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GOP speaker claps back after Booker stumps against bid to eradicate red state’s Democrat-held districts

GOP speaker claps back after Booker stumps against bid to eradicate red state’s Democrat-held districts

EXCLUSIVE: Alabama Republicans are moving to force through a new congressional map that could reduce Democratic representation amid a narrow national GOP House majority, while rebuking Yankee Democrats traveling to the Yellowhammer State to gin up opposition. State leaders argue the new Supreme Court ruling limiting the use of race in redistricting has changed the legal landscape, giving Alabama grounds to revisit and undo a court-imposed map that recently reshaped its congressional districts to help minority voters. As attention shifted from Louisiana to Alabama after the high bench tossed the Pelican State’s map last week, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., traveled south to stump in Birmingham with fellow Democrats bemoaning legislators’ attempts to force the high bench to reconsider a partially conflicting order from three years prior. “Well, I’m probably guessing that’s first time Cory Booker’s ever been in Alabama,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainville, told Fox News Digital. BLOCKBUSTER SUPREME COURT VOTING RIGHTS RULING IGNITES REDISTRICTING WAR ACROSS SOUTHERN STATES “The thing about it is the people that we represent have lived here most of all of their lives and they’re the ones that ask us to do something for them — not the Cory Bookers,” Ledbetter said. “And he can nationalize it all he wants to, but it’s not going to change facts.” Booker joined Rep. Terri Sewell of Birmingham, the state’s lone Democrat, until the court-mandated redraw produced a Democratic flip by Rep. Shomari Figures of Mobile. “We are in a storm right now — the question is, where will you stand, will you hold up your light,” Booker addressed a redistricting town hall in Birmingham, where he declared voting rights are on the ballot, according to the Alabama Reporter. The Yankee Democrat said he came south out of obligation to recognize that the Supreme Court upended decades of progress made by Alabamians, according to the city’s NBC affiliate. Late last month, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s 2-Democrat congressional map, in which Reps. Cleo Fields and Troy Carter’s Democratic districts were drawn with race as a significant factor. Alabama faced a similar fight after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Allen v. Milligan forced the state to redraw its map, leading to a court-imposed plan that shifted its delegation from a 6-1 Republican split to 5-2 after Republicans created but were rebuked for the so-called “Livingston map” that gave minorities districts with 55% and 40% representation respectively. SUPREME COURT RULES ON KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE AS REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS WAGE REDISTRICTING WAR The interceding Livingston map, so named for Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, should be revisited and upheld by the Supreme Court in line with its more recent ruling, Ledbetter argued. In passing the map, Ledbetter said he expects the Supreme Court will be forced to weigh in, via a new legal challenge or otherwise, and that the Louisiana ruling gives Alabama the precedent it needs to undo the high court’s prior ruling and imposed map. “Once that happens, it gives the governor opportunity to call a special election.” While any action taken by Ledbetter’s legislature would likely spur court action, he suggested quick passage is needed as Alabama’s primaries approach on May 19. “If we did nothing, we had no shot, and doing this gives us the opportunity to have a ball in the air in case they do overturn [Milligan].” Gov. Kay Ivey called the legislature to special session Monday to create plans for potential adjustment of upcoming primary elections, if the state is able to force the redistricting issue upon the Supreme Court. Ledbetter said the Livingston map was fair, and attempted to follow the will of the court originally — adding that he plans to force the issue this week during the special session. “Our goal is to pass the Livingston map and give the governor the opportunity if the 14th Amendment [provision] is removed; that gives us the opportunity to go forward with it,” he said, arguing the earlier ruling relied on legal standards that may now be affected by the court’s more recent decision. “That’s really the only shot we got to be able to do this before the November elections is that map that’s existing,” he said. SUPREME COURT JUST GAVE BLACK VOTERS A SHOT AT REAL POWER BEYOND SAFE SEATS Pushing back again on Booker and critics of Alabama’s prior attempt to redraw, Ledbetter said the Livingston map, under today’s population footprint, actually gives all voting blocs a better shot. “When that was redistricted that was a 50-50 seat,” he said of one of the Democrat-friendly districts on the map. “It gives everybody a shot and it’s got all seven seats open.” He criticized national Democrats for descending on other states like Virginia to try to tip the scale of their own redistricting, noting that Alabamians elected a Republican supermajority in Montgomery and want to reflect that in Congress. DEMS CIRCLE THE WAGONS BY BLAMING GOP FOR THEIR REDISTRICTING RESPONSE AHEAD OF MIDTERMS: ‘VERY DESPERATE’ “I don’t think it’s right for the courts to overstep their boundary and try to do legislation.” Ivey said in a statement the state has been battling “federal courts and activist groups who think they know Alabama better than Alabama” since the 2020 census. “By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn congressional and state Senate maps to be used during this election cycle,” she said. With Ledbetter and his partners on the Senate side primed to repass the Livingston map, the Supreme Court would have about a week to step in ahead of the May 19 primary, while Secretary of State Wes Allen told the Montgomery Advertiser that no matter the result of the special session, that date is set in stone — setting up a reason for national attention to turn toward the Yellowhammer State. Fox News Digital reached out to Booker and Ivey for additional comment.

NYC business owner kickstarts million dollar campaign to combat Mamdani-driven business exodus

NYC business owner kickstarts million dollar campaign to combat Mamdani-driven business exodus

New York’s political and financial leaders have launched efforts to combat Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policies that they say have driven multiple billionaires to look elsewhere for their business homes. After Mamdani named Citadel LLC CEO and owner Ken Griffin in an advertisement for a new tax on second homes in the city, Griffin publicly rebuked him as “creepy.” The COO of Citadel then indicated in a letter to employees that the company may not move forward with plans to continue a $6 billion renovation of a new Midtown Manhattan office skyscraper. “What the mayor of New York has made clear to my partners… and principally my New York partners… is that we need to double down on our bet in Miami, because we want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom and liberty, and that embraces people having an opportunity to live the American Dream,” Griffin said during the Milken Institute Global Conference in New York City on Tuesday. ‘WE’RE TAXING THE RICH’: NYC MAYOR MAMDANI TOUTS NEW $500M-A-YEAR TAX ON LUXURY SECOND HOMES Now, local business leaders are pledging time and money into a campaign hoping to keep business in the Big Apple.  Andrew Murstein, founder of Medallion Financial Corp., launched Operation Boomerang in an effort to lure defectors back to New York. Murstein pledged $1 million of his own money into the effort, which will see him sending New York hot dogs, bagels and Katz’s Deli to businesses that fled to Florida, he told the New York Post. “The last 10 years with mayors and governors, those things pass, and they should be in it for the long run,” he told the Post. “I’m trying to convince them not to abandon ship. Whatever it takes.” MAMDANI’S CLASS WARFARE AGAINST NEW YORK BUSINESSES IS ‘ECONOMIC VANDALISM’ Murstein also added that he’s going to leverage his initial contribution into the campaign to raise more money, which he anticipates will net the project between $20 million and $30 million, according to the Post. Former Mayor Eric Adams also lent his voice to re-luring efforts, imploring Griffin to “stand your ground,” in a post on X. Mamdani’s attacks on the rich have even spooked his own employees, according to the Post’s sources. “The mayor’s office is feeling pressure around this, and they are looking for ways to change the narrative around business,” an anonymous local business leader reportedly told the Post. “They’re in a pickle because he’s hearing all the business leaders are looking for exit strategies now and Mamdani needs money and needs to keep his base happy,” the source allegedly continued. “This might be an inflection point because NYC is already a welfare state supported by very few people at the top who can leave,” the source concluded, per the Post.

Jack Smith escalates Trump DOJ clash with blistering private-event rebuke

Jack Smith escalates Trump DOJ clash with blistering private-event rebuke

Former special counsel Jack Smith unleashed on the Department of Justice in an unusually fiery speech to a few hundred people during a private event, accusing the department of being “corrupted” and targeting President Donald Trump’s enemies. Smith’s remarks, given during a private dinner in D.C. in April and reported by the New York Times this week, zeroed in on the DOJ’s decisions to investigate and prosecute some of Trump’s top political rivals, such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The former special counsel accused the department of weaponizing its authority, the very same accusation that Republicans have widely leveled against Smith for bringing two criminal cases against Trump during the Biden administration. “We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” Smith said. CONSERVATIVES ACCUSE JACK SMITH OF IMPROPER TIES WITH JUDGES IN TRUMP CASES AFTER NEW DOCUMENT DUMP A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital the department expected “nothing less from Jack Smith whose sole mission was to politically prosecute a former president in an attempt to stop him from assuming office again.” “This DOJ has ended the weaponization perpetrated by the Biden Administration and will continue to ensure no one is above the law,” the spokesperson said. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called Smith a “lying hack” who prosecuted Trump “to try and benefit his Democrat cronies.” “Jack Smith was specifically hired to spend years on a witch hunt to compile lies against the President, and it’s laughable that he would try and criticize this Administration for restoring integrity to the Justice Department,” Jackson told Fox News Digital. Smith brought indictments against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election and that he retained classified national defense information. Smith faced significant hurdles in the election case, while the classified documents case was tossed out by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, who said he was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith’s office was appealing Cannon’s ruling when Trump won the 2024 election. Weeks later, Smith moved to dismiss both federal cases, citing the Justice Department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president. Trump raged at Smith repeatedly, calling him a corrupt “thug” who belonged in jail. In January, Trump said on Truth Social that Smith was a “deranged animal” who should lose his law license. Smith is a longtime attorney who prosecuted war crimes in the Hague and led the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section during the Obama administration. JACK SMITH PUSHES FOR PUBLIC TESTIMONY TO CONFRONT ‘MISCHARACTERIZATIONS’ OF TRUMP PROBES Trump said he hoped the DOJ was investigating Smith, “including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me. The whole thing was a Democrat SCAM — A big price should be paid by them for what they have put our Country through!” The president’s remarks directly clash with Smith’s rare, heated commentary at the private event, as both accuse the other of weaponization and as Smith faces threats of federal prosecution for targeting Trump, despite the DOJ and congressional investigators yet to uncover criminal wrongdoing by Smith. HOUSE DEMOCRATS DEMAND ANSWERS ON DOJ’S MOVE TO FIRE FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL OFFICIALS Smith said the DOJ has “been corrupted” over the past year but that he believed the department would “ultimately come through this better.” Smith also accused the DOJ of turning a blind eye to cases that might reveal “inconvenient” facts that would contradict “narratives the president would like to press.” Smith praised career prosecutors, saying a “central component” of the current DOJ’s strategy was to punish those like the several Minnesota attorneys who resigned in protest over internal disputes with how to handle an investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killing Renee Good, a 37-year-old anti-ICE activist. “To erode the rule of law in this country you need to attack these people, and that is what we have seen since January 2025,” Smith said. Smith’s comments were not all negative, however, according to the New York Times. He praised the DOJ for being more vocal than it was under Biden, a comment that comes as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who replaced Pam Bondi a month ago, has taken on an aggressive, proactive media strategy. Blanche has held a series of press conferences where he has taken rounds of off-topic questions while also doing numerous wide-ranging interviews with friendly and tough media outlets. A Smith representative had no comment.

Trump ally Nigel Farage deals major blow to Starmer in local UK elections as resignation calls mount

Trump ally Nigel Farage deals major blow to Starmer in local UK elections as resignation calls mount

The United Kingdom’s ruling Labour Party is on track to suffer a major defeat in Thursday’s local elections as Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK surges in support, prompting calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign. British local elections are widely viewed as a functional referendum on the popularity of the ruling party and its head. With Labour having already suffered a net loss of nearly 500 local council seats with just over half of the councils called, multiple Labour MPs are saying that Starmer must agree to a timeline for his exit from office.  “Many, many Labour voters that I represent, I guess, in the north of England and elsewhere that the direction the government [has] taken has not delivered the change that they thought they voted for,” Labour MP Jon Trickett said of the results. “They’re angry, they’re upset, they feel let down, they’ve sent us a clear message: The party, the leadership, must change with immediate effect if we want to recover.” Starmer, for his part, has accepted responsibility for the losses but resisted calls to immediately resign in the wake of the local election results, stating that he was “not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos.” He has not, however, explicitly ruled out a managed exit. AS EPSTEIN-LINKED APPOINTMENT SPARKS BACKLASH, UK PM STARMER FACES PARTY REVOLT AMID RESIGNATION CALLS Farage, an ally and friend of President Trump, told supporters: “Personally, I’ll be very sad to see the Prime Minister go. I will be very, very sad indeed. He’s the greatest asset we’ve got.” English local elections span over 5,000 seats across 163 local councils and six mayorships. The semi-autonomous parliaments in Scotland and Wales also held elections on Thursday. Labour’s losses were driven by defections both to the right and the left. Reform UK, which has seen a net increase of about 650 seats as of writing, picked up considerable ground in post-industrial parts of northern and central England. Many of those seats are described as part of the country’s “Red Wall,” a mass of constituencies that have historically supported the Labour Party. ENGLAND FLAG DISPLAYS POWERFUL SYMBOL IN IMMIGRATION FIGHT AS TRUMP-STYLE POPULISM SWEEPS THROUGH UK Farage’s party sought to appeal to voters by promising to take a hard-line stance on immigration policy, cut taxes and repeal environmental policies they believed were hampering economic growth. Labour also saw losses in urban cores and areas near universities to the far-left-wing Green Party and candidates running independent of established parties, many of whom were Muslim.  Green Party leaders made the center-left Labour government’s approach to the war in Gaza, which they view as too closely aligned with Israel, a focal point in their campaign for local control. MARK LEVIN TORCHES UK LEADER STARMER, DETAILS WHY HE’S ‘SICK AND TIRED’ OF EUROPE’S LECTURES TO ISRAEL Zach Polanski, the head of the party, declared on election day that “Palestine is one of the elements on the ballot.” A poll conducted ahead of Thursday’s elections found that roughly 60% of Muslim voters would consider backing a pro-Palestinian independent candidate to prevent Labour from winning locally. About half said they would consider voting for the Green Party to do so. The same poll found that Muslim voters saw support for Palestinians as more important than the economy when determining who they would vote for. Independent and Green Party candidates have so far won a net increase of approximately 90 seats. The Conservatives, Labour’s historic rival, are also on track to see considerable losses as a result of Thursday’s elections. As of writing, the party has so far suffered a net loss of roughly 300 local seats. Farage called the results, which academic observers say could mark a shift away from the United Kingdom’s functionally two-party system, a “historic change in British politics.”