Trump to attend Club for Growth retreat as group works to ‘unite’ GOP, ensure Biden ‘is a one-term president’
Former President Trump will attend Club for Growth’s annual economic retreat Friday evening as the group works to unite the Republican Party and put its full support behind the 2024 GOP frontrunner to “win back the White House and more” in November. The retreat is set to take place at The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. The annual event is expected to see attendance from 125 major donors. TRUMP WINS THE MICHIGAN GOP PRIMARY, BRINGING HIM ONE STEP CLOSER TO SECURING REPUBLICAN NOMINATION “The entire conservative movement and Republican Party are coalescing around President Trump in order to beat Joe Biden and take back the White House,” a source close to Trump told Fox News Digital. Trump and the Club for Growth were at odds last year. A source familiar told Fox News Digital that the rift was due to “the issue of electability after the 2022 elections.” But the source told Fox News Digital that current polling shows “that isn’t a concern, and Trump is on track to beat Biden.” Club for Growth President David McIntosh told Fox News Digital Friday that the group and Trump “have accomplished a lot of work together.” TRUMP ‘REALLY NOT THINKING ABOUT’ HALEY AFTER SOUTH CAROLINA VICTORY, SAYS HE’S FOCUSED ON BEATING BIDEN “From tax reform to deregulation, President Trump unleashed prosperity for all Americans,” he said, adding that the United States “stands at a crossroad.” “Inflation and interest rates are pricing middle-class families out of homeownership, and too many parents are having trouble putting food on the table,” he said. “Crime is destroying cities and seeping into the suburbs, and our public schools are spending more than ever and failing our kids.” McIntosh told Fox News Digital that “Joe Biden and the radical Progressives only make things worse — this is what woke looks like.” McIntosh said that 2024 is “the most important election of our time.” TRUMP SAYS SOUTH CAROLINA IS A ‘BIGGER WIN THAN WE ANTICIPATED,’ LOOKS FORWARD TO SAYING ‘JOE, YOU’RE FIRED’ “It’s time for Republicans to unite and put our differences aside,” he explained. “We need to work together to make sure Biden is a one-term president. We need to grow our majority in the House and reclaim the majority in the Senate. We need to restore the American Dream, and the only we can do that is by working together.” He added: “President Trump always says, ‘When Trump and the Club for Growth are together, we always win.’ And together we are going to win back the White House and more this November.” Trump has dominated the early primaries, winning in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, South Carolina and Michigan. Trump will likely secure the GOP nomination by next week after the Super Tuesday primary contests. His sole opponent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, has vowed to stay in the race. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Biden appears to mix up Ukraine and Gaza in meeting with Italian prime minister
President Biden appeared to mix up Ukraine and Gaza while talking about the war-torn regions in a bilateral Oval Office meeting with Italy’s prime minister Friday. “Today, I also, we’re going to discuss the Middle East and yesterday’s tragic and alarming event in north Gaza, trying to get humanitarian in there and the loss of life is heartbreaking,” the president said, referring to the dozens killed there Thursday, when humanitarian aid trucks came under fire. He had previously mentioned passing legislation in support of Ukraine. He continued on Gaza, “People are so desperate that innocent people got caught in a terrible war to feed their families. And you saw the response when they tried to get aid. And we need to do more. And the United States will do more in the coming days. We’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of, additional food and supplies into Ukraine and, seek to continue to open up other avenues in the Ukraine, including the possibility of a marine corridor, deliver large amounts of humanitarian assistance in addition to expanding deliveries by land.” ABC NEWS MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT WON’T SAY IF BIDEN PHYSICALLY UP TO THE JOB: ‘I’M NOT HIS PHYSICIAN’ He added that the U.S. would “insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need. No excuses. The truth is, aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke briefly, and they didn’t take any questions from reporters in the room. The mix-up is Biden’s latest gaffe. Last month he appeared to confuse NATO with Ukraine while talking to reporters in Delaware, and he also mixed up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt earlier last month. BIDEN CONFUSES PRESIDENTS OF MEXICO AND EGYPT AFTER DEFENDING ‘FINE’ MEMORY: ‘HARD TO WATCH’ The 81-year-old’s mental fitness has been under scrutiny since Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on the president’s mishandling of classified documents last month said he had a “poor memory.” “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote in the report, explaining that the president would not face any charges. Former President Trump, the Republican frontrunner, has also had his share of gaffes, most recently in January appearing to confuse opponent Nikki Haley for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
UN official warns of possible war crimes, rape as a weapon in Sudan
The United Nations human rights chief has said that the apparent deliberate denial of safe access for humanitarian agencies within war-torn Sudan could amount to a war crime. “Sudan has become a living nightmare. Almost half of the population – 25 million people – are in urgent need of food and medical aid. Some 80 percent of hospitals have been put out of service,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said on Friday. The Sudan crisis “continues to be marked by an insidious disregard for human life”, he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, saying that many of the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the warring parties “may amount to war crimes, or other atrocity crimes”. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been fighting Sudan’s army for control of the country since April last year in a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions inside and outside the country, and sparked warnings of famine. Both sides “have killed thousands, seemingly without remorse”, Turk said, noting the use of heavy artillery, even in densely populated urban areas. He said in 11 months, at least 14,600 people had been killed and 26,000 others injured. “Actual figures are undoubtedly much higher.” Noting the implications of the apparent denial of aid, he called on the warring parties to “meet their legal obligations by opening humanitarian corridors without delay, before more lives are lost”. Aid supplies have been looted and humanitarian workers attacked, while international agencies and NGOs have complained about bureaucratic obstacles to get into the army-controlled hub of Port Sudan to get humanitarian assistance into the country. Last month, the UN urged countries not to forget about civilians, appealing for $4.1bn to meet their humanitarian needs and support the more than 1.5 million people who have fled to neighbouring countries. “With more than eight million forced to flee within Sudan and to neighbouring countries, this crisis is upending the country and profoundly threatening peace, security and humanitarian conditions throughout the entire region,” Turk said. Rape as a weapon of war The rights chief also highlighted another weapon in Sudan’s continuing war. “Sexual violence as a weapon of war, including rape, has been a defining – and despicable – characteristic of this crisis since the beginning,” he said. Since last April, his team has documented 60 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, involving at least 120 victims across the country, the vast majority women and girls, he said but added that “these figures are sadly a vast underrepresentation of the reality.” “Men in RSF uniform and armed men affiliated with the RSF, were reported to be responsible for 81 percent of the documented incidents,” Turk said. According to a report to the UN Security Council, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, sexual violence by the RSF and its allied militia was widespread. The panel of experts said that, according to reliable sources from Geneina, a city in west Darfur, women and girls as young as 14 were raped by RSF elements in a UN World Food Programme storage facility that the paramilitary force controlled, in their homes, or when returning home to collect belongings after being displaced by the violence. Additionally, 16 girls were reportedly kidnapped by RSF soldiers and raped in an RSF house. “Racial slurs toward the Masalit and non-Arab community formed part of the attacks,” the panel said. “Neighbourhoods and homes were continuously attacked, looted, burned and destroyed,” especially those where Masalit and other African communities lived, and their people were harassed, assaulted, sexually abused, and at times, executed. The panel stressed that disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians – including torture, rape and killing, as well as destruction of critical civilian infrastructure – constitute war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. “Perpetrators of the horrific human rights violations and abuses must be held to account, without delay,” Turk said on Friday. “And without delay, the international community must refocus its attention on this deplorable crisis before it descends even further into chaos. The future of the people of Sudan depends on it.” Adblock test (Why?)
Hamas says seven captives killed in Israeli army bombing of Gaza
The group’s military wing confirms the news after an investigation although it does not state when the captives died. The military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas says seven more captives held in the Gaza Strip have died as a result of Israel’s bombardment of the besieged enclave. Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, made the statement on the Telegram app on Friday. The group said it confirmed the news following investigations conducted over the past few weeks after it had lost contact with the fighters who had been holding the captives. Hamas seized about 250 Israelis and foreigners during its October 7 attacks on southern Israel, of whom about 130 are believed to still be held captive. The Qassam Brigades said three of the captives mentioned in Friday’s statement had been identified, but it did not clarify when the seven had died. The group said the total number of captives killed as a result of Israeli military operations “may have exceeded” 70. ‘Second priority’ for Israel The deaths of the captives show that Israel’s government considers them a “secondary priority”, Omar Ashour, a professor of security and military studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera. “The [Israeli military’s] first priority is to destroy the armed wing of Hamas and the other Palestinian factions, to undermine them in any way, even if it costs the lives of some of the hostages,” Ashour said. Friday’s reported deaths also indicate that Israel’s war strategy is not achieving its objectives, he said, adding: “We are in the 147th day of the war, and there are more and more hostages dying, the majority of them by Israeli fire.” During a Qatari-mediated weeklong truce in November, 105 captives were released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. “The only way to release the hostages safely is the way it was done before – through some sort of negotiations. The Israeli government knows that/ … They just don’t want to admit it,” Ashour said. A Palestinian prisoner hugs his mother after being released during a captive-prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on December 1, 2023 [Ammar Awad/Reuters] Truce talks ongoing Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 30,228 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139. Egyptian, Qatari and United States mediators are currently scrambling to lock down a new truce. In telephone talks on Thursday, the three countries’ leaders set out what a ceasefire deal could look like, the White House said. “The leaders underscored that the release of hostages would result in an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks,” the White House said. However, Israel’s Walla news site, citing a senior Israeli official, reported that Israel has told Egypt and Qatar that it will not proceed with ceasefire negotiations until Hamas sends it a list of Israeli captives who remain alive in the Gaza Strip. The official said Israel is also seeking a “serious answer” from Hamas on the number of Palestinian prisoners it is requesting be released as part of a potential deal, Walla reported. Adblock test (Why?)
Will Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community serve in its military?
There is renewed push to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the Israeli military. Israel has called on its reserves to wage its ground war on Gaza. But its ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has an exemption to military service going back decades. Now, the defence minister says they need to join the fight. But can a national consensus be reached on such a divisive issue? And can Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government survive the fallout from such a policy change? Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra Guests: Efraim Inbar – President of The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security Akiva Eldar – Political analyst and former columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper Yehoshua Pfeffer – Community rabbi and executive member of Netzah Yehuda Adblock test (Why?)
Haley slams Trump for Senate losses, calls out GOP lawmakers for courting him
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley blamed former President Trump Friday for recent Republican losses in critical electoral races, including those for seats in the Senate, while expressing hope the GOP’s new leader in the upper chamber is focused on setting a tone rather than courting Trump. “You’re seeing the wave of what Congress thinks they need to do to win,” Haley told reporters during a briefing at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood. Haley was likely referencing Trump’s dominance over the House and Senate relative to endorsements and influence. But Haley suggested lawmakers who cater to the former president are misguided because Republicans have lost pivotal matchups since his presidency. SENATE REPUBLICANS KEEP HOPE FOR MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT ALIVE “All of these losses happened after Donald Trump became president in 2016,” she said, noting gubernatorial, federal and statewide losses in Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. Haley claimed the only reason Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., was elected in 2021 was because “he distanced himself” from Trump. Youngkin’s political team declined to comment to Fox News Digital. “It’s not an accurate statement,” according to Zack Roday, a former Youngkin adviser and partner at Ascent Media. DC PRIMARY REPRESENTS HALEY’S BEST CHANCE YET TO BEAT TRUMP “Glenn Youngkin won because he built a movement and coalition of Republicans, independents and even Democrats who wanted a new direction for Virginia.” Despite the losses, Haley claimed members of the House and Senate are now “falling all over themselves to show that they’re more Trump than everybody else.” Haley weighed in on what the next Senate Republican leader should bring to the table after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s surprise announcement Wednesday that he’s stepping down. She didn’t suggest any specific senators for the role but explained she wants a leader focused on the people and “not rewarding people for peacocking on TV.” “I want to see somebody inspirational. I want to see somebody that says, ‘You know what, we can do things differently,’” Haley said. “My hope is that we will. But we’ll have to see.” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital the campaign’s focus is now on Biden and the general election. “Republican voters have delivered resounding wins for President Trump in every single primary contest, and this race is over,” she said. SHIRTLESS GOP US SENATE CANDIDATE TAKES COLD PLUNGE IN WISCONSIN LAKE, CHALLENGES DEMOCRATIC OPPONENT So far, only Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has announced a bid for the leadership position in the Republican conference. But several other senators are rumored to be considering their own bids for the coveted role. Senators John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; John Thune, R-S.D.; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have all also been suggested as potential successors to McConnell.
Texas prosecutor disciplined for allowing murder charge against woman who self-managed an abortion
The State Bar of Texas has fined and suspended Starr County’s district attorney for pursuing a murder indictment against 26-year-old woman after she self-managed an abortion.
Biden border visit underscores Kamala Harris’ shrinking role in handling migrant crisis
President Biden visited the southern border in Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday, and was joined by a number of top officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but Vice President Kamala Harris was not among them. Biden spoke in Brownsville after meeting with Border Patrol, law enforcement and local leaders. He urged Republicans to back a bipartisan Senate bill that he believes will help solve the raging crisis at the southern border. “It’s real simple, it’s time to act, it is long past time to act,” the president said. “It’s time for us to move on this, we can’t wait any longer.” BIDEN, DURING VISIT TO OVERWHELMED BORDER, URGES REPUBLICANS TO BACK SENATE BILL: ‘TIME TO ACT’ But the vice president, who was tasked in 2021 with leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the “root causes” of migration, was not there. The administration had initially leaned firmly into the root-causes narrative in early 2021, claiming that those causes – which include climate change, violence, poverty and economic insecurity – were driving migration to the U.S. border. Its answer, therefore, was to engage with governments and to invest in targeting those causes, eventually bringing migration down. The assignment quickly led to Harris being dubbed the “border czar” – a title the White House rejected, stressing instead that it was more to do with international engagement. She would go on to visit the border in El Paso in June 2021 after facing pressure. As part of that effort, Harris has been attempting to rally private-sector investment to the region via a Call to Action – particularly into the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. “First, I do believe most people don’t want to leave home. They don’t want to leave their grandmother. They don’t want to leave the place where they worship and the community that they’ve always known,” Harris said in 2022. “And so, when they do, it is usually for one of two reasons: They are fleeing harm, or to stay means they simply cannot satisfy their basic needs or the needs of their family.” A year ago, Harris announced an additional $950 million in response to the Call to Action, bringing in a total of more than $4.2 billion since May 2021. But since then, her public role only appears to have continually shrunk, even amid a historic year for illegal immigration, with more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in FY 23. FY 24 has been similarly overwhelming, with over 300,000 encounters in December. Harris was not part of the border tour on Thursday, nor was she part of a delegation to Mexico City in December with Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In that meeting, the two countries, according to a White House readout, “reaffirmed their existing commitments on fostering an orderly, humane, and regular migration.” “This includes reinforcing our partnership to address the root causes of migration, such as poverty, inequality, and violence, and for the two countries’ initiative for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans,” it said. Yet, despite the discussions on root causes, Harris was not in attendance. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. The L.A. Times recently reported that Harris will meet with new Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo in Washington to announce more private-sector investment. 7.2M ENTERED US UNDER BIDEN ADMIN, AN AMOUNT GREATER THAN POPULATION OF 36 STATES But root causes, while still on the agenda, have appeared to be less of a focus for the administration in its border strategy — in part because the migration surge has increasingly been coming from countries coming outside of the Northern Triangle, including from Venezuela, Nicaragua and China. The administration is now focused on passing the Senate border bill, which has bipartisan support but has struggled to gain enough support to pass due to conservative opposition. The bill includes additional funding for staffing at the border, funding for cities and NGOs, as well as rules tightening asylum and a mechanism to shut down entries when they reach a certain level. Conservatives say it would codify an unnecessarily high level of illegal entries. Harris has put out a statement calling for Congress to pass the bill earlier this month. “Let us remember: we are a nation of immigrants. Immigrants have always helped strengthen our country, grow our economy, and drive innovation. We know that in America, diversity is our strength,” she said. “So rather than politicize this issue, let us all address it with the urgency and seriousness it requires.”
Powerless over power: After shifts in GOP landscape, McConnell’s leadership draws to a close
I asked a learned lawmaker a few years ago about what they thought would happen to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Former President Trump was in office and starting to take digs at the Kentucky Republican. McConnell was then the Majority Leader. Trump began lobbing verbal brickbats at McConnell, imploring him to shred the legislative filibuster in the Senate. The lawmaker knew McConnell well. But doubted that Trump could lay a hand on McConnell. “Mitch craves power,” said the lawmaker. “He’ll never leave. They’ll have to take him out of here in a pine box.” Addison Mitchell McConnell isn’t leaving the Senate. Yet. The prophesy from the political soothsayer may yet come true. McConnell plans to remain in the Senate through at least January, 2027 — the end of his term. CROWDED FIELD OF POTENTIAL MCCONNELL SUCCESSORS EMERGES IN SENATE Anyone who aspires to a senior Congressional leadership position certainly craves power to some degree. But political power is mutable. Protean. It fluctuates. And those who have power today are certainly not guaranteed to wield it tomorrow. Especially on Capitol Hill. It’s not known where McConnell stands on the congressional scale measuring the quest for power in Washington. McConnell procured power as the longest-serving Senate leader of either party, besting stalwarts like late Senate Majority Leaders Mike Mansfield, D-Mont., Joseph Robinson, D-Ark., Robert Byrd, D-W.V., and Alben Barkley, D-Ky. But like the others, McConnell had only power — not superpowers. And everyone lacks power over maintaining power. MITCH MCCONNELL STEPPING DOWN AS REPUBLICAN LEADER “I turned 82 last week. The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” said McConnell. “Father Time remains undefeated.” It wasn’t so much that time caught up to McConnell. It’s just that so much time passed. That made it more challenging to preserve that power. Factors began multiplying. All working against McConnell. Time and age began toiling against McConnell. There was his health. A bad fall last year kept McConnell out of the Senate for six weeks. McConnell then suffered several episodes where he froze in public – seemingly unable to speak. Whispers began around the Senate corridors that McConnell’s time as Republican Leader was nearly up — even though McConnell secretly decided he would step aside from his post at the end of this Congress. Former President Trump resumed his verbal assaults on McConnell, pushing for a new GOP Leader — especially if the former President returns to the White House. But the rhetorical cartridge shells from the former president weren’t what drove McConnell out. They were a symptom. The Republican Party shifted over time. As the grains of sand slipped through the hourglass, so did the granules of McConnell’s power. Slowly. Methodically. But, surely. McConnell said he arrived on Capitol Hill at the beginning of President Ronald Reagan’s second term. Unfamiliar with the new senator from the Bluegrass State, McConnell said the Gipper called him Mitch “O’Donnell.” Now McConnell departs with former President Trump calling him an “Old Crow.” McConnell embraced the avian moniker. Like McConnell, Henry Clay is one of Kentucky’s other great statesmen, formerly a House speaker and senator. And as McConnell likes to tell it, Old Crow was Clay’s favorite bourbon. So McConnell said he was honored that Trump would liken him to Clay. But a new “MAGA” breed of senator arrived on Capitol Hill in recent years. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., Rick Scott, R-Fla., JD Vance, R-Ohio and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. They’re not aligned with McConnell. In fact, a senior Senate Republican leadership source told Fox that some GOP senators are tired of what’s called the “MAGA show” at the weekly party conference lunches each Tuesday. SEN. JOHN CORNYN DECLARES CANDIDACY FOR MINORITY LEADER AFTER MCCONNELL STEPS DOWN And therein lies the problem for McConnell as his power eroded. Like all things on Capitol Hill, it’s about the math. There was no better metric in recent years to measure McConnell’s dwindling power than the exercise over the international aid package, which then became the international aid package with a border security plan. And then reverted back to an international aid bill. McConnell wanted to advance the foreign money program — especially for Ukraine. But McConnell calculated that a robust border security package would sweeten the plan and satisfy members of his conference. That turned out to be a misjudgment. Support for a border plan diluted. And the bill went back to just international security. McConnell hoped to get a majority of Republican senators to support the final product. That would be 25 out of 49 Republican senators. McConnell scored 22. That’s not because McConnell stumbled. It’s because the Republican Party moved from where it would have been a few years ago. The political tectonic plates shifted. And the vote on the international aid bill served as a barometer reading of McConnell’s power. McConnell grasped the political transference. His power may be dissipating. McConnel’s greatest power was his understanding of power. That never left him. “Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time,” said McConnell on the Senate floor. “I have many faults, misunderstanding politics is not one of them.” Who will succeed McConnell? It is almost too early to divine where another power center will emerge to dictate who might succeed McConnell as the Senate’s top Republican. That political universe doesn’t even exist yet. Yes, for now, look at the three Johns: Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., former Whip John Cornyn, R-Tex., and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Even someone like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., could be in play. A source tells Fox that Cotton is interested in a race. But we don’t understand much else. We must first know who wins the presidential election. And if 2024 is anything like 2020, that might take a while. A delay in figuring out the winner could postpone the internal secret leadership election which Senate Republicans will take in mid to late
Climate activists hit with felony charges for defacing US Constitution’s display case
Two left-wing climate activists have been hit with felony charges after defacing the U.S. Constitution’s display case. The Department of Justice announced on Friday that Donald Zepeda of Maryland and Jackson Green of Utah have been charged with felony destruction of government property following a climate change stunt that involved dumping red powder on the encasement protecting the U.S. Constitution in the National Archives Rotunda. “The National Archives Rotunda is the sanctuary for our nation’s founding documents,” Dr. Colleen Shogan, Archivist of the United States, said in a statement following the incident. “They are here for all Americans to view and understand the principles of our nation. We take such vandalism very seriously and we will insist that the perpetrators be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” NATIONAL ARCHIVES ROTUNDA EVACUATED AFTER CLIMATE ACTIVISTS DUMP PINK POWDER ON CASE HOLDING US CONSTITUTION The duo’s vandalism, which occurred on February 14, immediately led to the evacuation of the rotunda. A video shot by a supporter shows the pair smothered in the red powder, which also appeared strewn across the Constitution’s protective display case. Zepeda and Green appeared to be linked to the left-wing climate activist group Declare Emergency, which demands that President Biden “declare a formal state of climate emergency and begin [to] make full use of his executive authority to save this country from collapse.” CLIMATE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED AFTER SHUTTING DOWN BIDEN CAMPAIGN HQ: ‘THAT’S BULLS—‘ “We don’t want the end of civilization but that’s the path we’re currently on. Declare Emergency’s nonviolent civil disobedience is love in action everyday, not just on Valentine’s Day,” the group posted on social media after the incident. In its press release, the Department of Justice said that Zepeda and Green’s stunt had caused more than $50,000 in damage. The rotunda closed for four days.