Leader of failed Burgum recall effort to seek North Dakota governorship
An Air Force veteran and former statewide candidate is running for North Dakota governor. Michael Coachman, of Larimore, announced his independent campaign on Tuesday. He has run unsuccessfully for state offices in the past, including governor in 2020, secretary of state in 2018 and lieutenant governor in 2016 and 2012. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum is not seeking a third term. In 2021, Coachman began an unsuccessful effort to recall Burgum and then- Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford. FORMER NORTH DAKOTA SENATOR TOM CAMPBELL LAUNCHES BID FOR STATE’S ONLY US HOUSE SEAT In a statement, Coachman said: “As Governor I will change the focus of North Dakota’s political objectives by becoming a state focused on restoring individual liberties in all aspects of life, family and business for the citizens of North Dakota.” Coachman received about 10% of the statewide vote in the 2020 Republican gubernatorial primary election against Burgum. North Dakota’s lone congressman, Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong, announced his gubernatorial campaign last month. Democrat Travis Hipsher, a security guard, also is running. North Dakota’s next governor will take office in mid-December, weeks before the biennial Legislature convenes. Voters passed term limits in 2022, meaning no future governors can be elected more than twice. Republicans have held the governor’s office since 1992. Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since 2012.
California Democrat blocks GOP resolution to declare migrant crisis ‘an invasion’
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California thwarted Republican Sen. Roger Marshall’s bid for unanimous consent to label the southern border migrant crisis as “an invasion” during Tuesday’s Senate session. “They can’t decide if the border is in crisis or if they’d rather wait until after the election to talk about or try to do something about it. And today, in this resolution, they’re doubling down on declaring and quote unquote invasion and vilifying immigrants, but preventing the federal government from keeping order on the border,” Padilla said on the floor Tuesday afternoon. “Make up your mind,” he added. “Do you want to get serious about immigration reform, or not?” SEN. ROGER MARSHALL DEMANDS SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS BE CLASSIFIED AS ‘AN INVASION’ While Padilla agreed the asylum system is “outdated,” he added, “The idea that immigrants are invading has radicalized people in our country to perpetuate terrible violence.” “Governor Abbott has shown us the cruelty and lawlessness of what it would lead to, unconstitutional legislation, to terrorize immigrants in Texas, putting them at risk of racial profiling and civil rights violations,” he said. SENATE REPUBLICANS MOBILIZE TO BLOCK BORDER BILL: ‘THIS WILL NOT PASS’ Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., cosponsored the resolution on the floor, arguing Democrats haven’t seen the crisis at the Texas border. “I’ve been there many times. I would challenge my Democratic colleagues how many times you’ve been to the southern border in Texas, to see this disaster? Right now the Biden administration is actively trying to stop the state of Texas from protecting their and our border,” Tuberville said. The unanimous consent resolution was an effort to rally behind Gov. Greg Abbott amid his feud with the Biden administration over defending the border from thousands of illegal migrants. But with one senator objecting, it was immediately killed. The resolution states that due to “President Biden’s dereliction of duty” and “failure” to enforce current border laws, citizens in all 50 states have been endangered. It contends that violent activities and smuggling carried out by drug cartels and criminal organizations, along with illegal border crossings, meet the definition of “actually invaded” under the U.S. Constitution. “Joe Biden has the power to secure our borders; instead, he has chosen to break the law, resulting in the worst border crisis in history,” Marshall told Fox News Digita in a statement before the vote. “I do not know how Joe Biden sleeps at night knowing terrorists, CCP nationals, cartels, and worse are living here in the interior of our country.” GOP SENATORS RALLY AGAINST BIPARTISAN BORDER DEAL, CITING BIDEN’S POWER TO SUSPEND ‘EMERGENCY’ BILL Marshall is one of more than 20 GOP senators who oppose the bipartisan border bill that was released Sunday, arguing it provides more sole powers to President Biden and does not reduce the number of illegal crossings to zero. The Senate will take up a cloture vote on Wednesday to advance the bill, which includes billions of dollars in aid to Israel and Ukraine, and will need a 60-vote majority to pass. “This bill should really be called the Ukraine funding bill,” Marshall told reporters in a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “And yes, Joe Biden has been going through this charade now for several months, but he was never serious about securing the border, like my colleagues said, Joe Biden could secure the border yesterday. That was never his goal.”
Historian who correctly predicted every popular vote winner since 1984 reveals who is likely to win in 2024
The “Keys to the White House” are being handed out, predicting President Biden currently holds a slight lead in a hypothetical 2024 matchup against former President Donald Trump. Allan Lichtman, an election prognosticator who has correctly predicted nearly every presidential race since 1984, developed a formula that is used to make predictions about an upcoming presidential election – and in many cases, it proves to be accurate. Lichtman’s “Keys to the White House” consists of 13 true or false questions that he believes establish a strong indication of who will be named the victor on the fall ballot. Each question is asked about the two dueling nominees; if “true” they are given a “key,” and if “false,” their competitor receives the point. Thus far, Biden holds five of the “keys,” while Trump was able to capture about three, Lichtman revealed to MarketWatch. That leaves five keys still up for grabs, and enough room for the former president to secure a lead before November. GROCERY PRICES DRIVING SOME VOTERS TO TRUMP IN 2024: ‘WANTS OT MAKE THE ECONOMY BETTER FOR PEOPLE LIKE US’ According to American University, where Lichtman teaches the “keys” are as follows: party mandate, contest, incumbency, third party, short term economy, long term economy, policy change, social unrest, scandal, foreign/military failure, foreign/military success, incumbent charisma, and challenger charisma. BIDEN RESPONDS AFTER TRUMP CALLS FOR AN ‘IMMEDIATE’ PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE Biden’s incumbency grants him one automatic point, that of key number 3. While Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met the requirements to appear on the Utah presidential election ballot, Biden was granted another “key” for not appearing to have any significant third party or independent primary challenge. The Democrat was also given “keys” for having “real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms,” as well as implementing policy changes during his presidency. Trump, however, secured key number one, which is granted to whoever’s political party holds the majority in the House of Representatives – which goes to the GOP. Painting Biden as having a lack of charisma, Lichtman gave Trump the 12th key, and possibly another point if Biden fails to have “a major success in foreign or military affairs.” Lichtman correctly predicted Trump would win the 2016 election, and thereafter that Biden would win the 2020 presidential election against Trump.
Biden attacks Trump for opposing border bill, threatens to make immigration a campaign issue
President Biden blamed former President Donald Trump for increasing opposition to the Democratic Party’s border security bill. Biden claimed during a Tuesday press conference that Trump was intentionally sabotaging the bill from behind the scenes. “For much too long, as you all know, the immigration system has been broken, and it’s long past time to fix it. That’s why, months ago, I instructed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators to seriously and finally fix our immigration system.” GOP SENATORS RALLY AGAINST BIPARTISAN BORDER DEAL, CITING BIDEN’S POWER TO SUSPEND ‘EMERGENCY’ BILL “Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically,” Biden said. “So for the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal. And looks like they’re caving.” Republican opposition to the Senate’s bipartisan deal began with a trickle on Sunday night before turning into an avalanche of criticism by late Monday. Democrats have accused Republicans of going back on their own request for border policy changes in exchange for supporting aid to Ukraine. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said GOP opposition to the deal, particularly in the Senate, is a “dramatic transformation in Republican thought.” IMMIGRATION ACTIVISTS, LIBERAL SENATE DEMS TRASH BORDER DEAL OVER LACK OF AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS “You know, there’s more work to get this done, over the finish line. And I want to be clear: doing nothing is not an option. Republicans have to decide,” Biden said Tuesday. “For years, they said they want to secure the border. Now they have the strongest border bill this country has ever seen. We’re seeing statements about how many oppose the bill now.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday that House Republicans “welcome” the dysfunction wrought in the Senate over its border security and supplemental aid bill. Johnson has made no secret of his opposition to the bipartisan deal, declaring it “dead on arrival” multiple times since its release on Sunday night, including during House GOP leaders’ regular weekly press conference. “Republicans simply cannot vote for the bill in good conscience, and that is why I declared it dead on arrival. And it looks like right now it may be in some jeopardy, it may be on life support in the Senate,” the speaker said. Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
Karine Jean-Pierre blames GOP for failure to secure border despite Democrats being in charge on day 1
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday repeatedly blamed Republicans after the collapse of a bipartisan deal that paired border policy changes with billions in wartime aid for Ukraine. Throughout the press conference, Jean-Pierre accused the GOP of playing games with national security and not having a spine for supporting the deal. She said President Biden, in contrast, had taken the border issue seriously “from day one.” “He said, ‘I’m going to put forward a legislation,’ a comprehensive immigration legislation that was introduced more than three years ago … and [Republicans],” have failed to act, Jean-Pierre said when asked if President Biden bore some responsibility for the collapsed deal. Later on, Fox News’ Peter Doocy pressed Jean-Pierre on the matter. “So, you guys talk a lot – including today – about how the border wouldn’t be such a big deal if Congress would have just passed your immigration bill on day one,” Doocy asked. “Who was in charge of Congress on day one?” SEN. ROGER MARSHALL DEMANDS SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS BE CLASSIFIED AS ‘AN INVASION’ Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration has called on Congress to act since Biden took office more than three years ago, but Republicans “have gotten in the way” of trying to fix the border by using the immigration crisis as a political stunt. When President Biden took office, Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate. Republicans took back the House by a slim majority in the 2022 midterm elections. After taking office, Biden signed two executive orders on immigration and pledged to roll back many of the policies put in place by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. Within a few months, Biden took more than 90 actions related to the border. Under the president’s stewardship, illegal immigration has skyrocketed to historic levels. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report for fiscal 2023 showed that the number of illegal immigrants on the non-detained docket soared from 3.7 million in FY 2021 to nearly 4.8 million in FY 2022 to nearly 6.2 million in FY 2023. HOUSE CLEARS WAY TO ADVANCE IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES OF DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS The number of illegal immigrants being deported has increased, according to the report, but it is still a fraction of the increase in the illegal immigrant population. There were 142,580 removals in FY 23, up considerably from 72,177 in FY 22 and 59,011 in FY 21, but still down from the highs of 267,258 under the Trump administration in FY 19. With the 2024 election looming, Biden has for months engaged in a plan to pair policies intended to curb illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border with $60 billion in wartime aid for Ukraine. The bill would have also sent tens of billions of dollars more for Israel, other U.S. allies in Asia, the U.S. immigration system and humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and Ukraine. But after Republicans backed away from the compromise, the president and Senate leaders are now stranded with no clear way to advance aid for Ukraine through Congress. They have run into a wall of opposition from conservatives — led by Trump — who reject the border proposal as insufficient and criticize the Ukraine funding as wasteful. Biden laid the blame for the bill’s demise squarely on Trump — his presumed Republican opponent in the November presidential election. “For the last 24 hours he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal,” Biden said. “It looks like they’re caving. Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some spine and do what they know to be right.” Meanwhile, House lawmakers have cleared the way to advance an impeachment resolution against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, for alleging “refusing to enforce our nation’s laws.” “An architect of destruction at our southern border, the secretary has caused serious injury to society, as the Founding Fathers discussed,” Rep. McCaul, R-Texas, said in a statement. Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Mayorkas shows ‘willful ignorance’ of border crisis, GOP rep says as House tees up historic impeachment vote
Congressional lawmakers weighed in on whether Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has positively or negatively influenced border security ahead of the House’s vote on his impeachment. “I think that he’s violated the law on purpose,” Rep. Matt Gaetz told Fox News. “I think he deserves impeachment for that.” WATCH MORE FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS HERE But Rep. Lloyd Doggett called the impeachment case against Mayorkas “appalling.” “I think certainly one could look back on this time and recognize there are improvements that could have been made, but the idea of impeaching him under these circumstances at the very time he’s trying to develop a bipartisan agreement is appalling,” the Texas Democrat said. The Republican-led House Rules Committee voted 8-4 on Monday to send an impeachment case against Mayorkas to the full chamber for a vote. The two impeachment articles accuse Mayorkas of refusing to comply with federal immigration laws and violating the public’s trust. ‘HE’S DELUSIONAL’: BIDEN’S BORDER COMMENTS SPARK STIFF REBUKE ON CAPITOL HILL FROM SOME LAWMAKERS The full chamber passed a motion for debate on Mayorkas’ impeachment 216-209 Tuesday. A second series of votes will follow the debate. If the impeachment resolution passes, it will head to the Democrat-led Senate, where it’s expected to fail. “Mayorkas has not done his job,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa said. “He can at least be fighting back, or he can resign the position if he feels the job he’s supposed to do isn’t being done or isn’t being allowed to be done.” “He’s not done his constitutional duty,” the California Republican said. “It’s not a matter of incompetence. It’s a matter of willful ignorance.” BIDEN CLAIMS ‘I’VE DONE ALL I CAN DO’ TO SECURE THE BORDER The vote came on the heels of the Senate’s long-awaited bipartisan border security deal being revealed on Sunday, which sparked fierce condemnation from some House Republicans. Among other criticisms, House leaders said in a Monday statement that the bill would give too much authority to Mayorkas, who “has proven he will exploit every measure possible, in defiance of the law, to keep the border open.” ARIZONA BORDER COUNTY OFFICIAL’S BLUNT MESSAGE TO CONGRESS TO REJECT IMMIGRATION BILL: ‘SHUT DOWN THE BORDER’ Mayorkas has been “forcibly making the border wide open and endangering the American people,” Rep. Chip Roy told Fox News. There were over 2.4 million migrant encounters during fiscal 2023, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection data. In December, they reached a record-high of 302,000. I’m “disappointed from some of what I’ve seen from [Mayorkas], but I think that disagreement in terms of job performance is not an impeachable offense,” Rep. Chris Pappas, a New Hampshire Democrat, said. “We should be giving him the tools he needs to do the job.” Constitutional scholars have criticized the impeachment push against Mayorkas. Alan Dershowitz, for example, called the charges against the Homeland Security secretary “vague,” while Jonathan Turley said there’s no “cognizable basis” for impeachment. Pappas said Congress needs to step up to enact change at the southern border. “We’ve got to have some order at the border,” he said. “We also need greater investments. That’s where Congress comes in. We need to be a partner here.”
Trump-era DHS officials slam Senate bill as ‘disaster’ for border security
Multiple Trump-era Homeland Security officials are claiming a new Senate border and immigration bill will be a “disaster” for border security despite claims from supporters that it would help stem the migrant crisis. “The bill negotiated by three Senators and President Biden funds and facilitates more mass illegal immigration,” the officials said in a report. “It is a disaster for border security.” The officials are former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) acting Commissioner Mark Morgan, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan, former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joe Edlow and former acting deputy Homeland Security Chief of Staff Lora Ries. All are fellows at The Heritage Foundation. IMMIGRATION HAWKS WARN CONGRESS THAT SENATE DEAL WILL HANDCUFF FUTURE ADMINISTRATIONS ON SECURING BORDER The $118 billion supplemental spending deal package was released late and includes funding for Ukraine and Israel and $20 billion in funding for the border and immigration. It includes a new temporary emergency border authority to mandate Title 42-style expulsions of migrants when migration levels exceed 5,000 a day over a seven-day rolling average. And it narrows asylum eligibility while expediting the process, provides additional work permits for asylum seekers and funds a massive increase in staffing at the border. It also increases temporary visas and green cards, while establishing an expedited pathway for Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. The legislation also includes $1.4 billion in FEMA funding for non-governmental organizations and cities to help settle migrants and $650 million to build and reinforce the border wall. It will also provide $450 million to countries to help them remove and integrate illegal immigrants back into their countries. “The result of all this hard work as a bipartisan agreement represents the most fair, humane reforms in our immigration system in a long time and the toughest set of reforms to secure the border ever,” President Biden claimed Tuesday. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., an author of the package, said the bill “changes our border from catch and release to detain and deport.” IMMIGRATION ACTIVISTS, LIBERAL SENATE DEMS TRASH BORDER DEAL OVER LACK OF AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS But the bill has hit a buzzsaw of conservative opposition in the House and Senate and among conservative groups. Some of the officials were part of a letter released Tuesday calling for congressional leaders to scrap the deal. In the report, the former officials point to the funding for non-governmental organizations and cities, including “sanctuary” jurisdictions, to receive migrants released into the U.S. They argue that “machinery” should be shut down, not given more money to operate. They also say the bill “accepts and codifies crisis levels of daily illegal immigration” with the current levels of the border emergency authority. They note that the authority is limited, with the secretary only being able to activate the authority for 180 days by year three and allowing for it to be suspended for 45 days. “Continuing to allow these crisis-level numbers of illegal-alien encounters means that border agents would remain overwhelmed, and more illegal crossers would evade the agents — turning into ‘gotaways’ — and bad actors would slip through limited and rushed vetting,” they say. 5 KEY DETAILS IN CONTROVERSIAL SENATE BORDER DEAL Despite claims by supporters of the bill that the measures would lead to an increase in expedited removals and therefore fewer releases into the interior, the officials say that the bill would continue “catch and release” and end the statute requiring detention by changing detention to “noncustodial detention,” applying it only to adults. “If passed into law, families and children would be released without supervision. Worse, the bill codifies the Flores settlement agreement, as interpreted by a single U.S. district judge in California, who ruled that unaccompanied aliens could not be in immigration detention longer than 20 days. She later expanded her ruling to accompanied aliens, meaning families,” they say. They also object to provisions expanding what they call “mass parole abuse” by the administration and for accelerating work permits for those released into the U.S. The officials also note that numerous inclusions, for instance an expansion of green cards and measures for “documented Dreamers,” are not directly related to the border. They also say Biden does not need to have legislation to secure the border despite claims from the White House. “President Joe Biden opened the border and created the country’s crisis using only executive, not congressional, authority. He can end the chaos with the same executive authority; he does not need congressional authority,” they say.
Why Nevada’s holding dueling GOP primary and caucus with Trump and Haley on separate ballots
LAS VEGAS – Nevadans are casting ballots Tuesday as the key early voting state in the race for the White House holds Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. And while the Democratic contest is pretty straightforward – President Biden is the overwhelming favorite – things are a bit more complicated on the Republican side. Only one of the two major contenders left in the battle for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination will appear on the primary ballot. That candidate is Nikki Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in former President Donald Trump’s administration. HALEY TOUTS FUNDRAISING BONANZA AHEAD OF FIRST RALLY IN SUPER TUESDAY STATE Trump, who is the commanding frontrunner for the GOP nomination as he makes a third straight bid for the White House, isn’t on the ballot. Instead, Trump will be listed two days later, in a presidential caucus being run by the Nevada GOP. The confusion over having two competing contests dates to 2021, when Democrats, who at the time controlled both Nevada’s governor’s office and the legislature, passed a law changing the presidential nominating contest from long-held caucuses to a state-run primary. WHAT NIKKI HALEY TOLD FOX DIGITAL ABOUT WHAT SHE NEEDS TO DO TO KEEP RUNNING The Nevada GOP objected, but last year their legal bid to stop the primary from going forward was rejected. In a twist, the judge in the case allowed the state Republicans to hold their own caucuses. No delegates will be at stake in the Republican primary, while all 26 will be up for grabs in the GOP caucus. The state GOP ruled that candidates who put their name on the state-run primary ballot could not take part in the caucuses. Haley and some of the other now-departed Republican presidential candidates viewed the Nevada GOP as too loyal to Trump and decided to skip a caucus they believed was tipped in favor of the former president. Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald and both of the state’s members of the Republican National Committee are supporting Trump. HALEY, TRUMP, TRADE SHOTS OVER WHO’S STRONGER AGAINST BIDEN “We made the decision early on that we were not going to pay $55,000 to a Trump entity that, you know, to participate in a process that was rigged for Trump,” Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney argued on Monday. While Trump’s assured of winning all 26 delegates at stake, sources say he and his campaign advisers have some concerns. An unpleasant potential scenario for Trump, who won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary by double-digits, could be Haley grabbing more votes in the primary than Trump lands in the caucus. While the GOP presidential candidates had to choose either the caucus or primary ballot, registered Republicans in Nevada can vote in both contests. And in the GOP primary, there’s no vehicle for voters to write in Trump’s name. The choices on the ballot are Haley and a “none of these candidates” option. Trump’s campaign has been working to get the message out to supporters in Nevada that if they want to vote for the former president, they need to show up at the caucuses. HALEY APPLIES FOR SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL “Your primary vote doesn’t mean anything. It’s your caucus vote,” Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas late last month. “So in your state, you have both the primary and you have a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing.” Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is supporting Trump, told the Nevada Independent last month that he would vote for “none of the above” in Tuesday’s primary, and would caucus for Trump in the state GOP’s contest on Thursday. A source in the former president’s political orbit told Fox News that team Trump is “fortunate that Haley doesn’t have her act together in Nevada.” And Haley could suffer some embarrassment if there are more “none of the above” votes than ballots cast on her behalf. The Nevada Democratic Party accused their GOP counterpart of “creating chaos” by holding the caucus in addition to the primary. But three Republican voters Fox News spoke with on Tuesday at a polling station at the Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas weren’t confused regarding the two contests. All three were also Trump supporters, and said they voted for “none of the above.” Two of the three planned on attending Thursday’s caucus. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump is expected back in Las Vegas on Thursday, for a caucus celebration. Haley is not returning to Nevada this week and hasn’t campaigned in the state since speaking in late October at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference. “In terms of Nevada, we have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada,”Ankney told reporters. “So Nevada is not and has never been our focus.” This week’s contests are just an appetizer for Nevada, which as a key general election battleground state will see plenty of campaign traffic this summer and autumn. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Watch a March 28 conversation on Texas and the race to provide the world’s clean energy
This event will look deeper into emerging technologies and what they mean for the state.
Biden admin sued for hiding John Kerry’s staff, coordination with eco groups
FIRST ON FOX: Energy watchdog group Power The Future (PTF) filed a federal freedom of information lawsuit against the Biden administration Tuesday, alleging it has failed to divulge Special Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry’s taxpayer-funded staff. PTF filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, listing the State Department as the defendant. According to the lawsuit, the agency – which houses the multimillion-dollar SPEC office – has repeatedly refused to disclose the names and job titles of Kerry’s staff while similarly resisting congressional oversight related to the matter. “For nearly three years, John Kerry has been jet-setting on the international climate conference circuit while sending taxpayers the bill,” PTF Executive Director Daniel Turner told Fox News Digital. “Today, we begin the process of teaching John Kerry and Joe Biden that they work for the taxpayers. No one should have to waste resources on litigation, but that is our only option since John Kerry thinks he can keep his office off the books.” “The American people are on the receiving end of countless green mandates and rules, gas stove bans and skyrocketing utility bills, with no opportunity for consent or input, and many of these decisions are hatched in John Kerry’s office,” he continued. “That is why it is our hope that this litigation will finally bring to light the information we deserve to know: the staff names, the office goals and budgets, the outside partnerships that peddle influence on Joe Biden’s green agenda.” UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION IS QUIETLY FUELING CLIMATE POLICY, FUNDING STAFF IN DEM STATES In January, PTF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the State Department, asking for an underacted list of Kerry’s staff. The request was made after the Boston Herald reported weeks earlier that it had obtained FOIA documents showing a list of SPEC office staff positions and salaries, but redacting the names of the individuals in those positions. According to the Boston Herald, Kerry’s staff – in positions such as “policy analysts” to “senior advisers” – are collectively paid $4.3 million per year. Some unnamed officials are paid as much as $186,680 per year, making them some of the highest-paid individuals in the federal government. WATCHDOG HITS JOHN KERRY WITH SCIENCE ETHICS COMPLAINT OVER CLIMATE CHANGE DEATHS CLAIM Fox News Digital reported in 2022 that the State Department budgeted $13.9 million annually for the SPEC office with approval for 45 personnel. However, while Fox News Digital was able to identify several officials hired by Kerry using the public database Leadership Connect and LinkedIn profiles, the State Department refused to share additional information and has remained tight-lipped about its operations. Last year, during a congressional hearing, Kerry refused to share any names of his staff, explaining that isn’t “the required process of the State Department.” PTF’s lawsuit, though, notes that the State Department said it would reveal names and titles of senior officials in the SPEC office in October 2024. The complaint asserts that delaying disclosure until then “suggests that the Department intends to selectively withhold this information to prevent public dissemination for the current fiscal year 2024.” ENERGY EXPERTS BASH JOHN KERRY’S UN DEAL TO SHUT DOWN FOSSIL FUELS “John Kerry and his secret climate office are not above scrutiny and certainly not above the law,” Turner said Tuesday. In addition, the lawsuit states that records responsive to its January FOIA request would shed light on SPEC’s potential involvement in a scheme spearheaded by the United Nations Foundation to insert staff in high-ranking state government climate offices. It adds that the records would show whether “ideological private parties are paying for State Department ‘staff’ in this already highly unique and thoroughly opaque Office.” Meanwhile, since President Biden named him the climate envoy in early 2021, Kerry has traveled around the world, attending global climate summits and diplomatic engagements in an effort to push an aggressive transition from fossil fuel power to green energy alternatives. Kerry announced in January that he would soon step down to assist with Biden’s presidential campaign. The White House named senior climate adviser John Podesta as Kerry’s replacement last week. The State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.