‘Down to the wire’: Steve Scalise predicts House control may be decided today
EXCLUSIVE: Americans could know the balance of power in the House of Representatives as soon as Thursday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., anticipates. The top House Republican spoke with Fox News Digital after his party won commanding victories in the White House and Senate on Election Day. The Fox News Decision Desk projected the GOP having a slight edge over Democrats in the House as of Wednesday afternoon. “I mean, California’s the main state still. You know, in a lot of those close races, our incumbents are leading the way – by small margins, but we knew there would be small margins,” Scalise told Fox News Digital on Wednesday evening. “We also have some seats that we have a chance to flip that are leaning our way, too. So, you know, we’re watching all of them, and they’re coming down the wire. But I think we’ll know by [Thursday], hopefully.” SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ Republicans in President-elect Trump’s sphere and elsewhere are “in a great mood” after Tuesday night, Scalise said. “It appears we’re going to hold the House and flip the Senate,” Scalise said. “You know, it’s going to be a rare opportunity within any government to really focus in January on turning this country around.” Scalise already signaled part of what that may look like earlier in the day, when he publicly called for the various prosecutions into Trump to end now that he was re-elected president. He and other Trump allies had long dismissed the criminal probes as a misuse of the federal government, despite some of them leading to grand jury indictments and criminal convictions. Asked if a Republican-led Washington would look to reform the justice system to make such perceived attacks harder, Scalise said, “There needs to be reform.” HOUSE GOP LEADERS RIP ACTBLUE AFTER DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT HIT WITH SUBPOENA “I think this is one of the issues where the public spoke very loudly last night, that they want to end the weaponization of the federal government against political enemies,” Scalise said. The Biden administration has denied the federal investigations into Trump are politically motivated. “President Trump’s made it clear, he’s going to clean house. I think people want to see, you know, in essence, the dirty cops get removed,” Scalise said. “They want to have restored faith in all of these once great agencies. And the American people deserve that, because these agencies need to be focused on doing their job, and that’s to keep Americans safe.” In a further show of confidence that Republicans would win the House, Scalise sent a letter to House Republicans on Wednesday evening announcing he was running for majority leader again. JOHNSON BLASTS DEM ACCUSATIONS HE VOWED TO END OBAMACARE AS ‘DISHONEST’ In the four-page memo, he detailed what the first 100 day goals of a Republican federal government would look like. “Now it is up to us to work closely with Trump to enact legislation that will provide long-term relief and put our country on a sustainable trajectory. In the first 100 days, House Republicans will advance a bold, conservative agenda that will get the economy back on track, lock in low tax rates, and secure our southern border,” he wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. He pledged Republicans would push through conservative reforms via a process called “reconciliation,” which has been used by both parties in the past to force through significant policy reforms in a budget bill that only needs a simple majority to pass the Senate, instead of the traditional 60-vote threshold.
‘Doomed’: Experts say this crucial campaign decision led to VP Harris’ ‘disastrous’ defeat
Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential bid has political strategists second guessing many of her campaign choices, including her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. “The choice of Walz was only one of many disastrous mistakes but symptomatic of one larger problem – the Democratic Party leadership is too scared to say no to the hard left progressive wing of the party,” Julian Epstein, longtime Democratic operative and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital. “This hard left opposes commonsense solutions that Gov Shapiro supports – charter schools for example. Or defeating terrorists rather than aping their talking points and positions, which allow them to stay in power and rearm for the next genocidal attack,” Epstein continued. “It’s the hard left progressive wing that looks first to welfare and redistribution rather than economic growth, and to cultural extremism on migration and gender deeply out of touch with the American electorate. Walz was a really bad choice for sure, but their choice was part of a deeper problem.” Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of The Daily Signal, told Fox News Digital that Walz being added to the ticket was a significant error in judgment. HARRIS FORMALLY CONCEDES ONE DAY AFTER TRUMP’S SWEEPING VICTORY “Historically, vice presidents have little impact on a presidential candidate’s fate,” Bluey said. “But in the case of Tim Walz, it proved to be a disastrous decision that doomed Kamala Harris from the moment she made it. Not only was Walz ill-prepared for the national spotlight and media scrutiny, but Harris passed over several better options. Given how little Americans knew about Harris or her policy positions, they were right to question her judgment on this big decision.” Harris faced scrutiny even from some in her own party over her decision to name Walz, who many view as further to the left than she is, rather than a more moderate choice. Prominent Democrat Josh Shapiro, governor of the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania that Trump carried on Tuesday night, was viewed by some as a more practical choice. “One of the things that are top of mind is the choice of Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate,” Harris-Walz surrogate Lindy Li told Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich at Howard University. “A lot of people are saying tonight that it should have been Josh Shapiro. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.” ‘SHOULD HAVE BEEN JOSH SHAPIRO’: HARRIS’ VP CONTENDERS PASSED OVER FOR WALZ DODGE MASSIVE CAMPAIGN LOSS “I know a lot of people are probably wondering tonight what would have happened had Shapiro been on the ticket,” Li continued. “And not only in terms of Pennsylvania. He’s famously a moderate. So that would have signaled to the American people that she is not the San Francisco liberal that Trump said she was.” Walz was heavily criticized on the campaign trail over questions about his honesty regarding his military service, ties to China, response to the George Floyd riots in 2020, and policy agenda as governor that several Minnesotans who spoke to Fox News Digital described as radical. Firehouse Strategies founding partner Alex Conant told Fox News Digital that while Walz did not help the ticket, the problems were much deeper. “Democrats must have a lot of regrets,” Conant said. “Walz didn’t help the ticket, but he’s not why she lost. VP candidates just don’t matter that much.” “Bigger issues were Trump’s well-run campaign, Biden’s unpopular record, and Harris’ lackluster performance as a candidate – and I’m not sure how she could have changed any of those things.”
Delhi: Air pollution in national capital spike during Chhath Puja, AQI reaches ‘severe’ level
A layer of smog was seen blanketing many areas in the city. Mist or smog is expected to cover the city at night, according to an IMD forecast.
Top Philly Dem torches Harris camp as Dem blame game intensifies
The Democrat blame game in Philadelphia has intensified following Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Trump in the Keystone State, with Harris turning out less voters in Philadelphia compared to former presidents Biden, Clinton and Obama. In an on-camera interview, Fox News spoke to Philadelphia Democrat Party Chairman Bob Brady, who torched the Harris campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort, defended President Biden, and said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro should have been the vice-presidential pick on the 2024 Democratic ticket. In response, the Harris campaign immediately lashed out against Brady’s comments in a seething statement. They said that the Harris team knocked on more than two million doors in the weekend leading up to Election Day. HARRIS WORLD BLAME GAME BEGINS AFTER CRUSHING LOSS TO TRUMP Brady, a former congressman, tells Fox News that the Harris campaign was only in touch with the local coordinating campaign, which his team worked alongside. “But the national campaign, nothing. Zero. They had no respect. They had no coordination. I never even had a conversation with the lady,” Brady said, referring to Harris. “First time ever. I’ve had Joe Biden here many times. He was here for our dinner. I had President Obama here, met with the workers. I had President Clinton here, met with the workers. I had candidate Clinton here, met with the workers, [the Harris campaign] never met with us.” Brady acknowledged that the campaign had a hectic schedule but said even a short Zoom call with volunteers would have given them “a little bit of a pop,” but that never materialized. “And then they didn’t even do the right thing as far as giving us the resources that we need,” Brady added. “And they want to blame us. And now I understand someone… was blaming Joe Biden. Can you imagine blaming Joe Biden for her loss? She lost. He didn’t lose.” Politico reported last month that top Democrats in Pennsylvania were raising concerns that the Harris campaign operation was being poorly run in the nation’s biggest battleground state. Pennsylvania Democratic elected officials, party leaders and allies told the outlet that some Harris aides lack relationships with key party figures, particularly in Philadelphia and its suburbs. They also complained they had been left out of events and surrogates had not been deployed effectively. LIBERALS FUME ON SOCIAL MEDIA AS FOX NEWS PROJECTS TRUMP WINNING PRESIDENCY: ‘WHAT IS F—ING HAPPENING’ Brady said the way the campaign was run in Philadelphia was symptomatic of how the Harris campaign ran its operations nationwide. “It kind of seems that way, don’t it. I mentioned our collar counties, they didn’t give them any respect. They were screaming and hollering for signs. They didn’t get them to the last minute, we didn’t get them to the last minute and I think that’s indicative throughout the whole country and the vote shows it. It does show it,” Brady. Brady said that when help did arrive in Philadelphia it was made up of volunteers arriving from other parts of the country who didn’t relate with locals. “They got a clipboard, they knock on the door, drop literature and take off. They don’t say, ‘How’s mom? How’s your dad? How’s your kids doing?’” Brady said. “That’s more important, it’s the human touch when you have your committee people doing it in the neighborhoods where they live in. He says the campaign should have reached out to experienced operatives on the ground to find out what help and resources they needed. “Ask us for our help. We know how to do this. It’s not our first campaign. It may have been hers, but it’s not ours. And she got thrust in the last minute. Okay, well, then come to us. We’ll tell you what we need to get done. How [do we have] to do it? And that didn’t happen,” Brady said. Brady says that it was a mistake for President Biden to drop out of the race and believes he would have performed better than Harris had he remained on the ticket. POLLSTER ANN SELZER ‘REVIEWING DATA’ AFTER SETTING OFF MEDIA FIRESTORM WITH IOWA POLL SHOWING HARRIS AHEAD “I think we would have been better with Joe Biden. I think that he would have done a better job. And it shows differently to 2020 to 2024 how his margins were much higher than hers throughout the country.” “He had one bad debate. Obama had a bad debate. Fetterman had a bad debate. He would have overcome that because he spoke many times. Later, he came to a cocktail party with what maybe a thousand people. He spoke great. I was with him Friday at the union, he spoke great,” Brady said of President Biden. “And now to blame him, to actually have somebody blaming him for her loss… How about the candidate? Maybe there’s something wrong there.” Brady also found it baffling that Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate and says that the decision cost her the state as well as other states. “We would have won Pennsylvania and maybe would have won other parts of the state, other parts of the country, because he would have been out there campaigning in other parts of the country,” Brady said. “He’s a great campaigner. He’s articulate. He looks good. He talks good. Everybody likes him. He would [have done] a great job as a vice president in Texas, in Omaha, anywhere you take him, he would have been great, let alone we would have got a lock in the state of Pennsylvania.” Harris campaign senior adviser Brendan McPhillips shot back at Brady’s claims and blamed him for not raising enough cash for the campaign’s operations in the city. “The Pennsylvania for Harris team knocked more than two million doors in the weekend leading up to Election Day, which is two million more doors than Bob Brady’s organization can claim to have knocked during his entire tenure as party chairman,” McPhillips said. “No serious person can
8 possible replacements that could be appointed by Ohio’s governor to replace JD Vance’s Senate seat
Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s new position as vice president-elect leaves an open Senate seat in the Buckeye State, where the state’s Republican governor will select his replacement from a growing list of possible choices. State law dictates that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will select a Republican to take Vance’s spot in the Senate until a special election is held in November 2026 to determine who serves the rest of Vance’s term, which ends in 2028. The winner of that special election will then have to run again in 2028 in order to start a new six-year term. “If Donald Trump is elected, then we will start our process to look at people and talk to people,” DeWine said last week. “Some people have already contacted me. I’ve already met with some people at their request.” DeWine, widely regarded as part of the establishment wing of the Republican Party, is likely to face pressure from Trump loyalists to appoint a candidate in line with Trump’s agenda, while the more moderate wing of the party is likely to push more bipartisan candidates. HERE’S HOW VP-ELECT JD VANCE’S SENATE SEAT WILL BE FILLED The list of potential replacements from President-elect Donald Trump’s world includes former presidential candidate and Ohio native Vivek Ramaswamy, who has previously floated interest in the position. “Donald Trump has cultivated a coalition of outsiders and independent thinkers who will transform the federal government and revitalize our state and country,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “The best way to determine who and how they impact change won’t be sorted out in the press.” State Sen. Matt Dolan, who ran in the primary against Bernie Moreno and is an ally of Gov. DeWine, has also been suggested to fill the seat. JD VANCE VOWS TO ‘NEVER STOP FIGHTING’ FOR AMERICANS FOLLOWING ELECTION VICTORY Dolan, whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, has served in the Ohio State Senate since 2017 and served in the Ohio House of Representatives for five years before that. Jane Timken, an Ohio attorney who served as chair of the Ohio Republican Party from 2017 to 2021, is another potential Vance replacement. “Ohio is proving to the nation the strength and caliber of leaders we have,” Ohio attorney and political commentator Mehek Cooke told Fox News Digital. “Governor DeWine has a historic opportunity to make lasting change by appointing a highly qualified woman who will not only elevate our state but consistently fight for its people—Jane Timken. As Ohio’s first female GOP Chair, she has demonstrated unwavering leadership, resilience, and a commitment to fairness, never compromising her values in the process.” Other possibilities include Ohio’s Republican Gov. Frank LaRose, who also ran in the primary against Moreno, along with the state’s Republican Attorney General Dave Yost. “I’m always ready to answer the call of duty, but I’m also focused right now on doing the job Ohioans hired me to do,” LaRose told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “We delivered another secure, accurate and accessible election for Ohio voters, and that work continues. We need to certify the results on an expedited timeline to accommodate the electoral college meeting next month.” “We’re still working with our boards of elections to process absentee ballots and help voters cure provisional ballots. We’ve got a potential recount in one congressional district race. We’re also not letting up the pressure on the Biden administration to give us the federal citizenship records we need to ensure the accuracy of Ohio’s voter rolls. There’s a lot to be done. I know Governor DeWine has an important decision to make, and I’m confident he’ll do what’s in the best interest of Ohio.” Ohio’s Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted is also believed to be in the mix. A source familiar with Ohio politics told Fox News Digital that Husted is the most formidable Republican candidate statewide after delivering on key issues and that he is focused on the governorship but has publicly said he aims to remain in public service as long as he is wanted. Yost, who WCMH-TV reported would not accept the position, told Fox News Digital in an interview this summer that he believes Husted would be an “excellent choice.” Two Republicans currently serving in Congress, Rep. Mike Carey and Warren Davidson, are believed to be options as well. Carey, who has strong relationships with both Trump and DeWine, reached out to DeWine shortly after Vance was selected, a source familiar with the discussion said this summer. “While Congressman Carey is honored to be mentioned for the role, his focus is first and foremost on serving the people of Ohio’s Fifteenth Congressional District,” Carey Communications Director Theresa Braid told Fox News Digital. DeWine press secretary Dan Tierney told Fox News Digital that the timing of the governor’s announcement will depend on when Vance officially vacates his Senate seat and that the governor plans to appoint a “workhorse.” Tierney said DeWine will be looking for someone who is “qualified and ready to earn the trust of Ohio voters for another term.” Tierney pointed to the fact that DeWine served in the Senate for 12 years himself and would hope the appointee would be ready to do the “hard work” of pushing legislation and “reaching across the aisle.” Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
Trump’s big tent: President-elect improved on 2020 performance in 4 counties with big minority populations
For most of the 2024 presidential campaign, public opinion polls suggested that President-elect Trump had historically strong support from minority voters. Now, the election results prove those surveys right. Thousands of U.S. counties swung rightward compared to 2020, which enabled Trump to overcome his previous deficits with voters and win the national popular vote in 2024 – a feat no Republican has accomplished for 20 years. But four counties in particular highlight Trump’s appeal to constituencies that traditionally have supported Democrats. “Donald Trump improved his standing with Black and Latino voters for one simple reason: He went directly to them and earned their votes,” said Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell. “Presidential Republicans usually do not go to areas that aren’t part of their traditional voting bases. Trump won 90% plus Latino counties, and he has truly put the Republican Party on the map as a multicultural party.” FOX NEWS VOTER ANALYSIS: HOW TRUMP REGAINED THE WHITE HOUSE Hispanics account for 45% of residents in Passaic County, in northern New Jersey. Trump won the county with nearly 50% of the vote, improving his 2020 performance by a whopping nine percentage points. The results shocked Democrats, since the party’s 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton won there with 74% of the vote. Trump’s victory was more pronounced in Starr County, Texas, formerly a Democratic stronghold on the border with Mexico, where Hispanics make up 97% of all residents. Trump flipped the county for the first time in 132 years, winning with about 57.7% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. It was a similar story in traditionally Democratic Osceola County, where Trump won 50% of the vote compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 48%. Located in central Florida, just south of Disney World, Osceola is 56% Latino. Voters there told FOX 35 Orlando that Trump appealed to them because of their focus on economic issues. HOW KAMALA HARRIS’ FAILED 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RUN MIRRORS HER ILL-FATED 2020 CAMPAIGN “He appealed to me since day one,” voter Robert Arias said. “I felt like he’s a businessman, and he’ll be able to run our country like a business.” “Trump is a businessman,” agreed Daniel Pedraza. “He’s got guts.” Trump lost Osceola County to Clinton by 25 points in 2016. President Biden defeated Trump there by 14 points in 2020, FOX 35 reported. But he gained 7 percentage points there in 2024 and flipped it red. TRUMP MAKES GAINS WITH SOME PUERTO RICANS THIS ELECTION DESPITE CONTROVERSIAL ‘GARBAGE’ JOKE A Fox News Voter Analysis showed Trump’s crossover appeal to Democratic constituencies was foundational to his success. He improved on his 2020 numbers among Hispanics (41%, +6 points), Black voters (15%, +7 points), and young voters (46%, +10 points). These rightward shifts were particularly notable among Hispanic men (+8 points), Black men (+12 points), and men under 30 (+14 points) from 2020. Trump’s strength with Black voters was felt in Anson County, North Carolina, where the Republican candidate won there for the first time since the 1970s and only the second time in more than 100 years. Trump received 50.9% of the vote compared to 48.2% for Harris. Black residents make up 47% of the population in Anson County. Overall, Trump improved on his 2020 margin in 2,367 counties nationwide and lost ground in only 240 counties, according to the New York Times. “Because of him, Republicans now have a chance to truly compete for the Black vote, and because of him, it appears that the GOP will have the Senate, the House and the White House,” Caldwell said. The Fox News Polling Unit contributed to this report.
Baba Siddique murder case: Mumbai Police arrests two more accused from Pune, fifth weapon recovered from…
The gang led by jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi has claimed responsibility for the murder.
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Newsom says he will work with Trump, but issues warning: ‘Let there be no mistake’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded for the first time to President-elect Trump’s victory over Vice President Harris in the 2024 presidential election, saying he’ll work with Trump but not without issuing a warning. Newsom shared his remarks on social media Wednesday, expressing that a second Trump presidency is “not the outcome we wanted,” but the “fight for freedom and opportunity endures.” “.@KamalaHarris set out to fight to defend our fundamental freedoms and build a country that works for everyone. She stood up for working families, decency, and opportunity,” Newsom wrote. “California will seek to work with the incoming president – but let there be no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law.” He continued: “Federalism is the cornerstone of our democracy. It’s the United STATES of America.” HARRIS WORLD BLAME GAME BEGINS AFTER CRUSHING LOSS TO TRUMP Newsom’s star power within the Democratic Party is expected to rise following the defeat of Harris, Dan Schnur, a teacher of political communications at University of Southern California, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine, told the Los Angeles Times. “Newsom is going to lead the resistance government for the next two years as governor, and then after that, he is a very prominent and nationally recognized party leader,” Schnur told the newspaper. Newsom has previously been asked about his own potential presidential prospects during the 2024 election cycle. Voters in California, however, voted to get tough on crime, approving Proposition 36 despite Newsom opposing the ballot initiative. NATHAN HOCHMAN OUSTS EMBATTLED LIBERAL PROSECUTOR GEORGE GASCON AS LA COUNTY DA AMID CRIME CONCERNS Proposition 36 will crack down on theft and drug trafficking in a state that has been battered by crime for years. Ahead of the vote, Newsom said: “Prop 36 takes us back to the 1980s, mass incarceration — it promotes a promise that can’t be delivered.” Voters disagreed as crime has spiraled in California in recent years, most notably in 2021 and 2022, when smash-and-grab crimes hit a fever pitch in the state. Criminals were repeatedly caught on camera storming high-end department stores with crowbars and other weapons in order to smash display cases before stealing merchandise and fleeing. Fox News Digital’s Elizabeh Pritchett and Emma Colton contributed to this report.