Trump silent as Biden signs $1.2 trillion spending bill amid GOP infighting
While House and Senate conservatives railed against the $1.2 trillion federal funding bill that passed Friday, as the de facto leader of the Republican Party remained silent. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumptive 2024 nominee, made no public comments, and his campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the bill, which President Biden signed into law on Saturday. “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” Biden, a Democrat, said in a statement. “But it rejects extreme cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, advances American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the border that my administration successfully fought to include. That’s good news for the American people.” Congress avoided a lengthy partial government shutdown Saturday when the Senate passed the spending package 74-24 in the wee hours of the morning. The bill passed the House on Friday by a vote of 286-134, with a majority of Republicans, 113, voting against it. US NATIONAL DEBT TRACKER FOR MARCH 22, 2024: SEE WHAT AMERICAN TAXPAYERS (YOU) OWE IN REAL TIME Republican opponents seethed as the package moved through Congress, arguing that it did little to address the $34 trillion national debt, funded Biden’s policies that they oppose and failed to include border security enforcement measures that GOP lawmakers had demanded in order to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The final vote violated the so-called Hastert Rule, a long held GOP “rule,” named after former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, that holds Republican leadership should allow votes only on bills that have a “majority of the majority” in agreement — in other words, only if a majority of Republicans support them. That outcome reflected deep divisions within the House GOP conference, with many Republicans expressing frustration at leadership for unveiling the 1,012-page package just 48 hours before lawmakers were asked to vote. “It’s total lack of backbone, total lack of leadership, and a total failure by Republican leadership. There’s no other way to describe it,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Thursday on former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon’s “War Room.” “This bill is an abomination.” SENATE PASSES MAMMOTH $1.2T SPENDING PACKAGE AFTER BRIEF PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN Senate Republicans who opposed the package made similar complaints, with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., telling Fox News Digital that it was an “utterly absurd, insulting and lawless suggestion that that is an appropriate legislative process.” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., accused the bill’s supporters of “caving to Biden & Schumer & voting for billions in earmarks and special interest giveaways,” in a post on X. GOP firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., went so far as to introduce a motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from leadership, accusing him of betrayal. Other Republicans, like Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said that removing Johnson would be a “mistake,” arguing that the speaker has done “the best he could” with a one-seat majority. While Washington Republicans fight each other, Trump has not yet offered a clear vision for how he would manage these spending crises, were he to win back the White House in 2024. HOUSE PASSES $1.2 TRILLION GOVERNMENT SPENDING BILL TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN On the campaign trail, the presumptive GOP nominee has insisted that he will pay off the national debt if he ousts Biden. But while Trump was president from 2017 through 2020, the laws and executive orders he signed added an estimated $8.4 trillion to the national debt, with interest, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). Indeed, Trump was responsible for signing several trillion-dollar omnibus spending bills into law, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Excluding COVID relief, Trump added $4.8 trillion to the debt over his four years in office, CRFB estimates. In his first two years in office, when the House and Senate were in Republican hands, the Trump White House unsuccessfully sought to cut about $15 billion in federal spending with a recissions request. That effort narrowly passed the House and died in the Senate, where Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Richard Burr, R-N.C. sided with Democrats on a procedural vote to kill it. In 2018, faced with a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, Trump backed down from a veto threat and reluctantly signed the bill, reasoning that it provided needed funds for the military. BIDEN SAYS $1.2T SPENDING PACKAGE IS ‘GOOD NEWS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,’ BUT CONGRESS’ WORK ISN’T OVER “I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again,” Trump said in remarks after he signed the bill. The very next year, Trump signed a $1.4 trillion spending package to avert a partial government shutdown. He did so again as one of his last acts as president in December 2020, putting his signature on another massive $1.4 trillion omnibus that included $900 billion in COVID-19 aid. But while Trump did not keep his promise to get federal spending under control in his first term, Biden is on track to exceed Trump’s debt accumulation by the end of this year. In his first three years as president, Biden has added $6.75 trillion to the national debt, according to Treasury Department data. In his final year, the Congressional Budget Office projects a deficit of $1.58 trillion — which would total $8.3 trillion by the end of Biden’s first term. Those estimates were made before Biden signed the new $1.2 trillion appropriations package on Saturday. Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget calls for $3.3 trillion in net deficit reduction, although the revenue that is needed to achieve that goal would mostly come from tax increases. Biden has promised not to increase taxes on those making less than $400,000, but he otherwise has called for a repeal of Trump’s tax cuts and additional taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Trump has campaigned on new rounds of tax cuts, arguing that economic growth stimulated by lower taxes will make up
Donald Trump Jr. wants a ‘fighter’ to serve as Trump’s VP: ‘Someone who can take those hits’
Donald Trump Jr. is on the search for a “fighter” to run alongside his father, former President Donald Trump, in the 2024 race for the White House. Highlighting the importance of the vice presidential role, Trump Jr., who is lobbying his father to choose a running mate who is willing to take on distinct challenges, told the New York Post that the position needs someone who can take the political attacks — and hit back. “What I want in that role is, I want a fighter,” said Trump Jr., 46. “I understand what they are going to throw at us.” “In 2016 you needed someone to balance out [the ticket] — that’s where Mike Pence made sense, sort of the yin and yang, but [given] the vicious nature of the swamp and the insanity we see on a daily basis, you need someone who can take those hits,” said Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest child. BILL MAHER PANICS OVER TRUMP’S GAIN WITH YOUNG VOTERS: BIDEN MIGHT LOSE ‘BECAUSE HOT DOGS COST MORE’ In his comments to the outlet, Trump Jr. said he’s pushing people like Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy; and former Fox News host and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. Trump Jr., although he said he will “never rule anything out,” told the Post that he isn’t looking to serve in his father’s administration if he gets re-elected this November, a stark contrast to that of his sister, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner — both of whom served in senior White House roles during Trump’s first term in office. RUBIO SAYS BEING TRUMP RUNNING MATE WOULD BE ‘INCREDIBLE HONOR’ Should Trump get re-elected later this year, Trump Jr. noted that he plans to be “very active” with the 2024 presidential transition team. However, the Post reported that Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, would remain committed to fundraising. “Mostly just to make sure we stop some of the D.C. swamp rats and the swamp creatures from getting in there and doing their thing,” he said. As for other individuals he would like to see run alongside his father, Trump Jr. mentioned John Ratcliffe, who previously served as the director of national intelligence, and Cliff Sims, a former special assistant to Trump who made a variety of claims in a 2019 tell-all memoir detailing his brief stint at the White House. Trump Jr. is mostly searching for someone who will be “loyal” and put forth the “America First” agenda that his father has preached for the last decade. TRUMP RUNNING MATE SCREEN TESTS: POTENTIAL CONTENDERS AUDITION FOR VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOD “There are so many great people to choose from now with the first four years of the administration, you have a good understanding of who would be great and loyal and implement the America First policies,” he said. Despite past remarks that his father has made with regard to political retribution, Trump Jr. told the outlet that his father is “going to lead the country the way it’s supposed to be led” and insisted that his sole “retribution will be success for our country.” Earlier this year, Trump said he already knew whom he was going to select to serve as his running mate, but wouldn’t announce their name yet. “I know who it’s going to be,” Trump said during a Fox News Town Hall event in January in Iowa. Earlier this month, several reports suggested that Trump had ruled out having Ramaswamy serve as his running mate and was instead considering him for a cabinet position. Several other leading Republicans — including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson — have been rumored to be under consideration as the former president’s running mate.
Judge allows GOP firebrands to sue two cities in deep-blue state for violating their free speech rights
A federal judge on Friday allowed a lawsuit from Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to proceed against two California cities that canceled their rallies in 2021. In a 22-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera said there is adequate evidence to suggest the GOP lawmakers have a legitimate claim against officials in Anaheim and Riverside, Calif., who shut down their events. But the judge castigated the two firebrands for alleging that a handful of liberal nonprofits had colluded with the cities to violate their free speech rights. The lawsuit had “numerous fatal deficiencies,” according to the judge. “Chief among them is the complete lack of any alleged facts to support a ‘meeting of the minds’ as required for a conspiracy claim.” HOUSE GOP FIREBRANDS ACCUSE 2 CITIES IN DEEP-BLUE STATE OF VIOLATING THEIR FREE SPEECH RIGHTS: LAWSUIT Gaetz and Greene had planned America First rallies in Anaheim and Riverside in 2021, but both venues in both cities canceled the events after they faced pressure from activist groups and local government officials. The lawsuit, filed last year, alleges their First Amendment rights were violated after the cities coerced the private venues to cancel the rallies, including a threat to revoke one venue’s permit. The GOP lawmakers sued, along with their funding committees. They want the court to issue an injunction that would ban cities from “coercing private venues from entering into facilities use contracts with Plaintiffs for future political rallies.” They also requested damages for emotional distress. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FILES MOTION TO OUST SPEAKER JOHNSON “This ruling allows the plaintiffs to proceed against the California liberal city governments who attempted to violate the First Amendment by constraining free speech,” Gaetz told Fox News Digital after Vera released his opinion Friday. But the judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ conspiracy claims against nine civil rights groups, including the NAACP, League of Women Voters and LULAC, as “utterly devoid of any specifics plausibly alleging such an agreement.” HOUSE PASSES $460 BILLION GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL BLASTED BY GOP HARDLINERS “The gravamen of Plaintiff’s claims against the Nonprofit Defendants is, both legally and literally, a conspiracy theory that relies purely on conjecture,” wrote Vera, a President Biden appointee. “And without an unlawful conspiracy,” the judge continued, “all that is left to aver against the Nonprofit Defendants are the unremarkable allegations that they exercised their own First Amendment rights to lobby for the cancellation of the event. That is protected.” Vera said that Gaetz and Greene could not claim that their First Amendment rights had been violated by activist groups — made up of private citizens — calling for their events to be shut down. In fact, the juge accused the GOP lawmakers of attempting to “settle political scores against these civic organizations” by filing the “unprecedented and stunningly deficient pleading” in the first place. “[H]aling nine civil rights groups into federal court for speaking out against an event — should shock in equal measure civic members from across the political spectrum.” Fox News Digital’s Patrick Hauf contributed to this report.
Republicans blast Biden admin’s ‘Red Flag Operation’ as one that will ‘violate’ Second Amendment rights
Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Florida on Saturday where she will tout a Biden administration effort to provide “training and technical assistance” to individuals “responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.” The new program drew immediate backlash from some Republicans who called the effort a “massive Red Flag Operation.” The National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, according to a Saturday Department of Justice press release, will specifically provide assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations and behavioral health professionals. “ERPO laws, which are modeled off domestic violence protection orders, create a civil process allowing law enforcement, family members (in most states), and medical professionals or other groups (in some states) to petition a court to temporarily prohibit someone at risk of harming themselves or others from purchasing and possessing firearms for the duration of the order,” DOJ noted. PARKLAND VICTIM’S DAD SLAMS VP KAMALA HARRIS’ ‘PHOTO OP’ VISIT TO ‘PUSH AN AGENDA’: ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’ During her visit to Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed in a February 2018 mass shooting, Harris is expected to introduce the effort and call “on states to pass red flag laws” and use federal funding to implement existing laws, according to the White House. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the effort will provide “valuable resources” to those seeking to keep firearms out of the hands of those deemed a threat to themselves and others. “The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” Garland said. “The establishment of the Center is the lates t example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.” Through the resource center and its website, the Justice Department noted that “states, local governments, law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service providers, and behavioral health and other social service providers will have direct access to critical information that will enhance their ability to reduce firearm homicides and suicides.” “The website will be maintained and updated to include newly developed resources for the field created through the Center, in partnership with [the Bureau of Justice Assistance],” the DOJ said. “The website also provides a platform for the Center to highlight emerging and promising practices in successful ERPO implementation and connect states and localities to innovative strategies to reduce gun violence and save lives.” The creation of the resource operation quickly drew the ire of some House Republicans who blasted the effort as a “Federal Red Flag center” that the DOJ will use to “violate” the Second Amendment rights of Americans. NRA SLAMS BIDEN’S SOTU SPEECH AS ATTACK ON ‘THE VERY FABRIC OF AMERICAN FREEDOM’ “What the hell is this evil? A Federal Red Flag center; We did not authorize this. Announced, of course, just hours after the omnibus passes,” Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie wrote in a post to X. Echoing Massie, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed concern in a post on social media over how the effort could be used to target certain Americans. “Merrick Garland just announced a massive Red Flag Operation that the DOJ will be running by using EVERY spy tool the US government has in order to violate American’s Second Amendment!! This comes right after Johnson fully funded Biden’s weaponized DOJ!” Greene wrote on X. Greene’s comment on the effort comes one day after she filed a motion to vacate Johnson, accusing him of having “betrayed” the “confidence” of the House GOP Conference by ushering through a $1.2 trillion federal funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown. The Biden administration has been steadfast in its mission to implement a variety of gun control measures since President Biden took office in 2021. During the president’s State of the Union address earlier this month, Biden called out the National Rifle Association and demanded strict gun control measures, such as banning so-called assault weapons. “I’m proud we beat the NRA when I signed [the] most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years because of this Congress. We now must beat the NRA again. I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Pass universal background checks,” Biden said at the time. “None of this — none of this — I taught the Second Amendment for 12 years. None of this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun owners,” he continued. The DOJ did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about the ERPO effort. Fox News’ Emma Colton and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Congress releases 4th list of 46 candidates, Ajay Rai to contest against PM Modi in Varanasi
The Congress fielded its veteran leader Digvijaya Singh from Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh and newly-inducted leader Lal Singh from Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur.
Biden says $1.2T spending package is ‘good news for the American people,’ but Congress’ work isn’t over
President Joe Biden thanked Congressional leaders Saturday after the Senate passed a controversial six-bill government funding package in the early hours of the day following a brief partial government shutdown. “Thank you to Leaders Schumer and McConnell, Senators Murray and Collins, Speaker Mike Johnson, Leader Jeffries, and Representatives Granger and DeLauro, for their leadership,” Biden said in a statement. The President called the mammoth $1.2 trillion spending package “a compromise,” which, he said, “means neither side got everything it wanted.” SENATE PASSES MAMMOTH $1.2T SPENDING PACKAGE AFTER BRIEF PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN “But it rejects extreme cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, advances American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the border that my Administration successfully fought to include,” Biden said in a statement. The President proceeded to call the package “good news for the American people.“ “But I want to be clear: Congress’ work isn’t finished,” Biden continued in the statement. He went on to urge the House of Representatives to pass the bipartisan national security supplemental and Congress to pass the bipartisan border security agreement, calling it “the roughest and fairest reforms in decades” in a means to secure the border. SEN. KLOBUCHAR HIT FOR 2 AM POST TAKING CREDIT FOR PASSAGE OF $1.2 TRILLION SPENDING BUDGET: ‘YOU’RE WELCOME’ “It’s time to get this done,” Biden said. Senators voted in favor of passing the spending package by a vote of 74-24. The text for the group of bills was only unveiled in the early hours of Thursday morning. The appropriations measures were then considered in the House Friday morning. They were ultimately passed by a vote of 286–134, with a majority of Republicans, 112, voting against them. Prior to the package’s approval by the upper chamber, the outlook for avoiding a partial government shutdown looked bleak, as Republican senators claimed Democrats were unwilling to take up their requested amendment votes. It was only in the last hour that senators appeared to have reached an agreement, returning to the chamber floor and exchanging papers prior to beginning the voting process. LAKEN RILEY AMENDMENT AT CENTER OF SENATE STANDOFF IN PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BATTLE A $460 billion funding package that included six of the twelve appropriations bills passed in both chambers earlier this month, despite vocal Republican opposition to the amount being spent, what the money is being put toward, and what they described as breaches of procedure. Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
Israel lauds Congress’ blow to UN agency with alleged Hamas ties as investigations continue
Congress included a measure to block funding to a controversial United Nations agency that is under investigation for alleged ties to Hamas. Israel praised the move to prevent funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as part of the spending bill passed early Saturday morning. “The historic ban on US funding to UNRWA that passed today with overwhelming bipartisan support, demonstrates what we knew all along: UNRWA is part of the problem and can not be part of the solution,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a post on social media platform X, adding a plea for other nations to follow suit. “UNRWA will not be a part of Gaza’s landscape in the aftermath of Hamas,” Katz wrote. “Thousands of UNRWA employees are involved in Hamas terror activities, and their facilities were used for terrorist purposes.”, UNRWA suffered a debilitating budget freeze after allegations surfaced in January that at least 12 of its employees had ties to and assisted Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel. The U.S. first cut funding based on information Israel had shared, followed by several other major allies, and UNRWA fired the 12 employees named in the allegations. SENATE PASSES MAMMOTH $1.2T SPENDING PACKAGE AFTER BRIEF PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN Some nations, such as Canada and Sweden, resumed funding based on their own preliminary reviews, but the U.S. doubled down on its commitment to keep UNRWA at a distance with a new provision included in the $1.2 trillion government spending bill passed on Friday night in the House and approved in the Senate on Saturday. The bill included a ban on funding for UNRWA for the remainder of calendar year 2024 and blocks any funding until March 25, 2025. “Notwithstanding any other provision of any other division of this Act, funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act or other Acts making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs, including provisions of Acts providing supplemental appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs, may not be used for a contribution, grant, or other payment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency,” the item states. HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIR ‘CAN’T DEFEND’ JOHNSON AMID PUSH TO OUST SPEAKER UNRWA earlier this week argued in a statement that the funding cut will “undermine the effort to assist Gazans and potentially further weaken regional stability.” The bill does, however, set aside $175 million in funds for other humanitarian projects in the West Bank and Gaza, which will be distributed through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to The Times of Israel. The funds remain subject to severe scrutiny of spending and dispersal and subsequent review in order to avoid diversion to Hamas or other terrorist and extremist entities in the Palestinian territories. HOUSE REPUBLICANS SLAM $200 MILLION IN FUNDING FOR NEW FBI HQ The U.S. is also pursuing President Biden’s plan to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean Sea to provide a maritime corridor for humanitarian aid delivery. The first vessel carrying equipment necessary to build the pier departed from Cyprus on March 10, The Military Times reported. UNRWA remains under two investigations to determine the full extent of its alleged ties to Hamas, which Israeli intelligence alleges run so deep that it includes hundreds if not thousands of UNRWA employees with ties to the terrorist organization. The United Nations investigation, carried out by its Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), will publish its findings in April, but an interim report provided to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres provided information that led some nations to reverse their funding freeze for the agency. Another, independent review carried out by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna commenced following the allegations against the UNRWA employees, specifically citing concerns that UNRWA was not maintaining its neutrality policy. Colonna’s group issued an interim report on March 20, 2024, with a completed report expected exactly one month later. The interim report claimed that URNWA has “a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the Humanitarian Principle of neutrality, and the group has also identified critical areas that still need to be addressed.”
Meet the former Dem Congressman facing more federal charges than George Santos
A California Democrat who previously represented the Golden State in the House has been offered a plea deal over wire fraud, money laundering and other federal charges stemming from 2022. Terrance John “T.J.” Cox, who represented California’s 21st Congressional District from 2019 to 2021, is facing a combined 28 charges — five more than the number of charges currently faced by former New York GOP Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from Congress late last year. A hearing for Cox — whose plea deal was noted in court documents filed Wednesday — was originally slated to take place on March 27 but was moved May 22 due to the “extremely voluminous” amount of digital records, hundreds of thousands of financial records and reports and other evidence that Cox’s attorney will review to assess the offer, according to the documents. Though details related to the plea deal were not immediately available, the documents confirmed the “defendant received and is considering the government’s plea offer.” FORMER DEMOCRATIC CALIFORNIA CONGRESSMAN TJ COX INDICTED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING AND FRAUD Mark Coleman, the attorney for Cox, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter. Cox surrendered to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in August 2022 and was conditionally released at the same time after appearing virtually before a federal judge. At the time, Cox was charged with 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, one count of financial institution fraud and one count of campaign contribution fraud. At the time of his arrest, prosecutors detailed in the 25-page indictment how Cox allegedly stole $1.7 million from clients and companies he was associated with from 2013 to 2018. In one instance, Cox allegedly solicited a $100,000 loan for one of his companies in April 2017 but failed to pay the principal back to the two investors. “More than $40,000 of [the loan] was used for Cox’s personal expenses, including private school tuition, credit card payments, mortgage payments and a $7,000 payment to Cox’s private political consultant,” prosecutors wrote. EXPELLED GEORGE SANTOS ANNOUNCES BID FOR RETURN TO CONGRESS AS INDEPENDENT When Cox was a candidate for U.S. Congress in the 2018 election, he allegedly arranged for more than $25,000 in illegal straw donations by funding or reimbursing family members and associates after they gave money to his campaign. Cox is also accused of providing fabricated bank statements on a mortgage application and fraudulently obtaining a $1.5 million construction loan to build a recreation area in Fresno. That loan went into default, resulting in a loss of more than $1.2 million, according to prosecutors. The total number of charges faced by Cox exceeds those faced by Santos, who became the first House lawmaker to be expelled in more than 20 years after a vote by his then-colleagues last December. Santos has not been convicted of a crime, but he has been indicted on 23 counts related to wire fraud, identity theft, falsification of records, credit card fraud and other charges. Santos has been accused of using campaign funds on a number of luxury goods and treatments such as botox. He has pleaded not guilty. The 311-to-114 vote to oust Santos from Congress was strongly bipartisan, although slightly more Republicans voted to keep him. Santos — who represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District — announced on Friday he would make another congressional bid to reclaim a seat in the House, but this time as an Independent candidate. He will run to unseat Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican, who represents New York’s 1st Congressional District. Cox, now 60 years old, flipped California’s 21st congressional district in 2018 but lost to Republican Rep. David Valadao by 862 votes in 2020. Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
S Jaishankar dismisses China’s repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh, calls it…
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday dismissed China’s repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh as “ludicrous” and asserted that the frontier state was a “natural part of India”.
Wyoming governor signs bill outlawing gender-reassignment procedures on children, vetoes abortion restrictions
Wyoming’s Republican Governor Mark Gordon signed into legislation Friday a bill outlawing gender-reassignment procedures on children and vetoed a bill that would have imposed further restrictions on abortion clinics, including required licensure. SF0099, also titled “Children gender change prohibition,” prohibits physicians from performing gender-reassignment procedures on children and administering related medications. The legislation specifically banned “a surgery that sterilizes the child, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty.” The legislation continued on to specify that outlawed medications under the legislation included “any of the following prescription drugs that induce transient or permanent infertility,” proceeded by a list of medications, including “puberty suppression or blocking prescription drugs to stop or delay normal puberty.” WYOMING JUDGE TO RULE ON ABORTION LAWS, INCLUDING THE FIRST-IN-THE-NATION BAN ON ABORTION PILLS The bill also outlined various procedures that were exempt from the legislation, such as procedures or treatments performed on a child as a result of “a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development.” The legislation specified that parental/guardian consent was required. “I signed SF99 because I support the protections this bill includes for children, however, it is my belief that the government is straying into the personal affairs of families” Gordon said in a statement released. “Our legislature needs to sort out its intentions with regard to parental rights. While it inserts governmental prerogative in some places, it affirms parental rights in others.” TRUMP SUGGESTS HE WOULD SUPPORT ABORTION BAN AT AROUND 15 WEEKS OF PREGNANCY Gordon also vetoed HB0148, known as “Regulation of abortions,” that would have placed additional restrictions on abortion clinics in the state. The press release noted that the bill would have “properly regulated surgical abortion clinics in Wyoming,” but “amendments to the bill complicated its purpose, making it vulnerable to legal challenges.” The legislation would have required a surgical abortion facility in the state to be licensed as “an ambulatory surgical center,” and a facility conducting the procedures would need a separate license as well. NEW STUDY FINDS WOMEN WHO CHOOSE SUPPORTIVE BIRTH SERVICES OVER ABORTION BENEFIT IN TRAGIC FETAL ANOMALY CASES “It is my opinion that HB148, as amended, had the potential to further delay the resolution of this critical issue for the unborn,” Gordon said in the statement. “The potential of starting over on a new course of legal arguments would in my mind be derelict, and would have only sacrificed additional unborn lives in Wyoming.” Abortion is currently legal in Wyoming, pending a court decision challenging the state’s abortion laws. On the national scale, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Tuesday about the federal government’s approval process of the drug mifepristone, a medication used to terminate pregnancies. A ruling is expected about three months later. The Supreme Court is currently allowing the FDA to continue regulating the drug while the appeals process plays out. Such regulation includes continued telemedicine prescriptions and retail pharmacy dispensing. Fox News’ Shannon Bream, Bill Mears and The Associated Press contributed to this report.