorsement of Harris, solidified Harris as the likely nominee before the official virtual roll call vote and Harris flying to Chicago, where she accepted the nomination at the DNC. 

“I’m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible. Because we have the chance to elect someone who’s spent her entire life trying to give people the same chances America gave her. Someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you: the next President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris,” he declared from the DNC. 

The week before the DNC, Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would join the ticket as her running mate. Two years before winning the Oval Office in 2008, Obama was one of the few high-profile Democrats in the nation to campaign for Walz when he first launched a career in politics. 

FLASHBACK: OBAMA WAS ONE OF EARLIEST BIG-NAME DEMS TO ENDORSE WALZ AT DAWN OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER

Former President Barack Obama moderates a conversation during the Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum on Dec. 5, 2024, in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Obama and Democratic establishment cave to left-wing faction 

Democratic strategist Julian Epstein, who formerly served as chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, took issue with Obama for not “sticking to his guns” this election cycle in the face of left-wing policies. 

He commended Obama for challenging “woke” culture ahead of the 2020 election, but said Obama failed to amplify those calls in the coming years. He arguably allowed the left-wing faction of the party to dominate messaging and policy that shifted the party left. 

BLACK GROUP FIRES BACK AT OBAMA FOR ‘INSULTING’ HARRIS PITCH: ‘WORST KIND OF IDENTITY POLITICS’

“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff,” Obama said back in 2019 of “woke” culture. “You should get over that quickly.”

“The world is messy; there are ambiguities,” he added. “People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you.”

Epstein said Obama “backed down” to progressive Dems, while pointing to his comments from October scolding Black men who did not support Harris. 

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“For his part, Obama called out woke four years ago only to be shouted down by far-left virtue signalers.  But rather than sticking to his guns, he backed down both during the last four years when the progressive left hijacked policy on issues like immigration, but then more recently by suggesting that working-class Black men were bad people if they didn’t fall into line with the Democratic bosses and vote for Harris. It was a very bad look,” Epstein said. 

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who just won re-election narrowly in a state that also went to President-elect Trump, is advocating for Democrats to make Nevada the first in the nation primary in the 2028 presidential election. 

“We are so proud to look like the rest of the nation. We’re the most – one of the most ethnically diverse states,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

In a memo earlier this month, Nevada’s Democratic Party also made the argument that the state should go first in the next presidential race. 

REPUBLICANS HAMMER BIDEN FOR FEDERAL DEATH ROW REPRIEVES AHEAD OF LEAVING OFFICE

Rosen, center, pushed for Nevada to be the first primary in 2028. (Reuters)

“If Democrats want to win back working class voters and rebuild our broad coalition of voters of color, we should elevate the most working class and most diverse battleground state in the nation to be the first presidential preference primary for the 2028 cycle,” wrote state party Chair Daniele Monroe-Moreno, reported the Nevada Independent. 

Rosen listed some of the attributes Nevada’s residents have that make it a great place for Democrats to start. “We have one of the fastest growing Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander populations in the nation. We have a really robust and engaged Black community,” she explained. “We are a strong union state – heavy labor state. We have tourism. We can talk about tourism – top economic driver in every state in this nation.”

TOP TRUMP AIDES JOIN GROUP PREPPING TO SHORE UP SUPPORT FOR MAGA AGENDA DURING SECOND TERM

Rosen narrowly defeated Republican Sam Brown in the state’s Senate race in 2024. (Reuters)

“What I would hope is that anyone who wants to be the leader of the Democratic Party… if they come to Nevada, they can hear from a diverse group of businesses, of individuals – with about 200,000 veterans,” the senator said. 

“Come hear from our small businesses, our veterans, our seniors, all of the different groups. You’ll be able to hear what people are worried about again and what they hope for,” she added. 

The Democratic senator’s angling for Nevada to have the first primary in 2028 comes as Democrats prepare to select a new party leader. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Jaime Harrison announced his intention to step down following the 2024 election. A number of Democrats have already announced their bids to be the next leader. 

SENATE PASSES BILL TO STOP SHUTDOWN, SENDING IT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN’S DESK

DNC chief Jaime Harrison announced he would step down following disappointing election results. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The campaign for Nevada to be the first primary also comes after a decision to make South Carolina’s primary first in the 2024 election caused significant pushback, particularly from New Hampshire, which had previously held the title of the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary. 

Rosen also reflected on her narrow electoral win against Republican candidate Sam Brown and running ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. 

“Nevada races are always tight,” she prefaced.

According to the Democrat, “I will tell you that my motto really is: Agree where you can. Fight where you must. Be practical to find results.” 

BRIEF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN USHERED IN BEFORE CHRISTMAS AS SENATE WORKS TO ADVANCE HOUSE BILL

Rosen was ranked as one of the most bipartisan lawmakers. (Fox News)

Rosen emphasized her bipartisan efforts during her campaign, pointing to several groups that had ranked her among the most bipartisan members of Congress and the Senate. 

“I’ve been able to deliver for Nevada, making me one of the most bipartisan, effective and independent senators, always putting Nevada first,” she said. 

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Her advice for Democrats across the country, including those running in competitive races in 2026, is “be present. Be engaged. Listen to people. Find out what they’re worried about. Find out what they hope for. Be practical and do those things. Be practical and find the places where you can agree.”

Two top Canadian ministers headed to President-elect Trump’s home in Florida on Thursday to talk about border security and trade as the incoming president’s inauguration day nears.

New Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly will be in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday for the talks this week, Jean-Sébastien Comeau, a spokesperson for LeBlanc, told the Associated Press.

Comeau said that LeBlanc alongside Joly will meet with Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming “border czar,” after Christmas to discuss Canada’s plan to secure the border as part of a bid to avoid sweeping tariffs.

The spokesperson said LeBlanc and Joly “look forward to building on the discussions that took place when the Prime Minister met with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, as well as the positive call the Ministers held with Mr. Tom Homan earlier this month.”

TRUMP SUGGESTS CANADA BECOME 51ST STATE AFTER TRUDEAU SAID TARIFF WOULD KILL ECONOMY: SOURCES

US President Donald Trump (L) talks with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the plenary session of the NATO summit at the Grove Hotel in Watford, northeast of London. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

Along with discussing border security, the Canadian leaders hope to center talks on fentanyl trafficking and “negative impacts” of Trump’s tariffs on goods.

“The Ministers intend to focus on Canada’s efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration and the measures outlined in Canada’s Border Plan, as well as the negative impacts that the imposition of 25% tariffs on Canadian goods would have on both Canada and the United States,” Comeau added in a statement.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from Canada when he takes office in January unless the country reduces the flow of migrants and fentanyl into the U.S.

US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a meeting at Winfield House, London on Dec. 3, 2019. (Getty Images)

Trump has made snide remarks about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on social media, referring to the ally as “Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada.”

TRUMP WEIGHS IN ON POLITICAL TURMOIL IN THE ‘GREAT STATE OF CANADA,’ TROLLS ‘GOVERNOR JUSTIN TRUDEAU’

The statement on Christmas Day came after Trump suggested to Trudeau that if tariffs on Canada would kill its economy, then perhaps Canada should become the 51st U.S. state. 

Canadian flag. ( Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)

Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Canadian imports, meanwhile, have unnerved Canada, which is highly integrated with the U.S. economy. 

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well. 

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Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian – or $2.7 billion U.S. – worth of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump team for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tom Homan, President-elect Trump’s “border czar,” floated the idea of putting the children of illegal immigrants in halfway homes as part of the incoming administration’s mass deportation plan. 

“As far as U.S. children — children, that’s going to be a difficult situation, because we’re not going to detain your U.S. citizen children, which means, you know, they’re going to be put in a halfway house,” Homan told NewsNation on Thursday, The Hill reported

.CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TEAM CONSIDERING WAYS TO HELP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AHEAD OF SECOND TRUMP ADMIN: REPORT

Incoming Trump ‘border czar’ Tom Homan speaks with Fox News. (Fox News)

“They can — or they can stay at home and wait for the officers to get the travel arrangements and come back to get the family,” he added.

As part of his plan to address the border crisis, Trump has said he plans to deport large numbers of illegal immigrants.

One of the administration’s priorities will be to find the hundreds of thousands of migrant children unaccounted for in the United States.  

MIGRANT CRIME WAVE DURING BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN UNDER SCRUTINY AMID SERIES OF ASSAULTS, MURDERS: A TIMELINE

“We’re going to ask the American people to take notice: see something, say something and contact us,” Holman told Kellyanne Conway on “Hannity.” “If one phone call out of a thousand saves a child from sex trafficking or forced labor, then that’s one life saved.”

Homan acknowledged it would be a “daunting task,” but “we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”

During his interview with NewsNation, Homan said giving birth to children born in the U.S. won’t spare illegal immigrants from being deported. 

“Having a U.S. citizen child does not make you immune to our laws, and that’s not the message we want to send to the whole world, that you can have a child and you’re immune to the laws of this country,” Homan said. 

Migrants line up outside a migrant re-ticketing center at St. Brigid School on E. 7th St. Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Manhattan, New York City. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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In addition to mass deportations, Trump has threatened to go after birthright citizenship, which automatically grants American citizenship to those born in the country. 

ICE officials in Washington, D.C., deported a former high-ranking Somalian military officer who they say carried out torture, terror and other human rights abuses on civilians.

The officer, 71-year-old Yusuf Abdi Ali – also known as “Tukeh” – was removed from the U.S. by ICE officials on Dec. 20. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Somali National Army and commander of the Fifth Brigade in northwest Somalia during the dictatorship of Siad Barre from 1987 to 1989.

As a high-ranking officer in the Somali National Army, Ali allegedly oversaw terror activities against the Isaaq clan in northwestern Somalia. He is believed to have carried out an array of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detention.

ICE DEPORTATIONS CATCH UP TO TRUMP-ERA NUMBERS IN FY 2024 AS BIDEN ADMIN COMES TO A CLOSE

(Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

According to a Dec. 23 statement by ICE, the Somali National Army committed numerous human rights violations against civilians in those years, including the execution of suspected political opponents, the burning of entire towns, the unlawful use of landmines and the destruction of water reservoirs to target civilian populations.

In February 2024, a Department of Justice immigration judge issued a 65-page decision determining that Ali personally engaged in torture while in leadership in the Somali National Army. According to the decision, Ali ordered soldiers under his command to detain, torture and assist in extrajudicial killings. The judge ordered him removed to Somalia.

The U.S.-based law firm the Center for Justice & Accountability, which has represented one of Ali’s alleged victims, Farhan Warfaa, calls him “one of the most ruthless commanders” of the Barre Somalian dictatorship. Warfaa was abducted as a teenager by soldiers under Ali’s command, held for months, repeatedly beaten and eventually shot and left for dead.

ICE NABS ILLEGAL MIGRANT ACCUSED OF HEINOUS CRIME AND RELEASED BY MASSACHUSETTS SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Soldiers patrol outside the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, Aug, 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Warfaa ended up surviving, and in 2019 a federal civil court in Alexandria, Virginia, found Ali liable for his torture.  

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Ali was living as a permanent resident in Springfield, Virginia, until Homeland Security Investigations arrested him in November 2022.

“The United States will not be a safe haven for those who commit human rights violations, and we will persist in our efforts to pursue justice for the victims of these crimes,” said Russell Hott, acting executive associate director for Washington, D.C., ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.

Hott said that “though justice was delayed in this case, it ultimately prevailed.”

President-elect Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that the U.S. could take control of Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal—an unexpected Christmas Day message that has sparked concerns among world leaders in recent days as they scramble to prepare for Trump’s second White House term.

In a Wednesday post on the platform Truth Social, Trump wished a “Merry Christmas to all,” including to the “wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal,” before moving on to take aim at Canada and Greenland as well, which he suggested again could be better off under U.S. governance.

Trump reiterated his claim that U.S. shippers are being forced to pay “ridiculous” and “exorbitant” prices to navigate the Panama Canal—an artificial, 51-mile waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He has suggested, without evidence, that Chinese interests are gaining outsize influence over the waterway, something Panamanian leaders have steadfastly denied.

TRUMP FLOATS IDEA OF US RECLAIMING PANAMA CANAL: ‘FOOLISHLY GAVE IT AWAY’

A ship is seen on the Gaillard Cut in the Panama Canal. (CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

In his Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump also mockingly referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor” reiterating his recent suggestion that Canada should be turned into a U.S. state. 

“If Canada was to become our 51st state, their taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other country anywhere in the world,” Trump said.

Finally, the president-elect turned his attention to Greenland; an autonomous, geographically important Arctic location rife with natural resources, including rare earth minerals.

The U.S., Trump said on Wednesday, “feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for reasons of national security and “global freedom.’

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen on Nov. 29, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Bigger picture

Trump’s lengthy Truth Social post did little to assuage the concerns of some world leaders, who have carefully watched Trump’s actions and his statements in recent weeks for clues as to how he might govern in a second term.

The remarks also appear to be at odds with the “America First” policies long espoused by Trump, which seek to prioritize domestic policy rather than expansion or U.S. presence abroad.

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., echoed Trump’s concerns in an interview Thursday, describing China’s influence in the Panama Canal, and the higher prices incurred by shippers, as a “shot across the bow.” 

“Remember, we have China and Cuba,” Zinke said on “Mornings with Maria.“ “We have Maduro in Venezuela. We have had Russian ships there. And the Panama Canal is critical to our national security. And at present, it is being run by the Chinese Communist Party. So it’s a concern—absolutely.” 

‘AMERICA FIRST’ VS. ‘AMERICA LAST’: WHAT DOES TRUMP’S RETURN MEAN FOR US FOREIGN POLICY?

Homes are illuminated after the sunset in Tasiilaq, Greenland. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana,)

To be sure, it is not the first time Trump has indicated interest in Greenland, a mineral-rich, geographically important territory.

In 2019, then-President Trump told reporters he was “interested” in purchasing Greenland, which he described at the time as “essentially” a “large real estate deal.” The 2019 effort never gained traction, however; and this week, Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede immediately poured cold water on the idea that their territory could be sold to the U.S.

“Greenland is ours,”  Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede said this week, in response to Trump’s suggestion. 

“We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” he said. “We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”

Meanwhile, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino also disputed the notion that U.S. vessels have been singled out or paid higher fees to traverse the Panama Canal—as well as the notion that the U.S., which phased out its ownership beginning in the 1970s, has any right to reassert control over the shipping waypoint. 

In a video posted to social media earlier this week, Mulino reassured his country’s people that the “sovereignty and independence of our country is non-negotiable.”

The Panama Canal is one of the largest and most strategically important commodity shipping waterways in the world. It handles roughly 5% of all global maritime trade and roughly 40% of U.S. container ship traffic. 

Picturesque Lake Gatun, Panama Canal. (Danuta Hamlin)

Recent higher prices are primarily the result of drought and more competition, which sent water levels plummeting last year to their lowest point on record. Though water levels have since rebounded, operators of the canal were forced to temporarily limit vessel traffic and increase costs for ships using the waypoint.

Other factors have also played a role in higher maritime shipping prices.

A series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea late last year prompted many major commodities shippers, including BP and Equinor, to pause or reroute their shipments away from the Suez Canal. Some opted to reroute supplies via the Cape of Good Hope, adding weeks of additional time to their trips.

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, incorrectly claimed on social media last week that the Panama Canal cost U.S. taxpayers $15.7 billion. In fact, the higher costs are shouldered by the ships that pass through the waterway, in the form of tolls.  The U.S. government does not subsidize the canal.

‘AMERICA FIRST’ VS. ‘AMERICA LAST’: WHAT DOES TRUMP’S RETURN MEAN FOR US FOREIGN POLICY?

The gate locks on the Panama Canal open for ship traffic in Dec. 2023. Drought conditions have limited the number of vessels that can travel through the canal per day, adding more price pressure for shipping companies.  (Danuta Hamlin)

Panamanian authorities have stressed that the prices are not the result of “unfair” treatment, or capitulation to China or any other nation-state influence.

“The canal has no direct or indirect control from China, nor the European Union, nor the United States or any other power,” Mulino said in his remarks. “As a Panamanian, I reject any manifestation that misrepresents this reality.”

Still, Trump does not appear to be backing down on expansion claims.

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“The Panama Canal is considered a VITAL National Asset for the United States, due to its critical role to America’s Economy and National Security,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday. “A secure Panama Canal is crucial for U.S. Commerce, and rapid deployment of the Navy, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and drastically cuts shipping times to U.S. ports.”

“We’re not going to stand for it,” he said. “So, to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly.”

New sanctions on Russia’s energy sector could temporarily raise gas prices and shift oil export patterns, according to experts who analyzed the global impact of penalties previously placed against the country’s fossil fuels. 

President Joe Biden is reportedly considering imposing new sanctions on Russian energy before he leaves office, the Washington Post reported, citing four people familiar with the matter. Sources suggested that such a move could give President-elect Donald Trump more leverage in potential negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If Biden proceeds with the sanction, analysis of U.S. sanctions against Russia at the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine indicate energy sanctions can result in higher gas prices globally.

The price of natural gas began to rise amid tensions in Russia in 2022 but reached a record high in the U.S. after the country invaded and sparked a yearslong war with its neighboring country, Ukraine. 

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA READY TO COMPROMISE WITH TRUMP ON UKRAINE WAR

President Joe Biden (Brandon Bell)

“Western sanctions on the Russian energy sector have reduced Russian revenues, but have also created costs for the sanctioning nations,” the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis wrote in a review of the impact of energy sanctions on Russia.

Biden and Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy after the country invaded Ukraine, resulting in rising diesel prices worldwide because there “simply weren’t enough refineries to meet diesel demand, especially after the U.S. and other countries stopped purchasing energy exports from Russia,” according to an analysis from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED).

US SLAPS SANCTIONS ON COMPANIES TIED TO NORD STREAM 2 IN BID TO SQUEEZE RUSSIA

According to FRED, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for diesel in June 2022 was approximately 109% higher than in June 2021. However, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that prices have decreased considerably since.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a public policy think tank, says that sanctions can have varying effects, such as a “significant shift in oil export patterns, rerouting trade flows in an economically inefficient manner and forcing sanctioned countries such as Iran, Russia, and Venezuela to sell crude at below-market prices.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Gavriil Grigorov)

While the move could increase oil costs, one advocate of the idea suggested that the election being over could be a reason for Biden to move forward with the penalty.

“The Biden administration has been worried about increasing gas prices and worsening inflation. That was the main constraint on their Russia sanctions policy, the domestic ramifications,” said Edward Fishman, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, the Washington Post reported. “But the election is over, and inflation is under control. The reasons to be this cautious on sanctions don’t apply anymore.”

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The report comes just days after the U.S. issued fresh sanctions against several Russian-linked entities and individuals involved in the building of Nord Stream 2, the massive undersea gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany.

Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

The problem has been percolating for a while. 

It’s been subterranean. Lurking underneath the surface. Not necessarily perceptible.

Except to those who follow Congress closely.

But the issue has gurgled to the top since the House stumbled badly trying to avert a government shutdown last week.

DOZENS OF HOUSE LAWMAKERS RALLY AROUND FUNDING AFGHAN VISA PROGRAMS AS TRUMP VOWS MAJOR SPENDING CUTS

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 13, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

To wit: 

Congress spasmed between a staggering, 1,500-page spending bill. Then defeated a narrow, 116-page bill – which President-elect Trump endorsed. Things got worse when the House only commandeered a scant 174 yeas for the Trump-supported bill and 38 Republicans voted nay. Circumstances grew even more dire when the House actually voted to avert a holiday government shutdown – but passed the bill with more Democrats (196) than Republicans (170). Thirty-four GOPers voted nay.

It was long likely that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., might face a problem winning the speaker’s gavel immediately when the new Congress convenes at noon ET on Jan. 3. Congressional experts knew that Johnson could be in trouble once the contours of the reed-thin House majority came into focus weeks after the November election. This could blossom into a full-blown crisis for Johnson – and House Republicans –when the speaker’s vote commences a little after 1 p.m. ET next Friday. 

Johnson emerges bruised from last week’s government funding donnybrook. Anywhere from four to 10 Republicans could oppose Johnson in the speaker’s race. 

DONALD TRUMP SAYS MIKE JOHNSON WILL ‘EASILY REMAIN SPEAKER’ IF HE ACTS ‘DECISIVELY AND TOUGH’ ON SPENDING BILL

It was long likely that Mike Johnson might have a problem winning the speaker’s gavel when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Here’s the math:

The House clocks in at 434 members with one vacancy. That’s thanks to former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. He resigned his position for this Congress a few weeks ago. Even though Gaetz won re-election in November, his resignation letter – read on the floor of the House – signaled he did not plan to serve in the new Congress, which begins in January.

This is the breakdown when the Congress starts: 219 Republicans to 214 Democrats.

Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., remains in the House for now. So does Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. Trump tapped her to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. That’s pending Senate confirmation – perhaps in late January or early February. Once Waltz and Stefanik resign, the GOP majority dwindles to 217-214.

But the speaker’s election on Jan. 3 poses a special challenge. Here’s the bar for Johnson – or anyone else: The speaker of the House must win an outright majority of all members casting ballots for someone by name. In other words, the person with the most votes does not win. That’s what happened repeatedly to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., when he routinely outpolled House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for speaker to begin this Congress in January 2023. But it took days for McCarthy to cross the proper threshold.

House Speaker Mike Johnson emerges bruised from the recent government funding donnybrook. (Getty)

More on that in a moment. 

So let’s crunch the math for Mike Johnson. If there are 219 Republicans and four voted for someone besides him – and all Democrats cast ballots for Jeffries, the tally is 215-214. But there’s no speaker. No one attained an outright majority of all members casting ballots for someone by name. The magic number is 218 if all 434 members vote. 

By rule, this paralyzes the House. The House absolutely, unequivocally, cannot do anything until it elects a speaker. Period. 

The House can’t swear in members. Technically, they’re still representatives-elect. Only after the House chooses its speaker does he or she in turn swear in the membership. 

The House certainly can’t pass legislation. It can’t form committees. It’s frozen in a parliamentary paralysis until it elects a speaker.

Now, I hope you’re sitting down for the next part.

This also means that the House cannot certify the results of the Electoral College, making Trump the 47th president of the United States on Jan. 6.

The House absolutely, unequivocally, cannot do anything until it elects a speaker. Period. (Valerie Plesch/picture alliance via Getty Images)

The failure to elect a speaker compels the House to vote over and over…

And over… and… over…

Until it finally taps someone. 

McCarthy’s election incinerated 15 ballots over five days two years ago.

The House settled into a congressional cryogenic freeze for three weeks after members ousted McCarthy in October 2023. It burned through two speaker candidates off the floor – House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. – and one candidate on the floor: Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. 

So you see the problem.

Consider for a moment that prior to last year, the House never went to a second ballot to select a speaker since Speaker Frederick Gillett, R-Mass., in 1923. 

It took 63 ballots before the House finally settled on Speaker Howell Cobb, D-Ga., in 1849.

But that’s nothing. The longest speaker’s election consumed two months before the House elected Speaker Nathaniel Banks, R-Mass., in 1856 – on the 133rd ballot.

So anything which elongates this into a collision with Jan. 6 – the statutory day to certify the election results and now one of the most ignominious days in American history – is dangerous.

JOHNSON ALLIES URGE TRUMP TO INTERVENE AS MESSY SPEAKER BATTLE THREATENS TO DELAY 2024 CERTIFICATION

Without a speaker, the House cannot certify the results of the Electoral College, making Trump the 47th president of the United States on Jan. 6. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

To be clear: there is no dispute that Trump won the election. There is no anticipation of a repeat of a riot at the Capitol like four years ago. But a failure to certify the Electoral College on the day it’s supposed to be completed – especially after the 2021 experience – is playing with fire. Such a scenario would again reveal another, never-before-considered vulnerability in the fragile American political system.

On Jan. 6, the House and Senate are supposed to meet in a joint session of Congress to tabulate and certify the electoral votes. Any disputes over a state’s slate of electoral votes compels the House and Senate to then debate and vote separately on those results. The election is not final until the joint session concludes and the vice president – in this case Kamala Harris – in her capacity as president of the Senate, announces a victor.

Congress is not required to certify the Electoral College on the calendar day of Jan. 6. There is actually some leeway to wrap things up. In 2021, the Electoral College wasn’t certified until around 3:52 a.m. on Jan. 7. It only becomes a major problem if this drags on through noon on Jan. 20. That’s when the Constitution prescribes that the president-elect take the oath of office. 

What happens if the Electoral College isn’t sorted out by Jan. 20? Well, President Biden is done. So he’s gone. The same with Harris. Next in the presidential line of succession is the speaker of the House. Well, there’s no speaker. So who becomes president? 

On Jan. 6, the House and Senate are supposed to meet in a joint session of Congress to tabulate and certify the electoral votes. (Getty Images)

Well, there is at that moment a president pro tempore of the Senate, the most senior member of the majority party. He or she is fourth in line to the presidency. At this moment, the president pro tempore is Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. But Republicans claim control of the chamber in early January. And unlike the House, if it’s stymied over a speaker, the Senate is functioning. That means 91-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, becomes Senate president pro tempore. Grassley has served in the Senate since 1981. 

If the House is still frittering away time, trying to elect a speaker on Jan. 20, Grassley likely becomes “acting president.”

I write “likely” because this gets into some serious, extra-constitutional turf. These are unprecedented scenarios. Strange lands never visited in the American political experience. 

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And it all hinges on Mike Johnson – or frankly, someone else – wrapping up the speaker’s vote with dispatch on Jan. 3. Any interregnum like the past two speaker elections begins to establish challenging historical precedents. 

But frankly, it’s unclear if the House can avoid such contretemps. 

It’s about the math. And once again, balancing that parliamentary equation is tenuous at best.

Former presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson announced a bid to become the next Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair.

In a letter addressed to DNC members posted to her Transform with Marianne Williamson site, she pledged that as chair she would seek to “reinvent the party.” 

She also warned that President-elect Trump’s political accomplishments should not be underestimated.

“President Trump has ushered in an age of political theatre – a collective adrenaline rush that has enabled him to not only move masses of people into his camp but also masses of people away from ours. It does not serve us to underestimate the historic nature of what he has achieved,” Williamson said.

DEMOCRATS IN DISARRAY: MORE CANDIDATES JUMP INTO WIDE-OPEN RACE FOR DNC CHAIR

Project Angel Food Founder Marianne Williamson is seen at the AIDS Monument Groundbreaking on June 5, 2021, in West Hollywood, Calif. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Foundation for the AIDS Monument)

“In fact, it’s important that we recognize the psychological and emotional dimensions of Trump’s appeal. We need to understand it to create the energy to counter it. MAGA is a distinctly 21st century political movement, and it will not be defeated by a 20th century tool kit. Data analysis, fundraising, field organizing, and beefed-up technology – while all are important – will not be enough to prepare the way for Democratic victory in 2024 and beyond,” she asserted.

“We will create a surge of patriotic fervor, and a connectedness of the American heart to the great historical legacy of this country. Our ultimate success will be creating in people’s minds a sense that in order to further that legacy, your smartest move is to vote for Democrats,” she contended.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR FRONTRUNNER ACKNOWLEDGES ‘WE’RE GETTING OUR BUTTS KICKED RIGHT NOW’

Marianne Williamson and other Democratic presidential hopefuls in the first round of the second Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by CNN at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, on July 30, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Williamson, an author who says she has “worked as a spiritual/political activist” over the course of her career, pursued the Democratic presidential nomination during the last two presidential election cycles but failed to gain traction in both cases.

In early 2020 she dropped out before the first nominating contest, the Iowa caucus, took place. In 2024, she suspended her campaign in February but unsuspended it later that same month.

OUTGOING DNC CHAIR DEFENDS PARTY, SAYS 2024 COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE FOR DEMOCRATS

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Other figures have also announced bids for the DNC chair role, including former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who recently served as Social Security Administration commissioner.

A Texas man is being charged with attempting to smuggle over 100 illegal immigrants into the U.S. in a locked tractor trailer.

Juan Manuel Aguirre, 49, is facing a three-count indictment of conspiracy to transport an undocumented alien within the United States and the transportation of an undocumented alien within the United States for financial gain, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas on Monday.

Aguirre, a resident of the South Texas city of Laredo, was observed by law enforcement loading a large group of migrants into a white trailer in a warehouse parking lot on Dec. 2. After it departed, authorities conducted a traffic stop on the white truck hauling the trailer and allegedly found 101 undocumented immigrants, including 12 unaccompanied children, crammed in.

CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TEAM CONSIDERING WAYS TO HELP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AHEAD OF SECOND TRUMP ADMIN: REPORT

Trucks travel across the World Trade International Bridge in Laredo, Texas, on June 10, 2019.  (Callaghan O’Hare/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Justice Department statement said two of the migrants reported having difficulty breathing and feared for their lives due to the conditions in the trailer.

Aguirre is facing 10 years in prison for each of the three counts and fines of up to $250,000.

The number of individuals sentenced for alien smuggling offenses in the U.S. has steadily risen under the Biden administration, reaching 4,731 in fiscal year 2023, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

MIGRANT CRIME WAVE DURING BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN UNDER SCRUTINY AMID SERIES OF ASSAULTS, MURDERS: A TIMELINE

Migrants are apprehended near the border wall in New Mexico, April 12, 2024. (Fox News)

The top five districts for human smuggling are all along the southern border. With Texas accounting for over 60% of the U.S. border with Mexico, the top two districts for human smuggling were both in Texas.

There were 64,124 alien smuggling offense cases reported in 2023. About 10% of alien smuggling cases involve unaccompanied minors.

In October, local news source KGNS reported a concerning rise in human smuggling incidents in Laredo, resulting in high-risk vehicle pursuits and other dangerous situations.

THESE ARE TRUMP’S THREE PRIORITIES FOR BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN | FOX NEWS VIDEO

The Rio Grande is seen from Laredo, Texas, Sept. 19, 2020. (Reuters/Veronica G. Cardenas)

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Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched a new billboard ad campaign in Mexico and Central America to warn potential illegal migrants of the dangers of attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally.

“We’re here to expose the truth to immigrants who are thinking about coming here, the truth about the traffickers who assault so many of the women and children along the way,” the governor said. “The message is: Do not risk a dangerous trip just to be arrested and deported.”

The State Department’s foreign disinformation center, accused by conservatives of censoring U.S. citizens, shut its doors due to lack of funding this week. 

Elon Musk had deemed the Global Engagement Center (GEC), established in 2016, the “worst offender in U.S. government censorship & media manipulation,” and its funding was stripped as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Pentagon’s yearly policy bill. 

“The Global Engagement Center will terminate by operation of law [by the end of the day] on December 23, 2024,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “The Department of State has consulted with Congress regarding next steps.”

Lawmakers had originally included funding for the GEC in its continuing resolution (CR), or bill to fund the government beyond a Friday deadline. But conservatives balked at that iteration of the funding bill, and it was rewritten without money for the GEC and other funding riders.

The agency had a budget of around $61 million and 120 people on staff. 

At a time when adversaries like Iran and Russia sow disinformation throughout the world, Republicans saw little value in the agency’s work, arguing that much of its disinformation analysis is already offered by the private sector. 

The State Department’s foreign disinformation center, accused by conservatives of censoring American citizens, shut its doors due to lack of funding this week. (Graphic by Fox News with assets from Getty Images)

The GEC, according to reporter Matt Taibbi, “funded a secret list of subcontractors and helped pioneer an insidious—and idiotic—new form of blacklisting” during the pandemic. 

Taibbi wrote last year when exposing the Twitter Files that the GEC “flagged accounts as ‘Russian personas and proxies’ based on criteria like, ‘Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,’ blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan institute,’ and ‘attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.’” 

“State also flagged accounts that retweeted news that Twitter banned the popular U.S. website ZeroHedge, claiming that it ‘led to another flurry of disinformation narratives.'” ZeroHedge had made reports speculating that the virus had a lab origin.

The GEC is part of the State Department but also partners with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Special Operations Command and the Department of Homeland Security. The GEC also funds the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab).

SPENDING BILL TO FUND STATE DEPARTMENT AGENCY ACCUSED OF CENSORING, BLACKLISTING AMERICANS

DFRLab Director Graham Brookie previously denied the claim that they use tax money to track Americans, saying its GEC grants have “an exclusively international focus.”

A 2024 report from the Republican-led House Small Business Committee criticized the GEC for awarding grants to organizations whose work includes tracking domestic as well as foreign misinformation and rating the credibility of U.S.-based publishers, according to the Washington Post. 

Elon Musk had deemed the Global Engagement Center (GEC), established in 2016,the “worst offender in U.S. government censorship & media manipulation.” (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Journalist Matt Taibbi wrote last year, when exposing the Twitter Files, that the GEC “flagged accounts as ‘Russian personas and proxies’ based on criteria like, ‘Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,’ blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan institute.’ (Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage)

The lawsuit was brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Daily Wire and the Federalist, who sued the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other government officials earlier this month for “engaging in a conspiracy to censor, deplatform and demonetize American media outlets disfavored by the federal government.”

The lawsuit stated that the GEC was used as a tool for the defendants to carry out its censorship. 

​​”Congress authorized the creation of the Global Engagement Center expressly to counter foreign propaganda and misinformation,” the Texas Attorney General’s Office said in a press release. “Instead, the agency weaponized this authority to violate the First Amendment and suppress Americans’ constitutionally-protected speech. 

STATE DEPARTMENT FUNDS ‘DISINFORMATION’ INDEX TARGETING NON-LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE NEWS OUTLETS: REPORT

The complaint describes the State Department’s project as “one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation.’”

The lawsuit argued that The Daily Wire, The Federalist and other conservative news organizations were branded “unreliable” or “risky” by the agency, “starving them of advertising revenue and reducing the circulation of their reporting and speech—all as a direct result of [the State Department’s] unlawful censorship scheme.”

Meanwhile, America First Legal, headed up by Stephen Miller, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for deputy chief of staff for policy, revealed that the GEC had used taxpayer dollars to create a video game called “Cat Park” to “Inoculate Youth Against Disinformation” abroad. 

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The game “inoculates players . . . by showing how sensational headlines, memes, and manipulated media can be used to advance conspiracy theories and incite real-world violence,” according to a memo obtained by America First Legal. 

Mike Benz, the executive director at the Foundation For Freedom Online, said the game was “anti-populist” and pushed certain political beliefs instead of protecting Americans from foreign disinformation, accordig to the Tennessee Star.