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Here are the top 5 Democrats who could lead the party after Kamala’s fall

Here are the top 5 Democrats who could lead the party after Kamala’s fall

Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump places the Democratic Party in an awkward position of having no clear leader in the months to come. Once President Biden and Harris leave office in January, Democrats will be without a figurehead, proving an opportunity for some of the party’s top personalities to fill the void. Here are the most likely candidates: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could play a major role in shepherding the Democratic Party through the next four years. He has led Democrats in the Senate for decades, and with Rep. Nancy Pelosi stepping back from leadership in Congress, he is the most senior Democrat left in the branch. He will now have to contend once again with a Republican majority in the Senate, however. SHUTDOWN STANDOFF LOOMS IN CONGRESS’ FINAL WEEKS BEFORE TRUMP’S RETURN TO WHITE HOUSE House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., presents a younger alternative to Schumer as Pelosi’s successor in the House of Representatives. Jeffries is sure to play a central role in Democrats’ efforts to hamper the Trump administration and congressional Republicans over the next four years. ALL EYES ON CALIFORNIA AS HOUSE MAJORITY STILL HINGES ON TIGHT RACES California Gov. Gavin Newsom is widely thought to have national ambitions, and the void left by Biden and Harris could be the opportunity he’s been looking for. Newsom loudly ruled himself out from contesting Biden’s re-election campaign early in the 2024 cycle, and he is already making plays to position himself as a standout leader against Trump. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro could also position himself as a Democratic leader. Spurned by Harris as a VP pick, he is now free from the political fallout from her loss that has also disqualified Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Shapiro enjoys an over-60% approval rating in Pennsylvania, arguably the most important state for winning the presidency. While “Mayor Pete” has played a relatively quiet role under the Biden administration as transportation secretary, the Biden-Harris departure could give him an opportunity to resume his meteoric rise within the Democratic Party. Buttigieg secured a position in the party’s top tier with his performance in the 2019 Democratic primary, but it remains unclear what role he will play after the Biden administration comes to a close.

Would the US defend Taiwan under Trump if China invades? Fox News investigates

Would the US defend Taiwan under Trump if China invades? Fox News investigates

The year 2027 has become a fixation for Washington. It’s the year that U.S. intelligence projects China will be ready and capable for an invasion of Taiwan.  It could happen sooner, as evidenced by military drills in the South China Sea. Or, it could not happen at all.  But President-elect Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday leaves the Taiwanese wondering whether the U.S. would come to their defense under a new, non-interventionist-minded administration.  Trump’s public comments might suggest that he would not be willing to put boots on the ground to face another global superpower in defense of a tiny island democracy.  “I think Taiwan should pay us for defense,” Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek in June.  “You know, we’re no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything,” he added. In October, he once again complained about U.S. aid to Taiwan and accused the nation of “stealing” the U.S. microchip industry. “You know, Taiwan, they stole our chip business,” Trump said during his appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast. “They want us to protect, and they want protection. They don’t pay us money for the protection, you know. The mob makes you pay money, right? But with these countries that we protect, I got hundreds of billions of dollars from NATO countries that were never paying us.” Trump’s close advisors are far more hawkish on the Taiwan matter than the president-elect’s comments would suggest he is, according to Lyle Goldstein, director for Asia engagement at Defense Priorities.  “During Trump’s last four years there was quite a robust stance in favor of defending Taiwan through various measures taken chiefly, I think, through his advisors,” said Goldstein.  XI JINPING WARNS TRUMP US WOULD ‘LOSE FROM CONFRONTATION’ WITH CHINA AS RENEWED TRADE WAR LOOMS Asked in October if he would defend Taiwan in a China invasion, Trump told the Wall Street Journal: “I wouldn’t have to, because he respects me and he knows I’m f––– crazy.” Asked how he would convince Xi to avoid such an invasion, Trump responded: “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you” — meaning impose tariffs — “at 150% to 200%.”  He may even ban trade between the two nations.  He spoke highly of his relationship with Xi. “I had a very strong relationship with him. He was actually a really good, I don’t want to say friend — I don’t want to act foolish, ‘He was my friend’ — but I got along with him great. He stayed at Mar-a-Lago with me, so we got to know each other great. He’s a very fierce person.” The U.S. routinely sends military equipment to Taiwan, and that is expected to continue through the next administration. In October, the Biden administration approved $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, including radar systems and three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems.  With rapidly improving drone capabilities, the U.S. could come to Taiwan’s aid in an invasion without deploying troops to the region. “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told The Washington Post at the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue Summit. In doing so, he said, “I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.”  But there is hope among restraint groups that Trump will be focused on economic warfare with China – rather than military. Trump has threatened a blanket 60% tariff on Chinese goods.  BIDEN FINALIZES CRACKDOWN ON US MILITARY TECH INVESTMENTS IN CHINA WITH ONE WEEK TO LAME DUCK SESSION “I think his approach on China will be very tough on the economic side,” said Goldstein. “But — I’m hoping anyway — easing tensions on the diplomatic and military side.” “We don’t have that alliance with Taiwan,” Goldstein went on. “We have an alliance with Japan. And with the Philippines. We may want to double down on guarding our allies . . . the Taiwan issue is a powder keg — it’s exceedingly dangerous. And we should play very cautiously here.” The U.S. has long recognized a One China policy and pursued a policy of strategic ambiguity, refusing to reveal whether it would come to Taiwan’s defense in an all-out war.  Biden seemed to want to declare his intention to defend Taiwan from China. His staff was forced to walk back a series of off-the-cuff statements that seemed to undermine strategic ambiguity.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The U.S. is standing up for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the president said at West Point in May. He added pointedly: “I’ve always been willing to use force when required to protect our nation, our allies, our core interests.” 

Experts predict Trump will tap his own appellate judges for Supreme Court in the event of a retirement

Experts predict Trump will tap his own appellate judges for Supreme Court in the event of a retirement

President-elect Trump can be expected to stick to his previous judicial philosophies when looking for a potential Supreme Court nominee if a justice retired from the high court, experts say.  Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, all three of whom were under the age of 55 at the time of their appointments. Likewise, Trump appointed more than 50 federal appellate judges during his first term. Politicians and media personalities have called for the older justices on the court to step down, particularly justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, in anticipation of a Trump presidency. Such calls were also directed toward justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan prior to the general election. Politico recently reported Democrats are discussing whether Sotomayor should resign during their two remaining months in control of the Senate.  JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR FACES PRESSURE TO RETIRE AHEAD OF TRUMP TAKING OFFICE: REPORT “No one other than justices Thomas and Alito knows when or if they will retire, and talking about them like meat that has reached its expiration date is unwise, uninformed and, frankly, just crass,” conservative legal activist Leonard Leo told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Justices Thomas and Alito have given their lives to our country and our Constitution and should be treated with more dignity and respect than they are getting from some pundits.”  Trump may have the opportunity to further bolster the conservative majority by appointing younger justices if any justices retire. “I think you can start counting down the days until Thomas retires,” said Devon Ombres, senior director of courts and legal policy at CAPAction. When asked where Sotomayor and Kagan stand, Ombres said, “They’re not leaving now.” “We’re starting to already see conservative activists take the jump in favor of having justices Alito and Thomas retire so that President Trump can replace them with nominees in their 50s as a way of preserving conservative majorities for the next 15 to 20 years on the court,” John Yoo, the Emanuel Heller professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, told Fox News Digital. Yoo noted, however, that even if such retirements were to take place, the balance of the court as it stands now would remain the same.  ‘IDEOLOGICAL BALANCE’: SUPREME COURT’S CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY TO STAY NO MATTER WHO WINS ELECTION, EXPERTS SAY “It’s not clear to me that they should retire,” Yoo said. “They’re in their mid-70s, and they both seem to be in good health. And they’re both at the top of their game.” Yoo added that if there was a retirment, Trump would likely look to the appellate judges he appointed during his first term as potential nominees.  “I think Trump, given his practices, would probably favor appointing people that he had appointed already to the circuit courts,” Yoo said. “And he has a lot to pick from because he picked a lot of young conservatives.” Ombres specifically noted judges James C. Ho and Stuart Kyle Duncan on the Fifth Circuit as potential Trump nominees to the Supreme Court. Of the 17 active judges on the court, six were Trump appointees. HERE ARE THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT CANDIDATES FOR TOP POSTS IN TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION  While Yoo did not pick out particular names, he predict4ed Trump will continue to fall back on certain judges.  “Going by who Trump picked already, he picked people who seemed committed to originalism, people who had Justice Department backgrounds. He picked some people like that.” In anticipation of his first administration in 2016, Trump released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees. It was later expanded ahead of the general election that year and once again in 2017. The list proved to be a tactic to ease the minds of Republicans concerned about Trump’s capacity to appoint conservative justices to the court.  Yoo said he does not expect Trump will repeat himself this time around with an updated list.  “I think last time he did it, he was trying to win over the Republican Party, and he was an outsider. Nobody knew whether he was conservative or not. And, so, he put out that list,” Yoo said. “And, so, it’s actually quite clever of Trump at that time to release the names and stick to them as people he would appoint to the Supreme Court because it really committed him in the minds of conservatives.  “And he kept his word. And I think that he doesn’t need to now because people can see his track record.”

Top pro-life groups reveal agenda for second Trump administration amid ‘abortion fearmongering’

Top pro-life groups reveal agenda for second Trump administration amid ‘abortion fearmongering’

FIRST ON FOX: Leading pro-life activist groups are already shifting from celebrating former President Donald Trump’s victory to drawing up plans for his second term, Fox News Digital has learned. A memorandum shared exclusively with Fox News Digital by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), one of the country’s largest and most influential pro-life groups, lays out the group’s plans and priorities for the upcoming administration in what they hope will serve as the beginning of a roadmap for pro-life victories in the years to come. It states that while Democrats spent $570 million on abortion advertising, Trump’s blowout victory is evidence that the American people do not support the unrestricted abortion access endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris and many top Democrats. “Democrats’ abortion fearmongering campaign was a spectacular failure in the first presidential election since the reversal of Roe,” the memo says. “Meanwhile, President T rump did what he’s done better than anyone since 2016: he effectively cast the Democrats as the real extremists on abortion who support abortion even in the seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy and even refuse to support giving basic medical care to children who survive attempted abortions.” CALIFORNIA’S SHOCKING 2024 ELECTORAL MAP FLIP A ‘WAKEUP FOR DEMOCRATS’  “With victory in hand,” the memo asks: “What’s next?” First, the memo states that the Trump administration must immediately undo every abortion policy instituted over the last four years under the Biden-Harris administration. “The accomplishments from President Trump’s first term become the baseline for the second term,” the memo continues. “However, in order to even get to the baseline, there is much that must be undone from the Biden-Harris regime, which worked tirelessly to promote abortion in every nook and cranny of the federal government. It all must be undone.” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA, told Fox News Digital that her group will push for the “cleansing” of tax funding of abortion during the first 100 days of the Trump administration through the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services and other government agencies, as well as through grants to groups like Planned Parenthood. Dannenfelser added that the Trump administration should clarify what resources and options are available to women who do not want to choose abortion during the first 100 days. She also said Trump should reinstate the “Mexico City Policy” that prohibits the government from pushing or paying for abortion internationally. GOP CONGRESSMAN-ELECT REVEALS AMBITIOUS 100-DAY PLAN FOR TRUMP ADMIN: ‘NOT GOING TO GET FOOLED AGAIN’ Dannenfelser did not take a national abortion limit off the table, though she admitted it is “not a day one” issue. While the pro-life movement had a lot to celebrate this past week, seven states passed sweeping amendments to enshrine abortion into their state law, significantly expanding abortion in those states. This followed a series of similar amendments being passed by voters in California, Ohio, Michigan and Vermont. Dannenfelser acknowledged that she understands Americans are not ready to accept the protection of all unborn life after 50 years under Roe v. Wade, but said she believes there should be at least a “minimum standard” of protection for the unborn across the nation.  SBA noted in its memo that “to go on offense and truly defeat the abortion industry in the long term, we must strengthen the pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family resolve of the Republican Party, centered on the unalienable right to life for the unborn child that exists under the 14th Amendment.” Dannenfelser said that the job of the pro-life movement over the next few years will be to help advance the cultural conversation about what minimum standards the country should enact to protect unborn life. She pointed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who she said provides a model of a leader who is effectively engaging in and promoting cultural conversation about abortion. Florida, along with South Dakota and Nebraska, became the first states to defeat any abortion initiative since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Dannenfelser said that DeSantis’ leadership “showed exactly what you do” to win pro-life victories. “You don’t pretend it’s not happening; you go on offense against extremism,” she said. “DeSantis showed that when you go full-on, you defy all the prognosticators and fend off that horrible initiative.”  SBA is not the only pro-life group mobilizing since Trump’s victory. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America (SFLA), told Fox News Digital that her group has also developed a plan titled “Make America Pro-Life Again” that “encompasses both federal action as well as state actions.” For the early days of the administration, Hawkins said SFLA would prioritize four main policies: 1) Appointing pro-life officials to federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, FDA and DOJ, 2) Releasing pro-life activists imprisoned under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, completely defunding Planned Parenthood and to investigate the harmful chemicals used by chemical abortion pills. Hawkins also said that she will continue to advocate for abortion restrictions on the federal level, but like Dannenfelser, she granted that will not be likely to happen soon. For now, she said that Trump’s “day one” priority should be defunding Planned Parenthood. “Students for Life America has always been very clear; abortion is 100% federal. The pro-life movement is clear that abortion is 100% federal. Why? Because your right to not be killed because you’re simply inconvenient to another does not begin and end at state lines,” she told Fox News Digital. “We disagree with President Trump on this point. However, we are able to work with President Trump at this point and the first thing he must do is defund and debar Planned Parenthood.” Also looming large behind both these groups’ plans is the possibility of a Supreme Court justice retiring or passing away. Neither Dannenfelser nor Hawkins divulged who they might support for a Supreme Court nomination, but, like before, Hawkins said she expects Trump to appoint justices supporting the unborn. “Our ask of President Trump in 2015