Maryland Democrat Ivey furious not given access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador
A Maryland congressman has returned to the U.S. from El Salvador having failed in his attempt to meet deported illegal migrant and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Rep. Glenn Ivey said he was “stonewalled” in his efforts to check on the welfare of Abrego Garcia, whose deportation in March has become a deeply polarizing issue for Republicans and Democrats. The Trump administration accuses Abrego Garcia of also being a human trafficker and a wife beater, while Democrats say he is a “Maryland man” who was not given his due process in court before being deported. “I was very, not just disappointed, but angry, actually,” Ivey told reporters after returning from his trip Tuesday morning. DEM IMMIGRATION TALKING POINTS FIZZLE AS DARK PICTURE OF ABREGO GARCIA EMERGES Ivey, who said he did not use taxpayer money to fund his trip, said he had arranged with embassies in the U.S. and in El Salvador to meet Abrego Garcia in prison but was met with bureaucratic hurdles when he got there. Ivey said he was told he had to obtain a permit at a location 90 minutes away, which blocked his plans. “And I won’t tell you what I said, but I mean, it’s ridiculous that an international delegation would get that kind of treatment, especially when we’re making this kind of request,” Ivey said. WATCH: Democrat Rep. Glenn Ivey fumes he was not allowed access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia He didn’t say if he attempted to get a permit but added that locals also told them no one—not even families—were getting permits to visit loved ones in detention. “It was a clear run around and not a way that a foreign government should be treating the Congress of the United States,” he said. Ivey said he wanted to see Abrego Garcia to confirm the detainee’s condition, location and ensure he receives due process in U.S. courts. Several other Democrats, including Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, have rushed to meet with Abrego Garcia and decried what they said was a lack of due process extended to him. WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BLUNTLY SHOWS WHERE PARTIES STAND ON IMMIGRATION AMID ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION When asked about Abrego Garcia’s condition, Ivey told reporters, “Nothing’s been confirmed along those lines. We believe he is and we believe he’s at Santa Ana. But they didn’t confirm that yesterday. So it was kind of a runaround.” In a video posted to X on Monday, Ivey wrote that he traveled to the Central American country to visit his “constituent” and called on the government there to “cut the crap.” Abrego Garcia was sent in March to El Salvador’s notoriously high-security prison equipped to handle violent gang members, known as CECOT, which sparked Van Hollen to lead the surge of Democrats traveling there. The Trump administration has repeatedly cited court and police documents showing that the El Salvadoran man was not only in the U.S. illegally, but also connected to the MS-13 gang and that his wife had sounded the alarm to police about his violence. Court records show Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed a protective order against her husband in August 2020. The order said their shared son and stepchildren needed protection from Abrego Garcia, accusing him of verbal and physical abuse against her and mental abuse against her children. Some Democrats and left-wing media have characterized Abrego Garcia as a “family man” who was wrongly deported back in March and the following weeks. Ivey, meanwhile, also railed over what he said were more than 250 Venezuelans jailed in El Salvador after deportation from the U.S., claiming that around 50 of them have no criminal records and were sent to a country where they have no pending offenses. “That’s un-American. That’s not what we should be doing,” Ivey said. Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
Dems drop $20M on bizarre ‘American men’ strategy plan study in effort to dig out of 2024 political hole
Democrats are spending $20 million on a study examining how to speak to “American men” after losing ground with the demographic during the 2024 election cycle, The New York Times revealed. “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan” is a $20 million project crafted by Democrats to “study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces” of male voters, the Times reported Sunday. Known as “SAM,” the study will specifically examine young male voters and how the party can connect with the demographic. Additionally, the study advised rolling out pro-Democrat ads in video games. The study’s revelation was made in an overarching article detailing the uphill battle Democrats face after the 2024 election, which included Democrats scrambling to replace former President Joe Biden as the nominee with just more than 100 days left in the election cycle and ultimately delivering all seven battleground states to President Donald Trump. “The Democratic Party’s tarnished image could not come at a more inopportune moment,” the article detailed. “In this era of political polarization, the national party’s brand is more important and influential than ever, often driving the outcomes of even the most local of races.” DEMOCRATIC PARTY SCRAMBLES TO FIX IMAGE AS MEMBERS ACKNOWLEDGE PARTY ‘LOST CREDIBILITY’ In response, Democrat operatives and donors have gathered at swank hotels to craft plans on how to draw back the working class and male voters, the Times reported. Trump made big in-roads with the male vote during the 2024 election cycle. A Fox News Voter Survey published in November 2024 found that men aged 18–44 supported Trump at 53%, compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 45%. While The Associated Press found that more than half of male voters under the age of 30 voted for Trump instead of Harris — including roughly six-in-10 White male voters supporting Trump — about one-third of Black male voters supported Trump, as did about 50% of young Latino male voters. Trump’s support among young Black and Latino male voters jumped by about 20% compared to his 2020 support, the AP reported. Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he does not take issue with Democrats investing in voter engagement strategies but added that he found it “hilarious” that “people in suits are hanging out at luxury hotels asking how they can talk to day-to-day Americans.” “We’re having an issue with the messenger more than the message,” Ceraso said, arguing that voters support longstanding Democratic policies such as affordable housing, but that “Democrats just need to take a reality check” on how they convey their messaging to voters. “I just don’t understand how, after all these years and all these Democrats who’ve been in the game, how we continue to make those same choices,” he added. “Like Rahm Emmanuel, or all these sort of big names, they’re just like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to figure out how to win in, you know, rural North Carolina by hanging out in a New York hotel.’ That makes no sense to me. And strategically, I don’t care how much money you spend on focus groups, if you’re doing that, you’re just negating any type of investment you’re putting into how to have a conversation with voters.” Democrats spending millions studying American male “syntax” sparked condemnation from conservatives and Democrats alike on social media, Fox News Digital found. FETTERMAN HITS PARTY’S LOSSES AMONG YOUNG MALE VOTERS: ‘IT’S UNDENIABLE THAT DEMOCRATS HAVE LOST A LOT’ “Democratic donors treating men like an endangered species on a remote island they need to study probably won’t rebuild trust,” MSNBC contributor Rotimi Adeoy posted to X in response to the Times’ report. “This kind of top-down, anthropological approach misses the point: people don’t want to be decoded, they want to be understood and met where they are.” “The idea that you can “fix” the male voter problem that exists with Black, Latino, and white men by spending $20 million to study their syntax like they’re a foreign culture is exactly why there’s a disconnect,” Adeoy continued. “These voters aren’t a research subject. They’re citizens.” Chief political analyst at the Liberal Patriot, Michael Baharaeen, posted to X, “This really says it all,” in response to a tweet quoting the article regarding how “Democratic donors and strategists have been gathering at luxury hotels to discuss how to win back working-class voters, commissioning new projects that can read like anthropological studies of people from faraway places.” “The fact that Democrats need to drop $20 million just to figure out how to speak to American men tells you everything you need to know. This is the same move they pull on black people. They don’t care about you they only care about your vote!” conservative podcaster DeVory Darkins posted to X. CRINGEWORTHY PRO-HARRIS AD SHOWCASING MALE SUPPORT FEATURES PROFESSIONAL ACTORS “Democratic donors are planning to spend $20 million to figure out how to talk to dudes,” polster Frank Luntz posted to X. A handful of critics reposted a video from the 2024 campaign cycle that featured men declaring they were “man enough” to support Harris for president. The grassroots ad went viral in October 2024 as social media commenters panned it as “the cringiest political ad ever created” and pointed out it was created by a former producer for Jimmy Kimmel and featured actors vowing support for Harris. The video featured six self-described manly men who claimed they were so masculine that they ate “carburetors for breakfast” and were not “afraid of bears,” while adding they also do not fear women and would support Harris for the Oval Office. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Remember the month before the election and Democrats tried to relate to men?. Now they’re trying again spending $20 million,” one social media commenter posted this week, accompanied by the October 2024 video.
Illegal immigrant healthcare costs in blue state triggers intense budget debate
The Republican minority leaders in California are responding to potential next steps for the highly scrutinized Medi-Cal program, which is insolvent, as some believe the ability for people to enroll “regardless of their immigration status” is a leading cause. The state faces a $12 billion budget shortfall as budget talks continue in Sacramento. The Medi-Cal program went insolvent earlier this year after it went billions over budget, resulting in $3.44 billion in loan requests to salvage the program, which covers low-income Golden State residents. Republicans said it was in large part due to illegal immigrants being allowed to enroll in the program, and Newsom also said that it was part of the spending issue, but not the whole picture, according to KCRA. LAWMAKERS REVEAL WHETHER AMERICANS SHOULD PICK UP THE MEDICAID TAB FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS “That’s going to continue to be a big debate here in California as we’re wrestling with a $12 billion dollar deficit and the cost of providing free healthcare to illegal immigrants is $11.4 billion dollars, so if we just didn’t do that, that would eliminate our budget deficit,” California State Senate Minority Leader Brain Jones said. “Now, there’s lots of other ways we can find $12 billion dollars to eliminate the deficit as well.” Newsom’s May budget revision proposes a pause for adults 19 and older from enrolling in “full-scope coverage” and to start charging a $100 premium each month “for individuals with certain statuses,” Fox News Digital reported earlier this month. “To be very clear, these proposals are the results of a $16 billion Trump Slump and higher-than-expected health care utilization. Because of these outside factors, the state must take difficult but necessary steps to ensure fiscal stability and preserve the long-term viability of Medi-Cal for all Californians,” Elana Ross, deputy communications director for Newsom’s office, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Governor Newsom refuses to turn his back on hardworking Californians, especially when it comes to their basic health care needs,” she added. The proposal from the Newsom administration sparked criticism among some in the legislature, as the Democratic California Legislative Latino Caucus is suggesting a tax hike to pay for the program’s coverage for illegal immigrants, according to KCRA. The question remains whether a $100 premium would be enough to get people to leave the program. LAWMAKERS IN DEEP BLUE STATE DEMAND AUDIT OVER SKYROCKETING HEALTHCARE COSTS: ‘ALARMING NATURE’ However, Jones said that Medi-Cal being offered to illegal immigrants might not be quite what Democrats present it as. “It’s just a messaging point for the governor and the Democratic leadership. It’s not an actual thing. Meaning the governor and the Democrat leadership are promising illegal immigrants coverage, and they are on the rolls, but there’s very little access,” he said. “A lot of doctors in California that used to provide Medicare and Medicaid have closed up shop, moved to other states. A lot of other doctors that are still here have stopped taking those kinds of patients, even if they’re here legally or illegally, because the reimbursement rates are so low, the doctors actually lose money when they take a Medicare or Medicaid patient,” Jones continued. NEWSOM CONCEDES SKYROCKETING HEALTHCARE COSTS FOR ILLEGALS ARE ‘PARTIAL’ CONTRIBUTOR TO MEDICAID PROBLEM Meanwhile, Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital in an interview that the budget shortfall is “a total disaster” that “was completely predictable.” “You know, two years ago, Gavin Newsom and the supermajority Democrats decided to fund illegal immigrant healthcare through our Medi-Cal program. And everybody said it’s gonna be billions of dollars. It’s not sustainable. And at the time, Biden was president, and people were coming across the border, millions of people. We had no idea. And I think a lot of them came to California and signed up. And so now we have a completely unsustainable, bankrupted Medi-Cal system that’s required $3.4 billion worth of loans to prop up.” On a federal level, the pending reconciliation bill that recently passed the House of Representatives could also create issues for the state’s Medi-Cal offerings, as it would change the federal “match” from 90% to 80% for care that is not an emergency, which the Newsom administration says could cost the state billions, The Center Square reported. “If Republicans move this extreme MAGA proposal forward, millions will lose coverage, hospitals will close, and safety nets could collapse under the weight,” Newsom stated last week.
Trump ramps up heat on Harvard: Here are 5 reasons from the university’s own investigation
The Trump administration escalated its war with Harvard University on Tuesday, announcing it will claw back the university’s remaining $100 million in federal funding — effectively ending all financial ties with the Ivy League institution. “The government is out of business with Harvard University, fully,” a senior administration official told Fox News Digital. At the center of the fight are accusations of Harvard failing to combat a campus culture of antisemitism. While the university accuses the White House of overreach and insists it is defending free speech, its own internal investigation appears to have handed Trump officials ammunition. Earlier this year, Harvard President Alan Gerber called the 2023–2024 academic year “disappointing and painful” as he unveiled the results of two separate task forces: one examining antisemitism and the other focused on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias. The report from the antisemitism task force painted a bleak picture of life for Jewish and Israeli students on campus. Many said they felt ostracized, harassed online and unsupported by the university. Some students told investigators they had been pressured by peers, and even the faculty, to disavow ties to Israel to prove they were “one of the good ones.” Others chose to hide their Jewish identity altogether. Here is a look back at more findings of the report, released April 29. Jewish, Arab and Muslim students at Harvard reported feeling ostracized, pushed to the margins by their peers and experiencing online harassment. Jewish and Israeli students told the antisemitism task force the university’s response to complaints was “unclear and unconscionably slow.” Some Jewish students, according to the report, had been told by peers and even faculty members they were associated with “something offensive, and, in some cases, that their very presence was an offense.” Some decided to conceal their identities from classmates, while others were asked to renounce any ties to Israel to prove they were “one of the good ones.” TRUMP SAYS HARVARD’S FOREIGN STUDENTS ARE FROM COUNTRIES PAYING ‘NOTHING’ FOR THEIR EDUCATION “No other group was constantly told that their history was a sham, that they or their co-religionists or co-ethnics were supremacists and oppressors, and that they had no right to the protections offered by anti-bias norms,” read one section of the report. “Many Jewish students told us they feel like objects of suspicion.” One Jewish graduate student told the task force, “Jews are now being treated like Republicans were when I was in college.” That statement “of course points to another problem with which elite universities have been struggling,” the report said. At times, the anti-Muslim and antisemitism task force reports were seemingly at odds with each other. Muslim and pro-Palestinian students reported a widespread fear of doxxing, or having their personal identifying information shared publicly with the intent to intimidate or harm them. They reported often seeing pictures of their faces on the sides of trucks driven around campus by pro-Israel groups. Forty-seven percent of Muslim students reported feeling physically unsafe on campus during the 2023–2024 school year, compared with 15% of Jewish respondents. The antisemitism report called for a set of rules to govern permissible behaviors for instructors in classrooms, while the anti-Muslim and Arab bias task force called for the university to do more to protect academic freedom and free speech. JUDGE TEMPORARILY PAUSES TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL HARVARD STUDENT VISA POLICY AFTER LAWSUIT The antisemitism report found Harvard classes often portrayed “partisan and one-sided pedagogy” that failed to account for Jewish and Israeli perspectives, particularly within the university’s divinity school and school of public health. The task force also documented instances when faculty canceled or ended class early on the day of a pro-Gaza protest or “gave time at the end of class for students to promote various solidarity groups” like the Palestine Solidarity Committee. The report recommended expanding courses on antisemitism, Judaism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to foster a more inclusive and comprehensive academic environment. “Anti-Zionist views seem built into some classes,” one student noted. Fox News Digital has reached out to Harvard for comment on the report. In the 1980s and 1990s, the report found that at the university “pro-Israel organizers and pro-Palestinian organizers had disagreed strongly yet often worked together to build bridges and to imagine jointly a better future for the region.” “Those efforts started to fade in the 2000s amidst the Second Intifada and through the Israel-Hamas wars of the 2010s, and by the time Hamas crashed through the Israeli border fence in 2023 the conditions at Harvard (as in the Middle East itself) were very different,” the report read. Some pro-Palestinian campus organizers viewed bridge-building activities “as a form of betrayal,” the report found. The report found that many students, including Jewish ones, had “sympathy” for Israel’s “massive military response” that followed the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. However, campus protests “crossed a line from a call for freedom and security for Palestinians and Jews alike to a stereotyped notion: that Israel is not a state, but rather a ‘settler colony’ of white Europeans who have no real connection with the land they had stolen, that epitomized aggression, and was bereft of virtues.” The report found that changes in Harvard’s admissions policies meant that by 2023, the Jewish student community was much smaller than it was in the early 2010s. The hostility that some students had felt, the report found, was “degrading” to the university, and some Jewish students turned down offers of admission to Harvard over it. Some Jewish students vying for doctorate degrees said they decided to leave for private industry jobs because of the perception that academia is “unfriendly to Jews.” Some non-Jewish faculty members told the task force that Jewish candidates had turned down post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard and Jewish medical school students shied away from residencies at Harvard hospitals “because of the deep politicization of the climate.” The task force determined Harvard should change its admissions policy to reflect “what campus should look like: people listening to each other.” The task force also found
Amid Turkey, Azerbaijan boycott calls, PM Modi makes BIG statement, says…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged all countrymen to reduce dependence on foreign-made goods and use domestic products instead. He said this was crucial to achieve India’s goal of becoming a developed nation and the world’s third-largest economy by 2047.
After ‘ouster’ from family, Tej Pratap Yadav posts message for brother Tejashwi on welcoming second child
Amid family rift, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav has extended heartfelt congratulations to his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav, who was blessed with a son on Tuesday.
Jasmine Crockett shares bizarre song clip calling herself ‘leader of the future’
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, appears to be leaning in on her rising political stardom this week, briefly sharing what appeared to be a fan-made song that referred to the Democratic firebrand as the “leader of the future.” “Jasmine Crockett, she rises with the dawn. Fighting for justice, her light will never be gone,” the song went. “A voice for the people, standing strong and proud. Infectious with passion, she’ll never bow down. Leader of the future, she’s breaking all the chains. Jasmine you rock girl, keep leading the fight.” The roughly two-minute-long song was set against what appeared to be photos of Crockett that were lightly animated using artificial intelligence (AI). It ended with a minute of Crockett’s own comments at a recent House hearing. HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUT Fox News Digital observed the video on Crockett’s Instagram Story, where users post highlights that normally disappear after 24 hours. It was also visible on her Instagram Reels tab. Crockett’s official House of Representatives account was listed as a co-author alongside another Instagram account that appears to specialize in AI-generated musical video clips. Crockett’s account notes that posts are made by her staff unless the letters “CWC” are present. Her account appears to have shared, but not originally posted the video. Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett’s office to ask if she took any part in creating or sanctioning the post. After Fox News Digital’s inquiry, mention of the video disappeared from Crockett’s page. “A beacon of hope, we know you won’t deceive,” the song continued at another point. “Democratic champion, her mission’s loud and clear. For every single citizen, she’ll always be near. No MAGA could silence the truth she displays. Jasmine, you rock girl, keep leading the fight.” MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE Crockett has garnered a notable fan base among the progressive left since bursting on the national stage just over two years ago. She has been known for public comments that have pushed the boundaries of congressional decorum and have even earned her censure threats from her Republican colleagues in the House. Crockett garnered controversy in late March for referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is in a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels.” She later clarified in a statement that she “wasn’t thinking about the governor’s condition,” but she did not apologize. She also appeared to cash in on a spat she was part of during a House Oversight Committee hearing last year, when her response to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claiming Crockett had “fake eyelashes,” was to mock Greene as having a “bleach blonde bad built butch body.” Crockett later moved to trademark the phrase through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Red state official recounts personal experience of being ‘debanked’ and why it ‘has to be stopped’
EXCLUSIVE: Protecting Americans from being “debanked” has been a top priority for the State Financial Officers Foundation, and Fox News Digital spoke to a member of that organization, who said he was targeted himself, about the importance of that pursuit. “When I was initially debanked, I didn’t realize I was getting debanked,” Alabama Republican State Auditor Andrew Sorrell told Fox News Digital at the State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, Florida. “What happened was I just get a letter one day from our credit card company, from my gun store, Gold Guns and Guitars, and we get this curious letter in the mail, and it says that in 30 days, we’re closing your account. And it didn’t tell us why at all.” Sorrell, 39, explained that at first he thought that his company had simply forgotten to pay their bills, but when he realized he was up-to-date, he switched credit card companies and did not think anything of it until he got another letter from his credit card processor notifying him he was being dropped. RED STATE TREASURER REVEALS WHY STATE FINANCIAL OFFICERS HAVE ‘OBLIGATION’ TO COMBAT ESG, DEI “So we’re doing about 2 million dollars in revenue, about a million and a half of that is done by credit card or debit card transactions, and I was really confused this time, because why would a credit card processor drop us?” Sorrell explained. After that, Sorrell was told by his insurance company he was being dropped with “no explanation.” “I called my insurance broker, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, this is happening to all gun stores,’” Sorrell said. “He said insurance companies are dropping all gun stores. And then it hit me. Oh my goodness, I’m a victim of political debanking. I didn’t even realize that that’s what was happening to me.” Debanking is the phenomenon in which a bank customer has their accounts canceled, often with no explanation. Conservatives have long alleged that banks were unfairly targeting them in the practice, with banks specifically going after companies with conservative messaging or principles, including gun stores. HERE’S WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT DEBANKING, THE UN-AMERICAN ABUSE OF POWER BY REGULATORS In an interview with “Sunday Morning Futures” anchor Maria Bartiromo, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said he had seen “numerous” examples of conservatives being debanked during the Biden administration. “Especially people that were involved in different energy-type businesses and things like that, as well as very well-spoken and outspoken conservative activists,” Comer said in the interview. “So there are numerous instances, enough to open an investigation again. Is this [environmental, social and governance (ESG)] policy, which is discriminatory?” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Sorrell told Fox News Digital he is “convinced this is happening to other people in Alabama,” and that the problem doesn’t stem from local community banks but from large national banks who were “pushed” by the Obama and Biden administrations. “I actually have some sympathy for these large banks, and I think passing debanking legislation at the state level might actually help some of these large banks, because they can go back, and they can say, I’m sorry, Alabama has now passed debanking legislation. We’re just following the law, we don’t wanna debank people anymore,” Sorrell said. “This is un-American, and it has to be stopped.” Since the Trump administration took office in January, pushing back against political debanking has become a more prevalent conversation in government, including in the form of a bill from GOP Sen. Tim Scott to address regulatory language that has prompted financial institutions to debank those involved in certain industries. “It’s clear that federal regulators have abused reputational risk by carrying out a political agenda against federally legal businesses,” Scott said. “This legislation, which eliminates references to reputational risk in regulatory supervision, is the first step once and for all.”
Dem strategy session to stop hemorrhaging of male voters ridiculed
More than six months after the Democratic Party suffered major setbacks in the 2024 elections, the party is seeking a path to escape the political wilderness. Part of that effort includes a recent gathering by top party consultants and donors trying to figure out how Democrats can improve outreach to male and working-class voters. President Donald Trump won back control of the White House while Republicans flipped the Senate and defended their fragile House majority in November, and the GOP made gains among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as younger voters – all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base. “Everything we’ve done up to this point has resulted in re-electing Donald Trump,” longtime Democratic strategist and communicator Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital. OPINION: WHAT DEMOCRATS NEED TO DO TO WIN AGAIN “If anyone tells you that we don’t have to course correct, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” added Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. In the face of Trump’s sweeping and controversial moves since his return to the White House in January, an increasingly angered and energized base of Democrats is pushing for party leaders to take a stronger stand in leading the resistance to the president and Republicans. The anger directed not only at Trump and Republicans, but also at fellow Democrats, appears to be a factor in the party’s polling woes, with Democratic Party favorable ratings sinking to historic lows. WATCH: DEMOCRATS’ PARTY CHAIR MAKES CASE IN ‘FOX NEWS SUNDAY’ APPEARANCE Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin vows the party will compete in all 50 states going forward. In an interview earlier this month on “Fox News Sunday,” Martin highlighted that the party’s focus right now is “squarely on making sure that we stand up for hardworking Americans who are being left behind in this Trump economy.” A 2024 election DNC postmortem is currently underway, with the findings expected to be issued later this year. However, grabbing the spotlight in recent days was a gathering hosted by the Democrat-aligned super PAC Future Forward at a luxury resort along the California coast. Among the strategy discussions at the gathering was a $20 million effort titled, “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan.” The recommendations of the effort, which is code-named SAM, included having Democrats drop what is described as a “moralizing tone” toward male voters, changing the party’s language used toward men and purchasing more ads on video games as part of male outreach. Some former key staffers on the 2024 campaign of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the party’s nominee last summer, heavily criticized the effort, which was first reported by the New York Times and later confirmed by Fox News. “Instead of studying working-class voters and men, why doesn’t the Democratic Party donor class go out and meet some? What the hell is this?” James Singer, a spokesman for the 2024 campaign, wrote in a social media post. “As a Democrat, it’s embarrassing.” It was a similar message from Ammar Moussa, another veteran Democratic strategist and communicator who worked on the Biden and Harris campaigns. “This is embarrassing. Truly,” Moussa wrote on X. Democrats have long had a problem attracting male voters in presidential elections. Trump won the male vote by 12 points over Harris in the 2024 presidential election, and according to the Fox News Voter Analysis, that margin ballooned to 15 points among men 45 and older. Fast-forward to this spring, and the Democrats’ ratings stood underwater in the latest Fox News national poll at 41% favorable and 56% unfavorable in a survey conducted April 18-21. That is an all-time low for the Democrats in Fox News polling, and for the first time in a decade, the party’s standing was lower than that of the GOP, which stood at 44% favorable and 54% unfavorable. The figures were reversed last summer, when Fox News last asked the party favorability question in one of its surveys. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING The Fox News poll was far from an outlier. The Democratic Party’s favorable ratings were well in negative territory in a Pew Research national survey – 38% favorable, 60% unfavorable – conducted in early April and at 36% favorable, 60% unfavorable in a Wall Street Journal poll in the field a couple of weeks earlier. Additionally, national polls conducted in February by Quinnipiac University and March by CNN and by NBC News also indicated the favorable ratings for the Democratic Party sinking to all-time lows. However, there is more. Confidence in the Democratic Party’s congressional leadership also sunk to an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll conducted early last month. The confidence rating for Democrats’ leadership in Congress stood at 25% in the survey, which was nine points below the previous low of 34% recorded in 2023. The semi-annual Harvard Youth Poll, which was released late last month, indicated that approval ratings for Democrats in Congress among Americans aged 18-29 nosedived. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-April indicated that more respondents trusted Trump (40%) than Democrats in Congress (32%) to handle the nation’s main problems. Additionally, a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted late last month suggested Republicans hold a significant advantage over Democrats on two top issues: the economy and immigration. “If Democrats want to be competitive in this country and build lasting majorities in both chambers and be competitive for the White House, we’ve got to broaden the tent,” Caiazzo insisted. He lamented that Democrats have “become hyper-focused on a certain set of issues that only speak to a certain set of people while letting the most important issues of the day fall by the wayside. Every single day, Democrats should be focused on how we make things better for working people. And the way we deliver that message has got to meet people where they are.”
DOJ reaches plea deal with Dem donor who sought to bribe her way to Kennedy Center seat
A Los Angeles County woman, who served on a presidential advisory committee under the Biden administration and has an extensive history of donating to Democrats, reached a plea agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for making tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to reportedly secure a seat on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, the DOJ announced Wednesday. Teena Maria Hostovich, 66, was charged Wednesday with making contributions in the name of another aggregating to more than $10,000 in a year, which is a felony, the DOJ reported. She revealed in her plea agreement that she carried out the scheme in part to secure a spot on the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, the DOJ stated in the press release. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. and is located in Washington, D.C. Hostovich is an insurance broker who used the identities of 11 other people, including co-workers and family members of co-workers, to illegally contribute more than $75,000 to political candidates between 2020 and 2023, the DOJ stated in a press release. DOGE SAYS IT’S REFERRED DOZENS OF POTENTIAL VOTER FRAUD CASES TO DOJ “According to her plea agreement, from May 2020 through 2023, Hostovich knowingly and willfully made a total of $75,700 in contributions to federal candidates’ principal campaign committees and federal joint fundraising committees in the names of other people,” the DOJ said in a press release. “For the calendar years 2021 through 2023, Hostovich’s conduit contributions aggregated to more than $10,000 during each of those years.” Hostovich agreed in a court filing Wednesday to plead guilty to the federal criminal charge and pay a $43,500 fine. Her scheme included contacting co-workers, their family members and other people “who performed personal services for Hostovich and her family” to ask them to make a donation to a political campaign or fundraising committee, according to the press release. She would then use PayPal to reimburse the individual for the contribution or pay them up front before the contribution was made, the Justice Department explained. STACEY ABRAMS-FOUNDED GROUPS SLAPPED WITH HISTORIC FINE FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE VIOLATIONS “To execute these conduit contributions, Hostovich sometimes explicitly stated that she would advance the money for the contribution or pay the person back for that contribution,” the press release outlined. “Other times, the person had an implicit understanding that Hostovich would advance the money or reimburse them based on her history of advancements and reimbursements of political contributions. Hostovich generally advanced or reimbursed these individuals in amounts that exceeded the exact contribution amount but often the amounts were very close to the contribution amount.” Fox News Digital reviewed a website promoting a book Hostovich wrote in 2024 on climbing America’s corporate ladder, which also touted Hostovich as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and that former President Joe Biden appointed her to serve on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts. “She is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and the White House Historical Association. President Biden recently appointed her to the President’s Advisory Committee for the Arts, and she is the Co-Chair of the Advisory Council to the Kennedy Center’s President and Chairman,” the bio states, which is accompanied by photos of Hostovich with high-profile Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton and Biden. Fox News Digital reached out to the Clinton Foundation for comment but did not immediately receive a reply. An archived official White House press release from 2023 under the Biden administration detailed Hostovich’s position on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, including touting her “corporate governance responsibility, political activism, and philanthropic work.” “She has combined her lifelong passion for the arts, history, and education with her corporate governance responsibility, political activism, and philanthropic work,” the bio states. “In addition to serving on the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for over a decade, she has been one of the Chairs (along with her husband and son) of Hollywood Bowl Opening Night many times (including 2023) honoring significant artists and showcasing the LA music community while raising money for Music Matters benefitting music/arts programs in public schools.” It is unclear how donations made in other people’s names would bolster her reported efforts to secure a spot on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. The president appoints general trustees to the board, while other members are appointed by Congress. CALIFORNIA WOMAN AND MAN CHARGED WITH ALLEGEDLY STEALING OVER $2 MILLION IN ILLEGAL COVID RELIEF FUNDS A representative for Hostovich told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement Tuesday morning that “Teena Hostovich has agreed to plead guilty to one count of making contributions in the name of another, involving five donations of $2,900 each in 2021. In doing so, she is accepting responsibility for her conduct early and swiftly.” The statement continued that Hostovich’s “mistakes are out of character,” arguing that her “career, accomplishments, and numerous charitable deeds reflect a lifetime of hard work and generosity.” “Her generosity and commitment to her community led to her involvement in donating and fundraising for causes and candidates that she believed would champion fairness, equality, and improve society,” the spokesperson continued. “She deeply regrets that her ardent support of some candidates led to lapses in judgment in a fraction of the donations she helped to raise and make. She is even more remorseful for the shadow that this investigation may cast on the candidates to whom the donations were made, as they had no knowledge of any wrongdoing.” “Throughout this process, Ms. Hostovich has cooperated fully and worked transparently with law enforcement authorities. She is committed to making the appropriate amends.” The DOJ did not identify in its press release which political party Hostovich favored, though Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reviewed by Fox News show Hostovich made hundreds of donations across the years to Democrat politicians, the Democratic Party and left-wing political action committees. Hostovich has nearly 1,000 entries on the