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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is continuing to deny looming questions over an Ethics Committee investigation into her financial filings, showing a significant drop in her net worth.

Scrutiny of Omar’s finances intensified after financial disclosure filings appeared to show her estimated net worth falling from a range of roughly $6 million to $30 million in one filing period to between about $18,000 and $95,000 in a later disclosure.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has publicly voiced his interest in the House Ethics Committee opening an investigation into both Omar’s personal finances and her connection to the ‘Feeding Our Future’ fraud scheme, a scandal that federal prosecutors say cost taxpayers roughly $250 million.

JAMES COMER RAISES FELONY QUESTIONS OVER ILHAN OMAR’S FINANCES AFTER DISCLOSURE DISCREPANCY

Omar dismissed suggestions that she is facing an Ethics Committee investigation.

“No,” Omar told Fox News Digital, laughing, when asked if she is under an Ethics Committee investigation. “No. We go over this all the time.”

She was pressed about continued reporting surrounding the discrepancy —  the possibility of the roughly $29 million drop in her financial disclosure. 

“There’s also the possibility that it might rain on this sunny day,” Omar replied.

Along with Comer’s efforts to launch an investigation into Omar, Vice President JD Vance said just last month that the U.S. Department of Justice will be opening a probe into the Minnesota Democrat’s alleged fraud as part of the administration’s new anti-fraud taskforce. 

OMAR CAMP BREAKS SILENCE ON FRAUD PROBE, BLAMES WALZ, TRUMP AS NEW CLAIMS CLASH WITH EARLIER STATEMENTS

Omar has declined ever being aware of the scheme happening behind doors with the organization, which claimed to be helping supply children in need of meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Justice Department described the scheme as the “single largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country,” The Associated Press reported. The orchestrator of the non-profit, Aimee Bock, was sentenced to 42 years in prison for her involvement in spearheading the fraud scheme.

Republicans have pointed to Omar’s MEALS Act, part of a federal pandemic relief measure which she sponsored, as a factor they say contributed to conditions that allowed the fraud to occur. They argue her bill was a mass contributor to the fraud occurring as it broadened USDA waiver authority at meal sites. It has also been claimed that this same act helped to dismantle anti-fraud safeguards that verified the people actually being serviced in federal nutrition programs.

ILHAN OMAR’S OFFICE SAYS SHE’S ‘NOT A MILLIONAIRE’ AFTER $30M FILING REVISED DOWN TO UNDER $100K: REPORT

In a previous statement to Fox News Digital from Omar, she claimed that President Donald Trump’s USDA Secretary, Brooke Rollins, imposed the regulations for the framework of the program. 

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While Omar continues to reject suggestions time-after-time that she is facing an Ethics Committee investigation, Republicans have shown little sign of backing away from their demands for a proper investigation into Omar’s finances and fraud allegations. 

A vulnerable House Democrat in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District is facing scrutiny over expenses eclipsing over $40,000 in payments to a furniture and interior design company for refurbishing a district office.

In the second quarter of 2023, Davis reported $27,300 in taxpayer-funded “habitation expenses” and another $13,030 for “office supplies and furniture,” according to congressional disclosure records — second overall among the 435 members in the House of Representatives.

“Upon my first election to Congress, we immediately set to work establishing our congressional office within the new district, starting from scratch with no furniture and limited supplies. After subsequent redistricting, we expanded our offices to serve our constituents better,” Davis told Fox News Digital. “These expenses underscore not only the rising costs we are facing nationwide but also the financial impact of redistricting.”

AOC SPENT OVER $53K IN CAMPAIGN FUNDS ON LUXURY HOTELS IN 2025: ‘CARPETBAGGER’

Only one other member, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., appeared to have higher habitation expenses than Davis in 2023.

Taff Office, which currently operates as “Young Office” after a merger in 2025, is an interior design company designing “spaces that inspire, motivate and engage.”

When asked about the expenses, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) argued the expenses fall under the appropriate parameters of Davis’ duties.

“One of the most basic functions of a Congress in maintaining an office to serve the people in their district. Congressman Davis has some of the best constituent services in the country. Maybe if Republicans followed his example they wouldn’t feel the need to once again redistrict the state in an effort to save their flailing House majority,” Madison Andrus, a spokesperson for the DCCC said.

However, during the 2022 election cycle, the DCCC used habitation expenses as an attack against then-Rep. Steve Chabot- R-Ohio, who spent a small fraction of the $40,000+ that Davis did. A Fox News Digital review of an oppo research book that the DCCC compiled against Chabot, shows that he spent less than $7,000 between 2011 and 2022.

A spokesperson for the GOP-run Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) called Davis’ expenses out of touch with the challenges faced by state residents and framed them as a part of a larger pattern of spending. 

“North Carolina families struggle every day to make ends meet while Congressman Don Davis is wasting their hard-earned money on $2,300 Ubers and $40,000 office renovations. This isn’t just reckless spending—it’s a pattern of abusing the taxpayer dollars Davis was entrusted to protect. North Carolinians have had enough and will boot Don Davis from office come November,” Torunn Sinclair, a spokesperson for CLF, said. 

DEM RISING STAR WHO CALLED TRUMP ‘CON MAN’ SPENT OVER $120K ON LUXURY HOTELS, TRANSPORTATION AND SECURITY

While not the highest habitation expense among lawmakers, Davis’ 2023 record comes amid reports of other high costs expensed to taxpayers during his years of public service. In comparison, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee, another North Carolina Democrat who was sworn into office in 2023, appears to have spent under $3,000 in habitation expenses that same year.

Reporting from The Center Square in March uncovered that Davis took $4,500 in per diems over the course of 19 days where he did not participate in any votes, accepting the allowances granted to cover lodging and travel costs for the lawmakers’ trips to the state capitol.

Since his election to Congress, Davis has also received criticism for spending nearly $10,000 on a trip to the U.S. southern border in 2024, racking up almost $7,000 in airfare costs.

Members of Congress are required to report expenses covered by the government, like costs for running an office.

Among the categories of items covered, a habitation expense covers “minor, minimal expenses incurred for decorating offices.”

FEDERAL ELECTION COMPLAINT ALLEGES AOC MISUSED CAMPAIGN FUNDS FOR PSYCHIATRIST SERVICES

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“This category includes furniture items such as chairs, tables, etc., which cost less than $500. Furniture that costs more than $500 and less than $25,000 should appear under the expense category or budget object code for furniture and fixtures less than $25,000,” the House website reads.

The use of habitation expenses has varied widely depending on lawmakers’ needs, but has also landed some lawmakers in hot water for overly flamboyant expenses.

Former Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., famously received criticism in 2015 for spending and then repaying $40,000 in taxpayer funds to refurbish a district office in the style of Downtown Abby, according to the Associated Press.

Davis will be facing Laurie Buckhout, a “retired Army Colonel and decorated combat commander” in November’s general election.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett erupted at Republicans, calling them a “majority… White” party and accusing them of using a member of Martin Luther King Jr.’s family as a prop to shield themselves from allegations of racism while interrogating the Southern Poverty Law Center’s funding of hate groups.

Crockett, who is leaving office next year after a failed Senate bid, lambasted Republicans for expressing outrage at the SPLC while not addressing the “literal elephant in the room” — a reference to Martin Luther King Jr.’s more conservative niece, Alveda King.

Crockett disparaged civil rights activist Alveda King as a right-wing prop while accusing Republicans of trying to trick the public into thinking a “Doctor King” was criticizing the SPLC’s work. King later questioned whether Crockett was calling her a “bastard” of the King name.

“The vast majority on that side of the aisle… are White men. White men are lecturing people of color because the vast majority, actually any semblance of diversity comes from this [Democratic] side of the aisle,” Crockett said.

FIRST ON FOX: SPLC’S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS UNDER THREAT AFTER FIERY CAPITOL HILL HEARING

She said people of color don’t feel welcome in the GOP and “that’s why you have to parade someone who has the name ‘Doctor King’ attached to them so people can be confused.”

Notably, GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt, a fellow Black Texan, was on the committee’s dais and pointedly questioned SPLC leader Bryan Fair earlier in the day. Hunt often rebukes talk of race-based partisanship by quipping that he has been “Black my entire life.”

Crockett said Republicans were hypocritical in accusing the SPLC of funding hate groups, citing a debunked assertion about President Donald Trump’s comments following the 2017 White supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

She noted Trump had said there were “fine people on both sides,” but omitted that he later clarified he was referring to a community group opposing the removal of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s statue, a gathering that occurred before the neo-Nazi violence erupted later that day.

Crockett then claimed people on social media were wondering who the “Doctor King” was who was speaking out against the SPLC as the hearing progressed, and that Republicans were trying to make the public think the historic Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be on their side.

NEARLY ALL SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN ST. PAUL CHURCH STORMING AS MLK’S NIECE SAYS TACTICS ‘NOT THE WAY’

Crockett said Republicans would be better served calling the Obama-supporting Martin Luther King III or his sister Bernice King to the hearing — suggesting they understand the civil rights icon’s teachings and positions better than Alveda.

Before her time expired, she accused King and Republicans of “caping” for murdered activist Charlie Kirk — quoting a controversial statement by the Turning Point USA founder about the Civil Rights Act.

She also claimed Republicans hauled Fair and King before the committee because they wanted to distract from their failure to hold a hearing examining associates of deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

When House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, gaveled-out Crockett’s time and passed the floor to Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., the Republican gave King a chance to respond.

“I am a bit emotional,” King said of what Crockett had claimed. “I’m going to watch what I say.”

Crockett did not appear to look back at Alveda King and was briefly seen closing her notebook as she prepared to stand up.

JASMINE CROCKETT’S HISTORY OF PLAYING THE RACE CARD GOING AFTER CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL CRITICS

“It seems as though you (Crockett) have suggested that I am bastard to the King family legacy. I am legitimately the daughter of Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King and Dr. Naomi Ruth Barber King,” Alveda King said.

Rev. A.D. King was Martin Luther King Jr.’s brother.

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“We are a family who loves God. And I love you, God bless you,” King said before yielding back to Fry.

Fry then announced that, off-camera, Crockett had quickly left the room before King could substantively respond to her remarks.

Trump administration officials fired back at critics of the planned White House UFC fight, arguing they can simply avoid the event rather than use an 11th-hour lawsuit to block thousands of spectators from gathering on the South Lawn.

“It would be easy enough to simply avert their gazes for the weekend,” Department of Justice attorneys wrote in a court filing this week. “Instead, they seek to enlist the power of a federal court to impose their idiosyncratic preferences on the rest of the country and ruin an event designed to celebrate the United States of America.”

Preparations for the UFC match have been underway on the South Lawn of the White House for weeks, including the installation of a roughly 90-foot-tall steel arch, dubbed the “claw.” The Public Integrity Project filed a lawsuit over the weekend on behalf of two Virginia residents in an effort to block the event, sparking the government to urge U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta to reject the plaintiffs’ bid.

The suit targets the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior to seek an emergency injunction to stop the event, which is expected to attract 4,000 spectators to the White House.

DANA WHITE DENIES AMERICA 250 UFC FIGHT AT WHITE HOUSE WILL BE ‘POLITICAL,’ ‘NOT AT ALL’ ABOUT POLITICS

In the brief, DOJ attorneys wrote that more than $60 million has already been spent, attendees have made travel plans, and the fighters have already begun final weight cuts.

They also noted the event has been planned for months, with President Trump first announcing the match in July 2025.

“This is an obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory lawsuit brought simply to prevent President Trump from hosting what will undoubtedly go down as one of the most historic sporting events in our Nation’s history during our semiquincentennial celebration,” a White House official told Fox News Digital.

“This iconic event is no different than the various other White House-hosted events on the South Lawn and properly permitted events on the Ellipse and National Mall throughout the year,” the White House official added.

A PIECE OF THE UFC WHITE HOUSE EVENT’S SETUP IS SITTING IN PENNSYLVANIA AMISH COUNTRY

Plaintiffs argued that the event will interfere with the White House and National Mall area while describing its setup as “hideous.”

The plaintiffs argued that organizers ignored federal permitting rules, skipped environmental reviews and triggered conflict-of-interest concerns invoking National Park Service regulations and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). They also said the “claw” needed to be built with congressional authorization. 

Officials responded that the plaintiffs are not forced to watch the fight and their opinions are not “superior” to those who support the match.

“All these hopes could be dashed at the very last moment, however, by the whim of two people who believe they have superior taste and want to spoil the event for everyone else,” the DOJ attorneys wrote.

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The plaintiffs must respond with their final brief by 9 p.m. Wednesday. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Public Integrity Project for comment.

Fox News’ Kerri Urban and Mark Meredith contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: The Trump administration is lifting the hood on federal health benefits programs that cover millions of Americans, ordering insurance carriers to tighten fraud controls as part of a broader crackdown on waste and abuse, Fox News Digital learned.

“Working alongside the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, OPM is taking additional steps to safeguard the premiums paid by federal employees and taxpayers, protect beneficiaries, and ensure health insurance companies are meeting the highest standards of accountability,” said Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director Scott Kupor to Fox News Digital.

OPM functions as the federal government’s human resources agency, overseeing civilian personnel policy and administering benefits for federal employees, retirees and their families.

OPM, partnered with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, is sending new compliance expectations on Wednesday to insurance carriers in the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs, directing them to strengthen fraud prevention, payment reviews, pharmacy benefit oversight, subcontractor accountability, audits and reporting, Fox News Digital learned. 

READ: DR. OZ PUTS ALL 50 GOVERNORS ON NOTICE OVER BILLIONS LOST TO MEDICAID FRAUD

The push also targets pharmacy benefit managers, the drug-pricing middlemen that administer prescription drug benefits for health plans and negotiate with drugmakers and pharmacies.

The FEHB program cost the government and enrollees about $70 billion in fiscal 2024 and covered more than 8.2 million federal employees, family members and other eligible individuals, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

“OPM is a valuable partner and leader on the Task Force. The steps taken today will protect taxpayers and our federal workforce,” White House Task Force Executive Director Scott Brady told Fox News Digital.

OPM is also building a data science and audit team with the agency’s inspector general to review anonymized claims data and detect fraud, waste and overbilling more proactively.

HOUSE GOP LAUNCHES NEW TASK FORCE, PROBES ALLEGED $250B MEDICAID FRAUD IN OHIO

The Government Accountability Office said in a July 2025 report that OPM should do more to manage fraud risks in the FEHB program, citing risks including benefit card sharing, improper inducements, insufficient or fraudulent documentation, kickbacks, marketing fraud, theft of personally identifiable information, provider ineligibility and self-referrals.

The announcement marks the latest crackdown in medical programs following the launch of a nationwide probe into Medicaid.

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CMS directed all 50 states to submit plans to revalidate high-risk Medicaid providers, including providers subject to less rigorous enrollment standards or operating without a National Provider Identifier in April.

Vice President JD Vance, who is leading the task force, amplified the call in May, saying during a news conference that states could lose federal funding if they fail to aggressively pursue Medicaid fraud.

The push comes amid heightened focus on large-scale fraud cases, including Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme, which became a national flashpoint in recent months. 

The flatlined bid to reauthorize the nation’s controversial spying powers may have a pulse again after President Donald Trump made a key concession to Democrats. 

Congress was on its way to reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is set to expire Friday, but that momentum was halted when Trump tapped his current director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, to serve as a temporary chief for the nation’s spy agencies. 

Pulte, who is set to take over the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on June 19, has proven the prime sticking point in a process that has already been marred by disagreements over FISA’s controversial Section 702. Critics have panned him as having no experience in a role that will require him to oversee the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies.

SENATE PUSH TO REAUTHORIZE NATION’S SPY POWERS STUMBLES OVER CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP DECISION

“This is not a problem between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, this was the administration throwing a live hand grenade into a critical reauthorization 10 days out,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said.

Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senate Intelligence Committee chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., produced a compromise, three-year reauthorization with reforms to Section 702 that likely would have advanced absent Trump’s decision to tap Pulte. 

Given the logjam, Trump on Wednesday announced that he was actively seeking a replacement to lead ODNI and requested that Congress produce a short-term extension to keep the program running in the meantime.

“I would say this, [Pulte is] going to be there for a short while, while we pick somebody else,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re interviewing five different people. They’re all very good, very different, and we’ll put somebody there.”

WHY TRUMP PICKED BILL PULTE TO LEAD US INTELLIGENCE AS CRITICS QUESTION HIS QUALIFICATIONS

That move could help some Senate Democrats get over the hump. 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said that he believed that at least knowing that Pulte would be out could be enough to dislodge some Democrats to support an extension. 

“I think knowing who the DNI will be, if it’s somebody that people have confidence in, that makes the FISA question a lot easier,” Kaine said.

For others, Trump’s ambiguity on how long Pulte will stick around remains a troubling prospect.

“That’s a problem,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said. “If Mr. Pulte is gonna be there for an indefinite period, then I can’t vote for an extension. If there’s some timeline, measurable, defined, then I would consider it.”

Lawmakers are currently mulling a possible three-week extension to the program, which has given conservatives and Democrats heartburn.

TRUMP MOVES TO SLASH INTELLIGENCE OFFICE AHEAD OF PERMANENT CHIEF’S ARRIVAL

It’s one of the rare horseshoe issues in the Capitol where privacy hawks on both sides of the aisle want steep reforms, particularly for warrant requirements to prevent Americans from getting ensnared in information collected on foreigners under Section 702. 

That reality means that some Republicans and Democrats wouldn’t vote for the compromise deal anyway — six Republicans joined nearly every Democrat to block a procedural move to reauthorize the program last week. 

“Why don’t we surveil the foreigners and not surveil Americans? It’s a new concept,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said.

That means that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will need all the help from Democrats that he can get. 

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“We need Democrat votes,” Thune said. “And, as I’ve said before, I think irrespective of what you think about Bill Pulte, providing the reforms that are included in the 702 reauthorization is a safeguard, regardless of who’s in that job, or which party is in power here.” 

But others contend that the Friday deadline isn’t the hard end of the program.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on the Senate floor that the case to rush a reauthorization to the floor by the end of the week “is not true.” 

“Existing law allows Section 702 collection to continue under an order from the FISA court for another year, even without congressional reauthorization,” Durbin said. “Congress can and must take the time to get this right.”

Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) whistleblower and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch accused intelligence agencies Tuesday of hiding billions of dollars in secret government spending from Congress, as lawmakers renewed demands for records they say federal officials continue to withhold.   

His investigation uncovered what he described as “slush funds” — pools of money allegedly operating outside normal congressional oversight channels — worth billions of dollars annually that were allegedly used to support activities operating outside normal oversight channels, Grusch said speaking at a Capitol Hill event alongside members of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. 

“This is also a real fraud, waste and abuse issue,” Grusch said. “During my investigation, I found slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities.”

TASK FORCE TO EXPOSE ‘FEDERAL SECRETS’ ON JFK ASSASSINATION, EPSTEIN, UFOS PACKED WITH GOP REBELS

The allegations come as lawmakers and the Trump administration have intensified efforts to declassify government unidentified aerial phenomena records, releasing hundreds of pages of previously secret files and renewing pressure on agencies to disclose what they know about unexplained aerial incidents.

Grusch, who served on the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and later as the National Reconnaissance Office’s representative to the task force, first gained national attention in 2023 when he testified before Congress about alleged government efforts to recover and study unidentified craft. 

The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget includes nearly $132 billion in military and national intelligence spending, much of it contained in classified programs accessible only to a limited group of cleared officials and lawmakers.

Asked what the government knows about nonhuman intelligence, Grusch claimed the government is aware of “several” different alien species. 

“It’s a continuum from corporeal bipedal type life to, you know, what I would consider is like sentient plasma life,” Grusch said. “But there are several that this government is aware of.” 

He did not elaborate on the claim or provide evidence during the event.

Grusch specifically accused the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon’s primary military intelligence agency, of obstructing congressional oversight efforts, arguing that records requested by lawmakers have not been fully provided despite what he described as lawful requests from Congress. He urged the agency to release additional documents for review and declassification.  

The DIA could not immediately be reached for comment. 

The Pentagon has consistently said investigations have not uncovered verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology, and previous government reviews have disputed claims that secret crash-retrieval programs exist.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers joined Grusch during the press conference, arguing that agencies have continued to resist congressional efforts to obtain information related to unidentified anomalous phenomena.

“We would ask questions, and they would then push back. We would ask more questions, and the pushback became more significant,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla. “We would try to put language in an amendment, in a bill, and they would oppose it.”

“There must be real penalties for officials who knowingly withhold information from Congress,” added Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo.

Moskowitz also tied the debate to broader concerns about Pentagon accountability.

“There’s trillions of dollars missing at the Pentagon. Where does that money go?” he said.

The Pentagon has failed seven consecutive annual audits, though defense officials have said those findings reflect longstanding challenges tracking assets and accounting systems across the department.

REP TIM BURCHETT CONVINCED THAT ALIENS EXIST, SAYS HE’S ‘SEEN TOO MUCH’ IN GOVERNMENT BRIEFINGS

Grusch said additional witnesses remain reluctant to come forward because of concerns about retaliation and legal exposure.

Burlison called on President Donald Trump to waive nondisclosure agreements for individuals with knowledge of alleged government UAP programs and grant immunity to those willing to testify.

“Grant immunity to anyone who has already come forward, and everyone who will come forward,” Burlison said. “Open the door and let them speak.”

“Congress is requesting specific records and videos,” Burlison added. “These agencies and contractors know that we know that they exist, and we’re going to get them released.”

Burlison said lawmakers have continued pressing agencies and defense contractors for records they believe remain classified despite recent disclosure efforts.

He said his office obtained MQ-9 footage of a UAP incident off the coast of Yemen that was delivered through what he described as a “Tom Clancy-style dead drop.”

Lawmakers argued that additional disclosures may depend on persuading more witnesses to come forward.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who chairs the House task force examining the issue, said lawmakers are discussing immunity protections for individuals with knowledge of alleged craft locations, recovered materials or advanced technologies.

The renewed push comes as lawmakers seek greater access to information tied to some of the government’s most closely held programs.

Federal investigators recently alleged that former CIA official David Rush used a fraudulent “special access program” as part of a scheme involving more than $40 million in gold bars and millions in government funds, drawing renewed attention to how highly restricted government programs can operate with limited outside visibility.

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The event comes weeks after the Trump administration released a major tranche of previously classified UAP records, including military reports, sensor data and witness accounts that had long remained hidden from public view.

Lawmakers and disclosure advocates have pointed to those releases as evidence the government is becoming more transparent about UAP investigations, while arguing that significant amounts of information remain classified.

One week after President Donald Trump‘s endorsement-winning streak in high-profile Republican primaries was snapped, the president’s immense clout over the GOP was on the line again, this time in South Carolina.

And the president easily passed the test.

The candidate Trump endorsed in the Palmetto State’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished first in a crowded field of candidates and clinched one of the two tickets in the race for the nomination, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Evette, who repeatedly spotlighted Trump’s support, now advances to a Republican runoff election in two weeks against South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the second place finisher, in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster. 

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Since no candidate topped 50% of the primary vote to land a majority, Evette and Wilson will battle for the nomination in the June 23 runoff, and the winner will be considered the clear favorite in the general election in the solidly red southeastern state.

Meanwhile, in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham did win a majority of the vote, and will avoid a runoff, the Associated Press reported.

Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.

Graham’s campaign and allied political groups spent nearly $20 million to highlight Trump’s support. And the president joined Graham and Evette for a primary eve tele-rally.

While he wasn’t on the ballot, Trump’s immense clout over the GOP was facing another key test in South Carolina.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.

But his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa a week and a half ago — which came on the same day he also backed Evette — in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to muscle the three-term congressman to victory.

TRUMP-ENDORSED FEENSTRA CONCEDES TO MAHA-BACKED LAHN IN GOP GOVERNOR PRIMARY UPSET

Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

In the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, the major contenders had long been highlighting their support for Trump and his agenda, in hopes of landing his support.

Trump, after staying neutral for months, endorsed Evette, praising her as an “America First Patriot” and a “WINNER” in his announcement.

After Trump backed Evette, Mace said that her very vocal push last year for the Justice Department to release the files related to its probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contributed to the president’s backing of her rival.

“I know I put the likelihood of an endorsement on the line when I demanded transparency on the Epstein files,” the lawmaker wrote. “I demanded it because you deserved the truth — ALL OF IT,” Mace emphasized in a post on X.

Trump, in a social media post endorsing Evette, also said he expected Evette to choose Henry McMaster Jr., the governor’s son, as her running mate for lieutenant governor.

The comment by the president led to blowback in South Carolina political circles and speculation that McMaster, who succeeded then-Gov. Nikki Haley when she stepped down to serve as U.N. ambassador during Trump’s first term and who is in his 10th year as governor, was trying to give his son a political boost.

But McMaster denied any deal or pressure, and Evette has said she wouldn’t name any running mate until after the primary is over.

And on Friday, the younger McMaster took his name out of contention, saying it was “incredibly humbling” to be mentioned as a possible lieutenant governor candidate, but that “now is simply not the right time.”

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But the episode didn’t appear to sidetrack Evette.

Either Evette or Wilson will face off in November against state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who captured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Nancy Lacore, a retired Navy vice admiral who was fired by Pete Hegseth, and Mac Deford, a local attorney, advanced to a runoff election on Tuesday evening amid a crowded Democratic primary to fill a congressional vacancy left behind by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

Because no candidate garnered more than 50% of the vote needed to win outright, the primary now heads to a runoff that’s slated to take place on June 23. 

Once having cleared the primary, the final candidate will look to become just the second Democrat to hold South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District in over 40 years by highlighting her military record as well as how she was removed from her post by War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

FOX NEWS PROJECTS DEMOCRATIC REP. DON DAVIS WILL WIN NORTH CAROLINA’S 1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

The vacancy first came about when Mace, a firebrand conservative, announced her decision to run for governor of the Palmetto State.

During her time in Congress, Mace has attracted attention for her willingness to break with her own party on high-profile issues. She was one of the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to remove former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023 and one of four GOP lawmakers who forced a vote on releasing the Epstein Files earlier this year.

Mace said she would look to continue her work as a political maverick at the state level.

“South Carolina needs a governor who will drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables,” Mace said during her announcement speech.

WATCH: MACE SAYS TRUMP’S ENDORSEMENT HASN’T SEALED SC GUBERNATORIAL RACE: ‘IT’S A DOG FIGHT’

S.C.’s first, a relatively safe Republican district, has been held by the GOP for much of the past 40 years. Aside from Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., who held the seat from 2019 to 2021, Republicans have controlled the district since 1981.

Mace last won re-election in 2024 in a 58.2% to 41.6% victory over Democratic challenger Michael Moore, a businessman.

To turn the tables and flip the seat, Lacore has pitched herself as an anti-politics civil servant.

Lacore originally served as a Navy pilot and finished her career as a three-star admiral before being removed by Hegseth, a decision Lacore has characterized as “without cause.” Her firing came as the Trump administration carried out efforts to reform the Department of Defense and coincided with the dismissals of other high-level figures like Lt. Gen. Kennedy Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command.

All three were relieved of their duties on Aug. 22, 2025.

NAVY VETERAN ROCKY ROCHFORD SEEKS TO TURN TAMPA BAY RED, UNSEAT 20-YEAR HOUSE INCUMBENT

“For 35 years, I served in the United States Navy with the belief that service, honor and integrity matter; that these are the qualities of true leaders,” Lacore said in a campaign video.

“But it’s not what our political leaders believe today.”

She has raised $1.4 million as of late May, according to FEC records.

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Deford, for his own part, presented himself to voters as a pragmatic candidate. On his website, he highlighted a track record serving as the Town of Mount Pleasant’s Associate General Counsel and advising it through the COVID-19 Pandemic, a housing initiative and navigating federal funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“This isn’t a political stop for me. This is home and I want to serve as your next representative in Washington,” Deford said in a campaign video.

According to FEC records, Deford raised $547,800.

BLUE HILL, Maine — He’s been facing one of the roughest stretches of his bid for the U.S. Senate, but Graham Platner on Tuesday captured the Democratic Party’s Senate nomination.

Platner, a military combat veteran and oyster farmer who is backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, defeated two longshot rivals in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, the Associated Press reports.

“Susan Collins said she would only serve two terms, she’s now running for her sixth,” Platner told the crowd at the Blue Hill YMCA after he was declared the winner.

“She has worked in politics longer than Joe Biden,” Platner said, positioning his campaign as a rebuke to the political establishment of both parties. “The truth is, Susan Collins doesn’t serve us. She serves Donald Trump. She serves the Epstein class.”

The embattled Platner, who is facing numerous controversies, will now challenge moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who was unopposed for the GOP nomination, in left-leaning Maine in this year’s midterm elections. The race is one of a handful across the country that will determine whether the GOP keeps control of its slim Senate majority.

THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY

Platner, who advocates an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class, also topped two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in the primary. The governor’s name remained on the ballot even though Mills, who had been backed by longtime Democratic Senate Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, suspended her bid earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.

“We’re going to win in November and we’re going to take power back for the people in this country,” Platner predicted Sunday night, at his final rally ahead of the primary.

Platner has been playing defense the past month, amid multiple controversies. They include inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, recent reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married, and new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes. Platner has called the latest allegations of violence untrue.

On Monday, a day before the primary election, a former high-level staffer from the Planter campaign wrote in the Washington Post that Platner “is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”

While the mounting controversies triggered some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods, the candidate this past weekend thanked Maine voters for continuing to support him.

“When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth. Maine had my back,” Platner said at a rally Friday not far from his hometown in Down East Maine. “Now, as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back.”

PLATNER TO SUPPORTERS: ‘MAINE, YOU HAVE MY BACK’

Platner, who has acknowledged his battle with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from his three tours of duty in the war in Iraq with the Marines and one tour with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan, apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after some of them made headlines last fall soon after he launched his Senate campaign.

And Platner has said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. He said that he covered up the tattoo with a new design after learning last year that it resembled a Nazi symbol. But new allegations from an ex-girlfriend raise questions about Platner’s timeline regarding knowledge of the tattoo.

Khanna, who organized Friday’s rally with Platner, was asked by Fox News Digital whether he’s concerned if the current allegations, and any potential future ones, could sink Platner’s campaign and hurt Democrats’ hopes of winning back the Senate.

“I’m more concerned about making it clear that we’re opposed to misogyny, those relationships were toxic and volatile, there’s no excuse for that,” Khanna said. “I talked to Graham and he says he was at a very dark period, he had come back from two tours of duty in Iraq as an infantryman seeing violence and death. That doesn’t excuse it.”

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But Khanna added that Platner said “he really grew as a person when he came back to Maine and he was an oyster farmer and he found peace and he is ashamed of that period. To me that suggests someone taking accountability and improving their lives and we need that redemption in this country. And I agree with a lot of his economic policies, that we should be taxing the billionaires, we should be focusing on the working class.”

In his speech on Tuesday night, Platner attempted to frame himself as a changed man. 

“If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,” Platner told the crowd. “And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it. And the reason that I have lived it is because of my wife.”

Maine voters Fox News reporters spoke with ahead of the rally were divided on whether Platner’s controversies would impact their opinions of the candidate.

Jeff from Waterboro, Maine said “it’s not a good situation” as he pointed to Platner. “I think it’s somebody who shouldn’t be in the mix. I am a conservative, but he’s just got so much damage, if the Democrats want to have a winner, they’re going to have to find somebody else. He’s not the guy. It’s just too much.”

Ellen from Acton, Maine, who said she is a registered Republican, said, “Is he a perfect person? Heck no.”

But she added, “I think he will go in and do a good job.”

Collins, returning to Maine on Friday after a busy week on Capitol Hill where she reached a milestone by casting her 10,000th consecutive vote in the Senate, was asked by reporters about the latest allegations facing Platner.

“The allegations in the latest story are troubling,” Collins responded. “And I believe that Graham Platner has a lot of questions to answer.”

SEE IT: DEM SENATORS DODGE ON BACKING PLATNER AS MAINE CANDIDATE’S SCANDAL CLOUDS FINAL DAYS BEFORE PRIMARY

Platner is facing plenty of incoming political fire from Republican groups, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) who released a scathing statement after Platner’s primary victory.

“Today marks the beginning of the end for Graham Platner,” NRSC Chair Sen. Tim Scott posted on X. “He will be exposed, his agenda destroyed, and Mainers will reject him. No amount of DC Democrat support or left-wing billionaire backing will save him. The choice in Maine is clear and nothing will be taken for granted.”

And the Republican National Committee (RNC) also targeted Platner.

“Graham Platner says his violent and erratic past is being ‘weaponized’ against him. Platner said he would rape someone to show his dominance and ‘rape was about power,'” the RNC research team recently wrote on X, pointing to the latest allegations against the candidate.

Despite the allegations and the incoming fire from the GOP, no Democratic politicians who have backed Platner have rescinded their endorsements.

“We need to unite and realize that the goal is defeating Susan Collins. And everyone from Schumer to Sanders is unified around that goal,” Khanna told Fox News Digital.

Platner has drawn large crowds and built a healthy fundraising war chest, and Democrats see Maine as a crucial pickup opportunity as they aim to win back the Senate majority.

But beating Collins won’t be easy. Six years ago, public opinion polls indicated the senator was headed to defeat, but Collins defied expectations and won re-election by topping then-Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon by nine points.

Collins, a moderate Republican who at times votes against President Donald Trump’s agenda, is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate.

The senator voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, in 2021 soon after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And early last year she opposed the confirmation of now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

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But she is also remembered for her 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which eventually helped the court’s conservative majority overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling which had legalized abortion nationwide.

Europe’s most ambitious effort to build a homegrown sixth-generation fighter jet has collapsed, dealing a major blow to the continent’s push for military independence just as NATO allies pledge historic increases in defense spending.

France and Germany have abandoned the fighter jet portion of the Future Combat Air System project (FCAS), according to French and German officials — a roughly $116 billion project launched in 2017 to develop a next-generation combat aircraft intended to replace France’s Rafale fighter and Germany and Spain’s Eurofighter fleets by 2040. 

“The German authorities considered that it was not possible to put further pressure on the companies concerned,” the Élysée Palace, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron, said in a statement.

The program was envisioned as Europe’s answer to future U.S. and Chinese airpower, combining a stealth fighter with advanced networking capabilities, artificial intelligence and accompanying drone aircraft. European leaders also viewed it as a cornerstone of the continent’s push for greater defense autonomy and a stronger domestic defense-industrial base.

TRUMP PUSHED NATO TO SPEND BIG — NOW COMES THE HARDER QUESTION: CAN EUROPE ACTUALLY FIGHT?

Concerns about the project’s viability had been building for months. Earlier in 2026, European Union Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius described the program as a “failure” and warned that Europe lacked successful examples of major multinational defense projects.

Its collapse now raises fresh questions about whether Europe can translate promises of rearmament and strategic autonomy into the complex multinational weapons programs needed to compete with the United States and China.

Sixth-generation fighters are expected to combine stealth technology, artificial intelligence, advanced sensors, networking systems and teams of accompanying drones. Military planners view them as the future of air combat and a key capability in potential conflicts involving major powers such as China or Russia. 

European leaders viewed the program as a test of whether Europe could develop cutting-edge military technology without relying on American defense contractors, making its collapse a setback for broader ambitions of defense self-sufficiency and strategic autonomy.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had publicly questioned whether Germany would even need a manned sixth-generation fighter by the time the aircraft entered service and argued that Berlin’s requirements differed from France’s, which wanted a future jet capable of carrying nuclear weapons and operating from aircraft carriers.

The collapse comes at a pivotal moment for NATO, as alliance members have committed to sharply increase defense spending and expand military capabilities in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and growing concerns about long-term European security.

“It’s hardly ideal signalling either to Washington or to Moscow,” Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Reuters.

PENTAGON SLASHES NATO COMBAT COMMITMENTS AS TRUMP PUSHES EUROPE TO DEFEND ITSELF

The collapse underscored the depth of disagreements between the governments and industrial partners involved in the program.

Macron’s office said France would continue pursuing European defense cooperation despite the setback.

“The French authorities will continue to encourage our companies and armed forces to explore ways and means of pursuing ambitious European projects that are consistent with our national security interests,” it added.

The fighter program’s collapse also is raising questions about the future of other major European defense initiatives. 

France and Germany have struggled to maintain momentum on the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), a next-generation tank project, while several other joint defense efforts have faced delays, restructuring or cancellation in recent years.

Defense analysts say the Future Combat Air System failure is the latest example of Europe’s struggle to convert political commitments to military self-sufficiency into large-scale multinational defense programs, despite growing pressure to reduce reliance on U.S. military capabilities.

German War Minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin already is evaluating alternatives following the program’s collapse. 

“One is ordering more F-35s as a bridge solution or for whatever reason,” Pistorius told reporters Tuesday. Other options include joining another international fighter program already underway or pursuing a separate aircraft effort under German leadership with Airbus and other partners.

Pistorius also offered a blunt assessment of the failed effort. 

“With what we know today, we would no longer launch this project in the way it was originally set up,” he said, describing FCAS as “an ambitious European project” that had “crashed into reality.” 

He attributed the collapse largely to tensions between Airbus and Dassault and differing military requirements between France and Germany.

Germany and France launched the Future Combat Air System project in 2017, with Spain joining two years later. The aircraft was designed to operate alongside drones and a highly networked “combat cloud,” but the program had been edging toward collapse for months amid disputes over design authority, technology sharing and industrial control.

French President Emmanuel Macron has long championed the concept of European “strategic autonomy,” arguing that Europe should reduce its dependence on the United States for critical defense capabilities. The Future Combat Air System was widely viewed as one of the most important tests of that vision.

But disagreements emerged over industrial leadership, intellectual property rights, technology sharing and the future design of the aircraft itself. France sought to preserve key sovereign capabilities tied to its nuclear deterrent and aircraft carrier operations, while Germany pushed for a more equal industrial partnership.

The program’s failure leaves uncertainty over how France, Germany and Spain will pursue future air combat capabilities. It also comes as a rival sixth-generation fighter effort — the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), led by the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan — continues to advance.

The failure could also reinforce Europe’s dependence on American defense technology at a time when many European leaders say they want to reduce it.

Germany already has committed to purchasing U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets, while numerous NATO allies have turned to American-made aircraft, missile defenses and long-range weapons systems since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

INSIDE AMERICA’S 6TH-GEN ARSENAL: B-21, F-47, AND THE FUTURE OF AIR DOMINANCE

While France is unlikely to abandon its domestic aerospace industry, analysts say the demise of the Future Combat Air System project could make it harder for European governments seeking alternatives to American defense technology in the coming decades.

The Pentagon repeatedly has welcomed greater European defense spending but also has emphasized the need for allies to deliver tangible capabilities rather than make promises that take decades to materialize.

The Pentagon and NATO could not immediately be reached for comment. 

The U.S. is pursuing multiple next-generation combat aircraft programs. 

Earlier in 2026, President Donald Trump announced the Air Force’s new F-47 fighter jet, while the Navy continues development of its separate F/A-XX carrier-based fighter program.

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China also is pursuing next-generation air combat systems and has conducted highly publicized test flights of advanced aircraft that defense analysts believe could be connected to Beijing’s sixth-generation fighter efforts.

The collapse leaves Europe without a clear continental path toward a sixth-generation fighter capability while both the United States and China continue advancing next-generation combat aircraft programs. 

France, Germany and Spain must now decide whether to pursue separate national efforts, seek new industrial partners or deepen reliance on existing aircraft and foreign-made systems as pressure mounts to deliver on Europe’s rearmament ambitions.

House lawmakers are turning their focus to billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates as congressional investigators press ahead with their probe into Jeffrey Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. 

Gates will participate in a voluntary interview with the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Members on the panel are expected to pepper him with questions about his relationship with Epstein, which occurred years after Epstein’s 2008 prison term for soliciting a minor for prostitution. 

The interview will take place behind closed doors, though a transcript is expected to be made available at a later date.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., invited Gates to testify before the committee after he appeared multiple times across millions of documents released by the federal government as part of its criminal probe against Epstein.

EPSTEIN FALLOUT GROWS AS DOJ WATCHDOG DIGS DEEPER INTO HANDLING OF THE CASE

Gates and Epstein were shown corresponding, including discussions about the tech billionaire’s philanthropy work and socializing between 2011 and 2014. Epstein later killed himself in 2019 after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. 

According to the files, Epstein appeared to discover Gates’ extramarital affairs with two Russian women during his marriage to Melinda French Gates, which the tech billionaire has said did not involve Epstein’s victims.

Gates has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has denied knowledge about Epstein’s sex crimes against minors.

“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates said, according to a town hall recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, adding it was a “huge mistake” to spend time with Epstein.

BILL GATES: ‘FOOLISH’ TO SPEND TIME WITH JEFFREY EPSTEIN

A spokesperson for Gates previously told Fox News Digital that he welcomed the opportunity to testify before the committee.

“While he never witnessed or participated in any of Epstein’s illegal conduct, he is looking forward to answering all the committee’s questions to support their important work,” the spokesperson said.

The Microsoft founder is the latest influential figure to testify before the oversight panel in connection to the Epstein probe. Billionaire businessman Les Wexner, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have also participated in interviews with the committee.

Kathryn Ruemmler, former White House counsel to former President Barack Obama, and Leon Black, co-founder of investment firm Apollo Global Management, are expected to sit for interviews in the coming weeks.

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Lawmakers have pointed to Gates’ association with Epstein after his conviction as a key focus of their inquiry.

“We’ve said we don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat or who you are, the fact that Mr. Gates still had a relationship with Mr. Epstein, even after knowing about the conviction, knowing actually what he had done, I think is very concerning,” House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., told reporters Tuesday. “So we want to know what did Mr. Gates know, who else was around that orbit and why Mr. Gates continued to have a relationship with Mr. Epstein. I think those are important questions.”

Fox News’ Dan Scully contributed to this report.

As she runs for a sixth six-year term in the U.S. Senate in left-leaning Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins is now officially her party’s nominee in a crucial race that’s one of a handful across the country that will determine whether Republicans keep control of their slim Senate majority.

Collins can toss the “presumptive nominee” title after formally landing her party’s nomination on Tuesday by running unopposed in Maine’s Senate GOP primary.

As she fights for re-election, the 73-year-old Collins is once again a top target for Democrats as they aim to win back the Senate majority in this year’s midterms.

“I have been the No. 1 target of Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, not only in this campaign, but the last two campaigns as well. I’m always his No. 1 target,” Collins said in a recent Fox News Digital interview.

SIX MONTHS TILL MIDTERMS: THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY

Facing Collins will be military veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee after two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by Schumer and the Democratic Party establishment, dropped out of the race earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.

While Collins has focused on her Senate agenda, and on Friday she received bipartisan praise after reaching a milestone by casting her 10,000th consecutive Senate vote, Platner has been playing defense amid multiple controversies, ranging from inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, to new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes.

Platner, who has acknowledged his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder from his four tours of duty in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has said he’s “been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.”

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“I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated,” Platner added. “I’m not proud of who I was then, but I am proud of the work I’ve done since, and the movement we are building in Maine.”

The candidate apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after they made headlines last fall soon after he launched his Senate campaign. Platner has said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. He said that he covered up the tattoo with a new design after learning last year that it resembled a Nazi symbol. But new allegations raise questions about Platner’s timeline regarding knowledge of the tattoo.

‘HE HATED WOMEN’: EXPLOSIVE ABUSE, NEW NAZI TATTOO ALLEGATIONS FROM EXES ROCK PLATNER’S CAMPAIGN

Platner, who is supported by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, is pushing an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class.

Asked if Platner is too far to the left for voters in her northern New England state, Collins recently told Fox News Digital, “I believe that will be the conclusion of Maine voters. But, obviously, I don’t take anything for granted.”

Collins said that when it comes to her Democratic challenger’s growing political baggage, “Obviously, I’m going to be contrasting my record of achievement and accomplishments with Graham Platner’s approach.”

An outside political group aligned with the senator has already been blasting Platner, running ads spotlighting his multiple controversies.

Platner, who is running as an outsider, emphasizes that Collins is part of a “broken Washington” and “a generation of politicians who have failed us.”

He has described Collins’ moderate Republican image as a “charade,” highlights her support for some of President Donald Trump’s agenda and accuses her of being part of a political system that benefits the wealthy. 

“She and Republican politicians like her have prioritized the interests of billionaires and corporations over people,” he has charged.

Republicans — as the party currently in power in Washington, D.C. — were already up against traditional political headwinds that typically lead to a loss of congressional seats. Add to that the challenging climate fueled by persistent inflation, rising gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

Asked how she can overcome the blame pointed at Republicans over the high cost of living, Collins recently told Fox News Digital she’s championed the low-income heating assistance program, which “helps low-income families and seniors stay warm during the cold winter months. I just recently made sure the final tranche of money was released because there is a lot of need in the state of Maine, and the cost of living is high here.”

Collins also emphasized her opposition to cuts “in food stamp benefits and in other programs that are designed for low-income families because I know how important they are.”

The latest public opinion polls point to a competitive contest between Collins and Platner.

But Collins has a history of defeating the Democrats’ efforts to oust her from the Senate.

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Six years ago, she trailed Democratic challenger Sara Gideon, the then-Maine House speaker, but the senator ended up winning re-election by nearly nine points.

Pointing to the expected wave of attack ads targeting her, Collins said, “Fortunately, the people of Maine are smart, and they know lies and distortions when they see it.”

Incumbent Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., won Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary Tuesday.

Lee’s district, comprising the southern end of the Las Vegas metro area and extending through sparsely populated communities like the late Sen. Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, is one of the West’s most competitive swing districts, with a Cook Political Report rating of D+1.

Lee, whom Georgetown University’s Lugar Center deems one of the 10 most bipartisan members of Congress, faced James Lally, Terrill Robinson and Brandon West in the primary.

While the Lugar Center credited her bipartisanship, Republicans have criticized her opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which, according to reports, included hundreds of millions of dollars in support for entities in rural Nevada.

Lee has received support from AIPAC and corporate interests such as Boeing, according to The Center Square.

MINIVAN MOM PUTS DEM INCUMBENT ON NOTICE IN TOP GOP TARGET DISTRICT: ‘SHE HAS DONE NOTHING FOR US’

Lally, a cardiologist, told the outlet that Lee’s reputation as a bipartisan lawmaker is a misnomer, saying that she cannot “appease an authoritarian cult” — in an apparent reference to Republican voters and Trump supporters.

Trump’s “No Tax On Tips” has been a rallying cry for Republicans in the district — which hosts some of the largest numbers of tipped workers of any precinct given its proximity to the Strip.

Robinson, meanwhile, is a Marine Corps veteran and former staffer for neighboring Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.

LOMBARDO BUILDS MASSIVE $15M WAR CHEST IN CRITICAL NEVADA GOVERNOR SHOWDOWN

“Terrill is running for Congress because he believes Washington has stopped working for ordinary Americans. He is deeply concerned about the growing influence of corporate money, political self-interest, and the erosion of transparency across government institutions,” his campaign said in a statement on his website.

West recounted his time working several jobs earlier in life — from Carl’s Jr., the Transportation Safety Administration and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), where he became a steward.

“I’ve always been someone who learns by being in it, not watching from the outside. My background has taken me through different environments and perspectives, and that’s shaped how I understand people,” West said.

I’M SAM BROWN: THIS IS WHY I WANT NEVADA’S VOTE FOR SENATE

“I learned early how to adapt, how to listen, and how to recognize that everyone is coming from a different place. Las Vegas is where I’ve built my life and where I feel grounded.”

West’s top-listed priority, if elected, is ending all U.S. aid to Israel. He has also said he wants to see ICE “decommissioned.”

Meanwhile, Lee got in hot water recently for a now-deleted expletive-laden X rant against Trump — when the president suggested he would attend oral arguments in the birthright citizenship Supreme Court case.

“So f—ing f—ed up. I’ll pray they f— him to his face,” Lee wrote shortly before 11 p.m. Mountain Time on March 31. “Sorry, I say f— a lot these days.”

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Lee later pushed back on allegations she was a “mentally-deranged psycho” among other retorts from critics, saying in a statement that “clearly my language touched a nerve — my nerve was touched by the attacks on our Constitution and its separation of powers. I took an oath to protect and defend it.”

Fox News Digital’s Adam Pack contributed to this report.

BLUE HILL, Maine – Graham Platner, the progressive left, and Donald Trump appear to be the big winners in Tuesday’s high-profile primaries in Maine and South Carolina.

Platner, the oyster farmer and military combat veteran who has been facing plenty of incoming fire amid mounting controversies, cruised to the Democratic nomination Tuesday in left-leaning Maine and will now face longtime moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a key race that is among a handful which will likely determine if Republicans hold their Senate majority in the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, in solidly red South Carolina, Trump-backed Sen. Lindsey Graham won a majority of the vote in the Senate GOP primary and will avoid a runoff against a primary challenger from the right.

And the candidate the president endorsed in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished on top of a crowded field of contenders and will advance to a runoff election in two weeks against longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who came in second.

Here’s what we learned in the key June 9th primaries.

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The left storms back

The convincing victory by Platner, who was backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, looks to be another feather in the cap for the left in their intra-party face-off with the establishment.

The primary in Maine was held a week after Iowa state Rep. John Turek, who was supported by longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, won the Democratic Senate primary and will face Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in another crucial midterm showdown.

Turek, a wheelchair basketball player who won two Paralympic gold medals, defeated the more progressive candidate, state Sen. Zach Wahls. The divisive and expensive primary battle was viewed as a proxy war between the establishment and anti-establishment wings of the party.

Fast-forward a week and the ballot box performance by Platner, who promotes an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class, gives a boost to the left.

“The Democratic establishment and powerful interests spent months trying to stop Graham Platner. Instead, they demonstrated that voters in Maine and across America want to elect shake-up-the-system outsiders,” Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green emphasized.

And Green warned that Platner’s victory “should be a wake-up call for a Democratic establishment that has spent too long underestimating the appeal of economic populism and outsider politics.”

EMBATTLED PLATNER WINS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY TO TEE UP CRUCIAL MIDTERM SHOWDOWN

What controversies?

Platner in recent weeks has been facing one of the roughest stretches of his bid for the U.S. Senate.

The candidate has been playing defense the past month, amid multiple controversies. They include inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, recent reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married, and new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes. Platner has called the latest allegations of violence untrue.

On Monday, a day before the primary election, a former high-level staffer from the Platner campaign wrote in the Washington Post that Platner “is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”

While the mounting controversies triggered some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods and needed to be replaced, the candidate this past weekend thanked Maine voters for continuing to support him.

“When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth. Maine had my back,” Platner said at a rally Friday not far from his hometown in Down East Maine. “Now, as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back.”

THE GROWING LIST OF CONTROVERSIES THREATENING DEMOCRAT GRAHAM PLATNER’S MAINE SENATE BID

And voters in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary seemed to shrug off the controversies.

“In trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all,” Platner said in his victory speech as he dismissed news reports about his past misdeeds as immaterial to the Senate election.

“This is a movement about us, about the far too many working far too hard and struggling far too much.”

Trump has a big night

The president wasn’t on the ballot in South Carolina, but he had plenty on the line in the GOP Senate and gubernatorial primaries.

One week after Trump’s endorsement-winning streak in high-profile Republican primaries was snapped, the president’s immense clout over the GOP was on the line again, this time in South Carolina.

And the president easily passed the test.

The candidate Trump endorsed in the Palmetto State’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished first in a crowded field of candidates and clinched one of the two tickets in the race for the nomination.

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Evette, who repeatedly spotlighted Trump’s support, now advances to a Republican runoff election in two weeks against South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the second place finisher, in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster. 

Since no candidate topped 50% of the primary vote to land a majority, Evette and Wilson will battle for the nomination in the June 23 runoff, and the winner will be considered the clear favorite in the general election in the solidly red southeastern state.

Meanwhile, in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham did win a majority of the vote, and will avoid a runoff, the Associated Press reported.

Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.

Graham’s campaign and allied political groups spent nearly $20 million to highlight Trump’s support. And the president joined Graham and Evette for a primary eve tele-rally.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.

But his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa a week and a half ago — which came on the same day he also backed Evette — in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to muscle the three-term congressman to victory.

Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

In the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, the major contenders had long been highlighting their support for Trump and his agenda, in hopes of landing his support.

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Trump, after staying neutral for months, endorsed Evette, praising her as an “America First Patriot” and a “WINNER” in his announcement.

In her primary night speech, Evette thanks the president and touted that she’s a “Trump-endorsed businesswoman and conservative who’s going to take the fight to the radical left.”

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford defeated Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, advancing to a showdown with Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in one of the nation’s most competitive governor’s races.

Ford entered the race as the Democratic frontrunner in a field that included Hill, Sunshine Arterburn, Miqehl Bayfield, Emile Bouari and James Cooper. Before becoming Nevada’s first Black attorney general, he served in the Nevada Legislature, where he led the chamber as majority leader.

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Housing affordability emerged as a key issue in Ford’s campaign, with Ford pledging to lower costs and expand access to housing, according to his campaign website.

Ford’s primary victory comes as the two-term attorney general faces growing criticism over his extensive travel record.

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State records reviewed by Fox News Digital in March found Ford accumulated more than $410,000 in travel costs since taking office in 2019, while local outlets have reported he spent more than 100 days outside Nevada during his tenure.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office defended the travel, saying the trips were tied to Ford’s official duties and campaign activities, including coordinating with law enforcement agencies across the country, and were permitted under Nevada law.

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Ford is also under investigation by the Nevada Commission on Ethics over whether he solicited improper gifts or used his office to improperly benefit himself, according to documents recovered by local outlets.

Nevada’s gubernatorial race is expected to be one of the most closely watched contests of the midterm elections as Democrats attempt to reclaim control of the governor’s office in the Silver State.

Lombardo, who defeated Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in 2022, is seeking a second term and will face the Democratic nominee in November.

Fox News Digital’s Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus won the Democratic primary in Nevada’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating challengers Gabriel Cornejo, Joy Hoover and Luis Paniagua to secure her party’s nomination for an eighth term in Congress.

Titus, who has represented the Las Vegas-area district since 2013, entered the race as the clear frontrunner, backed by labor unions and Democratic organizations while also holding significant advantages in fundraising.

The veteran lawmaker faced a challenge from candidates who argued Democrats should embrace a new generation of leadership, a criticism Titus largely dismissed during the campaign. Titus pointed to her experience in Congress and her record on issues important to Southern Nevada voters, including tourism, transportation and veterans affairs, helping her win the Democratic primary.

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First elected to Congress in 2008 from Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, Titus returned to the House in 2012 after redistricting reshaped Nevada’s congressional map. Before serving in Congress, she spent two decades in the Nevada Senate and worked as a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Her primary opponents struggled to gain significant traction in a race largely overshadowed by higher-profile statewide contests. Hoover, a businesswoman and nonprofit founder, Cornejo and Paniagua all sought to present themselves as alternatives to the longtime incumbent but ultimately failed to beat Titus.

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The focus now turns to the general election, where Titus is expected to face the Republican nominee in a district that has become more competitive in recent years following redistricting. Still, the Cook Political Report rates Nevada’s 1st Congressional District as “Likely Democrat,” reflecting both the district’s Democratic lean and Titus’ incumbency advantage.

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Nevada’s 1st District includes much of eastern Las Vegas, Henderson, Paradise and surrounding communities in Clark County. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, the district carries a D+2 rating. Republicans have not held the seat since former Rep. John Ensign left Congress in 1999.

Trump-endorsed candidate Marty O’Donnell advanced in a crowded GOP primary race to face off against Democratic incumbent Rep. Susie Lee in Nevada’s 3rd congressional district.

O’Donnell is best known as the composer for the popular “Halo” and “Destiny” video game franchises and has run his campaign on putting “families first,” as well as promoting small businesses and community safety.

The district is among Nevada’s most fiercely contested battlegrounds, with its suburban electorate often deciding close races. President Donald Trump carried the district in 2016 and again in 2024, while former President Joe Biden flipped it in 2020.

O’Donnell entered the primary with major GOP backing after securing endorsements from Trump and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.

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“Susie Lee wants Open Borders, Men playing in Women’s Sports, Transgender for Everyone, Defund the Police, and wants to take away your Second Amendment, meaning, your guns. Sadly, she voted against the Biggest Tax Cut in History (including NO TAX ON TIPS!), and fought ferociously to knock out Rural Healthcare, a big factor in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District,” wrote Trump in his endorsement on Truth Social in April.

“In contrast, Marty O’Donnell is a World-Class Composer and Entrepreneur who knows the America First Policies required to Create GREAT Jobs, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote NO TAX ON TIPS, Advance MADE IN THE U.S.A., and Champion our Nation’s Golden Age. As your next Congressman, Marty will fight tirelessly to Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Ensure LAW AND ORDER, Strengthen our Brave Military/Veterans, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment,” said Trump.

The video game composer has compared the battles against “woke” ideology in both video games and politics during his run for Congress.

“I believe the enthusiasm for the re-release of the original ‘Halo’ is in large part due to the wokification of the gaming industry,” he wrote in 2025 of “woke” ideology in gaming. “After years of gamers fighting the infiltration of DEI in the industry, we are finally winning.”

“I saw firsthand the beginning of DEI in the industry,” he continued, describing how the industry has faced backlash over games that alienated players with identity politics. “How did gamers react to having things forced on them by non-gamers developing these characters in the studio? They revolted.”

The “Halo” games, centered on humanity’s war against alien invaders, have sold tens of millions of copies, becoming one of the most recognizable and enduring video game franchises since 2001. 

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The large suburban electorate voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election even as Lee narrowly won the congressional race — a seat she has held since 2019.

Lee, a former second-grade teacher, has strongly opposed Trump’s call to eliminate the Department of Education, advocating instead for increased federal funding for public schools, special education and after-school programs.

The self-proclaimed moderate Lee also campaigned on the cost of living and healthcare, pushing to lower costs for families.

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O’Donnell supports strict border control, a finished border wall and targeting human and drug trafficking.

Lee has occasionally supported tougher border-security measures but is against Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship and has criticized some aspects of his immigration policies.

Nevada state Sen. Carrie Buck won the Republican nomination for Nevada’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating businessman Michael Boris and other candidates in a closely watched primary contest to challenge Democratic Rep. Dina Titus in November.

Buck’s victory comes after receiving endorsements from President Donald Trump and Gov. Joe Lombardo, as well as backing from national Republican groups focused on protecting and expanding the party’s House majority.

Buck, an educator and former school principal who represents a Henderson-area district in the Nevada Senate, entered the race in 2025, arguing her experience in education and state government prepared her to take on Titus.

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The Republican primary field also included appliance repair contractor Michael Boris, former pastor and educator Jim Blockey, Rick Saga and Marie Encar Arnold. 

Buck’s campaign held a significant fundraising advantage throughout much of the race and was viewed by many Nevada political observers as the frontrunner entering Election Day.

Boris had argued that Republicans needed an outsider candidate to defeat Titus, criticizing Buck as an establishment-backed contender.

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The general election now shifts to a district that has long favored Democrats, though it has become more competitive following recent redistricting. The Cook Political Report has rated the race as “Likely Democrat,” reflecting Titus’ incumbency and the district’s Democratic lean despite growing Republican optimism.

Nevada’s 1st District, which includes much of eastern Las Vegas, Henderson and surrounding communities, carries a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+2 and has been represented by Titus since 2013. Republicans have not won the seat since former Rep. John Ensign left office in 1999.

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Titus, who faced primary opposition of her own, is expected to begin the general election campaign with a substantial fundraising advantage. Republicans believe Buck gives the party its strongest chance to compete in a district that has become more competitive in recent years.

Attention now turns to the general election against Titus, a veteran Democrat who has represented the district since 2013 and remains one of Nevada’s most established political figures.

Jenny Honeycutt, a business owner, and Mark Smith, a state legislator, advanced in a crowded GOP primary to replace outgoing Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on Tuesday evening.

Because no candidate garnered more than 50% of the vote needed to win outright, the primary now heads to a runoff that’s slated to take place on June 23.

The vacancy arose when Mace, a firebrand conservative, announced her decision to run for governor of the Palmetto State.

During her time in Congress, Mace has attracted attention for being one of the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to remove former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023, for championing legislation on cybersecurity and forcing a vote on releasing the Epstein Files earlier this year.

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Mace, who has taken on a national profile, said she would look to continue her work at the state level.

“South Carolina needs a governor who will drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables,” Mace said during her announcement speech.

S.C. 01, a safely Republican district, has been held by the GOP for much of the past forty years. Aside from Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., who held the seat from 2019 to 2021, Republicans have controlled the district since 1981.

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Mace last won reelection in 2024 in a 58.2% to 41.6% victory over Democratic challenger Michel Moore, a businessman.

Honeycutt, who runs a law firm that helps clients navigate regulations, has positioned herself as a pro-family political outsider, highlighting issues like law and order, the country’s fiscal picture and family finances as key priorities on her website.

According to FEC records, Honeycutt raised just north of $345,600 as of the end of May.

Mark Smith, also a small business owner, led a funeral home service before running for the South Carolina House of Representatives. He has served in state legislator since 2020, and, according to his biography, helped cut taxes and support local law enforcement in that role.

Smith garnered $750,700 in campaign donations, according to FEC records.

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A third contender in the race, Jay Byars, raised $220,600. He began a political career in 2011 when he was elected to the Dorchester County Council and has remained in the job for four terms. On the private side, Byars began several companies, including a storage service and Good Faith Caregivers, a home care business.

Notably, Mace has not endorsed in the race to replace her.