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Mamdani seemingly takes swipe at scandals surrounding Eric Adams in new video: ‘I have something to hide’

Mamdani seemingly takes swipe at scandals surrounding Eric Adams in new video: ‘I have something to hide’

Self-described Democratic-Socialist New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani announced on Saturday a scavenger hunt across the city with a campaign video that appears to take aim at his opponent, Mayor Eric Adams, amid recent alleged scandals surrounding Adams’ inner circle. The clip — posted to Mamdani’s X account with the caption “game on” — begins with a camera following along a trail of potato chips that leads to Mamdani, who is sitting on a bench eating from a bag of Herr’s Sour Cream & Onion ripple chips. FORMER TOP ADAMS ADVISER, DONORS CHARGED IN BRIBERY CASE AS CUOMO MOCKS WITH CHIPS STUNT The video, which had garnered more than 30,000 likes by Saturday afternoon, follows just days after Winnie Greco, a former aide to Adams, was accused of trying to hand a reporter from news outlet THE CITY a wad of cash hidden inside a bag of the exact same brand of potato chips. “Hello, my friends. I have to come clean,” Mamdani says while munching on the bag of chips. “I have something to hide. Many things, in fact, because we’re doing a scavenger hunt.” EX-ADAMS AIDE ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO GIVE REPORTER A WAD OF CASH HIDDEN IN A POTATO CHIP BAG Mamdani’s scavenger hunt across New York City begins at 2 p.m. Sunday, and participants will solve a series of clues tied to the city’s history — each of which will lead them to the next location. The first clue will be shared in a video on Sunday morning, and the final stop will feature a surprise, Mamdani said. “At the final stop, you’ll find a special surprise — not a wad of cash,” Mamdani said in the video, seemingly taking another jab at his rival. The clip ends with Mamdani bending down to sweep up potato chips scattered across the sidewalk. CUOMO, ADAMS TRADE SHOTS OVER WHO SHOULD DROP OUT IN RACE AGAINST MAMDANI FOR NYC MAYOR “While New Yorkers struggle to afford the most expensive city in America, Adams’ administration is too busy tripping over corruption charges to come to their defense,” Zohran Mamdani campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec told Fox News Digital in an email. “New Yorkers deserve a mayor who is focused on them, not stuck in courtrooms. As for the video, we think it speaks for itself.” Just one day after THE CITY exposed Greco about the alleged potato chip incident, a handful of folks from Adams’ inner circle, including one of his former top advisors, were indicted in their own alleged bribery scandal. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday four indictments alleging a pay-to-play scheme and other charges against several Adams associates — including a former top adviser, her son, two political donors, and local business owners. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Eric Adams did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

Rubio’s major immigration move praised by conservative experts: ‘Long overdue’

Rubio’s major immigration move praised by conservative experts: ‘Long overdue’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s announcement this week halting work visas for foreign commercial truck drivers drew praise from conservatives in the wake of a deadly accident in Florida. “Effective immediately, we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio announced on X on Thursday. “The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.” The move follows a deadly crash in Florida in which an illegal immigrant from India allegedly struck and killed three people while driving a truck. Questions still loom about how he obtained a commercial driver’s license, as federal investigators say the suspect, Harjinder Singh, failed English proficiency and road sign tests. OVER 55 MILLION VISA HOLDERS SUBJECTED TO CONTINUOUS VETTING AMID TRUMP ADMIN CRACKDOWN Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, stated the move is “long overdue” and that commercial truck drivers should not be brought in from other nations in the first place. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE “There are legitimate questions about how qualified these foreign truck drivers are, following the horrible episode in Florida, where a non-English-speaking illegal alien who never should have been given any kind of driver’s license caused the death of three people as he botched an illegal U-turn in the middle of a divided highway,” Vaughan said. Americans can’t depend on trucking companies and state regulators to make sure foreign truck drivers are competent and safe, she added. The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, Lora Ries, said it’s “about road safety and immigration integrity.” RUBIO PAUSES WORKER VISAS FOR TRUCK DRIVERS AFTER DEADLY FLORIDA CRASH INVOLVING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLS 3 “DHS and the State Department should also analyze all current commercial truck drivers using a visa or an employment authorization document as the basis to obtain a commercial driver’s license and revoke such immigration benefits where appropriate. This is about road safety and immigration integrity,” Ries wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. Republican attorney Mehek Cooke said it ultimately boils down to “sovereignty and safety.” Fox News Digital also reached out to left-leaning immigrant advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center. BLUE STATE INVESTIGATES HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER GOT LICENSE BEFORE DEADLY FLORIDA CRASH “Massive truck driver shortage that is driving up the prices of everything we purchase and Rubio decides to make it worse based on an anecdote. Totally absurd decision-making process though I don’t know what visas he’s even talking about ‘pausing,’” David Bier, the CATO Institute’s director of immigration studies, posted to X in disagreement with the move from Rubio. The Trump administration has made a series of major immigration reforms, as mass deportation efforts are underway following the Biden-era border crisis. In addition, the administration announced that it is currently reviewing millions of people with U.S. visas. “The department’s continuous vetting includes all of the more than 55 million foreigners who currently hold valid U.S. visas,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday.

FBI raid of John Bolton’s home reportedly linked to classified documents probe

FBI raid of John Bolton’s home reportedly linked to classified documents probe

FBI agents raided the Bethesda, Md., home of former national security adviser John Bolton on Friday morning, marking a new tension point in his difficult relationship with President Donald Trump. Agents also raided Bolton’s D.C. office. The reason behind the raids was reportedly linked to a probe of allegations that Bolton sent classified documents to his family from a private email server while working at the White House, according to the New York Post. The Post cited a Trump administration official who said FBI Director Kash Patel ordered the raid. The outlet also reported that yet-to-be-unsealed search warrants reference a controversy over his memoir to establish a pattern of behavior. However, a senior U.S. official told the Post the probe was a “clean break” from the investigation regarding Bolton’s book. THE HISTORY OF HOW TRUMP AND BOLTON’S RELATIONSHIP FELL TO TATTERS Shortly after the raid began, Patel wrote on X that “no one is above the law… [FBI] agents on a mission.” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino shared the post and wrote, “Public corruption will not be tolerated.” Bolton, who served in Trump’s first administration, has not been arrested or taken into custody. Trump revoked his security clearance and Secret Service detail in January 2025. Trump was asked about the raid on Friday and said he did not know about it ahead of time, claiming he saw it on television. The president then made clear his disdain for his former national security adviser. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real lowlife,” Trump told reporters. He went on to call Bolton “not a smart guy” and said “he could be very unpatriotic.” TRUMP–BOLTON FEUD BACK IN FOCUS AFTER FBI RAID: ‘NEVER HAD A CLUE … WHAT A DOPE!’ The president also said Bolton was “a very quiet person except on television if he can say something bad about Trump.” Vice President JD Vance told “Meet the Press” on Friday that “we’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton.” Vance denied Bolton was being targeted for criticizing Trump. A source familiar with the Bolton raid and the evidence used to justify it told Fox News Digital that “Bolton really had some nerve to attack Trump over his handling of classified information,” but would not give more details. JOHN BOLTON BLASTED BY TRUMP ALLY ROGER STONE, WHO FACED BIDEN FBI RAID: ‘KARMA IS A B—-‘ Bolton criticized Trump’s handling of classified documents after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Trump was later indicted on 37 felony counts, which expanded to 40 before the case was dropped in July 2024. During Trump’s first administration, a probe into classified documents was launched but later shut down by the Biden administration. The Justice Department argued that Bolton’s 2020 memoir, “The Room Where it Happened,” contained classified material and attempted to block it from being published.  The FBI and Bolton’s office declined to comment on the matter. Reporting contributed by Axios and Fox News’ Michael Dorgan, David Spunt, Breanne Deppisch, Emma Woodhead and Brooke Singman.

Conservative activist slams Cracker Barrel; company left reeling after logo redesign

Conservative activist slams Cracker Barrel; company left reeling after logo redesign

Anti-woke crusader Robby Starbuck released a devastating video takedown of Cracker Barrel‘s leadership, making the case that the restaurant’s logo and decor change are the culmination of a years-long campaign to cater to the far Left and abandon the values of its middle-America customer base. Starbuck, who has brought major companies including John Deere, Target, and Harley-Davidson to heel by exposing their woke policies, described Cracker Barrel’s logo makeover as going from “old American nostalgia” to something “cold, dead, lifeless and modern” in a 15-minute video. He said that, while the Cracker Barrel brand is often associated with American tradition, the company is “infested with left-wing activists who are more interested in safe spaces, pronouns and virtue signaling than they are in their customers.” In his video, Starbuck highlights Cracker Barrel’s support for LGBTQ+ organizations and events, such as Nashville Pride, River City Pride and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). CRACKER BARREL CEO SERVES UP LEFTOVER CORPORATE BRANDING TO UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS He also noted that the company displayed rocking chairs with rainbow colors and LGBTQ+ insignia. The company even went so far as to place one in its Tennessee corporate office. Rocking chairs are practically synonymous with Cracker Barrel, with the restaurant’s long porches lined with them at locations nationwide. “The fact that it’s located there is important to this story because what’s happened here is a microcosm of the parasitic operating procedure of left-wing activists,” Starbuck said. “They don’t just wanna force their soulless, godless, hedonistic vision of the future onto blue hellscapes that their party controls.  “No, it’s much more important to them that they shove it down into your towns, into your kids’ schools and into your way of life. So, sticking a pro-trans rocking chair into their headquarters in a predominantly conservative town is exactly the type of thing they revel in doing.” Starbuck then pointed to the company’s involvement with HRC and participation in the Out and Equal Workplace Summit. For the Out and Equal conference, Cracker Barrel made rocking chairs in every color of the rainbow, representing the LGBTQ+ flag. Out and Equal even gave Cracker Barrel an award for having 2018’s top LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG). CRACKER BARREL DISMISSES CRITICS AS ‘VOCAL MINORITY’ WHILE RIVAL RESTAURANT ADDS TO BACKLASH The restaurant chain previously participated in HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, which measures “corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer employees,” according to the organization’s website. A company’s score on the index is determined by how inclusive HRC judged it to be toward LGBTQ+ employees. Cracker Barrel told Fox News Digital on Friday that it “has not participated in the Human Rights Campaign Index or had any affiliation with HRC in several years.” Two Cracker Barrel employees are called out by name in Starbuck’s video, Steve Smotherman and Rachel CampBell.  Smotherman was the head of management training and development at Cracker Barrel for 15 years, Starbuck asserted, showing a screenshot that appeared to be from LinkedIn. Smotherman, who eventually left Cracker Barrel for Out and Equal, serves on HRC’s Business Advisory Council in Washington, D.C.  DEMOCRATIC PARTY, GAVIN NEWSOM JOIN ONLINE ROASTING OF NEW CRACKER BARREL LOGO Starbuck describes Smotherman as “the archetype activist employee that fueled the rise of DEI in corporate America.” He also slammed CampBell, a manager of training and development at Cracker Barrel, for publicly expressing excitement over the company’s rainbow pride rocking chairs. “And it’s important to note all of this because these types of employees play a critical role in turning companies away from the values of their customers and moving the companies toward wokeness,” Starbuck said. CRACKER BARREL EXECUTIVE INSISTS RESTAURANT REMODELS ARE ‘WHAT THE GUESTS ASKED FOR’ Gilbert Dávila, a member of Cracker Barrel’s board of directors, was also referenced in Starbuck’s video. Dávila, who joined Cracker Barrel’s board in 2020, has worked at several major companies, including Disney, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. He’s also the co-CEO of DMI Consulting, which looks to “infuse cultural relevance and creativity into every solution.”  Starbuck asserted that Dávila, and others like him are responsible for the “woke advertising push” seen over the last few years. In the end, Starbuck emphasizes that the controversy around Cracker Barrel’s logo change is about more than the removal of a man in his chair leaning on a barrel. “It’s very, very important to understand that the Cracker Barrel story is not about a logo. It’s not at all about a logo, it is about a country, it is our heritage, and it is a culture. It’s about a power structure built to tell us that we are somehow backwards, embarrassing or bigoted,” Starbuck said. “A conservative can’t give their money to Cracker Barrel. A Christian cannot give their money to Cracker Barrel, and so we won’t,” he added. As Starbuck sees it, the Cracker Barrel debacle is a win-win for conservatives, saying that the company will either have to double down and lose customers or revert back to its 1977 logo to retain its customer base. Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report. Cracker Barrel did not respond Fox News Digital’s request for comment in time for publication.