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Speaker Johnson rips ‘lack of leadership’ in Biden admin’s Helene response: ‘alarmed and disappointed’

Speaker Johnson rips ‘lack of leadership’ in Biden admin’s Helene response: ‘alarmed and disappointed’

EXCLUSIVE: Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is criticizing the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene while warning the price tag for its recovery could be “one of the most expensive” the U.S. has seen. “There were some pretty ominous projections, and so Congress acted appropriately,” Johnson told Fox News Digital Friday evening, noting lawmakers freed up roughly $20 billion in immediate funding for FEMA in last month’s short-term federal funding bill. “But, so far, [President Biden, Vice President Harris and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas] have failed in that response.” Johnson said he was “alarmed and disappointed” by Biden officials’ comments immediately after the storm suggesting FEMA was too low on funds to deal with Helene’s wrath.  Mayorkas said “we are meeting the immediate needs” of the hurricane earlier this week but said “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.” NORTH CAROLINA REELING FROM DEVASTATING HELENE AS DEATH TOLL CLIMBS: ‘NEVER SEEN ANYTHING QUITE LIKE THIS’ Biden suggested earlier this week he may want Congress to return for an emergency session to pass a supplemental disaster aid bill. “They are scrambling to cover their egregious errors and mistakes. And there’s an effort to blame others or blame circumstances when this is just purely a lack of leadership and response,” the speaker said. He noted Mayorkas said in July that FEMA was “tremendously prepared” for weather crises this year. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and DHS for comment. Johnson also argued lawmakers could not act until an assessment by state and local authorities produced projections of how much needs to be allocated. “I don’t think those estimates could conceivably be completed until at least 30 days — until after the election, and that’s when Congress will be back in session again,” he said. HURRICANE HELENE: NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AS BASIC GOODS BECOME SCARCE The Republican leader is no stranger to hurricanes. He noted his native Louisiana is still dealing with the damage from Hurricane Katrina today, but his prediction was dire when asked about the cost of recovery after Helene ravaged the Southeast, killing more than 200 people. He said it could be “one of the most expensive storms that the country has ever encountered.” “It affects at least six states — a broad swath of destruction across many, many areas — and I think that’s why it’s going to take a while to assess,” Johnson said. “As soon as those numbers are ready, Congress will be prepared to act,” Johnson vowed at another point. “I certainly hope the administration is working overtime right now to … help get them prepared.” As part of immediate response efforts, Johnson has toured areas in Georgia and Florida pummeled by the storm and is poised to visit hard-hit North Carolina in the coming days, he said. Criticism over FEMA’s response has prompted some conservatives to accuse the Biden administration of diverting disaster aid funds toward supporting illegal immigrants at the border through the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), which was allocated roughly $650 million in the last fiscal year. TRUMP TARGETS BIDEN, HARRIS OVER FEDERAL RESPONSE TO HURRICANE: ‘INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED’ Both the White House and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have vigorously denied any link between disaster aid and SSP beyond both being administered by FEMA and have said claims of any disaster relief dollars being used to support migrant housing services are false. “No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants’ housing and services. None. At. All,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a memo on Friday. “In fact, the funding for communities to support migrants is directly appropriated by Congress to CBP, and is merely administered by FEMA. The funding is in no way related to FEMA’s response and recovery efforts.” Johnson did not give a definitive answer when asked about the concerns echoed on the right, but he accused Mayorkas of mismanaging DHS. “There is a lot of controversy about the nonsense that the Mayorkas Department of Homeland Security has engaged in. With their … dangerous open-borders policy and then the relocation efforts of taking illegal aliens and transporting them around the country,” Johnson said. “We have been working every day, House Republicans, to stop the madness. “And, so, what happened is that FEMA, because it’s a division of DHS, it’s very clear that they should be focused on helping Americans recover from disasters and not straining resources that go to other programs that are catering to illegals.” When pressed on whether DHS was able to divert congressionally appropriated funding for disaster aid into SSP, Johnson said, “There are different programs that have different funding.” He pointed out that House Republicans are seeking to defund the SSP program in the current federal funding discussions for fiscal year 2025. “We are doing everything within our power to prevent these abuses of the law and abuses of taxpayer dollars from the White House and the Democratic Party,” Johnson said. Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report

Trump says Israel should hit Iran’s nuclear facilities, slamming Biden’s response

Trump says Israel should hit Iran’s nuclear facilities, slamming Biden’s response

Former President Trump on Friday said that Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities while mocking President Biden’s answer earlier this week on the subject.   While speaking at a campaign event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he said when Biden was asked about Israel attacking Iran, the president answered, “’As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you wanna hit, right? I said, ‘I think he’s got that one wrong. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit?’”  Trump went on to say that nuclear proliferation is the “biggest risk we have.”  TRUMP SLAMS THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S RESPONSE TO HURRICANE HELENE The former president said he rebuilt the “entire military, jets everything, I built it, including nuclear” while he was president. “I hated to build the nuclear, but I got to know firsthand the power of that stuff, and I’ll tell you what: we have to be totally prepared. We have to be absolutely prepared.” He said when Biden was asked about Israel and Iran: “His answer should have been “‘Hit the nuclear first, worry about the rest later.’” Trump made similar comments in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, telling correspondent Bill Melugin Biden’s response on Israel attacking Iran was the “craziest thing I’ve ever heard. That’s the biggest risk we have. The biggest risk we have is nuclear.”  TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISORS MOCK BIDEN’S WARNINGS TO ISRAEL TO STICK TO ‘PROPORTIONAL’ IRAN RESPONSE He continued, “I mean, to make the statement, ‘Please leave their nuclear alone.’ I would tell you that that’s not the right answer. That was the craziest answer because, you know what? Soon, they’re going to have nuclear weapons. And then you’re going to have problems.”  Former deputy director of national intelligence Kash Patel, who served under Trump, said this week: “Iran launched a war into Israel, so to say that the Israelis who are defending themselves and our hostages shouldn’t attack sites in Iran that could kill them – especially when you’re the one who gave Iran $7 billion as a commander in chief and then allowed them to acquire nuclear materials – is wildly political.” Following Tuesday’s attack by Iran on Israel, Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, “the answer is no,” of Israel potentially targeting the country’s nuclear program.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He added that he and the other members of the G-7 all “agree that [Israel has] a right to respond, but they should respond proportionally,”

Soros-linked dark money group props up Nebraska independent candidate in key Senate race

Soros-linked dark money group props up Nebraska independent candidate in key Senate race

A Nebraska Senate race has emerged as one to watch with only weeks until the election, as an independent candidate with controversial backing vies to unseat Sen. Debbie Fischer, R-Neb. Dan Osborn, a mechanic and union leader, is running as an independent against Fischer, and has prompted two prominent political handicappers to change their ratings of the race, indicating heightened competition.  Both the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics recently shifted the race from “Solid” or “Safe” Republican to “Likely Republican.” The race is now alongside that of Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., in each rating system. Sabato’s Crystal Ball also ranks the Nebraska Senate race in the same category as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but Cook has moved the Texas match-up to a more competitive placement.  TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM ONLY VP DEBATE BETWEEN VANCE AND WALZ BEFORE ELECTION Osborn is being backed by two outside PACs called Retire Career Politicians and the Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety. The former has spent $3,004,274 on behalf of Osborn and the latter has doled out more than $400,000 in support of his candidacy so far, as well as over $20,000 explicitly against Fischer, according to OpenSecrets. Both PACs have recently come under scrutiny for their controversial monetary backers. Democrat megadonor and Vice President Kamala Harris supporter Reid Hoffman, who co-founded LinkedIn, gave $50,000 to Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety last year.  AS LEADER RACE LOOMS, JOHN THUNE TAKES SENATE MAP BY STORM TO BOOST GOP CANDIDATES Retire Career Politicians received $800,000 from the controversial dark money group the Sixteen Thirty Fund in a matter of months. The group is operated by left-wing Washington, D.C., political consulting firm, Arabella Advisers. While the Sixteen Thirty Fund does not reveal its donors’ identities, billionaire George Soros’ group, the Open Society Foundations, has granted the fund more than $75 million between 2016 and 2022, according to Open Society Foundations’ website.  The Sixteen Thirty Fund also gave $50,000 to the Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety.  KAMALA HARRIS ISN’T ALONE: VULNERABLE DEMS WANT CURRENT FILIBUSTER GONE Mike Helmink, the co-founder and treasurer of Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety told Fox News Digital they “reached out to everybody, anybody and everybody to come in on railroad safety issues and independent politics. And what we found is a lot of people on the progressive side and the Democrat side want to participate. And what we’ve found is the Republicans have really circled the wagons around Deb and all of the money and all the commits have gone to Deb.” He pointed out that without a Democrat candidate in the race, “a lot of consultants and firms don’t have commits if they’re more of a Democrat leaning firm.” “We really tried to get everybody and get a cross section and really build an organization going forward. You know, we would like to build this for the future, not just a one time and we’re done. You know, we would like to get this and be successful and get a win, get Dan elected and then continue moving forward on the independents and also on railroad safety,” he explained. Fischer told Fox News Digital, “I think Nebraskans are going to be really, really interested in learning more about the dark money that is spending millions of dollars his way.”  “Democrat dark money groups are spending millions of dollars backing Bernie Sanders acolyte Dan Osborn because he is a true radical. Osborn supports amnesty for illegal immigrants, has called for illegal immigrants to fill open jobs in Nebraska instead of Americans, and even wants to give Social Security benefits to illegals. Those aren’t Nebraska values,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Communications Director Mike Berg said in a statement.  One of Osborn’s ads notably takes shots at Fischer for donations to her campaign from lobbyists and special interest groups, comparing her to a race car driver with patches on her jacket. “The only thing on the back of my jacket is Nebraska,” he said in the spot.  JOHN CORNYN FLEXES FUNDRAISING CHOPS AS BATTLE TO SUCCEED MITCH MCCONNELL RAMPS UP The independent candidate has made his non-affiliation with a political party central to his campaign. However, this has been dashed by reporting from two outlets suggesting that Osborn was once a Democrat and that he did not consider himself an independent until 2016. “I became an independent in 2016, really, after the Trump-Hillary debates. I just kind of became disenfranchised with the two parties, and it all seemed a little fake to me,” he previously told Semafor. But his campaign has disputed this and claimed that he was misquoted. Osborn told a local outlet, “We were talking about how traditionally people in labor are Democrats.”  Retire Career Politicians and Osborn’s campaign did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication. 

‘Tightest race since 2000’: Harris-Trump showdown hits final stretch until Election Day

‘Tightest race since 2000’: Harris-Trump showdown hits final stretch until Election Day

Saturday marks one month to go until Election Day on November 5. As the presidential campaign enters the home stretch, it remains a margin-of-error race nationally and in the seven key battleground states likely to determine the winner of the election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump. Both national party chairs are confident of their chances. “We’re playing offense right now,” Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley said in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this week. “We feel very, very good about the map.” CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION His counterpart, Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison told reporters on Friday that “the enthusiasm is palatable in our party.” But Harrison emphasized that “we know that this election will come down to the margins, and we’re not taking any vote for granted.” CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING IN THE HARRIS-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE Since replacing President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket in mid-July, Harris has enjoyed a wave of momentum and enjoyed a surge in fundraising. In the all-important cash dash, Harris and the DNC appear to hold a large advantage over Trump and the RNC. And that’s helped bolster what was already a very impressive ground game organizational advantage the Democrats held over the Republicans. “We started laying the foundation well before 2024 by investing in our ground game,” Harrison highlighted. “We have been on the ground since the earliest days of this campaign getting our message out.” The DNC chair touted that there are “more than 312 coordinated offices across the battleground states,” with “over 2,000 coordinated staff…doing the hard work on the ground.” IN BID FOR DISGRUNTLED REPUBLICANS, HARRIS TEAMS UP WITH CHENEY IN GOP BIRTHPLACE  But Whatley wasn’t phased. “The Democrats have a ton of money. The Democrats always have a ton of money,” Whatley said, noting that Trump was outraised in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. The RNC chair emphasized that “we have the resources we need to get our message out to our voters and to every voter. I feel very, very comfortable about the campaign plan.” And while the Harris campaign and allied groups have outspent Trump and his aligned groups in the ad wars, Whatley pointed to the former president’s ability to capture free media. “Donald Trump is out there talking every single day to the voters in a way that only he can. He can generate news. He can go out there and generate social media hits. He can communicate directly with the American voters like no other politician of our generation, so it’s a huge advantage for us,” he said. Veteran Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, who conducted the Fox News Poll along with longtime Republican pollster Daron Shaw, said with four weeks to go, “my expectations of plausible outcomes range from a narrow Electoral College victory for Trump to a modestly more comfortable victory for Harris.” TRUMP UPS HIS ANTE IN THE 2024 FUNDRAISING FIGHT WITH HARRIS But while Harris holds a slight two-point edge in an average of the national surveys, Shaw noted that “the issue profile of this election continues to favor Trump.” Veteran political scientist and New England College president Wayne Lesperance said that “this presidential contest is shaping up to be one of the closest in history, with the results likely to be slow-coming.” And longtime Republican consultant Matt Gorman, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns, highlighted that “we’re slated for the tightest race since 2000.” “There are no more debates. There’s going to be a vacuum of news,” he said. “It’s integral the Trump campaign fill that vacuum with a message that puts Harris on the defensive.” Trump, like Biden, is a well-known commodity.  But Harris, even after being in the spotlight for nearly two months, is still less well-defined. “The more voters get to know Vice President Harris, the more they like her,” Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer argued.  “It’s imperative that she continues to get in front of swing state voters, and she could afford to do more in the final weeks,” he offered. “She should barnstorm the key states, filling up her schedule with rallies and local interviews and off-the-record stops that produce shareable clips that bounce around social media. They’ve run a nearly perfect race to this point, but many voters still want to know more about who she is, what she believes, and what she will do as president.” With one month to go, there’s always the possibility of an October surprise that could rock the White House race. The dockworkers strike earlier this week – which closed major ports – could have wreaked havoc on the nation’s supply chain. It could have turned into an October surprise, but the strike was suspended after just two days. Hurricane Helene, which tore a path of destruction through the southeast, also made an impact on the presidential contest – and there were memories of how Superstorm Sandy rocked the 2012 White House race between then-President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney. And the strife in the Middle East – between Israel, Iran, and Hezbollah, also threatens to upend the election. It’s important to note that while Election Day is a month away, in over two-dozen states, early in-person voting, absentee balloting, and voting by mail, are already underway. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.