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A pair of voting advocacy groups founded by failed Democrat Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams were hit with a historic fine by the Georgia Ethics Commission for violating campaign finance laws to bolster Abram’s 2018 election.  

“Today the State Ethics Commission entered into a consent agreement with the New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund for a total of $300,000,” the Georgia State Ethics Commission posted in a statement on Wednesday. “This certainly represents the largest fine imposed in the history of Georgia’s Ethics Commission, but it also appears to be the largest ethics fine ever imposed by any state ethics commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case.”

Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2013 as part of an effort to register more minority voters and young voters. The organization was founded as a charity that can accept tax-deductible donations, while the New Georgia Project Action Fund worked as the organization’s fundraising arm. 

The groups admitted to failing to disclose about $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures that were used during Abram’s election efforts in 2018, according to the commission’s consent order. The groups were hit with a total of 16 violations, including failing to register as a political committee and failure to disclose millions of dollars in political contributions.

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Stacey Abrams (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images/File)

The groups were accused of carrying out similar activity in 2019, when they reportedly failed to disclose $646,000 in contributions and $174,000 while advocating for a ballot initiative. 

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“This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered, and I believe this sends a clear message to both the public and potential bad actors moving forward that we will hold you accountable,” the ethics commission continued in its statement Wednesday. 

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Abrams stepped down from the group in 2017, with Sen. Raphael Warnock taking the reins as the New Georgia Project’s CEO from 2017 to 2019, the Associated Press reported. Warnock was elected as a U.S. senator from Georgia in 2020. 

Democrat Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who also serves as the head pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, speaks from the pulpit. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images/File)

A spokesperson for Warnock’s Senate office told the AP that he was working “as a longtime champion for voting rights” and that he was not aware of campaign violations. The spokesperson added that “compliance decisions were not a part of that work.” Fox Digital also reached out to Warnock’s office for additional comment but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Abrams ran for governor of Georgia in 2018 and 2022, but lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in both races. Abrams drew national attention after the 2018 race when she refused to concede to the Republican despite losing by 60,000 votes. 

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Amid the 2018 race, she touted the New Georgia Project on her X account, which was called Twitter at the time.

“When Abrams sees a problem, she doesn’t wait for someone else to step up – she does it herself. So when she saw that 800,000 people of color in Georgia weren’t registered to vote, Abrams immediately set out to fix the problem & founded The New GA Project,” she tweeted. 

The New Georgia Project said in a comment provided to Fox News Digital that they are “glad to finally put this matter behind us” so the group can “fully devote its time and attention to its efforts to civically engage and register black, brown, and young voters in Georgia.”

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“While we remain disappointed that the federal court ruling on the constitutionality of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act was overturned on entirely procedural grounds, we accept this outcome and are eager to turn the page on activities that took place more than five years ago,” the group continued. 

A Muslim cleric who has praised Iran and refused to call Hezbollah a terrorist organization was reportedly tapped to deliver a benediction at President-elect Trump’s inauguration. 

Husham Al-Husainy is a well-known Iraqi-American imam in Michigan, overseeing the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn. Al-Husainy was among a swath of Muslim voters in Michigan who indicated ahead of Election Day that they would support Trump instead of the Democratic Party’s ticket in November.  

“I lean towards Mr. Trump because I found him closer to the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran. Because I support peace, no war,” he said back in October, Fox News Digital reported at the time. He added that the country “deserves to have a strong leader where he can bring peace in this world.”

Before he indicated support for the former and upcoming president, Al-Husainy reportedly made a series of questionable comments. A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, the Middle East Media and Research Institute, for example, reported this week that the Muslim cleric praised Iran in a 2022 interview.

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Husham Al-Husainy prepares to vote at Maples Elementary School, Nov. 2, 2004, in Dearborn, Michigan. (Farah Nosh/Getty Images)

“Thank God We Have the Islamic Republic of Iran; Its Light Goes to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and All Over,” he said in the interview, the nonprofit posted on X. 

The conservative nonprofit The Middle East Forum described the cleric as a “radical antisemitic, pro-Hezbollah Shia imam,” who reportedly hosted a 2015 rally in Dearborn where he “wished death upon Saudi Arabia” amid the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war. 

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In 2007, Al-Husainy joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity on the “Hannity & Colmes” program, where he was pressed on whether he considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The cleric joined the program following his invitation to the DNC’s winter meeting that year to deliver the invocation. 

“I’ll ask you again. Is Hezbollah – this is a yes or no question. Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization? Yes or no?” Hannity asked the imam. 

“Now if – I give you a time to ask me a question. Now give me time to answer it, please,” Al-Husainy said. 

“Yes or no?” Hannity continued. 

Imam Husham Al-Husainy on June, 19, 2007, in Dearborn, Michigan. (Mary Chapman/AFP via Getty Images)

“First of all – first of all, Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization. And I’ve got nothing to do with that. But there is a biblical meaning of Hezbollah. It is in Judaism and Christianity and Islam meaning people of God and that means yes,” the imam responded. 

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Later in the segment, Hannity again asked if Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. 

“​​This is – your idea of a political or… you know what Hezbollah means? I support the people of God,” Al-Husainy said. 

The State Department has recognized Hezbollah as a terrorist organization since 1997. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump transition team regarding the invitation and Al-Husainy’s previous comments, but did not receive a reply. 

Matt Foldi, the former congressional candidate and current editor-in-chief of the Washington Reporter, shared a photo on X this week reportedly showing the official program of Inauguration Day, including that Al-Husainy, a Catholic priest, the Rev. Frank Mann, Rabbi Ari Berman and a Detroit pastor, Lorenzo Sewell, are slated to deliver benedictions. 

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Fox News Digital also attempted to reach Al-Husainy via the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Dearborn, Michigan, is home to the proportionally largest Muslim population in the U.S. and became the birthplace of the “Abandon Biden” movement last year as Arab voters spoke out about the administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza. The movement morphed into “abandoning” Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out of the race in July, and ultimately endorsed Trump on Election Day. 

Former President Trump speaks at a campaign event at Macomb Community College, Sept. 27, 2024, in Warren, Michigan. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Muslim voters overall favored Harris by 32 percentage points in the 2024 election. Trump won 32% of their vote, while Harris won 63%. In 2020, Biden had won 64% of the Muslim vote, and Trump had won 35%. Trump faced mixed support from Muslim and Arab American voters, but in swing states like Michigan, their support became especially crucial. 

Arab American voters in Dearborn said following the election that they voted for Trump over Harris in protest of her stance on the Israel-Hamas war. 

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“They didn’t vote for Trump because they believe Trump is the best candidate,” Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani told Politico in November. “No, they voted for Trump because they want to punish the Democrats and Harris.”

Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report. 

Lawmakers questioned President-elect Trump’s energy secretary on climate change, the Los Angeles wildfires, and the Biden administration’s green energy agenda during his nomination hearing, which saw disruptions from several climate protesters.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a confirmation hearing for Chris Wright, Liberty Energy Inc. CEO and Trump’s pick to head the Energy Department, on Wednesday, which was also his birthday.

The Trump nominee was introduced by a Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who described him as “an unrestrained enthusiast for fossil fuels.” Wright focused his responses on energy dominance, saying that climate change is a “real issue,” global energy demand, and his focus on growing energy resources.

“America has an historic opportunity to secure our energy systems, deliver leadership in scientific and technological innovation, steward our weapons stockpiles and meet Cold War legacy waste commitments,” Wright said in his opening statement.

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Chris Wright speaks during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

Wright said he has identified three “immediate tasks” where he will focus his attention, if confirmed: unleashing American energy, leading the world in innovation and technology breakthroughs, and increasing production in America.

“President Trump shares my passion for energy, and if confirmed, I will work tirelessly to implement his bold agenda as an unabashed steward for all sources of affordable, reliable and secure American energy,” Wright told the committee.

Republicans, such as Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, positioned their questioning on Biden administration policies, such as a ban on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, regulations on household appliances, and most recently blocking drilling along the coast.

Multiple Democratic senators claimed that the committee chairman, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, scheduled the confirmation hearing before all required paperwork on Wright was provided to the members of the committee. Other Democrats used their time at the mic to claim the Los Angeles fires were caused by “climate change.”

President-elect Trump during a campaign rally at the PPG Paints Arena on Nov. 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“Despite the misinformation that’s circulating here in the Capitol, into California, and everywhere in between, it’s clear that these fires only reach the size and the scale that they have because of unseasonably dry vegetation and extremely high winds, both of which are a direct result of climate change,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said during the hearing. 

Asked about the issue of climate change, Wright said he believes it’s a “real issue”

“I’ve studied and followed the data and the evolution of climate change for at least 20 years now. It is a global issue. It is a real issue. It’s a challenging issue,” Wright said, adding that he believes the solution to climate change “is to evolve our energy system.”

Fox News Digital captured footage of several climate change protesters who disrupted Wright’s hearing on Wednesday. 

A protester holds up a “Big Oil Profits LA Burns” banner as Chris Wright testifies during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Bill Clark)

One protester stood up while Wright was being questioned and asked if his policies would “put out the fires in LA.” 

“Are you gonna ask any questions or just softball on the climate this entire time,” said another protester who was removed from the hearing room.

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Several other climate protesters were also stationed outside the hearing room, with shirts that read, “I won’t let my future burn.”

Government agencies are cautioning that President-elect Trump’s inauguration may attract violent extremists – especially those harboring “election-related grievances,” according to a new report. 

While no specific credible threats have been identified, agencies like the FBI, Secret Service and Capitol Police authored a threat assessment asserting that extremists may view the inauguration as “their last opportunity to influence the election results through violence,” Politico reports. 

The threat assessment identified foreign terrorists, domestic extremists or lone wolves who could pull off violent acts, including vehicle-ramming attacks, bomb hoaxes or swatting calls.

Likewise, law enforcement cited concerns about protests breaking into chaos, especially since certain groups who’ve faced arrests in previous protests have applied for demonstration permits. 

TRAVEL TIPS FOR ATTENDING PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP’S INAUGURATION AS EXPERTS WEIGH IN

The sun rises behind the U.S. Capitol as a rehearsal takes place on the West Front ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

“Past protests by some of these individuals have involved traffic blockades, trespassing, property destruction, and resisting arrest,” the threat assessment said. 

Meanwhile, U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger cautioned Monday that “lone actors” are the most serious threat to inauguration festivities, during a press conference with federal and local law enforcement officials about the inauguration.

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Members of the U.S. military Joint Honor Guard parade as they rehearse for the presidential inauguration in front of the White House, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Newsroom)

“The biggest threat, I think, for all of us remains the lone actor,” Manger said. “Just in the past week, while President Carter was lying in state, we had two lone actors show up at the Capitol: one trying to bring in knives and a machete; another one who was trying – what I believe – to disrupt the proceedings by setting their car on fire down in the peace circle area.” 

“Capitol Police were able to interdict these folks before they had a chance to do any harm,” Manger said. “But that threat of the lone actor remains the biggest justification for us being at this heightened state of alert throughout the next week.”

As a result, the inauguration will feature a beefed up law enforcement presence. Approximately 4,000 local law enforcement officers have volunteered to assist, and 7,800 National Guard soldiers will also be deployed. 

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U.S. Capitol surrounded by fencing in preparation for Jan. 6, 2025. (Fox News Digital)

Matt McCool, the Secret Service’s special agent in charge of the agency’s Washington field office, said that altogether roughly 25,000 law enforcement officers will be working. McCool said this year’s inauguration plan features a “slightly more robust security plan,” in comparison to President Biden’s inauguration in 2021. 

“What I can tell you is that we are 100% confident in the plan that we have put in place for this inauguration that the public and our protectees will be safe,” McCool said.

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Additionally, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said it is bracing for 12 separate First Amendment demonstrations at the inauguration, noting that they will have a right to peacefully protest. Still, she said violence won’t be permitted.  

“I want to reiterate – as I always have – that violence, destruction and unlawful behavior will not be tolerated,” Smith said Monday. “Offenders will face swift and decisive consequences.”

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report. 

U.S. Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi clashed with a senior Democratic senator during her confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday.

Bondi was forced to defend President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, when Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., pressed her on his past comments. 

He referenced Patel’s suggestion of closing down FBI headquarters and threatening an “enemies list,” among other remarks.

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President-elect Donald Trump’s Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi and Sen. Richard Blumenthal clashed during her confirmation hearing. (Getty Images)

“Is that a person who, appropriately, should be the FBI director? Aren’t those comments inappropriate? Shouldn’t you disavow them and and ask him to recant them?” Blumenthal hammered.

Bondi replied, “Senator, I am not familiar with all those comments. I have not discussed those comments with Mr. Patel.”

“What I do know, is Mr. Patel …” she began before Blumenthal attempted to cut her off.

Bondi pressed forward, “Excuse me. What I do know is Mr. Patel was a career prosecutor. He was a career public defender, defending people. And he also has great experience within the intelligence community.”

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President-elect Donald Trump is pushing the Senate to confirm his nominees. (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

“What I can sit here and tell you is, Mr. Patel, if he works with running the FBI, if he is confirmed, and if I am confirmed, he will follow the law. If I am the attorney general of the United States of America, and I don’t believe he would do anything otherwise,” Bondi said.

Blumenthal replied, “Well, let me just submit that the response that I would have hoped to hear from you is that those comments are inappropriate, and that you will ask him to disavow or recant them when he comes before this committee, because they are indeed chilling to fair enforcement and the rule of law.”

It comes after Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., similarly pressed Bondi on what Democrats have called Patel’s “enemies list.”

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They are referring to a list of 60 people in Patel’s book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” who he branded as part of the “deep state.”

Bondi defended Patel during Whitehouse’s questioning as well, while vowing there would never be an “enemies list” at the DOJ.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is calling a special legislative session to address his school choice bill, as well as other prioritizes of President-elect Trump’s incoming administration, such as immigration law and disaster relief in the Volunteer State. 

Lee announced that he would call for the Tennessee General Assembly to convene a special session on Monday, Jan. 27, to pass the Education Freedom Act. The governor said he will introduce a disaster relief legislative package addressing recovery needs for Hurricane Helene, as well as future natural disasters, and that the session will also tackle public safety measures regarding immigration, “as the incoming Trump Administration has called on states to prepare for policy implementation.”

The announcement from Tennessee came after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Monday that he was calling a special session of his own to help coordinate Trump’s planned illegal immigration crackdown in the Sunshine State.

Lee issued a joint statement with Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, state House Speaker Cameron Sexton, state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, and state House Majority Leader William Lamberth. 

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks on stage at the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“We believe the state has a responsibility to act quickly on issues that matter most to Tennesseans, and there is widespread support in the General Assembly and across Tennessee for a special session on the most pressing legislative priorities: the unified Education Freedom Act and a comprehensive relief package for Hurricane Helene and other disaster recovery efforts,” they said. “The majority of Tennesseans, regardless of political affiliation, have made it clear that they support empowering parents with school choice, and the best thing we can do for Tennessee students is deliver choices and public school resources without delay.”

The statement added: “Hurricane Helene was an unprecedented disaster across rural, at-risk, and distressed communities that cannot shoulder the local cost share of federal relief funds on their own. The state has an opportunity and obligation to partner with these impacted counties and develop innovative solutions for natural disasters going forward.” 

“Finally, the American people elected President Trump with a mandate to enforce immigration laws and protect our communities, and Tennessee must have the resources ready to support the Administration on Day One,” they said. 

“Last year, Gov. Lee directed key state agencies to begin preparing for federal immigration policy implementation,” Lee’s press secretary, Elizabeth Lane Johnson, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “In this special session, we will ensure the state is best positioned to coordinate with federal, state, and local law enforcement to implement the Trump Administration’s plan to enforce the federal immigration laws on the books.”

“President Trump has made it clear that states will play a major role in partnering with his Administration to make our communities safer. Tennessee is heeding the call,” she added. 

Lee, whose initial school choice proposal failed in the state legislature earlier last year, spoke to Fox News Digital in November upon introducing a second package aimed at increasing parental rights. 

After Trump’s decisive election win, the governor argued that the political environment on the ground in Tennessee is not what it was months before when the first school choice proposal failed. 

The election saw a wave of pro-school choice candidates win at the state level, and Trump succeeded in his bid for the White House. Lee told Fox News Digital that he agreed with Trump’s promise to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, echoing the president-elect’s concern over the federal bureaucracy becoming entrenched with gender and race ideology rather than learning.

Gov. Bill Lee joins fellow governors for a press conference along the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border to discuss border concerns on Feb. 4, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

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“In this case, states certainly know best. We know best in Tennessee what our children need and how best to educate our kids. The parents of this state should be given a greater influence on how their kids are educated, and that will happen if the federal Department of Education is dismantled and those funds are delivered to states to be used in a more efficient and more effective way,” Lee said at the time. “President Trump has long believed that school choice is important for the people of this country and that education freedom is something that all Americans could have. He’s talked about it. He campaigned on it.” 

Cars and debris near the Swannanoa River after catastrophic rains from Hurricane Helene flooded areas, Oct. 5, 2024 in Swannanoa, North Carolina. (Steve Exum/Getty Images)

Lee’s new school choice bill, titled the Education Freedom Act of 2025, would draw from funding already approved by the state legislature to allow the state Department of Education to award up to 20,000 scholarships – valued at about $7,000 each – for the next school year to be spent on tuition, tutoring, technology and examination expenses. The first 10,000 scholarships would be set aside for low-income students whose parents might not otherwise afford to send their children to institutions other than the public schools in their districts. 

In addition to establishing Education Freedom Scholarships, Lee’s office said the bill “further invests in public schools and teachers by delivering teacher bonuses to recognize their unwavering commitment to student success, increasing K-12 facilities funding, and ensuring state funding to school districts will never decrease due to disenrollment.” The governor and the General Assembly “will maintain their commitment to public schools by further investing hundreds of millions of state dollars in the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) formula, and raising starting teacher pay,” Lee’s office said. 

The governor is also planning to invest more than $450 million in direct disaster relief.

Hurricane Helene “was an unprecedented disaster that primarily impacted at-risk and distressed counties, with eligible damage-related costs estimated at $1.2 billion,” Lee’s office said. 

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The Disaster Relief Grants (DRG) Fund allocates $240 million “to bolster Tennessee’s existing disaster relief fund, as well as reduce the local cost-share burden from 12.5% to 5% and fund the state match requirement in order to access federal funds and cover administrative costs.” Lee’s package also establishes the Hurricane Helene Interest Payment Fund, which allocates $110 million to “help local governments manage loan interest for recovery costs by covering interest costs at 5% per year for three years on loans for recovery expenses.”

Finally, the Governor’s Response and Recovery Fund allocates $100 million “to create a new program inspired by the HEAL Program that will provide flexible financial resources for future emergencies, including agricultural recovery, unemployment assistance, and business recovery efforts.” The package also sets aside $20 million for the rebuilding of Hampton High School in Carter County, which was destroyed in Hurricane Helene.

CIA nominee John Ratcliffe is telling senators on Wednesday about how he’ll reshape the intelligence community in what he calls “the most challenging national security environment in our nation’s history.” 

Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during President-elect Trump’s first term, is testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The committee will then vote on his nomination before a full Senate vote to confirm him as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. 

Ratcliffe ticked off the nation’s biggest threats – China, the border, the Russia-Ukraine war and risk of nuclear fallout, Iran, North Korea and “increasing coordination among America’s rivals.”

At a time when intelligence and law enforcement agencies have found themselves front and center in the political realm, a source familiar with Ratcliffe told Fox News Digital he’s focused on “depoliticizing” the agency, and “eliminating any distractions” to its core mission of obtaining intelligence. 

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Ratcliffe is also expected to push for more aggressive spying operations, particularly on Beijing, where CCP operatives have been spying on the U.S. for years. 

“With Trump and Ratcliffe, the days of China pillaging American companies, infecting American infrastructure, and otherwise targeting and abusing the American people are over. The jackals can only scavenge in the lion’s domain for so long before they get their heads ripped off,” the source said. 

Ratcliffe signaled plans in his opening statement to increase the agency’s capacity to obtain human intelligence “in every corner of the globe, no matter how dark or difficult.”

CIA nominee John Ratcliffe is testifying Wednesday ahead of a confirmation vote. (Getty Images)

“We will produce insightful, objective, all-source analysis, never allowing political or personal biases to cloud our judgment or infect our product,” Ratcliffe will say in his opening statement. 

“We will conduct covert action at the direction of the president, going places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do. To the brave CIA officers listening around the world, if all of this sounds like what you signed up for, then buckle up and get ready to make a difference. If it doesn’t, then it’s time to find a new line of work.”

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Ratcliffe said he would try to recruit agents that could be described as “a Ph.D. who could win a bar fight,” but promised to fully investigate anomalous health incidents like Havana Syndrome. 

Ratcliffe also hopes to increase coordination with the CIA and the private sector – potentially through rotations that allow CIA agents to do a stint in the private sector or allowing private employees at AI and tech companies to join the CIA in mid-career appointments, according to the source. 

Ratcliffe wants to “depoliticize” the agency, currently led by Bill Burns. (Reuters/Ken Cedeno)

The nominee wants to focus on expanding human intelligence. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Ratcliffe’s hearing is expected to have a more policy-heavy focus than some of Trump’s more controversial nominees like Pete Hegseth, picked to lead the Defense Department. Hegseth faced senators on the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday where he was questioned on his drinking, sexual assault allegations and reports of financial mismanagement. 

Trump’s choice to oversee all intelligence agencies, Tulsi Gabbard, has also been met with skepticism by some in the Senate over her past opposition to U.S. surveillance laws and seeming closeness to U.S. adversaries, in particular a meeting she took with former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. She’s since walked back her opposition to a surveillance program known as Section 702.

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Gabbard’s hearing is not yet on the books, neither is Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel. 

Trump’s national security nominees are in lockstep on at least one thing – the threat of China – and the need to update technologies and defenses to thwart the CCP’s chronic attacks on U.S. infrastructure. 

“We have to stop trying to just play better and better defense,” Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser pick, recently told FOX Business. “We need to start going on offense.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team tapped a former senior health official from Trump’s first administration and an ally to top Trump loyalist, Harmeet Dhillon, to be Health and Human Services Secretary-nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s chief of staff, a new report indicated Monday. 

Heather Flick, a lawyer who previously served in multiple top roles at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department during the first Trump administration, has been working closely with Kennedy over the last few weeks as an informal chief of staff, according to Politico. The outlet added Monday that she had been tapped by Trump’s transition team to fill the role permanently, according to four sources familiar. The announcement has yet to be made public.

Meanwhile, the law firm that currently employs Flick, as well as its founder, congratulated her on the new position this week on their social media accounts. Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team for confirmation but did not hear back in time for publication. 

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump at Macomb Community College on Nov. 1, 2024 in Warren, Michigan. (Getty Images)

Flick’s selection to work in Trump’s second administration is just the latest pick among a list of Trump loyalists who have been given jobs in the administration during his second term. When Flick first joined the Trump administration, she was HHS’ acting general counsel before becoming its acting secretary for administration and then eventually a senior adviser to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

Before joining HHS the first time, Flick was an attorney at Dhillon Law Group, a firm founded by Dhillon, who Trump has tapped this time around to be his assistant attorney general. 

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Dhillon has represented clients in big conservative civil rights cases and defended Trump supporters in court. During the pandemic, she challenged Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home orders, and in 2020, she served as the co-chairwoman of Lawyers For Trump, a conservative group of lawyers supporting Trump throughout the 2020 election. Most recently, Dhillon helped lead Trump’s election integrity team in Arizona during the 2024 election.

President-elect Donald Trump, right, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are being targeted together by the DNC. (Getty Images)

“Heather Flick is outstanding and will most definitely help soon to be Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said in a post on X after news of Flick’s new role.

Flick’s appointment comes amid rumblings from some of Kennedy’s allies that he could advance an agenda that is not completely in line with the Trump world, but rather more centered around Kennedy’s priorities, Politico reported.

The potential HHS secretary has been taking meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill recently in an attempt to shore up support. Democrats and Republicans have both been very critical of the HHS secretary-nominee’s opinions about vaccines, while Republicans have also been probing Kennedy during meetings about his past pro-choice views on abortion.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services, meets with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) office in the Senate Office Building on Dec. 17, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

Critics of Kennedy have questioned his ability to handle major crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and posited that Kennedy pushes conspiracy theories about things like vaccines and antidepressants. Meanwhile, business leaders have suggested there is reason to worry as well, on account of past claims Kennedy has made about the dangers of food additives, pesticides and vaccines.

Flick will be tasked with helping Kennedy clean up some of those criticisms. One former Food and Drug Administration Official, granted anonymity to speak openly, told Politico that depending upon how involved HHS Secretaries are in the agency’s work, their chief of staff can end up being “very, very involved.”

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“On really high-profile things, if she’s an effective chief of staff, she could be super involved,” the former official added. “I certainly saw that happen across multiple administrations.” 

Chris Wright, President-elect Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Energy, is planning to tell senators in charge of his confirmation that he will focus on restoring American “energy dominance” at home and abroad. 

Wright, a fossil fuel executive who in the past has been critical of the media blaming climate change for repeated wildfires, is expected to deliver his opening statement before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday morning. Fox News Digital obtained a copy of the statement in advance ahead of the hearing scheduled to start at 10 a.m. ET.

“I am humbled by the great responsibility this position holds,” Wright is expected to say in his opening statement. “America has a historic opportunity to secure our energy systems, deliver leadership in scientific and technological innovation, steward our weapons stockpiles, and meet Cold War legacy waste commitments.” 

Describing himself as a “science geek, turned tech nerd, turned lifelong energy entrepreneur,” Wright will tell the committee how his “fascination with energy started at a young age in Denver, Colorado.” His opening statement discusses how he enrolled at MIT “specifically to work on fusion energy” and later started graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley where he worked “on solar energy as well as power electronics.”

TRUMP EYES AN END TO NEW WINDMILL PRODUCTION UNDER SECOND TERM, SAYS THEY ARE ‘DRIVING THE WHALES CRAZY’

Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. CEO Chris Wright laughs as he celebrates the companies IPO on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 2018. (Reuters)

“Energy is the essential agent of change that enables everything that we do. A low energy society is poor. A highly energized society can bring health, wealth, and opportunity for all,” Wright will say. “The stated mission of the company that I founded – Liberty Energy – is to better human lives through energy. Liberty works directly in oil, natural gas, next generation geothermal and has partnerships in next-generation nuclear energy and new battery technology.” 

“Energy has been a lifelong passion of mine, and I have never been shy about that fact,” Wright plans to tell the committee. “Then again, I have never been shy about much. President Trump shares my passion for energy and, if confirmed, I will work tirelessly to implement his bold agenda as an unabashed steward for all sources of affordable, reliable and secure American energy.”

On Tuesday, committee Democrats led by Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico called for Wright’s confirmation hearing to be delayed by at least a week, citing how they had not yet received “the standard financial disclosure report, ethics agreement, or the opinions from the designated agency ethics officer and the Office of Government Ethics stating that the nominee is in compliance with the ethics laws.” 

Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, has already pushed back the confirmation hearing for Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick for interior secretary, by two days until Thursday due to an OGE paperwork delay, but Wright’s remained on the schedule Wednesday. 

Liberty Oilfield Services CEO Chris Wright at Liberty January 17, 2018.  (Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

If approved as secretary, Wright would manage energy policy and production in the United States, as well as the nation’s nuclear weapon stockpile. He would also work with Burgum on the National Energy Council, where they would develop Trump’s energy dominance policy involving increased production of U.S. oil and gas.

Wright has indicated that he plans to resign as CEO and chairman of his fracking company, Liberty Energy, if approved.

DEMS BLAME LA FIRE ON ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’ DESPITE CITY CUTTING FIRE DEPARTMENT BUDGET

Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum rides an elevator in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Dec. 10, 2024 in Washington, DC.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In his opening statement, Wright identifies three “immediate” tasks that he would focus his attention on if confirmed.

“The first is to unleash American energy at home and abroad to restore energy dominance,” Wright will say. “The security of our nation begins with energy. Previous administrations have viewed energy as a liability instead of the immense national asset that it is. To compete globally, we must expand energy production, including commercial nuclear and liquified natural gas, and cut the cost of energy.” 

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“Second, we must lead the world in innovation and technology breakthroughs,” the statement continues. “Throughout my lifetime, technology and innovation have immeasurably enhanced the human condition. We must protect and accelerate the work of the Department’s national laboratory network to secure America’s competitive edge and its security. I commit to working with Congress on the important missions of the national laboratories.” 

“Third, we must build things in America again and remove barriers to progress,” Wright will say. “Federal policies today make it too easy to stop projects and very hard to start and complete projects. This makes energy more expensive and less reliable. President Trump is committed to lowering energy costs and to do so, we must prioritize cutting red tape, enabling private sector investments, and building the infrastructure we need to make energy more affordable for families and businesses.” 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has been placing calls and informing people that she is likely to mount a gubernatorial bid, Axios reported, citing D.C. and Tennessee sources.

State and federal elected figures have been placing calls in support of Blackburn’s potential run, a source noted, according to the outlet.

Fox News Digital emailed Blackburn’s campaign on Wednesday to request a comment from the lawmaker, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

GOP SENATOR ANNOUNCES ‘DOGE ACTS’ TO BACK MUSK, RAMASWAMY GOVERNMENT COST-CUTTING OBJECTIVES

Chair Committee on Platform, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., speaks on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisc. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs indicated in a post on X that he will back Blackburn for the role if she runs.

“Senator Blackburn has done an outstanding job as a state senator, U.S. congresswoman, and U.S. Senator. She would do an equally outstanding job as Governor and would have my full support if that’s what she decides,” Jacobs noted.

TENNESSEE MAYOR GLENN JACOBS, EX-WWE STAR, SAYS HE WOULD ADVISE DWAYNE JOHNSON AGAINST GOING INTO POLITICS

Blackburn, who has served in the Senate since early 2019, just won re-election to another six-year term in 2024 — her current term ends in early 2031.

“The 2025 Tennessee Legislative Session kicked off day ONE today!” Blackburn declared in a tweet on Tuesday. “It’s time to get to work, protect our state’s conservative values, and fight for all Tennesseans.”

‘WHEN THEY FAIL, AMERICANS DIE’: TRUMP SOURCE BLASTS FBI, URGES SWIFT CONFIRMATION OF KASH PATEL AS DIRECTOR

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Current Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican who has been in office since early 2019, cannot run in the 2026 contest, which leaves the field wide open for other GOP figures interested in vying for the job.

President Biden released a farewell letter Wednesday saying that “It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.” 

“Today, we have the strongest economy in the world and have created a record 16.6 million new jobs. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down,” he added ahead of a speech tonight from the Oval Office. 

Biden began his letter by writing that four years ago when he took office, “We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.  

“But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure,” he said. 

BIDEN SAYS HE’S BEEN CARRYING OUT ‘MOST AGGRESSIVE CLIMATE AGENDA’ IN HISTORY AS HE DESIGNATES CALIFORNIA MONUMENTS

President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy during a speech at the State Department in Washington on Jan. 13. (AP/Susan Walsh)

While touting economic growth, Biden said “We’re rebuilding our entire nation — urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities.  

“Manufacturing is coming back to America. We’re leading the world again in science and innovation, including the semiconductor industry. And we finally beat Big Pharma to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors,” he continued. “More people have health insurance today in America than ever before.” 

Biden said he “ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. 

“The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case. America is an idea stronger than any army and larger than any ocean,” he declared. 

WHITE HOUSE REMOVE’S CUBA’S STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM DESIGNATION, REVERSING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVE

President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington on Jan. 10. (AP/Ben Curtis)

Biden is now set to leave office next week with President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House for a second term. 

“It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years. Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States,” Biden wrote. “I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people. 

At one point in the letter, Biden wrote that “Vice President Harris and I asked our staff to prepare a detailed summary of the progress we’ve made together throughout the last four years.”

The White House released a lengthy accompanying fact sheet titled “The Biden-Harris Administration Record,” mentioning accomplishments including “Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic,” “Catalyzing a Small Business Boom,” protecting Americans “from Terrorism and Wrongful Detention” and “Advancing the Most Ambitious Environmental Justice Agenda in History.”

Biden concluded his letter by saying that history, power and “the idea of America” is in the hands of its citizens. 

President Joe Biden listens during a meeting with senior officials as he is briefed on the federal response to the wildfires across Los Angeles during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Jan. 13, 2025. The map in the background shows the projected wind speeds. (AP/Susan Walsh)

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“We just have to keep the faith and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is simply nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together,” he said. 

A Florida state lawmaker has introduced a bill to ban illegal migrants from being admitted to some public colleges and universities.

Republican state Sen. Randy Fine proposed the legislation the day after GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a special legislative session to help push President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda.

“Is it fair to allow an illegal immigrant to take a spot that could be taken by a Floridian or an American? I would argue no,” Fine said.

Fine’s bill would ban public colleges and universities with an acceptance rate under 85% from admitting students who are in the country illegally, which would include the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Central Florida and Florida International University.

FLORIDA LAWMAKER INTRODUCES BILL TO REQUIRE DACA STUDENTS TO PAY OUT-OF-STATE TUITION

Then-Rep. Randy Fine, R-South Brevard County, closes on a gambling bill during a special session, Wednesday, May 19, 2021, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP)

There are an estimated 1.2 million illegal migrants living in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center.

Migrant students in the U.S. illegally can currently qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Fine also recently proposed a bill that would require high school graduates with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status to pay out-of-state tuition.

During the 2023-2024 school year, about 6,500 migrant students who were in the U.S. illegally qualified for a waiver from paying out-of-state tuition at the state’s public colleges and universities, according to the nonprofit Florida Policy Institute.

Three states prohibit students in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in at least some colleges, while half of states allow these students to qualify for in-state tuition, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Republican Party of Iowa’s 2023 Lincoln Dinner at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 28, 2023. (SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)

DeSantis scheduled the special session to begin the week after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration to fund efforts to address illegal immigration, including for detention and relocation. The governor has said the state must work to support Trump’s promises to tackle illegal immigration and ensure that “we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into our state illegally.”

Trump, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, thanked DeSantis for calling a special session, saying “hopefully other Governors will follow!”

But the governor has faced criticism from the legislature’s Republican leaders, who described his call for a special session as “premature” and “irresponsible.”

GOP REVIVES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT DETENTION BILL NAMED AFTER 12-YEAR-OLD MURDER VICTIM: ‘JUSTICE FOR JOCELYN’

The bill would ban public colleges and universities with an acceptance rate under 85% from admitting students who are in the country illegally. (Getty Images)

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Fine is among the Republican lawmakers who have vowed to support Trump and his agenda but have criticized the governor’s push for a special session as rushed.

“This was not accompanied with a robust bill package for us to consider,” Fine told reporters. “You want to call a special session? Give me the bills you want me to vote for.”

Fine, who joined the state Senate in November, is resigning from the legislature, effective March 31, so he can run for the U.S. House seat that is expected to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., who was nominated by Trump to be his national security advisor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A Democrat senator admitted Tuesday that he would support Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s confirmation again if the vote was held today despite Austin’s many controversial actions and repeatedly grilling Trump’s SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth over his qualifications earlier in the day.

“Would you vote for Lloyd Austin if there were a vote on him today?” Fox News Digital asked Blumenthal on Tuesday. 

“I would support General Austin as Secretary of Defense,” Blumenthal responded. “I did when he was nominated. I would support Secretary Mattis that was nominated by President Trump during his first term. I would not support this nominee because [Hegseth] lacks the financial management skills, the character and confidence, as well as the moral compass.”

During the hearing, Blumenthal told Hegseth, “I don’t believe that you can tell this committee, or the people of America that you are qualified to lead them. I would support you as the spokesperson for the Pentagon. I don’t dispute your communication skills, but I believe that we are entitled to the facts here.”

TRUMP TEAM FIRES BACK AFTER DEM SENATOR DECLARES ‘THE FIGHT IS JUST BEGINNING’

Sen. Blumenthal grilled SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth during his confirmation hearing and later admitted he would support Lloyd Austin, President Biden’s defense secretary, again. (Getty Images)

Austin has been widely criticized by conservatives, as well as some Democrats, for presiding over the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as several other perceived missteps during his tenure, including a situation where he was forced to directly apologize to President Biden for not informing him that he was hospitalized. 

“Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin oversaw the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal, let the Chinese make rapid advancements to catch up to our defense capabilities, went MIA for days leaving the Pentagon without a leader, prioritized DEI policies over defense needs, and allowed Biden’s policy of appeasement,” GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on X on Tuesday. “We need a DECISIVE leader who can focus the Department of Defense on its mission of protecting America. We need Pete Hegseth.”

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., an Army veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, unsuccessfully handed Austin articles of impeachment in 2023, blaming him for a “25,000-plus recruitment shortage” and saying there were “8,400 people who were unconstitutionally purged from the military … you’ve got pronouns and DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] being taught at our military academies when we need to be focusing on what the next threat is and how we mitigate it.”

“Not only do I believe that you should have resigned … I myself perceive this as a dereliction of duty, and I take that very seriously,” Mills told Austin during the hearing before recounting what he believed were Austin’s failures during the Afghanistan withdrawal. “Political optics was placed above the true military strategy, where we should have held Bagram Air Base, held the detention center … not shut down and entrap Americans by taking over HKIA (Hamid Karazai International Airport), the commercial airspace and abandoning thousands of Americans.”

BIDEN’S ‘POLITICAL’ AFGHANISTAN STRATEGY GUTTED US CREDIBILITY, ARMY VET CONGRESSMAN SAYS AS HEARINGS BEGIN

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies during his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2025 in Washington, DC ( (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images))

Conservatives on social media also brought up a controversy from 2010 when Blumenthal was first running for Senate, where he suggested on multiple occasions he had served in Vietnam when he had not. Blumenthal, who received several draft deferments before serving in the Marine Corps. Reserve,  ultimately acknowledged that he had “misspoken” about his record but described those instances as few and far between.

“Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, who lied about serving in Vietnam to get elected, berating combat vet Pete Hegseth is a bit hard to take,” Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich posted on X on Tuesday.

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US Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) speaks during a press conference (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

“Reminder: Sen. Blumenthal lied for his entire adult life about fighting in a war that he did not,” Fox News contributor Guy Benson posted on X. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Sen. Blumenthal made the case that Tuesday’s hearing was about Hegseth’s record and not his. 

“The people of Connecticut have always been clear about my record of military service, which is why they overwhelmingly elected me three times to the United States Senate,” Blumenthal said. “This hearing was about Pete Hegseth’s record of alleged sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and financial mismanagement that showed him to be unqualified and unprepared to command 3.4 million Americans who protect our nation’s security.”

Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed reporting.

California lawmakers called for unity amid the historic Los Angeles wildfires, while at least one fired off letters to Congress calling for federal investigations into Sacramento’s fire preparedness and environmental policies.

Republican lawmakers also said at a news conference Monday that any talk of gaveling-in the special session with the express purpose of buttressing the state against President-elect Trump should be quashed.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, said he is sending letters to members-designate of the new Trump administration and top oversight lawmakers, suggesting officials in Sacramento will not “get to the truth” on the blazes.

DeMaio said tragedies like wildfires are a rare issue that can unite Republicans and Democrats, adding Californians “stand united in wishing the best to these communities for a speedy recovery.”

ESSENTIAL PHONE NUMBERS FOR LOS ANGELES-AREA RESIDENTS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM

A helicopter drops water on the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Etienne Laurent)

“But I also believe that Californians also stand united on a very important issue of accountability. Why were we not better prepared for this disaster? All Californians are asking that question.”

DeMaio said the legislative special session should include oversight hearings on questions he claimed Gov. Gavin Newsom has not sufficiently answered.

“He’s given [questioners] nothing but evasion and yes, frankly, dishonesty,” DeMaio claimed. “I do not believe that we are going to get to the truth if we leave the investigation in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and local politicians.”

DeMaio said two of his letters have been sent to Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, both of Kentucky, to probe “a number of failures by state and local politicians on these fire disasters.”

He added that he will ask President-elect Trump to also sign an executive order requesting federal agencies investigate California’s lack of brush management, public land maintenance and inadequate water supply and infrastructure in the fire-affected areas.

CA DEMOCRATS URGE FEDS TO APPROVE HIGH SPEED RAIL FUNDING BEFORE DOGE NIXES BOONDOGGLE

Assemb. Carl DeMaio (CQ/Getty)

Lawmakers also hammered insurance companies and warned the state’s insurance market could go insolvent if changes aren’t made amid dropped coverages and private companies pulling out of the state.

Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, noted his district weathered the 2019 Paradise fire, and offered the caucus’ condolences and support to those dealing with the crisis in Los Angeles.

“Our thoughts and prayers are going out to those community members and those first responders who are fighting and doing God’s work fighting these fires as we speak. I want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to help get people safe, to help people recover,” Gallagher said.

“[W]e need to do a whole lot more to combat and prevent catastrophic wildfires in our state,” he said, adding that both wildfire prevention and issues with the state insurance market must be addressed in the special session.

Gallagher said that in 2021, he and other lawmakers fought for $1 billion in funding for such issues, and that there has been a major reduction in appropriations since then.

“We’re calling for immediate action on recovery to help ensure that these communities recover from this disaster, but also on the real solutions that will help us to be a stronger, more resilient state against catastrophic wildfires.”

CA DEMS MOVE TO TRUMP-PROOF THE STATE

DeMaio, Gallagher and Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, also voiced concerns about the state’s insurance market.

Grove listed off almost a dozen insurance companies which she claimed either stopped writing Californian homeowners’ insurance, limited renewals or left the state’s market.

She noted homeowners cannot get or refinance a mortgage without proof of insurance and called for “permanently eliminating red tape and expediting cleanup and recovery and rebuild for all Californians affected by wildfires.”

For his part, Newsom has reportedly proposed $2.5 billion in additional emergency response and preparedness funding.

Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, said seven of the 15 deadliest California wildfires have occurred over the past 10 years, and that little seems to change in the way of preparedness.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Getty)

Former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson reopened the Santa Monica Freeway only 66 days after a 1994 earthquake-spurred collapse, she said.

Under Newsom, CalFIRE’s ranks and budget have both nearly doubled to nearly 11,000 members and $3.8 billion. The state’s forest management budget also increased under the potential 2028 presidential candidate.

In a tweet rejecting Republicans’ claims about cuts to fire prevention funding, Newsom’s press office tweeted that it presented a “purposefully misleading graphic that starts when a one-time budget supplemental was injected to respond to the horrific fires in 2019/2020.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom, as well as the Trump Transition and Comer for response to DiMaio’s letters.

President-elect Trump is giving a shoutout to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for pushing a special legislative session to implement Trump’s expected immigration crackdown.

And Trump is urging other governors across the country to follow Florida’s lead.

“Thank you Ron, hopefully other governors will follow!” the president-elect said Tuesday in a social media post.

President-elect Trump is giving a shoutout to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for pushing a special legislative session to implement Trump’s expected immigration crackdown. (Scott Olson/Getty Images | AP/Jae C. Hong)

DeSantis is calling for a special legislative session in Florida on Jan. 27, with the goal of putting the state in a position to help implement Trump’s pledge of a massive deportation of people who entered the U.S. illegally.

The governor is calling for more law enforcement funding and other reforms, to assist the Trump immigration effort. 

TRUMP FLOATS DESANTIS AS DEFENSE SECRETARY REPLACEMENT SHOULD HEGSETH FALTER

“State and local officials in Florida must help the Trump administration enforce our nation’s immigration laws,” DeSantis told reporters on Monday. 

The governor said “in order to do that effectively, we are going to need legislation to impose additional duties on local officials and provide funding for those local officials. There also needs to be measures to hold people accountable for violating our anti-sanctuary policies and that Florida needs to make sure that we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into our state illegally.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks as Utah Gov. Spencer Cox listens before President-elect Trump talks at a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

While Republicans enjoy a super majority in Florida’s legislature, some state GOP legislative leaders are calling the request for a special session “premature.”

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The push by DeSantis and the praise by Trump is the latest sign that the two Republican powerhouses are continuing to mend their relationship after a very nasty showdown during the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)

DeSantis, a bitter Trump rival in 2023 and early last year, made peace with Trump after the former president trounced his rivals and clinched the nomination, and helped raise funds for Trump during the general election. DeSantis also spoke at last summer’s Republican National Convention.

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Last month, Trump briefly considered nominating DeSantis as defense secretary if his nominee, Pete Hegseth, had decided to drop out amid a rough patch in his confirmation drive, according to multiple sources. But Hegseth weathered the political storm and on Tuesday had his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said Tuesday that the state is going to stockpile abortion medication in preparation for President-elect Trump’s return to the White House next week with GOP control of both chambers of Congress.

The governor made comments about protecting abortion drugs like mifepristone during his state of the state address, when he vowed to work with Trump on issues where they share priorities, but also stressed that the state is ready to push back against the incoming administration in areas where they are opposed.

Murphy is one of a handful of Democrat governors who say they are open to cooperation with Trump’s administration. But Murphy emphasized that he will not back down from challenging “anti-choice” policies backed by the Republican-led House and Senate in Washington and said the state will stockpile mifepristone “so every woman can access this crucial form of reproductive care.”

“I will never back away from partnering with the Trump Administration where our priorities align,” Murphy said. “But just as importantly, I will never back down from defending our New Jersey values — if and when they are tested.”

MONTANA AG ASKS SUPREME COURT TO UPHOLD LAW REQUIRING PARENTAL CONSENT FOR A MINOR’S ABORTION

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature at the statehouse, in Trenton, N.J., Jan. 9, 2024. (AP)

New Jersey is the latest Democrat-led state to announce plans to stockpile mifepristone, one of two drugs used in combination to end pregnancies.

Trump, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, said last month he does not plan to restrict abortion drugs, but he also admitted that “things change.”

Pro-choice groups have expressed concern that Pam Bondi, who Trump nominated for attorney general, may bring back the Comstock Act, a law passed by Congress in 1873 that banned the mailing of medication or instruments used in abortion.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD CHAPTER PROVIDED HARRIS CAMPAIGN WORKSPACE, VIOLATING TAX LAW: IRS COMPLAINT

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks during a press conference in Newark in August. (AP/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled to preserve access to mifepristone. The case sought to restrict access to the drug, including in states where abortion is legal.

Abortion is banned, with some exceptions, at all stages of pregnancy in 14 states, and after about six weeks of pregnancy in three others.

In Murphy’s Tuesday state of the state address, which was his second-to-last, he emphasized his reluctance to become a lame-duck governor before his second term ends, unveiling several proposals for the year. The term-limited governor will be leaving office in a year after November’s gubernatorial election. New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states regularly scheduled with gubernatorial races this year.

Phil Murphy, governor of New Jersey, speaks to members of the media after meeting with President Biden during the National Governors Association Winter Meeting at the White House on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“During this final chapter of our journey, our absolute top priority — as it has been since Day One — is delivering economic security and opportunity to every New Jerseyan,” Murphy said.

Other proposals Murphy announced include directing schools to ban cellphones in grades K-12.

“Our children are inundated with screens,” he said. “And they are making it incredibly difficult for our kids, not only to learn, but to retain the substance of what they learn.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Republicans on the House Ways & Means Committee, the House’s chief tax writing committee, pointed out during a Tuesday hearing that if Congress lets President-elect Trump’s tax cuts from his first term expire, millions of small businesses in the United States will see a top tax rate that is higher than what small businesses in communist China pay.   

Tuesday’s hearing launched debate in the new Congress over how to handle Trump’s expiring tax credits, key provisions of which are slated to expire later this year. Among those key provisions is a new 20% tax deduction ushered in by Trump in 2017, known as Section 199-A, which provides tax relief for qualified trade or business expenses incurred by taxpayers that are not corporations. 

But, if Trump’s Section 199-A deduction expires later this year, small business owners could see their top tax rate more than double to 43.4%, which is roughly 20 points higher than what businesses in communist China face, Ways & Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., laid out in a report earlier this month and reiterated during Tuesday’s hearing. 

“If Congress fails to act … 26 million small businesses will be hit with a 43.4 percent top tax rate, more than 20 points higher than what businesses pay in Communist China,” Smith said Tuesday. 

TRUMP DETAILS STRATEGY TO GET NECESSARY VOTES WITH ONE-BILL APPROACH TO BORDER, TAXES

Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., talks during Tuesday’s hearing about making Trump’s tax cuts permanent.  (House Ways & Means)

Smith’s concerns were also echoed by other Republicans on the committee during Tuesday’s hearing.

“I guess my colleagues want to go back to when we had higher tax rates than communist China,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas. “What’s pro-American about that? How are we going to unleash economic growth, job creation, and prosperity with that kind of tax rate? We reduced it to 21% and we’re not even in the top quarter of the most competitive tax rates. So, I guess my colleagues want to go back to the highest business tax rate in the free world. It makes no sense.”

“The 21% rate in the United States of America – when you add the average state rate across the United States – is at 25%,” added Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla. “Our greatest adversary in the world economically – no one is even close – is China at 25%.”

Congressman Jodey Arrington speaks at Tuesday’s full Ways & Means Committee on what to do about the expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed under Trump in 2017. (Ways & Means Committee)

Allison Couch, the founder of Ignite Accounting and one of the witnesses present at Tuesday’s hearing, referred to 199-A as “the single most beneficial deduction for small business owners.”

“Allowing this deduction to lapse when it has been in place for so many years will not feel like a sunset, but a tax increase,” said Couch, who also submitted a report into the congressional record during Tuesday’s hearing from global accounting firm Ernst & Young, which indicated 25.9 million small businesses in the United States utilize the 199-A deduction.

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Other provisions that Republicans and the pro-TCJA witnesses at the hearing called on to become permanent included Trump’s beefed up child tax credit, which doubled parents’ eligible deduction, his death tax reforms, which doubled the amount heirs could pass on before being taxed, and lower marginal tax rates for individuals, a move that one witness said Tuesday has helped workers earn more take-home pay.  

Closeup woman filling form of Individual Income Tax Return. (iStock)

However, Democrats at the hearing argued that an extension of Trump’s tax cuts will benefit the ultra wealthy more than anyone else. They also argued that Republicans are ignoring the deficit impact, and not providing adequate solutions for how to pay for the extended cuts, noting that increased deficits could result in increased interest rates, a grater cost burden for middle-class people and less economic growth.  

“There’s no free lunch here,” said Brendan Duke, senior director of economic policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “The tax cuts will likely be paid for eventually in the form of spending cuts or tax increases down the line. In the meantime, continued, or even higher deficits could mean continued or even higher interest rates. That makes housing, student loans and credit card debt less affordable for working people.”

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“Republican reliance on tariff taxes to off-set their tax breaks for the super wealthy will continue to shift the tax burden to some of the very type of businesses that [Republicans want to protect]” warned Democratic Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett. “The biggest loser of their plan overall will be our debt, but the impact that that has on the solvency of Social Security, and Medicare and other investments, is also very critical. So, as we move forward we need to consider all of these impacts and look for a tax code that is mor fair for working Americans and less of a gift to those at the top.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, stops to speak with a reporter inside the underground tunnels underneath the U.S. Capitol ((Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))

In response to the battle in Congress over the expiring tax cuts, a fiscally conservative political advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, launched a $20 million campaign to urge lawmakers on Capitol Hill “to protect prosperity” by renewing Trump’s tax cuts. 

The campaign will include ads in all 50 states as the group says Congress is “facing a countdown to crisis that threatens the family budgets of virtually every American.” Notably, Americans for Prosperity, endorsed Trump’s presidential contender Nikki Haley prior to Trump becoming the GOP’s nominee. 

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Expect a traffic jam in the Senate soon as the race is on to confirm President-elect Trump’s cabinet nominees.

In short, nothing can happen until President-elect Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Yes, there will be plenty of Trump loyalists attending various inaugural balls around town.

But once the inauguration festivities conclude at the Capitol, the Senate will get down to business. A handful of committees are already angling to schedule “markups” to potentially discharge or send various nominations to the floor. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has already teed up a meeting for 3:15 pm et on January 20 for the nomination of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to be Secretary of State. And if the custom holds, the Senate will confirm at least a few of Mr. Trump’s nominees just hours after he takes the oath of office.

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Let history be our guide:

The Senate confirmed Trump’s Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on the evening of January 20, 2017. The next confirmation didn’t come until January 31, 2017. That was Elaine Chao, wife of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to be Transportation Secretary.

In 2021, the Senate confirmed one of President Biden’s nominees shortly after he was sworn-in. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was the first Biden nominee confirmed – on the night of January 20, 2021. The first, full cabinet-level vote did not come until January 22, when the Senate confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The coming weeks are littered with confirmation hearings for President-elect Trump’s Cabinet picks – but the pace at which we can expect them to be confirmed and take office is an entirely different animal. (All photos via Getty Images)

So, while everyone is trying to squeeze into their tux on Monday night, look for the Senate to potentially vote on a nominee or two on the evening of January 20th.

Fox is told that the most likely candidates might include Rubio – since he is a known quantity in the Senate and has bipartisan support. Another possibility would be CIA Director nominee John Ratcliffe. The Senate previously confirmed Ratcliffe as the Director of National Intelligence during the first Trump Administration. He is also a known entity in the halls of Congress and served as a Republican congressman from Texas. His hearing is on for tomorrow.

Frankly, the ambitious timetable of approving several of the nominees quickly could be challenging.

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The Senate Energy Committee had to postpone Tuesday’s confirmation hearing for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum from Tuesday until Thursday due to delays over paperwork. Veterans Affairs Secretary nominee Doug Collins is not controversial. He is a former GOP congressman from Georgia. But his confirmation hearing for Tuesday was pushed back until next week. Collins may have been one figure who could have been confirmed quickly.

Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi is also one who could secure relatively speedy confirmation. Her hearing is Wednesday and Thursday. So maybe next week for her? Unclear.

But let’s examine the track record of the Senate confirming President Biden’s nominees and place it against expectations for the new Trump Administration.

Attorney General pick Pam Bondi is one of a few Trump nominees who may enjoy comparatively speedy confirmation, though vote delays are far from uncommon. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

After Lloyd Austin, the Senate confirmed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on January 25, 2021, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on January 26. Most cabinet officials weren’t confirmed until February or March. The Senate did not confirm Interior Secretary Deb Haaland until March 15, 2021, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra until March 18, 2021, and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh until March 22, 2021.

You get the idea.

Every nominee must go through a hearing. Committees have different rules about how they discharge a nomination to the floor. So that could consume some time as well. Some nominees could be bottled up in committee, depending on opposition or attendance problems. Then there may be debate on the floor.

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If Democrats filibuster a nominee, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) may need to tee up a procedural gambit to break filibusters. The process of just initiating a procedural vote to break a filibuster consumes parts of three days alone. If a nominee’s opponents still don’t relent, it’s possible that senators could drag out debate on a nominee for day or two – even though the Senate has broken a filibuster.

In February 2017, Mike Pence became the first Vice President to break a tie to confirm a cabinet official. He did so to confirm former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

In other words, floor time is at a premium. There are various parliamentary “meridians” for when the Senate can take certain procedural votes to advance a nominee. That’s why the Senate took a procedural vote at 7 am on the DeVos nomination in February 2017. The Senate also confirmed then Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price around 2 am one morning.

Mike Pence was the first Vice President whose vote was needed to break a tie in a Cabinet secretary’s confirmation – that secretary being former Department of Education head Betsy DeVos. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

And we haven’t even gotten to other nominations which are important to the Administration – such as Pete Hoekstra to be Ambassador to Canada or Mike Huckabee to serve as Ambassador to Israel. There are more than 800 positions which require Senate confirmation.

To accelerate things, the Senate could confirm some swaths of non-controversial nominees “en bloc.” That means the Senate clears the nominees on both sides to make sure there are no objections. If there are none, the Senate compiles a list and confirms a group of nominees together in one fell swoop.

But this is a long and tedious process. Confirming various positions in the Trump administration is going to take months. It consumes hours of floor time. That’s the most precious commodity in the Senate. Keep in mind that the push to confirm Trump nominees comes as the Senate is trying to work out a time agreement and amendments to pass the Laken Riley Act and a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court over its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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This is a monster process. And it will likely consume some early mornings, very late nights and even some weekend sessions before this is settled.

President Biden on Tuesday signed proclamations to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, which will protect hundreds of thousands of acres of land in California, during his last week in office. 

The event was delayed by a week due to the destructive wildfires raging in Southern California, and Biden revealed that he had wanted to do the ceremony in the state, but it had to be moved to the White House. 

“We’ve been carrying out the most aggressive climate agenda ever in the history of the world,” the president said in the East Room of the White House, before discussing the national monuments. “Our natural wonders are the heart and soul of our nation.” 

He said in his second week as president he signed an executive order “establishing the first ever conservation goal to protect 30% of all our lands and waters everywhere in America by 2030 … I call this national campaign America the Beautiful … And over the last four years, we’ve delivered … putting America on track to meet that bold goal, restoring it, creating new national monuments, conserving hundreds of millions of acres of land and waters all across America, from New England to Minnesota, Texas to Colorado, Arizona, Alaska.” 

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Biden signed a proclamation to establish Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in California on Tuesday.  (Anna Rose Layden/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

He added, “Over the past four years, I’m proud to have kept my commitment to protect more land and water than any president in American history.” 

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President Biden on Tuesday signed proclamations to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, which will protect hundreds of thousands of acres of land in California, during his last week in office.  (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

The Chuckwalla National Monument will protect more than 600,000 acres of public land in the California desert near Joshua Tree National Park and the Colorado River, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. 

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Biden listens to California officials update him on the wildfires on Jan. 10.  (eigh Vogel/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Sáttítla Highlands National Monument will protect more than 224,000 acres of land in Northern California in the Modoc, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath national forests and “provides protection to tribal ancestral homelands, historic and scientific treasures, rare flora and fauna, and the headwaters of vital sources of water,” according to the U.S. Forest Service.