With his personal life under scrutiny, Ken Paxton’s family defends his character in Senate race
After Sen. John Cornyn ran ads about his rival’s alleged infidelity, Paxton countered with a spot featuring his daughter, who cited her father’s “genuine love for his family” in an op-ed.
17 measles cases reported in El Paso, including 13 at ICE detention facility
Earlier in February, two cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of COVID-19 were identified at Camp East Montana.
Texas Tech regents unexpectedly take no public action on what can be taught on race, gender
Some professors are waiting for a final decision on acceptable instruction under a review policy created by the system’s new chancellor.
Lawmakers say U.S. military used laser to take down Border Protection drone in Texas
The Federal Aviation Administration closed more airspace near El Paso in response to the incident, officials said.
Federal prosecutor admits ‘extraordinary’ timing in Abrego Garcia smuggling case charges
A federal prosecutor acknowledged Thursday that the decision to charge Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia two years after a routine traffic stop was “extraordinary,” while defending the human smuggling case as legally justified. Abrego Garcia, 31, has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate since last March, when he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order in what Trump administration officials acknowledged was an “administrative error.” The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration had to work to bring him back to the U.S. After returning in June, Abrego Garcia was taken into federal custody in Nashville and detained on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and is seeking dismissal of the charges on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution. JUDGE ORDERS MIGRANT DEPORTED IN ‘ERROR’ FREE FROM ICE CUSTODY WITH CRIMINAL CASE LOOMING A 2019 court order prevents Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador after an immigration judge determined he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager and has been under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Abrego Garcia was accused in court records of repeated domestic violence against his wife, who alleged multiple incidents of physical abuse in protective order filings. She later withdrew the protective order request and has defended her husband publicly. The Department of Homeland Security has also said he was living in the U.S. illegally and has alleged ties to MS-13, disputing portrayals of him as simply a “Maryland man.” His attorneys have denied the gang allegations. Tennessee Highway Patrol body camera footage from when Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding shows a calm exchange with officers. While officers discussed suspicions of smuggling among themselves — noting there were nine passengers in the vehicle — Abrego Garcia was issued only a warning. TENNESSEE BODYCAM OF ‘MARYLAND MAN’ TRAFFIC STOP SHOWS TROOPERS’ HANDS TIED DESPITE SMUGGLING CLUES First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire, who was acting U.S. attorney in April 2025, testified Thursday that his decision to charge Abrego Garcia was based on the evidence. “I had previously prosecuted several human smuggling cases,” McGuire said, noting that after seeing video of the traffic stop, “I was immediately struck by how similar what was being depicted in the body cam was to those investigations.” McGuire said Abrego Garcia’s vehicle belonged to someone with “a human smuggling background” and added that the route was “suspicious.” “It was a large number of individuals traveling in one SUV with a driver who spoke for the group. No one had luggage… the car had Texas plates… the route was suspicious,” McGuire said. DEM JUDGE IN HOT SEAT AFTER DHS EXPOSES ‘WHOLE NEW LEVEL’ OF ACTIVISM, SHELTERING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT During cross-examination, McGuire acknowledged that the timing of the charges, coming so long after the traffic stop, was “extraordinary.” He said he had not previously been aware of the traffic stop but reiterated that nobody in the Trump administration, including the White House or the Department of Justice, pressured him to seek the indictment. When asked about whether he might have felt pressure to prosecute the case, McGuire said, “I’m not going to do something that is wrong to keep my job.” DHS OFFICIAL RIPS KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA FOR ‘MAKING TIKTOKS’ WHILE AGENCY FACES GAG ORDER McGuire also said timing factored into charging Abrego Garcia since he was being held in El Salvador and he did not want the indictment to go public before all senior officials were briefed on the matter. “I knew from the get-go that this was going to be a controversial matter,” McGuire said. U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw did not make a ruling Thursday and said he would wait to receive post-hearing briefs from attorneys by March 5 before determining whether another hearing is necessary. Crenshaw previously found some evidence that the prosecution “may be vindictive” and that prior statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern.” Thursday’s court appearance came after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from re-arresting Abrego Garcia into federal immigration custody on Feb. 17. Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Jake Gibson, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump pushes Congress to pass SAVE Act during State of the Union; no meddling with tariffs
State of the Union speeches are all about aspirations. It doesn’t matter if you’re Reagan. Clinton, Obama, the Bush tandem or Trump. Aspirations are the quintessence of State of the Union speeches. What presidents aspire to do. And what a president wants Congress to do. All of this flows toward the ultimate of political aspirations: winning elections. Be it the next presidential election. Or, House and Senate seats during the midterms. There were two big asks — and one admonition — from President Donald Trump this week. He wants Congress to approve the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship for people to vote. He wants lawmakers to pass a stock trading ban, handcuffing Congress from dealing in stocks. And the President doesn’t want Congress to meddle in tariff policy. President Trump touted his new tariffs, arguing that they will eventually replace the nation’s income tax. This commander-in-chief has wielded executive power more broadly than any other president. So he instructed lawmakers to trade in their tariff authority. “Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said of his new tariffs. LIZ PEEK: AMERICA EXPECTED ONE THING FROM TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION. IT GOT ANOTHER The Constitution blesses Congress with the power to impose tariffs. The Supreme Court upheld that power last week. But President Trump went ahead and slapped another set of tariffs on all nations, leaning on a different law. Like most presidents, Trump wants to control legislation. That includes precluding Congress from tampering with his tariffs. However, a number of Republicans have their own aspirations: getting re-elected. That’s why some House Republicans, who believe their districts are getting hammered by tariffs, would like to reclaim that power. Or, at the very least, be on the record opposing the president. The House voted a few weeks ago to extinguish a special rule House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others put in place to block members from unwinding the tariffs for a year. Then the House adopted a plan to undo tariffs with Canada. TRUMP’S PUSH TO ‘KNOCK OUT’ FILIBUSTER GAINS NEW GOP TRACTION AS FUNDING DEADLINE NEARS But again, these are aspirations of some Republicans fed up with tariffs. The bulk of Republicans are okay with keeping them in place. And that’s exactly what Trump wants – regardless of what the Supreme Court decided. Let’s go back to Trump’s two major legislative asks in his speech. The SAVE Act is the one he really wants to be passed. This fits nicely with Trump’s narrative about illegal immigration, his claim that former President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election and voter fraud. “They want to cheat. They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat,” said the President of Democrats during his speech. “Cheating is rampant.” TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY A study examining election fraud by the conservative Heritage Foundation, discovered that examples of election fraud are minuscule. For instance, Pennsylvania, a swing state, has only unearthed 39 instances of voting fraud over the past three decades. The House already approved the SAVE Act. But the question is the Senate. “The Senate is working. I think every Republican over there is obviously in favor of the SAVE America Act, and they’re trying to cobble together the votes. It’s a 70% Democrat issue. It’s over 90% in some polls,” said Johnson. “Hopefully, some Democrats will come to their senses. I don’t know how they can go home to their voters and say that they were opposing that when it’s such a popular issue. So we’ll see how it goes.” See how it goes is right. It was notable that in his plea for Congressional action on the SAVE Act, Trump did not demand that senators end the filibuster. Fifty GOP senators now support the SAVE Act. But the trick is whether those who endorse the legislation can hit the magic threshold of 60 yeas. That’s the number of votes required to break a filibuster. Senate Majority leader John Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly resisted altering the Senate’s filibuster customs and precedents to pass the SAVE Act. The bill will never become law unless the Senate changes things. And Thune reiterated his opposition to undoing the filibuster. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others have advocated a “talking filibuster.” That means senators must actually speak and hold the floor for hours on end. Otherwise, the Senate must vote. Talking filibuster proponents don’t want senators to silently object from the sidelines. That’s what compels the Senate to take procedural votes needing 60 yeas to overcome a filibuster. LEAVITT DEMANDS SENATE GOP ‘GET OFF THEIR BUTTS’ AND ABOLISH FILIBUSTER RULE TO ADVANCE TRUMP’S AGENDA “The talking filibuster issue is one on which there is not a unified Republican conference. And there would have to be (unity) if you go down that path,” said Thune. He mentioned that the GOP must “keep 50 Republicans unified pretty much on every single vote,” adding that “there isn’t the support for doing that at this point.” Fox News is also told that there is some friction between House and Senate Republicans. Some Senate Republicans don’t appreciate the House amping up pressure to ditch the filibuster. The right to filibuster is a privilege to which senators of both parties cling tightly. MARK HALPERIN: TRUMP STRATEGY SUPER SESSION PLOTS MIDTERM SURVIVAL AS HISTORY STALKS GOP Moreover, subjecting the Senate to lengthy debate could tee up amendment votes which many vulnerable senators may find unsettling. Getting them on the record on a host of controversial issues wouldn’t help the GOP ahead of the election. So, while it’s Trump’s aspiration to pass the SAVE Act, his aspirations regarding the filibuster are unclear at best. Then, there’s the aspiration about prohibiting lawmakers from trading stocks. Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stood and applauded when Trump made that entreaty. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION BECOMES POLITICAL BOXING MATCH
Vulnerable House Dem lashes out at Trump’s ‘racist’ SOTU challenge: ‘That was uncomfortable’
Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., called a challenge from President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address “racist” when he asked listeners to stand if they agreed the U.S. should prioritize the safety of its own citizens over illegal aliens. “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support,” Trump said. “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Democrats remained seated for over a minute and a half as the Republican side of the chamber burst into prolonged applause. HOW ICE WENT FROM POST-9/11 COUNTERTERROR AGENCY TO CENTER OF THE IMMIGRATION FIGHT After the address, Bynum, who is on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s list of vulnerable Dem incumbents, said the moment made her uneasy. “I think you can agree with the ‘what’ — like standing up for American citizens,” Bynum said. “But I disagree with the ‘how.’ “There’s thinly veiled racist language, anti-immigrant language in what he was asking, and that was uncomfortable.” Bynum’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how Trump’s challenge had asked lawmakers to discriminate on the basis of race. TRUMP SHAMES DEMOCRATS IN VIRAL STATE OF THE UNION CHALLENGE ON MIGRANT CRIME: ‘FIRST DUTY’ Trump’s remarks to Democrats Tuesday came as a partial government shutdown drags on over demands Democrats have made to reform the agency at the heart of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Democrats are demanding a set of 10 enforcement reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and won’t vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until Republicans meet their demands. DHS, which oversees ICE, went into a shutdown Feb. 14. DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS INTO WEEK TWO AS IRAN THREAT, SOTU CLASH COMPLICATE HILL TALKS Among other changes, Democrats are looking for a ban on masks, an end to roaming patrols, visible identification and stiffer warrant requirements for arresting illegal aliens in public. Republicans have dismissed those demands, arguing that Democrats must first pass legislation to restrict “sanctuary cities,” communities that have instructed their law enforcement not to cooperate with federal agents on immigration apprehensions and deportations. In a press release after the State of the Union address, Bynum, who voted against DHS earlier this year, listed Trump’s framing of his immigration crackdown among her many critiques of the address. “Tonight, I watched President Trump spend the majority of his speech lying about the state of our economy, demonizing immigrants and spewing more of the same divisive BS. I can’t say I’m surprised,” she wrote.
Kennedy warns ayatollah wants to ‘drink our blood out of a boot’ as Iran tensions escalate
A Senate Republican warned Thursday that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s primary focus is shedding American blood as U.S.-Iran relations continue to simmer. “The ayatollah not only thinks that I’m going to hell because I don’t agree with his religion — he wants to kill me,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said on the Senate floor Thursday. “He wants to kill Americans and the Israelis and anybody who does not believe in his jihad and drink our blood out of a boot,” Kennedy continued. “And he’s acted on that, and that’s not acceptable.” US POSITIONS AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, STRIKE PLATFORMS ACROSS MIDDLE EAST AS IRAN TALKS SHIFT TO OMAN Kennedy’s message comes as tensions with Iran are escalating. At the core of the issue is Iran’s capability and Khamenei’s desire to build a nuclear weapon. President Donald Trump gave the country’s leadership roughly 10 to 15 days to reach a nuclear agreement and warned that the inability to strike a deal could lead to U.S. military action in the region. He renewed that edict during his State of the Union address earlier this week. TRUMP’S IRAN ULTIMATUM ENTERS DECISIVE STRETCH AFTER STATE OF THE UNION “I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror … to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. Kennedy cautioned that if the Trump administration were to broker a deal, it would need to have guardrails. “If we make a deal with Iran, let’s make sure we have a protocol to enforce it because, in my experience in watching the Ayatollah through the years, I wouldn’t trust this man if he was three days dead,” he said. SEN LINDSEY GRAHAM: IRAN IS FACING A BERLIN WALL MOMENT — HISTORY IS WATCHING US NOW Lawmakers are wrestling with the exact nature of what a strike could look like and whether Congress should weigh in before Trump makes a decision. Senators Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., expect that their Iran war powers resolution will hit the Senate floor next week, which would curb Trump’s ability to strike the country without Congress’ approval. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the most important aspect of the Iran negotiations was “to prevent them from having nuclear capability.” “But there are also other threats that they represent in the region, and we have a big presence in that region, as you know. So, I think they’re looking at and working through what the options might be,” Thune said. “In my view, if you’re going to do something there, you better well make it about getting new leadership and regime change.”
Hillary Clinton comes out swinging after GOP grilled her during marathon Epstein deposition
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasted no time criticizing Republicans after she emerged from a roughly six-hour grilling in the House Oversight Committee’s Jeffrey Epstein probe Thursday evening. Clinton told reporters she answered questions “repetitively, literally over and over again” after blasting Republicans for holding a closed-door deposition instead of a public hearing. She said, however, that she would not testify again if there was a public hearing, telling reporters, “They had a chance to do it in public, and I wish they had done it in public. And I think they’re making the wrong decision, avoiding doing it in public. “It then got, at the end, quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: CLINTONS CALL FOR OPEN EPSTEIN FILES HEARING AFTER MONTHS OF DEFYING SUBPOENAS She also knocked Republican lawmakers for not attending the deposition of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner in person. Clinton did save praise for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., however, “for raising a series of significant questions that I responded to about the nature of the investigation and the areas that I thought should be explored.” “So, I appreciated that. I want to see the truth come out. So, that was a reassuring way to end a very long, repetitive, deposition,” Clinton said. She also reiterated comments from her opening statement that she did not know Epstein and said she only knew Ghislaine Maxwell “as an acquaintance.” When asked why Maxwell was invited to daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, however, Clinton said she was a “plus-one of someone invited.” Clinton’s deposition began in the 11 a.m. hour and wrapped in the 5 p.m. hour in her hometown of Chappaqua, New York. Comer said afterward that Clinton “answered most of our questions” in a “productive” deposition but said Republicans ultimately “weren’t satisfied” with what they gleaned. “The number of times that she said, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask my husband,’ was more than a dozen,” Comer said. Former President Bill Clinton is slated to testify behind closed doors Friday for what Comer said would be an “even longer” deposition. CLINTONS CAVE: COMER SAYS BILL AND HILLARY TO TESTIFY IN EPSTEIN PROBE Neither Clinton is implicated in any wrongdoing related to Epstein or Maxwell, but Bill Clinton was known to have a relationship with the late financier and sex trafficker before the federal investigations into Epstein’s crimes came to light. Hillary Clinton said that relationship “ended years, several years, before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light.” Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital it was “frustrating” to see Hillary Clinton “obstinate and sort of annoyed at the process.” “She had an excuse for everything. But when you’ve got a pattern of involvement and a pattern of association, the American people deserve answers,” Timmons said. “Honestly, I tend to find her to be fairly credible, but I mean, all of this is going to culminate tomorrow with President Clinton, and he has a lot of really hard questions to answer. And I don’t think that the American people are going to like his answers.” The deposition was tense at times, a tension Clinton alluded to when she accused Republicans of breaking the rules when Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., apparently shared a photo from inside the deposition room with a right-wing influencer. “We had a bit of a challenge in the beginning because we agreed upon rules based on the fact it was going to be a closed hearing at their demand. And one of the members violated that rule, which was very upsetting because it suggested that they might violate other of our agreements,” Clinton said. “So, we had to cease the hearing for a period of time until we could get assurances that no rules would be broken going forward.” It’s notable, however, that Democrats also leaked information from inside the room but did not get any public blowback. A New York Times reporter posted reporting about the deposition on X earlier in the day while citing a “Dem member in the room.” Bill Clinton’s deposition is also expected to kick off in the 11 a.m. hour on Friday at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center.
WATCH: Dem senator who ditched Trump’s SOTU caught praising naked bike riders, ‘patriots’ in frog suits
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who skipped President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to attend Democrat counter-programming, hailed a group of frog-clad protesters as “patriots,” crediting them for defeating Trump’s anti-crime efforts in Portland, Oregon. “Boy, the frogs are rocking this town,” Wyden said Tuesday night. “I’m with the frogs, and I’m with all of you because political change starts at the grassroots. “For weeks, social media was flooded with these wonderful patriots. Videos of unicyclers, naked bike riders, the guy in the chicken suit and a whole lot of frogs. BARE-BOTTOMED BIKERS ROLL THROUGH RAIN TO SHOUT AT FEDS IN BLUE CITY’S LATEST ANTI-ICE STUNT “When Donald Trump sent his agents to the streets of Portland, we took on authoritarianism, and we won!” The frogs, part of an organization called the Portland Frog Brigade, use “inflatable animal costumes to practice the proven art of peaceful, creative dissent, exercising our right to free expression in defense of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law,” according to its website. In September, as part of a crackdown on crime, the Trump administration announced it would send National Guard troops to Portland among other urban centers across the country. In Portland, the order sparked social unrest and protests, including backlash from local officials. “Portland is an American city, not a military target,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a post on social media. “President Trump has directed all necessary troops to Portland, Oregon. The number of necessary troops is zero.” Almost immediately, the state launched a legal challenge to the deployment in the case of Oregon v. Trump, arguing that the administration lacked the legal authority to use federal troops to combat local crime. US JUDGE EXTENDS ORDER BLOCKING TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT IN PORTLAND As that legal battle raged inside the courtroom, the city’s person-based crime — such as homicides, kidnappings, sexual offenses and vehicular manslaughter — has fallen marginally every month, according to data from Portland’s Police Bureau. From October 2025 to January 2026, person-related crimes are down 18%. Total crime, including property and social crimes like drug offenses, is down 8%. But in December, Trump began winding down his deployment to Portland as its legal battle began to run into a series of losses. As recently as Feb. 17, the Trump administration ended its efforts to overturn a 9th Circuit order halting Trump’s deployment of the guard to Portland. “Oregon National Guard members are currently in transit to Fort Bliss, Texas, where they will demobilize, and the demobilization process will take approximately 7 to 14 days to complete,” the court ruled on Jan. 8, 2026. OREGON RESIDENTS SUE HOMELAND SECURITY AFTER TEAR GAS USED ON ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS Wyden celebrated the decision. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Wyden’s framing of the administration’s drawdown of the National Guard from Portland.