WATCH: Top Dem says he has ‘never heard’ his fellow party members call LA riots ‘peaceful’
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday that he had no recollection of his fellow Democratic Party colleagues referring to the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles as “peaceful.” “What do Democrats mean when they say the riots in L.A. are peaceful?” Durbin was asked by a reporter outside the Capitol. “I never heard them say that,” Durbin responded, leading the reporter to ask Durbin whether he condemned the ongoing anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, which some have said amount to riots. “I condemn violence, whether it’s in the Capitol or in L.A.,” Durbin shot back before being ushered away out of earshot. CALIFORNIA OFFICIALS ARE TRYING TO DENY LA RIOT ‘CHAOS’ FOR ‘POLITICAL GAIN,’ SHERIFF SAYS The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate may not have heard any of his fellow party members use the word “peaceful” in their descriptions of the ongoing chaos in Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean they have not. “A lot of these peaceful protests are being generated because the President of the United States is sowing chaos,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC. Just the day before, President Donald Trump called on thousands of National Guard troops to go to Los Angeles to help quell the ongoing chaos, which has included attacks on law enforcement, property damage and looting. “The vast majority of protesters and demonstrators are peaceful,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said on MSNBC. “They’re passionate.” SEN. CORY BOOKER CALLS LOS ANGELES RIOTS ‘PEACEFUL,’ SLAMS TRUMP FOR DEPLOYING NATIONAL GUARD Rep. Nanette Barragán, a Democrat who represents California’s 44th Congressional District, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday that “We are having an administration that’s targeting peaceful protests.” Conservative critics also fired back after former Vice President Kamala Harris referred to the ongoing chaos as “overwhelmingly peaceful.” “The country really dodged a bullet in November,” Fox News contributor Guy Benson posted on X in response to Harris’ social media post. In another post, Benson added, “Their official position is that they’re appalled by what’s happening in Los Angeles…because of Trump and ICE, not the violent rioters. In its current form, this party cannot be salvaged.” DOZENS OF ANTI-ICE RIOTERS ARRESTED IN LA AS TRUMP SENDS IN NATIONAL GUARD TO QUELL VIOLENCE Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got heat for describing the situation in Los Angeles as “peaceful.” “California Governor Newsom didn’t request the National Guard be deployed to his state following peaceful demonstrations. Trump sent them anyway. It’s the first time in 60 years a president has made that choice,” Clinton posted on X. “Trump’s goal isn’t to keep Californians safe. His goal is to cause chaos, because chaos is good for Trump.” While there were initially examples of some peaceful protests at the start of this nearly weeklong chaos, by the start of the weekend, property destruction and violence broke out and devolved into a situation that became increasingly violent over the next few days. Several officers were injured during the riot, which included rocks and other projectiles thrown at them, and dozens of people were arrested related to the protests and rioting. Looting has also been an issue, as has property damage, and on Tuesday evening Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass instituted a citywide curfew. In a rare intraparty dissent, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., criticized his own party this week for failing to adequately condemn the violence in Los Angeles. “This is anarchy and true chaos,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said in a Monday post on X alongside a picture of cars that had been destroyed by fire. “My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings and assaulting law enforcement.” “I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations and immigration,” Fetterman added. “But this is not that.”
Democrat accuses Trump of unleashing ‘campaign of terror’ on illegals as LA riots rage
As anti-ICE riots rage across Los Angeles, congressional Democrats marked the 13th anniversary of DACA with a press conference during which Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., accused President Donald Trump of unleashing a “campaign of terror” on illegal immigrants. DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a U.S. immigration policy that defers deportation for eligible immigrants who arrived in the country as children. Speaking just outside the Capitol building Wednesday, Ramirez accused Trump, border czar Tom Homan, Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller and the entire administration of targeting anyone they consider “undesirable.” She also pushed a conspiracy theory that the president will target U.S. citizens the same way he has deported criminal migrants. “Trump, Homan, Miller and this whole regime has waged a campaign of terror against our neighbors, against our families, our loved ones, as they advance their fascist agenda and try to cast immigrants as a public enemy,” Ramirez said. SENATOR LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO DEMOCRATIC ORG OVER POTENTIAL SUPPORT FOR LA RIOTERS “Let us say it, and I’m going to say it unapologetically,” she added. “We don’t need bans, We don’t need walls. We don’t need raids. We don’t need kidnappings. We don’t need masked agents terrorizing our communities. We don’t need military attacking our neighbors. We have to demand an end to the terror tactics.” NEWSOM SAYS LOS ANGELES RIOTERS WILL BE PROSECUTED, SLAMS TRUMP FOR ‘TRAUMATIZING OUR COMMUNITIES’ Los Angeles has been rocked by fiery riots and clashes with police and federal authorities since Friday. The rioting began Friday in response to immigration enforcement operations by ICE throughout the city. In response, Trump deployed federalized National Guard troops and several hundred Marines to assist in restoring order. This move has been heavily criticized by Democrats, who have accused Trump of intentionally provoking rioters. “The unlawful actions used against immigrants today will be used tomorrow on anyone who this regime deems undesirable because fascism always demands a public enemy,” Ramirez claimed. “It is why we must stand with DACA recipients, and we must also stand with their parents. “We must also stand with their uncles and their sisters and their tias and our small businesses and our teachers and our LGBTQ and every single person this regime is attacking.” Despite Ramirez’s characterization of the Trump administration targeting innocent “tias,” federal immigration authorities have detailed criminal charges against the illegals arrested by ICE. SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS CALLS GAVIN NEWSOM ‘INSANE’ FOR REJECTING FEDERAL ASSISTANCE DURING LOS ANGELES UNREST This week, ICE published information on charges against illegals arrested in Los Angeles during the ongoing riots. On Wednesday, ICE said it had arrested Jesus Romero-Retana, a Mexican national who the agency said had been convicted of battery and threatening with intent to terrorize. ICE also said it arrested a Cambodian illegal named Mab Khleb in Los Angeles Tuesday. The agency said he had been sentenced for lewd acts with a child, battery and multiple drug offenses. ICE said it arrested the criminal illegal “despite the best efforts of anti-ICE protestors in the city.” A source familiar with the operations shared with Fox News Digital a listing of some of the arrests made by ICE in the last week. These arrests included a Salvadoran national arrested in Los Angeles for sodomy of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Chicago for criminal sexual assault of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Houston for indecent sexual contact with a child, a Honduran national arrested in El Paso for possession of child pornography and a Laotian national arrested for murder and attempted murder.
GOP lawmaker flips script on Newsom, Bass by defining anti-ICE riots with 1 word
EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa is blasting elected Democrat officials in his home state of California over their response to the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles after he called for a congressional investigation into the response time of local law enforcement. “These are the same people that tell us, you know, Biden was fine, he was on the top of his game,” Issa said about Democrat narratives responding to the riots that have been unfolding in Los Angeles since Friday. “So their credibility goes with what you see versus what they say. I can’t think of a better example of why you shouldn’t believe or vote for people in that party as long as they’re willing to literally lie to your face on what you’re seeing with your own eyes.” Democrats across the country, from California to Washington, D.C., have downplayed the rioting and focused on the claim that the majority of the anti-ICE displays have been “peaceful.” TOM COTTON PUSHES NEW CRACKDOWN ON PRO-IMMIGRATION RIOTERS IN LOS ANGELES, CITING ICE ASSAULTS Additionally, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other Democrats have blamed President Donald Trump’s mobilizing the National Guard for making the situation worse. Issa, who represents California’s 48th Congressional District, took issue with that narrative. “First of all, there was damage, both vandalism and actual destruction done before Trump got involved, and that’s the reason he got involved, but there’s another thing that some people miss,” Issa told Fox News Digital. “When ICE agents called for police support when they were being assaulted, they hunkered down and waited two hours before police responded because police couldn’t get authority to react. So that alone gave a reason for the president to bring in additional federalized troops to protect the ICE agents.” On Tuesday, Fox News Digital exclusively reported Issa’s call for an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s claim that the LAPD took two hours to respond to assist ICE agents being assaulted on Friday night. The LAPD, in a Sunday press conference, denied that allegation and said it took 40 minutes to respond due to traffic. HARRIS RIPPED FOR ‘APPALLING’ LA ICE RAIDS STATEMENT PLACING BLAME ON TRUMP: ‘THE COUNTRY DODGED A BULLET’ “Understand that we have over 10 million people who were let into this country, and tens of thousands of them are serious criminal aliens,” Issa said. “There were warrants. There were orders to deport. There are reasons that we’ve got to go after many of these people in cities around the country. If ICE agents can’t be protected or won’t be protected by people like the mayor and my governor, then the president’s going to have to continue to do this, eventually create escorts for ICE agents.” Issa told Fox News Digital that Trump is doing a “great job” in his response to the unrest in Los Angeles. “One thing that I’m very happy about is, I know that by taking strong action here, he’s keeping it from occurring in other cities around the country, because what you don’t want is what ultimately happened in 2020 where we saw it happening not just in one city but in city after city where more than two dozen people died and billions of dollars of damage occurred because it wasn’t handled quickly enough, and we’ve learned from that.” Issa told Fox News Digital that he finds it curious why Democrats have used the word “insurrection” to describe the Jan. 6th riots that lasted hours but have not used the term to describe what has unfolded in Los Angeles over several days. “We heard the word ‘insurrection’ for a couple of years nonstop, and now in Los Angeles, when people are directly assaulting property and law enforcement, that’s the very definition of insurrection; and particularly when they’re doing it on behalf of people who are sitting in jails because they were arrested for crimes, not just for entering the country illegally but for actual felonies,” Issa said. “And it’s sort of amazing to believe that high-ranking elected officials like Gov. Newsom would actually try to defend any of that action. And yet they’re doing it.” Issa went on to say that Newsom’s response to the riots “might have worked in the era of print or maybe even the era of radio” but that video evidence of rioting from the scene makes his position untenable. “Television and podcasts and everyone having a cellphone, those images are going to be what the American people [is going to] see when he tries to pretend that he was a good governor,” Issa said. “They’re going to see a failure to do his job and an absolute resistance against those who came in to do it for him.” Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Newsom and Bass for comment. “Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals,” Newsom said on Tuesday night. “His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses. That’s just weakness. Weakness masquerading as strength. Donald Trump’s government isn’t protecting our communities. They’re traumatizing our communities. And that seems to be the entire point.” “When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived. He’s taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our Founding Fathers’ historic project.”
Poll: Majority of Democrats give thumbs-down to their leaders in Congress
Most Democrats disapprove of how their party’s lawmakers in Congress are handling their jobs, according to a new national poll. Fifty-three percent of Democrats questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday gave their party’s congressional members a thumbs-down, while 41% approved of their performance. According to the poll, conducted June 5-8, just 21% of all voters approved of the way Democrats in Congress were handing their jobs, with seven in ten disapproving. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING The 21% approval is the same as in Quinnipiac’s February national poll, matching “an all-time low since Quinnipiac University first asked this question of registered voters in March 2009.” The survey indicates 79% of GOP voters approve of the way congressional Republicans are handling their job, with 13% disapproving. WHERE TRUMP STANDS IN FOX NEWS POLLING 100 DAYS INTO HIS SECOND TERM Among all voters, 32% approved of how GOP congressional members were performing their duties, while just over six in ten disapproved. Overall approval for Republicans in Congress has dropped eight points since Quinnipiac’s February poll, with disapproval jumping nine points. The Democratic Party has been in the political wilderness since November’s elections, when Republicans won back control of the White House and the Senate and defended their fragile House majority. And Republicans made gains among Black, Hispanic and younger voters, all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base. Since President Donald Trump’s return to power earlier this year, an increasingly energized base of Democrats is urging party leaders to take a stronger stand in pushing back against the president’s sweeping and controversial agenda during the opening months of his second administration. And their anger is directed not only at Republicans, but at Democrats they feel aren’t vocal enough in their opposition to Trump. And that’s fueled a plunge in the Democratic Party’s favorable ratings, which have hit historic lows in several surveys the past couple of months. The new poll from Quinnipiac also indicates a decline in Trump’s approval ratings among voters nationwide. Thirty-eight percent of those questioned in the survey said they approve of the way the president is handling his duties, down three points from Quinnipiac’s early April poll. Fifty-four percent in the new poll gave Trump a thumbs-down for his handling of his job as president, down one point from the April survey. Trump’s approval ratings were mostly above water as he returned to the White House in late January, but his numbers soon slid underwater in many national surveys and remain in negative territory nearly five months into his second administration.
Fashion brands accused of shortcuts on climate pledges overlooking workers
A new report accuses fashion giants of not considering the welfare of workers affected by climate change in garment factories in Southeast Asia. Fashion brands including luxury label Hermes, sportswear giant Nike, and fast fashion chain H&M are in the hot seat amid new allegations of climate greenwashing after making commitments to slash carbon emissions in Asia, which is home to more than 50 percent of global garment production. A report released this morning by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), titled, The Missing Thread, analysed 65 global fashion brands. It found that while 44 of them had made public commitments to reduce carbon emissions, none had adopted what is known as a “Just Transition” policy, a concept first introduced during COP27 in Egypt in 2022. A Just Transition ensures that workers are not left behind as industries shift towards a low-carbon economy. Only 11 companies in the study acknowledged the climate-related impact on workers in their social and human rights policies. Just four provided any guidance on managing heat-related stress. Only two companies among those deemed the most ambitious by the report mentioned the welfare of workers. These included Inditex, the Spanish retail giant that owns the fast fashion company Zara, and Kering, the parent company of Gucci. Advertisement “Decarbonisation done without workers as critical and creative partners is not a just transition, it’s a dangerous shortcut,” said Natalie Swan, labour rights programme manager at BHRRC, in a news release. Currently, the global textile industry relies on 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources per year, such as oil and fertiliser. At current trends, the fashion industry is on track to be responsible for more than 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. “The fashion industry’s climate targets mean little if the people who make its products are not taken into consideration,” Swan said. “It’s not enough to go green. It has to be clean and fair.” “Brands must stop hiding behind greenwashing slogans and start seriously engaging workers and their trade unions, whose rights, livelihoods and safety are under threat from both climate change and the industry’s response to it. A just transition is not just a responsibility, it’s a critical opportunity to build a fairer, more resilient fashion industry that works for people and the planet.” Al Jazeera reached out to Nike, Hermes, H&M, Inditex and Kering. None of them responded to a request for comment. Extreme weather The effects of climate change have already hit much of Southeast Asia hard. Garment workers in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam have experienced extreme weather events such as surging temperatures and severe flooding. In Bangladesh, workers reported fainting from heat-related illnesses. According to the report, factories allegedly failed to provide fans or drinking water. Similar challenges were noted in Cambodia, where temperatures regularly exceeded 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) during a 2022 heatwave. Advertisement A third of workers said they had already lost work due to automation. In Bangladesh’s garment sector, 30 percent reported job losses stemming from technological changes. These shifts have disproportionately affected female workers, who are less likely to receive training on new technologies and are often excluded from on-the-job learning opportunities that could help them adapt to evolving industry demands. Adblock test (Why?)
Unarmed Palestinian brothers killed in Israeli raid on West Bank’s Nablus
A Palestinian man in a red cap walks down the narrow alleyway in Nablus’s old city towards a group of Israeli soldiers, clearly unarmed. He attempts to talk to the soldiers, who had flooded into the occupied West Bank city in the early hours of Tuesday as part of Israel’s latest military raid – believed to be the largest carried out in Nablus in two years. The soldiers immediately kick and shove the man – 40-year-old Nidal Umairah – before his brother walks over, attempting to intervene. Gunfire follows, and soon the two brothers are lying dead. [embedded content] Nidal and his brother 35-year-old brother Khaled were the latest victims of Israel in the West Bank, after they were killed late on Tuesday. It is unclear which brother had initially been detained, but witnesses were adamant that the behaviour of the Israeli soldiers was an unnecessary escalation that led to the deaths of yet more Palestinians. Ghassan Hamdan, the director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Nablus, was at the scene of the killings. Advertisement “There were at least 12 soldiers and they all fired their automatic machine guns at once,” said Hamdan. After the two men fell to the ground [medics] asked the soldiers if we could treat their wounds. They answered by firing at all of us.” “We all took cover behind the walls of the old city,” he told Al Jazeera. Hamza Abu Hajar, a paramedic at the scene, said that the Umairah brother who had initially approached the Israeli soldiers had been trying to go to his house to move his family out and away from the Israeli raid. “They lifted his shirt up to prove he was unarmed,” Abu Hajar said. “They then started shooting at him, and at us as well.” The Israeli army said it acted in self-defence after one of the Umairah brothers tried to seize a weapon from a soldier. It said that four soldiers had been injured in the incident. West Bank raids The raid in Nablus, which lasted more than 24 hours, is the latest Israel has conducted in the West Bank. Israel has taken advantage of the world’s focus on its own war on Gaza since October 2023 to escalate its land theft and violence in the West Bank. During that span, Israel has killed at least 930 people in the West Bank, 24 of whom were from Nablus, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Many of these deaths are the result of violent Israeli raids ostensibly aimed at clamping down on Palestinian fighters in the West Bank, but which have resulted in mass destruction and thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes. Advertisement According to Hamdan, Israeli troops mainly targeted Nablus’s old city by storming into hundreds of homes in the middle of the night. Dozens of people were also reportedly arrested. Young people in the city protested by burning tyres and throwing rocks at Israeli troops, yet they were met with heavy tear gas, injuring at least 80 Palestinians in the raid. In the past, Palestinian protesters have been imprisoned on “terrorism” charges or shot and killed for simply resisting Israel’s occupation by throwing rocks or defying Israeli soldiers. This time around, the Israelis classified the entire old city in Nablus as a closed military zone for 24 hours. No ambulances or medics were allowed inside to aid distressed residents, said Hamdan. “Nobody was allowed in or out. Nobody was allowed to make any movement at all. We [as medics] could not enter the area during the entire raid to try and help people in need,” he told Al Jazeera. Assault and vandalism During the raid, Israeli troops stormed into several apartments after blowing off door hinges with explosives. Umm Hassan, a 58-year-old resident who did not want to give her full name, recalls feeling terrified when several Israeli soldiers broke into her home. About five months ago, her husband passed away from cancer, an illness that also claimed two of her children years ago. Umm Hassan is also battling cancer, yet she said Israeli soldiers showed her no mercy. They flipped her television on the ground, broke windows and tossed her paintings off the walls and onto the living room floor. Advertisement They even vandalised her books by throwing them on the ground, including the Quran. “I told them to leave me alone. I was alone and so scared. There was nobody to protect me,” Umm Hassan told Al Jazeera. Another woman, Rola, said that Israeli soldiers stormed into her home two times in the span of six hours during the raid. When Israeli soldiers returned the second time, Rola said that they attacked her elderly father, hitting him on the head and chest with the butts of their guns. Rola described her three nieces and nephews – all small children – cowering with fear as Israeli soldiers vandalised and destroyed their home. “The second time they came to our home, they put us all in a room and we weren’t able to leave the room from 8am until 3:30pm,” said Rola. “We [Palestinians] always talk about being resilient. But the reality is when Israeli soldiers come into your private home, then you get very scared. It’s natural. We are humans and humans get scared,” she told Al Jazeera. Psychological warfare More than 80 Palestinians received treatment from the Palestine Red Crescent Society during the raid, 25 of them as a result of gunshot wounds. While Israel says its raid was “precise”, inhabitants of Nablus say that the attack on the city was the latest attempt to intimidate and frighten Palestinians. “Honestly, what were Israeli soldiers searching for in my home? What did they think they were going to find?” asked Rola. “The reason for their raids [violence] is to uphold the [illegal] occupation.” Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Pulse massacre survivors in Florida to revisit nightclub before it is razed
The nightclub is being replaced with a permanent memorial to one of the US’s worst mass shootings in modern history. Survivors and family members of the 49 victims killed at an LGBTQ+ friendly nightclub in the United States have gotten their first chance to walk through it before it is demolished and replaced with a permanent memorial to what at the time was considered the worst mass shooting in modern US history. In small groups over four days starting Wednesday, survivors and family members of those killed plan to spend half an hour at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where Omar Mateen opened fire during a Latin night celebration on June 12, 2016, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS), was killed after a three-hour standoff with police. The Pulse shooting‘s death toll was surpassed the following year when 58 people were killed and more than 850 injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas. The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse property in 2023 for $2m and plans to build a $12m permanent memorial that will open in 2027. These efforts follow a fumbled attempt to create a memorial over many years by a private foundation run by the club’s former owner. Advertisement The existing structure will be razed later this year. “None of us thought that it would take nine years to get to this point, and we can’t go back and relitigate all of the failures along the way that have happened. But what we can do is control how we move forward together,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said two weeks ago, when county commissioners pledged $5m to support the city of Orlando’s plan. The opportunity to visit the nightclub comes on the ninth anniversary of the mass shooting. About 250 survivors and family members of those killed have responded to the city’s invitation to walk through the nightclub this week. Families of the 49 people who were killed can visit the site with up to six people in their group, and survivors can bring one person with them. The club has been cleaned, and lighting has been installed ahead of the walk-throughs. The people invited to visit are being given the chance to ask FBI agents who investigated the massacre about what happened. Mental health counsellors will be available to talk to those who walk through the building in what could be both a healing and traumatic moment for them. “The building may come down, and we may finally get a permanent memorial, but that doesn’t change the fact that this community has been scarred for life,” said Brandon Wolf, who survived the massacre by hiding in a bathroom as the gunman opened fire. He does not plan to visit the site. “There are people inside the community who still need and will continue to need support and resources.” Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
David Hogg may lose DNC vice chair role after committee votes to hold new election
David Hogg, the 25-year-old progressive firebrand, could lose his leadership position after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) voted to redo its vice chair election. After three days of submitting electronic ballots, DNC members voted to uphold the Credentials Committee’s resolution proposed by longtime Democratic Party activist Kalyn Free to host a re-election for two vice-chair positions, currently held by Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta. Seventy-five percent of those who cast a ballot voted in favor of the resolution, while 25% voted against it. A total of 89% of DNC members cast a ballot. “The DNC will immediately move to administer new ballots for the final two Vice Chair positions, one of which must be held by a male and one of which may be held by a candidate of any gender,” said the DNC’s Deputy Press Secretary Nina Raneses. “The election for the male Vice Chair position will commence tomorrow morning at 10:00AM ET.” DEMOCRATS’ VICE CHAIR GETS ULTIMATUM: STAY NEUTRAL IN PRIMARIES OR STEP DOWN FROM PARTY LEADERSHIP The DNC’s decision is the latest political blow to Hogg, who stirred up intraparty divisions this year for his $20 million pledge to primary-challenge older Democrats in safe blue districts he said are “asleep at the wheel” through his outside political action group, Leaders We Deserve. Hogg’s DNC leadership hanging in the balance comes on the heels of a damning Politico report, which included leaked audio from a Zoom meeting of DNC Chair Ken Martin lamenting Hogg’s fallout at the DNC. “I don’t think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to. So it’s really frustrating,” Martin told Hogg on the May 15 Zoom call. But the frustration didn’t stop Hogg from endorsing Virginia state Del. Irene Shin in the special election to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. DNC CHAIR RIPPED DAVID HOGG OVER PARTY INFIGHTING IN LEAKED MEETING AUDIO: ‘REALLY FRUSTRATING’ Martin affirmed the DNC would stay neutral in Democrat primaries following Hogg’s multi-million-dollar announcement. And the DNC chair gave Hogg the ultimatum to either rescind his vice-chair position or forego his political influence through his PAC. While DNC officials, past and present, said the vote to host vice chair re-elections had nothing to do with Hogg personally, the progressive Gan Z activist framed the DNC’s vote as an expedited plan to remove him as vice chair. Hogg said Martin’s newly proposed “neutrality pledge” was “trying to change the rules because I’m not currently breaking them.” DAVID HOGG SLAMS ‘FAST-TRACK’ EFFORT TO OUST HIM AS DNC VICE CHAIR “While this vote was based on how the DNC conducted its officers’ elections, which I had nothing to do with, it is also impossible to ignore the broader context of my work to reform the party which loomed large over this vote,” Hogg said after the Credentials Committee voted to elevate Free’s complaint before the full committee. Free submitted her complaint following the DNC’s Feb. 1 officer elections, in which Hogg and Kenyatta were elected vice chairs. Free claimed the DNC’s tabulation method violated the charter’s provision and parliamentary procedure and “discriminated against three women of color candidates.” Last month, the Credentials Committee found the vice-chair officer elections violated parliamentary procedure and voted to recommend the DNC conduct a new election for the two vice-chair positions. Now that the full DNC has called for a new vote, they will conduct a re-election from June 12-17, in which Hogg and Kenyatta could lose their leadership positions. One vice-chair position may be filled by a male and one may be a candidate of any gender, according to the DNC. Only the candidates who were eligible for the third ballot during the Feb. 1 election qualify for the re-election, which includes Kenyatta, Hogg, Free, Jeanna Repass and Shasti Conrad. “This was never about Malcolm Kenyatta or David Hogg,” Free told Fox News Digital after the Credentials Committee elevated her complaint. “For me, this was about ensuring that the Democratic Party lives up to our ideals as the only political party to believe in and stand up for election integrity and a free and fair democracy.” But Kenyatta, who picked up the most votes during the Feb. 1 election, has criticized Hogg for playing “fast and loose with the facts without rebuttal.” “Any story about this that neatly places this into a narrative about David Hogg is wrong,” Kenyatta said of the re-election buzz. “I worked my a– off to get this role and have done the job every day since I’ve held it. This story is complex, and I’m frustrated – but it’s not about @davidhogg111. Even though he clearly wants it to be.”
Trump tells judge he does not need Newsom’s permission to crack down on rioters, deploy National Guard
The Justice Department on Wednesday doubled down on its assertion that President Donald Trump has the authority to call up U.S. National Guard troops in California, describing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s emergency lawsuit to block his action as a “crass political stunt” that risks “endangering American lives.” At issue in the case is whether Trump, as commander in chief, has the authority to federalize the National Guard against the express wishes or consent of a state governor. Both sides are slated to appear in court Friday while a judge weighs California’s request for injunctive relief. In the new court filing, lawyers for the administration said Trump, as president, has “no obligation” to consult with, or even to notify, Newsom before federalizing the National Guard. ‘STATE OF REBELLION’: EXPERT WEIGHS IN ON NEWSOM CHALLENGE TO TRUMP DEPLOYING NATIONAL GUARD “The extraordinary relief plaintiffs request would judicially countermand the Commander in Chief’s military directives – and would do so in the posture of a temporary restraining order, no less,” lawyers for the Trump administration said in the filing. “That would be unprecedented. It would be constitutionally anathema,” they added. “And it would be dangerous.” That argument is unlikely to sit well with Newsom. And it comes one day after California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over what the state described as the president’s unlawful action in federalizing the National Guard, which they noted was carried out without Newsom’s consent. Bonta argued in the lawsuit that Trump’s actions were both inappropriate and illegal, since he did not first seek Newsom’s permission to federalize the troops. National Guard units fall under the dual control of state and federal governments, and any action to mobilize the units typically goes through the respective state governor first. The judge overseeing the case declined the state’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s actions but ordered both parties to court Friday to consider the request for broader injunctive relief. REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL ACCUSE CALIFORNIA OF EXCUSING ‘LAWLESSNESS’ At issue is 10 U.S.C. § 12406, or the law that Trump invoked in his memo late last week to call up the National Guard. The law allows presidents to deploy the National Guard and other troops at the federal level in the event of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion” against the U.S. government. In that case, the law says the president “may call into federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws.” But lawyers for Newsom told the court that Trump lacked the power to federalize the troops under Section 12406, since the immigration protests, in their view, did not amount to a rebellion. TRUMP NOMINATES FORMER DEFENSE ATTORNEY EMIL BOVE FOR FEDERAL APPEALS COURT VACANCY “At no point in the past three days has there been a rebellion or an insurrection. Nor have these protests risen to the level of protests or riots that Los Angeles and other major cities have seen at points in the past, including in recent years,” they told the court. A group of 26 Republican state attorneys general from filed an amicus brief siding with Trump one day earlier, arguing that his decision to federalize the National Guard to address ICE riots and protests that broke out in parts of the state was the “right response.” “In California, we’re seeing the results of leadership that excuses lawlessness and undermines law enforcement,” the attorneys general wrote in the statement, first provided to Fox News Digital. “When local and state officials won’t act, the federal government must.” Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.
Trump’s DOGE efficiency agency says it slashes $25B in federal spending as rehiring begins
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced on Wednesday it has decreased its annual non-defense federal obligations by an additional ~1.9% since last month. As of June 8th, annual non-defense federal obligations are down 22.4%, or ~$25B, as compared to 2024, DOGE announced on X. The cut marks an additional ~1.9% reduction from last month’s figures, which were announced on May 8. DOGE’S GREATEST HITS: LOOK BACK AT THE DEPARTMENT’S MOST HIGH-PROFILE CUTS DURING TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS “Cash outlays will follow as obligations come due,” DOGE wrote in the post. “Our initiative to reduce wasteful spend, consistent with the DOGE Cost Efficiency Executive Order, continues to bear fruit.” On May 14, DOGE announced the current year’s non-defense federal obligations were down 20.5% as compared to 2024. The announcement came minutes before Fox News Digital was first to report the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is rehiring more than 450 previously fired employees belonging to multiple divisions within the agency’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The rehired CDC employees came from the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; the National Center for Environmental Health; the Immediate Office of the Director, and the Global Health Center, according to an HHS official familiar with the matter. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told CBS News in April some personnel who were cut shouldn’t have been. DOGE ENDS 108 ‘WASTEFUL’ CONTRACTS, INCLUDING FOR AN ‘EXECUTIVE TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM’ “We’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan,” Kennedy said. “Part of the—at DOGE, we talked about this from the beginning, is we’re going to do 80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstated, because we’ll make mistakes.” In addition to the HHS rehires, the Internal Revenue Service, Food and Drug Administration, State Department, and Department of Housing and Urban Development started rehiring employees let go during DOGE cuts, the Washington Post reported. DOGE TAKES A CHAINSAW TO FEDERAL SPENDING WITH 7 MAJOR VICTORIES THIS WEEK: ‘GOT TO BE DONE’ Another roadblock this week was a ruling from U.S. District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York, who ruled to restrict the agency’s access to federal databases. The Trump administration previously said DOGE could not work effectively with the limitations, noting DOGE needed to access Social Security information to root out fraud. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.