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SCOOP: McConnell-aligned groups set election year fundraising record in battle for Senate majority

SCOOP: McConnell-aligned groups set election year fundraising record in battle for Senate majority

EXCLUSIVE: Two outside groups aligned with longtime Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell report that they hauled in over $51 million in fundraising in the past three months as Republicans aim to win back the chamber’s majority in November’s elections. Senate Leadership Fund, which is the top super PAC backing Senate Republican incumbents and candidates, brought in $24.4 million in the January-March first quarter of 2024 fundraising. The affiliated non-profit public advocacy group One Nation raised $26.99 million. The two groups say their combined haul is a fundraising record for the first quarter of an election year. Their figures were shared first with Fox News Digital on Tuesday. The 82-year-old McConnell, who is the longest serving Senate leader in the nation’s history, announced two months ago that he would step down from his leadership position after the November elections. THIS FORMER FBI AGENT AIMS TO FLIP A BLUE HELD SENATE SEAT IN A CRUCIAL GENERAL ELECTION BATTLEGROUND One Nation brought in more than twice what it did in the same fundraising time period in the 2022 election cycle, and the Senate Leadership Fund roughly matched their first quarter haul in 2022. Senate Leadership Fund reported $59.5 million cash-on-hand as of April 1, with One Nation reporting $83 million in its coffers. DAUGHTER OF BLUE BASTION’S LAST GOP SENATOR BREAK’S STATE REPUBLICAN FUNDRAISING RECORD “Our donors know how consequential the battle for the Senate is this election cycle. We’re putting in the work to ensure Republicans have a lasting Senate Majority come January 2025,” Senate Leadership Fund president and CEO Steven Law told Fox News in a statement. Senate Majority PAC, the top outside group backing Senate Democrats, has yet to announce its first quarter fundraising figures. The super PAC, which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, outraised Senate Leadership Fund last year. Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority in the chamber, which includes three independent senators who caucus with the Democratic conference. That means Republicans need a net gain of either one or two seats to win back the majority – depending on which party controls the White House after this year’s presidential election. SIX KEY SENATE SEATS THAT COULD FLIP IN NOVEMBER  The math and the map favor the GOP in 2024. Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states that former President Trump carried in 2020 – West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. Additionally, Democrats are defending an open seat in West Virginia after Sen. Joe Manchin announced late last year that he would not seek re-election. Five other blue-held seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020 – Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.  In blue-state Maryland, Senate Republicans scored a recruiting success with popular former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan. Texas and Florida, where incumbent Sens. Ted Cruz and Rick Scott are seeking re-election, appear to be the only potentially competitive GOP-held seats up for grabs this November. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Columbia suspends students over anti-Israel event featuring speaker linked to terrorist organization

Columbia suspends students over anti-Israel event featuring speaker linked to terrorist organization

Columbia has suspended several students over an anti-Israel event last month that featured a speaker “known to support terrorism,” the university president announced Friday.  Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said in a statement that “a number of students have been suspended as the investigation continues” into a March 24 event that “took place at a campus residential facility” and “that the University had already barred, twice, from occurring.”  “It featured speakers who are known to support terrorism and promote violence. I want to state for the record that this event is an abhorrent breach of our values,” Shafik said.  The student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, reported that at least four students face disciplinary action in connection to the March 24 panel titled, “Resistance 101,” which featured Khaled Barakat among its speakers.  VIRAL COLUMBIA PROFESSOR WHO CALLED OUT CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM SAYS UNIVERSITY INVESTIGATING HIM IN ‘RETALIATION’ An Israeli government document links Barakat to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S. State Department designated foreign terrorist organization.  The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on March 25 also called out Barakat’s link to the PFLP terrorist group, noting how he told Columbia students during a webinar that “friends at Hamas and Islamic Jihad” emphasized the importance of support on U.S. college campuses, adding that by contrast, “they don’t care what Biden says, what Kamala Harris says.”  In the aftermath, Columbia also “notified law enforcement, and we hired an outside investigation firm to uncover all the facts,” Shafik said Friday. “With their help, we identified organizers and participants and required them to cooperate with the investigation or face immediate discipline. We are still in the process of interviewing students, faculty, and other members of the community and gathering facts.”  “I realize that our campus has been deeply shaken by the war between Israel and Hamas, starting Oct. 7 with the horrific Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, and now unfolding as a humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Shafik said. “I did not become a university president to punish students. At the same time, actions like this on our campus must have consequences. That I would ever have to declare the following is in itself surprising, but I want to make clear that it is absolutely unacceptable for any member of this community to promote the use of terror or violence.”  It at least appears that Columbia University is increasingly laying down the law on antisemitism before Shafik is expected to testify before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17 as part of the congressional probe into the surge of antisemitism at college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks carried out by Hamas on southern Israel. The presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn failed to directly condemn calls for intifada or the genocide of Jews on their campuses when they testified before Congress in December. The Harvard and UPenn presidents stepped down amid the controversy, although now-former Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned amid a separate plagiarism scandal. Shai Davidai, a Jewish professor at Columbia who claims the university is investigating him as a form of retaliation for publicly condemning campus inaction on antisemitism in viral video, took to X on Monday to praise the four student suspensions following the event featuring Barakat.  COLLEGE PRESIDENTS GROWING A SPINE? UNIVERSITIES INCREASINGLY LAYING DOWN THE LAW AGAINST ANTISEMITISM “That’s a good start, but not enough,” he wrote. “The pro-terror umbrella group that organized the event constitutes 94 different official student groups. ALL 94 heads of the organization should be given 24 hours to either denounce the umbrella group or be suspended from campus.” Davidai shared a TV clip flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute in which Barakat allegedly communicated that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement helps terrorists, that he openly supports terrorist organizations and that he receives money from terrorist organizations. One of the four students suspended and evicted from campus housing over the event featuring Barakat was the first speaker at a massive protest Thursday organized by the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Student Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers, the Spectator reported.  The protest drew more than 100 demonstrators, according to the student newspaper.  The suspended student, who was not named in the report, complained about how she had lost her full-ride scholarship to Columbia to pursue a master’s in Middle Eastern studies. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I left everything behind, my community, my partner, my work, my entire life based on Columbia’s promise of a full scholarship to pursue Palestine study,” she reportedly said. “Ironically, my mom was so happy when I was moving to the U.S. to study at Columbia. She believed I would finally be safe outside of Palestine. Columbia is not only a complicit institution, it is a violent institution.” The suspensions come after Shafik vowed to take action in a Friday statement. “We are in the process of identifying participants and they will face discipline under our policies,” Shafik said. “This university will only thrive if we can build a strong foundation of respect – both for each other and for our rules.” 

Hillary Clinton faced list of demands from protesters at her alma mater

Hillary Clinton faced list of demands from protesters at her alma mater

Hillary Clinton faced a list of radical demands from anti-Israel protesters who denounced her as a “war criminal” during her visit to her alma mater, Wellesly College, this week. A student-run Instagram page named “WC-against-HRC” posted the list of demands during Clinton’s visit this past weekend as protesters shouted at people attending Clinton’s talk. “As we protest, we firmly echo the demands that W alums, [Faculty for Justice in Palestine], and students have been calling on the admin to recognize since November,” the group wrote, adding, “Wellesley College admin and HRC have power and influence to meet our demands. The question is: Will they?” The list of 10 demands range from acknowledging the “ongoing genocide in Gaza,” to forcing the college to divest from companies they say are “perpetuating the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” and to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that tracks antisemitism. The demands also call for there to be swift and decisive consequences for “every reported incident of hate crimes, harassment, slander, defamation, doxxing, threats or intimidation” specifically made against “Palestinian advocacy.” BILL MAHER PANICS OVER TRUMP’S GAIN WITH YOUNG VOTERS: BIDEN MIGHT LOSE ‘BECAUSE HOT DOGS COST MORE’ Clinton had returned to campus to participate in a women-led democracy summit as well as to mark a new college center being named after her. Local news outlets say angry students also circulated pamphlets around campus saying Clinton is Wellesley’s “most beloved war criminal,” and arguing that she has “blood on her hands.” School administrators acknowledged the protest but did not condemn it. “I encourage all who participate in activism to follow the demonstration policy and be mindful of our Code of Student Conduct so that you remain safe for yourself, and for our community,” vice president and dean of students Sheilah Shaw Horton said in a statement prior to the protest. PRO-PALESTINIAN GROUP MAY HAVE RAISED MONEY FOR HAMAS, BROKE DONATION LAWS, STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS Clinton is no stranger to facing protests during her visits to American universities. Protesters repeatedly interrupted her during an appearance at Columbia University in February, with students calling her a “war criminal.” Saturday’s protest comes just days after Clinton chided U.S. voters during an appearance on the “Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon. Fallon asked Clinton what she would say to voters who are “upset” that former President Trump and President Biden are the only two choices. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Get over yourself. Those are the two choices,” Clinton responded. “One is old, and effective, and compassionate, has a heart and really cares about people. And one is old and has been charged with 91 felonies,” Clinton said.

Billionaire who helped Trump with $175M bond says he ‘probably didn’t charge enough’

Billionaire who helped Trump with 5M bond says he ‘probably didn’t charge enough’

The billionaire business mogul who provided former President Donald Trump with the massive bond required to appeal his case in New York says he might not have charged the former head-of-state a good price. Don Hankey is the chairman of Knight Specialty Insurance, the company that supplied the $175 million bond required by Trump’s New York civil fraud trial. Hankey told Reuters in an interview that he did not charge Trump a high fee for the financial service, saying he believed it was a small risk. NEW YORK APPEALS COURT DENIES TRUMP MOTION TO DELAY HUSH-MONEY TRIAL, SETTING UP JURY SELECTION FOR NEXT WEEK “We thought it would be an easy procedure that wouldn’t involve other legal problems and it’s not turning out that way. We probably didn’t charge enough,” Hankey told the outlet. The billionaire — who supported Trump in 2016 and is backing his re-election — said he has faced intense scrutiny from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office and other officials. Hankey told Reuters, “We have been getting a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls. Maybe that’s part of the reason he had trouble with other insurance companies.” TRUMP FILES MOTION REQUESTING JUDGE IN HUSH MONEY TRIAL BE RECUSED AMID DAUGHTER’S DEMOCRAT-AFFILIATED WORK “I’m surprised they’re coming down harder on our bond or looking for reasons to cause issues with our instrument,” he added. Trump’s bond was initially set at a staggering $454 million, a value so high he struggled to find firms willing to take on the risk. Hankey — believed to be worth over $7 billion dollars — approached the Trump campaign about rendering financial services before the bond was reduced to $175 million. The billionaire said Trump provided collateral for the bond in cash held by a brokerage firm. “I don’t know if it came from Donald Trump or from Donald Trump and supporters,” Hankey said. Jury selection for the civil fraud trial is expected to begin on April 15.