WATCH: Rand Paul says there’s one thing Americans have never heard from Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci ran point as the COVID-19 explainer-in-chief under two different administrations, steering policy and messaging on the virus that rattled the country and world for years. But there is one thing in all of his media appearances, profiles, interviews and congressional hearings that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., contended Fauci never said that he was sorry. “I mean, I’d like to hear him say he’s sorry,” Paul said. “Can he say he is sorry for funding — the research was dangerous research in China? Almost everybody agrees with that.” EXCLUSIVE: BIDEN PARDON WON’T SHIELD FAUCI IF HE LIES TO CONGRESS, COMER SAYS “Now he says, ‘Oh, well, it didn’t meet this definition or this definition, it was dangerous research,” he continued. “It was a judgment error. It was a profound judgment error.” Paul and Fauci are set to square off Wednesday morning in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the panel that Paul leads, in a clash that has been years in the making. In the lead up to Wednesday’s hearing, Paul unveiled over 1,000 pages of Fauci’s diary, providing his own color commentary online about Fauci’s motivations leading up to and during the pandemic. WATCH: RAND PAUL SAYS FAUCI LOBBIED FOR $1M PRIZE WHILE LEADING COVID RESPONSE The lawmaker has had his sights set on Fauci since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and accused him of funding research in China that led to the eventual outbreak of the virus. And though Fauci has been out of the public spotlight since 2022, when he stepped down from his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the two will finally get the chance to square up and settle the feud. “I think he actually could do better in the hearing if he’d come forward and apologize for funding this research,” Paul said. “No one’s ever heard an apology from him. All they hear is sort of the idea that he never did anything wrong and that there’s nothing wrong with that.” HARVARD TOPS NATION IN FOREIGN CASH HAUL AS COTTON DEMANDS PROBE INTO CHINA FUNDING Paul has said that the former chief medical advisor to the president deserves to be in prison for his alleged role in funding gain-of-function research, and warned that his pardon from former President Joe Biden wouldn’t hold up. Notably, Fauci’s former top advisor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. David Morens, was indicted by the Justice Department earlier this year on charges of allegedly conspiring to evade public records laws, hide communications regarding the origins of COVID-19, and destroy federal records. Gain-of-function research, or work that enhances a virus’s transmissibility or lethality, and Fauci’s alleged role in funding that type of research through his position at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China has been Paul’s focal point for years in his crusade against the former COVID-19 czar. And he argued that the issue of researching the spread of a virus, or its killing potential, predates the pandemic. Paul charged that in 2010, research conducted by Ron Fouchier, a Dutch virologist, produced a version of H5N1, commonly known as bird flu, that was transmissible “through the air between mammals.” “And half the scientific community said, ‘Oh my God, this could be the end of the world. We’re doing this s—,’” Paul said. “And Fauci was on the other side, and he said at the time in a Washington Post op-ed that even if a pandemic should occur from a scientist being bitten or somehow infected, the knowledge is worth the risk,” he continued. “That needs to be debated by the country. Is the knowledge of creating viruses that could kill the world worth the risks? And I don’t think it is.”
‘They fed him his own ears’: Top Republican shares horrifying stories of gang rule in Haiti
Walls full of bullet holes and police in “full armor” were among the sights that greeted a group of U.S. House lawmakers who recently traveled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a city that has been ravaged by gang rule since the July 2021 assassination of its former president. “The gangs will essentially block the streets with rubble, with debris, they’ll dig giant ditches in the road, and so these military and police units can’t traverse,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. “Some of these areas are like Afghanistan, and it is probably the poorest place I’ve ever been through in my life.” Mast led a group of bipartisan members of Congress on a trip to Venezuela and Haiti recently, which he said was the first congressional delegation in either country in a decade. In Haiti, they were hosted by the country’s prime minister, whose palace “a year ago, would have been a war zone,” Mast said. “They have been actively working to take back land across the breadth of Port-au-Prince.” REPUBLICAN REP MARÍA ELVIRA SALAZAR DECLARES, ‘AFTER CUBA, NICARAGUA IS NEXT’ But while he saw signs of slow improvement thanks to an international coalition of forces as well as a U.S. paramilitary group run by Erik Prince, Mast said the realities of gang violence were ever-present. A video he was shown, for example, depicted Haitian gang torture of a heavy machinery operator helping police clear gang-made blockages in the city streets. FIRST TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBER EXTRADITED TO US ON HISTORIC TERRORISM CHARGES APPEARS BEFORE HOUSTON JUDGE “They took this guy who was this equipment operator, and for working with the police, they kidnapped his family. And then they told him they’ll trade his family for him. He turned himself over,” Mast said. “They brutally killed him. I mean it’s all on video. They cut off his ears, fed him his own ears… Then they hacked at him for probably at least five minutes with machetes. His limbs looked like a Christmas tree afterwards, with just bone and skin and other things coming off of him, until ultimately they killed him. That is who these gangs are.” And it’s not just adult allies of the local police forces suffering from gang violence, according to the Florida Republican. Another chilling incident Mast said he became aware of while in Haiti was the kidnapping of a 6-year-old U.S. citizen by a local gang who he said may have committed sexual crimes against her. MIKE WALTZ, TIM TEBOW LAUNCH EFFORT TO COMBAT ONLINE CHILD EXPLOITATION: ‘IT’S HAPPENING IN THEIR BACKYARD’ “There was a 6-year-old American citizen girl. I don’t want to say that she was raped, but there were health issues that led to believe that she was also raped, as a 6-year-old girl, by these gangs,” Mast said. “It appears as though we were able to secure the release yesterday.” He said there was ultimately an “agreement” on the ransom money the girl’s family would pay after she had been held hostage for at least 46 days. “It appears as though we were able to get an exchange finally made yesterday. But again, it’s just another example of who these gangs are and the forces that are being brought to bear, to bring them to heel,” Mast said. A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans, and that it was aware of reports of an American child kidnapped for ransom in Haiti but would not provide further details out of respect for the family’s privacy. Beyond the current level of assistance, however, Mast said he doubted there was more the U.S. could do to help the country as a whole. “This started with political people starting gangs there for their own benefit. And most of the politicians there are beyond guilty of pillaging their own country instead of doing something good for their country. That’s how Haiti is in the state that it’s in,” he said. It comes as thousands of Haitians in the U.S. are facing a potential return to their home country after the Trump administration ended their temporary protected status (TPS) that was first granted after an earthquake in 2010. Mast argued, however, that the return of those Haitians who did not get permanent residency in those 16 years could potentially help bolster security there. “One of the big things would be to take the able-bodied males and put them into the police and military, which are actively recruiting, which were so decimated by the TPS taking place in the first place,” he said. “All of these people took the chance to say ‘Okay, I’m leaving,’ and it left their forces that are supposed to protect the country essentially with no forces, which is one of the other parts of how the gangs came to be.”
‘Tip of the iceberg’: NJ illegal voting scandal explodes with more key systems at risk
The top Republican on New Jersey’s Judiciary Committee says she repeatedly warned state officials that automatic voter registration lacked adequate safeguards but was routinely dismissed, as thousands more noncitizens have now been found on sensitive systems. Sen. Kristin Corrado, R-Totowa, told Fox News Digital that Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s motor voter controversy reinforced Republican demands for a bipartisan investigation with subpoena power, warning the administration’s review was too narrowly focused and likely failed to capture the full scope of the problem. “We didn’t just reach out to the Motor Vehicle Commissioner. We reached out to secretary of state [at the time, Lt. Gov. Taheshia Way]. We were not satisfied with the answers that we got from the motor vehicle commissioner, which I can tell you were basically, ‘we have signs up, they’re put on notice… that if you’re not a citizen, you can’t register to vote’.” “So people were on the honor system. We did not think that was acceptable or satisfactory or enough of a safeguard,” she said, adding that the common refrain was of an “honor system.” RNC LEGAL VICTORY CLEARS NORTH CAROLINA VOTER ROLL PURGE OF NONCITIZENS THROUGH JURY RESPONSES Corrado and others, including Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco, are now demanding a bipartisan special investigation with subpoena power. Asked if they had heard from Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, Corrado said his team indicated they wanted to wait for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s own internal probe to finish. “I have concerns about that because this independent investigation is very limited in scope. It is limited to what they’re calling the motor vehicle ‘glitch’,” she said, warning scrutiny should go far beyond the initial area of discovery. Shortly after Corrado spoke to Fox News Digital, reports surfaced that roughly 75,000 noncitizens had been summoned for jury duty through state databases, according to multiple reports, broadening the controversy beyond the Motor Vehicle Commission and prompting additional Republican calls for a wider investigation. Corrado pointed to her repeated requests over the years for clarity on the security of the voting systems and how she was rebuffed as proof the probe needs to be substantial. Asked about the demand for a full-scale investigation, Scutari credited what the governor is already doing and said he would hold fire until her probe finishes. “A healthy democracy depends on the security of our voter registration systems and the stewardship of the individuals entrusted with ensuring our elections are free, fair, and accessible. It also depends on public trust, and Governor Sherrill deserves credit for being transparent about these failures… [and] launch[ing] an independent investigation…,” Scutari said in part, confirming Corrado’s comment that he would wait for it to finish. ‘SHAME ON YOU’: SHERRILL KNEW VOTER-ROLL BOMBSHELL WAS COMING WHEN SHE CALLED TRUMP A LIAR, DOJ OFFICIAL SAYS Former Gov. Phil Murphy’s spokesman Mahen Gunaratna also told Fox News last week that his boss had “no knowledge” of the issues at the MVC. “I find that hard to believe, but it’s incredibly troubling that the governor did not know what his cabinet members were doing or what was going on right underneath him,” Corrado responded. “All [this] put our election integrity at risk, all questions that have to be answered. And the only way to answer those questions is through a bipartisan, legislative committee.” State Joint Budget Committee ranking member Declan O’Scanlon agreed the scandal validated GOP concerns. “The fact is that the people in charge for so long said this absolutely was impossible; Republicans were ‘conspiracy theorists’,” said O’Scanlon, R-Little Silver. “There are some folks on the extreme on both sides, but those of us in the middle who have said there are real issues here, and they were ignored, and we were accused of being conspiracy theorists, only to find out that we were absolutely right; again.” O’Scanlon said he believed the motor-voter revelations were the “tip of the iceberg,” and was hours later proven true, as reports surfaced about the 75,000 noncitizens summoned for jury duty. “This has the potential to be a real scandal,” he warned, agreeing that subpoena-powered hearings are a must. “We need to get on this quickly because we have elections coming up that are critical, that could be slim margins. And also you want the people of New Jersey to believe in the integrity of their voter rolls and their elections,” he said. “We shouldn’t dig this hole any deeper.” Fox News Digital reached out to NJCourts and to Sherrill’s office for comment. Peter McAleer, a spokesman for the state court system, told Fox News Digital the jury system pulls from the MVC as well as taxation and elections department lists, with the taxation department legally being permitted to have noncitizens on its own rolls. “Prospective jurors are asked about their citizenship and other qualifications when they complete the mandatory juror qualification questionnaire. Prospective jurors must certify that they understand that if they submit a knowingly false answer, they can be subject to punishment for contempt of court,” he said. “Approximately 75,000 individuals per year are disqualified from juror service based solely on lack of United States citizenship.” Corrado and Bucco also dropped a bill to eliminate motor-voter and implement voter-ID and regular audits of election data systems. “New Jerseyans need more than just excuses and finger pointing, they deserve action, and there are commonsense steps we can take right now,” said Bucco, R-Morristown. “Get the MVC out of the voter registration business.” State Sen. Joe Pennacchio, R-Boonton, who recently requested additional scrutiny from Attorney General Todd Blanche himself, told Fox News Digital on Saturday the 75,000 figure is a red-flag that Trenton can’t police itself. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER “The disclosure that 75,000 noncitizens were summoned as potential members of juries screams for a thorough federal investigation,” Pennacchio said in a Monday statement. “The governor has blamed [French software firm] IDEMIA, the Murphy administration and, of course, President Donald Trump for their ever-increasing numbers,” he said, calling Sherrill’s investigatory effort a “whitewash.” “As
New Maine law limits police cooperation with federal immigration officials
A new law in Maine will limit state and local law enforcement agencies’ cooperation with federal immigration officials. The law is set to take effect on Wednesday, along with other measures that seek to restrict the state’s cooperation with civil immigration enforcement. The “ICE Out of Policing” law restricts state and local law enforcement agencies, including jails, from assisting federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement. Law enforcement agencies will be prohibited from reaching out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents for translation services if they encounter a person who does not speak English, and they generally may not provide personal information for civil immigration enforcement, although the law includes exceptions for criminal investigations and certain legally permitted information exchanges. TRUMP-APPOINTED JUDGE TORPEDOES DOJ LAWSUIT AGAINST MINNESOTA’S SANCTUARY IMMIGRATION RULES The law also restricts local and state agencies from holding people for ICE based solely on civil immigration enforcement, and jails generally will be prohibited from notifying ICE about nonpublic inmate release dates or honoring civil detainer requests, subject to exceptions involving serious crimes, outstanding warrants, final removal orders and certain public-safety concerns. Another law also taking effect on Wednesday generally prohibits employees at public schools, state colleges, public libraries, healthcare facilities and child-care facilities from voluntarily allowing immigration officers into nonpublic areas or granting access to protected records without a judicial warrant or other applicable legal authority. A third law restricts landlords from disclosing tenants’ personal information without consent, including information related to immigration status, while preserving exceptions for warrants, subpoenas, emergencies and certain legitimate housing or legal purposes. The policing measure became law without Mills’ signature in January. Mills signed the schools, libraries and healthcare measure in April, while the tenant-privacy measure became law without her signature later that month. Several Maine cities, including Portland, Lewiston, Waterville and Rockland, have already adopted their own laws restricting local police from communicating with ICE and Border Patrol. Local governments across the country have also sought to pass similar legislation. The Maine State Police announced in December that it would begin following the policing restrictions before the law took effect. Some agencies continued contacting immigration officials, while Scott Stewart, president of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, warned that limiting cooperation could expose Maine agencies to federal funding cuts or increased enforcement. Immigrant rights advocates said the new laws will improve community trust in Maine officials to ensure public safety, regardless of immigration status. GOP SENATORS RALLY AROUND NEW DHS PROPOSAL TARGETING SANCTUARY CITIES: ‘SHOULD PAY A PRICE’ The ACLU of Maine, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and civil legal aid provider Maine Equal Justice held a news conference on Tuesday about the new laws targeting ICE operations, according to the Portland Press Herald. Sue Roche, executive director for the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said she was aware of more than 50 incidents last year where state and local police contacted immigration officials, leading to arrests. “The vast majority of people who have been handed over to ICE or Border Patrol by Maine’s law enforcement were people in lawful immigration processes who had no criminal record,” Roche said. Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE for comment.
GOP governor survives challenge from Bitcoin evangelist in gubernatorial runoff
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden fended off a primary challenge from businessman and Bitcoin evangelist Toby Doeden on Tuesday, winning the first gubernatorial primary runoff in state history and advancing to the November general election. The Associated Press called the race for Rhoden within minutes of final polls closing. He had received 70.5% of the vote compared with Doeden’s 29.5% at the time it was called, with approximately 25% of the expected vote counted. The election marked the first time South Dakota voters were asked to settle a gubernatorial nomination through a primary runoff. State law requires a runoff between the two leading candidates when no contender for governor, U.S. Senate or U.S. House receives at least 35% of the primary vote. TRUMP-BACKED FIREBRAND WINS ARIZONA GOP GOVERNOR PRIMARY, SETTING UP HIGH-STAKES SHOWDOWN The head-to-head contest followed a four-way June primary in which Doeden finished first with 30.6% of the vote and Rhoden placed second with 25.2%, leaving both short of the 35% needed to secure the nomination outright. Rhoden became governor in early 2025 after Kristi Noem left to join the Trump administration, while Doeden entered the race as a businessman and political newcomer. Doeden also built a public profile as a Bitcoin evangelist. He said he began investing “very, very heavily” in the cryptocurrency around 2020 after devoting roughly 500 hours to researching it, eventually converting nearly all the cash reserves from his companies that he did not expect to need into Bitcoin. “I will buy bitcoin forever, every single day,” Doeden previously said on his podcast, according to the South Dakota Searchlight. “We mine bitcoin, we buy bitcoin.” Doeden also supported legislation that would have allowed the South Dakota Investment Council, which manages public employee pension funds and other state investments, to invest in Bitcoin. He went further by calling for South Dakota to establish a state Bitcoin reserve – a move state investment and budget officials opposed. TRUMP FLEXES GOP MUSCLE IN ARIZONA PRIMARIES AS DEMS DODGE FAR-LEFT UPSET Tuesday’s winner advances to face former Democratic state Sen. Dan Ahlers in November. South Dakota has not had a Democratic governor since Harvey Wollman left office in 1979, and no Democrat has been elected to the office there since Richard Kneip won re-election in 1974. Wollman became governor automatically as lieutenant governor when Kneip resigned. In the run-up to Tuesday’s primary runoff, property taxes were among the defining issues of the campaign. Doeden campaigned on eliminating property taxes, while Rhoden’s campaign portrayed Doeden’s proposal as fiscally reckless, arguing it could leave local governments and schools with a major funding shortfall. Meanwhile, Rhoden’s campaign highlighted other tax relief measures that the governor signed back in March, which Rhoden’s campaign website describes as the “largest” property tax cut in the state’s history. During the race, Doeden portrayed Rhoden as part of South Dakota’s entrenched political class, declaring after the June primary that “the career politicians told me” an outsider could not break through against three longtime officeholders. Rhoden pushed back on the attack, saying Doeden was trying to “make hay” out of calling him a career politician and describing that characterization as “such a warped viewpoint,” during an interview with the South Dakota Public Broadcasting network. Rhoden argued that his years in the Legislature gave him practical experience writing laws and then returning home to live under them. President Donald Trump did not publicly weigh in with an endorsement in the runoff, according to a review by Fox News Digital. Trump thanked Rhoden by name during his July 3 remarks at Mount Rushmore but did not mention the governor’s race. Doeden, meanwhile, campaigned as a “fierce Trump supporter” who said he would help implement the president’s “America First agenda.”
Daughter of late House Dem forced into runoff after falling short in special election
Marcye Scott, the daughter of late Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., and former Gwinnett County school board chair Everton Blair advanced Tuesday to an Aug. 25 runoff in the special election to serve the remainder of the late Congressman Scott’s term before the winner of November’s regular election takes office for a full-term beginning in January. Neither candidate captured the 50% majority needed to win the seat outright, according to the Associated Press, which called the race around a quarter to 9 o’clock East Coast time. Scott had received 47.5% of the vote and Blair had received 36.1% when the race was called around 8:45 p.m. eastern, with 85% of the expected vote counted. Republican Caesar Gonzales was far behind in third with just 8.5%. The runoff will determine who serves the final weeks of the late-Congressman’s term in the heavily Democratic metro Atlanta 13th Congressional District following his death in April at age 80. It will not determine who represents the district for the next full two-year term beginning in January; voters held a separate primary for that term in May, with the general election set for Nov. 3. SUCCESSION: WHY CONGRESS HAS NO CLEAR PLAN WHEN LAWMAKERS CAN’T SERVE Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Clark won the regularly scheduled May primary for the full term with roughly 56% of the vote and will face Republican Jonathan Chavez in November. Blair, the only special-election candidate who also competed in that regular May primary, finished third with approximately 12%. Regardless of party affiliation, all candidates appeared together on one special-election ballot Tuesday. Georgia law allows a candidate who receives more than 50% to win outright, but sends the two leading candidates to a runoff when no one reaches that mark. Six names appeared on the ballot, although Democrat Tony Brown was disqualified after the check he submitted for the $5,220 qualifying fee bounced, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, which indicated votes cast for Brown would not count. The remaining field included Scott, Blair Gonzales, Attorney Carlos Moore and Republican candidate Fayth Park. Scott announced during her father’s early-May funeral in Atlanta that she planned to run in the special election to complete his term. Scott has cast herself as the candidate best positioned to complete her father’s unfinished work, particularly his outstanding federal funding requests, with her campaign noting how she worked alongside her father for more than two decades, playing an active role in his campaign operations, fundraising, constituent outreach and community engagement. 100 DAY SPRINT TO THE MIDTERMS KICKS OFF AS REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS CLASH FOR CONTROL ACROSS THE COUNTRY “Right after my dad passed, a lot of the City Council or the commissioners and chair people, they wanted to know what was going to happen with these projects,” Scott said following her father’s death, according the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. “And that’s really why I’m running: to complete that.” Her runoff opponent, Blair, was elected to the Gwinnett County Board of Education in 2018 and was elected board chairman a few years later in 2021. According to Blair’s campaign website, the former high school math teacher earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and a doctorate in education leadership from Harvard University, as well as a master’s degree in policy, organization and leadership from Stanford University. Blair’s campaign has highlighted that education-policy background and his prior elected service on the Gwinnett County school board. The winner of the August runoff will add another Democratic vote to a narrowly divided House. Republicans officially hold 218 seats, compared with 212 Democrats and four vacancies, while independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California continues to caucus with Republicans despite defecting from the GOP earlier this year. Once the Georgia winner is sworn in, Democrats would hold 213 seats, compared with a 219-member Republican-aligned bloc. The 13th District includes portions of Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry and Newton counties, along with all of Rockdale County. David Scott carried the district with approximately 72% of the vote in 2024. In the presidential race that same year, then-Vice President Kamala Harris received roughly 71% of the district’s vote, compared with about 28% for President Donald Trump.
Putin, Russia put on notice as Senate takes crucial step to grind down the Kremlin’s war machine
The Senate took its first major step in fulfilling one of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s biggest desires: levying bone-crushing sanctions against Russia. A bipartisan swell carried the sanctions package through its first hurdle on an 86-12 vote, which has gone through several iterations in the time since it was first formulated by Graham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. He explained that at its core, the package was designed to stop purchases of Russian oil and gas that was “fueling Putin’s war machine.” “Ukraine’s fight is our fight,” Blumenthal said. “Nobody believed that more deeply and passionately than Lindsey Graham. He lived it, and this vote is a step forward.” LINDSEY GRAHAM’S FINAL MISSION NEARS FINISH LINE AS WORLD LEADERS GATHER TO HONOR HIM The colossal vote also marks a huge victory on the floor for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who over the summer has managed to pass or advance two major bills with a massive wave of bipartisan support on the Senate floor, even during starkly partisan times in upper chamber. And the package that survived Tuesday night, just hours after lawmakers, world leaders and family said their last Washington, D.C., goodbyes to the longtime senator has once again been revamped. A bipartisan group led by Blumenthal and Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., who picked up her older brother’s sanctions crusade, announced that a deal had been reached to rename the package in honor of the late lawmaker, and tack on additional sanctions against Iran. Lawmakers argue that the best way to remember Graham, and cement his legacy into law, is to pass the newly-minted Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, particularly as a symbol of his ferocious support for Ukraine. LINDSEY GRAHAM’S SISTER CARRIES ON LATE SENATOR’S WORK, BECOMING SOUTH CAROLINA’S FIRST FEMALE SENATOR Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital that “literally the first conversation I ever had with Lindsey Graham was about Russia sanctions.” “I know he was very passionate about this and I know that sanctions are one of the best tools we have for bringing wars to an end without having to commit any of our military,” Husted said. The bill, as Blumenthal noted, still focuses on kneecapping Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort by targeting Moscow’s top financial gainer: oil and gas sales. BRINGING THE WAR TO PUTIN’S FRONT DOOR: IS UKRAINE’S ENERGY STRIKE STRATEGY WORKING? But it also extends sanction authority against Iran that hampers funding to the country’s weapons and energy sectors as the administration and negotiators abroad seek to find a long-lasting peace agreement for the war in the Middle East. Also, still in the legislation are targeted sanctions against Putin, Russian officials and Russian military leaders, up to 500% tariffs on Russian imports, tariffs of up to 100% on countries buying Russian energy, like China and India. It also gives President Donald Trump flexibility for when to turn off some aspects of the sanctions, among others. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., one of the original backers of the sanctions package, is already putting pressure on the House to make a move on the legislation. The lower chamber left until the end of August last week. “I am hopeful that when we get this across the finish line, which is going to happen in a big way, that the House will come back immediately and pass this legislation,” Britt said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a close ally of Graham’s, made the journey to Washington to attend his funeral, and meet with President Donald Trump and lawmakers in the process to push the sanctions bill and a deal for more anti-ballistic defenses in the war against Russia. Zelenskyy said on X that, “First and foremost, I offered President Trump our condolences on the passing of Lindsey Graham. He was a true friend of Ukraine.” “The President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,” Zelenskyy said. “We also spoke about diplomacy – it’s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.” And Zelenskyy, after his closed-door meeting with lawmakers, went to the viewing gallery in the Senate to watch vote, which after many stops and starts, finally showed signs of progress.
Dems reject Trump’s top spy pick after demanding replacement, leaving counter-terror tool in air
Senate Democrats demanded a new, experienced person to lead the nation’s spy agencies, but when given the chance, they rejected President Donald Trump’s latest pick. Still, their resistance was not enough to stop Republicans from confirming Jay Clayton to be the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to replace former DNI Tulsi Gabbard. Clayton, who was tapped to be the top prosecutor in Manhattan last year, was confirmed on a party line vote Tuesday. He will replace acting DNI and Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, whose interim appointment prompted Senate Democrats to demand an immediate, permanent replacement over fears that Pulte would weaponize the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies or try to dismantle them. SENATE CLEARS WAY FOR TRUMP’S TOP SPY AS KEY ANTI-TERROR PROGRAM REMAINS IN LIMBO Clayton’s confirmation was thought to be a means to an end for the ongoing standoff over Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a tool that has been used to thwart several terror plots, including a planned mass-casualty event at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austria. However, they changed their tune when it came time to vote, and after a contentious confirmation hearing where only Republicans voted to send him to the Senate floor. “As Senate Republicans move to once again confirm an inexperienced and unqualified nominee to a position of massive national security consequence for years to come, one thing remains clear — this type of politicized leadership will only make Americans less safe,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a statement. Boiled down, the Section 702 program allows the U.S. government to collect intelligence on foreigners abroad who are using U.S. communication systems, and it serves as a major part of Trump’s daily intelligence briefing. LAWMAKERS SCRAMBLE AFTER TRUMP DERAILS BID TO REVIVE KEY COUNTERTERRORISM TOOL DAYS AFTER FBI THWARTS UFC PLOT But it also sweeps up communications from Americans who are talking to foreign suspects — a key issue that threatened reauthorization among privacy hawks in both parties well before Pulte’s appointment and Clayton’s subsequent nomination. The program expired, however, last month in response to Pulte’s appointment, despite warnings from Republicans that allowing Section 702 to go dark could have dire national security consequences. And Clayton’s confirmation, for now, does not appear to be breaking through the partisan logjam. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Digital that the pressure wasn’t on to reauthorize FISA. “Democrats have refused to pass a bipartisan FISA bill until a new DNI is confirmed,” a spokesperson for Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told Fox News Digital. “Now that Jay Clayton is confirmed, it’s time for them to stop playing politics with national security and put up the votes to give our intelligence community the tools it needs to keep this country safe.” TRUMP’S DNI PICK CLEARS KEY HURDLE, REVIVING PATH FOR NATION’S TOP ANTI-TERROR SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM “You know … we don’t have the immediate time pressure because the communication providers are still cooperating,” Warner said. Before the deadline to reauthorize, lawmakers had differing trains of thought on what would exactly happen should it go completely dark. Some argued that it would slowly draw down, given that FISA courts had already authorized continued intelligence gathering until 2027. Others worried that telecommunications giants, like Google, would ignore agreements without explicit authorization from Congress. But, as Warner noted, the latter isn’t happening. Still, it leaves Clayton and the intelligence community on a murky path forward in the months ahead. And there’s not much time left on the Senate’s calendar to tackle the issue. The upper chamber is slated to leave Washington after the first week of August, and won’t return until early September. From there, keeping the government open will be a top priority for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Polls close in Georgia as voters decide successor in special election
The polls have closed in Georgia as two races in politically disparate parts of the country set the stage for one of the most unusual split-screen election days of the year on Tuesday. Rep. David Scott’s death in April at age 80 created a vacancy in a heavily blue district encompassing the southern and eastern Atlanta suburbs of Stockbridge, Conyers and Snellville. With the general election ballot already decided, Tuesday’s contest will determine who will finish out Scott’s term. Scott was notably related by marriage to Braves slugger Hank Aaron. Across the country in South Dakota, Republicans vying for the Mount Rushmore State’s safely red governor’s seat have created the state’s first gubernatorial runoff between incumbent Gov. Larry Rhoden and self-made millionaire bitcoin investor Toby Doeden. TRUMP’S GOP CLOUT FACES ARIZONA TEST WITH HOUSE MAJORITY, GOVERNOR’S RACE AT STAKE Rhoden originally took the reins in Pierre after President Donald Trump chose former Gov. Kristi Noem to be Homeland Security secretary in his second term. He was unable to garner enough support in the June primary to secure the nomination outright in his first statewide election as governor. South Dakota’s runoff is expected to be a classic establishment-versus-outsider race, with Rhoden heavily favored in the polls but Doeden hoping for a Sioux Falls-fueled upset. Minnehaha County, home to Sioux Falls, is a key county to watch Tuesday after helping propel Doeden to a first-place finish in the June primary. WATCH: LAWMAKERS REVEAL WHERE THEY STAND ON CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS AFTER RECENT HEALTH SCARES Pennington County, on the state’s western side, will also be closely watched after contributing to Doeden’s top finish in June. In contrast to what is expected in Scott’s district in November, Republicans are heavily favored because South Dakota has not elected a Democratic governor since the 1970s. Then-Gov. Richard Kneip served nearly two terms before President Jimmy Carter nominated him as ambassador to Singapore. Gov. Harvey Wollman completed the final six months of Kneip’s term, and is the state’s last Democrat to hold the office. EX-NFL LINEBACKER POISED TO RETURN TO CONGRESS AFTER TEXAS RUNOFF WIN WITH JASMINE CROCKETT ENDORSEMENT Shifting back to the Deep South, Georgia Democrats are expected to hold Scott’s seat in the fall by a wide margin. Efforts to replace Scott grew in recent months, particularly among the party’s progressive wing, as the 12-term, often-combative lawmaker drew increasing frustration from Democrats. FROM LOCKER ROOMS TO CONGRESS, JAY FEELY THE LATEST ATHLETE SEEKING TO TAKE LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP TO CAPITOL HILL Last year, Scott made waves in Washington media when he shouted expletives at a Politico photographer as he was wheeled through the Capitol by staff. “Who gave you the right to take my picture, a–hole,” Scott shouted at photographer Francis Chung in late 2025. That demeanor was similar to what led Everton Blair to launch his primary bid against Scott, in what his campaign page calls a “voice for a new generation.” Blair previously told Fox News Digital it was a run-in with Scott at a Gwinnett County town hall, where the lawmaker gave insufficient answers to questions and then reportedly became confrontational, that led him to explore a bid. Blair had said he would “love to just hear a little bit more of the congressional and legislative strategy, congressman, that you have for this administration, particularly as it pertains to safeguarding federal funds,” according to Semafor, when Scott replied “hold on,” before becoming agitated: “I don’t know who sent y’all, but we got these folks here who are providing answers. And I’m doing this. That’s what I’m doing,” Scott said, according to the outlet. Blair responded by launching a primary bid, while remarking to Fox News Digital at the time that two other elderly Democratic members had recently died in office “at a time when every vote counts.” The wave of millennial candidates seeking to replace aging Democrats was at the time dubbed the “Biden effect” — Democratic lawmakers retiring or facing potential primary challenges following the octogenarian Delawarean’s disastrous debate performance, which led to his decision to step aside for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER “Change can’t wait, and Democrats need a new bench of leaders who are committed to solving real problems for working people,” Blair said in a previous press release. Meanwhile, Scott’s daughter is hoping to replace her late father in Congress, remarking that she wants to continue his legacy. “That is my thing, is to finish out his year strongly, make sure that this money gets down to the district, and just make sure the 13th district is taken care of, constituency-wise, and making sure the projects go into finalization,” she told the Georgia Recorder, while adding she would retain her father’s staff locally and at the Capitol for added stability. “[W]hen he first got into politics, I wasn’t even born, so I ran for some type of office or campaign every two years of my life, so this is just my norm, I’m just picking up where we left off with him,” she told the outlet. A third candidate, former Mississippi judge Carlos Moore, also criticized Rep. Scott’s tenure, telling the Mississippi Free Press he wants to be a “leader who actually shows up.” Moore had been suspended from the bench for one year in 2024 after a bar tribunal found he mishandled a wrongful death settlement, according to the outlet. When asked by the press about the infraction, he pointed to Trump’s 34-count indictment in New York. He also pledged, if elected, to be a leader who understands “how to defend our democracy and Constitution” from the president. The winner of Tuesday’s special elections will serve only until January. Georgia state Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Tucker, won the Democratic nomination for the full term earlier this year and is heavily favored against Republican Air Force veteran Jonathan Chavez in November. Trump lost the district by about 43 points in 2024.
Experts scorch Mamdani’s grocery plan as an ‘illusion’ that will have taxpayers footing the bill
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is promising New Yorkers a 30% discount on a core basket of groceries at city-backed stores, a pledge that now faces scrutiny over whether the numbers add up. The announcement raises a straightforward economic question: How? The city’s own numbers illustrate the challenge. If grocery prices have climbed 33% nationwide since 2019, how can city-backed stores offer a cart of groceries at prices 30% below private competitors? That’s the question economists say the proposal must answer. MAMDANI’S PUBLIC GROCERY STORES MAY HAVE DEVASTATING EFFECTS ON CITY’S FOOD SUPPLY Mamdani’s administration claims its plan will save the average New Yorker about $1,000 a year while keeping grocery costs predictable and stable. The proposal is rooted in a simple reality: grocery prices remain significantly higher than they were before the pandemic. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show food-at-home prices climbed sharply following the COVID-19 pandemic, with most major grocery categories remaining significantly more expensive than they were in 2019. City Hall says it can achieve savings by eliminating major overhead costs that private grocers face, including rent and property taxes, while contracting with private operators to run the stores. Under the proposal, a core basket of everyday groceries — including all fresh produce, meat and seafood, along with roughly 20 categories of pantry staples, dairy and refrigerated goods — would have prices locked monthly rather than fluctuating week to week. Richard Stern, vice president of the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom, argued the proposal ultimately relies on taxpayer dollars to make up the difference between the discounted prices and the cost of operating the stores. “They’re just going to use New York City budget money to insure the discount,” Stern told Fox News Digital. MAMDANI’S RENT FREEZE, TAX HIKES A ‘ONE-TWO WEALTH DESTRUCTION PUNCH,’ ECONOMISTS WARN Adam Lehodey, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, took that argument a step further, saying the city’s ownership model masks the true cost of the discounts. “The 30% savings that Mamdani announced on his government-owned stores are an illusion,” Lehodey told Fox News Digital. “Taxpayers will foot the bill for millions of dollars in subsidies, and they will operate on government-owned land with rents waived. New Yorkers will still be paying the full price, just indirectly,” he added. Lehodey also warned that pricing groceries well below market rates could create unintended consequences. “Pricing goods significantly below market price creates an additional problem of people purchasing them to resell elsewhere,” he said. “Shortages are also likely as people buy more than they otherwise would due to artificially low prices.” ‘WASTEFUL DISTRACTION’: EXPERTS SLAM MAMDANI’S TAXPAYER-FUNDED GROCERY STORES E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, also questioned whether the city’s pricing model is financially sustainable, arguing that grocery stores already operate on razor-thin profit margins. “A 30% discount at stores with a 2% profit margin is simply a loss for taxpayers who will have to make up the difference,” Antoni told Fox News Digital. “These artificially low prices will also harm small businesses which will lose sales to taxpayer-subsidized grocery stores.” Antoni said the proposal effectively shifts grocery costs from the checkout line to taxpayers while creating a competitive disadvantage for private supermarkets that must cover their own operating costs. The administration, however, says the proposal will deliver substantial savings for shoppers. Mamdani’s office announced this week that visitors would save an average of $90 per month, or about $1,000 annually, under the plan. To deliver those savings, the city has allocated $70 million in capital funding to open five municipal grocery stores — one in each of the iconic NYC boroughs. The first is expected to open in Hunts Point in the Bronx by the end of 2027, with additional locations planned for East Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island before the end of the mayor’s first term. Under the proposal, private grocery operators will manage the stores’ day-to-day operations, including staffing, merchandising and product sourcing, while the city sets pricing requirements and operating standards, provides the locations and absorbs major occupancy costs. Fox News Digital asked Mamdani’s office how the administration calculated the projected 30% discount, whether any independent economists reviewed its financial assumptions and how much ongoing taxpayer support, if any, would be required to sustain the stores. The office did not immediately respond.