Kentucky governor says he received 2 calls from agencies indicating McConnell had ‘passed’
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said this week that he received two calls from agencies suggesting Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., died while he was in the hospital. In an interview with Katie Couric uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, Beshear, a Democrat, did not specify which agencies allegedly called him with the news or when the calls were made. “In fact, I’d gotten two calls from different agencies, not state agencies, suggesting he’d passed,” said Beshear, who has served as governor since December 2019. Fox News Digital reached out to Beshear and McConnell’s offices for comment. GOP SENATORS SPLIT AS TUBERVILLE DEMANDS MCCONNELL ANSWERS After nearly a month of being hospitalized, McConnell’s office released a lengthy statement on July 12 saying he was being treated for a fall he suffered in June. A picture of him in a hospital bed alongside his wife was also released. Prior to the announcement, there was speculation about what had happened to McConnell, given that his office did not reveal why he was in the hospital for weeks. Emergency dispatch audio from June 14, the day McConnell was hospitalized, revealed he was “unconscious” and may have suffered a heart attack. ‘THIS IS NOT NORMAL’: AOC UNLOADS ON MCCONNELL’S PROLONGED ABSENCE “My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion,” McConnell said in the statement last weekend. “I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages.” Two days before the longtime GOP leader shared more about his condition, Beshear posted on social media demanding that McConnell be more transparent. “I publicly and privately urged the last administration to address the public’s concerns with the former president’s health,” Beshear wrote, seemingly a reference to former President Joe Biden. “I’m calling on Sen. McConnell to do the same and provide voters an update on his own health.” Beshear ended the post by urging McConnell to “end the crazy speculation” and “just tell us what’s going on.” On July 8, Beshear also wrote a letter to the 84-year-old lawmaker requesting that he “fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of your health.” McConnell’s doctor said he “developed pneumonia” early in his hospitalization but “responded rapidly to antibiotic treatment.” McConnell said he intends to return to the Senate, but his office has given no timeline on when he’ll be able to do so.
Rep Ralph Norman enters South Carolina Senate race despite Trump’s endorsement of Darline Graham
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., will run for Senate in South Carolina following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, he revealed Saturday. “I’m here to announce that I will be a candidate for the Senate, I’ll be throwing my hat into the ring, and day one, Kayleigh, I will be laser-focused on passing President Trump’s America First” Norman said during an appearance on “Saturday In America with Kayleigh McEnany.” Norman then championed Trump’s SAVE America Act and said he would focus on eliminating the filibuster, saying Republicans need to “nuke” the procedure. Norman made the announcement just days after President Donald Trump publicly endorsed Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister who was appointed to finish the remainder of his term, to run for the seat fully when her term is up in January. CONSERVATIVES UNITE AROUND SAVE AMERICA ACT AFTER TRUMP DECLASSIFIES ‘SHOCKING’ ELECTION INTEL DARLINE GRAHAM IS CONSIDERING RUNNING FOR A FULL SENATE TERM, A REPORT SAID, AS MEMORIAL SERVICES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR HER LATE BROTHER LINDSEY GRAHAM. “I hope Darline does this, in that there would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, also writing “Run Darline Run.” Norman acknowledged Trump’s endorsement Saturday, telling McEnany he asked for Trump’s blessing. “He decided to go with Darline, who’s a nice person, and he decided to go with her and I respect that, but that doesn’t deter my plans. I’m in this to win,” he said. Norman will be running in the Aug. 11 special GOP primary election, revealing that he is in the process of filing the paperwork. Though not backed by Trump, Norman has received support from GOP Senators Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., both of whom endorsed him. The pair, like Norman, are both vocal opponents of the filibuster. Norman will be entering a competitive primary, as at least two other candidates have declared their intentions to run with further challengers expected to enter the race. Businessman Mark Lynch, who ran against Lindsey Graham in the recent June primary, has announced his candidacy, as did attorney Duke Buckner. And though Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., hasn’t publicly announced an intention to run, state lawmakers are already eyeing his seat in the House should he decide to enter the fray, according to reporting from News From The States. Fox News Digital contacted Reps. Norman, Mace and Fry, along with Sen. Darline Graham for further comment.
Ousted Squad Dem stumps with radical activist who defended Hamas, promoted political violence
Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., is campaigning to return to Congress alongside a self-described Maoist activist and political organizer whose online videos and social media rhetoric has included urging leftists not to disavow Hamas or Hezbollah, has included calls to “unmake” America, applauded burning the American flag and endorsed political violence. The activist, Christopher Winston, has built an online presence across numerous platforms under the pseudonym “BlackRedGuard,” posting and appearing in videos about “Maoist organizing in DSA,” attacking leftists who say they do not support “Hezbollah/Hamas” and using rhetoric that appeared to condone political violence. In one video reviewed by Fox News Digital, Winston asked, “What’s wrong with throwing molotovs at a police station?” Bush, an ousted Squad Democrat mounting a comeback bid in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, appeared in a recent social media post standing right beside Winston as he participated in supporting her campaign. SOCIALISTS LAUNCH RADICAL PLATFORM TO ABOLISH THE US SENATE IN BID TO FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM AMERICA Fox News Digital asked Bush’s campaign whether Winston has any formal or informal role with the campaign, whether Bush knows him personally and whether he was invited to the event, but the campaign did not answer those questions, instead sending a link to a Fox News article about Joy Behar, co-host of “The View,” defending democratic socialism, noting it “should clear up any questions you have about DSA.” “If you say sh– like ‘I don’t support Hezbollah/Hamas’ and call yourself a leftist you lame. All power to all the resistance. Peace through the sword,” Winston, a St. Louis-area activist working with the DSA said in his social media post shaming those on the left who condemn Hamas and Hezbollah. Other posts from Winston called to “unmake” America and said the American flag “should always be desecrated.” “Do not fix America. Unmake it,” a June 2025 post from Winston’s X account said. “I applaud the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of the slavery and genocide which built America. It should always be desecrated in that way,” a separate 2024 post from Winston said. Meanwhile, during a 2024 video posted on YouTube titled “Debating Commie Gobbledegook (Ft. Black Red Guard),” Winston is asked why, as a Maoist, he chooses to be a part of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). “Well, it’s obvious why I’m a Maoist in the DSA. There’s a lot of naive young white people to brainwash,” he said. POWERFUL LGBTQ+ GROUP’S ENDORSEMENTS COULD TANK VULNERABLE DEMS OVER RADICAL YOUTH TRANS AGENDA Fox News Digital reached out to Winston and the DSA for comment on Winston’s remarks and affiliation with the group, but did not hear back. At another point during the same video, Winston questions “what’s wrong with throwing Molotov cocktails at a police station?” When his co-host tried to check him, replying that doing such would be “an easy way to get your whole organization, like, kind of destroyed,” Winston shot back: “That’s why we want the masses to do it.” He later argued that if the goal is a “socialist” or “communist” revolution, “people are not going to pick up a gun and fight” for something they do not understand, adding that activists must “teach people what communism is.” A Fox News Digital review of Winston’s X account found several social media posts praising Bush, including a 2023 post where he said, “Yeah, I’m a Maoist ultra with dreams of riding into power on a tank like Fidel and Che but in the meantime Cori Bush is the best congressperson right now and we need to back her.” “Cori Bush is the best of STL, and DSA,” Winston said in May at a Bush campaign event. “Cori Bush is running for Congress again. STL-DSA voted to endorse her overwhelmingly. Help beat the AIPAC money that stole her seat here,” Winston said last year. Winston’s appearance alongside Bush is not the first time her political orbit has drawn scrutiny over hard-left activists and anti-Israel figures. Her comeback bid has already faced questions over campaign spending and alliances that critics say show the same activist network is helping power her effort to return to Washington. CORI BUSH RIPPED FOR ‘JAW-DROPPING’ HYPOCRISY ON KEY ISSUE AMID COMEBACK HOUSE BID Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported that Bush’s comeback campaign paid more than $20,000 to “Unbought Power,” a consulting firm publicly linked to far-left activist Rasha Mubarak, whose ties to Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s political operation had already drawn scrutiny. Mubarak has close ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), “which was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2009 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial,” according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, and has publicly called to “abolish the police,” backed defund-the-police efforts and repeatedly accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.” “Mubarak has also been a speaker at events held by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), an organization that promoted the BDS movement,” the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy noted in a report. “Previously, in September 2023, she served as the press contact for the Arizona-based non-profit Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), which was investigated for ties to Samidoun, an anti-Israel advocacy group banned in Germany, Canada, and Israel and classified as a terrorist entity in the United States for financing the PFLP.” HIGH EARNERS FLEE NYC AMID TAXES, RADICAL POLICIES In her prior campaigns for Congress, Bush also received help from radical anti-Israel activists. During her 2024 re-election bid, Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill headlined a virtual “Jews for Cori” fundraiser, according to Jewish Insider, which described Sarsour and Hill as “controversial far-left activists with histories of antisemitism.” Sarsour has been accused of praising a convicted terrorist and has compared Zionism to white supremacy, while likening Zionists to neo-Nazis. She had to walk back remarks after stating Israel “is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else,” and lost her seat on the board of the Women’s
Fraud expert warns AI is helping criminals outpace the government: ‘Don’t have the right tools’
A fraud expert who testified before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday warned the federal government lacks the tools and policies needed to prevent criminals from using artificial intelligence against taxpayers. “What’s happening right now is the fact that we simply don’t have the right tools to deal with fraud,” David Maimon, head of Fraud Insights at SentiLink, told Fox News Digital. “We don’t have the right policies to deal with fraud. We don’t have enough deterrence. We have no close collaboration between the government and the [private] sector to try and find the right solution to this issue.” The hearing, titled “Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape,” was held by the Government Operations Subcommittee as the Trump administration wages a nationwide “War on Fraud,” led by Vice President JD Vance, and focused on how the federal government can better detect and prevent emerging fraud threats through stronger digital identity verification. ALLEGED FEEDING OUR FUTURE FRAUD RINGLEADER TRANSFERRED FROM SOMALIA TO FACE US CHARGES “Fraud against government programs is no longer a series of isolated schemes,” Maimon told lawmakers during the hearing. “It is a durable, specialized criminal infrastructure.” He also told lawmakers that “criminals exploit the seams between agencies precisely because our defenses are built program by program, while their infrastructure is built to move across all of them.” Maimon highlighted how his company has collected intelligence to “understand how the criminals work, what they do, and how they do what they do,” while uncovering networks where fraudsters share stolen information and tactics. “We were able to infiltrate thousands of markets where fraudsters are operating, where you can find identities and stolen checks, you can find tutorials of how to engage in fraud against the government or target financial institutions across the country,” he said. One of the biggest challenges, he said, is keeping pace with rapidly evolving fraud tactics. “The most important thing is to make sure that the government is aware of some of the fraud trends we’re seeing out there that fraudsters are engaging in, essentially stealing taxpayers’ money,” Maimon said. Maimon said the government’s slow deployment of fraud-fighting tools allows criminals to “take advantage of these opportunities” and “continue to exploit” resources. “The bad guys are moving faster than the government,” he said. “While the government is still trying to catch up and roll out better tools, criminals keep finding new ways to steal money.” Criminals are now using AI to create fake documents, videos, and phishing emails that steal passwords and personal information or bypass identity verification, according to Maimon. “It’s difficult to prove that you’re not essentially using AI while verifying your identity with documents and liveness tests and selfie images,” he said. TRUMP ADMIN INVESTIGATING 75 TRUCK DRIVER SCHOOLS FOR FRAUD, HELPING NON-CITIZENS GET LICENSES During the hearing, Maimon said that fraudsters are already using “AI-generated faces and deepfake video to defeat liveness checks at digital banks and tax preparers.” Pointing to his earlier investigation of Medicaid fraud, Maimon said his team discovered providers that had billed the government about $2 million and claimed to have staff and caregivers, but when investigators visited the addresses in person, many of the employees and operations didn’t exist. “Sometimes you need to take a look at signals that appear in the database, but also at the physical location,” he said. Instead of relying on a picture or video, Maimon said the government should verify identities using trusted historical data that is harder for AI to fake. I’M OHIO’S STATE AUDITOR — MEDICAID FRAUD IS NOT JUST A WASHINGTON PROBLEM “In order to make sure that we address this issue, and it really depends on the type of fraud that you’re dealing with, but to address this issue in a more effective way, maybe we need to have some historical signals around identities we’re trying to verify, rather than just looking at images that could be created easily by AI tools,” he said. Maimon told lawmakers the fraud affects more than the government’s finances, ultimately hurting the people these programs are designed to serve, saying “Every dollar we protect from organized fraud is a dollar that stays available for the people Congress intended to help. But after years of studying dark web and Telegram marketplaces, Maimon said law enforcement has uncovered only a fraction of organized fraud. “I think they’re just scratching the surface.”
READ THE DOCUMENTS: White House releases election integrity files after Trump speech
The White House released a trove of election-integrity documents Thursday night following President Donald Trump’s primetime address, posting files related to alleged voting-system vulnerabilities, China’s alleged acquisition of U.S. voter data, a Michigan voter-registration investigation and noncitizens on state voter rolls. The documents, posted on a new White House election-integrity page, are organized into four buckets and include intelligence assessments, FBI files, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency materials and Department of Homeland Security-related summaries covering issues ranging from election infrastructure cybersecurity to voter-registration database threats. The release gives the public access to records the White House alleges support Trump’s renewed push for election reforms, including voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements. The president claimed in his address that electronic voting machines are vulnerable and easily compromised. Fox News has not yet seen evidence supporting that claim and is not able to independently evaluate the accuracy of his statement at this time. “This vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you,” Trump said Thursday night during an address from the White House on election integrity. “But that all changes right now.” MORE THAN A QUARTER-MILLION NONCITIZENS MAY BE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN 4 KEY STATES, DHS ALLEGES The White House page lists the four document categories as “Vulnerabilities in Electronic Voting and Ballot-Counting Systems,” “China’s Acquisition and Exploitation of American Voter Data,” “Michigan Voter-Registration Investigation” and “Noncitizens on State Voter Rolls.” The page says the files span from January 2020 to June 2026. Fox News Digital could not independently verify the contents of the documents. In the section on voting systems, the White House says the documents include what it describes as previously classified intelligence assessments and other reports warning that U.S. adversaries could compromise election infrastructure, including voter-registration databases, pollbooks and election websites. A separate section includes White House claims that China acquired hundreds of millions of U.S. voter files, while another highlights FBI files tied to an alleged voter-registration operation in Michigan. CALIFORNIA ACCUSED OF BLOCKING FEDERAL VOTER ROLL AUDIT AS DOJ ESCALATES PROBE OF ELECTION FRAUD CLAIMS “Those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden,” Trump claimed. “They did not disclose (it) to me as president or to anyone else.” The final bucket focuses on what the White House describes as a DHS review that the White House claims identified noncitizens on state voter rolls. The documents were posted to the White House website during the president’s speech Thursday night, and more updates, filings and findings are expected to drop, according to the new election integrity webpage. “The documents we will release starting tonight have been gathered by the White House Government Transparency Taskforce, a great group of people, along with the staff of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, supported by our top intelligence agency chiefs, who have all personally reviewed the findings we are presenting this evening and fully confirmed their authenticity,” Trump said during his speech Thursday. The files were released as Trump has intensified his election-integrity push ahead of the midterms, including calls for voter ID, proof-of-citizenship requirements and Senate passage of the SAVE Act. Trump previously signed an executive order aimed at requiring proof of citizenship on federal voter registration forms, but federal judges have blocked key portions of the order while the House-passed SAVE Act remains stalled in the Senate. “No trust, no greatness,” Trump told Americans Thursday.
Far-left activist conference at teachers union HQ raises classroom concerns
A two-day conference featuring socialist, anti-war and pro-Palestinian activists at Chicago Teachers Union headquarters is drawing criticism from an education advocate who says the gathering reflects priorities far removed from the classroom. The conference included workshops on protest and media tactics, approaching port workers, tracking weapons shipments, fundraising, coalition building and strengthening ties with labor and community groups in Latin America and Africa, according to AWAN’s website. “I’m not sure that has much to do with empowering teachers in the classroom,” North American Values Institute (NAVI) Chief Advocacy Officer Josh Weiner said about the conference. “We’ve seen the barriers and boundaries between this political activism and the classroom break down in a lot of different circumstances. Certainly, the classroom is not the priority. It’s a political agenda that’s very extreme.” INSIDE CUBA’S FOREIGN INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN: FROM THE ’60S VENCEREMOS BRIGADE TO A CALIFORNIA UNION HALL CTU was not listed as an official conference sponsor, although the venue featured union signage and a mannequin wearing a CTU T-shirt, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Conference rooms were temporarily named by conference organizers for political figures and activists including Fidel Castro, Nicolás Maduro, Cilia Flores, Rasmea Odeh, Ibrahim Traoré and Patrice Lumumba. Speakers addressed attendees from behind a podium draped in a Palestinian flag. The program included representatives of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Anti-War Action Network, Anti-War Committee Chicago, the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, according to the conference program. Other speakers were Michigan preschool teacher Jessica Plichta, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which describes itself as a Marxist-Leninist organization fighting for socialism. Plichta was arrested on camera immediately after finishing a television news interview in support of Maduro. Police accused her of blocking a roadway and failing to follow commands to move. Another speaker, U.S. Palestinian Community Network Chairman Hatem Abudayyeh, previously served as a spokesperson for the Rasmea Defense Committee. Conference resolutions called for ending U.S. aid to Israel, supporting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, and expanding pro-Palestinian activism, while another resolution referred to the Iranian government as “anti-imperialist” and pledged support for Iranian sovereignty, according to NAVI. Weiner accused the union of intentionally keeping “themselves at arm’s length of something” while sharing “the same circles” as organizers. FEDS OPEN PROBE INTO ANTI-ISRAEL NYC TEACHERS “CTU didn’t sponsor this conference, they weren’t officially a part of it, but that’s on purpose to keep themselves at arm’s length of something that, clearly, they’ve been in the same circles as,” he said. NAVI also noted that CTU Vice President Jackson Potter and CORE, the union’s governing caucus, follow Anti-War Committee Chicago on Instagram. Weiner said children are being taught “that the U.S. is imperialist, that it is the purveyor of violence throughout the world” while “platforming leaders that, frankly, are majorly oppressive.” “Public education is meant to really teach foundational knowledge and formulate our future citizens of our country and to prepare students to be productive, happy, successful citizens within our country and our country is a democratic capitalist system, albeit imperfect, but it still is,” he said. EXILED MUSLIM SCHOLAR WARNS FAR-LEFT–ISLAMIST ALLIANCE BEHIND ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS ECHOES IRAN’S RISE AWAN says on its website that it aims to “build a country-wide movement of people who will fight against U.S. imperialism in the streets and in the halls of power.” Weiner called the conference “the opposite” of what education should look like, saying teachers are “bringing extremism” into the classroom. “It’s totally anti what education is supposed to be about, and this is an intentional play,” he said. “These teachers believe education is about teaching kids about power, and how to take back power and where to seek power, and to make it a political act in and of itself.” The conference comes after the Chicago Teachers Union previously faced criticism in April for its collaboration with the National Education Association on a “curriculum build” to bring “social justice into the classroom” ahead of May Day. But Weiner said the union’s tactics won’t stop in Chicago, warning that “you’re going to see that playbook essentially happen in other cities,” adding “It’s not as though we think it’s going to happen. They’re saying, it’s going to happen.” “I think every time they push a boundary and break it, you see it pop up somewhere else and you see them pushing the boundaries further,” he said. Fox News Digital reached out to the Chicago Teachers Union and the Anti-War Action Network for comment.
Pratt takes Walz to task in scathing X post over pardoned child rapist: ‘Have your hard drives checked’
Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate and reality TV star Spencer Pratt took aim at Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in a post that was widely praised by conservatives on social media. “If you find yourself defending a child molester, saying: ‘WE can’t be judged by OUR worst day’, you probably need to have your hard drives checked,” Pratt posted on X on Friday. Pratt was responding to a clip of Walz defending the pardon of a convicted child rapist, contending that his deportation by the State Department did not make the U.S. safer. “Did that make us any safer?” Walz questioned. “Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable? Did it improve the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day?” TIM WALZ OFFERS STRANGE DEFENSE FOR PARDONING CONVICTED CHILD RAPIST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DEPORTED Pratt’s post quickly spread on social media from other conservatives bashing Walz. “I couldn’t agree more, @spencerpratt,” Republican House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, posted on X. “Tim Walz has ZERO morals. He is disgrace to Minnesota!” EXPOSED DOCS REVEAL WHY TIM WALZ BOARD AWARDED REPEAT CHILD RAPIST PARDON: ‘NO FUTURE’ “To think… he was almost the Vice President,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., posted on X. “I didn’t used to understand the phrase, ‘bring common sense to DC,’ but it becomes more apparent every day that it’s missing at every level of government,” Florida Republican congressional candidate Tim Wilkins posted on X. “This is insanity.” Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office for comment. The Minnesota Board of Pardons, composed of Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, granted clemency to Laotian national Tou Lue Vang, 42, on June 10. Vang was scheduled to be deported from the United States before the pardon. Vang was convicted for repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl between 2002 and 2004, and told authorities after he was arrested that “it is a cultural thing… to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stepped in to terminate Tou Lue Vang’s legal status in the U.S. and ensure that Walz’s actions would not create roadblocks for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removing him from the country before Vang was ultimately deported. Pratt has been increasingly active in politics on social media since finishing third in the Los Angeles mayoral primary and recently met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office which increased speculation that another political run could be in his future. “I will never stop fighting for my community,” Pratt captioned the photo of the meeting on X. Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
Birth tourism crackdown expands as House chairman raises criminal conspiracy case
A House task force chairman says companies helping foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth so their children obtain U.S. citizenship could be engaging in a criminal conspiracy. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, told Fox News Digital that his panel has subpoenaed several so-called “birth tourism companies” as it investigates firms advertising services to help foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth. “Right now, under current law, birth tourism is illegal. You cannot come into the United States for the purpose of giving birth,” Gill said. TRUMP BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FIGHT COMES ROARING BACK WITH ‘INVADERS’ PLAY AFTER KAVANAUGH ROADMAP “And I believe that there’s a compelling legal case to be made that these businesses that are facilitating this process — facilitating somebody coming into the United States to give birth — lying on their immigration forms or on their visa forms — are engaging in a form of criminal conspiracy, and that’s what we’re going to get to the bottom of,” Gill said. State Department regulations prohibit foreign nationals from obtaining visitor visas when consular officers determine that their primary purpose is traveling to the United States to give birth so their child obtains U.S. citizenship. While Gill’s task force has been quietly looking into several companies since at least 2025, the national scrutiny intensified after photographs circulated in July of a billboard advertising for the Women’s Center at Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission, Texas – a stone’s throw from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The Spanish-language billboard advertised a now-defunct “Have My Baby In Texas” website, and quoted Mission Regional providing births for $3,950 and Caesarean Sections for $5,525. It also displayed a phone number that included “001” – the country code required for international calls to the U.S. MAINE GOP HOPEFUL VYING FOR TRUMP ENDORSEMENT PREVIOUSLY RAN BIRTHING CLINICS CATERING TO MIGRANT WOMEN Gill and others have since issued responses to the controversy, with the State of Texas also launching its own investigation of the hospital. “I think it’s astounding,” Gill said. His task force is investigating several similar operations, including one in Miami, and has requested records from that business and three others nationwide. Gill said birth tourism is an “obvious and clear abuse” of the U.S. immigration system and of the benevolence of the American people and the nation’s institutions. TRUMP BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FIGHT COMES ROARING BACK WITH ‘INVADERS’ PLAY AFTER KAVANAUGH ROADMAP “We are the ones who often end up picking up the tab for a lot of these services,” he said, arguing that birthright citizenship was intended for former slaves and their children when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868. “It had nothing to do with hordes of illegal aliens crossing our southern border and giving birth in America and using those babies to anchor illegal aliens into our country. And for all of America’s history, we’ve always had a very clear understanding that there are certain people who are born within America’s boundaries, within America borders, who are not American citizens, the children of an invading army.” The latter point was captured by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and put into legislation Fox News Digital exclusively broke earlier in the week. That proposal would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order deeming the illegal immigration crisis an “invasion” and cite the 1898 Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court case’s exemption of citizenship for people not “bound to render obedience to the sovereign (U.S. government) whose domains are being invaded.” Gill said he had heard about but not fully read Banks’ bill – but underlined he believes it to be a “phenomenal” plan of action. “I think that that is the type of legal clarification that could help us out quite a bit in the long run,” he said. “Remember that the goal is to make sure that our children’s birthright isn’t being taken away from us because foreigners are coming in and having babies in our country and then buying up our homes and taking American jobs and using welfare that the American people are paying for.” Gill said the crisis touches on the biggest issue from the 2024 election cycle, which he considered to be the illegal immigration crisis writ-large. “In this case; seeing people cross the border so that their children can be anchored into the United States. That is such an obvious abuse of the American People economically, socially, culturally. It’s a huge risk to America’s national defense.” A Mission Regional spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday the hospital remains an “award-winning, nonprofit” infirmary that has been operating as such since 1954. “We recognize that a very limited marketing campaign may have caused unintended misunderstanding and was immediately discontinued. The campaign was meant to highlight services available to the communities we serve and was never intended to encourage any unlawful activity and Mission Regional Medical Center remains committed to serving the Rio Grande Valley with integrity, compassion, transparency, and full compliance with all applicable laws,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the billboard campaign returned very little patient volume and no financial benefit to a community they said has a high uninsured-patient rate and limited maternity care. “The hospital does not support or facilitate unlawful activity and has never operated its obstetric program with the intent of attracting individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States, promoting birth tourism, or encouraging travel to the United States for the purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child,” the spokesperson added. Citing a separate order from Austin, the spokesperson said 99% of all emergency and inpatient patients who responded to a state-required survey were legal U.S. residents or citizens. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER “Birth tourism should never be big business in the United States. This tactic exploits U.S. immigration law, and those who willfully mispresent their intentions to temporarily come to the U.S. are breaking the law,” Rep.
Liberal law professor breaks with Obama judge over Trump lawyer crackdown: ‘I refuse to teach’ it
Legal minds across the political spectrum are admonishing an Obama-appointed federal judge for suggesting that bar associations should look into sanctioning lawyers working for the president or the Justice Department, with one liberal constitutional law professor refusing to teach his students that such a move is acceptable. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams formally referred Trump attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar in an opinion released Monday and ordered the ruling sent to authorities considering existing disciplinary complaints involving Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. The disciplinary actions stem from Williams’s ruling in a case involving a settlement that shielded Trump, members of his family and affiliated businesses from certain federal tax audits and claims. Bar associations have the ability to suspend the law licenses of individuals practicing law in their jurisdictions, giving them significant power over the ability of lawyers — including powerful DOJ officials — to do their work. “The court would also have litigants believe that, in such a circumstance, it is not only appropriate to dismiss the case but also to sanction and deprive litigants and their counsel of their reputation, license, or money,” constitutional law professor Christian Lee Gonzalez-Rivera, who identifies as a liberal, told Fox News Digital. “As a law professor, attorney and former judicial law clerk, I refuse to teach the former or accept the latter.” OBAMA-APPOINTED JUDGE TORCHES TRUMP ADMIN IN LATEST COURTROOM SHOWDOWN, REFERS ATTORNEY FOR BAR REVIEW The existing complaint against Blanche alleges that he mishandled evidence linked to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, used the DOJ to attack Trump’s personal enemies and failed to properly represent the interests of the United States during the negotiations that led to the creation of the now-defunct $1.8 billion weaponization compensation fund. Woodward, meanwhile, faces a bar complaint alleging that his approval of the creation of the weaponization fund constituted a conflict of interest as he had previously represented Jan. 6 defendants and Trump associates who could potentially benefit from it. Gonzalez-Rivera, who teaches law at a Catholic university in Florida, said that the judge’s order “effectively sanctions the bringing of debatable, if losing, arguments in high-stakes first impression cases,” arguing that it would have been ridiculous if judges recommended professional punishments for lawyers who were on the losing sides of other high-profile, historical court cases. LEGAL WAR ON TRUMP’S AGENDA GAINS FIREPOWER AS FEDERAL LAWYERS DEFECT TO DEMOCRATS Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official now serving as the vice president of litigation at a right-wing watchdog group, cautioned that Williams’s order — if allowed to become the norm — could seriously damage the legal profession by empowering a small number of bar association insiders. “This nonsense has to end. The State and local bars are not the superior officers of or the equivalent of a school-marmish national Principal’s Office that sits in supervision of two highest-ranking leaders of the Justice Department,” he wrote on Monday. “If this trend continues, no future Republican lawyer is going to agree to enter the U.S. Justice Department to carry out the President’s law enforcement orders as the Constitution intended,” Clark continued. “Power will instead be monopolized and moved only to the Left … The Framers would be shocked to learn that the real boss of Executive Branch legal power is not the singular President of the United States, but instead committees of insular coastal elite lawyers purporting to wield the meta-power of legal ethics.” MIKE DAVIS: WHY SENATE MUST IGNORE OBAMA JUDGE’S ATTACK ON AG NOMINEE TODD BLANCHE Clark has also faced disciplinary proceedings in Washington, D.C., where a disciplinary board recommended he be disbarred over his role in a proposed DOJ letter to Georgia officials after the 2020 election — allegations he has denied and cast as politically motivated. “DOJ has the power to put an end to this nonsense by issuing regulations preempting state/local bar weaponization,” he added. While Williams ordered the clerk to forward her opinion to disciplinary authorities reviewing existing complaints involving Blanche and Woodward, she formally referred Brito to the Florida Bar after finding that he advanced the case in “bad faith.” Williams said Trump’s lawsuit surrounding his tax immunity settlement was used to give judicial legitimacy to a legally baseless settlement; she flagged conflict concerns involving Blanche and Woodward’s prior clients and ordered the opinion sent to their bars, while formally referring Brito to the Florida Bar because he signed the complaint that launched the case. “I find it absurd that federal judges continue to attack DOJ lawyers, to include and especially Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, with roots in nothing more than the political viewpoints of those supposed unbiased judges,” Jay Town, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, told Fox News Digital. Williams was appointed to the bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama. She previously issued a ruling against “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention center operated by the state of Florida to house illegal immigrants awaiting deportation, but was overruled by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. “On the bright side, this and the likely more orders like this one we may see out of other district courts nationwide … may nevertheless present higher courts — perhaps our highest one, too — with a chance to revisit judge-made doctrines like justiciability, which increasingly show their ability to be weaponized not only from outside but also from within the judiciary itself,” Gonzalez-Rivera told Fox News Digital. Conservative lawyer Mike Davis has called on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Williams’s ruling in this case. “The federal Judge in Florida clearly strategically timed her referral of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the New York Bar to come just before his confirmation hearing to be elevated to the Attorney General’s Office,” Clark told Fox News Digital. “This is flatly unconscionable non-judicial conduct.”
Mike Waltz, Tim Tebow launch effort to combat online child exploitation: ‘It’s happening in their backyard’
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow on Thursday unveiled a renewed international effort to combat online child exploitation, bringing together government officials, law enforcement leaders and anti-human trafficking advocates like Tebow’s foundation to strengthen cooperation against predators operating across borders. Following the event, Waltz and Tebow answered questions exclusively from Fox News Digital, with Tebow warning parents that the threat isn’t confined to distant countries or dark corners of the internet. “It’s happening in their backyard,” Tebow told Fox News Digital when asked what would shock American parents most about child exploitation today. NEW MEXICO SEEKS MASSIVE PENALTY FROM META AFTER JURY FOUND TECH GIANT LIABLE FOR ENDANGERING CHILDREN The event put a spotlight on how the U.S. is teaming up with countries around the world to rescue exploited children, crack down on human trafficking networks and prosecute child predators. Officials also pointed to recent international operations, new funding from Congress and a U.S.-led U.N. resolution targeting online sextortion. “The United States is leading the charge to combat child exploitation in partnership with civil society groups like the Tim Tebow Foundation,” Waltz said during the event. “Child exploitation criminals operate across borders, so a global response is critical. We need to work together to protect our children from predators.” Tebow said the danger facing children online is something parents should think about every day. “If it’s unprotected, it’s similar to dropping them off at a playground knowing that pedophiles are circling that playground,” he told Fox News Digital. “You would never do it.” FAMILY STOPPED ALLEGED CHILD KIDNAPPER AS POLICE SAY STAFFING SHORTAGE DELAYED RESPONSE UP TO 40 MINUTES He urged parents to take advantage of online safety tools and remain engaged with their children’s digital activity, saying predators are constantly searching for opportunities to exploit young victims. “There are so many predators online that are looking for a vulnerability and an access to a boy or girl so that they can exploit, so that they can lure, so they can groom, so that they can sextort,” Tebow said. “I really believe it’s one of the worst evils in the world.” During the event, Tebow stressed that child exploitation requires international cooperation. “Child exploitation requires a response as global as the threat itself,” he said. “Right now, children around the world are being harmed, and we cannot look away. No child should be invisible, and no predator should be able to hide.” ICE NABS ILLEGAL ALIENS CONVICTED OF CHILD SEX CRIMES AND METH TRAFFICKING IN NATIONWIDE ENFORCEMENT SWEEP Asked by Fox News Digital whether some countries are refusing to cooperate with U.S. investigations, Waltz said the larger challenge is that many nations lack the legal tools and investigative resources needed to pursue child exploitation cases. “I don’t know that there’s countries refusing to cooperate,” Waltz said. “But what I can tell you, there’s countries all over the world [where] they don’t have the laws on the books that make these things a crime. They don’t have the extradition treaties. They don’t have the prosecutors or the investigators that know how to handle the electronic evidence in the right way.” He added that U.S. agencies and United Nations partners are working to help countries strengthen those capabilities through training and international cooperation. Waltz also argued that migration and human trafficking remain closely linked, saying vulnerable girls are often exploited by criminal organizations during migration routes. Tebow added that investigators around the world continue to face enormous challenges identifying victims because offenders deliberately work to avoid detection. “When we also talk about this, there are so many places that are underfunded, under-equipped, and it does take some training and understanding of what is happening online so we can best use victim identification,” Tebow said. “Those victim identification specialists really are specialists. They’re incredible at what they’re doing because those that are performing this evil, they’re not trying to get caught.” “So it takes really special people to be able to understand, to find them and then bring them to justice. More importantly, bring that kid into freedom.” The collaboration between the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the Tim Tebow Foundation and international law enforcement partners is intended to strengthen cross-border efforts to combat child exploitation through expanded cooperation, technology and coordinated investigations.