Dems hand GOP fresh midterm weapon by opposing widely used voter ID
Senate Democrats’ recent rejection of voter ID is giving Republicans fresh ammunition in the midterm fight, putting them on the opposite side of a practice that is common across the country and broadly popular with voters in both parties. Republicans have developed a cynical view of why Democrats won’t play ball with voter ID, arguing that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus don’t want to give the GOP a win heading into the midterm elections. “Democrats are gonna vote against it because they don’t want to give the president a win,” Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital. “They don’t want to give Republicans a win. They’ll screw the country and stuff.” DOZENS OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS REJECT BILL FUSING CONGRESSIONAL STOCK BAN WITH FEDERAL VOTER ID Republicans’ latest attempt to pass a federal voter ID law, which was paired with another popular issue to ban insider trading in Congress, comes months after initially launching their push to pass the SAVE America Act, a high priority for President Donald Trump that Schumer and Democrats have time and again rejected. Earlier this year, Democrats argued that voter ID isn’t so bad, it’s just how Republicans were approaching it that they disagreed with — Schumer dubbed the SAVE America Act “Jim Crow 2.0” and contended it would disenfranchise Black and Brown voters. “Democrats support voter ID,” Schumer said on a press call earlier this year. “In fact, we included it, and it is included, in our Freedom to Vote legislation several years ago.” INSIDE THE SENATE’S CHAOTIC ALL-NIGHTER THAT LEFT TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT ON THE SHELF But as the months have dragged on, an issue that voters overwhelmingly support has become a place for Democrats to dig their heels into the dirt against. Requiring identification to vote is already a practice in 36 states. Of those, 23 require photo ID, while 13 accept another form of identification, such as a bank statement. Nine of those states have Democratic senators. “We already have it,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Fox News Digital. “I mean, Virginia has a voter ID law that our citizens really like.” “Virtually every state has a voter ID law,” he continued. “So, what, there has to be a one size fits all federal thing for states [that[ are already doing this?” SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS SAY THEY SUPPORT VOTER ID, THEN BLOCK GOP AMENDMENT TO REQUIRE IT Republicans say that the Democratic resistance has a more nefarious intent. Requiring voter ID would allegedly nuke some of their voter base, illegal immigrants, and therefore lower their chances of winning in federal elections. “Well, it’s evident Democrats want to make it easier to cheat,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. ” Republicans want to make it easier to vote, make sure nobody’s cheating. And that’s where we are on this voter ID, an 80/20 issue or not even more.” Barrasso argued that identification is required in several mundane instances of life, from boarding a plane to buying a beer — and even to get into some rallies held by Democratic candidates during this election cycle. “They’re complete hypocrites on this,” Barrasso said. “But [what] we need to do is elect more Republicans to be able to win these elections and make sure we have people here that see what the American people see, which is, you have to have a photo ID to vote.”
Trump launching ‘Super Intelligence Force’ to ensure American dominance
President Donald Trump announced Sunday the creation of a new federal “Super Intelligence Force” tasked with coordinating the government’s efforts to keep the United States at the forefront of rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology. The new force, known as SIF, will coordinate federal engagement with consumers, public-interest and religious groups, critical infrastructure providers and technology companies, Trump said in a Truth Social post. “The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence,” Trump wrote. TRUMP ANNOUNCES NEW ‘AI FORCE,’ VOWS TO PROTECT INDUSTRY AS AI CZAR ANNOUNCEMENT NEARS Trump said the technology “is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and the Internet” and would “protect the interests, and improve the lives, of all Americans.” The president said the effort will be led by senior administration officials and report directly to him and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. TRUMP REBRANDS AI, REJECTS ‘GLOBALIST SCHEME’ TO CONTROL TECH Last week, Trump officially renamed artificial intelligence to “Super Intelligence” across the executive branch, following a high-level summit with top tech leaders at the White House. Trump, who has opposed imposing formal guardrails on SI, said at the time that the tech executives signed a “morally binding” document he dubbed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence. “They almost viewed it as a separate kind of constitution,” Trump said of the tech leaders. “When they signed that, it meant a lot.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on X later that day that he viewed the summit as a “positive step.” “I think it’s a significant positive step that the leaders of every major American lab have committed to implementing robust internal controls and multiple layers of audits and reviews,” Zuckerberg wrote. Fox Business’ Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
GOP Senate candidate’s estranged wife confirms who she’s voting for amid divorce proceedings
Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton is addressing the “elephant in the room,” saying she’ll vote Republican this November without mentioning one GOP candidate by name: her estranged husband, Ken Paxton. Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce from the Texas Republican Senate candidate last year on “biblical grounds,” says in a new political ad that she will back the Republican ticket on Nov. 3, arguing that keeping the seat in GOP hands outweighs concerns about any individual candidate. “People have asked my thoughts about this election, and turns out, I have some,” she says in the ad. “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.” GOP FORTRESS IS UNDER THREAT IN ONE KEY RED STATE, AND THESE VOTERS COULD DECIDE WHETHER IT FALLS “In a general election, it’s not as much about the individual players on the team; it’s about getting the whole team across the finish line,” she continues. “Either we hold every Republican seat, or we hand the future of Texas to the other team.” “That’s why I’m voting for the Republican ticket on Nov. 3,” she adds. “Let’s hold the line together.” The ad does not mention Ken Paxton by name, but its message comes as the Republican Senate candidate faces a tight general election contest against Democrat James Talarico. The latest Fox News Poll, released Thursday, found Talarico with 51% support among Texas likely voters and Paxton with 49%, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error. The same poll found 50% of likely voters preferred Republican control of the U.S. Senate, compared with 49% who preferred Democratic control. Angela Paxton has previously signaled that maintaining Republican control of the seat takes precedence over her feelings about the individual candidate. During an address to the Texas Federation of Republican Women in September, she similarly framed the issue as the “elephant in the room” and told the audience that “it’s not the people, it’s the seat.” REPUBLICAN CAVALRY ARRIVES FOR KEN PAXTON AS BIG-BUCKS TEXAS OFFENSIVE OPENS CASH FLOODGATES “We have more control over that seat and the future when we control the seat, when it’s still in the family, even if we’re mad at them,” she said at the time, drawing laughter from the audience. “If we lose it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back,” she added. GEORGE W BUSH RAISES MONEY FOR REPUBLICANS, BUT NOT KEY SENATE CANDIDATE Angela Paxton filed for divorce from her husband in July 2025 after 38 years of marriage. In the filing, she alleged that Ken Paxton had “committed adultery” and said their marriage had “become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities.” She separately announced the divorce on social media, saying she had filed “on biblical grounds.” “I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” she wrote. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.” The new ad was funded by Texas PAC, a political action committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Ken Paxton also has the support of President Donald Trump and financial backing from the president’s MAGA Inc. political action committee as well as Elon Musk’s America PAC. Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
GOP rising star helped topple Trump-backed incumbent. Now he’s caught leadership’s eye
It’s June 2026 and the summer’s intense heat is slowly creeping across the East Coast. In Florida, a different kind of heat is threatening to burn Republicans — a firestorm of political backlash that could at best force the GOP to spend millions more in the midterms, and at worst cost the party what should be a safely red House seat. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., was one of the first to sound the alarm publicly about embattled Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., and the scandals that could have sandbagged his re-election chances. It’s an unusually bold move for a first-term congressman, particularly when all of the House GOP leadership and the White House were still publicly backing Mills. But Haridopolos’ plan was well-executed — and with the help of Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Mills went down as one of only four Republican incumbents to lose a primary in the 2026 midterm cycle. Republican election watchers saw the loss with some relief, privately feeling better about their chances with former journalist Ryan Elijah, who Haridopolos recruited to run, against Democratic former NASA official Bale Dalton. And Haridopolos was there with Elijah both figuratively and literally. The former local news anchor said he was “right there in the front row” during the primary debate. REPUBLICANS MOVE TO OUST EMBATTLED FLORIDA GOP LAWMAKER IN BITTER PRIMARY FIGHT “Not only was he there, he was kind of like the spin room. He did a lot of the media interviews, and that was huge for us,” Elijah told Fox News Digital. TRUMP’S SUPPORT DOESN’T SAVE SCANDAL-PLAGUED LAWMAKER IN PRIMARY Haridopolos told Fox News Digital, “I recognized that Cory Mills was absolutely going to lose a general election against a solid Democrat candidate. And so I went to the leadership and, of course, the president’s team and said, look, we need to find a way for Mills to step aside.” “Unfortunately, Mr. Mills was not willing to step aside. And so I let the leadership and the president know that I’d be helping someone else in the primary,” he continued. “It was not the easiest thing to do, taking on a colleague. But … this is a team sport and all of us need to work together.” WATCH: CORY MILLS BLASTS DOJ PROBE AS ‘POLITICAL OP’ AHEAD OF FLORIDA PRIMARY “Team sport” is an analogy that the Florida Republican has used frequently, and one that he’s used to try and define his tenure in the House. It’s paid off for him so far, with Haridopolos having forged close relationships with both House GOP leaders and his peers. “He’s a trusted ally and somebody you can count on. He delivers. You never have to worry about where he’s going to be,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who has known Haridopolos for roughly two decades, told Fox News Digital. The two politicos first forged a relationship in their respective state houses. When Haridopolos said he would launch a campaign for Congress, Scalise said he told him, “I want to be your first check … I want to support you.” And in his short time so far, he’s already been entrusted to lead a House panel. Haridopolos is chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s space subcommittee, a fitting position for someone whose district is home to the Kennedy Space Center despite his junior status. The Florida freshman said space has long been a passion of his, dating back to his efforts as a state lawmaker to bring the shuttle program back to his backyard. NASA’S ARTEMIS FOLLOW-UP MISSION ‘RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER’ AFTER SUCCESSFUL LUNAR FLIGHT “So many people were concerned that we’d go back to the post-Apollo days, which are very detrimental to the economy of Central Florida. And so at that time, Rick Scott was governor … We decided that we needed to not just rely on NASA but start pushing for public-private partnerships,” Haridopolos said. The U.S. has seen an unprecedented resurgence of success in space in the last two years, partly propelled by the public-private partnerships that Haridopolos is pushing. NASA completed its historic Artemis II mission just this year, sending four astronauts around the moon and back in the first such mission in decades. PETER NAVARRO: TRUMP’S ARTEMIS VISION IS NOW FLYING — AND CHINA IS PAYING ATTENTION “I’m really confident that in two years we’ll be landing back on the moon,” Haridopolos said. That’s also due in no small part to the federal government investing in the new space race, after the Trump administration initially proposed a roughly 24% cut to NASA’s budget in May 2025. Haridopolos, seeing space as another frontier for national security, was alarmed. He told Fox News Digital at the time that he would seek a “constructive conversation with the White House” about a higher figure. “I’m not sure what that number will be in the end, but in my conversations with the president about space, he’s absolutely committed to it,” he said in May 2025. Eventually, President Donald Trump signed into law a spending bill that included $24.4 billion for NASA — rather than the initial $18.8 billion proposal — and approved an additional $9.9 billion in the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Fox News Digital that Haridopolos “understands that so much of America’s future in space runs through Florida and Kennedy Space Center.” “He is serious about the mission, willing to engage on the hard issues, and always focused on how we can move the ball forward,” Isaacman said. Before his political career began, Haridopolos was a history professor at what is now Eastern Florida State College. He was born to an American mother and Greek immigrant father, and is currently married to Stephanie Haridopolos — a physician by profession who has spent the last several months as acting surgeon general. But despite his accomplishments and connections, Haridopolos’ name is not one that has garnered headlines in the way that more bombastic House Republicans have in their
Trump says polls ‘don’t account for one thing,’ as he pledges to defeat communists ‘once and for all’
President Donald Trump vowed that Republicans will overcome their disadvantage in the polls now that he is on the campaign trail on Saturday night. Trump held a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday and told a cheering crowd that the polls hadn’t accounted for him campaigning personally. “On election night, Ohio is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it,” Trump said. TRUMP TOUTS ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AT OHIO RALLY, URGES VOTERS TO DELIVER GOP MIDTERM WINS “These fake polls, they don’t account for one thing. They don’t account for the fact that Trump is out campaigning. They never thought this was good. They never thought this was going to happen,” he added. A recent Fox News Poll found Democrats have a wider path to victory than Republicans in the House of Representatives. Democrats are projected to win 215 seats compared to 201 for the GOP, meaning the left only needs three more victories out of the 19 possible toss-up races to clinch a majority. Republicans would need to win at least 17 of those races. 10 DEMOCRAT-HELD HOUSE SEATS REPUBLICANS COULD FLIP TO SAVE THEIR MAJORITY “With you at my side, we have always prevailed and prevailed by a lot and got record setting votes and record setting victory,” Trump said. “We’ve won every battle. We’ve defeated every hope. We’ve overcome every threat. And now we are on the cusp of beating the communists, socialist, radicalized lunatics and villains once and for all. We’re going to put them down once and for all.” A new memo being sent to Republicans across the country, first obtained by Fox News Digital, revealed four key topics that the House GOP is focusing on in the final four weeks before Election Day: the border, fraudulent use of taxpayer dollars, the economy and public safety. Republicans are also seeing political opportunity in the far-left insurgency that’s gripped the Democratic Party during its primary cycle, warning that socialists are pushing the party further left than the majority of Americans. SOCIALISTS ARE HELPING GOP CAMPAIGNS HEADING INTO NOVEMBER The economy, including high grocery and gas prices, has become a central issue in the 2026 election cycle. Democrats have seized on Americans’ struggle with cost-of-living as a political cudgel against Republicans, particularly using Trump’s tariffs on allies like Canada and his war in Iran as arguments against the GOP. Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
Iran could move shadow war in a dangerous direction, experts warn on back of two possible terror attacks
The FlyDubai stabbing is contributing to concerns that Iran could increase covert and deniable attacks as the conflict with the United States and Israel drags on. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, meanwhile, said there are “strong indications” Iran played a role in a suspected terror plot near RAF Fairford, the British air base used by U.S. forces during operations against Iran. Counterterrorism police have since arrested a dual UK-Iranian national on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. The two suspected attacks are raising questions over whether Iran’s war strategy is shifting, but experts caution not to treat the incidents as equally indicative of Iranian involvement — or evidence yet that Tehran has changed its tactics. FLYDUBAI PILOT SHOWED WORLD ‘THE HIGHEST FORM OF COURAGE,’ INDIA’S PM SAYS President Donald Trump said early information he has received points to a possible Iranian connection to the attack aboard an Israel-bound FlyDubai flight, where a co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain and attempted to crash the aircraft with more than 180 people aboard. The United Arab Emirates and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have described the FlyDubai incident as terrorism, but UAE authorities have not publicly attributed the attack to Iran. Neither investigation has publicly established that the Iranian government directed the attacks, and Iran has denied involvement in the Fairford case. Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Fairford case fits more closely with Iran’s recent use of hired operatives and other intermediaries. “The attack on the airbase in the United Kingdom does fit more recent patterns,” Byman told Fox News Digital, while stressing how much remains unknown about the investigation. RUBIO CONFIRMS ‘FOREIGN ACTOR’ INVOLVED IN UK TERROR PLOT The FlyDubai attack would be a more significant departure. “That is quite different, and that is something that Iran in the past, at least we haven’t seen Iran do,” Byman said. “It is plausible to me that Iran is involved, but that seems like much more of a stretch based on Iran’s traditional way of operating.” But the uncertainty surrounding the attacks also illustrates part of the appeal of the broader strategy Iran has spent decades developing: using proxies, covert operatives, criminal networks and other intermediaries to threaten adversaries far beyond its borders while making Tehran’s own role more difficult to establish. Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury and FBI counterterrorism official who now directs the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute, said Iran has increasingly sought to put more distance between itself and the people carrying out overseas operations. “Typically Iran does not admit that it’s involved in these types of attacks because it wants reasonable deniability,” Levitt said. “There are several advantages for Iran to using terrorism,” Byman said. “One is that there is often a degree of deniability.” “Terrorism gives Iran a lot more reach,” he added. Levitt, however, put the distinction with conventional warfare more bluntly. “If Iran shoots a drone or a missile at you, you know where it came from and you know where to shoot back,” he said. “But if Iran uses proxies, and recruits people and does things in a covert manner, it might not be so easy to point a finger back at Iran or to know exactly who did it.” That capability matters in part because Iran does not have the conventional military strength to match the United States and its allies directly, Levitt said. “They just don’t have the capability to fight soldier to soldier, airplane to airplane in an all-out kinetic war, but they’re extremely effective at asymmetric warfare, at covert terrorist activity, if that’s what this proves to be,” he said. UK AIRBASE TERROR SUSPECTS BEING RELEASED ON BAIL AS IRAN DENIES CONNECTION Recent U.S. prosecutions have shown how far that playbook can extend. Federal cases have accused Iranian operatives of seeking to recruit hitmen to kill U.S. officials and using Eastern European organized crime figures in a murder-for-hire plot targeting Iranian-American journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad in New York. Those operations relied on the same basic advantage: Tehran could pursue targets overseas without launching a conventional attack that immediately identified Iran as the aggressor. The question now is whether the current conflict gives Iran reason to push that strategy further. Levitt said Tehran could pursue overseas plots in an effort to pressure Western governments to end the conflict by demonstrating that Iran can impose costs far beyond the conventional battlefield. And if Fairford and FlyDubai are ultimately tied to Tehran, he said, they would stand out because they involve harder targets and potentially more ambitious tactics than the assassinations, kidnappings, shootings and smaller-scale bombings Iran has more commonly pursued overseas. “Perhaps this is the new normal, and Iran wants to demonstrate that it can exact a higher cost,” Levitt said. Byman, however, pointed to several reasons Tehran could exercise restraint. Iran already has other ways to pressure Washington and its allies, while a terrorist attack against Americans could backfire by uniting U.S. public opinion behind further escalation against Tehran, he said. U.S. and Israeli strikes against senior Iranian intelligence and security officials may also have disrupted some of the networks Tehran would need for overseas operations. “If Iran wants to go further, then terrorism does become more of an option,” Byman said.
Supreme Court kicks off new term with fresh questions over its legitimacy and its future
The Supreme Court begins its new term Monday, with renewed public and political concern over their recent rulings, the justices’ personal safety and even their future makeup. Chief Justice John Roberts, surrounded by his eight colleagues, will call the court into public session precisely at 10 a.m. EDT with a pair of scheduled oral arguments. Their first case from the bench will be a major one: a federal-state environmental dispute over holding oil and gas companies liable for climate change harms. Other high-profile appeals are already on the argument docket: NEWSOM PROMISES NEW LEGAL FIGHT AFTER TRUMP GETS SUPREME COURT VICTORY ON MAIL-IN VOTING But the Supreme Court under Roberts’ leadership continues to struggle against negative public attitudes over their reputation as a non-political actor upholding the law and Constitution. “The chief justice is in a tough position in that he is an institutionalist and a traditionalist at a time in our nation’s history where a lot of institutions and traditions have come under pressure like they haven’t in a long time,” said Thomas Dupree, a leading appellate attorney and former top Justice Department official. “And so in many ways, he is trying to kind of buck a lot of the tide right now by really insisting and hewing to these traditions of the institutions that have governed Washington for a long time.” The new term will feature more constitutional disputes over the power of the executive, with current or anticipated fights over immigration, federal bureaucracy reforms and possibly the White House ballroom and Kennedy Center construction projects. And if recent history is any predictor, the justices are likely to offer a mixed, nuanced series of rulings both for and against President Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda. The last term saw him and his allies lose over sweeping reciprocal tariffs, birthright citizenship and removal of Federal Reserve governors; but prevail on various immigration policies, mid-decade redistricting and political gerrymandering, and federal campaign spending. For the most part, the 6-3 conservative majority has greenlighted the administration’s power, especially in a series of preliminary decisions from its so-called “shadow docket” that allow Trump to move ahead – for now – on a range of issues. The Trump Justice Department has won over 70-percent of its emergency cases before the Supreme Court since 2025 – applications that ask a challenged executive policy be enforced temporarily, while the larger issues are further litigated in the lower courts. Those included new federal rules for verifying a voter’s citizenship status ahead of the November midterms; and approval for continued construction of the ballroom. Decisions in Trump’s second term have him and Republican lawmakers sharply criticizing their judicial losses on one hand, and Democratic leaders sounding the alarm when their side does not prevail. The judiciary has always weathered such criticism, but the personal tone of the attacks has only increased, as have the calls for sweeping accountability. Those on the right have demanded impeaching federal judges who block White House policies, while those on the left have renewed calls for drastic changes to the court’s structure. The president himself amped up the tensions dramatically, after losing a key decision over federal efforts to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections. In a wild Truth Social post, he took aim at the three members he appointed to the bench – Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” wrote Trump after the September 14 ruling, adding, “The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History.” Those on the left have their own beefs. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the National Association of Black Journalists that “dramatic Supreme Court reform is necessary…there’s a variety of different options that are on the table and I think that we can’t foreclose any single one of them.” As the midterms approach, angry and energized Democrats hoping to take control of the House and maybe the Senate have tried to rally the base during the midterm races. Among their proposals are renewed calls for 18-year term limits for the justices, expanding the number on the bench to 13 or more from the current nine and an independently-enforced code of ethics. All this has added to increasing public perception the high court is motivated by something other than its constitutional obligations. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll in July found 46-percent of Americans think the justices rule on Trump administration policies based on their political views, while just 25 percent see the court as ruling based on the law. Gallup’s July poll showed the Supreme Court’s job approval slumped to a record low of 33 percent and a record high 61-percent disapproval, driven by a steep drop in Republicans’ backing of the court since last year. And the most-recent Fox News survey revealed a 38-percent public job approval for the court, and a record high 45-percent believing the justices are too conservative. That was up from 34-percent in 2022, and a low of 16-percent in 2015 and 2010. Numbers aside, the amplified partisan rhetoric is having real-world consequences. Several federal judges have told Fox News that budget shortfalls have compromised their physical security, at a time when they say threats against members of the bench have become more concerning. The U-S Marshals report 370 threats made to federal judges as of July 1, a 31-percent year-over-year increase. “Extraordinary safety measures” have been taken in some cases by federal law enforcement, one federal judge told Fox News, without offering details. While “criticism is fair game, intimidation is a different thing entirely,” Justice Elena Kagan told a congressional panel in July. “When political figures of any stripe are trying to intimidate judges and justices to do things that they like rather than the things that they don’t, that’s where we really have crossed a
Southern Baptist president calls on pastors to ‘step up’ ahead of midterm elections
Southern Baptist Convention President and Pastor Willy Rice called on pastors across the country to “step up” into the political process as midterm elections near. While some Christian leaders advise against wading into politics from the pulpit, Rice argues pastors have long played a key role in American politics. Members of the theological and political left have shown no hesitance to mix religion with their politics and evangelicals should not either, he says. DETROIT PASTOR SAYS PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES ARE TRYING TO ‘VIRTUE-SIGNAL’ TO CHRISTIAN VOTERS “Should pastors engage in the political process? They absolutely should. Because there are many political issues that are, at their heart, theological issues and moral issues that strike at the very center of what we believe to be true and what we believe people need to know in order to flourish personally and as a culture.” “I think the pastors need to step up. I think throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history,” Rice said. ‘JESUS WAS A RADICAL’: PROGRESSIVES INVOKE CHRIST TO SELL LEFT-WING AGENDA ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL Rice lamented that many Christians have been encouraged in recent decades, from both external and internal forces, to “be more quiet” and “withdraw from the political process.” “Now, the interesting thing is that those on the theological and political left did not [withdraw], and they had no intention of doing so. And in fact, statistics show that people on the political and theological left are actually more politically engaged than those on the right,” Rice said. “So what you had was, for a period of time, I felt like you had an almost a vacuum that kind of developed, a silence that was there with a lack of Christian leaders leaning in.” PRO-LIFE GROUP RAMPS UP NC GROUND GAME AS REPORT FINDS FED ABORTION MESSAGE GIVES GOP CANDIDATE BIGGEST BOOST Rice highlighted abortion, the definition of marriage, gender identity and immigration as issues where Christians should feel compelled to vote in a certain way. “These issues are deeply, profoundly theological issues. They go back to the creation; they go back to Genesis 1 and 2. They go back to our understanding of what it means to be a human being, and our understanding of what God’s creative purpose is for us as human beings,” he said. BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FORCED A FALSE CHOICE ON AMERICANS ABOUT IMMIGRATION Rice argued that Christians also face “manipulative” arguments when it comes to immigration. He admits that the immigration issue does present a “challenge” for Christians but argues there is nothing wrong with enforcing America’s laws. “There is a value of compassion, a value of wanting to care for the least of these people who are poor and oppressed and wanting to help,” Rice said, noting that Christians do more of that charity than any other group in the U.S. FEDERAL APPEALS COURT COMPARES TRUMP MIGRANT DETENTION POLICY TO JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT “But there is also the importance of the rule of law,” he continued. “The protection of people who are in this country. And what you’ve had is sometimes a very cynical use by some people in power of trying to manipulate Christians by saying, since you must demonstrate compassion, therefore you must embrace open immigration, or you must not insist on the enforcement of the immigration laws.” “That is very, very manipulative. No one would say that because you love people or care for people, you should leave the doors of your house unlocked, or you should open up the jail cells in your own community,” he said.
How an Uzbek truck driver’s fatal crash exposed troubling fraud trend in Middle America: ‘Chameleon carriers’
CINCINNATI, OH – A young man killed by an Uzbek truck driver earlier this year in Ohio, along with several instances of illegal immigrant truck drivers involved in fatal crashes, has sparked a larger conversation in southwest Ohio about fraud, crime, immigration and how gaps in trucking industry oversight are putting Americans at risk. Tobias “Toby” Forsythe, a 21-year-old goalkeeper from Ohio on the University of Massachusetts Lowell men’s soccer team, was killed July 5 when authorities say a semi-truck driven by 42-year-old Uzbek national Bekhzod Asrarov, who entered the country under the Biden administration’s diversity visa lottery program, rear-ended Forsythe’s Honda Accord on Interstate 71 in Madison County, Ohio. It was later determined, according to court documents, that Asrarov could not speak or understand English well enough to communicate with responding state troopers without the use of Google Translate, despite holding an Ohio commercial driver’s license, and that he allegedly removed a dashboard camera from his truck after the fatal crash in an effort to conceal or destroy evidence. “We cannot let truckers like Asrarov, who can’t read our road signs or speak to law enforcement, drive 80,000-pound rigs on America’s highways,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X after the crash. IMMIGRANT TRUCK DRIVER ADMITTED TO US UNDER BIDEN ALLEGEDLY KILLS UMASS SOCCER STAR, SPOKE NO ENGLISH In southwest Ohio, a researcher known as Nodawolf has been sounding the alarm to his growing follower count about a vast network of trucking companies, many of them owned or operated by Uzbek nationals, that have popped up in communities like Loveland, Middletown, and Maineville, where Asrarov resides, in recent years and could be contributing to the unsafe practices that took the life of Forsythe, and many others across the country. Nodawolf, who Fox News Digital granted anonymity due to the death threats he’s received from his online reporting, said his research has focused on what he describes as an interconnected network of Uzbek-linked trucking companies in southwest Ohio, including companies that have donated money toward construction of a local Islamic center, according to the center’s own website. “All of them have English violations and have manipulated ELDs,” Nodawolf said, referring to electronic logging devices that track a trucker’s driving hours and are intended to enforce federal limits on how long drivers can stay behind the wheel. The Islamic Center, located in Maineville, told Fox News Digital that a “charitable contribution or participation in a community fundraising activity, by itself, should not be interpreted as evidence of an ownership, employment, contractual, commercial, or other business relationship with the Islamic Center or its leadership.” A Fox News Digital review identified hundreds of trucking companies and other trucking entities registered in Maineville and surrounding southwest Ohio communities, including dozens that were registered in recent years. A separate review of companies identified as connected to the local Uzbek community found serious FMCSA safety violations, including drivers cited for failing English-proficiency requirements and other federal trucking violations. TRUMP ADMIN TRUCKING CRACKDOWN LANDS 51 IMMIGRATION DETENTIONS, 36 ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY VIOLATIONS “This really concerns me, you know, as a father,” Nodawolf told Fox News Digital. “I mean, it’s clearly obvious that they either don’t understand our laws, they don’t care about our laws, or they know our laws and they’re taking advantage of it.” Nodawolf has reported on Uzbek trucking networks communicating on the social media platform Telegram. One of those Telegram channels, named “UzbegimAmerica,” has routinely mentioned the Uzbek community in Maineville. Court documents show the owner of that channel, Farkhod Faiziev, is a suspected illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan. The Trump administration has made significant progress on the issue of removing foreign truck drivers who pose a danger being removed from the road – including a recent multi-agency operation in Arizona’s Yuma Sector, which led to the arrest of 95 illegal alien truck drivers earlier this month – striking at the heart of human and drug smuggling operations at the U.S. southern border. The Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation and Justice recently announced a coordinated crackdown on trucking and CDL fraud targeting fraudulent licensing, unauthorized employment, identity-document fraud, shell companies and other criminal activity. The effort includes inspections at more than 200 driving schools across 23 states, investigations based on more than 1,000 leads, enforcement operations targeting illegal immigrants with commercial licenses and a new multi-state DOJ task force focused on trucking-related fraud and roadway safety. A trucking-industry veteran with decades of experience who spoke to Fox News Digital under the condition of anonymity for his safety described a developing fraud scheme popular with immigrant communities known as “chameleon carriers”, a network of trucking companies that appear separate on paper but, he said, share the same drivers, trucks and operations. The arrangement starts when operators establish one company that is “quote-unquote legitimate,” he said, then create additional carriers and authorities while using the same underlying assets across them. ILLEGAL TRUCKER CASES FUEL GOP PUSH TO CRACK DOWN ON CDL MILLS AS DEMS LARGELY SILENT The point, the industry expert said, is to “spread out their safety liability across multiple companies.” Rather than allowing inspections and violations to pile up under one carrier, he said, the operation can distribute them among multiple motor-carrier authorities. “If they have 10 inspections and 10 violations across 10 different companies, that doesn’t hurt the safety rating as much,” he said. “But if it was one company that had 10 inspections and 10 violations, that one company is going to get hammered.” The separate companies can also serve as a contingency plan, he said. If one carrier is shut down, loses insurance or becomes too damaged by safety problems, “they’re able to immediately move all of the equipment and drivers and everything under one of the different companies,” the industry veteran said. “Their operation never stops. There’s no way to shut them down.” He further alleged the structure can facilitate cargo theft, with a company disappearing after obtaining a high-value shipment while the broader network continues operating through its remaining
Trump touts ‘golden age’ at Ohio rally, urges voters to deliver GOP midterm wins
President Donald Trump swept into Ohio Saturday night promoting what he calls a new “golden age” for America, pointing to billions of dollars in investment and new jobs in the Buckeye State as he urged voters to help keep Republicans in power in November. For the third time in as many nights, Trump rallied supporters outside Dayton for Republicans Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, casting the midterms as a chance to extend the economic and political gains he said the GOP has delivered since his return to the White House. And with his own name absent from the ballot, Trump gave voters gathered a simple instruction. TRUMP CAMPAIGN INSIDER REVEALS STRATEGY BEHIND MIDTERM BLITZ THAT WHITE HOUSE HOPES PAYS OFF BIG “Just pretend that I’m running,” Trump said. “When I run, we win.” Trump, who carried Ohio in all three of his presidential campaigns, later echoed the same message as he sought to rally his political coalition behind Republicans fighting to maintain control of Congress. “If you don’t mind, please pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said. “And you need to turn out for a midterm victory.” The president used much of the rally to make an economic case for the Republican ticket, declaring Ohio is “booming” as he hailed investments he credited to both his trade and tariff policies. Trump pointed to a $400 million Stellantis investment in Toledo and an $850 million Electra aerospace investment near Springfield. Weaving in an anecdote about his daily aspirin habit, the president also featured Bayer’s plans for a $2.2 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing campus near Columbus, which the company says will support approximately 600 permanent jobs and 1,500 construction jobs. “Your state is booming,” Trump told the gathered crowd. “Every state is booming.” FIRST DATA CENTER BILL CLEARS HOUSE AS BOTH PARTIES SCRAMBLE FOR ANSWERS ON AFFORDABILITY Trump credited the investments to his tariff agenda, arguing the U.S. is finally leveling the playing field after years of other countries using tariffs against American products while giving companies a powerful incentive to build at home. The president also threw his support behind Husted’s Ratepayer Protection Act, legislation aimed at shielding consumers from additional electricity costs associated with data centers. “We want them,” Trump said of data centers. “There’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China.” Husted brought the legislation to the Senate floor days before the rally, where it failed to advance. President Trump pledged to sign it if Congress can send it to his desk. TRUMP DEFENDS $5,000 DIVIDEND PROPOSAL, PRAISES ‘BEAUTIFUL’ TARIFFS ON ‘INGRAHAM ANGLE’ “I will sign this Ratepayer Protection Act into law immediately,” Trump said. Trump broadened his victory lap from Ohio to the country as a whole, hailing stock market records, manufacturing growth, investment and employment while contrasting his own administration’s economic record with former President Joe Biden’s. “Our nation is doing better now than ever before,” Trump said. He also praised GOP-backed tax provisions, including no tax on tips and overtime, and reiterated his previously announced proposal for $5,000 payments to adult Americans if Republicans retain the House and Senate. Trump then shifted to immigration and Springfield, Ohio, dedicating his recitation of the poem “The Snake” to the city that became a national flashpoint during the 2024 presidential campaign over an influx of Haitian nationals into the community. “I dedicate this to Springfield, Ohio,” Trump said. “They went through hell.” After finishing the poem, which the president has long admired as an immigration allegory, he told the crowd, “That’s what happened at our border,” before hailing his administration’s immigration crackdown. The president also briefly touched on Venezuela, claiming the U.S. had more than recouped the costs of its military operation against former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro through the country’s vast oil resources. “We paid for the cost of the war many, many times over,” Trump said. “We’re making a fortune with it.” Trump repeatedly weaved the election 31 days away into his remarks, urging Ohioans to support Husted, Ramaswamy and Republican congressional candidates. He also pitched Ohio as a potential home for the U.S. National Space Academy, citing both the state’s aviation history and the Wright brothers. “If we win the midterms, Ohio will be very, very strongly considered for this,” Trump said. “I really want you to go out and vote again for John Husted and for Vivek.”