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WATCH: GOP senator warns ‘hammer-and-sickle’ politics will define Democrats’ 2028 primary

WATCH: GOP senator warns ‘hammer-and-sickle’ politics will define Democrats’ 2028 primary

FIRST ON FOX: One Senate Republican warned that the “radical leftist” surge in the Democratic Party today will be the roadmap for Democrats in 2028, when candidates will jockey for the White House. “You get this hammer-and-sickle wave we saw in New York — that is not going to be an isolated incident,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. “That is a flashing red light. It is a red flag.” “Their primaries now are going to be dominated by these people who want to go to war with Western civilization,” he continued. “I mean, I’m not making this up, this is what they say they want to do. And so their [2028] presidential primary will be defined by this ideology.” MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALISTS LOOK TO TAKE NEW YORK PLAYBOOK NATIONWIDE AFTER PRIMARY VICTORIES Several insurgent progressive and far-left candidates have toppled more moderate incumbents in primary contests during this midterm election cycle. In New York City, as Schmitt pointed out, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s chosen candidates made a clean sweep in June. Two incumbents, Reps. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., and Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., were felled by progressives with the Mamdani stamp of approval — Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier, respectively. And in the race for the majority in the Senate, one of the most notable far-left candidates is Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who is locked in a messy primary fight with Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. DEMOCRATS’ CIVIL WAR HEADS TO MICHIGAN, WHERE PROGRESSIVES FACE BIGGEST TEST YET IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE SHOWDOWN Schmitt contended that it was Democrats’ position on immigration, in particular, that was defining their policies and candidates moving forward. “I think they’ve just decided that their only chance of being successful electorally is through their immigration policy, and so, they’ve completely dismissed the arguments of Bill Clinton and even Harry Reid,” Schmitt said. “I mean, it sounds crazy to even say that, but they were at least, I guess what you would make a centrist argument on that they’ve totally abandoned.” Specifically, Senate Democrats are bucking an old policy that was once championed by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. In the 1990s, Reid pushed legislation that would have changed birthright citizenship — just like how Schmitt and other Republicans are doing now after the Supreme Court’s decision upholding birthright citizenship earlier this month. DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA LEADER SAYS ‘MANY’ IN GROUP WOULD BE ‘THRILLED’ AT AOC IN 2028 Schmitt said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who was mentored by Reid, was on notice by his own party given the further left the political winds were blowing. His main political adversary could be one of the poster children of the progressive movement: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “You know, Chuck Schumer, if he survives to even be minority leader again, you know, next term, there’s just no way he’s not going to have a primary challenge by AOC or somebody else,” Schmitt said. “I mean, I think he’s probably going to chair the ‘AOC for president campaign’ so … she doesn’t run against him, but there’s going to be somebody else. And the money and the energy on the Democrat side right now are these radical leftist communists.”

Trump’s EPA chief pushes back on climate skeptics being labeled ‘science deniers’

Trump’s EPA chief pushes back on climate skeptics being labeled ‘science deniers’

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin argues that climate projections represent a range of possible outcomes — not certainties — and warned against labeling those who disagree with them as “science deniers.” “When someone looks at 2050 or 2100 and they say ‘This is exactly what the sea level is going to be. This is what the temperature is going to be,’ it doesn’t acknowledge correctly that there really is a range from the optimistic to the pessimistic,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head told Fox News Digital. Zeldin’s comments at the Great American State Fair on Thursday come as he was asked what climate predictions made during under President Joe Biden’s administration he believes have been disproven by new evidence. BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK Rather than take a the layup on the former president by citing a specific prediction, he argued that climate projections, especially those decades in the future, should be interpreted as evolving estimates that need to be regularly updated as new data emerges. “Relying on present day facts rather than bad assumptions from the past is incredibly important,” Zeldin insisted. “Every day that goes by we learn what the reality is at that point in the future, and we’re able to compare it to what the predictions are,” he added. Zeldin emphasized the importance of hearing out newer perspectives on climate change, alluding to the idea that using both long-term forecasts and current real-world data can more accurately estimate the present implications and impacts of climate change. BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK He argued that people who disagree with these climate projections, which could possibly reflect outdated research or data, should not automatically be labeled “science deniers.” “I don’t think it’s a good idea that if someone disagrees with someone else’s prediction of exactly what the temperature’s gonna be in the year 2100, that all of a sudden that person is just automatically some science denier,” Zeldin said. “Hear them out,” he advised. “Maybe they have an opinion on some other study that they looked on, or other studies they looked on, because there really is a range of predictions, especially when you look further in the future.” BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK The Trump administration has moved to revisit several climate-related regulations, including efforts to reconsider the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which serves as the legal basis for many federal greenhouse gas regulations, as well as other greenhouse gas emissions rules. Since taking over the EPA, Zeldin has spearheaded re-evaluating the agency’s 2009 Endangerment Finding and is revisiting a number of climate-related regulations adopted under previous Democratic administrations.

Inside the slapdash Platner vetting job that ignored warnings before bid blew up: source

Inside the slapdash Platner vetting job that ignored warnings before bid blew up: source

Graham Platner’s Senate campaign repeatedly ignored warnings from its own vetting team that he needed a more robust background check, a source familiar with the early stages of the campaign told Fox News Digital. An in-depth vetting process could have saved Democrats a massive headache in one of the most important Senate races of the 2026 cycle, something that has led many on the left to blame Dan Moraff and Morris Katz — the political staffers behind Platner’s meteoric rise — for not doing their due diligence before putting him forward. The source confirmed to Fox News Digital that the vetting process was largely handled by Moraff and Katz, who limited investigators to a three-day review of Platner. PLATNER’S THREE-DAY VETTING JOB COMES BACK TO HAUNT DEMS AS RAPE ALLEGATION ROCKS SENATE BID The firm that vetted Platner repeatedly reached out to the campaign, warning them that additional vetting was required as the initial review had turned up several concerning pieces of information that could lead to more serious issues — warnings that were ignored by Platner’s staff, according to the source familiar with the early stages of the campaign. During the vetting process, campaign staff didn’t allow the individuals investigating Platner to interview him, the source told Fox News Digital. In addition to the vetting process identifying Platner’s Reddit posts, which the Wall Street Journal previously reported, it also turned up information that cast doubt on Platner’s blue-collar image, the source added. ACTIVISTS BEHIND GRAHAM PLATNER’S RISE ADMIT VETTING PROCESS DIDN’T BRING UP NAZI-LINKED TATTOO “The firm sent us a thing and it had some of the posts, but it didn’t have all of them,” Moraff told the Wall Street Journal in June of the vetting process, referencing Platner’s now-deleted Reddit posts. Many of the scandals that went on to rock the Platner campaign — such as his DUI, his relatively affluent upbringing and Nazi-linked tattoo — were discoverable via public information and later reported by the press. Platner suspended his senatorial campaign on Wednesday after an ex-girlfriend accused him of raping her. His withdrawal followed a string of scandals stemming from controversial posts he made on his deleted Reddit account, a Nazi-linked tattoo he acquired during his time in the armed forces and his alleged mistreatment of women. He filed the paperwork necessary to officially withdraw from the election on Friday. MILLIONS IN DEM AD MONEY VANISHED FROM PLATNER RACE DAYS BEFORE RAPE ALLEGATION DOOMED SENATE BID “That’s odd … no one asks for, like, three days’ worth of research,” an individual familiar with candidate vetting told Fox News Digital. “It’s not unusual to have to rush an initial triage research product,” the source said, explaining that truncated background checks like that are almost always followed by “​​a comprehensive doc or a more thorough doc.” Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Platner’s campaign defended its decision to commission an abridged vetting process on the grounds that they didn’t have the financial resources to afford a more complete investigation at the outset. The campaign paid just over $6,000 for its vetting, compared to the tens of thousands of dollars usually required for a full background check of a political candidate. Platner, however, very quickly became one of the strongest Democratic fundraisers in the nation, bringing in over $16 million in contributions between July 2025 and June 2026, raising questions as to why his campaign didn’t seek out a complete vetting once it had the resources to do so. Democrats in Maine are holding a nominating convention to replace Platner ahead of the July 13 statutory deadline to remove him from the ballot. Party delegates will vote to choose the Democratic nominee for the November general election. The Platner campaign, Moraff and Katz did not respond to requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Friday.

WATCH: Early Graham Platner critic unloads on ‘unapologetic’ Senate candidate in scathing rebuke

WATCH: Early Graham Platner critic unloads on ‘unapologetic’ Senate candidate in scathing rebuke

As Democrats scrambled to abandon embattled candidate Graham Platner, after a rape allegation against him torpedoed his insurgent campaign, one progressive lawmaker said it “was a very easy call” to never back him in the first place. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., had no endorsement to rescind, having been among a small handful of Democrats who publicly warned against Platner amid growing controversies, even as much of the party continued embracing him. “I’m relieved. I’m sure Mainers are relieved. He disqualified himself,” Dean told Fox News Digital in an interview after Platner announced his intent to drop out of Maine’s Senate race. He later officially dropped out Friday evening. “Suspending his campaign, he took no accounting for himself,” Dean said, referring to Platner’s 11-minute exit video, in which he fiercely denied the allegations and blamed the Democratic establishment for forcing him from the race. EXPLOSIVE SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATION ROCKS PLATNER CAMPAIGN AHEAD OF KEY DEADLINE IN CRUCIAL SENATE RACE “That’s not the kind of person we want as a senator,” she continued. “I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat.” Dean’s comments echoed a viral CNN interview in early June, when she described the rapidly accumulating controversies surrounding Platner as “distressing” and argued he had already “disqualified himself.” Her warning came a month before a 41-year-old Maine resident, Jenny Racicot, went public with allegations that Platner, while intoxicated, forced her to have non-consensual sex in 2021. Platner has repeatedly denied her accusation, which was first reported by Politico. At the time Dean spoke out publicly, Platner was the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination. Few Democrats had publicly broken with him despite a growing list of scandals, including a Nazi-linked tattoo, offensive Reddit posts, infidelity and allegations of misconduct in prior relationships, including an account of physical abuse from Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Platner between 2013 and 2015. Even Democrats who broke with Platner, including Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., drew fierce backlash from supporters who argued they were jeopardizing the party’s effort to unseat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “I said in my mind he had disqualified himself in at least two ways. One was the choice to have a Nazi emblem tattooed to his body. And the other was, of course, the credible allegations of his abuse of women,” Dean told Fox News Digital. “So, to me, it was a very easy call. I wasn’t trying to weigh in. I was asked by a CNN reporter and I just said he has disqualified himself. Not a tough call.” SANDERS UNDER FIRE FOR PROPPING UP PLATNER AS DEMS TORCH HIS TOXIC ENDORSEMENT ‘PATTERN’ Still, many Democrats continued to defend Platner despite the mounting controversies. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a Platner supporter, said the allegations from ex-girlfriends “seem like a lot of nothing” in an interview with NOTUS, while suggesting that Fifield’s background in Republican politics gave her account a partisan taint. Other loyal Platner supporters, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., argued that voters should focus on policy issues rather than personal scandal, while appearing to dismiss alleged misconduct. “I think it’s important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage,” Sanders told reporters in June in remarks obtained by NBC. Asked whether she thought Democrats waited too long to denounce Platner, Dean largely declined to weigh in. “I don’t have a judgment on that,” she told Fox News Digital. “They had to do it in their own way. I did it in my way.” “Simply…because I was asked,” the Pennsylvania Democrat continued. “I just called it as I saw it. It was not a tough call. The timeline for anybody else, I have no judgment.” Collins, who is seeking a sixth Senate term, is widely viewed as the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbent, making Maine one of Democrats’ best pickup opportunities — a political calculus Dean said did not justify backing Platner. “I didn’t want to fall into the trap of contorting myself in order to support a candidate who had succeeded in a primary,” Dean told Fox News Digital. “Democrats are better than that. We have values that we live by.” “When we get it wrong, we need to simply say that,” she continued. Some Democrats have admitted fault in the days after the Platner campaign’s implosion. “I got the Platner call wrong, obviously,” Khanna, one of Platner’s top allies, told Politico’s Playbook, adding the candidate’s unraveling “doesn’t negate the progressive movement.” Platner is expected to officially file paperwork withdrawing from the race on Monday — the last day he can do so to allow Democrats to replace him on the ballot. Now, Democrats are working furiously to create a selection process to choose Platner’s replacement. Whoever Democrats nominate will face an immediate barrage of GOP spending. Collins’ allies have already pledged $8 million in negative advertising against the new nominee. Fox News Digital reached out to Platner for comment.

Former top cop warns of loophole exploited by illicit Chinese vape companies ‘targeting our youth’

Former top cop warns of loophole exploited by illicit Chinese vape companies ‘targeting our youth’

A former top law enforcement official is sounding the alarm on an attempt by illicit Chinese vape companies to exploit legal loopholes by replacing nicotine with an unregulated substitute to continue selling flavored disposable vapes to children. “These Chinese organized crime groups, what they realized is if they go ahead and just change the ingredients in the packaging, then they create confusion and there is no enforcement or regulatory agency that then is responsible to address these illicit, illegal, disposable vapes,” former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Deputy Director Edgar Domenech told Fox News Digital in an interview. The synthetic compound, 6-methyl nicotine, also known as 6MN or “NIX,” is a nicotine analog marketed under brand names including Nixodine and Metatine, with some manufacturers arguing 6-methyl nicotine products fall outside the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority. Domenech, the former sheriff of New York City, said that while nicotine is a well-known addictive substance regulated by the FDA, the nicotine substitute “manufactured illegally in China” is an “unknown variable” that hasn’t been studied enough. FORMER ACTING DHS SECRETARY WARNS CHINESE CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS ARE INFILTRATING AMERICA’S HEMP INDUSTRY “It’s a different type of substance,” he said. “Now, all of a sudden, the FDA doesn’t have oversight, but it’s the same product. It’s a disposable vape product with flavors targeting our kids and our youth with unknown chemicals.” Pointing to law enforcement’s role in combating the illicit trade, Domenech said the companies create “confusion” by changing the product’s ingredients, causing law enforcement and regulatory agencies to “take no action.” “The organized crime groups — they’re five steps in front of us,” he said. “By changing the substance, they are now creating additional new obstacles to figure out.” Domenech said the companies keep the same branding, packaging, and flavors while changing just one ingredient, allowing them to profit from children who may not realize what they’re consuming. CORPORATE AMERICA’S CHINA ADDICTION HAS BECOME A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT “They’re putting these products side by side in these big shops, because the packaging is all the same,” he said. “All they’ve done is changed one of the ingredients in the product.” Domenech said the companies are targeting “our youngest, most vulnerable generation” with flavored disposable vapes containing chemicals whose long-term health effects remain unknown. “They’re targeting our youth with flavors,” he said. “Whether it’s fruity flavors, candy-type flavors, dessert flavors. They’re targeting our kids to go ahead and ingest these products with unknown consequences because we don’t know what’s in them to begin with.” As youth vaping has become more widespread, Domenech said some schools have installed bathroom sensors that detect vaping, adding, “We’ve got 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 14-year-olds vaping these products.” EXPLOSIVE HOUSE REPORT REVEALS SECRET OPERATION INSIDE CHINA AT CENTER OF SOUTH KOREA’S FIGHT WITH US COMPANY He said that the products could lead to “unknown health and mental well-being issues down the line.” “There is nothing healthy about the illegal disposable vapes that are flavored targeting our kids,” he said. A recent Duke University study found 6-methyl nicotine may be stronger than nicotine, raising concerns it could be more addictive. Public patent records list Geoff Habicht, CEO of Arizona-based Mi-Pod, which Fox News Digital previously reported on as part of an investigation examining ties between the vaping industry and China, as an inventor on U.S. patents referencing 6-methyl nicotine and related compounds. Raising awareness among lawmakers, health professionals, parents, and schools is vital to closing regulatory gaps and preventing more children from using the products, according to Domenech. “Education is paramount for us to combat this issue,” he said. “We need to educate our policymakers, we need to educate our health professionals, we need to educate our parents, the educational system to make them understand that these products are illegal, they have unknown substances that can have unknown consequences, health consequences.” Domenech said lawmakers and law enforcement need clearer guidance to identify and seize the products. “We need to have a concerted effort to educate our policymakers at the federal level but also at the state and local levels because we need boots on the ground to understand what they can do legally in seizing these products,” he said. Domenech called the companies a “national security problem,” saying the products “should be seized the moment they enter this country, period.” “We’re losing a generation of our future, our future leaders to this product,” he said.

America’s cheapest city to grab a cheeseburger, fries and soda isn’t where you’d expect

America’s cheapest city to grab a cheeseburger, fries and soda isn’t where you’d expect

A cheeseburger, fries and a soda remain one of America’s classic comfort meals, but what Americans pay for that combo depends heavily on where they live, according to the so-called Cheeseburger Index. A new DoorDash State of Local Commerce report, which compares the average price of a cheeseburger, fries and a soda across U.S. cities, found the average price of the meal is lowest in Austin, Texas, at $12.94. DoorDash said cities in the South and Southeast tend to be more affordable because of structurally lower operating costs, helping the region rank well across both grocery and restaurant price indexes. The highest cost topped out in Anchorage, Alaska at $28.28 for the same meal, according to the report. The 10 best-value cities in the study are concentrated in the Midwest and Texas, with four cities in the Lone Star State making the list — Laredo, Texas ($13.39), Lincoln, Nebraska ($13.86), Detroit ($14.99) and Philadelphia ($15.41) rounded out the top five. The rankings come as eating out continues to get more expensive, even as prices for many grocery and household staples have stabilized. DoorDash found the average price of a cheeseburger, fries and soda climbed 3.2% over the past year. THE COST OF THIS GROCERY STAPLE IS NEARING RECORD HIGHS — AND AMERICANS CAN’T GET ENOUGH While rising beef prices have drawn attention this year, DoorDash said higher restaurant prices appear to reflect broader operating costs — including labor, rent and energy — rather than food costs alone. Local labor markets and operating expenses also help explain why the same meal costs less than $13 in Austin than in Anchorage where it’s more than double that cost. “There isn’t one economy. There are a lot of local economies,” Jessica Lachs, chief analytics officer at DoorDash, told Fox News Digital. She said the Cheeseburger Index was designed to illustrate how those local differences translate into everyday prices for consumers. “Really, the story here is local variation,” Lachs said. “The same basket of goods — a cheeseburger, fries and a drink — costs $12.94 on average in Austin, Texas, but $28.28 in Anchorage, Alaska. Same basket, same quarter, but a very different local reality.” ONE LITTLE-KNOWN MEETING HELPS DECIDE WHAT AMERICANS CAN AFFORD — AND WHAT THEY CAN’T The Cheeseburger Index is one of three affordability measures included in the State of Local Commerce Report. DoorDash also publishes a Breakfast Basics Index, which tracks the cost of common breakfast items, and an Everyday Essentials Index, which measures the price of household staples.  Sections of the report found prices for many household essentials remained relatively flat, while some grocery items have begun climbing again. Egg prices, which helped pull grocery costs lower earlier this year, have eased, but avocado and milk prices rose 12.4% and 8.3%, respectively, from the previous quarter. “The Cheeseburger Index is a really great way to distill the information into a simple, fun and relatable metric,” Lachs said. “If you were to place that same order for a cheeseburger, fries and a drink every month, how much would it cost you? It’s a great way to showcase price changes,” she added.