Veteran Dem senator cruises past far-left primary challengers in bid for sixth term
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed fended off two progressive primary challengers Wednesday, extending a three-decade hold on his party’s nomination as the 76-year-old senator seeks a sixth term in Washington. Reed defeated Connor Burbridge, a “small business owner, elder-care worker, community organizer and a working-class Rhode Islander,” according to his campaign website, and Luis Muñoz, a medical school graduate, med tech entrepreneur and former candidate who previously ran for Rhode Island governor in 2018 and 2022, according to Muñoz’s LinkedIn profile and local reporting about his previous runs. The victory sends Reed to the November general election against Republican Ray McKay, who ran unopposed in his primary, and independent Michael Bahry. DEM ESTABLISHMENT STRIKES BACK AS LONGTIME INCUMBENT FENDS OFF PROGRESSIVE CHALLENGER Reed’s father was a World War II veteran and janitor from Cranston, Rhode Island, before eventually working his way up to becoming a custodial supervisor of the city’s entire school system, according to Reed’s campaign website. Reed, who cites that working-class background as pivotal to his upbringing, attended West Point later in life and spent time in the Army before earning a master’s degree in public policy and a law degree from Harvard. DEMOCRAT ESTABLISHMENT FLEXES DOMINANCE AS INSURGENTS FALL AND GOP BENCH THINS IN DEEP BLUE STRONGHOLD The primary exposed a divide between a more moderate establishment candidate like Reed and the two progressive challengers he faced who ran on issues like abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), taxing wealth and ending aid to Israel. Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has supported continued military assistance to Israel despite criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for renewed efforts toward a two-state solution. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 after serving three terms in the House, and, in addition to being the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Reed serves on the Appropriations, Banking and Intelligence committees. His campaign reported roughly $3.4 million in total receipts during the 2025-2026 election cycle through Aug. 20 and had nearly $3.1 million in cash on hand, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. By comparison, Burbridge reported raising just over $25,000 through Aug. 20, while the FEC listed no fundraising totals for Muñoz’s campaign ahead of the primary.
Potential Dem presidential contender crashes GOP convention, tries to snatch spotlight from Trump
DALLAS — Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois is urging voters to ignore the Republicans’ first-ever midterm convention. “Voters can see through the BS that Republicans are spewing,” Pritzker told reporters at a Democratic National Committee-hosted counter programming news conference across the street from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the site of this week’s first-ever Republican midterm convention. With less than two months until the midterm elections — and early voting just weeks away — President Donald Trump and the GOP kicked off their convention Wednesday as Republicans fight to keep control of Congress. The GOP’s playbook for the convention, which comes as Republicans face energized Democrats and political headwinds as they defend their slim House and Senate majorities, is to motivate the party’s base and boost turnout in key races that will determine control of Congress. GOP MIDTERM CONVENTION: CAN THE ‘BEST SHOWMAN IN POLITICS’ DELIVER AGAIN? “We are putting the president on the ballot,” Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Joe Gruters emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the gathering. “That’s exactly what we’re doing with this midterm convention.” But Pritzker, a potential 2028 White House contender, blasted the two-day GOP confab. “This bizarre Republican midterm convention here can’t paper over the fact that Republicans have done nothing to earn your vote,” Pritzker said. “Donald Trump is hoping that a flashy primetime event will make you forget that, well, his trade war is killing costs for families at the grocery store. His war in Iran is killing ranchers and farmers and their way of life, and his war on people, on the working people, the working families of this country are raising the costs of health care and housing.” FIRST ON FOX: WHO’S SPEAKING — AND WHEN — AT THE GOP’S HISTORIC MIDTERM CONVENTION The governor also charged that Republicans are trying to “rig” the midterm elections, arguing that Trump is aiming to use the U.S. Postal Service to restrict mail-in balloting across the country. “Republicans know that they can’t win on the merits of their unpopular policies. So, they’re working to rig the 2026 election,” Pritzker charged. Pritzker also warned that “if Democrats don’t win, if they don’t win in this election, we may not have other elections, or certainly we’re going to have future elections, every single one of which will be rigged.” DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB The White House has defended Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting as a “commonsense measure” aimed at ensuring secure elections. Pritzker, who is running for re-election this year for a third term steering Democrat-dominated Illinois, is seen as a possible presidential contender in the 2028 White House race to succeed Trump. But the governor pivoted when asked by Fox News if his stop in Dallas should be seen as a 2028 signal. Standing alongside some top Texas Democrats, Pritzker said, “I care a great deal about what happens in Texas. Voters everywhere in the country should care about what happens in Texas. So, I’m pleased to be here for that reason. If I can advance the cause, that’s why I should stand here.”
Proposal would pay homeowners ‘data center dividends’ to counter growing backlash
As opposition to artificial intelligence data centers spreads across rural America, one group is proposing “data center dividends” to counter the backlash by allowing residents to share directly in the wealth generated by the technology hubs. A new report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., proposes that data center dividends are a model that would return part of the property tax revenue generated by AI data centers directly to households living in the communities that host the data centers, potentially providing annual payments of between about $4,500 and $8,900 per household without creating new taxes or increasing costs for developers. “Every American deserves to benefit from the AI boom,” Sam Lyman, head of research at the nonprofit, told Fox News Digital. “It can’t just be the developers in Silicon Valley who are becoming wealthy from this revolution. It needs to be the Americans who are building the county infrastructure that makes these data centers possible in the first place.” The proposal comes as opposition to data centers intensifies nationwide, fomented over the past year by a network of socialists and communist nonprofits funded by a tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, living in Shanghai, supporting the Chinese Communist Party and a “new world order” promulgated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The opposition has widened to conservatives and centrists, with the report noting that Americans are now more likely to oppose a data center in their community than a nuclear power plant. In a poll earlier this year, Gallup found that 71% of Americans oppose construction of an AI data center in their area, while only 53% oppose a nearby nuclear plant. The report says local data center moratoriums have exploded from six in 2024 to 59 last year and 294 last month. Over the past year, groups in the Singham network – including the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the People’s Forum, CodePink and BreakThrough News – have opposed data centers and also Flock surveillance cameras with aggressive media campaigns, elevating China as a technological powerhouse and denigrating any developments by U.S. technology companies. “These influence actions are cognitive warfare. Foreign actors don’t need Americans to become pro-China,” Rob Joyce, former director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, recently told Fox News Digital. “They need Americans to argue for the outcomes Beijing wants. And a free society that can’t build the power and govern the advanced technology is going to wind up renting it from the adversary, read the PRC, that doesn’t share its own values. And that scares me as an American.” Lyman said the political problem is that many Americans believe technology companies are reaping the benefits of the AI boom while local communities bear the costs. The propaganda campaigns by the pro-China groups are promoting that message by describing tech executives as “oligarchs” and “imperialists.” One constant message in the campaigns is “People Over Profits.” “I really think that data center dividends will reverse the momentum in the data center debate, because suddenly every American who lives in these counties where data centers might be built recognizes that he or she can have a material stake in the AI economy,” said Lyman, a former senior advisor and speechwriter for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Polling cited in the report found that 73% of Americans believe the costs of data center construction outweigh the benefits, while voters overwhelmingly believe AI will primarily enrich executives and business owners rather than workers. Rather than creating a new tax, the proposal would redirect a portion of property tax revenue that counties already collect from data centers. “Data center dividends can ensure that rural Americans rise in the age of AI alongside the engineers developing this technology,” the report notes. Under the model, counties would first continue funding schools, roads, police and other essential services. After those obligations are met, local communities would return a portion of remaining revenue directly to residents through annual checks, direct deposits, tax credits, utility bill credits or permanent investment funds. The report emphasizes that the dividends would be financed entirely from existing tax revenue, meaning developers wouldn’t pay any additional taxes. The report estimates that a single one-gigawatt AI data center could generate enough tax revenue to provide households in a typical rural county between $4,500 and $8,900 annually in a “data center dividend,” depending on how much revenue local governments dedicate to dividends after paying for public services. The estimate is based on tax collections from Loudoun County, Va., one of the nation’s largest data center hubs. Loudoun collected about $685 million in personal property taxes on data center computer equipment in fiscal year 2024. Dividing those collections by the county’s data center electrical load produced an estimate of roughly $165 million in annual property tax revenue per gigawatt of AI infrastructure, researchers estimated. The report cites new policies in West Feliciana Parish, La., where policymakers are attempting to spread new-found wealth. The parish expects a Hut 8 AI campus to generate about $90 million annually, more than tripling its current budget, according to estimates. Earlier this year, Louisiana lawmakers passed Act 434, allowing local officials to provide property tax credits funded by the new revenue, although lawmakers removed an earlier proposal that would have authorized direct cash payments. If the cash provision had remained, the report estimates households could have received about $5,600 annually if one-quarter of the revenue were distributed, or $11,200 annually if half the revenue were shared with residents after funding government services. In another example, Alaska has a “Permanent Fund,” or state-owned investment account that collects part of Alaska’s revenues from oil produced on state land, invests it in stocks, bonds and real estate, and disburses part of the returns to residents as an annual dividend. The report outlines several options communities could adopt. Lyman argues that direct payments create stronger public support than simply lowering taxes or expanding government spending because residents would see the benefit. “I think a lot that opposition is
Fmr Biden ambassador blames Trump for Canada playing ‘footsie’ with China
Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen is blaming the Trump administration’s hardline trade pressure for pushing Ottawa into engaging with China. “I think Canada has tentatively tried to play some footsie with China that the Trump administration may not be happy with,” Cohen, who served as President Joe Biden’s ambassador to Canada from 2021 to 2025, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “There is a discomfort with that,” Cohen says, while arguing that it is ultimately Canada’s reflex to sentiment against President Donald Trump – particularly his hardline trade policies and rhetoric about the neighbor to the north being a “51st state.” VANCE SAYS CANADA FRIENDLIER TO CHINA ON TRADE THAN TO US: ‘INSANITY’ “One of downsides of the aggressive Trump administration treatment of Canada and many other allies and partners is that the irony is that those policies are pushing those countries to at least consider broader and larger deals with China, which of course is wholly inconsistent with a major thrust of President Trump’s international trade policy,” Cohen continued. “So, how that shakes out, it’s all a matter of degree and balance. “But I think there’s no doubt that the aggressiveness of the Trump administration positions has caused many countries to at least reevaluate whether there are additional deals that can be made with China.” The comments come as U.S.-Canada trade tensions spiral after negotiations collapsed last month. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday accused Washington of seeking dependence rather than partnership. “The most fundamental issue is that the cumulative U.S. demands revealed that they wanted us to become even more reliant on them, not less,” Carney said. “In too many areas, they wanted dependency, not a true economic partnership.” TRUMP TAUNTS CANADA ON RENAMING LAKE ONTARIO THE ‘LAKE AMERICA’ AMID RISING BORDER TRADE RIFT Notably, the fallout comes just weeks before Chinese dictator Xi Jinping makes an historic trip to the White House to talk trade – something that never happened during the Biden administration despite Biden’s onetime quip before the COVID-19 pandemic that “China’s not bad folks.” Vice President JD Vance, speaking in Maine last month, accused Canada of giving Chinese goods better treatment than products from American northern border states. “They treat Chinese goods more fairly than they do the goods that come from the people of Maine: It’s insanity,” Vance said. “And what we’ve said to Canada is, ‘Stop it.’” Cohen, however, was careful not to cast Canada as blameless in the trade feud. He admitted U.S. dairy farmers have legitimate complaints about Canada’s tariff-rate quota system, saying the issue has frustrated administrations of both parties for years. WHITE HOUSE EXPOSES ‘TRANSSHIPMENT SCAM’ COSTING US UP TO $26B, POINTS FINGER AT CHINA “This is one of the totally legitimate trade issues that exists between the United States and Canada,” Cohen said. “There is contention there that is hurting American dairy farmers. Yes, I will be honest and clear about that.” “That tension existed under Joe Biden. Was he able to solve that problem? No,” he added. “It was something that was discussed and discussed more than once. We just never got there.” Cohen, supportive of Trump’s “substance” on trade talks but not the “style,” did credit Trump for replacing NAFTA with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, calling USMCA a “terrific deal” that improved continental trade. TRUMP TRADE CHIEF WARNS CANADA WALKED AWAY FROM ‘THE BEST DEAL’ TO TRIGGER 50% U.S. TARIFFS “I gave President Trump a lot of credit for that because it was a much better deal than NAFTA,” Cohen said. “I think he deserves credit for that.” “I do push back at times on some of the rhetoric that President Trump has chosen to use, not necessarily the substance, but maybe the style that he sometimes uses to pursue his substance,” he added. “There are such fundamental differences on the substance of President Trump’s trade policy that I think the treatment of President Trump is different than the treatment of President Biden,” Cohen observed. “But when professional negotiators were in the room, they seemed to have been making a lot of progress.” Cohen believes the two sides need to return to professional negotiators, arguing that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Canadian officials had shown they could discuss difficult issues before the talks broke down. TRUMP MUST CLOSE THE BACK DOOR CHINA USES TO EXPLOIT NORTH AMERICAN TRADE “I have an enormous amount of respect for U.S. Trade Representative Greer,” Cohen said. “He is the ultimate professional trade negotiator, which is why he’s in that job. He didn’t get there by accident. President Trump put him in that job.” By contrast, Cohen said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick – who was on the call that Friday night in August when talks broke down at the 11th hour – needs to stay in his lane. “Secretary of Commerce Lutnick, with all due respect, is not a professional negotiator,” Cohen said. “That’s not the Commerce secretary’s job. It’s USTR’s job to negotiate trade deals with other countries.” Lutnick has suggested in interviews about the infamous breakdown in talks that Canadians’ politics are at play in keeping Carney from cutting a deal with Trump, a man the provincial leaders and Canadian public have long been disenchanted with. TRUMP TRADE CHIEF REVEALS WHAT PRECEDED CANADA WALKING AWAY FROM ‘BEST DEAL IN THE WORLD’ “Friday at 4 o’clock, the Canadians call: They start adding crazy ideas to the mix,” Lutnick said recently. “So, I said to one of the ministers, ‘Are you actually trying to blow this up?’ And his answer to me was, ‘I’m not allowed to say that.’ And they blew it up for political reasons only.” Cohen said of Lutnick’s account that “until proven otherwise, I take every senior government official at his word, period,” and that he has “no way of knowing whether that is true or not.” But, he admitted, Carney taking the nearly finished trade deal back to the provinces did not go over well – particularly
$54M CodePink-linked foundation shut down in California pops up at ramshackle Miami home
A far-left foundation that bankrolled CodePink and recently reported $54.6 million in assets before being shut down by California regulators has resurfaced at a ramshackle Miami home. Arc of Justice, led by CodePink co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin, lost its charitable registration after years of failing to file required financial paperwork with California. But what appears to be the same nonprofit is now registered at a small, single-story house owned by Benjamin’s longtime partner and fellow activist, Tighe Barry, documents viewed by Fox News Digital show. The sequence of events raises questions about why it fell out of compliance in California. HOUSE PANEL SUBPOENAS 3 LEFT-WING GROUPS IN PROBE OF $39M TIED TO MARXIST TYCOON NEVILLE SINGHAM Arc of Justice has poured millions of dollars into left-wing and progressive activist organizations over the years, including CodePink, Global Exchange, the Alliance for Global Justice and the National Iranian American Council, according to IRS filings. Federal tax returns provided to Fox News Digital by Arc of Justice’s attorney show the California foundation’s assets grew from $51.4 million at the end of 2023 to $54.6 million at the end of 2024, while it continued distributing millions of dollars in grants. CodePink has campaigned against U.S. policy toward China and Cuba and has been accused by congressional investigators of promoting Chinese Communist Party interests — allegations the group has denied. Benjamin, who has been a political activist for decades and has often disrupted congressional hearings, co-founded CodePink with Jodie Evans, the wife of Shanghai-based Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, whose funding network has come under congressional and federal scrutiny over alleged foreign influence and the use of tax-exempt organizations. Now it’s Arc of Justice’s finances that are coming under the microscope. “It’s pretty unusual. Most private foundations are fairly scrupulous on their compliance efforts,” Patrick Sternal, a former IRS official who specialized in tax-exempt organizations, told Fox News Digital. “So it’s unusual for a private foundation with that much in the bank to fall out of compliance and to be suspended.” The California Attorney General’s Office, led by Democrat Rob Bonta, revoked Arc of Justice’s charitable registration in January 2025 after it failed to submit required annual filings with the state for 2020 through 2024. The foundation had already been suspended for more than a year before the revocation. The state Attorney General’s Office told Fox News Digital that Arc of Justice had continually failed to respond to the registry’s delinquency and suspension notices before its registration was revoked. Under the revocation, Arc of Justice had 30 days to provide the state with an accounting of its charitable assets and was barred from distributing or spending them without the attorney general’s prior written approval. The years of noncompliance culminated in another notice from California regulators on June 19, 2026, reiterating the outstanding asset-accounting requirement and warning that Arc of Justice couldn’t distribute or spend charitable assets without the attorney general’s written approval. The notice said Arc of Justice would also have to provide regulators with enough information to assure the state that there had been “no loss of charitable assets” if it sought to have its registration reinstated. The Network Contagion Research Institute previously detailed Arc of Justice’s regulatory problems in a May report examining the foundation’s finances and activities. FIRST ON FOX: ‘NO KINGS’ PROTEST NETWORK BEHIND FIGHT AGAINST AI DATA CENTERS AND FLOCK CAMERAS David Levitt, an attorney representing Arc of Justice, said the foundation has submitted filings seeking reinstatement with California regulators. The Attorney General’s Office told Fox News Digital on Sept. 3, 2026, that it had not received the required accounting of Arc’s charitable assets. At the time, Arc was listed as “REVOKED” and “PAST DUE.” As of Sept. 9, its registration remained “REVOKED,” while its reporting status had changed to “IN REVIEW.” California’s reinstatement rules require a revoked charity to explain why it failed to comply with reporting requirements and respond to Registry notices. Laurie Styron, CEO and executive director of nonprofit watchdog CharityWatch, said Arc’s substantial assets made the compliance failures difficult to explain. “A foundation with tens of millions of dollars in charitable assets certainly has the resources to comply with basic reporting requirements,” she said. Fox News Digital asked Levitt to provide documentation of the reinstatement filings and to explain specifically why Arc of Justice failed to make the required California filings in the first place. He had not responded to those questions by publication time. California’s latest compliance notice to Arc of Justice came just six weeks after a new Arc of Justice surfaced in Florida. On May 8, Barry and other people associated with the original foundation incorporated a new nonprofit bearing the same name in the Little River neighborhood in North Miami. The timing raised obvious questions: Was the California foundation moving to Florida after its charitable registration was revoked, and what was happening to its assets? The Attorney General’s Office told Fox News Digital it had not received notice from Arc of Justice of any planned transfer, merger or dissolution and had not approved any transfer of the foundation’s assets. Levitt told Fox News Digital that the Florida corporation was created as a “placeholder” while Arc considered relocating its operations from California, but the move was never completed. He said the California corporation was never formally wound down, no assets were transferred and the Florida entity “holds no assets and has conducted no business.” “Arc of Justice, the California nonprofit corporation, currently still holds the assets,” Levitt said, adding that they remain professionally managed “in the same accounts they have been in for years.” Levitt subsequently provided Fox News Digital with financial documentation that independently verified that the California foundation continues to hold the assets. The Miami address wasn’t new. The original Arc of Justice had been using Barry’s property on its federal tax filings since at least 2017, even as it remained incorporated in California. Questions have also emerged about the original foundation’s federal filings. Arc of Justice’s Forms 990-PF
Armed man accused of lunging at Ohio Dem candidate avoids felonies as prosecutor reveals key evidence
The man who allegedly stormed toward Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton at a recent fair will not face felony charges, the county prosecutor leading the case told reporters Tuesday. The only video investigators currently have of the incident was recorded by the suspect, Patrick Havas, leaving authorities with little video evidence, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro said. “The information we’ve received is that the Acton camp requested individuals stop recording shortly before this incident occurred,” Maro told reporters on Tuesday. “So, at this point, the only video we have is the defendant’s. And what’s that showing certainly doesn’t support filing felony charges.” PISTOL-PACKING MAN KNOCKS OVER FAIRGOERS FORCING HIS WAY TOWARD OHIO GOVERNOR CANDIDATE AMY ACTON, POLICE SAY Patrick Havas was intercepted by Ohio Highway Patrol officers after allegedly knocking over multiple fairgoers as he ran toward Acton at a tent at the Canfield Fair while armed with a Taser and two firearms. He was initially booked on two counts of assault and one count of disorderly conduct, all misdemeanors. An inducing panic charge was added Tuesday at his arraignment, bringing the total to four misdemeanor counts. Havas pleaded not guilty. Maro said the tape showed Havas “walking into the tent” where Acton was, and “calling out her name” before executive protection unit officers from Ohio Highway Patrol interrupted him. “Then, his phone is either dropped or tossed, and that’s all we have,” Maro said. RAMASWAMY TORCHES DEM RIVAL OVER ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ COVID-19 CLAIM: ‘SPEWING LIES’ “There’s never any close contact with the governor, never gets near her — sorry, ‘candidate for governor’,” she added. Fox News Digital reached out to Maro for comment and to obtain a copy of the video in question. An official who picked up the phone at her office said Maro was out but would be checking messages. A reporter for the NBC affiliate tweeted that their network had also attempted to obtain the video but that officials said they would not be releasing it as part of their “active investigation.” Fox News Digital also reached out to the Acton campaign for additional comment, as well as details around the reported request that people stop filming Acton just before the encounter. “While attending the Canfield Fair, an armed individual lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people. Dr. Acton and Eric are grateful for the swift and decisive action of law enforcement and are praying for the recovery of those injured,” Acton campaign communications director Addie Bullock said in a separate statement. “This kind of violence has no place in Ohio. Dr. Acton will always stand up to the chaos, hate and vitriol that pits us against one another.” An Ohio judge ordered Havas to not speak to the press, according to Youngstown’s NBC affiliate, and Havas has been placed under a $5,000 bond and forced to surrender any weaponry in his possession. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Havas is a local to that region of Ohio. He was arrested in 2008 on petty theft and disorderly conduct charges, according to Newsweek. The theft charge was later dismissed after he pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct. He was accused of stealing several movies from a supermarket, including the James Bond film “Casino Royale.” Acton faces Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in November, as Gov. Mike DeWine is term-limited. DeWine’s lieutenant, former Ohio State Football coach Jim Tressel, declined to run for the office. Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
Reporter’s Notebook: 9/11 is just a history chapter for a new generation of Americans
It’s faded. Not from decay. Not from neglect. It’s simply the passage of time. The memories are vague. Elusive. Distant. And some who lived it are simply no longer here. Roughly one-third of all Americans who were alive on 9/11 aren’t around anymore to observe the 25th anniversary of that abominable day. And so the recollections of Sept. 11, 2001, are diluted. NEW 9/11 MUSEUM EXHIBIT AIMS TO CONNECT YOUNGER AMERICANS TO THE ATTACKS THROUGH POWERFUL ARTIFACTS To some, Sept. 11 is just another day. But it’s something different for those who weren’t around to live and breathe the horror. To many, 9/11 is like Pearl Harbor Day. Lots of people know about it. They understand it’s what triggered the U.S.’s entry into World War II. But they can’t quite explain much more. The same with other historical-shifting moments. Aug. 6 and 9, 1945 — the days the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending World War II. Nov. 22, 1963 — the day a gunman mowed down President John F. Kennedy Jr. in Dallas. A lot of people remember the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding. But few could tell you that it happened on Jan. 28, 1986. The quintessence of 9/11 is the date. Kind of like July 4th. A bit like Jan. 6 and the Capitol riot. However, we were told on Sept. 11, 2001, that things would never be the same. But how can those who didn’t experience it understand what “the same” was like if they never lived it? Just last month, a relative of mine who soon turns 26 asked, “What it was like to fly before 9/11?” I can regale you with stories about myself and a rag-tag group of high school friends, driving to the Cincinnati airport, clearing security and just wandering around the Delta gates, “hanging out” back in the mid-1980s. No ticket. No questions asked. Just a visit to Cinnabon. But the “before times” question about 9/11 is a broader conversation. It’s not just about “what changed” when you take off your shoes and bustle through security to fly. LIZ PEEK: WE CANNOT LET THE LEFT REWRITE WHAT HAPPENED ON 9/11 A nine-and-a-half-foot-tall plaque hangs in the East Front vestibule of the U.S. Capitol near the Rotunda. It commemorates Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pa., on 9/11. It took a few years, but the U.S. intelligence services finally determined that the fourth plane was bound for the U.S. Capitol. That’s where Todd Beamer and a cadre of everyday Americans voted (mind you, at 35,000 feet) to commandeer a drinks cart and rush the cockpit in an effort to seize control of the plane. “Let’s roll!” Beamer was overheard saying on a cellphone as they charged down the aisle. That two-word phrase became a battle cry for a nation as it waged the war on terrorism. The Boeing 757 hurtled toward Washington at 563 mph. It was 20 minutes out from the federal city when the plane crashed, upside down, in the Pennsylvania countryside. Shanksville is now one of those places forever notched into American history. A place not as famous, say, as Gettysburg or Jamestown, but not a footnote, either. Shanksville is part of the vernacular like Shiloh, Seneca Falls, Kent. People might know that something historic happened there. But they aren’t exactly sure what. Scores of markers dot the U.S. Capitol, denoting important things from yesteryear. Wander into Statuary Hall in the Capitol and you’ll find the desk locations of eight presidents who served in the House. But the spot where President Franklin Pierce once sat just seems like an historical annotation. Pierce toiled there nearly two centuries ago. And he’s hardly prominent among American chief executives. There’s a plaque just outside the Old Supreme Court chamber. It tells the story of how Samuel B. Morse sent the first electronic message from that room to Baltimore over a wire in 1844. “What hath God wrought!” reads the plaque, commemorating Morse’s transmission. That event christened the age of near-instant communication – now ubiquitous in the form of news alerts and TikTok videos appearing instantly in the palms of our hands. But that plaque in the Capitol’s East Front vestibule doesn’t memorialize something that happened there. It marks something that didn’t happen there. The plaque reads that the actions of the 40 passengers and crew “not only saved countless lives, but may have saved the U.S. Capitol from destruction.” In other words, this global citadel to democracy with its ivory dome might not pierce the Washington skyline were it not for a plane that crashed 167 miles away. Shanksville. Shiloh. Seneca Falls. Kent. TRUMP CONFIRMS PENTAGON PLANS FOR 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 ATTACKS, DISPUTES REPORT ON GROUND ZERO ABSENCE I’ve driven the Pennsylvania Turnpike past Somerset for decades now. That’s where the signs direct you north 10 miles to the Flight 93 National Memorial. I budgeted time into my travels to visit the memorial on one frigid, windy morning a few Februarys ago. Inside, you stand at a vista, staring downhill into a small ravine and tree line where the plane crashed. On that morning, I couldn’t help but notice there was no wildlife to be seen or heard. No deer. No birds chirping. A disturbing silence. Perhaps it was the billowing wind of that frosty morning. Maybe the snow. But I noticed no footprints gouging the crisp snowpack. It was almost as though the animals were aware of something. Dare I say understood what happened in this field a quarter-century ago. Perhaps the local fauna stayed hushed out of reverence for those who perished. A tribute to their heroism, saving the U.S. Capitol. Or perhaps it was something else. Maybe the creatures were so reserved because of the malevolence which was also on board Flight 93. One can only speculate that the animals remain hushed because of the peculiar unease enveloping the place. Even on a crisp but blustery winter morning. Shanksville is a burial ground. And in a few
Obama judge’s peculiar Trump rebuke ignites fury over ‘unprofessional’ language: ‘Embarrassment’
Critics took aim Tuesday at a federal appeals court after a judge dismissed the IRS’ argument in an ICE data-sharing case as “weak sauce,” drawing immediate backlash over the unusual language in the ruling. “That argument is ‘weak sauce’ where the district court has permitted the IRS to file any necessary notifications ‘under seal,’ thereby shielding any criminal investigative activity from disclosure,” wrote D.C. Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2013. “Weak sauce” is slang for something that falls flat and lacks substance. The lawsuit centers on whether the IRS violated federal tax-confidentiality law by sharing tens of thousands of taxpayer addresses with ICE after receiving requests for information on more than 1 million suspected illegal immigrants. The case was heard by a three-judge D.C. Circuit panel composed entirely of Obama appointees: Pillard, Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins. OBAMA-APPOINTED JUDGE TORCHES TRUMP ADMIN IN LATEST COURTROOM SHOWDOWN, REFERS ATTORNEY FOR BAR REVIEW Critics were quick to slam Pillard’s “weak sauce” comment, calling it an “embarrassment” while others slammed the ruling. “DHS strongly disagrees with this ruling. We will continue using every lawful tool available to locate and remove illegal aliens with final orders of removal, and this ruling in no way prevents us from doing so,” DHS told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “It’s an embarrassment to the Court that 2 judges would not have told the author to change a different phrase with the same meaning. Now that is going to be quoted/cited in future cases and it will look sophomoric and unserious,” said conservative attorney William Shipley on X. “Three anti-Trump Obama judges abuse power to impair basic immigration law enforcement. We have a judicial integrity crisis in the federal courts,” wrote Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “Why would anyone put that language in a professional document of any kind? That goes beyond legal decorum. It’s just unprofessional across the board,” said one user on X. “I’m all for using accessible language, but the insertion of popular slang in judicial opinions is getting out of hand,” another posted to X. “Make legal writing formal again,” wrote D.C. attorney Joshua Prince. GOP SENATOR UNVEILS BOASBERG ACT TO STOP ‘ROGUE’ JUDGES FROM HANDPICKING TRUMP CASES “Did Ketanji write that or some TikTok fan girl? Borderline illiteracy,” said one user. The plaintiffs—including the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance and two labor unions—argued the IRS failed to ensure ICE’s requests met strict legal requirements. APPEALS COURT BLOCKS TRUMP ADMIN FROM HOLDING MIGRANTS WITHOUT BOND FOR OVER 90 DAYS The judges upheld a lower-court order blocking the IRS from using its current process to provide taxpayer information to ICE, finding that the procedure failed to comply with federal tax-confidentiality law. The judges found that ICE often submitted “either incomplete or insufficiently populated” information, yet the IRS still provided tens of thousands of taxpayer addresses. The ruling comes as President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement a central priority, directing the administration to expand border security, detention and deportations while ICE ramps up arrests nationwide. Fox News Digital reached out to the circuit court, DHS and IRS for comment.
Trump hails ‘really big night’ for populists in German election after historic victory
President Donald Trump heralded the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s electoral success in regional elections on Sunday in a Tuesday night post on Truth Social. “Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night,” Trump wrote in the post. “They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly. THEY ARE ON THE RISE, and not going to take it anymore! MGGA!!! President DJT,” his post concluded. The German state of Saxony-Anhalt held elections Sunday, and AfD outperformed expectations that predicted the party would secure 40-41% of the vote, according to The Guardian. AfD surpassed that, garnering 43.8% of the vote while securing 39 seats in the state’s 83-member parliament, according to results from the state’s election authority. NEW GERMANY SEX-CRIME FIGURES REIGNITE MIGRATION FIGHT AS EXPLOITATION PROBE EXPANDS It’s a marked improvement from the young party’s last result in the state, as AfD secured only 20% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt’s 2021 elections. ‘SEND THEM BACK’ CHANTS ROCK EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AFTER LANDSLIDE VOTE TO SPEED UP DEPORTATIONS The anti-immigration party benefited in particular from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany’s (CDU) losses, as Saxony-Anhalt’s previous governing party dropped 25 seats, ending the election with only 15 seats in the state’s parliament, per the results from the election authority. AfD’s parliamentary co-chair in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, credited his party’s victory to Germany’s unpopular Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a member of the CDU party. EU ADMITS IT ‘DIDN’T HAVE CONTROL’ ON MIGRATION AS BLOC RUSHES CRACKDOWN AHEAD OF NEW RULES “Things cannot carry on like this,” Siegmund told state broadcaster ARD, adding that “a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz.” Merz’s CDU, like other parties in Germany, refuses to work with AfD, whose Saxony-Anhalt branch has been classified as an “extremist group” by Germany’s internal intelligence service. DENMARK’S LEFT-WING PM WARNS: ‘BIG ENEMY HAS STARTED TO GROW FROM WITHIN’ AS EUROPE FACES MIGRANT RECKONING AfD has been met with complete opposition in Germany, with most parties putting up what leaders and German media have come to categorize as a “firewall” against working with them. The CDU and three other parties that won seats in Saxony-Anhalt’s Sunday elections – the Left Party, the Social Democrats, and the Greens – have already publicly stated they will not form a coalition with AfD in the state. Without an absolute majority, it’s unclear how AfD would be able to rule without the cooperation of another party. The party’s best hope of forming a ruling coalition would be with the only other party that won seats in Sunday’s election, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which took five parliamentary seats. GERMAN OFFICIALS WARN ISLAMIST, FAR-LEFT RHETORIC DRIVING SPIKE IN ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS The state’s incumbent governor, Sven Schulze, a member of the CDU, congratulated AfD for its victory, and said, “We as the CDU will also have to deal with this result.” But his party’s national general secretary, Franziska Hoppermann, remained defiant. “AfD is a right-wing extremist party. It wants to leave the euro; that would be economic downfall… it works closely together with Russia, it wants a completely different social model,” she said, according to The Associated Press. “We will not work with them.” PRESIDENT ALEKSANDAR VUČIĆ: EUROPE VILIFIES TRUMP, BUT WE IN SERBIA SEE A FRIEND AfD’s defacto leader, Alice Weidel, meanwhile, celebrated the result as “sensational,” adding that the party’s “hand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward.” Fox News Digital contacted the AfD and the CDU for further comment. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Supreme Court chief justice praises outgoing Smithsonian leader who was under pressure from Trump admin
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts praised the outgoing head of the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday after the official came under fire from President Donald Trump’s administration. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, 73, announced plans to retire this week after more than a year of tension with the White House over how U.S. history is presented at his institution. The Trump administration released a July report earlier this summer laying out its criticisms of the National Museum of American History in particular. Roberts, who serves as the chancellor of the Smithsonian, hailed Bunch on his departure, saying he “pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story” and that the Smithsonian had “benefited greatly from his wisdom, vision and leadership.” FORMER DEMOCRATIC STAFFERS, DEI LEADERS SHAPE SMITHSONIAN LEADERSHIP AMID POLITICAL FIRESTORM Prior to his departure, Bunch had pushed back internally on criticism from the White House. The July report argued that the Smithsonian had become “subject to institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology that is fundamentally opposed to telling the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love.” Bunch responded with an internal email to staff members, acknowledging that there is “room for improvement,” but arguing the report was “not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History.” TRUMP ORDERS SIGNS OUTSIDE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM AMID ROW OVER ITS DEPICTION OF AMERICAN HISTORY “At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story. As public servants and the keepers of this institution, we are charged with helping a nation find understanding, hope and clarity and as part of that duty, we are dedicated to excellence, reflection and growth,” he wrote. Bunch appears to have relented to pressure after the latest move by the White House, which saw Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley warn that the Smithsonian could lose access to artifacts and grants from the federal government if it continues with its current leadership. SMITHSONIAN’S TAXPAYER FUNDS FACE CHOPPING BLOCK AS GOP DEMANDS ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ‘WOKE’ HISTORY Burgum and Haley wrote a letter to Congress last week laying out concerns about ideological capture and potential misconduct among the Smithsonian’s leadership. “The administration has recently uncovered evidence that the Smithsonian leadership’s institutional culture may have resulted in significant violations of Federal antidiscrimination law, including creating a hostile work environment and engaging in practices that classify individuals and allocate opportunities, funding and other benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity and other protected characteristics,” the letter read.