Vance says ‘no chance’ US will get into prolonged Middle East war amid Iran tensions
As President Donald Trump pressures Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions amid rising tensions, Vice President JD Vance told The Washington Post there is “no chance” the U.S. will enter a yearslong war in the Middle East. “The idea that we’re going to be in a Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight — there is no chance that will happen,” Vance said on Thursday, according to the outlet. “I think we all prefer the diplomatic option,” he said, according to the Post. “But it really depends on what the Iranians do and what they say.” IRAN REJECTS TRUMP DEMANDS DESPITE ‘SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS’ IN NUCLEAR TALKS “I do think we have to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. I also think that we have to avoid overlearning the lessons of the past. Just because one president screwed up a military conflict doesn’t mean we can never engage in military conflict again. We’ve got to be careful about it, but I think the president is being careful,” Vance told the outlet. Fox News Digital reached out to Vance’s office and the White House on Friday morning. KENNEDY WARNS AYATOLLAH WANTS TO ‘DRINK OUR BLOOD OUT OF A BOOT’ AS IRAN TENSIONS ESCALATE Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number-one sponsor of terror — which they are by far — to have a nuclear weapon.” VANCE SAYS AMERICA ‘CANNOT GIVE POWER BACK TO CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS’ FOLLOWING THEIR BEHAVIOR AT SOTU In a Truth Social post regarding Iran on Monday, the president said that he “would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them.”
Newsom staffer who told California reporter to ‘f— off’ is raking in massive taxpayer-funded salary
Isaac “Izzy” Gardon, the communications director for Gov. Gavin Newsom who made headlines earlier this week for telling a national reporter to “f— off” after she pressed him on the California governor’s reported dyslexia diagnosis, is raking in a hefty six-figure salary, a Fox News Digital review found. While Newsom’s dyslexia diagnosis has been public for decades, interest in the matter was amplified amid the California governor’s book tour he launched this month. During one of his first stops on the tour, in Atlanta, Newsom was asked about his dyslexia in conversation with Democratic Mayor of Atlanta Andre Dickens, who asked what he hoped readers would take away from the discussion about his diagnosis in the governor’s new book. “I’m like you. I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy,” Newsom said in response, garnering criticism online that he was pandering to the Black community. Amid the rebukes from MAGA world and Republicans, Real Clear Politics (RCP) national correspondent Susan Crabtree reached out to Gardon for verification on his childhood disability diagnosis. In response, Gardon told her to “respectfully, f— off.” TOMMY PHAM SPEAKS OUT AGAINST GAVIN NEWSOM OVER CONTROVERSIAL SAT SCORE COMMENTS The testy response led to further criticism targeting Newsom’s office and Gardon, including from RCP’s Carl Cannon, who questioned why people who are offended so deeply by Trump “consistently imitate his worst behavior.” Newsom’s press office has been known to meet the White House’s pointed and often hostile social media posts targeting Democrats, which frequently include AI generated images, with similarly hostile social media posts targeting Trump and Republicans. When reached for comment on this story, Gardon told Fox News Digital that “Susan is not a journalist.” “She’s a MAGA blogger who writes about conspiracy theories,” Gardon added. Transparent California, a statewide public pay and pension database, revealed that Gardon is being paid quite handsomely to be one of Newsom’s most ardent defenders online. Gardon has risen in stature from an administrative assistant making around $30,000 per year in 2019, to earning $212,154.02 in 2024 as a senior assistant and communications director in Newsom’s office. NEWSOM BLASTED BY CA GOP CHAIR OVER VIRAL CLIP LABELED ‘RACIST’ BY CRITICS: ‘HE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED’ Gardon’s “regular pay” in 2024 was $152,091.05. That was also supplemented by nearly $57,000 in benefits and another $3,141.16 in “other pay,” according to the database, leading to a combined annual payment of $212,154.02. However, his current pay, which does not appear to be publicly available online, is likely to be higher. Following news of Gardon’s response to Crabtree’s follow-up, a senior reporter for the California Post also shared an email from Gardon in response to one of his media inquiries. In Gardon’s response, he referred to the New York Post as the “New York Comic Book.” Then, when Koehn followed up, indicating the San Francisco Chronicle was covering the same story, Gardon replied, “I’d put that outlet in the same bucket,” according to Koehn, who posted screenshots of the pair’s back-and-forth on X. While some top Newsom staffers have praised Gardon’s style, including his boss and senior advisor of communications, Bob Salladay, who told Politico that “Izzy’s creativity and imagination is part of what the governor is doing.” Some Democratic operatives have vocally been critical about his communication style, including Garry Tan, a prolific Democratic donor and CEO of Y Combinator “Most unprofessional person to ever work in politics,” Tan posted on X. “Izzy Gardon brings shame to the Newsom campaign.” In addition to the email, Gardon came under fire earlier this month when he referred to rapper and MAGA activist Nicki Minaj as a “stupid hoe” on X. He defended his social media post by pointing to her 2012 song called, “Stupid Hoe.”
Bill Clinton faces high-stakes House grilling in Epstein probe after Hillary blasts ‘fishing expedition’
Former President Bill Clinton will testify to the House Oversight Committee in a high-stakes deposition for the committee’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein on Friday. The closed-door meeting is expected to take place at 11 a.m. at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Westchester County, N.Y. Chappaqua has been the Clintons’ primary residence since they left the White House at the end of the former president’s tenure. Republicans have been eager to question Bill Clinton about his ties to Epstein for months as the committee has gone back and forth with his lawyers about terms of the interview. DEMOCRATS DODGE QUESTIONS AS HOUSE GOP PREPARES CONTEMPT VOTES AGAINST THE CLINTONS Both Democrats and Republicans are expected to grill Clinton, as well as committee staff on both sides. His sitdown comes a day after his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, appeared before the panel for her own lengthy deposition in the Epstein probe. However, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters on Thursday that he anticipated Bill Clinton’s deposition would be “even longer” than his wife’s. BILL, HILLARY CLINTON TO BE DEPOSED IN NEW YORK FOR HOUSE OVERSIGHT EPSTEIN PROBE He also stressed Thursday that neither of the Clintons are being accused of wrongdoing tied to Epstein. “No one’s accusing, at this moment, the Clintons of any wrongdoing. They’re going to have due process,” Comer said. “But we have a lot of questions, and the purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein.” Both depositions will be released on video sometime later. Hillary Clinton told lawmakers in her opening statement that she could not recall any contact with Epstein, nor did she have any more information for the committee past what she sent in a Jan. 13 statement. She also criticized the probe’s attention on her as a “fishing expedition” and accused Republicans of trying to use her to pull attention from Trump. “A committee endeavoring to stop human trafficking would seek to understand what specific steps are needed to fix a system that allowed Epstein to get away with his crimes in 2008,” she told the panel, according to her opening remarks. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: CLINTONS CALL FOR OPEN EPSTEIN FILES HEARING AFTER MONTHS OF DEFYING SUBPOENAS “But that’s not happening. Instead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.” Unlike his wife, however, Bill Clinton had a well-documented relationship with Epstein before his federal probes related to prostitution of minors and sex trafficking. Bill Clinton’s name and photo appear numerous times in documents released by the federal government on Epstein, and flight records show he did ride Epstein’s plane. But neither he nor Hillary Clinton have been implicated in Epstein’s crimes. The committee has also interviewed two former Trump administration officials, ex-Attorney General Bill Barr and ex-Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. Their testimonies come weeks after the House nearly voted on holding both Clintons in contempt of Congress for defying Comer’s subpoena. House leaders dropped the effort after the Clintons said they would comply.
Report exposes billions in uncovered fraud, waste as watchdog coalition offers support to Trump’s crackdown
FIRST ON FOX: As the Trump administration appoints Vice President JD Vance to lead a nationwide “War on Fraud,” a coalition of conservative state financial officers says it has already uncovered and stopped billions in taxpayer waste and is pledging to partner with the White House to root out corruption nationwide. In a Thursday letter to the White House, the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) praised President Donald Trump’s focus on what he called fraud scandals that have “resulted in tens of billions of dollars being stolen from American taxpayers,” writing that such corruption “shreds the fabric of a nation” SFOF CEO OJ Oleka told Vance that the group’s 40 conservative state treasurers, auditors and comptrollers across 28 states stand ready to support the administration’s anti-fraud mission, noting they collectively oversee more than $3 trillion in state funds. The letter accompanied SFOF’s inaugural 2025 Oversight Report, which claims that affiliated state financial officers safeguarded more than $28 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse in 2025 alone. JD VANCE SPEARHEADS ‘WAR ON FRAUD,’ PROMISES TO ROOT OUT TAXPAYER MONEY ‘STOLEN’ BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS The report highlights some of the most egregious examples within that $28 billion, including in Florida, where Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia found just under $2 billion in excessive spending, and in Kentucky, where Auditor Allison Ball found more than $836 million in improper Medicaid payments. Medicaid fraud has been of particular interest to the Trump administration given the massive fraud scandal that has unfolded in Minnesota and Vance said on Wednesday the administration has “decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.” HEAVILY REDACTED AUDIT FINDS MINNESOTA MEDICAID HAD WIDESPREAD VULNERABILITIES The report also highlights North Carolina, where it says State Auditor Dave Boliek discovered more than $1 billion in lapsed salaries from long-term vacancies in the state. Additionally, Utah auditor Tina Cannon identified more than $518 million in fraud, waste and abuse across agencies and nonprofits receiving state and federal funds. In his letter, Oleka told Vance that SFOF’s members are “allies already on the battlefield” and stand ready to assist the administration in protecting taxpayer dollars. “The American people deserve nothing less,” he wrote. SFOF argues that state-level financial watchdogs, often elected independently of governors and legislatures, are uniquely positioned to expose mismanagement and enforce fiscal discipline. With billions already identified at the state level, the group says a coordinated federal-state approach could dramatically expand the scope of fraud detection nationwide, potentially reshaping how taxpayer dollars are safeguarded across the country. “By working together, we can protect our nation’s treasure to the fullest extent against every foe and every plot to endanger it,” Oleka wrote.
Federal prosecutor admits ‘extraordinary’ timing in Abrego Garcia smuggling case charges
A federal prosecutor acknowledged Thursday that the decision to charge Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia two years after a routine traffic stop was “extraordinary,” while defending the human smuggling case as legally justified. Abrego Garcia, 31, has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate since last March, when he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order in what Trump administration officials acknowledged was an “administrative error.” The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration had to work to bring him back to the U.S. After returning in June, Abrego Garcia was taken into federal custody in Nashville and detained on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and is seeking dismissal of the charges on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution. JUDGE ORDERS MIGRANT DEPORTED IN ‘ERROR’ FREE FROM ICE CUSTODY WITH CRIMINAL CASE LOOMING A 2019 court order prevents Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador after an immigration judge determined he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager and has been under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Abrego Garcia was accused in court records of repeated domestic violence against his wife, who alleged multiple incidents of physical abuse in protective order filings. She later withdrew the protective order request and has defended her husband publicly. The Department of Homeland Security has also said he was living in the U.S. illegally and has alleged ties to MS-13, disputing portrayals of him as simply a “Maryland man.” His attorneys have denied the gang allegations. Tennessee Highway Patrol body camera footage from when Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding shows a calm exchange with officers. While officers discussed suspicions of smuggling among themselves — noting there were nine passengers in the vehicle — Abrego Garcia was issued only a warning. TENNESSEE BODYCAM OF ‘MARYLAND MAN’ TRAFFIC STOP SHOWS TROOPERS’ HANDS TIED DESPITE SMUGGLING CLUES First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire, who was acting U.S. attorney in April 2025, testified Thursday that his decision to charge Abrego Garcia was based on the evidence. “I had previously prosecuted several human smuggling cases,” McGuire said, noting that after seeing video of the traffic stop, “I was immediately struck by how similar what was being depicted in the body cam was to those investigations.” McGuire said Abrego Garcia’s vehicle belonged to someone with “a human smuggling background” and added that the route was “suspicious.” “It was a large number of individuals traveling in one SUV with a driver who spoke for the group. No one had luggage… the car had Texas plates… the route was suspicious,” McGuire said. DEM JUDGE IN HOT SEAT AFTER DHS EXPOSES ‘WHOLE NEW LEVEL’ OF ACTIVISM, SHELTERING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT During cross-examination, McGuire acknowledged that the timing of the charges, coming so long after the traffic stop, was “extraordinary.” He said he had not previously been aware of the traffic stop but reiterated that nobody in the Trump administration, including the White House or the Department of Justice, pressured him to seek the indictment. When asked about whether he might have felt pressure to prosecute the case, McGuire said, “I’m not going to do something that is wrong to keep my job.” DHS OFFICIAL RIPS KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA FOR ‘MAKING TIKTOKS’ WHILE AGENCY FACES GAG ORDER McGuire also said timing factored into charging Abrego Garcia since he was being held in El Salvador and he did not want the indictment to go public before all senior officials were briefed on the matter. “I knew from the get-go that this was going to be a controversial matter,” McGuire said. U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw did not make a ruling Thursday and said he would wait to receive post-hearing briefs from attorneys by March 5 before determining whether another hearing is necessary. Crenshaw previously found some evidence that the prosecution “may be vindictive” and that prior statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern.” Thursday’s court appearance came after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from re-arresting Abrego Garcia into federal immigration custody on Feb. 17. Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Jake Gibson, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump pushes Congress to pass SAVE Act during State of the Union; no meddling with tariffs
State of the Union speeches are all about aspirations. It doesn’t matter if you’re Reagan. Clinton, Obama, the Bush tandem or Trump. Aspirations are the quintessence of State of the Union speeches. What presidents aspire to do. And what a president wants Congress to do. All of this flows toward the ultimate of political aspirations: winning elections. Be it the next presidential election. Or, House and Senate seats during the midterms. There were two big asks — and one admonition — from President Donald Trump this week. He wants Congress to approve the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship for people to vote. He wants lawmakers to pass a stock trading ban, handcuffing Congress from dealing in stocks. And the President doesn’t want Congress to meddle in tariff policy. President Trump touted his new tariffs, arguing that they will eventually replace the nation’s income tax. This commander-in-chief has wielded executive power more broadly than any other president. So he instructed lawmakers to trade in their tariff authority. “Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said of his new tariffs. LIZ PEEK: AMERICA EXPECTED ONE THING FROM TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION. IT GOT ANOTHER The Constitution blesses Congress with the power to impose tariffs. The Supreme Court upheld that power last week. But President Trump went ahead and slapped another set of tariffs on all nations, leaning on a different law. Like most presidents, Trump wants to control legislation. That includes precluding Congress from tampering with his tariffs. However, a number of Republicans have their own aspirations: getting re-elected. That’s why some House Republicans, who believe their districts are getting hammered by tariffs, would like to reclaim that power. Or, at the very least, be on the record opposing the president. The House voted a few weeks ago to extinguish a special rule House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others put in place to block members from unwinding the tariffs for a year. Then the House adopted a plan to undo tariffs with Canada. TRUMP’S PUSH TO ‘KNOCK OUT’ FILIBUSTER GAINS NEW GOP TRACTION AS FUNDING DEADLINE NEARS But again, these are aspirations of some Republicans fed up with tariffs. The bulk of Republicans are okay with keeping them in place. And that’s exactly what Trump wants – regardless of what the Supreme Court decided. Let’s go back to Trump’s two major legislative asks in his speech. The SAVE Act is the one he really wants to be passed. This fits nicely with Trump’s narrative about illegal immigration, his claim that former President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election and voter fraud. “They want to cheat. They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat,” said the President of Democrats during his speech. “Cheating is rampant.” TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY A study examining election fraud by the conservative Heritage Foundation, discovered that examples of election fraud are minuscule. For instance, Pennsylvania, a swing state, has only unearthed 39 instances of voting fraud over the past three decades. The House already approved the SAVE Act. But the question is the Senate. “The Senate is working. I think every Republican over there is obviously in favor of the SAVE America Act, and they’re trying to cobble together the votes. It’s a 70% Democrat issue. It’s over 90% in some polls,” said Johnson. “Hopefully, some Democrats will come to their senses. I don’t know how they can go home to their voters and say that they were opposing that when it’s such a popular issue. So we’ll see how it goes.” See how it goes is right. It was notable that in his plea for Congressional action on the SAVE Act, Trump did not demand that senators end the filibuster. Fifty GOP senators now support the SAVE Act. But the trick is whether those who endorse the legislation can hit the magic threshold of 60 yeas. That’s the number of votes required to break a filibuster. Senate Majority leader John Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly resisted altering the Senate’s filibuster customs and precedents to pass the SAVE Act. The bill will never become law unless the Senate changes things. And Thune reiterated his opposition to undoing the filibuster. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others have advocated a “talking filibuster.” That means senators must actually speak and hold the floor for hours on end. Otherwise, the Senate must vote. Talking filibuster proponents don’t want senators to silently object from the sidelines. That’s what compels the Senate to take procedural votes needing 60 yeas to overcome a filibuster. LEAVITT DEMANDS SENATE GOP ‘GET OFF THEIR BUTTS’ AND ABOLISH FILIBUSTER RULE TO ADVANCE TRUMP’S AGENDA “The talking filibuster issue is one on which there is not a unified Republican conference. And there would have to be (unity) if you go down that path,” said Thune. He mentioned that the GOP must “keep 50 Republicans unified pretty much on every single vote,” adding that “there isn’t the support for doing that at this point.” Fox News is also told that there is some friction between House and Senate Republicans. Some Senate Republicans don’t appreciate the House amping up pressure to ditch the filibuster. The right to filibuster is a privilege to which senators of both parties cling tightly. MARK HALPERIN: TRUMP STRATEGY SUPER SESSION PLOTS MIDTERM SURVIVAL AS HISTORY STALKS GOP Moreover, subjecting the Senate to lengthy debate could tee up amendment votes which many vulnerable senators may find unsettling. Getting them on the record on a host of controversial issues wouldn’t help the GOP ahead of the election. So, while it’s Trump’s aspiration to pass the SAVE Act, his aspirations regarding the filibuster are unclear at best. Then, there’s the aspiration about prohibiting lawmakers from trading stocks. Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stood and applauded when Trump made that entreaty. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION BECOMES POLITICAL BOXING MATCH
Vulnerable House Dem lashes out at Trump’s ‘racist’ SOTU challenge: ‘That was uncomfortable’
Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., called a challenge from President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address “racist” when he asked listeners to stand if they agreed the U.S. should prioritize the safety of its own citizens over illegal aliens. “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support,” Trump said. “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Democrats remained seated for over a minute and a half as the Republican side of the chamber burst into prolonged applause. HOW ICE WENT FROM POST-9/11 COUNTERTERROR AGENCY TO CENTER OF THE IMMIGRATION FIGHT After the address, Bynum, who is on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s list of vulnerable Dem incumbents, said the moment made her uneasy. “I think you can agree with the ‘what’ — like standing up for American citizens,” Bynum said. “But I disagree with the ‘how.’ “There’s thinly veiled racist language, anti-immigrant language in what he was asking, and that was uncomfortable.” Bynum’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how Trump’s challenge had asked lawmakers to discriminate on the basis of race. TRUMP SHAMES DEMOCRATS IN VIRAL STATE OF THE UNION CHALLENGE ON MIGRANT CRIME: ‘FIRST DUTY’ Trump’s remarks to Democrats Tuesday came as a partial government shutdown drags on over demands Democrats have made to reform the agency at the heart of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Democrats are demanding a set of 10 enforcement reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and won’t vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until Republicans meet their demands. DHS, which oversees ICE, went into a shutdown Feb. 14. DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS INTO WEEK TWO AS IRAN THREAT, SOTU CLASH COMPLICATE HILL TALKS Among other changes, Democrats are looking for a ban on masks, an end to roaming patrols, visible identification and stiffer warrant requirements for arresting illegal aliens in public. Republicans have dismissed those demands, arguing that Democrats must first pass legislation to restrict “sanctuary cities,” communities that have instructed their law enforcement not to cooperate with federal agents on immigration apprehensions and deportations. In a press release after the State of the Union address, Bynum, who voted against DHS earlier this year, listed Trump’s framing of his immigration crackdown among her many critiques of the address. “Tonight, I watched President Trump spend the majority of his speech lying about the state of our economy, demonizing immigrants and spewing more of the same divisive BS. I can’t say I’m surprised,” she wrote.
Kennedy warns ayatollah wants to ‘drink our blood out of a boot’ as Iran tensions escalate
A Senate Republican warned Thursday that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s primary focus is shedding American blood as U.S.-Iran relations continue to simmer. “The ayatollah not only thinks that I’m going to hell because I don’t agree with his religion — he wants to kill me,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said on the Senate floor Thursday. “He wants to kill Americans and the Israelis and anybody who does not believe in his jihad and drink our blood out of a boot,” Kennedy continued. “And he’s acted on that, and that’s not acceptable.” US POSITIONS AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, STRIKE PLATFORMS ACROSS MIDDLE EAST AS IRAN TALKS SHIFT TO OMAN Kennedy’s message comes as tensions with Iran are escalating. At the core of the issue is Iran’s capability and Khamenei’s desire to build a nuclear weapon. President Donald Trump gave the country’s leadership roughly 10 to 15 days to reach a nuclear agreement and warned that the inability to strike a deal could lead to U.S. military action in the region. He renewed that edict during his State of the Union address earlier this week. TRUMP’S IRAN ULTIMATUM ENTERS DECISIVE STRETCH AFTER STATE OF THE UNION “I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror … to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. Kennedy cautioned that if the Trump administration were to broker a deal, it would need to have guardrails. “If we make a deal with Iran, let’s make sure we have a protocol to enforce it because, in my experience in watching the Ayatollah through the years, I wouldn’t trust this man if he was three days dead,” he said. SEN LINDSEY GRAHAM: IRAN IS FACING A BERLIN WALL MOMENT — HISTORY IS WATCHING US NOW Lawmakers are wrestling with the exact nature of what a strike could look like and whether Congress should weigh in before Trump makes a decision. Senators Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., expect that their Iran war powers resolution will hit the Senate floor next week, which would curb Trump’s ability to strike the country without Congress’ approval. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the most important aspect of the Iran negotiations was “to prevent them from having nuclear capability.” “But there are also other threats that they represent in the region, and we have a big presence in that region, as you know. So, I think they’re looking at and working through what the options might be,” Thune said. “In my view, if you’re going to do something there, you better well make it about getting new leadership and regime change.”
Hillary Clinton comes out swinging after GOP grilled her during marathon Epstein deposition
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasted no time criticizing Republicans after she emerged from a roughly six-hour grilling in the House Oversight Committee’s Jeffrey Epstein probe Thursday evening. Clinton told reporters she answered questions “repetitively, literally over and over again” after blasting Republicans for holding a closed-door deposition instead of a public hearing. She said, however, that she would not testify again if there was a public hearing, telling reporters, “They had a chance to do it in public, and I wish they had done it in public. And I think they’re making the wrong decision, avoiding doing it in public. “It then got, at the end, quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: CLINTONS CALL FOR OPEN EPSTEIN FILES HEARING AFTER MONTHS OF DEFYING SUBPOENAS She also knocked Republican lawmakers for not attending the deposition of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner in person. Clinton did save praise for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., however, “for raising a series of significant questions that I responded to about the nature of the investigation and the areas that I thought should be explored.” “So, I appreciated that. I want to see the truth come out. So, that was a reassuring way to end a very long, repetitive, deposition,” Clinton said. She also reiterated comments from her opening statement that she did not know Epstein and said she only knew Ghislaine Maxwell “as an acquaintance.” When asked why Maxwell was invited to daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, however, Clinton said she was a “plus-one of someone invited.” Clinton’s deposition began in the 11 a.m. hour and wrapped in the 5 p.m. hour in her hometown of Chappaqua, New York. Comer said afterward that Clinton “answered most of our questions” in a “productive” deposition but said Republicans ultimately “weren’t satisfied” with what they gleaned. “The number of times that she said, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask my husband,’ was more than a dozen,” Comer said. Former President Bill Clinton is slated to testify behind closed doors Friday for what Comer said would be an “even longer” deposition. CLINTONS CAVE: COMER SAYS BILL AND HILLARY TO TESTIFY IN EPSTEIN PROBE Neither Clinton is implicated in any wrongdoing related to Epstein or Maxwell, but Bill Clinton was known to have a relationship with the late financier and sex trafficker before the federal investigations into Epstein’s crimes came to light. Hillary Clinton said that relationship “ended years, several years, before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light.” Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital it was “frustrating” to see Hillary Clinton “obstinate and sort of annoyed at the process.” “She had an excuse for everything. But when you’ve got a pattern of involvement and a pattern of association, the American people deserve answers,” Timmons said. “Honestly, I tend to find her to be fairly credible, but I mean, all of this is going to culminate tomorrow with President Clinton, and he has a lot of really hard questions to answer. And I don’t think that the American people are going to like his answers.” The deposition was tense at times, a tension Clinton alluded to when she accused Republicans of breaking the rules when Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., apparently shared a photo from inside the deposition room with a right-wing influencer. “We had a bit of a challenge in the beginning because we agreed upon rules based on the fact it was going to be a closed hearing at their demand. And one of the members violated that rule, which was very upsetting because it suggested that they might violate other of our agreements,” Clinton said. “So, we had to cease the hearing for a period of time until we could get assurances that no rules would be broken going forward.” It’s notable, however, that Democrats also leaked information from inside the room but did not get any public blowback. A New York Times reporter posted reporting about the deposition on X earlier in the day while citing a “Dem member in the room.” Bill Clinton’s deposition is also expected to kick off in the 11 a.m. hour on Friday at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center.
WATCH: Dem senator who ditched Trump’s SOTU caught praising naked bike riders, ‘patriots’ in frog suits
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who skipped President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to attend Democrat counter-programming, hailed a group of frog-clad protesters as “patriots,” crediting them for defeating Trump’s anti-crime efforts in Portland, Oregon. “Boy, the frogs are rocking this town,” Wyden said Tuesday night. “I’m with the frogs, and I’m with all of you because political change starts at the grassroots. “For weeks, social media was flooded with these wonderful patriots. Videos of unicyclers, naked bike riders, the guy in the chicken suit and a whole lot of frogs. BARE-BOTTOMED BIKERS ROLL THROUGH RAIN TO SHOUT AT FEDS IN BLUE CITY’S LATEST ANTI-ICE STUNT “When Donald Trump sent his agents to the streets of Portland, we took on authoritarianism, and we won!” The frogs, part of an organization called the Portland Frog Brigade, use “inflatable animal costumes to practice the proven art of peaceful, creative dissent, exercising our right to free expression in defense of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law,” according to its website. In September, as part of a crackdown on crime, the Trump administration announced it would send National Guard troops to Portland among other urban centers across the country. In Portland, the order sparked social unrest and protests, including backlash from local officials. “Portland is an American city, not a military target,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a post on social media. “President Trump has directed all necessary troops to Portland, Oregon. The number of necessary troops is zero.” Almost immediately, the state launched a legal challenge to the deployment in the case of Oregon v. Trump, arguing that the administration lacked the legal authority to use federal troops to combat local crime. US JUDGE EXTENDS ORDER BLOCKING TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT IN PORTLAND As that legal battle raged inside the courtroom, the city’s person-based crime — such as homicides, kidnappings, sexual offenses and vehicular manslaughter — has fallen marginally every month, according to data from Portland’s Police Bureau. From October 2025 to January 2026, person-related crimes are down 18%. Total crime, including property and social crimes like drug offenses, is down 8%. But in December, Trump began winding down his deployment to Portland as its legal battle began to run into a series of losses. As recently as Feb. 17, the Trump administration ended its efforts to overturn a 9th Circuit order halting Trump’s deployment of the guard to Portland. “Oregon National Guard members are currently in transit to Fort Bliss, Texas, where they will demobilize, and the demobilization process will take approximately 7 to 14 days to complete,” the court ruled on Jan. 8, 2026. OREGON RESIDENTS SUE HOMELAND SECURITY AFTER TEAR GAS USED ON ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS Wyden celebrated the decision. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Wyden’s framing of the administration’s drawdown of the National Guard from Portland.