Missouri judge to decide if voters can be required to show photo ID to cast ballots in 2024 election
A Missouri judge is expected to decide this week if voters in the state will be required to present photo identification in order to cast their ballots in upcoming 2024 elections. In October 2022, Cole County Presiding Judge Jon Beetem had already rejected a lawsuit brought by the Missouri League of Women Voters, NAACP and two voters challenging a law passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature making it mandatory that voters show photo identification to cast a regular ballot. Under the 2022 law, people within a valid government-issued photo ID are still able to submit provisional ballots, which will be counted if they return later that day with a photo ID or if election officials verify their signatures. However, a third voter has since joined the lawsuit, and Beetem is presiding over a trial on the matter that began last week and is expected to continue until Wednesday. Last year, Beetem ruled that neither of the first two voters “alleged a specific, concrete, non-speculative injury or legally protectable interest in challenging the photo ID requirement,” FOX 2 St. Louis reported. The new, third plaintiff is John O’Connor, a 90-year-old man from Columbia, Missouri, with poor vision and trouble walking. According to the Missouri ACLU and Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, which added O’Conner to the litigation against the state, the elderly resident had an expired passport and driver’s license when the law took effect last year. The lawsuit says O’Conner, who was born in New York and had trouble locating his birth certificate, later secured a non-driver’s license with his wife’s help. However, that was only because officials accepted his expired driver’s license, going against guidance from the state Revenue Department that long-expired licenses are not permissable records to use when seeking new IDs, according to ABC News. MISSOURI’S VOTER ID LAW IS BACK IN COURT. HERE’S A LOOK AT WHAT IT DOES Republican Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office is defending the law at trial. “I will always fight to maintain Missouri’s accessible, secure and creditable elections. Regarding this case – every person has been able to vote – no one has been denied a ballot because they didn’t have an ID,” Ashcroft said in a statement. “As specified in statute, my office will help get an ID for anyone who needs one to vote. Furthermore, if someone does not have an ID on Election Day, if they are registered, they can still vote.” “Missouri has passed voter ID three times to protect our elections and I keep getting sued to stop the law. Today we are back in court defending voter integrity,” Ashcroft added on X Monday. The state legislature previously passed laws in 2006 and again in 2020 to require voters to present photo ID but both those measures were struck down in court. Republicans said the goal of the 2022 law was to deter voter fraud, but the plaintiffs in the case argue the legislation places unconstitutional hurdles on voting, suppressing turnout. During opening arguments Friday, Assistant Attorney General Peter Donohue defended the 2022 legislation as a “common-sense law designed to uphold that sacred right” to vote. Claiming the burdens are minimal and that the benefits are substantial, he added that Missouri will issue an identification card for a voter who needs one at no cost and help them obtain the documents. WIDESPREAD SUPPORT FOR VOTER ID AND MAKING EARLY VOTING EASIER: NATIONAL POLL “Protecting the integrity of elections is absolutely a compelling governmental interest,” Donohue said. Rutgers University political science professor Lorraine Minnite testified Monday that she concluded “instances of voter fraud nationally and in Missouri is exceedingly rare.” Another expert witness for the Missouri NAACP and the League of Women Voters, Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist from the University of Wisconsin, testified that about 175,000 votes cast in St. Louis County – or 8.4% of the total – between 2018 and 2022 were cast by people who did not have a Missouri-issued driver’s license, nondriver identification or a federally issued ID with their birth date, The Missouri Independent reported. Those figures were slightly higher in Jackson County, Mayer said, and nearly double in Boone County. Denise Lieberman, director of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, told FOX 2 that more than 137,000 valid Missouri registered voters do not have any Missouri ID on file with the Missouri Department of Revenue. Additionally, an additional 140,000 have an expired form of ID that would not be eligible to allow them to vote, she said. Before the 2022 midterm elections, it was acceptable for Missourians to present a voter registration card, a student identification card, a bank statement or utility bill or a valid out-of-state driver’s license to cast their ballots in the state. Mayer testified that overall turnout for 2022 was about 20% lower than the presidential year of 2020, but the number of provisional ballots cast was four times higher. “Voters frequently misunderstand the kind of ID that is required,” he claimed.
Ford dramatically scales back EV plant amid plummeting sales in blow to Biden’s green energy goals
U.S. automaker Ford Motor Company is dramatically scaling back an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant under construction in Michigan as its EV business continues to lose billions of dollars. In an announcement Tuesday, Ford said it would resume the Marshall, Michigan, project, but reduce its scope by more than 40% and the number of jobs it is projected to create by more than 30%. Ford, which has struggled to make a profit from its ongoing shift to EVs as sales decline and costs soar, added that it remained confident in the future viability of its EV business. “While we remain bullish on our long-term strategy for electric vehicles, we are re-timing and resizing some investments,” Ford said in a statement Tuesday. “As stated previously, we have been evaluating BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall.” “We are pleased to confirm we are moving ahead with the Marshall project, consistent with the Ford+ plan for growth and value creation,” it continued. “However, we are right-sizing as we balance investment, growth, and profitability. The facility will now create more than 1,700 good-paying American jobs to produce a planned capacity of approximately 20 GWh.” NEW REPORT UNMASKS TRUE COSTS OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE MANDATES: ‘REMAIN MORE EXPENSIVE’ The automaker added that the facility is still expected to be Ford’s first battery plant of its kind to enter operations when it is scheduled to open in 2026. The plant will, once it is operational, manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries common in EVs. Ford’s decision to decrease the size of the factory comes less than a year after it first announced the project alongside Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Ford pledged in February to invest $3.5 billion in the factory, create 2,500 “good-paying jobs” and have a gigawatt capacity of 35 gigawatt hours. BEIJING-BACKED GREEN ENERGY FIRM IS EXPANDING IN US, POSING SERIOUS NATIONAL SECURITY RISK: REPORT “Today’s generational investment by an iconic American company will uplift local families, small businesses, and the entire community and help our state continue leading the future of mobility and electrification,” Whitmer said at the time. “Let’s continue bringing the supply chain of electric vehicles, chips and batteries home while creating thousands of good-paying jobs and revitalizing every region of our state.” The Whitmer administration also agreed to help fund the project with nearly $2 billion in direct subsidies and tax breaks. It is unclear if the state will lower its subsidy levels for the project in light of Tuesday’s announcement. Whitmer’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. “The bad deal the governor and Democrats negotiated for Michigan taxpayers just got a whole lot worse,” Michigan state House Republican Leader Matt Hall said in a statement. “Even with Democrats’ premature push for electric vehicles and $1.8 billion in state incentives, Ford is cutting back the project and slashing job creation because most people just won’t buy unaffordable, inconvenient EVs.” “Gov. Whitmer was desperate to land a Ford plant after losing out to more economically competitive states, so she rammed through an expensive deal to get a handful of low-wage jobs,” he added. “This deal was a disaster from the start, and now Ford is cutting job plans by 32%. If the original proposal misrepresented Ford’s plans, the hundreds of millions of dollars tied to job creation should be revoked under the contract. The governor must right-size state funding and ensure taxpayers aren’t left on the hook for her failure.” HOUSE CCP PANEL PROBES BIDEN ADMIN OVER CHINESE GREEN ENERGY PROJECT ON US SOIL Ford projected earlier this year that its EV division was projected to lose a staggering $4.5 billion in 2023 alone despite higher revenues. And last month, the company reported a loss of $1.3 billion in its EV division during the third quarter, the period between July and September, which amounts to a $62,016 loss per EV sold in that time span. The company’s announcement Tuesday further represents a blow to President Biden’s green energy agenda, which includes policies to promote the rapid growth of the EV industry. Biden has set the goal of ensuring half of all U.S. car purchases are zero-carbon by 2030 and his administration has taken action restricting future gas-powered vehicle sales. And Ford has also received widespread criticism and congressional scrutiny over its Marshall battery factory. Ford said when it unveiled the project in February that it had reached an agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a Ningde, China-based firm, to manufacture its battery cells at the plant using services provided by the Chinese company. Republicans and national security experts have blasted the company for teaming up with CATL, citing the firm’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party. CCP-TIED ELECTRIC VEHICLE COMPANY AWARDED MORE THAN $500 MILLION IN TAXPAYER MONEY FOR SECOND US PLANT Although it is not state-owned, Chinese investors tied to the CCP have held financial stakes in CATL, according to a New York Times review. The Chinese government has also taken strategic steps over the last decade to bolster CATL and other electric vehicle industry companies based in China. In addition, Zeng Yuqun, who founded CATL in 2012 and remains its top executive, was identified last year as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee. According to a U.S. government report published in 2018, the CPPCC is a “critical coordinating body” that brings together representatives of Chinese interest groups and is led by the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee. The CPPCC highlighted Yuqun’s work with CATL fortifying China’s lithium supply chains, which are crucial for electric vehicle production and other green energy development. In September, a group of House Republicans – led by Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith, R-Va. – wrote to Ford CEO Jim Farley, expressing concern over the proposed plant. “While Ford has labeled this project a ‘commitment to American manufacturing’ and asserts it will create 2,500 new American jobs, we are concerned that Ford’s partnership with a Chinese company
Maryland hate crime task force member claimed babies murdered by Hamas were ‘fake,’ compared Israel to Nazis
A member of a Maryland task force aimed at combating hate crimes published numerous antisemitic social media posts, including claiming that the babies brutally murdered in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack were “fake,” and comparing the nation of Israel to Nazi Germany. Zainab Chaudry, an anti-Israel activist who serves as the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Maryland office, made the posts in the weeks following Hamas’ attack, which saw more than 1,200 people killed, including children and babies, as well as numerous rapes and destruction of property. “I will never be able to understand how the world summoned up rage for 40 fake Israeli babies while completely turning a blind eye to 3,000 real Palestinian babies,” Chaudry wrote in a Facebook post dated Oct. 26. WATCH: WHITE HOUSE ISSUES BRUTAL RESPONSE TO BIDEN’S ‘INAPPROPRIATE’ NICKNAME GIVEN BY ANTI-ISRAEL CRITICS “[T]hat moment when you become what you hated most,” Chaudry wrote in an Oct. 17 post, including two photos of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, one showing it lit up with the Israeli flag in solidarity with Israel following the attack, and another from a ceremony in 1936 when it was decorated with the flag of Nazi Germany during the Olympics that year. In another post from Nov. 6, Chaudry appeared to suggest the mere existence of Israel as a nation was the cause of the ongoing war, writing it was an “inconvenient fact.” She included an image of the words “it all started in 1948,” the year Israel was founded as a nation. Others from the weeks following the attack showed Chaudry sharing a quote celebrating “martyred Palestinians,” and a post citing what appeared to be an Islamic prophesy that said “garrisons who defend the lands of Islam will be in Ashkelon,” an Israeli city north of the Gaza Strip. DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAVE NOT CONDEMNED VIOLENT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST TARGETING OWN PARTY HQ Despite the posts, Chaudry has maintained her place on the Maryland Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention, a position for which she was nominated by Democrat Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown in August. The commission’s goal, according to Brown’s office, is to address hate crime incidents across Maryland, and to “communicate and promote understanding of diverse perspectives in a positive and meaningful way.” Brown’s spokesperson, Jennifer Donelan, told Fox News Digital that “the views and opinions of any individual Commission member do not reflect those of either the Maryland Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention or the Attorney General.” BIDEN’S APPROVAL RATING SINKS OVER ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR; SUPPORT FOR TRUMP IN 2024 RISES: POLL “We understand that there are many viewpoints regarding current events in the Middle East. The Commission will do its best to explore the impact of those events on our community, and to determine how best to address escalations in hate and bias incidents across the state,” she said, explaining that the Commission would “develop policies and protocols governing its work” and how its members engage on the issues. “Just as we urge others to do, the Commission will identify ways in which we can foster productive and empathetic dialogue amongst ourselves that leads to mutual understanding. We, like the rest of the world, must first talk to one another and, most importantly, listen to one another as we work toward the goals of peace and tolerance,” she added. When reached for comment, Chaudry told Fox News Digital that the “Nazi post” was originally shared “by a close Jewish friend,” before going on to accuse the Israeli government of wanting to commit genocide against Palestinians. NYU CANCER DOCTOR SUES HOSPITAL, SCHOOL OVER PRO-ISRAEL POSTS, SAYS HE’S A ‘SACRIFICIAL LAMB’ “The Israeli prime minister has analogized the bombing of Gaza to an ancient biblical story about the total genocide of a city, [and] declared that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, the Israel defense minister has justified starving Palestinian civilians by calling them ‘human animals,’ the Israeli military spokesman has said that the aim of their bombing campaign is destruction rather than accuracy. Multiple Israeli ministers have called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, with one even calling the ongoing war a ‘Nakba 2023,’” she said. “I strongly and unapologetically condemn Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right, racist government for repeatedly making such genocidal threats towards the Palestinian people and killing over 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children murdered in their homes. Unlike many of the Israeli government’s most extreme supporters, I recognize that killing any civilians is wrong, which is why my office has repeatedly condemned the killing of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians,” she said. “There is no conflict between condemning the Israeli government’s genocidal war crimes overseas and standing up against all forms of hate here at home, including antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism. False smears from anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim extremists will not stop me from standing up for justice here and abroad,” she added. Fox News Digital has reached out to CAIR for comment.
Internal Senate memo highlights Biden admin efforts to tie highway funding to woke priorities
FIRST ON FOX: An internal memorandum circulated among lawmakers by Senate Commerce Committee Republicans highlights how the Biden administration is tying billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to “woke initiatives.” The memo, first obtained by Fox News Digital, was sent late Monday evening and spearheaded by Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is planning to author legislation that would prohibit the Department of Transportation (DOT) from tying federal funds to left-wing priorities. It particularly targets DOT’s management of three grant programs that serve as key vehicles to fund various types of surface transportation projects nationwide. “Billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars meant for infrastructure projects are tied to woke initiatives that are more focused on dismantling America’s infrastructure in the name of ‘equity’ and ‘climate change’ than building roads, bridges, and highways to connect the country,” the memo states. “Congress must not allow the Department of Transportation to push the absurd concept of ‘racist roads’ to prevent Americans from getting much-needed improvements to their highways,” it continued. “The funding notices issued by DOT should focus on the law as written, not woke priorities.” PETE BUTTIGIEG’S OFFICE STONEWALLS TAXPAYER COSTS OF SWING STATE TOUR ON GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE JET In June, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that his agency had started accepting applications for the National Infrastructure Project Assistance, Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA), and Rural Surface Transportation Grant programs. The three programs received a collective $5.6 billion boost, most of which supports INFRA, under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. Buttigieg said the grants eventually awarded under the programs would support “transformational infrastructure projects across the nation.” But the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) the DOT issued as part of its grant awarding process states recipients must broadly address equity and climate concerns. INTERNAL EMAILS SHOW BIDEN ADMIN OFFICIALS COORDINATING ON SHIELDING PETE BUTTIGIEG’S GOVT JET USE “Projects that have not sufficiently considered equity and barriers to opportunity in their planning, as determined by the Department, will be required to do so before receiving funds for construction,” the DOT’s NOFO states. “Projects that have not sufficiently considered climate change and environmental justice in their planning, as determined by the Department, will be required to do so before receiving funds for construction,” the document adds. The two funding conditions cite President Biden’s day-one executive order titled “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” Following Buttigieg’s announcement, Cruz wrote in July to the Government Accountability Office, asking for confirmation that the NOFO is a rule and, therefore, is subject to Congressional Review Act (CRA), a law dating back nearly three decades that allows Congress to revoke federal regulations. The federal watchdog responded last month, saying it was, in fact, subject to the law. According to the memo circulated Monday, Cruz will soon introduce a CRA resolution “challenging ‘woke’ anti-highway policy in DOT grants.” The resolution would additionally target other DOT policies such as framing road building as increasing “automobile dependence,” and condemning highway expansion projects that don’t involve electric vehicle charging stations or bike lanes. BIDEN OFFICIAL DOGGED BY ETHICS PROBE FACES KEY SENATE VOTE OVER TAXPAYER-FUNDED SALARY: ‘SERIOUS SCANDAL’ “Taken together, these additions, which severely deviate from the criteria in law, will favor states seeking to expand mass transit and bike paths over states wanting to build roads. The added requirements on grant agreements, which are necessary for money to be paid after awards are announced, are particularly pernicious,” the memo adds. “The DOT funding notice guarantees that applicants will not get construction funds unless they embrace the administration’s extreme views on climate and equity,” it states, calling for Congress to support Cruz’s forthcoming resolution that opposes the Biden administration’s “anti-highway agenda.” For years, left-wing groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and activists have argued U.S. cities historically used highway infrastructure to further racist discrimination. Buttigieg has sought to reverse past racist policies that led to certain infrastructure decisions. “There is racism physically built into some of our highways, and that’s why the jobs plan has specifically committed to reconnect some of the communities that were divided by these dollars,” Buttigieg said in an interview with theGrio in 2021. In June 2022, Buttigieg launched the $1 billion Reconnecting Communities program that aims to reverse infrastructure policies that divide communities and disconnect certain neighborhoods from economic opportunities. “Transportation can connect us to jobs, services and loved ones, but we‘ve also seen countless cases around the country where a piece of infrastructure cuts off a neighborhood or a community because of how it was built,” Buttigieg said at the time. “But we can’t ignore the basic truth that some of the planners and politicians behind those projects built them directly through the heart of vibrant, populated, communities — sometimes in an effort to reinforce segregation,” he said. “Sometimes because the people there had less power to resist. And sometimes as part of a direct effort to replace or eliminate Black neighborhoods.” The DOT didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Role abortion rights played on Election Day: Underestimated by GOP or overstated by Democrats?
For Republicans, this month’s off-year elections were anything but a success. The results in gubernatorial and legislative showdowns as well as in some high-profile referendums gave Democrats a big shot of adrenalin while potentially serving as a warning sign for the GOP looking ahead to the 2024 elections for president and control of Congress. Apparently hurting Republicans for a second straight year at the ballot box was the combustible issue of legalized abortion. TOP TAKEAWAYS FROM 2023 ELECTIONS “We do have to talk about abortion,” Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has been saying since the election results this month. McDaniel said GOP candidates “are not responding to the lies of the Democrats on abortion. We have to come out and very vocally say where we stand.” The month’s election results were the latest in a slew of statewide victories for abortion rights since the blockbuster move last year by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the landmark, nearly half-century-old Roe v. Wade ruling, which had allowed for legalized abortions nationwide. AS TRUMP PICKS UP PACE IN IOWA, WILL HE FACE BLOWBACK OVER HIS ABORTION COMMENTS? The decision moved the divisive issue back to the states. And it’s forced Republicans to play plenty of defense in elections across the country. A party that’s nearly entirely “pro-life” has had to deal with an electorate in which a majority of Americans support at least some form of abortion access. Democrats made abortion a major part of their messaging in Kentucky’s gubernatorial showdown, in Virginia’s legislative contests, in a state Supreme Court race in battleground Pennsylvania, and in an Ohio referendum on codifying abortion rights. And Democrats chalked up wins in all of those states. But veteran Republican strategist and Fox News contributor Karl Rove, who masterminded former President George W. Bush’s two White House victories and served as his top White House political adviser, says the effect of abortion on this month’s elections is overblown. HALEY SEARCHES FOR COMMON GROUND ON COMBUSTIBLE ISSUE OF ABORTION “Abortion might have helped Democrats sometimes, but the issue is hardly a silver bullet,” Rove wrote last week in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. And taking aim at the political weaknesses of President Biden, Rove said that “as Virginia showed, as long as Mr. Biden is the face of the party, pro-life candidates can make gains on Democratic turf if they frame the abortion issue with care.” But Democrats see the issue of abortion as a continued “mobilizing” factor to energize their base and attract crucial swing or moderate voters going forward. Veteran strategist and Democratic National Committee member Maria Cardona pointed to last year’s midterms, in which the Democrats overperformed, and told Fox News that the 2023 results “were similar to what happened in 2022 when everybody was predicting a red wave.” Looking ahead to next year’s contests, Cardona predicted that abortion “is going to continue to be an incredibly mobilizing issue.” Longtime GOP strategist David Kochel noted that abortion remains “a terrible problem” for Republicans. “They’re out of step with where the country is” on the issue, he said. Kochel, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns in Iowa, acknowledged that Republicans are “not going to win on abortion” and urged GOP candidates to “fight where they can win – on the economy, foreign policy, competence.” McDaniel, talking to Fox News Digital and other news organizations the night after this month’s elections, said Republicans need to more forcefully push back on Democrat attacks over where they stand on abortion. “If a lie is up against you with $30 million behind it, and you do not respond, that lie becomes the truth, and that’s the Democrats’ playbook, and our candidates have to respond on TV,” she said. “As a suburban woman who’s heading the party, we have to talk about abortion,” McDaniel added. “If we do not get up on TV and define ourselves on this issue and allow the Democrats to do it for us, it’s a losing strategy.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
GOP lawmaker highlights lingering divides: ‘It’s the conference against the conference’
A freshman member of the House Freedom Caucus is calling for a sit-down between GOP hardliners and Republican lawmakers who are leading talks on government spending. It comes after some of those same hardliners banded together to tank a procedural vote on the spending bill dealing with the Departments of Justice and Commerce last week. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said the discord was not a conventional back-and-forth between leadership and rebels, but rather two starkly divided groups of House Republicans. “What I think is the real fight, is not between the conference and [Speaker] Mike Johnson. It’s the conference against the conference,” Burlison, who did not vote to sink the bill but voted against the House GOP’s government funding extension last week, told Fox News Digital on Friday. JOHNSON’S FIRST WEEKS AS SPEAKER MARKED BY GOP INFIGHTING — AND SOME VICTORIES “There is a vast chasm between the mentality of many of the appropriators, who seem to have no appetite for making significant cuts, and folks like us in the Freedom Caucus.” Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee are tasked with cobbling together the 12 spending bills needed to fund the federal government in the next fiscal year. HOUSE PASSES BILL TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, SPEAKER JOHNSON NOTCHES FIRST BIG LEGISLATIVE WIN GOP hardliners like Burlison have accused those Republicans in charge of spending of trying to exceed the topline numbers set by House Republicans’ Limit, Save, Grow Act. Conservatives have called for the House to adhere to those numbers despite that bill being dead on arrival in the Senate. Instead, the Senate is writing its appropriations to the topline in President Biden and ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt limit deal, the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). There’s roughly a $120 billion difference between the two maximum levels. “Whether they just don’t recognize the serious financial burdens that we’re at, or they just don’t want to take the responsibility of being the bad guy and making the cuts to their own appropriations, I don’t know what it is, but something has to change,” Burlison said of appropriators. SPEAKER JOHNSON ROLLS OUT PLAN TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, PREVENT ‘SPENDING MONSTROSITY’ “After McCarthy was vacated, the appropriators decided on their own, that they were going to appropriate to FRA levels. Without anyone in conference having a discussion about it, the appropriators went rogue… that’s what’s angering a lot of people, a lot of conservatives, is the lack of respect to the rest of the conference.” Burlison called for a meeting between the Republican appropriators and the Freedom Caucus, a request he said had not yet been honored. Fox News Digital reached out to the House Appropriations Committee but did not immediately hear back. Tensions between the House lawmakers in charge of government funding and the GOP’s right flank have grown steadily during the federal spending fight. That tension flared just last month during the race for House speaker, when a significant number of Republicans on the Appropriations Committee became one of the staunchest blocs of opposition against then-candidate Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
GOP lawmaker to introduce bill to prevent International Monetary Fund from giving cash to adversaries
A Florida Republican lawmaker is introducing a bill to bring congressional authority over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and prevent the body from giving cash to American adversaries. Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Fla., is expected to introduce the IMF Accountability Act on Tuesday, which aims to give Congress more authority over how the body allocates special drawing rights (SDRs) and lends money. The bill would “prohibit representatives of the United States from voting at the International Monetary Fund for any Special Drawing Rights allocations, quota increases, or policy modifications that would benefit certain countries, and for other purposes.” Franklin’s bill aims to prevent the IMF from giving funds to American adversaries like China, Iran, North Korea, and others. XI TELLS BIDEN TAIWAN IS ‘MOST POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS ISSUE’ BETWEEN US, CHINA “You don’t give taxpayer dollars to your enemies – that’s just commonsense,” Franklin said. “Unfortunately, the Biden Administration has allowed the transfer of billions of dollars from the IMF, funded in large part by the U.S., to our adversaries like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.” “These funds are used to help them meet their political goals and strengthen their economies,” Franklin said. “This projects weakness on the world stage and should never be allowed to happen. Our bill will strengthen Congressional oversight over these decisions and prevents American taxpayer dollars from ending up in the hands of the world’s worst actors.” Several Republican lawmakers are co-sponsoring Franklin’s bill, including fellow Florida GOP Rep. Gus Billirakis. “The Biden Administration’s appeasement approach when dealing with our adversaries on the international stage has been a complete and utter failure that has only emboldened these rogue regimes,” Billirakis told Fox News Digital. “We must regain our position of strength by embracing an America-first approach that draws a line in the sand and clearly prohibits the Biden Administration from further rewarding these bad actors who seek to do us harm and cause global instability.” Fellow co-sponsor Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, said he “fully supports the IMF Accountability Act, a critical measure to ensure U.S. resources are not aiding adversaries.” “This bill rightly returns oversight to Congress, safeguarding our nation’s investments from supporting regimes that oppose our values and threaten global stability,” Gooden continued. Fellow Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott is leading the Senate companion bill, joined by Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. “Hostile actors and rogue regimes use IMF Special Drawing Rights to bolster their economies and reserves. This ability directly undermines American efforts to hold such regimes accountable through sanctions, and therefore the safety and security of Americans,” Cruz said. “It is long past time for the United States to counter these tactics.” “As Iran-backed Hamas holds hundreds of hostages in Gaza, including Americans, and continues attacks against Israel, the United States must act,” added Scott. “We must send a clear message to these terror sponsors and evil regimes across the world: the free ride is over, you are cut off. My bill, the IMF Accountability Act, will prohibit U.S. representatives to the IMF from supporting the world’s tyrannical regimes and benefiting from the economic strength of America and our partners and allies.” “I thank Congressman Franklin for leading the charge in the House and urge the Senate to immediately pass this crucial and timely legislation,” he added. SDRs were created by the IMF to bolster member countries’ official reserves and are distributed based on the country’s individual IMF quota. Member countries who receive SDRs can exchange them for U.S. dollars or other member countries’ currencies. The U.S. is a major backer to the IMF. “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) works to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 190 member countries,” the IMF website reads. “It does so by supporting economic policies that promote financial stability and monetary cooperation, which are essential to increase productivity, job creation, and economic well-being. The IMF is governed by and accountable to its member countries.” “The IMF has three critical missions: furthering international monetary cooperation, encouraging the expansion of trade and economic growth, and discouraging policies that would harm prosperity,” it continues. “To fulfill these missions, IMF member countries work collaboratively with each other and with other international bodies.” Fox News Digital reached out to the IMF and the White House for comment.
The Divide: How a protest over Israel exposed a serious rift in the Democratic Party
There was chatter among Congressional reporters about wandering over to The Monocle for a drink last Wednesday night. The Monocle is an old-school Capitol Hill watering hole located next to U.S. Capitol Police Headquarters and across the parking lot from the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Senators sometimes hang out there while they wait for the body to get its business together for late night votes. It was pushing 9 p.m. last Wednesday and the Senate was mired in a vote which began at 2:26 p.m. Senators struggled to work out a deal to finish up its work before Thanksgiving. The only reason reporters still lingered at the Capitol at that hour was because the Senate was slated to vote later to align with the House and avert a government shutdown. There would have been drama surrounding a potential government funding cliff just a few days earlier. But not now. The question was not if the Senate would pass the stopgap spending package – but when. And since there wasn’t an agreement over a pending defense policy bill, the Senate forestalled closing the roll call vote until everything was settled. That’s when word came from the Capitol Police that all the office buildings on the House side of the Congressional complex were locked down. No one could come or go. A massive, pro-Palestinian demonstration descended on the Democratic National Committee Headquarters just steps from the House office buildings. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Kathleen Clark, D-Mass., Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., and other Democratic members were at the DNC for an event. Democrats huddled throughout the day at the DNC with campaign operatives and Democratic candidates ahead of the 2024 election cycle. FIVE FOR FIGHTING: WHO ARE THE MEANEST, TOUGHEST AND ROUGHEST ON CAPITOL HILL? The protesters encircled the building, demanding a Middle East ceasefire, blocking anyone from entering or leaving the DNC. The Capitol Police moved in. Jeffries and Clark have USCP security details due to their leadership positions. The protesters fired tear gas at the Capitol Police. The USCP then began clearing the way to evacuate members from the crowd. USCP arrested one man for assaulting officers. The protesters injured a total of six officers. “Last night’s group was not peaceful,” said the USCP in a statement the next day. “When demonstrations cross the line into illegal activity, it is our responsibility to maintain order.” Democrats holed up in the DNC and let loose on the protesters. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who is Jewish, characterized them as “pro-Hamas” and “pro-terrorist.” He added that demonstrators “want Republicans” to win in 2024. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., is also Jewish and was trapped in the DNC as well. GEORGE SANTOS RECEIVES HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE INVESTIGATION REPORT AHEAD OF PUBLIC RELEASE “When you engage in tactics that are intimidating and certainly blocking access or exit from a building, I think that crosses a line,” said Wasserman Schultz. “It was a very troubling, disturbing situation.” “We were rescued by armed officers who did not know the protesters intent,” said Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., on Twitter. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., tweeted that she was stuck in her office in the Longworth House Office Building with her newborn baby during the raucous demonstration. Democrats have a problem. There is a tear in their party over the Middle East. Progressive, left-wing activists – fueled by college campus outrage – are fracturing the party over calls for a ceasefire and Israel’s assertion to defend itself. That’s to say nothing of controversial comments by Squad members like Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for a ceasefire and criticism of pro-Israeli groups like AIPAC (the American Israel Political Action Committee). “I don’t think the Democratic Socialists of America, the Justice Democrats, et cetera, are part of the Democratic coalition,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill. Schneider has long aligned with AIPAC. He voted to sanction Tlaib on the House floor for pushing the trope “from the river to the sea,” which calls for the elimination of Israel. “What we need is people of good conscience and moral clarity to stand united and say Israel was attacked by a terrorist organization seeking to destroy the country,” said Schneider. AIPAC is now prepared to run candidates against Democrats who oppose its goals. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE AS TO WHY TENSIONS ARE RUNNING SO HIGH RIGHT NOW ON CAPITOL HILL Progressive groups warned Jeffries last week that he and Democratic Congressional Committee Chairwoman (DCCC) and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., need to keep AIPAC out of Democratic primaries. Republicans have plenty of schisms on their side – between “Reagan” Republicans, the MAGA crowd, the Freedom Caucus and those who just want to lay a blowtorch to everything. That is radioactive. But the political, radioisotopes over the Middle East cauterize like no other issues. That’s why some on the left now refer to President Biden as “Genocide Joe.” The New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America faced criticism after it included a watermelon on a flyer pushing for a protest of Jeffries. Jeffries is Black. Racists have long used a watermelon to emphasize anti-Black views. The watermelon is also an icon of Palestinians who view Israel as occupiers. A reporter asked Jeffries last week about the accusation by Rep. Summer Lee, D-Penn., that he shared the stage with Pastor John Hageee at a pro-Israel rally on the National Mall. Lee termed Hagee “an antisemitic bigot,” adding “this must be condemned.” Jeffries replied that he appeared on stage at the rally alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. “I have no idea what she’s talking about,” responded Jeffries to Lee’s accusation. Republicans might not face the same internecine sniping as Democrats over the Middle East conflict. The GOP is more unified when it comes to standing behind Israel and approving legislation to assist the Jewish state financially and militarily. But there are Republicans who are tired of
Ohio redistricting overhaul plan once again permitted to gather signatures after second round of approvals
Backers of a proposal to change Ohio’s troubled political mapmaking system will finally be able to start gathering signatures, after clearing a second round of state approvals Monday. Citizens Not Politicians now has until July 3 to collect roughly 414,000 signatures required to put its constitutional amendment before voters in November 2024. Supporters are expected to fan out across the state beginning this week to try to make next fall’s statewide ballot. Their proposal would replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission, made up of three statewide officeholders and four state lawmakers, with an independent body selected directly by citizens. The new panel’s members would be diversified by party affiliation and geography. OHIO VOTERS APPROVE AMENDMENT ENSHRINING ABORTION ACCESS INTO STATE CONSTITUTION The effort has experienced repeated delays. It began with two early rounds of objections to their petition language by Republican Attorney General Dave Yost before wording was initially certified. The Ohio Ballot Board then unanimously cleared the measure in October, only for organizers to discover they had made a single-digit typo in a date. The mistake sent the process back to the drawing board: first, back through Yost’s office; then back through the ballot board, which again OK’d the measure as a single issue Monday. CITIZEN-LED REDISTRICTING INITIATIVE GETS NOD TO GATHER SIGNATURES FOR OHIO BALLOT The campaign said supporters of changing redistricting are eager to get started circulating petitions. Among them is Nadia Zaiem, of the Cleveland suburb of Westlake, who said she’s motivated to see a new way chosen for the drawing of Ohio’s legislative and congressional maps. She said the current system allows politicians of both parties to “ignore the will of their constituents, knowing they will continue to be elected and re-elected, not because they have earned the support of a majority of voters, but because they have rigged the system in their favor.” The effort follows the existing structure’s repeated failure to produce constitutional maps. During the protracted process for redrawing district boundaries to account for results of the 2020 Census, challenges filed in court resulted in two congressional maps and five sets of Statehouse maps being rejected as unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
WATCH: White House issues stern defense of Biden’s ‘stamina’ on 81st birthday amid growing age concerns
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a stern defense of President Biden’s “stamina” on Monday, his 81st birthday, when questioned over the growing concerns surrounding his age. “I would put the president’s stamina, the president’s wisdom, ability to get this done on behalf of the American people against anyone, anyone on any day of the week,” Jean-Pierre told Fox News’ Mark Meredith during the White House press briefing in response to a question about former Obama adviser David Axelrod raising the issue of Biden’s age. Earlier this month, Axelrod suggested it may be “wise” for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race on the heels of a brutal poll that found him losing to former President Donald Trump by up to 10 points in five battleground states. TRUMP MEDICAL REPORT RELEASED AS BIDEN FACES CONCERNS OVER AGE, HEALTH Biden’s “biggest liability” with voters is his age, Axelrod said. While he should be “proud of his accomplishments,” the country had too much at stake to risk losing to Trump in the next election, he argued. Axelrod doubled down on the criticism earlier in the day Monday, even after Biden reportedly called him “a prick.” “I don’t care about them thinking I’m a prick — that’s fine,” Axelrod told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “I hope they don’t think the polls are wrong, because they’re not.” WATCH: WHITE HOUSE ISSUES BRUTAL RESPONSE TO BIDEN’S ‘INAPPROPRIATE’ NICKNAME GIVEN BY ANTI-ISRAEL CRITICS However, Jean-Pierre told Fox during the briefing that there was “no alarm” going on behind the scenes at the White House despite those age worries. “No, there’s no alarm happening behind the scenes. I can only speak behind the scenes here. There is no alarm happening behind the scenes. And I’m certainly not going to comment on everybody who has something to say,” she said. “Also, it’s just not my job. It’s not my job to think through or to tell people what to think. Right? Whether it’s the American people out there or a, you know, political analyst, or as your question is about David Axelrod, it’s just not my place to speak to that,” she said. BIDEN USES TRUMP’S OWN WORDS AGAINST HIM IN BID TO RECAPTURE THIS MAJOR VOTING BLOCK FOR DEMS IN 2024 Jean-Pierre went on to say that the White House’s perspective is that it wasn’t about Biden’s age, but rather his “experience.” “That’s what we believe. And, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. The president has used his experience to pass more bipartisan legislation in recent time than any other president. That’s just a fact. That is something we have seen this president do, and that’s because of his experience … So what we say is we have to judge him by what he’s done, not by his numbers,” she added. Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.