Democrats try to flip the script on ‘states’ rights’ to defy, upend Trump’s National Guard plan
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has spent weeks criticizing President Donald Trump‘s threats to deploy National Guard troops to the city — a stance that some Republicans call a sharp reversal from the Democratic Party’s long-held opposition to “states’ rights” arguments. While the legality of Trump’s actions remains to be seen — his federalization efforts are being reviewed by several federal and appeals courts this week — the move has sparked a fierce debate across party lines. Democrats, for their part, have denounced the move as unlawful and beyond the scope of Trump’s authority. “The president has declared war on poor people,” Johnson said during a press conference, responding to Trump’s plan to send National Guard troops to Chicago. His comments followed a series of warnings from Democratic governors and mayors who argue that federalizing Guard units is both unnecessary and an unlawful intrusion into local authority. Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators argue that Democrats are contradicting their past stance on state sovereignty. “Democrats were out of touch with reality the moment they said they don’t need President Trump’s help; everything is fine in Chicago,” Gianno Caldwell, a Chicago native and founder of the Caldwell Institute of Public Safety, told Fox News Digital. PRITZKER SUES TRUMP TO BLOCK NATIONAL GUARD ACTION IN ILLINOIS “When you look at the numbers, you look at the crime, 75% of the murders that are committed in Chicago are going unsolved. Seventy-five percent — that is a serious issue, a systemic issue that Chicagoans are dealing with on a daily basis,” Caldwell said. Caldwell also pointed to a 2012 clash over the Obama administration’s Secure Communities program, which required local police to share fingerprint data with federal immigration agents. Republicans at the time accused Obama of hypocrisy for suing Arizona over strict immigration enforcement while taking no action against Democratic-led Chicago and Cook County, which sought to limit cooperation with federal authorities. But others disagree, especially on claims of hypocrisy. “However you want to characterize it,” the accusations of hypocrisy “are a symptom of the poverty of our current political debate,” George Derek Musgrove, a history professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County told Fox News Digital in an interview. “A lot of liberal Democrats, not conservative Democrats, in the 1960s, 1950s, and before that, were critics of states’ rights because segregationists were using the principle of federalism or states’ rights as a sort of ‘watchword’ to protect segregation,” Musgrove said. “Today, the president is walking away from the idea of states’ rights because he wants to punish Democratic cities,” Musgrove said. Trump, for his part, has characterized the actions as necessary to crack down on violent crime and to help carry out his administration’s policy priorities, including immigration enforcement. But Democratic mayors, including Johnson, have rejected the notion that their cities are in the throes of violence necessary to warrant a military response. Johnson has emphasized the progress Chicago has made in reducing violent crime. (Homicides in Chicago have fallen 28% so far in 2025 compared to the same point last year, according to data from the city’s police department, and down by roughly 50% compared to 2020, when violent crime in many major U.S. cities peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic.) Ultimately, Musgrove told Fox News Digital, the question of “hypocrisy” is too simplistic and fails to capture the broader context, principles and policies at stake in a given political moment. TRUMP IS THREATENING TO ‘FEDERALIZE’ DC WITH NATIONAL GUARD AND MORE. HERE’S HOW THAT COULD PLAY OUT “It obscures what we’re really talking about. It walks away from the question of whether or not what the president is doing is legal,” he said. “And it sort of shifts to this issue of hypocrisy, rather than dealing first with the fact [of whether] this is a legal question that can be decided in a court of law, based on legal principles.” To that end, more clarity is expected soon. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is slated to review Trump’s ability to deploy troops to Oregon on Thursday — and regardless of how they rule, the matter is widely expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court. BONDI CLASHES WITH DURBIN ON NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT: ‘LOVE CHICAGO AS MUCH AS YOU HATE PRESIDENT TRUMP’ Trump also has the ability to invoke the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that gives the president additional powers in a national emergency. Invoking that law would bring to the fore a whole host of new legal considerations, and Trump has suggested he would invoke the law if needed as recently as this week. “If I had to enact it, I’d do it,” Trump told reporters Monday. “If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.” Democratic leaders have also vowed to take action of their own to combat what they describe as unlawful overreach by Trump. Both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker threatened Monday to withdraw their states from the National Governors’ Association if the group fails to condemn Trump’s deployment of other states’ National Guard troops to their jurisdictions. Asked by reporters Tuesday about the troop deployment, Trump defended his decision, saying only: “If you look at Chicago, Chicago’s a great city where there’s a lot of crime.” “And if the governor can’t do the job, we will do the job,” he added.
NJ Showdown: Ciattarelli piles on Dem rival after heated debate with scathing new ads
FIRST ON FOX — Hours after a fiery final debate in New Jersey’s competitive and combustible 2025 showdown for governor, Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli took aim at Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee, over her surge in wealth during her years in Congress. In two new ads that were shared first with Fox News on Thursday, Ciattarelli spotlighted a widely panned appearance by Sherrill on a popular radio show where she struggled to explain her wealth. The release of the ads came the day after Ciattarelli, after being accused of contributing to tens of thousands of opioid deaths in New Jersey, fired back that Sherrill “broke the law,” as he pointed to a fine she paid four years ago for failing to timely disclose stock trades, as members of Congress are required to do under federal conflict-of-interest law. TRUMP LOOMS LARGE OVER 2025 ELECTIONS In the ads, Ciattarelli said “as governor, I have a plan to fix our state. In Congress, the only thing Mikie Sherrill fixed was her bank account.” The spots then use clips of Sherrill from her May interview on Charlamagne tha God’s popular “The Breakfast Club” radio program. “So I think we made money,” Sherrill says in one clip when asked about reported millions in money she and her husband, a multinational investment bank senior manager, made in stock trades. In the other ad, she says, “I haven’t. I. I don’t believe that I did, but I’d have to go see what, what that was alluding to.” HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE 2025 ELECTIONS Ciattarelli, in the ads, then argues, “Come on. Who wouldn’t know if they made $7 million. New Jersey needs a governor who gets it. Mikie Sherrill doesn’t. I do.” The Ciattarelli campaign told Fox News Digital that it will spend $2 million to run the ads on broadcast and cable TV and streaming. At Wednesday’s debate, Ciattarelli once again spotlighted the $400 fine Sherrill paid. “I’ve never broken the law,” he said. “She had to pay federal fines for breaking federal law on stock trades and stock reporting.” Sherrill, firing back, said, “This is the same old misinformation that he continues to promote, because he knows that I don’t trade in individual stocks, he knows I’ve gone above and beyond that. He also knows he promotes some garbage number, but he actually knows so much about my finances because they’re all to the dollar.” Questions over Sherrill’s wealth were first raised by her rivals earlier this year in the Democratic primary race. But her responses in “The Breakfast Club” interview amplified the controversy, as the Ciattarelli campaign and allied Republican groups heavily criticized the four-term federal lawmaker. BLUE STATE REPUBLICAN RIPS DEMOCRATIC RIVAL FOR BLAMING ‘EVERYTHING ON TRUMP’ The claims by Ciattarelli have been amplified in recent weeks as the race between the two candidates has become increasingly bitter and personal. Sherrill’s campaign has denounced the attacks, with spokesman Sean Higgins saying that his candidate had been transparent and argued that Ciattarelli, who is also a multimillionaire, was not. “Mikie does not own or trade individual stocks, and has gone ‘above and beyond’ releasing the exact values of her finances to the dollar,” Higgins said in a statement. Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics and winning election as a state lawmaker, is making his third straight run for New Jersey governor. And four years ago, he grabbed national attention as he came close to upsetting Murphy. It was during the 2021 campaign that Ciattarelli’s connection to opioid manufacturers first surfaced. Ciattarelli sold his company, which published content promoting the use of opioids as a low-risk treatment for chronic pain, in 2017. “You’re trying to divert from the fact you killed tens of thousands of people by printing your misinformation, your propaganda,” Sherrill charged. “I think our kids deserve better. I think the people you got addicted and died deserve better than you.” VOTERS REACT TO FINAL NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE Ciattarelli responded, saying, “With regard to everything she just said about my professional career, which provided for my family, it’s a lie. I’m proud of my career.” “Shame on you,” Ciattarelli added. Sherrill shot back, “Shame on you, sir.” Cittarrelli then blamed the fentanyl crisis on former President Joe Biden’s “open border” policies. And at a post-debate news conference, he claimed the attack by Sherrill was “a desperate tactic by a desperate campaign on behalf of a desperate candidate.” Sherrill, asked after the debate if she had proof directly linking Ciattarelli to the opioid deaths, told reporters, “I guess he’s not really expressed anything about this. I think there’s a lot we don’t know. I think he continues to not be very transparent about it.” The two candidates also battled over the improper release of Sherrill’s military records and why she was barred from attending her 1994 Naval Academy graduation, and support for President Donald Trump. And they took shots at each other over key issues, including New Jersey’s sky-high energy costs, property taxes, immigration and the ongoing federal government shutdown. New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states to hold gubernatorial contests the year after a presidential election, which means the races traditionally grab outsized national attention. And this year’s ballot box showdowns are viewed as crucial early tests of Trump’s popularity and second-term agenda, and are considered key barometers ahead of next year’s midterm elections for the U.S. House and Senate. The winner of next month’s election in New Jersey will succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. While Democrats have long dominated federal and state legislative elections in blue-leaning New Jersey, Republicans are very competitive in gubernatorial contests, winning five out of the past ten elections. And in the 2025 race, political history favors both parties. The party that wins the White House tends to lose the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections the following year, which favors the Democrats.
Federal judge limits ICE arrests without warrant, probable cause
A federal judge Tuesday ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violated a federal consent decree when arresting nearly two dozen illegal immigrants at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings in Chicago federal court extended the consent decree that limits immigration agents’ authority to make warrantless arrests until February 2026. Cummings also ordered ICE to start making monthly disclosures of how many warrantless arrests agents make each month. The ACLU of Illinois and other Chicago immigration advocates sued the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in March, alleging that the January arrests of at least 22 people violated a 2022 consent decree that bans ICE from arresting people without warrants or probable cause. TRUMP SAYS CHICAGO MAYOR, ILLINOIS GOVERNOR ‘SHOULD BE IN JAIL FOR FAILING TO PROTECT’ ICE OFFICERS “Today’s decision makes clear that DHS and ICE — like everyone else — must follow the Constitution and the law,” Michelle García, deputy legal director at the ACLU of Illinois and co-counsel in the case, said in a statement. “The federal government’s reckless practice of stopping, harassing and detaining people — and then finding a justification for the action must end.” Trump deployed Texas National Guard troops in Illinois this week for an initial 60-day period to help with his administration’s crime crackdown and deportation rollout. CHICAGO MAYOR CREATES ‘ICE-FREE ZONES’ TO BLOCK FEDERAL AGENTS FROM CITY PROPERTY Chicago has sought to thwart ICE’s deportation efforts, with Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker filing a lawsuit Monday that attempted to block the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to Illinois. Johnson and Pritzker have clashed with Trump over immigration enforcement and the president’s decision to send National Guard troops to the state to protect federal personnel and property amid escalating anti-ICE protests in Broadview, Illinois. Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey and Alexandra Koch, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
Unearthed records torpedo Cori Bush’s new claim about ‘billions’ in funding she delivered to district
FIRST ON FOX: Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who just launched a comeback bid for her old seat, claimed she brought “billions of dollars” home to Missouri’s 1st Congressional District while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, but public records reviewed by Fox News Digital tell a different story. During her failed re-election campaign last year, Bush’s fundraising claims for St. Louis skyrocketed from $41 million to $2 billion in less than a month. “I’m proud to have delivered home over $2 BILLION and counting,” Bush claimed on April 19, 2024. But less than a month prior, on March 28, 2024, Bush’s campaign submitted language for an ad, which ran for a month beginning on April 3, 2024, touting just $41 million in “community project funding since 2021.” Her campaign has not responded to Fox News Digital’s request to explain the 4,778% increase. ‘SQUAD’ DEM LAUNCHES COMEBACK HOUSE BID AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL VIEWS TORPEDOED CAMPAIGN: ‘WE NEED A FIGHTER’ Federal contract and grant records published by the Departments of Defense and Justice and reviewed by Fox News Digital show that a majority of that funding came from those agencies. NEW JERSEY DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR FACES NET WORTH QUESTIONS AS VIRAL CLIP RESURFACES While in Congress, Bush consistently voted against National Defense Authorization funding, which between Feb. 1, 2021, and May 1, 2024, included $48,812,351 in Department of Defense funding for research at Washington University, Saint Louis University and Vandeventer Place Research Foundation, which are all located in St. Louis. Bush’s claim that she delivered more than $2 billion to her district seems to include the nearly $49 million in DOD research grants that she voted against. Through National Defense Authorization funding between 2021 and 2024, Missouri’s 1st Congressional District also received at least $6,020,147 from the Department of Justice to increase police department headcounts, provide overtime pay or purchase new equipment. The district also benefited from $1,286,634,821.76 in Defense Department contracts, primarily for missiles, military aircraft and drone purchases with The Boeing Company. Bush was also one of six Democrats who voted against former President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed through Congress in 2021 as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Much of the government funding that flowed into Bush’s district during her tenure supported programs at odds with her progressive platform. Bush has a long record of calling to “defund the police,” and in 2020, also called to “defund the Pentagon.” The former “Squad member” announced last week that she is mounting a comeback congressional bid more than a year after losing her Democratic primary to a more moderate challenger. While campaigning for re-election in May 2024, Bush said she was proud “to have delivered more than $2 billion” for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District. On Friday, while launching her comeback bid, Bush more ambiguously touted that she “brought billions of dollars home directly to our community.” “St. Louis deserves a leader who is built different,” Bush announced in a video shared on social media. “That’s why I’m running to represent Missouri’s 1st District in Congress. We need a fighter who will lower costs, protect our communities, and make life fairer. I’ll be that fighter.” The “Squad” member was ousted in the Democratic primary in Aug. 2024 by St. Louis County prosecutor Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., who is a more moderate candidate and had the backing of pro-Israel groups that spent millions to unseat Bush. Democratic Majority for Israel President Brian Romick criticized Bush’s inconsistency with her St. Louis fundraising numbers in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Cori Bush lied to her constituents last year when she claimed she brought back billions to the district and it’s brazen that instead of owning up to it, she just said it again in her launch video. Cori Bush lost because she was an ineffective Member of Congress and lies like this only remind the voters of that,” Romick said. “I ran for Congress to change things for regular people,” Bush said in the campaign launch video. “I’m running again because St. Louis deserves leadership that doesn’t wait for permission, doesn’t answer to wealthy donors and doesn’t hide when things get tough.” Bush was first elected to Congress in Nov. 2020, quickly joining the ranks of the progressive “Squad,” including Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who were elected in 2018. The Missouri progressive was re-elected in 2022, but she became the second member of the “Squad” to lose her Democratic primary last year after Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., also lost to a more moderate pro-Israel Democrat. Fox News Digital reached out to Bush’s campaign multiple times for comment.
White House brutally mocks Kamala Harris’ ‘cackle’ after former VP drops F-bomb, suggests admin is ‘crazy’
The White House issued a blistering response to former Vice President Kamala Harris after she suggested the administration is filled with “crazy” “mother—ers.” “Kamala Harris should listen to an audio recording of her cackle of a laugh before calling anyone crazy,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital in a Tuesday statement. Desai was responding to clips spreading like wildfire on social media of Harris speaking at an invite-only event in Los Angeles Monday where she took an apparent jab at the Trump administration while addressing “There’s so much about this moment that is making people feel like they’ve lost their minds. When, in fact, these mother—ers are crazy,” Harris said Monday during an event in Los Angeles called “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation.” KAMALA HARRIS PLAYS UP COZY RELATIONSHIP WITH HILLARY CLINTON AS WEDGE WITH BIDEN WIDENS “I call this, ‘The Freedom Tour,’” she added, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Harris did not identify the Trump administration by name during her remarks. Her comments followed her discussing why she wrote her latest memoir, “107 Days,” which walks readers through the unprecedented 2024 election, when then-President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and passed the mantle to Harris as the Democrat Party attempted to thwart a second Trump administration. “One of the other reasons I wrote it is history is going to write about this,” Harris told attendees. “And it was important to me that that be told with my voice being present. And I would say that that everyone, we are living history right now. And you all as storytellers are living this. You’re not passive observers. You know that. You’re living it.” “And I’m gonna ask you that all the emotions that we are feeling, give those emotions, give that experience to those people that you are writing about and writing for. It gets back to my point about helping people just put a label on it, even if it doesn’t change the circumstance,” she continued. KAMALA HARRIS’ BOOK, MEDIA TOUR SLAMMED BY LIBERAL CRITICS AS ‘EMBARRASSING’ AND ‘UNHELPFUL’ Harris is in the midst of a book tour to promote the memoir, making stops in New York City, Houston, San Francisco and other cities before also taking the tour to Canada and the U.K. later in October and November. The event in Los Angeles was not included on her official book tour agenda. “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation” is an annual event in Los Angeles that brings together “creators of culture – television writers, artists, producers, executives, and digital storytellers” to cultivate a “meaningful connection between those shaping pop culture and those driving social change,” according to the event’s website. KAMALA HARRIS COMPLAINS ABOUT ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ LACK OF SUPPORT FROM BIDEN’S COMMS TEAM, INNER CIRCLE Harris’ laugh and public remarks that were dubbed “word salads” by critics have long been mocked by Trump’s orbit, including President Donald Trump calling Harris “laughing Kamala” from the 2024 campaign trail, as well as the campaign running ads spotlighting Harris’ laugh and instances of her past rambling remarks at the time. “She’s worse than Bernie Sanders,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News in July 2024, just days after Biden dropped out of the race. “Now, she’s trying to come back. She got rid of the laugh, I noticed. I haven’t seen the crazy laugh. She’s crazy. That laugh? That’s a laugh of a crazy person. But I noticed she’s not using that laugh anymore. Somebody convinced her, ‘Don’t, just don’t laugh. Don’t laugh under any circumstances.’” Fox News Digital reached out to Harris’ office for additional comment related to her “crazy” comment in Los Angeles and the White House’s response but did not receive replies.
Two Republicans vote with Dems as Senate GOP spikes bid to block Trump’s strikes on drug-smuggling boats
In a 51-48 vote, most Senate Republicans successfully slapped down a motion to discharge a measure aimed at putting the kibosh on President Donald Trump’s practice of unilaterally ordering strikes against vessels he alleges were ferrying drugs. Two Senate Republicans, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted with Democrats in support of the motion to discharge the joint resolution from the Committee on Foreign Relations, but the motion failed to pass. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only member of his party to join Republicans in voting against the discharge motion. WAR ON CARTELS? WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT HAS AN IRONCLAD CASE TO STRIKE NARCO-TERRORIST GROUPS “Fully support confronting the scourge of cartel drug trafficking to our nation,” Fetterman said in a post on X last month. The text of the proposal reads, in part, “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against any organization designated on or after February 20, 2025, as a foreign terrorist organization or specially designated global terrorist, any states in which those entities operate, or any non-state organization engaged in the promotion, trafficking, and distribution of illegal drugs and other related activities, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.” Last month Trump announced several strikes against vessels, each of which he said resulted in the killing of “narcoterrorists.” TRUMP ADMIN TELLS CONGRESS IT DETERMINED US ENGAGED IN FORMAL ‘ARMED CONFLICT’ WITH ‘TERRORIST’ DRUG CARTELS War Secretary Pete Hegseth posted about a strike earlier this month as well. “Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth declared in the post on X. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!” he exclaimed. US STRIKES ANOTHER ALLEGED DRUG-TRAFFICKING BOAT NEAR VENEZUELA, KILLING 4 CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP GOP Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who voted against the motion to discharge, said in part of a statement that he “cannot support a resolution that potentially handcuffs our ability to protect American service members in the Middle East.” “Despite my opposition to this resolution, I am highly concerned about the legality of recent strikes in the Caribbean and the trajectory of military operations without congressional approval or debate and the support of the American people. While the Constitution grants Article II authorities to the executive branch to defend against imminent threats, Congress alone is entrusted with decisions of war and peace,” he said in another portion of the statement.
Federal judge undercuts Trump’s executive order on ‘radical gender ideology’
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from forcing recipients of federal teen pregnancy prevention grants to follow new rules targeting “radical indoctrination” and “gender ideology.” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said President Donald Trump’s order was “motivated solely by political concerns, devoid of any considered process or analysis, and ignorant of the statutory emphasis on evidence-based programming.” The ruling marked a victory for Planned Parenthood affiliates in California, Iowa and New York, who sued to try to block enforcement of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) policy change. The ruling will apply to all organizations that receive grants. HHS, which oversees the program, declined to comment on Tuesday’s ruling. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WINS SUPREME COURT FIGHT TO SLASH NIH MEDICAL RESEARCH GRANTS TIED TO DEI, LGBTQ STUDIES HHS had previously said in a policy document issued in July that the guidance for the program “ensures that taxpayer dollars no longer support content that undermines parental rights, promotes radical gender ideology, or exposes children to sexually explicit material under the banner of public health.” Planned Parenthood affiliates argued the new directives conflicted with the program’s requirements and were so vague that it was unclear how to comply. KENNEDY’S HHS TERMINATES CALIFORNIA SEX ED GRANT AFTER IT REFUSES TO DROP ‘RADICAL’ GENDER LESSONS Howell agreed, writing in her ruling that the HHS policy provided “incomprehensibly vague” requirements and “seemingly relied on irrelevant ideological factors, and did not justify its change in position.” The changes to the pregnancy prevention program were part of a series of executive orders Trump signed on his first day back in the White House. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Senate GOP resists ‘nuclear option’ as Dem shutdown standoff deepens
Senate Republicans aren’t ready to go “nuclear” again to change the rules around the Senate filibuster as Senate Democrats dig deeper against the GOP’s push to reopen the government. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republicans need at least eight Democrats to cross the aisle and vote for their continuing resolution (CR) to pass through the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold. But only three Democratic caucus members have joined Republicans after six failed attempts to pass the short-term funding extension as the shutdown enters its second week. SENATE DEMOCRATS DEFY WHITE HOUSE WARNINGS, AGAIN BLOCK GOP BID TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT Republicans have already turned to the “nuclear option” to unilaterally change the rules this year to blast through Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats’ blockade of President Donald Trump’s nominees. But for many, the notion of changing the rules and nuking the filibuster is a third rail. “Never, never, ever, never, none,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital when asked if he would consider changing the rules. “I’ve never heard that since the Democrats tried to do it, and I think we would all fight it pretty hard,” he continued. The last time the filibuster was put under the microscope was when Democrats controlled the Senate in 2022. Schumer, who was majority leader at the time, tried to change the rules for a “talking filibuster” in order to pass voting rights legislation. SENATE REPUBLICANS CONFIRM MORE THAN 100 TRUMP NOMINEES AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CONTINUES However, the effort was thwarted when then-Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., joined Republicans to block the change. Both have since retired from the Senate and become Independents. Republicans are not actively discussing changes to the filibuster. “I don’t think that’s a conversation we’ve had,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. “Right now, we think that the Democrats’ position has been untenable, and the more they hear from their constituents of their unreasonable activities, that will break this because we got a clean CR, so we got the better argument.” Because of the filibuster, spending bills like a CR are generally bipartisan in nature. However, Senate Democrats have panned Republicans’ bill to reopen the government as partisan and argue that they had no input on it before it passed through the House late last month. “I’m generally aware of how important it is to try to keep things bipartisan, using the filibuster as the tool to do that, but I also get the fact that after a while, the frustration just boils over,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. GOVERNMENT LIMPS DEEPER INTO SHUTDOWN CRISIS WITH NO DEAL IN SIGHT Frustrations reached a new level in Congress on Wednesday, with Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., publicly arguing with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., over the shutdown. Then there was another public back-and-forth between House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y. Still, neither side in the upper chamber is ready to budge from their positions. Most Senate Democratic caucus members are rooted in their position that unless they get a deal on expiring Obamacare tax credits, they will not join Republicans to reopen the government. Republicans have been adamant that negotiations on extending the subsidies — with reforms — can happen, but only after the government is reopened. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is the lone Senate Democrat who has voted with Republicans each time to reopen the government. He pointed out that Republicans had just changed Senate rules last month to advance Trump’s nominees. “I think we probably should. If you’re able to get out of the filibuster to prevent either party to make it a lot harder to shut the government down, I’d absolutely support that,” Fetterman said.
‘Getting desperate’: Governor debate gets personal after Democrat is mocked for cheating scandal
The New Jersey gubernatorial debate got tense and personal on Wednesday night after GOP candidate Jack Ciattarelli mocked his Democratic opponent, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, over her involvement in a massive cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy that kept her from participating in her graduation. The exchange was kicked off by Sherrill accusing Ciattarelli of being responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, saying, “He made his millions by working with some of the worst offenders and saying that opioids were safe.” In response to this attack, Ciattarelli said, “Shame on you,” and adding, “It’s a lie, I’m proud of my career.” “The difference between me and the congresswoman? I got to walk at my college graduation,” said Ciattarelli, referencing the Naval Academy scandal. TOP GUBERNATORIAL RACE ROCKED BY ALLEGATIONS OF LEAKS AND DIRTY TRICKS AMID IMPROPER MILITARY RECORDS RELEASE Bombshell private military records that were recently improperly unsealed by the National Archives and Records Administration revealed that Sherrill was not allowed to walk with her graduating class at the Naval Academy and that her name was not included in the commencement program due to her involvement in the scandal. Sherrill has not been accused of cheating at the Naval Academy but has said she faced disciplinary action for not reporting some of those who had cheated on an exam. Due to this incident, Sherrill’s name was not included on the commencement program during the May 25, 1994, ceremony, according to records obtained by the New Jersey Globe. Ciattarelli pressed hard on the Naval Academy controversy during Wednesday’s debate. He also accused Sherrill of improperly reporting stock trades during her time in Congress. BLUE STATE GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEES TRADE BARBS OVER CRUCIAL ISSUE WEEKS AHEAD OF ELECTION DAY “I’ve never broken the law,” he said. “She had to pay federal fines for breaking federal law on stock trades and stock reporting, and the New York Times reports that she was trading defense stocks while sitting on the House Armed Services Committee.” Sherrill shot back, “What [Ciattarelli] never learned, despite walking at his graduation, was accountability, integrity, care for the community, and I think that disqualifies him.” “This is the same old misinformation that he continues to promote, because he knows that I don’t trade in individual stocks, he knows I’ve gone above and beyond that. He also knows he promotes some garbage number, but he actually knows so much about my finances because they’re all to the dollar.” SHERRILL FIRES BACK AT GOP RIVAL AS QUESTIONS SWIRL OVER HER MILITARY RECORDS: ‘HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR’ Ciattarelli immediately dismissed this, saying, “She released two years of tax returns the years after she paid the federal fines; I released 12 years, going back every single year.” In response, Sherrill accused Ciattarelli of releasing the returns right before the debate, “Because you knew I was going to call you on it.” After that, Ciattarelli whistled and leaned over and remarked, “Getting desperate.”
‘Riot Inc.’: Trump launches ‘whole-of-government’ push to expose Antifa funding networks, dark money sources
The Trump administration is intensifying efforts to trace the funding behind Antifa and other protest movements, pursuing what officials describe as a coordinated campaign to expose the nonprofit and dark money networks they believe are fueling organized unrest across the country. President Donald Trump hosted a White House roundtable Wednesday with independent journalists who have experienced Antifa’s violence firsthand, part of his administration’s broader push to confront domestic unrest. Among those attending was Seamus Bruner, research director at the Government Accountability Institute, who said the administration’s “whole-of-government” approach is now fully underway. TRUMP CALLS ANTIFA ‘TERRORIST GROUP,’ FUELING FIGHT OVER FREE SPEECH AND LIMITS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT “President Trump is taking it very seriously,” Bruner said, noting the president stressed the need to follow the money to officials including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel. He argued that unmasking Antifa requires tracing its finances. “It’s not just Antifa, but there is a whole ecosystem of radical, professional protesting organizations,” he said, describing what he calls “Riot Inc.” as a corporate-style operation with divisions for boots on the ground, marketing, PR and legal support. Bruner also cited bail fund networks that allegedly enable repeat offenders to return to protests. He pointed to GAI investigations showing coordination across cities such as Portland, Seattle and Chicago involving paid and transported individuals, including homeless people exploited to participate in unrest. NOEM LIKENS ANTIFA TO ISIS, OTHER TERROR GROUPS THAT WANT TO ‘KILL’ AMERICANS He pointed to major funding sources, including billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and foreign donors such as Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. To curb funding for unrest, he said federal authorities could use RICO statutes to target networks and urged the IRS and Office of Management and Budget to review or revoke tax-exempt status for nonprofits misusing charitable funds. If those agencies find that funding supports criminal activity, Bruner said, they could force organizations to open their books and justify their grants. TRUMP TO DESIGNATE ANTIFA A ‘MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION’ “They can absolutely cancel any future grants if they deem that the charitable purposes are less than charitable,” he said, pointing out that over $100 million in taxpayer funds have flowed through major networks linked to protest activities. The roundtable followed Trump’s order to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, part of the administration’s broader effort to curb crime and illegal immigration — a move temporarily blocked by a federal judge Sunday. Antifa is a far-left militant movement that describes itself as antifascist. It has been accused of organizing or encouraging violent riots, notably during the 2020 “defund the police” protests and, more recently, in attacks targeting federal immigration facilities. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.