Schumer’s ‘E. coli’ burger photo resurfaces after another Dem’s grilling skills get torched: ‘What is that?’
Virginia’s new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger is being widely mocked for a photo of her grilling, with many on social media expressing alarm and disgust over what appears to be some type of shredded meat over the fire. Spanberger, who ran as a moderate Democrat, has been criticized for enacting radical day one policies, including moving to end cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and restore diversity, equity and inclusion. But this week the primary criticism against her was over a photo she posted of herself smiling over a grill on Thursday with the caption, “Order up.” The post garnered immediate mockery, with many comparing it to the viral photo of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in which the senator could be seen smiling with several of what appeared to be uncooked burger patties, one of which already had cheese on it. Conservative commentator Greg Price reacted to the photo of Spanberger alongside images of Schumer, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in front of grills, with the caption, “I hope Democrat politicians never stop doing photo ops behind a grill.” TOM HOMAN VOWS TO WORK AROUND NEW DEM VA GOV SPANBERGER’S EXECUTIVE ORDER ENDING ICE COOPERATION Though the new governor was wearing a black apron with the words, “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner,” her post was flooded with comments asking what the strange-looking meat on the grill truly was. “Ma’am, what is that?” reacted independent journalist Breanna Morello. Popular satire account Three Year Letterman commented, “How many neighborhood cats are missing” and “arrest her.” “Did you cut your meat with a weed wacker?” wrote Parker Thayer, a researcher at Capital Research Center. Heritage Foundation research fellow Jason Bedrick commented, “What you did to that meat violates the Geneva Convention.” Another user, conservative commentator David Freeman, simply reacted, “No thanks.” SPANBERGER TAKES SWIPE AT TRUMP ADMIN, SAYS VIRGINIANS WORRIED ABOUT ‘RECKLESSNESS COMING OUT OF WASHINGTON’ Beef supplier Merriwether Farms wrote, “Virginia is in trouble.” In 2024, Schumer took similar criticism over a Father’s Day post, which the New York Democrat eventually deleted, showing off his backyard grill. Our family has lived in an apartment building for all our years, but my daughter and her wife just bought a house with a backyard and for the first time we’re having a barbeque with hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill!” Schumer posted on X on Sunday. “Father’s Day Heaven!” VIRGINIA GOV. SPANBERGER CUTS TIES WITH ICE IN FEDERAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION The post was immediately criticized by conservatives accusing him of placing cheese on one of the burger patties prematurely and not knowing how to properly grill the burger. “Chuck is making an E. coli with cheese,” Cavalry founding partner Michael Duncan posted on X. Spanberger’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Rubio steps into Munich spotlight as Trump leans on him to carry Vance’s populist message abroad
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the U.S. delegation to the high-profile Munich Security Conference — one year after Vice President JD Vance took the German stage in a speech that stunned many in Europe and became one of the defining moments of Trump’s early second term abroad. “President Trump has assembled the most talented team in history, including Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio, who are working in lockstep to notch wins for the American people,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told Fox News Digital ahead of Rubio’s speech. “The President and his team have flexed their foreign policy prowess to end decades-long wars, secure peace in the Middle East, and restore American dominance in the Western Hemisphere. The entire administration is working together to restore peace through strength and put America First.” The Munich Security Conference is an annual high-level forum in Germany that draws hundreds of senior decision-makers — including heads of state, top ministers, military leaders and policy influencers — for closed-door and public talks on global security crises. VANCE, RUBIO CHEER ON TEAM USA WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY IN THEIR WINTER OLYMPICS OPENING WIN Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California are among notable Democrats attending the conference, in addition to Rubio. Vance became one of the central figures at the 2025 Munich gathering after a widely publicized speech that drew heavy attention and applause from conservatives following the Biden administration. It also sparked backlash among some European officials who viewed his remarks as confrontational. Rubio’s attendance at the 2026 meeting follows a lengthy history of the State Department chief earning a series of different roles under the second administration, including acting national security advisor, secretary of state, acting archivist of the United States and acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Amid rising trans-Atlantic tension, the secretary of state issued a warning to Europe as he departed for his trip to Germany Thursday. VANCE, RUBIO GREET AMERICAN WINTER OLYMPIANS IN ITALY “The Old World is gone,” Rubio told reporters as he departed for Europe Thursday. “Frankly, the world I grew up in, and we live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to require all of us to re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be.” President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly have put Europe on notice for allegedly devolving into a culture of political correctness, speech policing, and a security system that heavily relies on U.S. funding and military might. Amid the rhetoric on Europe, the administration has continued to underscore the importance of U.S.-Europe relations, including Rubio on Thursday. “We’re very tightly linked together with Europe,” he told reporters. “Most people in this country can trace both, either their cultural or their personal heritage, back to Europe. So, we just have to talk about that.” Vance used his Munich Security Conference speech to deliver a blunt warning to Europe’s political class 2025, arguing the continent’s biggest danger is not Moscow or Beijing, but what he described as internal democratic decay that has festered due to political correctness and censorship. RUBIO WARNS NATO ALLIES US IS ‘NOT SIMPLY FOCUSED ON EUROPE,’ DOESN’T HAVE UNLIMITED RESOURCES He accused European governments and institutions of drifting toward censorship, citing policies he said police speech, curb religious expression and pressure online platforms. He also argued elites allegedly were trying to manage elections and debate by dismissing unwelcome outcomes and branding dissent as “misinformation” to sideline populists and blunt voter backlash. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America,” Vance said in 2025 in the speech that left many European leaders stunned, according to reports at the time. Vance was also overseas this week, holding meetings with Armenia and Azerbaijan, including signing a peaceful nuclear cooperation with Armenia and a strategic partnership with Azerbaijan. That trip followed both Vance and Rubio joining a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni earlier in February in Italy, and Vance leading a delegation that included Rubio during the Olympics’ opening ceremony in Milan. A source familiar told Fox News Digital that there were never plans for the vice president to attend the 2026 conference in Munich. TRUMP HAILS RUBIO AS DIPLOMATIC MENTOR AS SECRETARY OF STATE’S POWER GROWS Vance’s foreign policy footprint became subject of political media scrutiny earlier in 2026 when the U.S. military successfully captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Vance was not among high-profile U.S. leaders who joined Trump at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, resort to monitor the operation, unlike Rubio who was with the president. The VP’s office brushed off media alarm over his absence, citing that Trump and Vance limit the “frequency and duration” of time they spend together outside the White House due to “increased security concerns.” The vice president is by no means is expected to attend the Munich Security Conference each year, with former Vice President Mike Pence, for example, attending the conference twice under the first Trump administration, and former Vice President Kamala Harris attending three times under the Biden administration. Previous secretaries of state such as John Kerry, Antony Blinken and Clinton have attended and addressed the body in previous years. Vance additionally attended a separate Munich Security Conference event, the Leaders Conference, in Washington, D.C., in May 2025. Trump praised Vance’s 2025 speech as “brilliant” in a statement to reporters at the time, remarking that “they’re losing their wonderful right of freedom of speech” in Europe and that Vance made a strong case against much of Europe’s lax immigration polices. Since then, Trump’s team repeatedly has echoed the same critique in official channels, including a State Department push that has blasted European speech restrictions and targeted the European Union’s Digital Services Act as “Orwellian” censorship, alongside new visa restrictions aimed at foreign officials accused of censoring Americans online. Just
Trump ousts judge-installed prosecutor; constitutional expert says Article II leaves no doubt
President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to fire court-appointed U.S. attorneys, even if judges legally appointed them, according to former Justice Department official John Yoo, who said the Constitution gives the president broad removal power over executive branch officers. “Otherwise, you could have U.S. attorneys who are enforcing federal law differently than the president would, and it’s the president who all of us in the country elect and to whom the president is accountable,” Yoo told Fox News Digital in an interview. Trump exercised that power this week by terminating Donald Kinsella just hours after federal judges in the Northern District of New York voted to install him to fill the vacancy left by Trump appointee John Sarcone, whose temporary term had expired. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed the move in a fiery social media post, declaring that judges “don’t pick” U.S. attorneys and thrusting the fight deeper into a constitutional dispute over who ultimately controls them. FEDERAL JUDGE DISQUALIFIES US ATTORNEY, TOSSES SUBPOENAS TARGETING NY AG LETITIA JAMES At the center of the most recent dispute is a law that allows federal courts to appoint temporary U.S. attorneys when a presidential nominee has not been confirmed by the Senate and an acting official’s term has expired. Blanche suggested the court’s move to fill a U.S. attorney vacancy was unconstitutional, a comment that comes as the DOJ appeals Judge Lorna Schofield’s decision last month to disqualify Sarcone over his expired tenure. But Yoo, a law professor at University of California, Berkeley, said both that the judges’ actions were legal due to a “quirk” in the law and that the president still has authority to fire Kinsella. “No matter how an executive officer is appointed … none of these positions under the Constitution have any specific way to remove the officers, and so the president can remove all officers in the executive branch, particularly all officers in the Justice Department,” Yoo said. Yoo said the Constitution lays out detailed processes for appointing U.S. attorneys but is “silent” on how they are removed. “It has elaborate procedures … about how you appoint them to office. It doesn’t actually discuss at all how you remove them from office,” Yoo said, referencing the complex federal vacancy laws that govern how interim and acting U.S. attorneys are appointed. He noted that existing law and Supreme Court precedent have long given the president the ultimate power to fire inferior officers in the executive branch, meaning an official like the attorney general cannot remove the appointees chosen by the courts, such as Kinsella, but Trump can. Kinsella did not respond to a request for comment on his termination. Under the law, U.S. attorneys are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. But if the Senate does not act, the president can install a temporary U.S. attorney for a limited period, typically 120 days. If that term expires without confirmation of a nominee, the law gives the district court’s judges the power to appoint a replacement to avoid a vacancy in the office. FORMER TRUMP LAWYER HALLIGAN DEFENDS US PROSECUTOR STATUS IN WAKE OF COMEY, JAMES DISMISSALS Trump, for his part, has struggled to secure Senate confirmations of his U.S. attorney nominees in blue states, where the upper chamber’s blue slip tradition has meant that home state senators must greenlight his nominees. His interim appointees in these states, including New York, California, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia, have faced legal setbacks as federal judges have uniformly found that Trump cannot repeatedly reappoint the same person to consecutive temporary terms. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has ruled out approving any of Trump’s nominees in New York, for example. After Trump fired Kinsella, a veteran federal prosecutor, Schumer said in a statement the president wanted an unqualified “political loyalist” in office. “Everyone knows Trump only cares about one quality in a U.S. Attorney — complete political subservience,” Schumer said. In New Jersey, Trump quickly fired a court-appointed U.S. attorney after a lower court found Alina Habba’s temporary term had expired. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit upheld the lower court’s finding that Habba was unlawfully serving. In the Eastern District of Virginia, the top prosecutor’s role also remains in limbo as the DOJ appeals a judge’s decision to disqualify Lindsey Halligan, who brought high-profile indictments against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. The judge tossed those cases, finding Halligan was improperly appointed. The Trump DOJ used a variety of loopholes in the law to install Sarcone, Habba, Halligan and others, and has argued in appeals that the judges disqualifying them — and replacing them with U.S. attorneys of the court’s choosing — were misreading the law. “It is important that a DOJ component is overseen by someone who has the support of the Executive Branch, and that a U.S. Attorney’s Office can continue to function even when there is no Senate-confirmed or interim U.S. Attorney,” DOJ attorneys wrote in court papers in Habba’s case. Yoo signaled that the courts were right to honor the statutory time constraints on acting and interm tenures, but he reiterated that Trump had sole removal power. From the founding, he said, officers who enforce federal law have been removable at will by the president under Article II of the Constitution and the take care clause, the duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” “Any subordinates who are carrying out federal law have to be accountable to him,” Yoo said. The DOJ has not at this stage elevated any of the U.S. attorney cases to the Supreme Court. Habba’s case is the furthest along, and a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether the DOJ would appeal that decision.
Texas Dem Senate primary fractures over race rhetoric as ‘mediocre’ jab, ‘oppressor’ remarks ignite backlash
Heated racial rhetoric in Texas is flaring this primary season, as Democratic contenders lean into identity-focused messaging that Republicans say is divisive and a clinic in “wokeness at its worst.” Texas Democrats are heading into primary season with an intraparty fight that is increasingly spilling into race and identity. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is running for the Senate, has suggested racism would be to blame if she loses, while former Rep. Colin Allred accused Crockett rival and Austin state Rep. James Talarico of calling him “a mediocre Black man” in a political spat affecting races in the Senate and House. “These disgusting comments are wokeness at its worst and the silence is deafening from Democrats,” RNC spokesman Zach Kraft said of the recent rhetoric out of Texas in recent months. SPEAKER JOHNSON LAUGHS OFF JASMINE CROCKETT SENATE BID: ‘ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED’ SHE IS RUNNING Crockett, who is running for the Senate to replace Republican Sen. John Cornyn, offered a fiery response. “You think I didn’t know I was a black woman when I woke up and decided that I was going to run for the U.S. Senate? You think I didn’t factor in and make sure we had enough room to account for that?” Racially focused flare-ups have broken out in recent weeks as Democrats eye high-profile races and try to energize blue voters in the red state. JASMINE CROCKETT CLAIMS ALLIES HAVE EXPRESSED CONCERN FOR HER SAFETY WHILE RUNNING FOR SENATE “Look no further than the Senate primary to see how the woke mind virus has spread like wildfire among the ranks of Texas Democrats. James Talarico spent last week apologizing for his ‘white privilege,’ and Jasmine Crockett is taking a page out of Kamala Harris‘ playbook by preemptively blaming racism and sexism for why she will lose,” Kraft told Fox News Digital. Just this month, Texas Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, the minority leader of the Texas House, drew backlash over a resurfaced clip from a 2024 interview in which he described white Americans as “oppressors” of “non-whites.” “That there is a sense of, ‘America really just belongs to White people,’ that this was that a lot of people believe that God gave America to White people to rule, and that any time that immigrants, minorities make progress in this country, that that is seen as a slight against them,” Wu, of Houston, said in 2024 on “Define American” podcast with Antonio Vargas. Wu, who was born in Guangzhou, China, added that Latinos, Asians and Black Americans — “everybody” — are kept divided because powerful forces have spent time and money ensuring they do not unite. Instead, he argued, those groups are pushed to see each other as rivals even though they share the same oppressor, and he claimed the oppression “comes from one place.” “I always tell people the day the Latino, African-American, Asian and other communities realize that they are — that they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning, because we are the majority in this country now,” he continued. “We have the ability to take over this country and to do what is needed for everyone and to make things fair.” The clip set off swift condemnation from Texans as it circulated online, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz saying, “The Democrat party is built on bigotry.” GOP SEIZES ON DEM CIVIL WAR AS PROGRESSIVES JUMP INTO KEY 2026 SENATE RACES: ‘THEY’RE IN SHAMBLES’ Allred recently told former DNC chairman Jaime Harrison of South Carolina on his podcast that Talarico made another disparaging comment about him in private while the former Tennessee Titans linebacker was still a candidate in the Senate race. Allred has since dropped out and is seeking a newly drawn 33rd Congressional District near Dallas. The current 33rd District in the Metroplex is represented by Democratic Rep. Marc Veasey. “He’s said some things to me that I don’t like. He said to me before he got into the race that he thought that he would be a better candidate because he doesn’t have a family, and that… he could spend more time campaigning,” Allred said. “As you know, Jaime, like I didn’t know my dad, so I’m like all about being a father to my two boys, right? I was like, no, no, no, I run because of my family.” A TikTok influencer named Morgan Thompson originally claimed Allred made the “mediocre Black man” comments, recounting the conversation from a Talarico rally in Plano. “James Talarico told me that he signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable and intelligent Black woman,” Thompson said, adding she now supports Crockett. EX-SNL STAR BOWEN YANG, PODCAST CO-HOST WALK BACK COMMENTS CRITICIZING JASMINE CROCKETT’S SENATE CAMPAIGN Talarico released a statement soon after calling the situation a “mischaracterization of a private conversation” and said he was talking about Allred’s “method of campaigning,” not his life. “I would never attack him on the basis of race,” Talarico said. “As a Black man in America, Congressman Allred has had to work twice as hard to get where he is. I understand how my critique of the Congressman’s campaign could be interpreted given this country’s painful legacy of racism, and I care deeply about the impact my words have on others,” Talarico said, according to the Texas Tribune. Talarico recently announced that he raised $7.4 million in the first six weeks of the quarter in his contest against Crockett. He did not respond to a request for comment. Crockett’s campaign also did not respond to an inquiry left in its campaign inbox, which is separate from her official congressional office due to the Hatch Act. Fox News Digital’s Marc Tamasco contributed to this report.
Irish dancing groups in the hot seat after trans dancer qualifies for multiple female world championships
A women’s public policy group is calling on governing bodies in the Irish dancing world to amend their participation policies after a male dancer qualified for the world championships for a third year in a row after previously competing as a male. “I just happened to be at the competition where this boy won in the girls’ category for the very first time back in 2023,” Maggie McKneely, Director of Government Relations at Concerned Women for America, told Fox News Digital. “He has been Irish-dancing for a long time and had gone to the World Championships as a boy years before, but then in 2023, he suddenly started identifying as a girl and dancing in the girl’s category.” McKneely said that in 2023, while competing in the girl’s division, the male competitor won a regional title for the first time, and he has since gone on to win two more times, including this past December in Florida. Concerned Women for America (CWA) sent a letter to two major governing bodies for Irish dancing, An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America, calling on them to remedy their participation policies allowing dancers to compete based on gender identity. The letter pointed to other major sports governing bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics, the governing body for track and field sports, which CWA said have announced or adopted plans to institute strictly sex-based eligibility requirements. PRIVACY CONCERNS, DISCRIMINATION, DOCTOR PUSHBACK: THE COMPLIANCE TRAPS LOOMING BEHIND SEX-SEPARATED SPORTS Speaking to Fox News Digital, McKneely lamented what she described as a “ripple-effect” caused by the male dancer being allowed to continue competing in the girls’ division. “Not only did a boy win the girl’s title for his age category, placing the girl who got in second who should have been in first, but that also means that the girl who got in 11th did not qualify for Worlds because the top 10 dancers qualify for worlds. It means the girl who got 26th did not qualify for nationals because the top 25 qualify for nationals,” she said. “You have a boy on top of the podium and all these girls who have dreamed and have set goals for different placements in their age category who were not able to make them because of this one boy disrupting the entire category.” CWA CEO and President Penny Nance also pointed to the chilling effect caused by male competition, arguing that the male’s ability to compete “undermines young women” and makes them less likely to compete. CALIFORNIA COLLEGE ATHLETICS ORGANIZATION FACES PROBE OVER TRANSGENDER POLICY “We strongly encourage our Young Women for America members to be involved in sports. We think it’s a great training proving ground,” Nance said. “We know that the majority of women who make it to the C-suite are women who competed athletically in some way. And so it’s good sociologically, it’s good for women’s identity, it is good for their bodies.” Meanwhile, when pressed on the importance of separating Irish dancing by sex, McKneely and Nance told Fox News Digital that Irish dancing is not just an art form, it is “an extremely athletic art form.” The ex-Irish dancer pointed out that the dancing requires a lot of consistent leaps and jumps that necessitates dancers to move very quickly and execute complicated rhythm patterns while maintaining endurance. She also pointed out that if you have stronger muscles, or even different lengths of your femur bone, dancers can get higher off the ground, which is an advantage in the competition. “At the elite level competitions that we’re talking about, like regionals and nationals, men and women don’t compete against each other. But at our local competitions, they do, just because it’s a smaller field,” McKneely shared. “And nine times out of 10, when boys are competing against girls in those local competitions, they win, purely because they do have greater endurance and greater capacity to do more of the tricks and complicated things in Irish dance than the girls do.” Fox News Digital reached out to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America for comment on the policy push and criticism from CWA, but did not receive a response. According to McKneely, a petition was sent to the governing bodies from dancers and parents who were unhappy with a male competing against females when the incident first happened in 2023, and their response was to vote on establishing a third category for people who are not biologically male or female, a sort of middle-road position. However, McKneely said that the motion to take this action was ultimately tabled, and it never moved forward. She added that the bodies have been embroiled in a cheating scandal making them “allergic to legal threats” and afraid of upsetting folks who might sue them even further over sex-separation policies.
Anti-ICE chaos erupts at blue state county board meeting after panel endorses detention center
A suburban Maryland board meeting was taken off the air after whistling and protests erupted moments after officials approved a resolution endorsing cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including the purchase of a warehouse in Williamsport that sparked Democratic outrage. A few miles south of the Hagerstown meeting, DHS had completed the purchase of the $102 million property in Williamsport, just across the Potomac River from Falling Waters, West Virginia, and about 75 miles from Washington, D.C. The property soon became the site of protests, including a video posted by Total Wine billionaire David Trone, who is running for his former U.S. House seat, in which he stood by a snowbank behind the center and declared ICE was “executing people” and did not belong in Maryland. PHILLY DA’S ‘HUNT YOU DOWN’ WARNING TO ICE DRAWS CALLS FOR DOJ CRIMINAL PROBE Washington County Board President John Barr slammed his gavel Tuesday as outrage erupted over the resolution, declaring the “safety and security of our community is of utmost importance” and that “DHS [and] ICE play a crucial role in safeguarding our nation’s borders and is responsible for enforcing immigration laws, protecting the country from potential threats and maintaining the rule of law for public safety.” Barr’s voice vote appeared to reflect most if not all board members saying “aye” but elicited “nay!” and “no” from the audience, and people began loudly whistling, clapping and pointing at Barr. Barr calmly announced, “Clear the room,” and a broadcast producer could be heard saying, “Off air! Off air” before the TV feed was cut. DHS FIRES BACK AFTER DEM BILLIONAIRE DAVID TRONE CLAIMS ICE IS ‘EXECUTING PEOPLE’ Outside the building on Washington Street, a throng of anti-ICE protesters similarly whistled and waved signs that said “no concentration camps” and “No ICE Jail.” “These ICE facilities; they’re inhumane; I don’t want them here,” protester Richard Hartman told Baltimore’s NBC affiliate. Two counter-protesters waved signs saying “Trump is Your President” and “We Love ICE.” Maryland federal lawmakers urged the county not to pass the resolution. Rep. April McClain Delaney, who Trone is facing in the primary, called the plan “sweeping and dangerous” and forged in “darkness.” “[It] is yet another example of the Trump administration acting without transparency, accountability or regard for human life,” she said. Washington County sits in a transitional area. To the east, deep blue Washington suburbs reliably vote Democrat. To the west, “Mountain Maryland” and the Maryland panhandle form a Republican-friendly bastion, though they are grouped with some of the aforementioned suburbs in a congressional district that trends blue. ANTI-ICE LEGISLATION HEADS TO DESK OF RISING STAR DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR, TESTING HIS PRESIDENTIAL AMBITIONS Closer to the nation’s capital, officials in once-moderate Howard County blocked another ICE center in Elkridge, according to the Baltimore station. To the north in Pennsylvania, Democrats have opposed similar transactions, including a center just off US-22 in Shartlesville, a rural community recently home to the now-defunct Roadside America attraction. In a statement to Fox News Digital about the Williamsport center, Trone said ICE has “detained children as young as 5 years old, American citizens and military veterans.” “ICE only needs to expand its detention space because reprehensible legislation was passed by Congress — with the support of Rep. April McClain Delaney — that strips due process rights and expands this administration’s ability to carry out this cruel agenda.” Republicans running for the seat, including Robin Ficker and Chris Burnett, have signaled support for immigration enforcement, and state Del. Neil Parrott of Hagerstown, who has formed an exploratory committee but not formally declared, said as much in prior comments to Fox News Digital.
Reporter’s Notebook: Bondi’s binder strategy turns House hearing into political firestorm
The overstuffed white binders appeared a few moments before Attorney General Pam Bondi exited her motorcade, and strode through the horseshoe entrance of the Rayburn House Office Building. Roll Call photographer Tom Williams and I stood in the hallway, negotiating our positions for Bondi’s entrance. Williams would position himself on the far side. I slid to the wall nearest the horseshoe entrance. Ali Vitali of MS NOW and Jay O’Brien of ABC worked the sidewall. A coterie of Bondi’s aides appeared. One bogged down by the massive binders. BONDI HEARING DEVOLVES INTO CHAOS OF SHOUTS AS AG ACCUSES TOP DEMOCRATS OF ‘THEATRICS’ “Let her get into the room,” instructed the aide. I politely reminded the aide that the corridor was an open hallway on Capitol Hill. It wasn’t closed off by the U.S. Capitol Police. So, tossing questions at the Attorney General was fair game. And, thus began another dance between reporters, security details, the U.S. Capitol Police, aides and Cabinet members when they appear for major Congressional hearings. At the time, we had no clue what was in the binders. But you couldn’t ignore the sheer size of them. It’s not uncommon for aides to haul in briefing books for a principal when they testify. However, no one has seen binders like this since Kinko’s was still in business. The contents of what the binders contained was about to play a central role in Bondi’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. But the first charge of the morning was to query Bondi. There was so much going on. All of which were subjects that the Attorney General could address. Speaking of files… Bondi wasn’t there to testify about the Epstein files, per se. But Democrats – and one Republican – would make the Justice Department’s release of partially redacted documents the focus of the hearing. So there was plenty to ask Bondi about that. DOJ’S EPSTEIN DISCLOSURE DRAWS FIRE FOR WEBSITE GLITCHES, MISSING DOCUMENTS, REDACTIONS However, there were overnight developments from Arizona. Authorities detained a person near the Mexico border in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. What Bondi might know about the FBI’s role in this was worth a question. Then, there was a cryptic alert that officials were shutting off the airport in El Paso to all air traffic for ten days. Was there a threat of terrorism? Something about cartels? Finally, a story broke overnight that the Justice Department sought to indict six Democratic lawmakers for their video telling service members they didn’t have to comply with unlawful orders. A District of Columbia grand jury refused to indict any of them. So the press corps waited for Bondi and her security detail to breeze through the door. We’d have about a minute to pepper her with questions as she walked from the horseshoe entrance to a back anteroom. Reporters must be strategic with such brief “walk-and-talks.” Rapid, Gatling gun-like questions. Succinct. Straight to the point. And agile enough to skip to the next line of inquiry if the figure arriving on Capitol Hill doesn’t answer or gives a brief response. In another universe, I may have started with Epstein. But the Nancy Guthrie story has consumed the nation for weeks now. There was a development overnight. Nearly every story on the planet always occupies a lane somewhere on Capitol Hill. The Nancy Guthrie saga was no exception. I had positioned myself on the inside track as we walked down the hall. Able to sidle up close to Bondi as she moved through the building. “Madam Attorney General, any comment about the investigation of Guthrie? Any update on that right now?” I began, getting to Bondi first. “Yeah, I can’t talk about that now. Praying for Savannah and her family,” replied Bondi. Check. Moving on. “What happened in El Paso? Why did they close off El Paso? Is that something you don’t know about? Or you just can’t comment?” I asked. “I cant discuss it,” responded Bondi. EPSTEIN FILES EXPLODE OPEN AS DOJ DETAILS DISCOVERY OF POWERFUL FIGURES AND MORE THAN 1,200 VICTIMS Then, the main event. “And what about the Epstein files? A lot of members have been upset that some of these files have not been fully unredacted. What do you say to that?” I inquired. “We’re going to discuss that today,” answered Bondi. I backed off to allow my colleagues a chance to pose questions. “But why was certain information redacted that’s against the nature of the law? Why was certain information redacted that’s against the law?” asked Vitali. No response. So I tagged back in, returning to the initial lines of questioning. “Did you get any updates overnight on the Guthrie investigation? Were they keeping you informed overnight on that? And when did you first find out about the El Paso situation? When did you first hear about the El Paso situation, Madam Attorney General?” Bondi was silent. The scrum processed down the hall, camera operators and reporters bumping all over one another, edging backwards. A semi-blob of security personnel slightly shielded Bondi. But the end was near. The throng approached the backdoor to the Judiciary Committee. Bondi would soon turn right and disappear inside. Just enough time for one final topic. “What about the attempt to prosecute the six lawmakers? Any comment on that failed grand jury indictment?” I hollered. “I’ll refer that to U.S. Attorney Pirro,” replied Bondi, referring to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro, who tried to indict the six. HOW PAM BONDI AND THE DEMOCRATS TURNED A HEARING INTO HYSTERIA, RIGHT IN FRONT OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S VICTIMS “Do you know why that went wrong?” I asked. But that was it. The shot clock expired. Bondi ignored the question, turning right with her security detail and retreating into the anteroom. When he hosted Meet the Press on NBC, late host Tim Russert would sometimes boast that they had the Vice President or Secretary of State “for the whole hour.” The exchanges with Bondi were
Noem backs SAVE America Act, slams ‘radical left’ opposition to voter IDs and proof of citizenship
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the case Friday for the passage of the SAVE America Act, accusing opponents of the bill of favoring access to the ballot box for illegal immigrants. Noem was in the Phoenix area, where she pushed the Trump administration’s efforts to shore up election integrity and voter security. She touched on the Save America Act, a bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, photo identification to vote in federal elections and that states remove noncitizens from their voter rolls. She noted that wide majorities of Republicans and Democrats approve of the legislation. MURKOWSKI BREAKS WITH GOP ON VOTER ID, SAYS PUSH ‘IS NOT HOW WE BUILD TRUST’ However, she criticized the bill’s opponents who say it will disenfranchise millions of voters. “Each of the arguments that have been laid out to criticize this bill are baseless speculation from the radical left because they want illegal aliens to vote in our elections,” Noem told reporters during a news conference. “They want to disenfranchise American citizens by telling them that their votes don’t matter. There’s only one reason that anyone would oppose this bill, and that’s because they would want to cheat. “They want illegal people and aliens in this country to be able to vote for them and to rob the United States citizens of their vote,” she added. “And that’s why they resist us at every single level.” REPUBLICANS, TRUMP RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK ON VOTER ID BILL Congressional Democrats have characterized the bill as an effort to remove millions of Americans from voter rolls, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “Jim Crow 2.0,” a term used by some to describe modern so-called voter suppression laws. During her remarks, Noem mentioned a handful of illegal immigrants who were registered to vote in various states. “There is no room in our election system for people that aren’t Americans,” she said. “There is no room in our election system for fraudsters and foreign influence.” The secretary also called for Arizona to clean up its voter rolls, noting that DHS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements can be used to do just that. The program helps local, state and federal agencies determine the citizenship and immigration status of individuals. “Maybe people who’ve passed away, people that aren’t citizens, people that don’t live here,” she said. “That would make sure that, in your next election, when people are casting their votes, they know they’re voting for the right decisions and that those votes are counted. And they’re counted appropriately. And someone else didn’t get to weigh in on their leadership.”
Trump: ‘We don’t run from anybody’ in blasting Biden over Afghanistan withdrawal
President Donald Trump Friday sharply criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it an “embarrassment” and arguing his administration would not have left military equipment behind. “You remember that where they left all the military equipment behind? We didn’t. We wouldn’t have left anything,” Trump said while speaking at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. “We were going to get out with dignity and strength, respect. We looked like we were running. We don’t run from anybody. That was a Biden embarrassment.” Trump also questioned why aircraft were not flown out of the country. “We don’t leave equipment behind. We don’t leave jets behind,” he said. “I said, why do you leave those jets behind, sir? I thought it was cheaper to leave it behind. You know, $150 million plane. All they had to do is put a little jet fuel in there and fly it to wherever they want to fly it.” He said the U.S. military had been rebuilt during his first term and is now stronger than ever. “So with the help of everyone in this room, America is the strongest military on the face of the earth. We rebuilt it. We really did,” Trump said. “We rebuilt it in my first term.” FOUR YEARS AFTER ABBEY GATE, VETERANS WHO SAVED CIVILIANS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY TRUMP HAILS ‘GREAT AND VERY BRAVE’ UK SOLDIERS AFTER SLAMMING NATO ALLIES’ AFGHANISTAN SERVICE His remarks came during a visit that honored the special operators involved in the operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which he contrasted as an “extraordinary military operation.” The U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 after nearly 20 years of war. The evacuation followed a February 2020 agreement negotiated during Trump’s first term that set a timeline for U.S. forces to leave the country. Biden oversaw the final withdrawal as Taliban forces rapidly seized control of Afghanistan, culminating in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians. Biden has argued that he was bound by the withdrawal agreement negotiated during Trump’s first term and faced the choice of completing the pullout or sending more U.S. troops back into combat. Trump has rejected that claim, saying his deal with the Taliban was “conditions-based” and that he would not have withdrawn if the Taliban failed to meet its commitments. Fox News Digital reached out to Biden Friday for comment and has yet to receive a reply.
‘Doubling down on stupid’: Newsom, AOC, trash Trump at European summit as they raise 2028 profiles
Two of President Donald Trump’s top Democratic critics are using appearances at a high-profile European gathering to blast the Republican president’s agenda and beef up their foreign policy chops on the world state ahead of possible 2028 White House runs. “Donald Trump is temporary,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday during a climate change discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. “He’ll be gone in three years.” And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, during a town hall at the prestigious conference, pointed to Trump and charged, “We are seeing our presidential administration tear apart the transatlantic partnership, rip up every democratic norm.” Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez are the most well known of a small group of potential Democratic presidential contenders using appearances in Munich to criticize Trump’s international agenda and offer a contrast to Vice President JD Vance, the perceived 2028 Republican front-runner, who delivered a scathing attack on Europe during his speech at the security forum last year. NEWSOM STOP IN KEY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY STATE SPARKS MORE 2028 SPECULATION The other Democrats with likely national ambitions making the rounds at the confab and meeting with international leaders are Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and former Commerce Secretary. Gina Raimondo. Ocasio-Cortez pointed to her fellow Democrats in Munich and said, “I think many of us are here to say we are here, and we are ready for the next chapter, not to have the world turn to isolation, but to deepen our partnership … and increase our commitment to integrity to our values.” At a second discussion later on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez argued that “the United States is very much in a compromised position compared to where we were five years ago. Our relationships with our allies are strained. Our commitment and demonstrated consistency on democratic values and human rights are also incredibly strained.” JD VANCE SAYS ‘DUMBEST’ DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE WILL WIN NOMINATION IN 2028 Newsom, who is speaking at his third major international conference in recent months, following appearances last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and late last year at a world climate conference in Brazil, hammered Trump over climate policy, arguing the president is “doubling down on stupid.” “Never in the history of the United States of America has there been a more destructive president than the current occupant of the White House in Washington, D.C.,” Newsom charged. “Donald Trump is trying to turn back the clock.” THE 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE IS ALREADY UNDERWAY The White House, responding to the criticism from Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez, argued in a statement to Fox News Digital that “Gavin Newscum and AOC should be fixing California and New York’s many problems, but instead, they are frolicking in Europe, where no one knows or cares who they are.” Ocasio-Cortez, during the first of her two appearances at the conference, was asked by the town hall moderator, “When you run for president, are you going to impose a wealth tax or a billionaire’s tax?” Responding with a laugh, the four-term federal lawmaker who has long advocated for significant tax increases on the ultra-wealthy to fund progressive initiatives then said, “We don’t have to wait for any one president to impose a wealth tax… That needs to be done expeditiously.” Matthew Bartlett, who served at the State Department during the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital that “the regular foreign policy crowd is turning into something of a cattle call for 2028 as numerous Democrats take Munich to articulate their vision and try to develop some sort of foreign policy credential as the next presidential race is on the horizon.” And Terry Shumaker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago during the Clinton administration, noted that the appearances in Munich by the potential candidates “gives them experience, confidence, and something to refer back to on the campaign trail when they’re asked about their foreign policy experience.” And Shumaker, a longtime New Hampshire-based attorney and Democratic Party activist, said it also signals to the world “that Trump is not a monolith. That there’s another side of the story in the United States.”